"I think Matt is the best pick, guys," Duff said looking positive.
For the first time in weeks, we were all together, which turned into a rarity. We had been auditioning many drummers; some guys we knew and others were absolute strangers. Slash knew of Matt Sorum as he played for The Cult for a little while. I had nothing against him, he was a great guy, good fun to talk with, a great drummer but I knew in the back of my mind he had a different sound to Steven and I feared it would change the sound of the band. He didn't have that loose groove Steven had. I tried to stay positive at the time, as we desperately needed to start putting the album together and get the drum tracks done.
"Well, I like him so I think we should get him in straight away. He needs to learn all of our songs including our new ones." Axl said while picking at something on his jeans. "Are we done here? I need to get some other shit done."
I must have been having a bad day because as soon as those words left Axl's stupid mouth I felt my blood boil.
"Why don't you stay with us and fucking do your job for once?" I spat staring directly at him.
Obviously, Axl was shocked.
"What?" He scoffed.
"Oh, I think you heard me. I'm sick of you fucking off all the time. We're falling to shit here, we've got no organisation and it's driving me fucking nuts! Stay and do your job! We're getting a new drummer for fuck's sake, this is a big thing!" I yelled and I stood over him.
I felt Slash's grip on both of my arms as he pulled me back. To this day I'm still surprised Axl didn't rip my head off. It was like I stunned him so much all of his smart-arse comments evaporated... only for about 10 seconds though.
"Izzy, what is this woman doing to you? You are expressing emotion!" Axl grinned.
I was ready to absolutely deck this dude but I was held back.
"You know he's getting married, right guys? Going to have his own ball and chain!" Axl smiled.
"Whoa, what?" I heard Duff say.
"You are my fucking ball and chain!" I spat, "All these years I've been with you and now you're still not settling down. Stay with us and WORK! Write or sing... anything! Just stay for longer than 2 minutes!" I screamed. "And don't you even think about talking about Mel or I will stab you in the face!"
I wriggled out of Slash's grip and stormed out of the studio. I felt like I was dealing with a 5-year-old who couldn't focus on something for longer than 20 seconds, and I regretted telling this 5-year-old anything about my personal life. Poor Duff and Slash had been working their arses off with me; writing and recording, but there was only so much we could do without Axl as he could simply reject everything we'd created because he didn't like them. We had so many half songs written and we were planning on re-recording songs we'd made back from the mid-'80s to put on the album. In fact, we had so many ideas we were playing with the idea of releasing 2 albums. All I wanted was to work at a good chunk of music. We were wasting so much time fucking around, usually waiting for Axl to show up, and it was hanging over my head and weighing me down. Sure I had Mel to distract me and help me calm down, but I didn't want to dump and burden her with my problems.
Surprisingly, later that night I received a call from Axl and he apologised for being an absent dickhead. He kept going on about how shocked he was at my little outburst, and that he and the guys teased me when I stormed out.
"I'll try and get my shit together, man. I miss jamming and having fun with you guys. Truly." Axl's deep voice poured through the phone. "I've started seeing a psychiatrist and she's really been helping me. I'm really proud of you for proposing to Melanie. She's been really good for you, man."
"I know."
"Is she happy?"
"Well, I mean... I hope so." I replied.
Melanie's P.O.V.
"Will you marry me?"
I felt like I froze. Did he really just say that? I couldn't help but just blink back at Izzy. His face flickered many different emotions as he waited for me to reply, fear being the most prominent.
Izzy had my favourite pale green tee-shirt on, faded blue tight jeans (I never understood how he could comfortably walk around the house in jeans), his nose piercing was in, as well as his smallish hoop earrings on both of his ears. His hair was slightly tousled and his pale eyes were staring into mine.
"I love you, Mel," he said quietly, "and I want you to be with me for the rest of my life.
I still couldn't say anything. My brain had officially gone into freak out mode. Sure, I thought about and assumed at this point that we would be together for a long time, we were well into a serious, long term relationship, but we'd never discussed going all in and being proper adults.
"You've stuck by my side, in times when you shouldn't have, and there are times when I think I don't deserve you, but you've changed me into a better man. I am forever grateful for everything you've done for me. I can't live without you."
He paused, and through my foggy brain I could tell he was trying so hard to read my face, which was in no doubt total derp mode.
"I know I'm not very prepared, no ring or anything," he laughed awkwardly, "but we can always go shopping?"
He paused again.
"Melanie, you are my everything. Please-"
"Yes."
He blinked rapidly. It was almost like he couldn't believe what he had heard.
"Yes," I repeated.
There was yet another pause when suddenly Izzy's soft palms held my cheeks and he rested his forehead to mine.
"Really?"
"Yes."
He started to chuckle.
"You really wanna marry me?"
"Yes!"
Even though at that point we were both softly laughing together, tears started to trickle out of my eyes.
"Hey, Mel are you okay?"
"Yeah," I sniffed, "just overwhelmed with emotions."
"Aw, babe," Izzy said as he brought his arms around my body and embraced me into the best hug I've ever had.
Izzy squeezed me tighter and he rested his head in the crook of my head.
"I love you so much. You have no idea how lucky I feel that you want to be with me. I'm such a shithead sometimes-"
"You used to be. You're not anymore, dude."
Izzy planted a delicate kiss on my neck, and he brought his face up to look at me. He pressed his lips to mine only for a second as he then wiped my tears away and stared into my eyes. He was about to say something, but I couldn't contain my emotions. I lunged towards him, crashed my lips into his, and ran my hands through his hair. My sexy boyfriend just proposed to me, I didn't want to talk; I wanted to suck his face off... as well as some other things... My hard-hitting kiss took him by surprise but it didn't take him long to realise what I wanted. I tried to pull him on the couch with me but I felt him shaking his head.
"To the bed." He managed to say between kisses.
I wrapped my legs around Izzy's torso, he stood up and he walked us into the bedroom. He threw me into our bed and I watched him as he gazed down at me. He started to undress and I bit my lip watching him – this man could literally be blowing his nose and he'd still look drop-dead gorgeous.
"I want you." I breathed, not taking my eyes off of him.
Izzy gave me his classic grin as he started to slowly climb on top of me, planting kisses along my body as he worked his way up to my face. I could not wait to spend the rest of my life with this man.
~
So I saved this photo yeaaarrss ago ready to put in this book. Just how I imagine Ripley looking when Izzy proposes lololo.
So Melanie said YES!
Let me know what you guys thought! A very quick update because I am so damn excited to write about these two and their future, especially Izzy and his future with Gn'R. Don't forget to vote and comment! xx