Think About You (Izzy Stradlin)

Chapter 10: Mr. Brownstone

Thursday, January 1987

"Are you okay Oli? You look pale... and sweaty," Emily asked with faint amusement, as she glanced over at her best friend with an eyebrow raised. Oliver looked up at her and chuckled weakly in response, despite the fact that he felt like a walking corpse.

"I'm okay. Think I'm getting the damn flu."

The brunette girl reached over and gently placed her palm on her lead guitarist's forehead, feeling for a high temperature that would indicate he might be sick. Oliver instinctively smiled at her caring nature, observing her pretty face as she finally pulled her hand away with no diagnosis.

Emily and Oliver currently sat in the cluttered living room inside her apartment, an acoustic guitar in each of their laps as they attempted to work on a new, striped down song. They wanted it to be a raw yet simple track, a perfect edition to their debut record.

Simple Misconceptions was supposed to start recording for their first album next week, and they needed more original songs to add to the lineup. Em and Oli were the band's primary song writers, so the pressure was on, but the tatted up lead guitarist had been slacking lately.

"Okay so what if you did B minor, then G, D and A?" Oliver played the chords on his slick black acoustic guitar as he spoke, earning a nod of approval from his lead singer. He didn't want the brunette girl commenting on his awful appearance anymore, he didn't want to focus on his 'sick' state or feel guilty about his recent overuse of party favors.

"That's good," Emily muttered, matching her best friend's rhythmic strumming of the chords while he played a little riff to match. The song was really coming together, it just needed more lyrics, something that the brunette singer had been writing an excessive amount of lately.

They played the chorus again before Emily decided to sing along, adding in some of her written lyrics.

'What do you see, when you look at me? Don't cover my scars, let them bleed. Tell me, is this how we're, suppose to be? Well then I'm so, I'm so.... happy.'

"And we don't need rehab. Mmmm," The pair sang together in harmony, finishing the beautiful chorus just as there was a distinct knock on the apartment door. Oliver immediately hopped up to answer it, relieved to get a break while Emily scribbled down the words that continued to pop into her head.

Swinging the door open, the tattooed guitarist was surprised to see Izzy standing casually on the other side, wearing a blank expression as usual.

"What's up man," Oliver greeted him, but didn't bother to move from the open door frame. Izzy nodded to just barely acknowledge the lead guitarist, before peering around him at the beautiful brunette singer on the couch.

"Is Axl here?"

Emily finally looked up from her notebook of lyrics to make eye contact with tired, hazel eyes.

"No, but the note he left said he'd be back around 4:00," She stated, before her focus dropped back down to the scribbled pages in her lap.

Izzy had to push past Oliver to get inside the apartment, an action Emily didn't notice, but Oli narrowed his dark hazel eyes and hesitantly shut the door behind him.

"Writing something?" Izzy asked with a faint playfulness, as he plopped down lazily on the leather couch. He sat right in between Oliver's usual spot and Emily, before smirking at the pretty brunette girl next to him.

"We start recording next week so we want to get some more songs done," Emily beamed back at him, unaware of the fresh tension between the two male guitarists. Oliver was standing awkwardly by the couch, while Izzy was leaned back casually with a faint, knowing smirk. He had actually come to talk to Emily, not her red headed brother, but he couldn't talk about certain topics with Oliver lingering around.