FicWad

Author's Note: It gets intense as we see Stella and Axl's first major fight. Update on my adoption process of the puppy: WE GOT HIM! He's a sweet little bean named Moose.

Chapter 8: Mistake



The weeks following the opening show went by uneventfully. Things were as perfect as they could be. Stella and Axl were now closer than ever, each stop in the tour was sold out, the band was getting along well, and Axl finally seemed genuinely happy and relaxed.
Unfortunately, as the tour took a show up to Canada, things began to fall apart. Things on tour had been going wrong, Axl was having trouble making it through shows and exhaustion was beginning to set in, but worst of all? Axl and Stella were beginning to fight. It had all started rather suddenly, Axl had had a bad night and Stella had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The concert had started normally, the crowd had been sold out, Stella had kissed Axl before he went on stage. Things turned when someone had thrown something at the Axl and had acted like an asshole which in turn caused Axl to retaliate. Though unlike the old days, Axl had been forced to continue the concert. When he came off stage, Stella was there.

“Axl, are you okay?” She asked as he came of stage.

“Don’t talk to me right now.” Axl snapped as he brushed past her, Slash frowning as he shoved past him.

“Axl!” Stella frowned as she turned to watch him walk off.

“I’d leave him alone, if I were you.” Duff placed his hand on her shoulder as he walked past her. “Trust me on this one, I’ll see if I can’t talk some sense into him.” Stella nodded, sighed, and ran a hand through her hair, wondering what it was she could do to get Axl back in the good mood he had been in.

“Duff! Wait, I’m his girlfriend. I should be able to handle this.” She said as she gave him a reassuring smile and moved to Axl’s dressing room once Duff headed the opposite way.
“Axl. Open the door, please?” Stella said quietly as she knocked on the door. “I just want to know you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Stella, please just go away. I want to be alone.” Axl said, his voice dripping with irritation.

“I’m not going anywhere. You and I both know that.” He said as sighed quietly.

“Stella…” He couldn’t say no to her, he never could. So, he moved from his chair and opened the door.

“It hit you.” She said quietly when she saw the bruise forming just under his eye, her hand moving to cup his cheek.

“Don’t touch me.” He said as he took a step back and turned away from her. “I told you to leave me alone for a minute. So now that you see I’m not dying or deformed, please leave.” He said, keeping his back towards her.

“I don’t understand what your problem is, Axl. I’m only trying to help and you’re treating me like I’m the one who fucking threw whatever the fuck that was at you.” Stella was beginning to lose her patience with his childish behavior.

“Maybe I want to be alone for just a fucking second! A fucking moment to myself, did you ever fucking think of that?” He turned to face her now, green eyes blazing. “Now get the fuck out of my dressing room.”

“No.” She was going to stand her ground. She wasn’t going to be like everyone else that never told him no. “You may be able to talk to everyone else this way and get what you want, but you’re not going to fucking talk to me like that.”

“I will fucking get you hauled out of here.” Axl threatened, though deep down not meaning it.

“You do that, and you can consider me hauled out of your life too. You don’t get to treat me like this, Axl.” Stella glared at him, she wasn’t going to budge despite the argument escalating quickly.

“And where are you going to go?” Axl laughed cruelly and shook his head. “Back to your criminal father and your trophy wife mother? You haven’t heard from them in nearly a month, Stella.”

“I’d figure something out. I don’t have to take this from you.” She said as she crossed her arms.

“How? You’re a fucking rich bitch who has had everything she’s ever wanted handed to her. You don’t know a fucking thing about hard work, you don’t know a thing about the real world.” Axl responded, he wasn’t going to be the one to back down.

“And you’re a selfish prick who can’t stand for something not to go his way. You decide to throw a hissy fit about anything instead of fucking growing up and facing life head on. You might have worked hard to get where you are, but you did it to run away from your step-father and you’ve allowed him to control your entire fucking life. Instead of moving on, you’ve dwelled and become a bitter fucking asshole. No wonder everyone fucking leaves you, you---” She was cut off by Axl’s hand colliding with her face, a surprised gasp escaping from her lips.

When she turned her head back to where it had been, she saw Axl standing there looking completely horrified with himself. She shook her head and tugged the necklace he’d given her on her birthday from her neck and threw it at his feet.
“Stella…” He tried to speak but he was cut off by her.

“Don’t fucking talk to me. Don’t ever fucking speak my name again. You might have been able to hit your other girlfriends and offer a feeble apology for everything to be okay. But not with me.” She said, her voice small and eyes full of tears. “And here I was, thinking you weren’t what everyone said you were.”

With that, she turned on her heels and left his dressing room, slamming the door behind her. Axl was left in the aftermath of what had happened, disgusted with himself. Stella brushed past Slash in the hall way and headed to find Susan. She needed someone to vent to and Susan had become one of her closest friends.

“Duff? Susan? Can I come in?” She questioned, trying to keep her voice even, as she knocked on the door of Duff’s dressing room.

“Stella.” Duff answered the door, brows furrowed when he saw the handprint on her cheek. “He fucking hit you? Fuck that.” He shook his head and headed after Axl.

“Honey, come here.” Susan frowned as she opened her arms for the now openly crying girl standing in her doorway.

“I want to go home.” Stella sobbed quietly as she hugged her friend, her body trembling more from the anxiety of what had happened rather than her sobs.

“I’ll call Beta.” Susan said as she let go of the girl and motioned for her to sit down. “Tell me what happened?”

“He wouldn’t let me in the dressing room….A-And then he did so I could see he was okay.” She wiped her cheeks and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “Then we got in this huge fight that came out of nowhere and he slapped me. So, I told him never to talk to me again.”
The phone rang. It was Beta.

Meanwhile, Duff was just making it to Axl’s dressing room. He was furious and ready to beat the shit out of Axl until he walked in the dressing room and found Axl sitting in the center of a trashed dressing room with his head in his hands.

“You fucked up.” Duff said as he took a seat in the rubble next to his longtime friend.

“I fucking know that. I don’t even fucking know what happened, I just…” He shook his head and closed his eyes. “I promised I’d never hurt her, especially not like that.”

“Then why did you do it?” Duff asked.

“It just happened so quickly. I got so angry and the next thing I knew my hand was stinging from slapping her. I slapped her so fucking hard.” Axl had tears in his eyes now as he clenched his jaw in an attempt not to cry. “I hated myself the second I realized what had happened. Is she okay?”

“Her face is probably going to swell and bruise, it was already starting to when she showed up to talk to Susan.” Duff didn’t know how to provide comfort to his friend while also defending Stella.

“Fuck.” He said softly as a few tears cascaded down his face. “I don’t know what to do. I tried to apologize, and she told me never to talk to her again.”

“You need to work on yourself, man. If you really care for her, you need to make sure this shit never happens again.” Duff put his arm around his friend to comfort him. “You have to remember she’s only eighteen, she’s going to say shit she doesn’t mean but you’re fucking fifty-five and should know better.”

“Can you help me? I have to talk to her, I can’t let it end…At least not like this.” He shook his head as he looked at her.

“I’ll talk to Susan and see where Stella stands on this all. Come on.” Duff said as he stood and helped Axl up.

The pair headed to Duff’s dressing room where they found Susan but not Stella. Axl’s heart dropped when he heard the news.
Stella was going to stay with her brother…In Germany.