A few hours later, I awoke to the soft sound of cars and buses driving outside and Kelly snoring lightly beside me.

Looking at the clock, I sighed, knowing that I needed to get up and start getting ready for work. Careful not to wake him, I lifted Kelly's arm from around my waist and slipped out of bed, stretching as soon as my feet hit the floor.

As quietly as possible, I grabbed a pair of ripped up jeans (which I assumed were black), and my Mötley Crüe shirt before tip toeing over to the bathroom.

"Where are you going?" Kelly mumbled sleepily in a sexy, raspy voice.

"I have to get ready for work; it's already ten."

"You don't work until eleven," he grumbled.

"I have to get ready and be there at that time."

"Oh."

"Go back to sleep," I said, brushing his hair out of his face.

"Mm-hm."

As I got ready, I debated whether or not I wanted to see my brother and talk things out. Sure, we weren't totally against each other, but I wanted him to recognize that I was capable of making my own decisions. I was almost eighteen; I didn't need a guardian.

°°°°°°

Once I was at work, I hummed along with the radio as I set to organizing the records on the shelves and in the crates, which was my traditional job.

"Carolina, it's about noon. I'm going to lunch," my boss, Leo, called to me. "I'll be back around two thirty."

"Okay. See you then," I said as he walked out.

Once the door behind him closed, I rolled my eyes.

"Who the hell needs that long for lunch? Over two hours? God," I mumbled to myself.

After an hour and a half, I was about halfway through the records. I paused when I heard the bell on the door ring.

"Feel free to look around. Don't be afraid to ask if you need anything," I called.

"Thanks," the person called back. "Wait... Carolina?"

I turned around to see my brother standing behind me, an amused, yet surprised smile on his face.

"Hi, Jeff," I said with a smile.

"Be nice," I mentally reminded myself.

"How's your day been?" he asked.

"Fine. Okay, really boring. It's been super slow."

He frowned and headed over to the front counter.

"That's shitty. Speaking of, I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to bitch at you; I was just surprised."

"I know, and it's fine," I said with a shrug. "I'm sorry that I snapped at you," I said, leaning back against the crates of records.

"Forget about it," he said. "I didn't think I'd see you here," he said, mildly surprised.

"Yeah; I work here every few days; the restaurant I was working at is closing, so I'll probably be here more often."

"Cool. Any new stuff?"

"Over there," I said, pointing to a bin that was labeled 'new releases' in neon green.

"Ah, right," he said with a chuckle, heading over to look through.

"I miss when we were close," I said suddenly, catching him off guard.

"So do I, Rae. So do I."

"Do you think we'll ever be like that again?" I asked sadly, looking at the freshly sorted records.

"I think so; we always come back together."

I nodded thoughtfully, quickly looking through the other vinyls to see what needed to be shifted and moved around. Everything seemed to be in order; Leo probably started organizing everything before I got here.

"I wanted to ask you something, but I don't know what you're gonna say," he said quietly.

"Then you might as well ask," I said, walking over and standing next to him.

"We're trying to go on tour soon, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come... I know you like seeing new places, and you and I could, y'know, be friends again."

"You're my brother; you're automatically my friend," I said with a smile.

"Yeah, but some siblings hate each other," he said.

"That's true. I don't hate you, though," I said.

"And I don't hate you either. I miss you," he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

"I miss you, too."

"What do you say? You wanna come? It can be a fresh start for everyone," he said hopefully.

One look into my brother's hazel puppy dog eyes, and I had made up my mind, which shocked the hell out of me- I never answered quickly.

"Okay. Fresh start... That sounds really nice actually."

The smile on his face grew as he bear hugged me.

"I'm so excited," he said, practically glowing.

"Me, too. When are you planning on the tour starting?" I asked.

"Uh, okay, well, it's not really a tour; we're opening up for a few bands near here, but that's the first step," he said with a chuckle.

"Better than nothing," I agreed.

"What time do you get out of here?" he asked. "You should come with me to see the guys."

"I get off at five."

