"Why are you so goddamn familiar with that name, your Australian accent and just you overall? Why the fuck are you so familiar?" Izzy's voice rung from beside me. He was standing inches from me, to my side, looking down at me closely from under his straight, greasy dark hair.
"Pardon?" I furrow my eyebrows taking my attention from the guys who were playing on the stage of the Albany Civic Center.
"Sorry." He nervously chuckled, his eyes quickly flickering away from me, then back towards me. He looked as though he was panicking.
Taking a moment; I kept my attention on Izzy, he was most definitely a strange man, but I had to admit that he was one attractive man, who had the strangest eyes I've ever come across. Izzy fidgeted his hands, whilst his eyes flickered towards me, once he noticed I was looking at him he immediately looked away. Strange man.
Looking away from Izzy, I shuffled away from him and kept watching Nikki who was finishing up on yet another song. This time they were going to come in for a ten or so minute break. They needed it for sure, Nikki was drenched in sweat from head to toe, his bare chest glistened as the sweat slowly dripped down. He looked good, very good.
"We'll be right back guys." Vince chuckled into the microphone.
"Be right fuckin' back you fuckers." Nikki adds with a smirk. Of course he'd yell that wouldn't he. He was drunk I suppose.
"You smell so fuckin' good." Izzy whispers, his body yet again close to my own. Jesus Christ what drugs was he on? He was acting like a weirdo.
Feeling in a way intimidated by Izzy; I quickly leaped into the middle of Vince and Nikki, feeling much safer between the pair.
"Suzie-Q, how'd we do?" Nikki squeaked wrapping his arm around my shoulder; his sweat dripping off of his body and onto mine.
"Just great." I giggle. Following them all back into the dressing rooms, Nikki kept his arm around me. Taking a glance back behind us; I spotted Izzy walking with Mick, having a good civilised conversation. Something he definitely wasn't having with me; in fact I swear he was trying to weird me out back before the guys came off of the stage.
"You gotta' have a drink with us Sue." Nikki slurs pulling me over towards the tiny beer fridge in the corner.
"I don't know if I should Nikki." I say feeling suddenly cautious around the Guns N' Roses members.
"Oh come on; just one with me before I have to go back out?" He nuzzles his nose in the crook of my neck, playfully, like a child.
"Okay, if you want me to." I surrender into Nikki's request. One couldn't hurt; I just needed to keep my wits about myself.
Nikki whipped away from me and opened the fridge door; pulling out a Jack Daniels bottle and a bottle of coke.
Grabbing a red plastic cup; Nikki poured in a decent amount of Jack Daniels into the cup, decent meaning he was out to get me drunk; I was sure and about two quarters coke.
"Here you go darlin'." He shakily handed me the cup; trying not to spill it everywhere. Once I had the glass in my hands Nikki stuck the lip of the bottle to his lips and downed about a cups worth of Jack.
"Are you planning to kill yourself?" I ask a little bewildered.
"No; but if you asked, I'd kill myself for you." He hiccupped, drunkenly smiling at me.
"You're just drunk." I shook my head.
"I'm probably pissed as hell." He leads me over to the lounge, falling back against it, bringing me down with him. "But I wouldn't lie about something like that."
"Why hello there stranger. Long time no see." Duff sat down beside me; holding a bottle of vodka in one hand.
"You seen me not ten minutes ago Duff." I smile looking up at him.
"Yeah but that felt like yonks ago. So how have you been?" He cocks an eyebrow.
"Aye Axl, sit yo' ass down right here!" Nikki shuffled over; making space in between Nikki and myself for Axl. Why my side?
Ignoring the conversation behind me; I focussed on Duff, giving him a smile as I answered him. "Well my best friend is drunk and I think is also trying to get me drunk too. I'm enjoying the live music, so Duff I'm great. And yourself?"
"I'm better now." He flirts giving me a wink as he did so.
"So again; where do I know you from? I swear I know you from somewhere but I can't pinpoint exactly where." He shuffles closer to me; I could smell the scent of liquor on him, but it didn't worry me.
"Well-" I take a deep breath. Was I to tell him? Or let him figure it out? Deciding on I wasn't ready as of yet to talk about where we knew each other I decided to change the subject. "So what exactly are you on tour for?"
"What we're on tour for?" He asks with a smile. "To support and promote our newest album of course. Best album yet I reckon; our album, Appetite for Destruction."
"Appetite for Destruction, huh?"
"Yeah that's right. So what do you reckon of our songs? They're not too bad are they?" Duff tilts his head to one side.
"No they're good to be honest. I love the rhythm you guys have got going. The rawness is something I actually love about the songs I've heard you play. Like Move To The City, that's a good one." I answer feeling a grin come to my face. That was the last song I had heard from them going back two years ago.
"Wait we actually haven't played that song since Washington, how'd you know about that?" Duff furrows his eyebrows.
