Buttered Popcorn

Chapter 9.5: April 1, 1987

"F-Fuck," Duff hiccuped before leaning closer to me, whispering with alcohol-infused breath, "Hey, Jimmie. Hey." "Yeah, dude, what's up?" He smiled lazily and waited a few seconds before responding. "Did I tell you we were going on tour?"

"W-What? No, man! What the hell?" My lips cracked a huge smile and I slapped his arm. "Yeah," he giggled, "We're leaving in two weeks."

"Shit, dude! That's gnarly!" I laughed. He mumbled a 'yeah'. His responses seemed to be delayed a few seconds when he was drunk. But in all honestly, there wasn't a single sober person at this table. We were all laughing at something Steven had said when an unfamiliar voice interrupted, "Hi, boys!"

My head swiveled to look at the woman who stood at the end of our booth, smirking at the band. Even while piss drunk, all conversation came to a halt and all of the boys' attention was now on this chick. Who the hell was this?

"Adrianna!" Slash called, crawling and stumbling over the table to get to her. The rest of the guys followed, fumbling over each other to greet 'Adrianna'. She was a beautiful girl with a great figure and cute face.

"Hey, girl! I don't think we've met before! I'm Adrianna, but you can call me Adri." She held out her hand and offered me a handshake. And she's sweet? No doubt my bitchy glares were doing me any favors for making me look better than her.

I shook her hand softly, forcing a non-sour expression onto my face. "Hey. I'm Jimmie. You can call me Jimmie." I stated blandly. She was much more done-up compared to me. I was sporting a casual outfit and bare face while she was clad in a tight dress and caked makeup. She looked great.

"You're funny! I like you already, honey." she giggled, switching her attention back to the boys, who were completely and totally infatuated with her. They all began smothering her with questions.

"How have you been?"

"Where have you been this whole time?"

"Got a boyfriend yet?"

So the boys had clearly known her before, maybe as old friends or maybe something more, but what caught my attention was Stevie. He was the only one sat in the booth still, starting at her from his spot on the edge of the seat. What was his deal?

"Hey.. Stevie," Adrianna cautiously made her way over to him with a shy smile like he was going to explode at any second, "Long time no see, honey." He furrowed his eyebrows in the slightest bit. He obviously wasn't as happy to see her as the others were.

"Yeah- uh, it's been a while." he mumbled, never breaking his gaze with hers. I looked to Izzy who gave me a signal to not say anything. I acknowledged it and we all continued to stare at the pair, eager to see what was going to happen. "I've missed you." She brought him into a hug but he didn't respond to her words, his body stayed still while she embraced him.

"Y'know, I've thought about us a lot since the last time I've seen you." she said, pulling away once she realized he wasn't going to hug her back. "So?" he muttered. His face twitched with a flash of pain for a split second before returning back to his blank stare. They had a history.

"I have to play that song almost every show, Adri. I have to hear you on that track every time," he said, "You can't come back here and pretend that you didn't do what you did." She sighed and softly brought her hand to the side of his face, "I know, Stevie. I know. I'm sorry."

"No you're not." He stood up abruptly, shaking the table along with the glasses on it. Most of us were pretty sobered up by this point, just waiting to see what they would do. "I can't act like you didn't hurt me, Adrianna." She flinched at his stern tone, but it didn't faze him.

"You made the decision to do that with him in the studio, so why the hell do you think now would be a good time to come back? When we're blowing up, making a lot of money. Is that all this is? You crawling back asking for some spare change?" he growled. I've never seen Stevie like this, but it seemed it wasn't her first rodeo. She was now no longer sporting her shy and nice demeanor. Her face switched from kind to disgusted in a split second.

"You're the one that cheated first, Steven. You hooked up with that girl so I wanted to get back at you. It wasn't my fault you couldn't keep your dick in your pants." Her voice was just as strong, just escalating the whole situation. I glanced over to the boys one more time, but could tell that they didn't dare get involved.

"Me?! Maybe if you weren't getting passed around like a joint then I would've stayed loyal to you! I messed up one time and you went around with three guys after that! Three!" he exclaimed. His face was tinted a light red now and they were beginning to yell. "Y'know what? I can't do this right now. Why don't you ask Axl for whatever you need. Clearly you want him more than me." he huffed, shoving past the staring group and out the doors of the bar.

"Steven!" she called after him, rushing out of the building as well. The band and I exchanged awkward glances and said nothing for the next few minutes. Using the silence to my advantage, I started putting the pieces together in my head silently.

He has to listen to the track every night, she cheated on Steven with someone in the studio, they used to have a history, he mentioned Axl.

Holy shit... Adrianna was the Rocket Queen.