After touring most of America, the band and the girls had ditched their bus and went a little more upmarket. For the past few days the group had been jetting here and there constantly. Slash couldn't keep with with what day it was. But with constantly drinking and taking other substances, he would either be black out drunk or sleeping, resulting in either waking up in a new country or being so awake and not being able to fathom the days passing. Slash had forgotten what day it was and where they were constantly. That's what tour does to you.
Slash took the time to go down to the bar and have a drink for a little while. After his few drinks he was accompanied by Ivy again. She shot her famous pearly white smile as she skipped over and sat beside him. Slash was glad that they were becoming closer again. He didn't want it to be awkward, he was happy that they could really talk like old times again. He watched her long delicate finger trace the rim of her glass, her nail varnish sparkling in the light. He was dying to tell her how much he missed her, how he hasn't stopped thinking about her since she left him. How he would imagine different scenarios of them bumping into each other again.
"Ivy!"
He watched her abruptly look up and turn her head to see who was calling on her. Her hair flicking like a movie star as she did so. It was Gilby and Matt.
"Hey, we have been looking for you." Matt smiled as he walked over with hands in his pockets.
He reached out to her and gave her a tiny hug. She smiled warmly at them. That smile.
"Hey man." Matt acknowledging Slash. He just cocked his head up a little. "Hey"
"What's up?" Ivy asked
"We were wondering if you'd like to hang out?" Gilby said and bit his lip as he studied her sitting there.
There it was, that pang of jealousy came back. Slash just wanted to stand up and tell Gilby to fuck off. Gilby was a nice guy but he went through women like they were skittles. He didn't want that for Ivy.
"Yeah sure." She beamed and stood up but pausing for a second and turning to Slash
"You wanna come?"
Slash looked at her then at Gilby who's smile faltered a little. He knew he wasn't pleased that she had asked him, Slash liked that.
"You know what? Yeah, I'll come." He downed his glass and picked up his hat. Ivy grinned at him and Matt threw an arm round her shoulder
"Let's go!"
Slash watched as Gilby eyed Ivy's legs as she walked in front of them. Slash did the same but no one could see him do it because of his hair. He watched as her hips and ass moved with every step, they had a natural sexy bounce to them. It took every fiber in his being not to reach out and touch her.
"Where are we even going anyway?" Slash asked Gilby making his eyes come off of Ivy's behind.
"Uh- Matt and I found this bar about 20 minutes from here. Thought we'd hang for a bit before soundcheck."
"Sounds good." Ivy chimed
"What's Jasmine doing?" Matt asked Ivy and she rolled her eyes
"She's pretty tired so she's spending some time in the room then she's gonna meet us tonight."
Matt nodded in understanding but his disappointment was obvious.
"It's cute you like her." Ivy wrapped an arm around Matt's waist and put her other hand in her jeans pocket. "You seem like a nice guy. She needs a nice guy." Matt shrugged and chuckled out of embarrassment. But he was a nice guy, Slash liked him.
Once they reached the bar it was closed and looked like a dump from the exterior. But when they walked in Ivy started to laugh. Inside the walls were covered in neon signs with different American pop culture decorations. There was a few pool tables and a large bar that wrapped around a huge pillar in the middle of the room. It was handy that the guys could pull a string or two to have bars emptied for them.
"Look at this place!" Ivy walked over to a wall and bent down to read a small poster.
"Kinda looks like a theme park exploded in here." Matt grimaced at the interior and Slash took a seat at one of the tables and looked around him.
"We should bring the guys here tonight. It would be so funny. Can you imagine Axl's face?"
"Well that's if he would come." Slash said and Ivy nodded in agreement
"Good point."
Gilby had got them a round of drinks and the three guys sat down. Ivy walked over and drank from her beer when she almost choked on it.
"You good?" Matt asked
Ivy pointed across the room to a large pit and something in the middle of it.
"Oh god." Gilby rolled his eyes and laughed
"Guys, a mechanical bull." Ivy beamed and Matt put his hands up and waved them around
"Before you even think about it, I'm not getting on that thing!"
"Oh come on!" She laughed and jogged over to it. "It's not even that big, I'll pay you to have a go!" Matt shook his head and she whined
"What about you, Gilby?" She walked back over and put her hand behind his chair. He swallowed his drink and laughed
"Nah I don't think so.." he thought and Slash thought he'd take this opportunity.
"I'll do it with you." He said suddenly and the guys both looked at him.
He could tell that Gilby was a little annoyed that she was so happy with him for saying yes. He smiled but it didn't quite meet his eyes
"Really Slash? Didn't think it was your thing?" He said and gulped his beer
"It's not but it'll be pretty funny. But I'll only do it if Ivy does too..." he trailed and Ivy left Gilby's side and pulled a seat out beside Slash.
"Deal." She grinned and held her hand out for him to shake. He did and she giggled to herself before taking a sip of her beer again.
*~*~*~*~*
When we got back to the hotel the four of us were laughing and smiling. Gilby was retelling funny stories from his childhood that no one knew about. Once we got back i had around an 2 hours to get ready for soundcheck. I waved goodbye to the guys and ran upstairs to my room. I opened the door to see Jas on the phone to someone.
