Book 1: She's A Little Runaway (Izzy Stradlin)

Twenty-Two

● Reyna ●

I frown as I look myself over in the mirror. My cheeks are sunken in and my hair has begun to thin. I look way too skinny. I’ve probably lost thirty pounds in the last month. It doesn’t help that I’ve begun to drink my weight in alcohol instead of eating. I look dead. I feel dead. 

“Hey Rey! Can you come here for just a second!”

I squeeze my eyes shut. There’s no way I can put on enough makeup at this point. The past couple of weeks Izzy has been too busy to notice my declining health. He’s been in the studio or at the Gardner Space nearly 24/7. As a result, I let myself spiral out of control.

I walk out of the bathroom. Just that short walk to the kitchen drained the energy from me. I just want to take another hit and sleep. 

Izzy stands in front of the trashcan, some items in his hands. As I get closer, however, I can see that it’s the poorly concealed needle I threw in the trash an hour before he woke up. I don’t even try to come up with an excuse. I know I’ve been caught. All I can do is let the disappointment and regret fill my body.

“How long?”

I look down to the floor, my body heating up from embarrassment. “About a month.”

“I knew you were looking sick. Rey, why didn’t you come talk to me?” I roll my eyes. “I’m being serious Rey! This shit will kill you!”

“That’s rich coming from you!” I say. “You do it too! Maybe you don’t do as much as I do, but you still do it!”

“I want to stop!” Izzy yells. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought this shit into the apartment!”

“You haven’t made any effort to stop! You know full well what your new money is going to. It’s not going to be to better yourself. You’re just gonna buy more drugs!” I feel tears start to well up in my eyes. “And I let myself start this shit again! I’m the one that inserted the needle! Don’t you dare go blaming yourself!” I sigh, hating how upset Izzy looks in this moment. He refuses to look at me, his gaze fixed on the ground. He finally puts the needle back into the trash can, his arms falling limply to his sides. I walk over to him, rubbing his arms with my hands. “Hey, let’s not worry about it for right now, alright? I’ll only do maintenance. I’ll even go with you to the studio if that will make you feel better.”

Izzy sighs, leaning down to rest his head in the crook of my neck. “I just don’t want to lose you. You’ve become too important to me.”

“How do you think I feel, Iz?” I say while wrapping my arms around him. “I was pretty much alone for so many years. Now I have my brother back, new best friends, and a boyfriend that I love very much.” I pause resting my chin on his shoulder. “And I can’t imagine a life without him at this point.”

“This got really sappy really quick,” Izzy laughs into my neck. His long arms wrap around my waist.

I giggle, pulling him closer to me. I take in a deep breath. “I promise I won’t over do it with heroin. I’ll be super careful. Once our lives settle down we’ll get this under control.”

Izzy nods into my shoulder, tightening his grip on me. “I love you, Pretty Woman.”

“I love you too, dumbass.”

“Hey!”

“What?” I giggle as he pulls away to look into my eyes.

“The nickname I gave you was sweet! You just wanted to insult me!”

I roll my eyes at the man. To anyone who doesn’t know him, he would be intimidating. However, as his girlfriend, I see how much of a sweetheart, teddy bear, and child he can be.

“What do you want me to call you then?”

“The Sexiest Man Alive,” He responds without hesitation.

I giggle a bit. He must’ve had that name picked out for a while. “I would, but that’s a mouthful to say when I’m trying to be sweet.”

“How about just ‘Sexy’ then?”

“Okay, you weirdo,” I laugh, pulling his head closer to mine. 

Our lips meet, but only for a moment since we’re both smiling like idiots. He kisses me again, making butterflies swarm around in my stomach. Not to be cliché, but every time we kiss it’s like the first time. Every time he touches me, whether it be intimately or just an accident, sparks run through my veins and my cheeks heat up. I haven’t felt this way in a long time and I never thought I’d feel this way again.

Who knew that some dirty, drug-addicted rockstar could make me feel like the most important woman in the world?

Izzy continues to kiss all over my face, making me giggle until my sides hurt. I finally grab his head to still him so that I can kiss his lips. He melts into the kiss, a sigh leaving him. 

We haven’t had times like this in a while. He’s been so busy with the band. All I’ve been doing is booking gigs for the guys and going to work at the Whiskey. I’d have to leave the details of the gigs on a pad of paper so that Izzy would see them. Izzy would always be gone when I woke up and I’d be asleep when he got home. I’ve missed him so much.

This kiss tells me that he missed me just as much. 

Izzy and I are interrupted, of course, as a loud bang sounds from the living room. We pull away from each other with confused looks. We didn’t even have time to understand what just happened when a familiar head of poofy blonde hair appears from around the corner.

“WHAT’S UP FUCKERS? LET’S GO PARRRTAYYYY!” Steven yells at the top of his lungs. 

“WHAT DID YOU SAY, STEVIE?” A familiar voice screams back. Duff rounds the corner, nearly tripping over his own feet. 

“I SAID LET’S GO PAAARRRTTTAAAYYY!”

“Shut up, you idiots!” Izzy hisses. “We do have neighbors!”

“WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THEM? LET’S GO GET SHITFACED, FUCKERS!” Stevie screams even louder.

“Why are you two screaming?” I ask, an amused look on my face. I see Izzy rub his face in annoyance out of the corner of my eye which only adds to my amusement.

“SLASH BET THAT WE COULDN’T ONLY YELL FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS!” Duff responds with a goofy grin.

I roll my eyes. These two are a pair. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that blonde, bubbly guy is my little brother. 

“Why can we never have a romantic moment?” Izzy groans. 

I giggle. “That’s the cost of having best friends.”

“I don’t want them anymore.”