"Shit."

"Yeah... I can probably leave early," I said, looking out the front window. "We're totally dead today."

"Just leave a note and say there was a family emergency or something."

"Good idea," I said, walking over to the counter.

I grabbed the notebook that sat beside the register and wrote:

"Leo,

I'm sorry, I had a family emergency. We were dead so I didn't think you'd mind as much.

-Carolina"

Soon after, I locked up the shop and my brother and I were on our way to where they were all staying.

"Do me a favor, it's gonna sound stupid, but call us by our names now," he said as we walked.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, I'm Izzy, Saul is Slash, Will is Axl."

"Fresh start," I mumbled, still thinking the names were dumb.

I faintly remembered hearing my brother being called Izzy when he was in high school, but it felt like it was so long ago.

After about twenty minutes, we reached the apartment building.

"You still live here?" I asked, being that it was the building we lived in before I moved.

"Yeah," he said with a shrug. "The landlord has a soft spot for us, I guess. The rent seems to be getting cheaper."

"That must be nice; my landlord is an asshole," I said with a mental shudder.

"Move in with us," he said with a laugh.

"No way; you're probably messy as hell!"

"Eh, we're not that bad," he said as he opened the door. "Come on, let's see who's here."

I followed him in and looked around in wonder; the space still looked almost exactly the same, aside from the occasional piles of clothes, cables, and beer bottles on the floor. There were more posters and scarves on the wall, and a black sheet hung on the wall.

"What's that for?" I asked, motioning to the aforementioned sheet.

"Hm? Oh, we were going to paint our logo on it but we haven't had time lately."

"Maybe I can help," I said quietly.

"That would be cool," he said as we walked into the kitchen. "Hey, guys," he said, seeing the band spread around the kitchen.

"'Sup Izz," Axl said.

He was the only one to respond; everyone else was either writing on scraps of paper or half asleep with a cup of coffee.

"We had a late party last night," my brother explained.

Axl looked up at me and smiled a little.

"Mornin', Carolina," he said, causing the others to look up and say hello.

"Hi," I said back, somewhat shy (for some weird, unknown reason).

"Okay," my brother said, looking between Slash, Axl, and I, "fresh start between you guys. Be nice," he said before tossing his sunglasses onto the kitchen table.

"Okay," Axl said with a nod. God, he was still mesmerizing.

"Deal," Slash said, lighting a cigarette.

"Isn't a bit early for that?" I asked him jokingly.

"Never too early, Rae," he said, shaking out the burning match, which he tossed into an ash tray.

"Are you going to start coming to our shows?" Steven asked hopefully.

"I think so. Depends on if I'm working or not, but I don't usually work too late," I said with a smile.

"Awesome!" he said, beaming.

"Stevie, you are a ray of sunshine," I said with a laugh.

"Hey, what about me?" Duff asked, crossing his arms with a fake pout.

"You're... Well, I don't know," I said with a laugh. "You're really the only one here I don't know."

"Duff is the king of beers," Axl said.

"There ya go. There's your title."

"I'll take it," he said sassily, taking a drink of his coffee.

Judging by the look on his face, either he hated coffee, or it was alcohol.

"That isn't coffee, is it?" I asked, pointing to his mug.

"Yeah, it is," he said a bit defensively.

"Mm-hm. May I?" I asked, reaching for his mug.

His cheeks seemed to blush the slightest bit, but he handed me the mug anyway, looking at me with an amused smile. I could tell he was waiting for my reaction.

I took a sip, and mentally cringed. It was vodka, and I didn't particularly care for it, but I decided to one-up him and drink all of it.

Once I drained his mug, I let out a satisfied sigh before handing it back to him. His jaw practically fell to the floor.

"How did you- that was- but," he stammered.

"Shit coffee," I said with a laugh.

I looked over to see my brother and the rest of the guys, all staring at me with wide eyes.

"What?" I asked innocently.

"We all know that Duff doesn't drink coffee," Axl said slowly.

"How did you just down that?" my brother asked.