"O-ok, bye!" She smiled into the phone and put it down.
"Hey! Who was that?"
"My sister. She was asking how I was." She said and stretched her arms
"Ah cool, you coming to soundcheck?" I asked her and nodded
"Yeah, might as well. What did you do today?"
I giggled at the thought of today. "Well Slash, Gilby, Matt and I went to a bar an-"
"Oh..." she trailed off and I stopped and looked at her
"What?"
She rolled her eyes and continued, "You, Slash and Gilby in close proximity with each other? Juicy." She walked past me and poked my side. I was still confused
"What are you talking about?" I followed after her to the bathroom. She brushed her hair and looked at me in the mirror
"Well with you and Slash's history, that's just awkward on its own, but with Gilby there too? Talk about a goddamn love triangle." I scoffed at her remark and walked out.
"You're talking shit!" I yelled back to her
"No I'm not! And you know it! You can't fool me!" She answers me and I looked out the window
It was nothing like that. Slash and I had moved on and with today we could act like we used to around each other for a change in the past few days. Yeah, it was a little awkward earlier but he got more comfortable with me after we started to joke around again and yes, I still have feelings for him that's never really left but I have to fight that. Gilby said he liked me but I wasn't looking for anything right now. Not from him anyway.
But there's no triangle. She has to stop watching those soap operas.
After the show we headed back to the bar from earlier, there was no way Slash was getting outta this. We earned a few eye rolls from the guys but after I pleaded they gave in, looks like I could still work my magic, huh? The bar was busier now and when we entered a lot of people went crazy at the sigh of the band but after signing some autographs and handed out some hugs the bodyguards told the people to back off a little. Duff was over talking to some giddy women at the end of the bar and Axl sat on the inside of our table with Izzy and Matt. Gilby accompanied me to the bar and talked to me.
"Hey, I wanna talk about that night." He started and leaned against the bar
"Yeah what's up? Before you start, Gilby. You don't need to be embarrassed with me. I've done that plenty of times too." I reassured him and he gave me a weak smile.
"Thanks, I appreciate that. I just didn't know if you would have been weirded out. Or I had scared you off."
I shook my head and laughed. "Trust me, Clarke. I've seen some things in my time. It'll take more than that to spook me."
He laughed and we stood in silence for a minute before he spoke again. He took a step closer to me and said almost in a whisper, "But I stand by what I said." I looked up at him and he bit his bottom lip. My eyes darted down to his hand slowly snaking up my arm.
"Ok fucker let's go." Slash appeared out of the blue and took my hand in his. I tried to motion a 'sorry' to Gilby as I was dragged away but he just nodded and waved me off.
"Slash what are you doing?" I asked him and he lead me to the mechanical bull.
"Ok, we're placing bets." He said and I laughed. "If you stay on longer than me..." he looked around for a second, thinking.
"We swap clothes." I said and he looked at me in horror.
"What?!" He said trying not to laugh
"Yeah come on! It'll be funny!"
He rolled his eyes and nodded. "Fine."
"And if you're on longer than me?"
"We have a day to ourselves."
I stopped and tried to form words. How nice of him.
"Really? You want that?" I asked him. I took a step closer and could feel he heat radiating off of him. He nodded, hair bouncing.
"Yeah. I want us to be good friends again. And we can't get any alone time with the other guys around." He looked over at Gilby who was talking to a girl at the bar but still catching glances.
"I'd like that. It's a deal." I grinned, showing my pearly whites.
He shot me a boyish smile and shoved me over to the mass of people around the bull. I snaked through the crowd and just as the last man fell off, I took my boots off and jogged on. I put my foot in the stirrup and flung myself on with ease, some people whooped and some whistled.
The man came up to me and out his hand on my knee. "What do we have here?" He said to the crowd and they cheered. I blushed looking over at Slash. "What's your name gorgeous?"
"What do you want it to be?" I said in a jokey manner and all the crowd laughed and wolf whistled. The man pretended to fan himself and fixed his cowboy hat.
"I love this woman." He said into the microphone and I threw my head back in laughter. "Ok one hand on the bull the other hand beside you. Good luck." He said and the people cheered again. I looked over at Slash who stood and gave me the finger.
"Fall!" He mouthed and I shook my head at him.
The bull jerked making me jump and pull a face but as it started to move I got into it. I leaned forward and backwards moving my hips with it and managed to keep my balance. I must have been doing well because the crowd keep clapping and shouting. It became faster and faster and all of a sudden it jerked a different way and I fell off earning some disappointed sighs from the people. I stood up and the man with the hat ran over to me.
"Aw what a shame! You did great!" He said and looked to the crowd. "Didn't she do great?" The audience whooped and I curtsied. "Give a hand for our gorgeous contestant." Everyone cheered and clapped as I walked off towards Slash. I heard the guy whine 'M-Marry me!" Into the kid and so laughed again.
I climbed over the wall and landed beside Slash who laughed. "You did really good...fuck." He whined and I shoved him in the bull's direction.
"Come on! You're not getting out of this! Go!" I shouted over the people and put his hat on my head.
