✯𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭✯

Izzy woke up to loud footsteps and talking in the hallway outside his door. "Hey! Wake up, you lazy fucker!" Axl yelled as he swung open the door and walked in."Why are you still in bed?" Slash asked loudly following behind Axl. "Yeah dude, you're supposed to be a rockstar, you can sleep when you're dead." Steven said, standing in the doorway with his hand resting on the doorframe. "What the fuck do you want?" Izzy groaned, rolling over onto his stomach and covering his head with a pillow."We wanna hang out with our friend." Slash said, sitting down on the bed. "Yeah, is that too much to ask?" Axl questioned. Izzy huffed as he sat up and looked at the three of them with an annoyed expression."Hey dude, your new chick's hot." Slash said."I know, stay away from her." Izzy replied.

"Alright, come downstairs and hang out with us." Axl said. "You never go out anywhere with us, so we decided we're gonna bring the party to you.""That's nice, thanks guys... Where's Duff?" he asked."He's on his way, he had to go fight a guy at the bar." Steven answered nonchalantly."Oh." Izzy said. "Well, you guys go on, I'll be downstairs in a minute, I gotta piss." Izzy said as he got up out of bed."Yeah!" Steven said, "We finally got the man to join us!" he said with a smile, patting Izzy on the back as he walked out of his room. Izzy just smiled at Steven's enthusiasm, as it always had a strange way of warming his heart, and went to the bathroom while the other guys made their way back downstairs.

Izzy walked down the stairs to see Slash and Axl sitting on the couch and Steven sitting on the floor in front of the couch, even though there were empty seats he could've sat in. Then he saw Samara walk out from the kitchen as he made his way to the bottom of the steps. "Why'd you let them in here?" Izzy asked her."I recognized Slash and Axl... and they told me if I let them in, they'd give me a joint." she explained."Mhm... They didn't give you the joint did they?" he asked."No." she replied.The guys just laughed and Izzy and Samara sat down in the chairs that sat at both sides of the couch to form a 'c' shape which wrapped around the coffee table.

"So, we finally get to meet the new girl, huh?" Slash started."Yeah, we've heard a lot about you." Axl said."Only good things, I hope." Samara replied with a smile."Oh, of course. Trust me only good things. I think he's got a bit of a crush." Steven said with his brows raised as he nodded."Yeah me too." Samara replied with a smile.

"So I met these guys, isn't there another one?" Samara questioned. "Oh yeah, Duff." Slash answered. "He's a cool guy, you'll like him. He'll be here later.""Oh, well I have to head to work soon, so I probably won't be here." she replied."Oh yeah, you're a bartender, right?" Steven asked."Yep." she nodded."Oh, you'll meet him." Axl said. "Probably already have.""Yeah, he's a tall blonde alcoholic fucker that looks kinda gay." Slash explained. "Smart guy though.""Yeah, we love him. He's a great dude." Steven agreed."Alright, why is Duff all of a sudden our favorite?" Axl asked."Because Duff is our favorite." Izzy told him."Oh, wow." Axl scoffed. "What's so special about Duff?""What's the matter, Axl?" Steven picked. "Are you jealous?""Yeah, what do you have against Duff?" Slash asked with his head tilted."Nothing, I just..." "You're jealous." Izzy laughed with his brows raised.Axl just sat back and rolled his eyes.

"Okay guys," Samara started with a laugh, "I'm gonna go to work.""Ah, come one you're not gonna meet Duff if you leave." Axl said in a sarcastically sad tone."Shut up Axl." Izzy said half jokingly. "You'll meet him one day. Go on to work, I can deal with these guys, I've put up with them for years." he told Samara."Alright." she said as she stood up. "You guys have fun. Try to keep Izzy alive for me." she told them as she went up the stairs to start getting ready for work.

✰☆✰

After Samara left, the guys sat around talking for about 30 minutes until there was a knock at the door.  "Give me a second, damn!" Izzy said when knocking continued as he walked to the door. When he opened it, the door swung open as Duff pushed Izzy out of the way. "Turn the news on!" Duff said frantically as Izzy shut the door and followed behind him.Confused, Steven grabbed the remote and turned the tv to the news channel while Duff and Izzy sat down in the chairs.

Once the news channel came on the tv, they watched as it depicted a burning building as firefighters with hoses tried to put out the fire and ambulances and police cars gathered around the scene. Still confused, they read the news headline at the bottom of the screen: Woman Burned To Death In House Fire. Silence washed over the room as they sat in shock when the news reporter said the name: Mikayla Black."Holy shit." Axl said just before the reporter continued."Unfortunately, the fire department was unable to arrive at the fire on time." she started, "There was no 911 call until the neighbors noticed; by then, it was too late. The house had already burned too much to determine what started the fire or the woman's cause of death. There is no further investigation that can be done, as we have no witnesses of what happened before the fire. Therefore, this case has been ruled as an accident and forensic detectives have concluded that Mikayla died from smoke inhalation in her sleep."

The guys all sat staring at the tv, speechless. Except for Izzy though, he stared at the tv as a little smirk creeped onto his face (which he didn't notice) while he sat in relief that he'd actually gotten away with it.

But Duff noticed Izzy's expression when he glanced over to him. Duff then looked over to Slash and Axl who looked back at him, then after Duff directed his attention back to Izzy, they caught on and look at Izzy, then noticing the eerie grin as well. Steven noticed the three of them looking at Izzy, and after looking over as well, they all looked back around at each other with confused and slightly scared expressions.

"Uh, Iz? You good, man?" Slash asked, snapping Izzy out of his trance."Huh?" Izzy asked as he redirected his attention to Slash."Are you okay?" Axl asked him. "I mean, it is your ex, but...""She was insane." Izzy interrupted."Yeah..." Duff replied."Hey, I mean at least she can't bother you anymore, right?" Steven asked with a bit of a laugh, trying to lighten the mood a little."Exactly." Izzy laughed back."The crazy bitch is finally gone." Slash said, raising his glass of Jack Daniels, "Cheers." "Cheers." The rest said simultaneously, raising their drinks along with him, except Duff who didn't have a drink since he'd just got there.

After talking for a little bit, the heavinesses of the situation had worn off and Axl suggested an idea. "We could write a song about all this." he said."Dude, yeah." Steven replied, "It could be about her being a bitch and it got so bad that you had to kill her.""That would be pretty sick, huh?" Duff chimed in."I like it." Slash shrugged with a bit of a nod afterwards."That's fine with me." Izzy said, trying to hide how uncomfortable he felt, knowing he actually did kill her.

The guys sat around the coffee table that was scattered with empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, ashes, and the sheets of paper that they were writing their lyrics and ideas on.

After about an hour of writing, the all shared what they'd come up with and talked about the ones they really liked and wanted to include and decided which one's they'd eliminate.

One of Axl's lyrics were "I used to love her, but I had to kill her." "That's good." Slash said "I think 'I Used To Love Her' should be the title." The other guys agreed and that ultimately became the title of their new song.

Slash's lyric that the others agreed to was "I knew I'd miss her, so I had to keep her. She's buried right in my backyard."

Duff's most successful idea was "now I'm happier this way."

Steven came up with the "She bitched so much, she drove me nuts."

And finally, Izzy's was "And I can still hear her complain."

Thanks to Duff's talent for songwriting and musical technique, after about 20 minutes, they had a song. Now all they needed was the instrumentals.

✰☆✰