Just Stay With Me Awhile

"How come you're not a singer?" Johnny asked her later that night when the show was over and they were all relaxing on the Avenged Sevenfold bus. "Why are you styling hair?"

She sighed, not wanting to explain it. "It's kind of hard to explain, guys."

Everyone kept looking at her in anticipation, and she sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to get out of it now.

"I just don't want to look like I'm only singing because of who my dad is. That's why I don't sing publicly."

"But everyone who was there tonight knows you have talent; even if you weren't doing lead vocals, you could do backup vocals." Jimmy told her. "Wouldn't that be awesome, guys?"

Everyone nodded and shouted their agreement, and she smiled in spite of herself. Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Brian got up to answer it.

"Is Lili here?" A familiar voice asked. The color drained from her face, and she quickly moved to the bunk area so the man wouldn't be able to see her.

"Who are you?" She heard Brian ask. There was a chuckle, one that Lili had grown to hate, and he then replied.

"If you don't know me, I'd say you're a little out of the loop on metal history 101." He said cockily. "Is she here, or is she with Motley Crue?"

"If she didn't tell you where she is, maybe you're not important enough to her to let you know herself." Brian told him.

Just then, she sighed a breath of relief when she heard her father's voice.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Rose?" Her father asked him angrily. "Lili told you five months ago that she's done with whatever it was going on between you."

"Oh, so she came clean, did she?" The man, Axl Rose, asked, sounding smug about it. "Bet you weren't too pleased when you found out, were you?"

"She's an adult, and she can go out with whoever she wants. What pisses me off is that you used her like that." Her father said angrily. She could tell a fight would soon break out, and wondered if the other guys of Axl's band, the 'new' Guns n' Roses, were around, and if they would be on Axl's side or hers. She'd known that by leaving Axl the way she had would catch up to her sooner or later, she just hadn't expected it to happen while she was on the road.

"She wasn't that good anyway." Axl told her father. With that, she heard her father scream angrily and punch Axl, and then heard clammering from the guys on the bus to go out and try to separate the two of them. She knew it wouldn't work, and she was right.

"What the fuck is going on?" DJ Ashba's voice asked, running over to the group. She smiled, knowing that at least DJ would be on her side; he hadn't wanted her dating him in the first place.

"None of your fucking business, Ashba." Axl yelled at him, obviously still fighting with her father. Deciding she couldn't hide from it anymore, she walked out of the bunks area to just outside the bus, where she saw her father beating the shit out of Axl.

"Will you please stop fighting?" She asked, her voice eerily calm. After a few more punches, her father let himself be dragged off of Axl by Nikki and Tommy, who'd just shown up, and Axl was restrained by DJ and Matt. When they had both stopped struggling to get back into fighting, she spoke again.

"Axl, why did you come here?" She asked, sighing.

"Because I wanted to see how you're doing. If you're still as easy as you--"

"Shut the fuck up! That's my daughter you're talking about!" Her father yelled angrily, beginning to try and fight again. For a minute, it looked like Tommy and Nikki were going to let him go and fight Axl themselves, but she gave them a look that told them not to.

"I was never easy with you, Axl. We both know you didn't get a damn thing out of me." She told him, keeping her head held high. "Get out of here. And if you try to come see me again, I'll have your ass arrested."

Axl just laughed at her and let himself be dragged away by DJ. A few minutes later, when Axl was out of sight, Tommy and Nikki finally let him go, and walked over to her.

"Did he hurt you? If he did I'll--"

"He didn't even know if I was with Avenged until I came out and told you to stop fighting." She told him. "He didn't lay a finger on me."

"Why the fuck is he trying to talk to you again?" He asked her. She sighed.

"I have no clue, Dad. If I did, I'd tell you."

He hugged her, as did Tommy and Nikki, and then left after a few minutes of talking it over. She walked back onto the bus, where the guys were all sitting on the available couch and chair space, waiting for her to get back on. She sighed at their looks of anticipation, and sighed.

"It's a long story, guys. And it's not worth telling." She told them as she walked to the back of the bus to the bunks to get some sleep. A few minutes later, she heard someone come back as well, and realized within a few minutes that it was Zacky. Neither of them spoke as he removed his clothes and pulled on a pair of pajama pants, and then laid down next to her on the bed.

"You never told me you dated Axl Rose." He told her after a few minutes of heavy silence. She sighed.

"It's not a big deal, Zacky. It was a stupid mistake on my part."

"I've got ears, you know." He offered, letting her know that if she wanted, he'd listen to the story and not say a word to anyone else.

"I started dating him about a year ago, but we kept it quiet because of all the shit between him and my Dad. I was really only dating him because I was trying to be rebellious anyway, and wanted to show my Dad that I could make my own decisions. I'd never thought Axl was as bad as I'd always heard."

"That's understandable." Zacky commented, realizing she was going to speak in a second.

"The first time he hit me, I decided against my better judgment that he probably didn't mean to, and I stayed with him after warning him that if he did it again, I'd leave," She said. "He didn't hit me again until about five months ago, when he was drunk and angry. So I left, like I promised, and I thought that was the end of it."

She sighed, since she hadn't really told anyone what had happened before, and Zacky held her against his chest. "It'll all be fine, Lil." He told her as she started falling asleep. "Everything will be alright."