Time Can Pass Slowly

Ring, ring, ring the phone echoed from the other room. I ignored it; the machine could pick it up because I sure as hell wasn't. Ring, ring ring, the phone rang again, insisting that I was to go and pick it up. I sighed as I set my guitar down carefully beside me before I stood up and walked to where the phone was.

"Hey Izzy it's Slash you gotta pick up or call me back right when you hear this because we need to talk to you." The answering machine got it, I listened to it. Slash had called? The last time Slash had called I didn't even remember he hadn't called me in years, that's right, a good ten years. From the other room I could hear my cell phone ringing again and again. I hurried to get it and picked up on the fifth and final ring.

"Hello?" I asked curiously, I never got calls on my cell phone either unless it was some god-damn telamarker.

"Hey Izzy its Duff." Was all I caught as Duff was speaking so fast that I couldn't distinguish one word from the other.

"Duff slow down, I can't understand you. Calm down, what's going on?" I asked as I made a fail attempt at trying to calm down.

"It's Steven." Duff said breathing heavily from the other end on the phone; I paused for a second, Steven? Was he talking about Steven Adler? The very same Steven Adler that had once been in Guns N' Roses, that we had been friends with, until the drugs took over.

"What about Steven?" I asked as I brushed a strand of black hair out of my face and put my guitar in its case, shutting it and locking it. The other side of the phone went quiet for a moment before I heard yelling in the background.

"Did you get a hold of him?" A voice I faintly recognized as Slash asked Duff.

"Yeah I got a hold of him." Duff replied quietly.

"What about Steven?" I asked again more insistently this time, had something bad happened to Steven? Or had him and Axl finally come to an agreement after all this time.

"Izzy where are you?" Duff asked, ignoring my question he sounded somewhat shaky, like something had happened and badly shaken up.

"At home, why?" I answered as I deleted the message Slash had left on the answering machine. "Why Duff, what the hell is going on?"I asked, struggling to control myself.

"Izzy we'll tell you later but right now you gotta get to the hospital here okay?" Duff said I could tell he was struggling to keep himself calm, like I was.

"Fine, but you better tell me what the hell is-" I started angrily but never had a chance to finish because Duff had already disconnected on me. "When I get down there someone better tell me what the hell is going on!" I muttered to myself as I shut my cell phone and grabbed my keys off the counter. I didn't even bother to lock my door as I left the house, Duff on the phone he sounded super worried. I had to turn on the radio to stop the thoughts from getting to far ahead, to stop them before I freaked out. Not that I wasn't already freaked out. Slash had been in the background which wasn't unusual as far as I knew Slash and Duff were still on good terms, like Axl and I were still on good terms. Cars slammed on their brakes as I ran a red.

"Shit." I muttered as the red light camera took a picture of my license plate, I'd be getting that ticket in the mail very soon. I honked my horn as a car came to a stop in front of me and I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting them. For fucks sake was LA full of complete idiot drivers? No, it was just full of drunk or high drivers I answered myself as I cranked my steering wheel right and turned into the hospital parking lot. After finally managing to find a place to part I rushed into the hospital, once again forgetting to lock my god-damn vehicle. Oh well it's a piece of shit either way. I thought to myself as I walked through the hospital doors to find Duff and Slash both sitting in the waiting room chairs looking very uncomfortable and very nervous at the same time.

"Izzy you came?" Duff said as he caught sight of me, he rushed up to me and looked up and down. "Wow, you've changed." He said, of course Duff was still the same old bassist with the punk rocker roots. The years had not been kind to him at all, his face was heavily creased and aged but he was wearing his old leathers, and his typical Ramones t-shirts which he had worn how many times on stage with Guns. Slash was a little slower to get up from his chair, but he hadn't changed either, or at least not that I could tell, he even wearing his top hat whether he still always wore it or whether it was purely coincidence that he happened to be wearing it now, after all the years.

"Of course, why wouldn't I come?" I said lightly, both Slash and Duff looked visibly upset, or at least to me they did. "So what's going on?" I asked looking from Duff to Slash and back to Duff again. His blue eyes clouded over as he chewed on his lip nervously.

"It's Steven." Slash spoke up for the first time, he didn't seem happy at all, his voice was the same though, hadn't aged a bit, in fact I wondered if he still had his nose ring in.

"What about Steven?" I asked him as he brushed his black hair out of his face, he wasn't wearing his aviators you could actually see his eyes.

"He's." Slash started then stopped as he took a breath

"He's comatose." Duff spat out the words like the poison they were, out of the corner of his eye I saw Slash wipe away a tear as my own eyes teared up.

"Wh-wh-how?" I asked quietly in disbelief it didn't seem possible that the happy go lucky drummer I knew was comatose, that he was no longer going to play drums. Just then I realized how much I missed the son of a bitch.

"It's from the drugs that he use to do, they finally caught up to him.” Slash explained as a big fat tear rolled down his cheek. Suddenly the waiting room was full of sniffles until we all heard a very loud voice, one that even though I hadn’t heard since 1991 I knew exactly who it was.

“No, there better be one good god-damn reason for this! If it’s because they fucking want me to get back with them they are fucking out of their minds!” Axl roared as he stormed into the waiting room looking from face to face. Slash turned his head and looked away, so he could wipe away the tears without Axl seeing them. “Well.” He finally spoke to us as he looked from me to Duff. “What the hell is going on!?” He snapped suddenly at us.

“What do you mean what the hell is going on Axl?!” Slash snapped at Axl.

“Exactly that, what is going on? Why the fuck am I in the waiting room of a hospital and why the hell are you here!” Axl roared back, people were starting to stare at us, not because they were yelling but because who we were, or more importantly who they were.

“I’m here because my childhood friend is god-damn comatose, your former drummer!” Slash snapped at him before he turned around and walked away, heading to where presumably Steven’s room. Duff watched as Slash walked away and walked after him, he gestured for me to follow and me being unsure of what to do. I followed him leaving Axl standing in the waiting room with a unreadable expression on his face.

Slash was walking at a furious pace, and we couldn’t keep up to him, he made a quick left and then a right and another left and we walked into Steven’s room Slash was already crying with tears dripping down his face and getting caught and soaking his messy black hair. Axl joined us a few minutes later and the doctor in his white coat joined us right after.

“Well you guys, I’m glad you’re all here but he is to be taken off life support in a few minutes.” The doctor said quietly. A tear rolled down my cheek as I struggled with my emotions, I could also see Axl and Duff struggling with their emotions, for a few moments nothing but our sniffles and the constant beep of the machine that was keeping Steven alive filled the room, the doctor pressed something and the beeping stopped, instead it became one never ending beep. I looked at Steven; he was goofy even in death with his blonde hair spilling everywhere, goofy but at peace. I realized that I would never see my friend again, that I would never hear his voice again or his laugh, the tears started to pour down my face as I started to howl, I wasn’t the only one who was crying, Slash and Axl had tears streaming down their faces and were hugging each other like no end and Duff was sitting in a chair next to Steven’s bed his face in his hands with muffled sobs escaping. I looked around the room at the four crying fifty year old men, the four ex best friends, the four out of the five that had once called themselves Guns N’ Roses.