My Piece of the Action

a Bad Feeling

Raven woke up suddenly, the sun shone brightly through the window and particles of dust swirled through the rays of light. She sat up slowly, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She was 21 weeks pregnant now, and her belly was massive. She looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table, which read 10:54, and fell back onto her bed tiredly. The noise of chatter drifted through the wood of her door from downstairs, making her wonder who was here and wether or not it was one of the boys.

There was the sudden sound of a loud shatter like glass breaking, a shout of "ah, fuck!" In a voice that could only be Izzy Stradlin's, and then the sound of at least two other people laughing. Raven rolled her eyes, imagining the scene in her head. She could vividly picture the look on Izzy's face when he broke it. Her black cat mewled and crawled from the end of her bed towards her, headbutting her hand gently as she held it out to stroke his smooth black fur.

"Hey Lupus!" She yawned, Lupus meowed and rubbed his head against her arm, she ran her fingers down his back, and discovered a leaf and a thorn caught in it. "Aww, Lupus, you need a brush." She giggled.

Lupus climbed up on top of her belly, his light weight pressing down gently. The twin babies kicked at him wildly and Lupus' big green eyes became very wide and he arched his back. Raven cracked up laughing, grabbing the animal and lifting him gently down to the carpeted floor. Still smiling, Raven sat up in bed again, yawning and then got up. As soon as her feet touched the floor she knew something was wrong. Maybe it was something in the air, or perhaps the shag rug beneath her feet felt wrong for one reason or another, all she knew was that something was very wrong. The feeling lived deep in her gut, lurking stubbornly there and making her feel nervous.

She got dressed quickly, worry tugging at her heart, and she made her way downstairs. Izzy, Slash, Axl and her father were in the kitchen, Slash was seated on the table, shirt unbuttoned and showing his bare chest, Izzy was sweeping the last of the glass into a dustpan for the bin and Seymour Cassel was leaning against the kitchen counter, smiling.

Slash was the first to notice her.

"Well good morning sunshine." He greeted.

"What's so good about it?" She frowned, crossing her arms,

"Somebody's grouchy!" Izzy smirked from near the bin.

"Shutup Izzy." She responded, a gentle smile spreading irresistibly across her face. Izzy always did have that effect.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Her father asked.

"Um, I dunno... something's just off today." She told him.

"What are on about, woman?!" Slash smiled, teasing her.

"Well, Mr. Saul Hudson- something tells me that today is gonna bring some real bad news." She replied,

"Oh really? Like what?" He asked,

"I have no idea, I guess we'll just have to wait and find out, huh?" She told him.

"I guess so." Slash smiled. Suddenly the phone hung on the wall began to ring, and Axl turned to pick it up.

"Hello?" He said, there was a few moments of silence, and then he said,

"Hold on, Steven- what did she do?" He sounded concerned, even a bit panicky. "Wait a second- she- the police?" He sounded both outraged and fearful, and was twirling the spiral cord between the phone and wall cradle nervously. "But I didn't!- What?- No, Slash never layed a finger on her!" He exclaimed. "Okay, I'll work it out- no- okay, thanks Stevie." Axl hung the phone back on the wall.

"What was that?" Slash asked, sounding concerned because he had been mentioned in Axl and Steven's conversation.

"Remember that girl at the party that I had sex with?" Axl said, and everyone except Raven's dad nodded or said 'yeah'. "Well- she went to the police- Slash... she's tryin' to get me and you done for rape." Axl fidgeted with the hem of his 'malburo' cigarettes t shirt.