Pebbles - GnR Fanfiction

Chapter 10

I stood there stunned.
"Duff you scared me. What are you doing?" He stood up and walked over to me.
"What do you think I'm doing?! I'm waiting up for you so that we can go to bed. Obviously you changed your mind and decided to sleep with Axl in the bathroom!" He folded his arms and furrowed his eyebrows.
"I never said that I was going to sleep with Axl! How could you accuse me of such things?!"
"What were you two doing for the last-" He quickly took a look at his watch. "1 and a half hours then?"
I didn't realise we were in there for such a long time.
"He came to say sorry to me and brought some sweets to share." I was starting to get slightly worried about what Duff was going to do to me. He seemed to hate me at the moment.
"It must've been the longest fucking sorry anyone's ever heard!" I didn't have anything to say to that. A lump started to form in my throat.
"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting."
"What else did you do?!" He abruptly interupted.
I couldn't tell him that we kissed. It didn't feel right. I had never been in such a difficult situation before.
"Nothing. We only ate sweets and he told me he was sorry." I diverted my gaze away from him; I couldn't bear lying to him directly. Friends weren't supposed to do that to each other.
"Let's just go to bed, it's late. Turn the light off after you've finished." He sighed, turned around without another word and trudged down the hallway. I forgot about getting a drink of water and followed him to the room.
Once I got there he was already asleep in his single bed. There was a mattress on the floor next to it with a white pillow and duvet. I stripped off all my clothes which made me shiver a bit and got under the covers. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
..............

I was awoken by someone shaking my shoulder.
"Oh good. You're awake. I thought you were dead." I blinked a few times and saw Steven sitting on top of me. I looked over to the little clock on the shelf which read 5:30 AM. I usually got up around this time so I sat up a bit causing Steven to roll around slightly.
"Woah that was fun. Do you want me to paint your nails?!"
"Yeah!" I was really excited to get my nails painted and so I jumped out from under the covers.
"Aaaah! Why aren't you wearing any clothes?!" Steven screamed and shielded his eyes from my naked body.
"I never wear clothes in bed. Isn't that normal?" It was alot more comfortable not to wear a wired bra and tight fitting pants to bed. Those things dug into your skin.
"Not with 5 men living around you it's not! Don't let anyone see you like this. Put some clothes on quickly before Duff wakes up!" Steven still had his hands covering his eyes. I looked over at Duff who was fast asleep and had his mouth open slightly. The rise and fall of his chest was very calming.
"Phoebe, hurry up!"
"Oh right, yeah." I quickly put on the clothes I was wearing yesterday and left my hair in a mess.
"Let's go in the living room and put some music on so we can paint your nails!" Steven and I ran out of Duff's room and into the living area.
"Go sit on the rug and I'll put a song on." Steven skipped over to the CD player and put the same band on as yesterday, however, a different song. He rushed over to the rug and sat opposite me.
"I've got this blue nail polish and this green one. What colour do you want?"
"Can I have both?"
"I'll try. I've never done this before so I'm sorry if I mess up." He opened both of the nail polishes and a disgusting smell oozed out of them.
"Urgh that stuff stinks!" I complained.
"I didn't know it smelt this bad! Just cover your nose." Steven took my hand in his and pulled the brush from the blue bottle. He carefully placed it on my nail and then swiped up and across and down and swirled it around until my nail was successfully covered. I don't think he knew what he was doing but it didn't look too bad.
"It actually doesn't look that bad." I pointed out.
"I'm proud of myself. Time for green" He did the same motion as last time but my hand slipped from his and the green polish went all over my finger.
"Oh god dammit! I was doing so well." Steven looked really disappointed with himself.
"I guess we spoke too soon, but it's OK I don't mind." It didn't look too messy so Steven continued with the same pattern on the rest of my nails. I was really happy with the result and so was Steven.
"Let me do yours now! We can be nail buddies!" I suggested which made his face light up.
I took his hand in mine and attempted to paint his nails. They were really short so it was hard not to get the polish on his skin, however, I tried my best. After we were done it was already 6:30 AM.
"The guys should be up soon and I need to go to the toilet so stay here."
I nodded my head as I watched him leave to go to the bathroom. I inspected my nails once again and smiled; I really liked them. The music had turned off a while ago so I sat there for a bit not knowing what to do.
"Phoebe there you are! I was worried." Duff emerged from the hallway looking a bit flustered.
"Oh hi Duff. What are you doing today?"
"We have to wait for Axl to tell us the plan but I'm just gonna make some pancakes for now. Hopefully the smell will wake everyone else up. Do you want some?"
"Yes please." I got up and followed him to the kitchen where he proceeded to take out the necessary ingredients.

