14 years - Axl Rose x OC

7

-January 4th, 1977

Lita Monroe hollered loudly within her group as the ball swished into the net. The first basketball game of 1977 had started off to a victorious start, with Jefferson High School's own Bill Bailey scoring fifteen points in the first half, more than any other player on the junior varsity team.

Sitting next to her, Izzy clapped his hands together, shifting the leather jacket he'd gotten for Christman from his brother slightly off his shoulders. Next to him was Lita's brother, Christopher, and the girlfriend he'd recently acquired. All together, they sat at the far edge of the last bleacher row, Lita and Izzy claiming they could see more of the court, and Chris wishing to be away from every other highschooler that attended the school's basketball games.

Now there were only five minutes of the fourth quarter, and Jefferson High School was up by ten. The other school, some town from just outside Lafayette–it was either Monticello or Crawfordsville–had been slowly advancing upon her team as the game came to a close.

Bill shot the ball from the three-point-line, the ball bouncing off the rim as he missed. The other team rebounded and headed for the other side of the court, shooting the ball and making the basket. It was now 38-46. Time progressed as Chris and Veronica, his girlfriend, passed a cigarette back and forth, making sure to blow the smoke up near the rafters. Izzy made the motion toward Chris, who opened a new pack of Marlboro, silently asking for his own. Chris handed it over, reaching over Veronica who pushed his side as a few parents eyed them for giving a 15yr old a cigarette.

Lita watched Izzy inhale the particles and blow out the smoke, the smell penetrating her mind as her close friend watched her shiver in the cold gymnasium. Izzy opened his arms and embraced Lita into a hug: the last row of bleachers was too close to the cold bricks of the school, and Lita was wearing a short skirt in the obvious attempt to impress Bill.

Since early December, he and Lita had gotten closer. He and Bill had started practicing and writing together in Bill's garage, with Bill inviting Lita one day to join them, claiming that she was a master at lyricsism. After Bill joined the school's JV basketball team, Izzy and Lita mutually decided to meet at his house on the days of Bill's practice and continue the day-to-day writing. Izzy had done more for her too, teaching her the guitar better than Peggy could've, and they had become close friends. It was something new and refreshing, and she needed it when she couldn't be around Bill, who she loved more than ever.

A few of the Sophomore girls looked disdainfully at her. Lita and Izzy would never be like she and Bill were, but it was fun to tease the older girls, knowing that those were the ones Izzy would go after. The buzzer rang out loudly in the gym, signaling the game's end. Lita looked up at the scoreboard: 47-46. In the time that had elapsed, the other team had managed another nine points!

Though sports didn't matter as much to her as some of the parents in the room, Lita knew Bill would be angry with himself, wishing he would have pushed himself into making one more two-pointer. He'd bitch and complain about it as Chris and Veronica drove him home (Izzy would walk there and back from his house).

After waiting outside the locker room entrance, Bill emerged from the opening, carrying his sneakers and in the midst of putting on his winter coat. The scowl on his face was evident, and Lita smiled brightly at him in hopes to stop his complaining before it happened. Slipping her arm into his, Lita and Bill walked to Chris's car, shivering slightly together as they scurried in the January cold.

Opening the back doors, together they got into the seats and buckled fastly. Chris sped down the streets of Lafayette, Indiana with the freshman in his backseat chatting casually. As promised, Izzy walked home in the snow flurries; he was lucky to be wearing thick clothes, unlike Lita and Bill. Chris pulled into the drive-through of their local fast food joint, leaning back to ask the two friends what they'd like.