Released {Izzy Stradlin}

Jeffery

Next Evening...

In about ten hours, we'd arrive in Arizona. We had hotel rooms and a huge stadium waiting for us. I got an anxious chill every time I thought about it. Plenty of well-known bands played there on that stage. Millions of people have gone there to watch them. I tried to picture the stadium in my mind. A big stage with even bigger speakers. The semi-spherical roof will hang over us as we play. All the lights and the hundreds of rows of seating, not that anyone would be seated at one of our concerts.

For the past hour or so I've been chilling in the lounge with Jack and Izzy. They talked the most, but I wasn't complaining. They had a lot in common, home-life-wise. Both of their parents got divorced when they were young. And they both still had a strong hatred for high school. While Jack was from Arizona, and Izzy from Indiana, they seemed to have had a similar life in high school.

Now I was currently getting fried. While Izzy made a few lines on the coffee table before him, Jack was rolling his blunt next to me. I had borrowed a pipe from Jack to smoke from. I kick off my sneakers and cross my legs on the leather couch.

"Lane, lemme get that lighter." Jack says. I flick it once more to take another drag from the pipe before handing it over. The cloud of smoke lightly burns my lungs and fills my nose with its herbal scent. As I exhale, I try to blow a few circles but fail miserably. Jack snickers, setting the lighter on my knee.

"I've never seen you smoke so much weed before." He states. I shrugged nonchalantly. "That's, what? Your third time this week?

"Yup," I respond. I peel my hoodie off of me, feeling warm from the drug.

"Well, you better stop. I'm the stoner of the band," Jack jokes, puffing his spliff.

"We're all low-key stoners," I told him.

"You're right about that," He laughs. Izzy leans against the couch. His head tilts back to rest on my legs. With his eyes closed and lips parted, I'm instantly reminded of how handsome he is. A gentle smile takes over my lips as my fingertips move a few locks of hair from his face. His beautiful eyes opened and made contact with mine. His pupils were dilated, barely showing any of the colors.

"Why do I always get so tired when I'm high?" Jack questions himself.

"You literally just started smoking," I replied.

"Yeah, well it's good shit and I'm literally drained. So if you'll excuse me," Jack stands and stretches dramatically. "I'm gonna go sleep."

As soon as Jack leaves and shuts the door behind him, Izzy turns around and gives me that signature smirk. I can't help but smile as he crawls onto the couch next to me and pulls me onto his lap.

"Finally, I was waiting to get you alone again." Izzy tells me. I wrap my arms around his neck to keep us close. One of his hands snaked around my waist, the other resting on my thighs.

"You could have me anytime," I tell him softly, leaning in to kiss his warm cheek.

"How about right now?" His voice grows deeper, accompanying the playful grin on his lips. I'll never grow bored of this; of him.

Our lips connect, instantly parting for our tongues to meet between them. A groan vibrates in his chest as I turn in his lap, straddling him. His strong arms lock around my body to keep us together.

"Oh-" My hands clench the collar of his shirt when his teeth nip at my neck. His tongue glides of the same spot before his lips fastened to the skin. I tilt my head back to embrace the feeling of his hot, slick tongue sliding against me.

When he parts from me he chuckles lewdly. Looking at him, I see he's eyeing the mark he left on my neck.

"You gotta stop leaving marks, Iz." I tell him, coming in to litter his face with kisses.

"Why? Don't want anyone to know that you're mine?" He questions me. I leave a final kiss on his nose before meeting eyes with him.

"I'm yours? That's funny. I don't recall us ever having that conversation." I tease. My fingers play with the bottom of his shirt. Izzy lets go of me to pull his shirt off with one swift motion as if he read my mind.

"Then lets have it," Izzy says nonchalantly. He grabs the end of my shirt and pulls it up. I raise my arms so he can remove it, tossing it somewhere in the room. "You're mine now."

"What?" I giggled, "That's hardly- oh whatever. I'll be yours if you promise to be mine."

"You got it, doll. I'm yours." Izzy holds on to me as he lays down on the couch. My face heats up while my eyes travel down his perfect torso. My heart feels like it was gonna pound its way out of my chest. "All yours..." His voice trails off. When I look into his eyes, I saw this dreamy gaze pouring from them. I was in a trance of sorts just looking at this man.

I lean down to catch his lips with mine, but he pulls my hips to the side so I crash into the couch next to him. I yelped softly, situating myself between him and the back of the couch. Our hot bodies contrasted with the coolness of the leather. I lift a leg onto his waist and hug his torso.

"Is Elaine your real name?" Izzy asks randomly. I look up to him.

"What makes you ask that?" I question him.

"I heard Mike talking about how you and Link 'switched your names around', whatever that means."

"Oh, well, when we were younger we really hated our parents. We made a sort of promise to each other that we'd change the names they gave us just to piss them off. Link's real name is James. James Lincoln Cole." I explained. Izzy looks down at me.

"So, what's your real name?"

"It's nerdy," I laugh awkwardly.

"So? It's not like you got to chose it." He states.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn Elaine Bailey. I just switched my first and middle names. It's the same with Link, except he abbreviated his." I ranted.

"What? 'Gwendolyn' isn't nerdy." Izzy chuckles. "Now 'James', that's nerdy."

"Sure," I giggled. "What about you? Stradlin doesn't exactly sound like an original surname."

"It's not. My birth name is Jeffery Isbell."

"Jeffery?" My lips stretch into a cheesy grin. "That's so cute! Jeffery. Jeff!"

"Alright-alright, stop saying it so much," His hand comes up to cover my mouth as he tried to his the smile on his face. My hand gently moves his away, my body still shaking with giggles. "You're so fuckin' goofy when you're high."

"It's not because I'm high. I'm only goofy around you," I admit bluntly. "B-Because, I... uh-"

"It's okay, Lane. You don't have to explain it," Izzy assured me. "Just promise me you wont call me by my real name around other people."

"Don't worry, I won't."