"A little birdie." I say, with it sounding like more of a question.
"Oh a little birdie." He chuckled nudging my shoulder playfully. "I understand what you're on about now."
"Yeah a little birdie. So Duff tell me where exactly are you from?" I bring my knees up onto the lounge, getting comfortable. Looking back at Nikki for a split second, I noticed he was in deep conversation with Vince and Axl who were also listening in here and there. But his eyes were directed on Duff; he looked somewhat enraged.
"Aw come on you don't want to know my life." He chuckles.
"Why not? It would be more interesting than mine." I reason.
"Bullshit; well I'll tell you if you so wish. But I'd rather hear you story." He gave me a sweet smile.
"Now where do I start? I'm from Seattle, Washington. I'm from a large family I mean I'm the youngest of eight kids. And yeah that's it really." He rubbed his chin obviously thinking about what else to say.
"Big family? That's bloody huge! I only got two other siblings which are younger. When did you start music and did you start off with bass?" I ask feeling more and more comfortable with Duff. Taking a sip of my drink, tasting the strong liquor, I smiled at Duff as he looked down at my legs thinking.
"I started with bass of course; it was my first instrument I learnt to play, thanks to my older brother Bruce. And I've been playing for quite a few years now; I started just before I came to L.A. Which was a long time ago now."
"You're a very talented bass player I can give you that. And also a sweet guy Duff." Duff smiled at me warmly, his eyes glistening and his cheeks glowing of blush.
"Hey I am a fuckin' awesome bass player too." Nikki yells startling Duff and I both.
"Yeah of course you are Nikki; but Duff is also." I look pass Axl who seemed to attempt to make eye contact with me.
"But you love me more." He winks in my direction.
"Guys you are on in two." A man sung out speaking directly to Nikki and the rest of his band.
"Come on Nikki, let's play some more shit." Vince and Mick both help Nikki to his feet; supporting him out of the room with Tommy slowly following behind.
"Good luck guys." I yell out.
"Yeah I think we may just need it with this bastard." Tommy turns back pointing to the drunk Nikki, he was the most intoxicated out of the lot of them.
"You'll be fine dude, don't worry. Nikki usually gets his shit right." Axl chuckled from beside me.
"I need to go take a piss. I'll be right back darlin'." Duff removes himself from the chair giving me a charming smile before he walked away leaving me alone on the lounge with Axl. Yet again; I took a sip out of my plastic cup keeping to myself whilst Axl just stared at me, as though he expected me to turn around and speak to him as I had been to Duff. Watching Izzy approach the lounge, he took a seat where Duff had previously been sitting. Watching him from the corner of my eye, he leaned further into the lounge, spreading his legs out wider as men usually did. If they were woman, they would be considered a slut. It wasn't easy being a woman.Izzy pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffled slightly before he turned to face me, opening his mouth to speak.
"So, Suzie-Q-" Izzy immediately stopped talking as soon as I removed myself from the lounge, leaving the room entirely. I wasn't going to sit there and feel the awkward silence between myself, Izzy, Axl and Slash. I had no intentions of speaking to them. Yes they may have forgotten who I was and didn't recognise me, meaning they were basically harmless and didn't understand why I was treating them badly, except for Steven and Duff. But it didn't exactly worry me; I was just making them feel the way the made me feel all those years ago. I know that two wrongs didn't make a right, but why should I sit around and try be friends with the one group of guys who treated me like dirt years ago. Even dirt was treated better then the way they all treated me.
Stopping by the end of the backstage area, I took a seat on a vacant wooden chair, admiring the guys who played ever so perfectly out on the stage, even Nikki managed to do a good job especially with how drunk he was.
"You know I wouldn't mind knowing something about you." Axl's voice caught my attention.
"I wouldn't mind knowing why you're treating me, Slash and Izz like shit whilst you're treating Duff and Steven like royalty. That's something I wouldn't mind knowing about you." Axl sounded annoyed.
Keeping quiet, I listened to what else Axl was to say, but I chose to not say anything in return.
"I mean you're difficult to fuckin' understand. It's like you hate our guts for no given reason! And that makes it very difficult for someone like me to want to know someone like you. Just give me one fuckin' reason to why you despise us all so fuckin' much. One fuckin' answer for god's sake." Axl gripped onto the back of my chair.
"Alright you want reason huh?" I snarl looking back at him. If looks could kill; I was sure we'd be both dead and buried in the ground right now.
"Yeah that would be splendid." He rolls his eyes sarcastically.
"Alright to make you fuckin' happy. Why should I treat the people with respect whom I had once before and in return get nothing but harassment again, and try treat those same people with respect? When you find the answer to that one let me know because I'd love to know one good reason to why." I frown taking my attention away from Axl.
