Book 4: My Hands Are Tied (Axl Rose FanFic)

Ch. 12: I Wanna' Be Your Boyfriend

"We call him the Ayatollah. With Axl, it's always been his way or the highway." -Slash

We were late for the signing.

It was my fault, of course.

Thankfully, none of the guys said anything about it. At least, not directly to my face. I know they had their grievances, but the thing was, I just didn't care. I had bigger things on my mind.

While the guys were chattering away with Tom and closing the deal over some beers, I was still trapped in my own head. Despite the blasting rock music over the speakers and the giggling girls that kept gravitating towards our table, I was outwardly vacant but inwardly contemplating.

It had taken a few days, but I think that I had finally decided on a plan of action for Bernie. It was a risky choice to be sure, but I felt it was my best option. My plan, you ask? Simple: do absolutely nothing.

The more I thought about it, the more it just seemed to make the most sense to me. I already knew that she was like me, which meant that anything she was going to do in life had to be done strictly on her own terms. She had to make up her mind, make a decision for herself, and there was absolutely nothing anyone else could do to change that.

I hadn't shared my decision with Brett. I know he had wanted me to save her from herself, but I'd already deduced that two drowning souls couldn't save one another. I couldn't be an anchor for her, I couldn't be her Izzy, but I could at least empathize. I could at least make sure neither of us drowned alone.

With that in mind, I didn't tell Brett my plan, or else he might not help me get closer to Bernie anymore. Instead, I was fine to simply let him infer that I was still on his side, still planning on forcing her hand until she finally saw the light.

And so, with Brett still on my side, it was easy for me to track down Bernie's home address and phone number. And that's exactly how I eventually found myself on a quiet Sunday morning outside of a tall apartment building, punching her phone number into the metallic buttons of the pay phone just across the street.

As the phone rang on the other end of the line, I glanced around to make sure the coast was clear. Not that I really thought Brett would be shadowing me, but I'd always been somewhat paranoid, and the feeling only seemed to get worse with age.

But, of course, there was nobody. Nobody I knew anyway. Happy couples window shopped along the street, and a few homeless people dotted the darker corners of the brick buildings, but that was about it. Nobody cared that I was there, nobody here to foil my plans.

I realized I'd been listening to the phone ring for at least a solid minute now. I was about to give up when one of the rings was abruptly cut off and replaced with a soft "Hello?"

I had to stop to catch my breath. Everything I'd been thinking up until now suddenly scattered to the winds and flew right out through the fan at the top of the phone booth. I scrambled to try and catch a few of those thoughts before they completely blew away.

"Hi Bernie, it's me." Would she even know who 'me' was? I cleared my throat nervously. "It's Axl."

"I know it's you," she said bluntly. "I know your voice."

I didn't even think she had known my name, so it made me even more ecstatic to know that she recognized my voice right away. My heart did some weird flip-flop thing in my chest. "Can I come up?"

She paused a beat. "'Come up'?"

"Up to your apartment. I'm across the street."

She heaved a long sigh, which was followed by another moment of silence. "You're not going to change my mind, Axl."