Married Too Fast

Slash's Dangerous Neighborhood

***Duff's POV***

"I have practice tonight and I'm going," I told her.

"Go, go. But you better tell them you're either leaving the band or you won't be showin' up to a lot of rehearsals," she said back.

"I told you Tara, I am not leaving the band."

"You need to find a job, Duff!" she screeched.

"It hasn't even been half an hour since we became homeless. We can't be acting like this."

"We need to go to the store," she breathed, "to get things we need."

"I'll drop you off on the way to practice," I told her.

She shook her head and sat down on the edge of the bed, burying her face in her hands.

"It'll be okay. Everything will be resolved and we'll be back at the loft in no time," I said, trying to comfort her.

"No we're not. You wanna run from the cops, God knows why, and we might get our ass in fucking jail and I don't know what to do anymore. Maybe I should just go with my parents."

"Tara, we will figure this out," I said.

"No we won't, Duff. We won't figure this out. We never figure anything out."

I didn't reply to her comment and just stared up at the ceiling.

****
Hours passed and I woke up from the nap I had taken. It was time to start heading to practice.

I got up from the bed and looked at Tara who was waiting to go.

"Let's go," she said, nodding to the door.

I followed her out and we headed straight for the car.

****
I was now at Slash's, waiting for someone to open the door. I had dropped Tara off at the closest shopping plaza and gave her my card.

"Hey man," Slash said, opening the door.

"Usually your door is unlocked. Why not now?"

"'Cause man, there's been some sketchy shit going on in my neighborhood, like criminals and shit," he answered me, locking the door right behind me.

"Really? So the pigs are around?" I questioned.

"Yeah. They've been givin' me frequent visits man," he nodded.

Fuck.

I took a deep breath and jogged down the stairs to the basement, and to my surprise everyone was already here.

"Hey there, Duffy," Axl said to me, raising his eyebrows.

"Hey," I said back, clearly weirded out.

I walked over to the bass and we all went in our positions and started to play.

****
"Guys, guys, stop playing!" Steven yelled over our blaring loud music.

We all stopped and heard a loud knocking on the door with crazy loud sounds happening outside.

"Who the hell is that?" Izzy asked, looking at Slash.

"The fuckin' cops probably," Slash huffed.

"Fuck, man! We got tons of coke and shit down here!" Axl screeched.

"I know, and I'm fucked up right now," Slash said.

"You have to go answer it, we don't want them to barge in and come down here," I said.

Slash huffed and ran up the stairs.

"Hide all your shit," Izzy told everyone.

****
About 7 minutes passed and Slash came down the stairs when we all took a seat on and around the couch. We all looked at him and he shook his head.

"The cops basically said I'm not safe here and I should get out immediatley. My neighbor just got murdered and his family is in critical condition," he told us.

"Dude, you gotta get outta here," Izzy said back.

"I know, but this is my home. I don't got anywhere else to go," Slash sighed.

"Why not Duff's?" Axl suggested, looking over at me.

Slash looked at me too and raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah man, you got a big ass place. Can I crash there just 'til I'm safe again?" Slash asked, fear in his eyes.

I couldn't say yes to him, as much as I wanted to. I don't have a fucking place for me to call home, never mind Slash.

"I'm sorry dude, you can't," I shook my head.

"What, man? Why?" he asked, instantly getting defensive.

"It's currently getting renovated. Tara and I are crashing at a hotel for a few days," I kind of lied.

Slash shook his head and looked over at Steven.

"You can crash at my place," Steven immediatley said.

Slash nodded and took a seat on the couch next to us.

"Doss this mean we should all get goin'? They told you to leave immediatley man," Izzy said.

"Yeah. I guess," Slash sighed.

Steven put his arm around Slash and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry. All this criminal shit will die down before you know it," he said to him.

After a few seconds of collecting ourselves, we all got up and headed out of the house.

****
We were all driving in our own car, following Steven to his place. I felt horrible for not being able to have Slash at my place, especially when he just let me crash at his.

****
We made it to Steven's and sat down on the couch.

"I hope your house will be okay," Izzy said to Slash, grabbing a beer.

"Me too," Slash quietly responded.

Man, he seems really torn up by this.

I then realized I had been gone for a pretty long time and I had to go pick up Tara from the store.

"Hey guys, sorry for comin' and goin' but I gotta get going. I'll see y'all later," I said to them, getting up, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Axl asked from behind me.

"I have to get to the hotel... Tara's waitin' for me," I answered.

"Later Duff," Steven waved to me.

I waved back and no one else said anything. I shook it off and rushed to the car.