"I don't know, maybe because we have never fuckin' met before and if we did I would remember a fuckin' beauty like yourself."
"We've met before you idiot! Why don't you try and work out when and where and who I am. That would do us all a favour. Now if you'll excuse me; I'm going to see the only people in the world who have treated me decently, unlike you Arsehole Rose." I jolt up from the chair and walk over to the guys who had finally finished playing for the night.
"The sooner we get him back to the hotel the better; otherwise he's just going to pass out on us." Vince points back to Nikki whom was being helped by Tommy and Mick.
"Fine by me." I answer leaving Vince's side and heading over to Mick.
"Here let me take him. Give your back a rest Mick." I say placing my hand onto his shoulder.
"You sure? He's a heavy son of a bitch."
"Yeah I'll be absolutely fine Mick." I reassure him. Swapping positions with Mick, I wrapped my arm around Nikki's waist, allowing half of his weight to lean on me.
"Suzie-Q." Nikki screeched leaning more weight on me as he bent down pressing his sloppy wet lips against my temple.
"Nikki." I titter using my free hand to wipe the wetness that was left over on my temple.
Helping Nikki to the limousine that was parked outside of the center; I allowed Nikki to get into the back, before I did.Following closely behind the rest of Mötley Crüe and myself were joined by the members of Guns N' Roses.
"Nikki you shouldn't of had that last bottle of Jack." I say aloud looking towards Nikki, as the minutes went by the more he looked to be getting closer and closer to passing out.
"I swear if he passes out in here, we're gonna leave him here. Carrying him up a flight of stairs isn't a good idea." Vince simply says staring directly at Nikki.
"Don't say that; you'll jinx it." I quickly say.
"You ain't leavin' me." Nikki's head swayed and his eyes were beginning to shut.
"Exactly, we're not leaving him here." I nod my head commandingly. Minutes later; Nikki had of course passed out beside me, his snoring erupting the limousine.
"Fuck he's out." Vince groans.
"I reckon he's just getting you back from all the times you passed out like this." I state.
"Probably. He's an ass if he is."
"Karma's a bitch." Steven comments, looking as drunk as Nikki was previously. Staring at Steven for a moment; I noticed how his eyes were also blood shot, mostly from all the alcohol he had consumed and possibly drugs he may have had. Steven's blue eyes were, no longer the pretty blue I had known them to be, this time they seemed to change to the colour of the ocean when the waves had been swept around a lot, stirring up the sand. A tinge of brown in the mixture of an aqua colour, strange, but it was obvious he wasn't sober.
"Do you reckon he'll make it up the stairs?" Tommy questions quietly pointing to Steven.
"Yeah sure, he'll be right." Izzy waves him off with a cheeky smile.
When we had finally arrived back at the hotel; surprisingly Slash and Axl volunteered to help Nikki up the stairs, how Slash would manage? I didn't know he couldn't exactly walk straight himself.
"Don't worry about them; they've got him." Duff assures me as we slowly walked along the path towards the stairs.
"You sure? I don't want them dropping Nikki flat on his face." I say worriedly, turning my head to look back. Both Axl and Slash were staring directly at me, both holding the same expressions.
"Yeah they're tough enough. Don't worry about those two." Duff squeezes my shoulder gently, as though he was trying everything in his power to calm me down and assure me Nikki would be absolutely fine.
"Say you wanna' hear a joke?" Duff looks down at me with a smile.
"Sure."
"Well I ain't that good at tellin' them. But hopefully it makes sense to you in the end." His voice echoed throughout the stair case we had started to walk up.
"You'll be alright. Better than me; I can't tell jokes."
"Thanks." He scratched the back of his neck allowing his eyes to connect with mine. He looked nervous.
"It's a bit of a dude joke-"
"Duff it'll be fine, I basically live with four guys. You'll be right." I guaranteed.
"Well it's called Aldi Doctor. And just to get things straight the machine is like one of those new technical computer box things. You know what they are right?"
"Yeah I've heard of them, anyway keep going."
"Straight to the joke then. Alright, so one day in the line at this big ass company cafeteria, this guy named Joe says to this other dude Mike-" Duff pauses for a moment, letting his eyes sway away from mine for a moment before he looked at me again. "He's like 'my elbow hurts like hell. Guess I'll have to see a doctor.' So Mike thinks for a moment then says back, 'Listen, you don't have to spend that sorta' money'." Duff again pauses, thinking. Keeping my attention directly on Duff; I noticed Axl and Slash mumbling behind us, both sounding annoyed, as though they were tormenting Duff, who wasn't paying any attention to them.
