Take Me to Your Heart

You Know I'm A Dreamer
But My Heart's Of Gold
I Had To Run Away High
So I Wouldn't Come Home Low

My window creaked as I opened it. The cool night air rushed in and nothing was heard except for the whispering of the wind. Downstairs I could hear the weather network on the TV. This was it; I was finally leaving this house, my home. I looked around my room; it had been basically cleaned out. Everything I needed was in my little knapsack. On the wall there were faded newspaper clippings of bands, of The Beatles breaking up, of Jimi Hendrix on stage performing. I had two pairs of jeans in my bag and a few band t-shirts, money I had taken from my mother, my lighter, a few smokes, my hair brush and that was it. It was by no means late outside maybe ten or eleven o’clock at the latest. The streetlights were just starting to turn on casting an eerie glow on the street.

“Well this is it.” I muttered to the dead silence of the night. I dropped the bag out the window and it hit the ground with a dull thump. I froze for a moment, praying that my unsuspecting mother hadn’t heard it. For all she knew her sixteen year-old rebellious son was in bed sleeping. Not crawling out the window, in a desperate attempt to get away from her and her addictions. I waited a few minutes to see if my mom would come to check on me, but nothing happened. So I clambered out of my window jumped onto the nearby tree branch and scurried down it like a squirrel. I picked my bag up off the grass where it had landed, and slung it over my back. “So long bitch.” I said as I raised my finger to my mother and her now addictions house and with that I began to walk and I never looked back.

I walked down the street and took the first right careful to avoid any other people that happened to be out at this time. I stopped at the third house in; it was completely black and looked like ghastly figure. I picked up a smooth stone that was lying on the ground nearby and nearly through it at the house before I rethought it. It wasn’t very late but it was late enough that Katie, my girlfriend for the past six and a half months would probably be asleep. I debated about waking her for a few more minutes before deciding against it. I dropped the rock on the grass before I continued on my way, leaving my past behind me.

I walked a few more blocks to the bus station where I got on the first bus to LA, as the bus departed I stared out the window watching the places where I had grown up slowly disappear. There were a few other people on the bus, an elderly couple that was holding hands, a young girl no-more than twenty holding a tightly wrapped bundle and another teenage boy who must’ve been my age maybe a little older. Both the couple and the woman gave me funny looks, as though they didn’t see the other teenage boy witting across from me. He glanced at me a few times before he finally spoke.

“You running away from home?” He asked me, eyeing my backpack through his long black hair.

“Yep, and I take it you are too?” I replied as I noticed the guitar case that was lying beside him. “You play guitar?” I asked pointing at the guitar case.

“As far away from home as possible,” he said with a grin. “It’s a bass not a guitar.” I nodded my head slowly. “You headed to LA too?” He asked me.

“Yeah, I’m gonna see if I can get a band together or something.” I answered, his eyes brightened when I said the word band and he gave me a look.

“You play?” He asked as he looked around probably for like a case or something.

“Not guitar, drums.” I answered; he nodded his head as if that would explain the absence of a case.

Just When Things Went Right
It Doesn't Mean They Were
Always Wrong

“Well it looks like we’re going to be stuck on this bus for a while.” He said as he looked around, we were hardly out of the town, so he was right, we were gonna be on that bus for a long long time. “I’m Nikki, Nikki Sixx.” He said out of the blue offering his hand out to me.

“Tommy, Tommy Lee.” I replied shaking his hand with a smile. Me and Nikki talked the rest of the bus ride, eventually it came to the point where we decided to stick together in LA and maybe start a band together.

"So have you written anything?" I asked Nikki three weeks later as we sat on the cold floor of the apartment we were renting. It was a cheap dingy piece of shit to be honest and we were way overdue on our rent but the people we were renting it from hadn't complained so oh well.

My Hearts Like An Open Book
For The Whole World To Read

"Dude, I've been waiting for you to ask that for a long time." Nikki replied as his Cheshire cat grin spread across his face.

Sometimes Nothing-
Keeps Me Together
At The Seams

"Guys, what are you doing in there! I hope you're not fucking with my guitar!" Bob, I mean Mick yelled at us. He didn't sound happy exactly but that might be because we had already drank all his vodka that he had bought yesterday and it was only ten in the morning. In my defence I had NO idea it belonged to Mick! Mick Mars was our guitarist we had or more Nikki had first found him at the liquor store. Then a few weeks later we saw an ad in the paper for a guitarist, well it didn't take very long for us to give him a call and soon after that it was the three of us, all we needed was a singer. That's when I thought of it, Vince.

"We still need a singer right?" I asked Nikki who gave me a look as if I was stupid or something.

"Yeah." He said as he scribbled something down on a sheet of paper before pausing a moment to scratch his forehead.

"I think I know where we can find one." I said with a smirk making Nikki look at me.

"Where?" He asked as he put down his pencil and stood up, brushing the dust off of his clothes.

"There that's him." I said pointing out a blonde figure that was twirling around onstage, a
mic in his hand.

"That's him?" Mick asked as he stood on his toes, trying to get a better look at Vince. He glanced at me who nodded.

"Well he doesn't seem that bad." Nikki said glancing at him as he screamed into the mic. "Actually he's pretty good." He added after a moment, Mick nodded his head in agreement.

"You're right he's pretty good." Mick said, "now here's the hard part, how do we get him to quit this band and join ours?" He asked as me and Nikki looked at each other.

"That's a good question." Nikki said as they finished their song and walked off stage.

"Okay, well here it goes." I replied as I headed to where I knew Vince and the rest of his band would come out. Mick and Nikki exchanged a look before walking over and joined me. Within moments Vince and the rest of their band walked out Vince leading and winking at the ladies. He stopped when he saw me.

