Home Sweet Home (REVISED)

Chapter 23

One hour later, Nikki finally came out of the bathroom. With Tommy's blow dryer in one hand, and a towel in the other, humming "Girls, Girls, Girls", he walked into the livingroom as if everything was just fine. "Dude, you're not for real", Tommy sighed. Nikki just shrugged; he used to spend a lot more than an hour in the bathroom. Now he was just being nice, considering he was a guest here. The two of them had thirty minutes left before they were meeting the rest of the Crüe for rehearsal, and it was a one hour drive there. Tommy figured that Nikki was either still drunk from last night, or having a hangover, so either way he wouldn't be able to drive them to rehearsal. Also, Tommy hadn't gotten his drivers-license yet, so they had to take the bus.

In that very long hour, Tommy learned that Nikki owned absolutely no patience. He sounded like a little girl as he sat next to Tommy with his head against the window, whining about how long this trip was. "Are we there yet?" "No" "How about now?" "No". Oh, well, at least he got that one figured out, Nikki was drunk after all. At that time, not a single day would pass by without Nikki getting drunk. Quite a bummer for Tommy, who was hungover, and had to listen to Nikki's whining the entire trip. Anyway, they were thirty minutes late when they arrived, to no surprise whatsoever. "Where the hell have you two dope-heads been?", Vince barked as the two of them walked in the door, looking down at his arm. There wasn't really a watch on it; he just liked pretending that it was. "Nikki took a shower", Tommy replied, as if that explained everything. "Ohh..."

"OK then, let's start with Ten Seconds to Love", Vince said, grabbing the mic. Mick nodded in respond, as he started riffing the intro. Tommy and Nikki joined in, and Vince started singing, sounding all raspy. "Wait; wait a second, guys", Vince interrupted, placing the microphone back on its stand, "It sounds like someone's stepping on my fucking balls here". The three others chuckled as Vince went to get some water. As he stood there pouring about a gallon of water down his throat, they heard a knock on the door. Mick put down his guitar, and went to open. Pushing the door open, he was surprised to see Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses standing outside. "Hey, who brought this whining cat?", he joked as he saw the redhead standing there in his tight leather pants and a blue bandana. Axl, of course, took it all seriously and tried to stare him down. It looked rather pathetic. "Woah, Looks That Kill, man", Nikki laughed, seeing the entire scene from his rehearsal spot. "It's for you, Vince", Mick called, keeping the door open as he walked back to his guitar. Vince put his bottle down and dried his face with his wrist as he came walking back to see who it was. Guns N' Roses had just released their first studio album, Appetite for Destruction, and now, their singer, Axl Rose, had somehow managed to get to Mötley's rehearsal spot. "Hey, Axl, right?", Vince asked, stretching his hand out to Axl. "Yeah", Axl responded, grabbing Vince's hand. "Nice to meet you, man", Vince added. Tommy put his drumsticks down, and went down from his drum kit, walking up to the two others. "Admire your work, dude", he said, "Paradise City is fucking rad". Axl chuckled a little. "Thanks", he said, shaking Tommy's hand.