Misprinted Lies (Alice in Chains/Bruno Mars)

Accidents Can Happen

I was working on a new track for Travie in September. Work was definitely picking up. Even through the massive studio headphones, I heard yelling. I spun around in the chair and put the headphones around my neck.

"Bruno stop being so damn stupid," Travie yelled, following Bruno in the room. "You just started your career and now you're goin' and gettin' arrested. You worked so hard to get here and now you're passing out with a bag of drugs in a bathroom stall."

"It was Vegas. It got out of hand. I didn't know what I was doing. Besides, I don't think you should be talkin,' Travie."

Travie threw his hands up, sighed and left. Bruno paced the room back and forth, holding the back of his neck with his hand. He took a seat on the couch with his hands in his head. I just stared at him because Travie left and I needed him to work on the song. Bruno peeked out of his fingers for a second.

"What? Are you gonna yell at me too?" He asked with a whole lot of attitude.

"Nope."

"Well you should. Ugh. This is so embarrassing. I'm such a fucking idiot," he said, getting very animated, pulling on his hair.

"No you're not Bruno. You just made a mistake. It was an accident. As long as you learn from it, you'll be fine. Just don't do it again."

He let go of his hair slowly, in a little bit of shock, smiling a little bit. His phone rang and I went back to work on another song. Within a couple of minutes, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I took the headphones down again and turned around.

"Thanks, Lily," Bruno said, patting my shoulder.

"Have fun on tour, Bruno. You don't wanna screw up your career, trust me."

Yelling at him wouldn't have done any good. Jerry made that mistake many, many times and it always turned into a disaster.

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Me and the Hooligans, what I call my band, finished the first leg of my first headlining tour. It was great. Now we were on a quick break for the holidays. It was so nice coming back to Hawaii playing in an arena so big where I used to see shows. Elvis used to play in that arena. A couple of days after Christmas I flew back to L.A. to see some friends. I wanted to see how Patriot was doing; Travie was crazy about his new song Lily did with him.

Ryan was there. I talked with him for a little. Opening for One Republic, even for a little while, was great exposure and we got along so well. "Lily here?" I asked, looking around.

"No she's home, taking a break. She got a lot of artists in here when I was gone. I literally had to force her to stay home."

I went to the bathroom before leaving. I saw something shining a little bit in between the floor and the wall. It was a silver-chained necklace, blending into the color of the floor.

"Hey Ryan," I said, holding up the necklace. "Is this the necklace Lily was looking for?"

His eyes widened. "Yeah, wow. I can't believe you found it."

"I'll drop it off."

I put it in my pocket and drove to her house, parking under the carport with rotting posts. It was still a scary neighborhood in the daylight. I heard an acoustic guitar playing from the outside. Lily opened the door in flannel pajamas and a sweatshirt, a bit surprised to see me.

"Oh hey Bruno. What's up?"

She opened the door and waved me to come in. It was freezing in her house.

"Well I was over at Patriot today and I found," I said, pulling the necklace out of my pocket and smirking, "this. I believe it's yours."

Her eyes got wide and her jaw dropped. She let out a little squeal. "It is! Thank you!" she exclaimed, hugging me. I was a little startled and it showed.

"Sorry," she said, embarrassed, taking the necklace out of my hand.

"Hey don't worry about it."

Lily lifted her hair and put it up in a ponytail. As I watched her put the necklace around her neck, I noticed a pretty nasty looking scar. I averted my eyes when she turned around.

Her whole demeanor changed once she put it on. This plain necklace gave her so much spirit.

Lily sat down on the couch and picked up the guitar again. I sat on the armrest on the opposite side. She didn't play though; we just started talking a little bit. I talked about the tour and she talked about the stuff she was doing.

She looked down at her necklace. "This necklace was my dad's. He gave it to me before he passed away."

No wonder why it had so much meaning. Then, she showed me a picture of her and Layne when she was younger, at the beach.

"Awww, that's cute. Where did you go over the holidays?"

"Nowhere, really. I just kind of hung out here," she shrugged her shoulders.

I just smiled at her. This would have been the perfect time to ask about what happened and why she was living here, basically in the ghetto part of the ghetto. I didn't ask though. She looked like the spirit got sucked out of her. I didn't know what words to use and didn't want to use the wrong ones. Lily knew exactly what to say when I screwed up with the cocaine; she had so much compassion, which I still needed to work on.