"You fucker." He mumbled
"You love me, really." I shouted after him as he swaggered up and shot me a "don't know about that" look.
I held my chest and pretended to look offended. He winked at me.
Wow, what was that. My stomach went funny and my cheeks felt hot. I tried to ignore it and watched him swagger up to the guy with the cowboy hat, too cool for school.
"Wow wow wow! Look what we have here! You fucking kidding!" He shouted and everyone gasped and screamed.
"We have a fuckin rockstar stepping up to the challenge ladies and gentlemen!" He laughed and his hair swayed with him, some girls screamed.
"I'm not gonna ask your name because I sure every fuckin person here knows who you are." People laughed.
"So Slash, please step up to the challenge."
He walked up to the bull and climbed on top of it and put one hand on the bull and another on his hip. He avoided my gaze. The bull started and he moved with it, people shouted, laughed and screamed. I laughed too, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd see Slash on a mechanical bull. He remained concentrated on the task and moved his body in whatever way the bull was going. But I couldn't help but stare at his body. His arms were fully flexed as he hung onto the strap and his hips were moving in a sexy way, part of me wished he'd grind on me like that... all of a sudden the bull jerked and he fell of earning cheers from the audience.
"Yeah man!" The announcer shouted and Slash stood up. "I can die happy now." He said into the mic and Slash scratches his head and smiled.
"Everyone give Slash a hand!" Everyone went crazy and he jogged off towards me. He jumped over the small wall but when everyone saw us they started making flirty noises and whistling again.
"Oh, of course he gets the fucking model. That's not fair!" The man with the hat said and I blushed.
"Let's go." He said and we walked towards our table.
"What the fuck was that?!" Duff was almost crying with laughter
"Slash on a bull? What?!" Axl shouted and Slash started to get a little embarassed. He punched Axl on the arm and laughed.
"So..." I said to him and sat down with everyone else. His hat still on my head.
"I think it's safe to say I won."
"No you didn't, I did." He argued and my mouth fell.
"About a hundred people can argue it was me. Now take the clothes off."
"No."
"Wow at least buy him a drink first, Ivy." Izzy said and the guys sniggered. Duff stayed silent
"The bet was that if I win, we have to swap outfits. Come on, strip." I said with a devilish smile and he stared at me. He matched my grin and put his drink down.
"Fine. Come on." He said and strutted past me to the bathroom.
"I can't wait!" Jasmine yelled after us
"And hey! No funny business while you're in there!" Axl called out and I heard Duff shout at him, "Dude! Shut the fuck up! Seriously?!"
I followed him into the men's bathroom and he opened a cubicle. Some guys gawked at us and I just smiled weakly.
"Slash this is gonna look like something else..." I whispered and he chuckled under his breath
"I know I'm gonna look like the luckiest guy on the fuckin planet." He winked and lead me in, I tried to hide my flushed cheeks and as he locked the door.
We stood looking at each other for a second before I took my boots off. He did the same all the while bumping into each other and giggling. He pulled his jeans off and handed them to me, I saw him look at my bare legs for a minute.
"Your hair can't hide that much Slash, look away." I giggled like a schoolgirl.
"I'd say sorry but I'm not." He winked and turned around and began to put my ripped jeans on with some struggle.
My heart skipped a beat when he said that. I smiled to myself but tried to play it off. I groaned and rolled my eyes.
"You're such a guy."
We continued to get changed and he took his shirt off, now it was my turn to glance. His back was so toned and I couldn't help but stare as his shoulder blades shifted when he turned his shirt inside out, he turned around and I studied his muscular torso as it flexed. Luckily, I was able to turn my eyes away when he was finished with his shirt. I laughed at him in my skinny jeans and he did the same.
"I think it does wonderful things for my ass." He joked and cocked his hip to the side.
I covered my mouth with my hand and he bit his finger.
"I mean- dial 'p' for pussy" He said in a sexy ladies voice and I lost it.
"Oh my fucking god" I managed, my voice broken with laughter
We both stood there hanging onto each other laughing.
For a moment I forgot about all that had happened between us and it felt like centuries ago. We stopped and he took his metal bracelets off of his wrist and snaked them onto mine. Lastly, I pulled my shirt over my head and my hair fell out with it. I had on my black satin push up bra which I sometimes used for my job, it was classicly sexy. I only put this one on tonight because my other bras were in my overnight bag on the bus...now I'm glad they were. We both stared at each other for a few seconds, I saw him gawking at my body. I felt unable to move.
I really wanted to make a move. All these emotions and feelings all came flooding back. For a moment, he looked like he did years ago. I remembered how much he'd make me laugh, he'd make me laugh so hard I'd cry or pee a little and then that would start him off. I remembered when Duff used to shout at me for smoking and he'd sneak some smokes in my jeans or in my hand in passing. He always made me smile, even if it was just as easy as a wink or bringing me back something from the store. Or when I'd be sad, he'd stay with me and comfort me until I felt better. Like with David. I tried to block him out of my life but seeing him standing in front of me like this made me mad at myself for doing that. He was one of the most amazing human beings I've ever met...
There was nothing I wanted to do more than kiss him.