"Do you have any blueberries?" I really wanted to show him the great pancakes that I could make.
"I think we do somewhere in the fridge. Someone sent us a fruit hamper but we never ate any of it." Duff sounded tired and miserable, although I didn't want to ask him because he never told me what was wrong.
I had a look inside the fridge and sure enough, there was a big box of blueberries and all sorts of other fruits. I took them out and placed them on the counter.
"Why do you need blueberries?"
"I just wanted to show you my amazing pancake recipe."
"Go ahead. You can make them if you want to." Duff stepped back and leant on the opposite counter. I added all the ingredients to the bowl and mixed it together. I could feel Duff's gaze scanning me so I turned round to see him eye me up and down.
"What is it?" I laughed a little by his odd behaviour.
"Oh nothing. I'm just thinking." He didn't return the smile and just stood there not moving an inch.

"What were you doing with Steven this morning?" There was no warmth to his voice.
"Well, Steven woke me up then told me I should put some clothes on becuase I was naked and then we painted my nails. Do you like them?" I put my hand into his face.
"Why were you naked with Steven?!" He looked hurt.
"I always sleep naked and Steven didn't know that. He didn't see anything though."
"Whatever you say." Duff mumbled quietly under his breath. I turned back around and stirred in the blueberries.
"Well I need to make these pancakes so hurry along."
I didn't realise that he had already left.

I put the pan on the heat and poured out some of the mixture. I made sure to watch the pancakes and not walk away to avoid what happened last time.
Steven came out of the toilet and walked over to me curiously.
"Ooooooo. I love pancakes!" He peered over into the pan where one was sizzling away.
"Good thing I have a lot of batter then." I had accidently made too much mixture but I was sure that 5 grown men could tackle it.
"I'm going to go change before breakfast." Steven left leaving me to make everyone's food. I enjoyed it though.
I got a large serving plate from the cupboard and started to pile all the pancakes on top of each other. In total there were around 30 pancakes which if divided by 6 would be 5 each. I then searched for some maple syrup. I found a half used bottle at the back of the cupboard. It was in disgusting condition with syrup dripping down the sides which caused all sorts of hairs and fluff to get stuck to it. I cautiously opened the lid and poured the rest of what was left onto the pancakes. I allowed it to drip down the sides before throwing the left over blueberries on top. Just as I served it up at the table, 4 of the 5 guys plodded in. Duff wasn't with them. They all sat down and grabbed a pancake each with their bare hands. They started eating it right there without a fork or plate. I decided to copy them and take one in my hand. It was sticky and uncomfortable but I guess you didn't have to wash up any extra plates.
"These pancakes are amazing, Phoebe!" Steven said through a mouthful of mush.
"Yeah they're fucking awesome!" Slash added.
I swallowed my food before speaking, unlike the guys.
"Thanks. It's my special recipe."
"Thank you for making us something good to eat for once. Duff always burns them so they taste like shit and these idiots can't even pour cereal into a bowl without spilling it everywhere." Izzy spoke quietly.
"Where is Duff?" I asked him.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"He's in his room. He says he's not well."
"Should I go check on him?" I didn't want him to be in pain.
"No no. Just stay here. He'll be fine."
"Alright." I finished off my first pancake and moved onto the second.
I noticed that Axl hadn't said anything since breakfast started so I made sure that he was alright.
"Hey Axl" He looked up at me. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm good. We've got a lot to do so we will be out most of the day. Are you ok to stay here on your own?" I was sure I would be fine but I couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.
"I think I'll be fine. Is Duff staying?" I hoped that he would be so I wouldn't feel as lonely.
"Yeah he's not doing too good. Make sure he doesn't throw up everywhere." All the guys got up and thanked me once again for the breakfast. Steven managed to pinch another pancake before leaving with the rest of the guys.
It was awfully silent so I decided to go talk to Duff even though he hadn't really been interested in talking to me since last night.

I walked down the hallway and found 4 identical white doors. I remembered that Duff's room was the one right at the end so I made my way to it and gently knocked.