"Tommy? What are you doing here? Came to see the show?" He asked me as his band mates walked by, giving me glares.

"Well that's part of the reason why I'm here but actually Vince we were thinking that maybe you should join our band instead." I said slowly, this was going to be interesting because I had no idea how he would react.

“You’ve got to be joking.” Vince said as he flat out laughed at us. Mick and Nikki exchanged a look before Nikki opened his mouth and stepped forward.

“Actually no we’re dead serious. You’ve got a good voice, a great one actually but you’re band.” Nikki stopped to shake his head. “There you’re problem, you guys don’t click. Just watching you perform tonight I can’t say that you’ll have any luck in making it but if you join OUR band I can guarantee that we’ll make it.” I always admired the way Nikki smooth-talked Vince into joining our band. He didn’t cave then but the next night we went to go and see him again. He saw us and caved and that was it. The brilliant story of how our band was formed, Motley Crue and what a motley fucking crew we were.

“Hey Tommy you got any smokes?” Nikki asked me a full five years later; I turned to him and gave him a look.

“Since when the hell do you smoke?” I asked him, “and no I don’t have any smokes.” I added after.

You Know That I Seem
To Make Romantic Dreams
Up In Lights, Fallin' Off
The Silver Screen

“I’m talking about smokes for me idiot, I’m talking about smokes for Michelle!” He replied, right Michelle. His stupid bimbo girlfriend, that I was fucking, come to think of it Vince was probably fucking her too.

“No I don’t have any smokes for you or for Michelle.” I replied curtly as Nikki rolled his eyes.

“Oh really? Then what’s in that bag?” He asked, pointing to the bag that I had brought with me when I had left home, the bag that I had brought smokes in for who knows why.

“I duno. I haven’t opened that bag since last year.” I replied as I ran a hand through my black hair.

“Oh okay.” Nikki said before he turned around and left, probably to go and harass either Vince or Mick for smokes, one of them was bound to have some. I glanced at my bag, I hadn’t opened it for over a year and that was only because I remembered that I had money in there now that I thought about it I wasn’t sure what else I had in there.

“Well I’ve got nothing to lose.” I muttered to myself as I crawled off my bed and went to go and get my black backpack that was lying on the floor. “What the hell did I pack in here?” I wondered out loud as I lifted the backpack off the ground, it wasn’t heavy but it wasn’t light either. I sat down on the floor and unzipped it before pulling the contents of it out. A few smokes, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a lighter, a switchblade and a piece of paper? I pulled out the little sheet of paper that was folded in half before unfolding it. On the front of it was a picture, a picture that I recognized very well, it was a picture of Katie and me in front of her house kissing and the way that we were kissing wasn’t exactly polite. I stared at the picture, remembering Katie, her black hair, her dark brown eyes, her smell everything. I hadn’t thought of Katie once since I left, and that made me feel guilty, horribly guilty, she was probably over me by now though. I flipped the picture over, seeing if there was a date of when it was taken or a caption. There wasn’t anything interesting on the back except for. . .

“Nikki!” I yelled as I realized what was on the back, piano music, piano music that I use to play for Katie all the time, it was maybe a thirty second song since I had never really finished writing it. It was just piano music, no lyrics, no beats, no guitar, strictly piano music. “Sixx!” I yelled again, as I stood up with the picture in my hand.

“What do you want?” Nikki asked as he walked in, his black hair half flat because it was soaking wet and the other half sticking up everywhere because it was dry. “This better be something good, I was gonna take a shower.” He said glaring at me, I held back a laugh, it wasn’t everyday that you saw Nikki like this.

“I found piano music.” I said excitedly as Nikki groaned.

“That’s it, that’s why you needed to see me? Because you found fucking piano music?” He asked sounding angry as hell; I nodded my head as I smiled at him.

“Yep.” I said as Nikki shook his head and ran his fingers through his wet black hair.

“Well let’s see now that I’m here.” He said muttering profanities under his breath as he took the paper out of my hand; he hummed it under his breath before looking at me. “You wrote
this?” He asked as I nodded my head, “I think we have the beginning and the ending to something I’ve been writing, I just haven’t been able to write the piano music.” He said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few sheets of crinkled paper, some with lyrics others with notes.

“Band meeting” Nikki roared at the top of his lungs, from the other room I heard Mick sigh before there was a clinking sound and footsteps on the carpet. We waited a few moments for Vince to show up who did as he threw on a shirt.

“Nice hair Sixx.” Vince observed as he tried not to laugh, obviously I wasn’t the only one who found Nikki’s new hairdo amusing.

“Why are we here?” Mick asked quietly as he looked around, that was one thing with Mick he was always quiet, like he was losing his voice or something like that.

“I,” Nikki started as I glared at him. “I mean we wrote some new material.” He corrected as Vince groaned, asshole.

“Just take a look.” I urged Vince who rolled his eyes. “It’s actually not half bad.” I added earning a glare from Nikki. Mick didn’t say anything as he looked at the guitar chords and the lyrics no complaints no compliments the usual Mick.

“I think we should change a line of it.” Vince said after a moment as he looked at the lyrics, Nikki rolled his eyes, Vince did this all the time he suggested changing everything because it was Prince Vince.

“What line?” Nikki said as he looked at the lyrics over Vince’s shoulder. Vince explained the lyrics that he thought should be changed which was just something minor and after a few seconds of debating it Nikki agreed.

“I'm on my way just set me free! Home sweet home!” Vince sang a few months later onstage as the guitars and drums faded and I turned to play my part on the piano, as I turned a familiar face caught my eye in the crowd. I focused on the piano and the part I was going to play hitting the notes like I was supposed too.

I'm On My Way
Well, I'm On My Way
Home Sweet Home
Tonight Tonight
I'm On My Way
Just Set Me Free
Home Sweet Home