"Because there's this diagnostic computer, down along Aldi's. All you need is to give it your sample of your piss and the computer will tell you whats wrong and what to do about it. Only costs ten bucks, heaps cheaper than a doctor. So Joe, he goes off getting his piss in a jar and heads down to Aldi's. He deposits ten bucks and the computer lights up, asking for his piss. Moments later, this computer produces this heap of information on some paper saying 'You've got a tennis elbow. Soak ya' arm in warm water and avoid heavy lifting. It will improve in two weeks, thank you for shopping at Aldi's." Duff stops with a cheeky smile across his face.
"Now Joe he's fuckin' amazed at this computer, then he starts thinkin' whether this technology can be fooled. So he mixed up another sample of water from the tap, a stool sample from his dog, some urine samples from both his wife and daughter; then a sperm sample from himself just for good measure. So then he hurries back down to Aldi's eager to check out the results. Joe deposited ten bucks then poured in the concoction. So the computer gives out the results saying the following: Your tap water is too hard, get softeners in aisle nine. Your dog's got ringworm; bathe him in anti-fungal shampoo in aisle seven. You daughter has a cocaine habit, put her into rehab. Your wife is pregnant with twins. They aren't yours, get a lawyer. And lastly, if you don't stop playing with yourself, your elbow will never get better. Thank you for shopping at Aldi." Duff finishes chuckling to himself.
Taking a moment, I began to giggle along with Duff at his joke.
"Joe needs to stop wanking away, especially for his elbow." I laugh.
"So it made sense? And you found it funny?" Duff questioned.
"Yeah of course, that's one of the funniest I've ever heard." I giggle nodding my head. Duff's eyes lit up and the smile on his face grew wider, he looked truly proud.
"I've got better jokes then that." Axl scolds from behind, sounding as though he was jealous. Damn what was his problem?
"I'm glad you liked it Suzie-Q." Duff chuckled as we finally stopped in front of my and Nikki's room.
"Guess we can call it a night then Duff." I pull the key from my pocket and place it into the lock.
"Yeah I guess. So just a quick question, are you and Nikki?" Duff pointed to Nikki and back to me, as though he was curious to know whether we were together or not.
"What Nikki and I together?" I ask looked at Duff then towards Nikki who was sound asleep being carried along by Slash and Axl. They seemed to be very interested in what I had to say because they were staring at me hard, waiting for my answer.
"No, we're just good friends." I answer. Wish we were more than friends.
"So you're not with any of the Crüe? You don't have a boyfriend?" Duff's eyes widen and the smirk on his face grew bigger.
"Nope, they're all of my friends. And no Duff; I don't have a boyfriend." My eyes flickered towards Axl who looked down at the ground contemplating to himself. He also looked confused and surprised with my answer.
"That's actually really surprising. Would've thought someone as beautiful and as nice as you would have one. Well at least I would've thought one of the guys would have smuggled you away for themselves." He placed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
"No; they don't see me in that way. I think I'm like a sister to them all." I answer.
"Well that's good to know." Duff nodded his head and looked down at his feet before looking back up at me.
"I ought to say goodnight then and leave you to it. So goodnight Sue." Duff gives me a warm smile and a wink before he trudged away, down the hall. Smiling to myself, I finished unlocking the door and placed the keys into my pocket opening the door. Letting in Axl and Slash, I watched as they placed Nikki onto the bed. Walking into the room, I walked over to the kitchen, listening to the silence in the room. Turning around, I spotted Axl and Slash standing in the middle of the room staring at me.
"What's your problem?" Slash suddenly asks.
"Like you've been treatin' us like shit ever since we met up with you guys in Alabama. I and the guys haven't done shit to you, or haven't done anything wrong by you. So what is your goddamn problem?"
"Why don't you ask your friend beside you. For sure he has worked it out by now." I say, my voice low and filled with venom.
"Fuck off; if we met I would remember that! So don't give me that shit about us meeting you!" Axl growled.
"Exactly, I would remember you too. Don't give us that bullshit! All we have done is tried to talk you, try and become friends with you, but you've been spitting that back in our faces except for fuckin' Steven and Duff." Slash crossed his arms over his chest.
"Just get the fuck out of my room!" I growled I already had enough of the pair for the night.
"Get out!" I walked towards them pointing to the door.
"No, not until you give us some fuckin' answers for the reasons you're being a bitch towards us." Slash challenges.
Slowly walking over towards the pair, I stopped in front of them both.
"1985, Los Angeles, in one of the bars. Now you've got something to work off, piss off before I wake Nikki up and he'll sort you two out!" I point towards the door once again. This time they both listened, still giving me glares, but I could see they were trying to think back with the little information I had given them.
"What aren't you gonna' say thank you for carrying Nikki up?" Slash says as soon as I reached the door, ready to shut the door.
"Thank you very much for carrying Nikki up for me." I grumble.
"You're very welcome." Slash growled back, but instead of glaring at me, he was smiling stupidly as though he found my appreciation amusing. Shutting the door; I locked it and got myself ready for bed. Men were so fucking clueless and annoying.