Home Sweet Home (REVISED)

Chapter 22: Home Sweet Home

It was ‪two A.M.‬ Tommy was sleeping in his warm, cozy bed when someone knocked on the door. He sighed as he slowly crawled out. God, it was freezing. He stumbled through the darkness with his arms in front of him, not seeing anything but silhouettes of furniture and other stuff that was just lying around. Struggling to find the doorhandle, his eyes were slowly starting to get used to the darkness. In nothing else but his old, light grey boxers, which he had kept for years, he unlocked the door. Outside was a freezing Nikki Sixx. Tommy looked at Nikki with his eyes only half open. "Jesus, dude, do you know what time it is?", Tommy mumbled tiredly, his voice all deep and calm. He usually sounded like that just after he had woken up, and Nikki was getting used to it by now. "Sorry", Nikki replied, shivering, standing there in the shirt from last night and a pair of sweatpants. His usually soft black hair was everywhere, and you almost couldn't see his eyes because of it, just like the old days. "Come on in", Tommy yawned, still half asleep, "Make yourself at home". This time he didn't even ask Nikki why he showed up at his door ‪at two A.M.‬ Last time, he had managed to lock himself out of his apartment, and the time before that, he was so drunk that he didn't even know he was at Tommy's. Oh, well, Tommy might as well let him in, because if he didn't, Nikki would just stand outside and keep knocking until he did.

The year was 1987, which meant that a few years had gone by since the Mötley guys went to high school together, with Mick working at the hardware store on the other side of the road. Tommy and Nikki had gotten their own apartments, and had stayed "just friends" since that drunken incident at Vince's old mansion. Mick had gotten his own place as well, and Vince had moved into yet another mansion, and was no longer depending on his parents' money.

Nikki walked into Tommy's small apartment, walking past the blueish grey two-person sofa, and straight down the narrow hallway to the only bedroom with a lousy worn-out double bed. Not surprised at all that Nikki would choose the bed, Tommy just walked straight to the old couch and spent the rest of the night there. No way in hell he'd share the bed with Nikki. Not after all they've been through. After the breakup that happened years ago, Tommy wouldn't even dream of coming close to Nikki, scared of what would happen if they got back together.

Next morning, Tommy was the first one of those two to wake up. He rubbed his eyes as he forced himself out of the couch. His back hurt, because if you lied down on that couch, you could feel the springs through the fabric. Well, you could anyway, sitting, lying, whatever. Tommy dragged his tired body into the kitchen, and opened the door to his tiny little fridge. His eyes trailed around the shelves, searching for milk. Orange-juice, tomato soup from two days ago, cheap beer... Hmm... Orange-juice should do it. Now cornflakes were ingredient number two. Tommy opened one of the cabinets, and brought out two boxes with different types of cereal. Coco Pops or Cheerios? Coco Pops... Cheerios... None of them really matched with orange-juice anyways. "What's for breakfast?", he heard behind him. That was Nikki, yawning as he walked into the kitchen. "Pizza", Tommy answered, deciding that Coco Pops wouldn't satisfy his needs this morning. He was still talking in the tired deep voice of his. Nikki didn't even have to pay attention to know what the next question was. "Pepperoni?", Tommy asked. "Mhm". Tommy dialed the number; he didn't even have to look at the menu, he remembered it better than his own phone number. "I'm borrowing your shower", Nikki said, walking back out of the kitchen. Tommy wasn't paying attention; he was waiting for the pizza place to pick up the phone. "Yeah, sure..." He almost choked when he saw Nikki undressing in the middle of the livingroom. Tommy lifted the phone off his ear. "Dude, I don't know what the hell you're expecting of me, but –" Nikki looked at him as if he was a complete idiot. "I'm borrowing your shower", he repeated. "Oh".