"Are you going to bitch at me?" I asked.

"No."

"Good, then it doesn't matter. Oh, and for the record, I don't like vodka. Jack Daniels is where it's at."

"Whiskey girl, alright!" Slash cheered, raising his mug.

"Is that coffee?" I asked, wanting to wash the vodka from my mouth.

"About half and half."

I held my hand out and he handed it to me, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Don't drink it all, Carolina," he said.

"Deal," I said, only taking a few sips. I mumbled my thanks as I handed it back to him.

"So... what do we do now?" Duff asked, frowning at the sight of his empty mug.

"I don't know," Izzy said. "Carolina offered to help paint the backdrop," he said.

"Awesome," Slash said. "I needed help; I'm the only one working on it."

"Not anymore," Steven said with a smile.

°°°°°°

"Okay, what I was trying to do, is paint a big gold circle," Slash said, a cigarette hanging from his lips. "An' then it's gonna say 'Guns N' Roses' around it. Then in the middle, it'll have, well, guns n' roses."

"Okay... can I make a suggestion?" I asked, stealing his cigarette.

"What?" he asked as he tried (and failed) to get his cigarette back from me.

"Make it say 'Guns N' Roses' in the gold ring," I said before taking a drag.

"What do you mean? Like, in here?" he asked, signalling to the inside of the circle that had been outlined in chalk on the sheet.

"No, like in here," I said, signifying the center of the ring.

"Oh... Good idea," he said with a shrug. "Now, gimme my cig back," he said, plucking it from my lips.

"Rude," I said jokingly.

I was surprised at how well we were getting along. Obviously we were trying to take the 'fresh start' seriously, because who needs tension? Sure, I was still irritated deep down, but I was trying to be nice.

"Don't fuck it up, Slash," Axl said as he walked by. He playfully slapped my ass in passing, a smirk plastered on his handsome face.

The 'fresh start' made me wonder how far things would go between all of us; it was a question of 'would we be friends or more.'

"I won't. Don't be a bitch dude," Slash said, shooting Axl a glare.

"Be nice, ladies," I said with a smirk, painting in the edge of the logo.

"Ha-ha. Shut it," Slash said.

"Are we cross?" I asked with a smile.

"Nope; just wanna get this done," he said, blowing his curls out of his face.

"That's not working. Want my help?" I asked, trying to be nice.

"No, what I want you to do is help me paint. Leave my problems to me," he snapped.

"Hey, I'm just trying to be nice. If you aren't going to be a little bit nicer, I can just go do something else," I warned.

"Whatever," he said, blowing his cigarette smoke into my face.

"Asshole," I grumbled.

After about half an hour, we had painted most of the logo. All that was left was the roses and part of the guns.

"Hey, Slash! Come on, let's go get Michelle and Adriana," Steven said as he headed to the door.

"I'll be back," he said, dropping his paint brush (which splattered paint all over me).

"Sure. Asshole," I mumbled, wiping the silvery-grey paint off of my cheek.

He was gone at least an hour, during which I finished the logo,adding little tweaks to it; I painted the roses as if they had vines wrapped around  the matching pistols, and a bit of red (which looked like blood) dripped off of the roses.

I washed all of the paint brushes out and threw out the cut up egg carton that we had been using as a palette before walking back to look at the backdrop. I had to admit, it looked pretty good.

I was sure that I looked like hell, so I decided to go home. Axl and Duff had left earlier as well, so I said goodbye to my brother (who made me promise to come back the following day).

As I was walking out, Slash, Steven, Adriana, and another girl were walking in. Steven and Adriana waved, but the other two ignored me... for some reason, that hurt.

I got halfway down the hall before Slash came jogging after me.

"Hey!" he shouted, causing me to whirl around and almost run into him.

"What?" I asked, a mixture of irritation and sadness running through me.

"Thanks for finishing the banner. It looks rad," he said with a smile.

"You're welcome," I said simply before turning around again.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back earlier."

"Sure," I said sarcastically, continuing down the hall.