Used to Love 'Em

Meanwhile in Indianapolis.

Axl Rose was the first one off the plane, he had made sure to grab the seat nearest to the door, and even paid extra so that he was alone. The last thing he needed was to sit next to some annoying fan that would pester him about everything from Guns N’ Roses history, to his personal life, to a Guns N’ Roses reunion. No, he really did not need that, not in the least, he would go mad, either that or he would snap at the fan. Neither of which he particularly wanted to happen. He made it out of the plane a good thirty seconds before anyone else had even moved, that was even better for him. He hadn’t wanted to come to Indianapolis; in fact he tried more or less to avoid the entire state of Indiana. He was there for one reason and one reason only, that was simply so that he could lay a bouquet of flowers on his mother’s grave. It was kind of a silly reason, to fly three hours and then drive another hour simply to lay flowers on a grave. Especially because it was his mother of all people, he hadn’t missed a year since she had passed away, and was not planning too, after all they may not have gotten along very well or at all but she was still his mother after all. He hadn’t brought any luggage, he did not have a need too, he was simply there to place flowers on a grave and then leave. He was not going to be staying the night; it would just be a quick quick visit. He strolled past the many people who were waiting for their luggage and looked rather angry as he walked on by and passed the security gates with a quick nod from the guards. He quickly left the airport and went to the nearest cab, now he just had a hour long drive to the middle of no-where to look forward too.

Axl was out of the LA airport in half an hour, even though he had been the last one out of the plane he was nearly positive that he was the first one of out the building, he hadn’t stopped for long, Only for a quick bathroom trip to put on his contacts among other things and then he was off, out of the airport and into a taxi. As he left the parking lot he saw Slash’s car, the one that he had driven to the airport not long ago, he could feel the keys in his pocket, he still needed to get rid of those rather badly in fact. He really did need to cover his tracks up, after all he certainly did not want the police or anyone else to come knocking on his door, that was nearly a recipe for disaster. He paid for the taxi as soon as he got home and watched as it drove away before he went up to his house and dug the bronze colored key out of his pocket before he put it rather forcefully into the lock and twisted it to the left hearing as it clicked into place and unlocked itself as the door swung open, he was home.

From downstairs Slash awoke with a start. He had heard it, no doubt about it, he had heard the door open. He had thought he heard it earlier, holding his breath as the ancient house creaked before taking a deep breath and realizing that it had all been a figment of his currently over reactive imagination. Maybe this was it, just another figment of his imagination. Yes that was it, he was just imagining it, and Axl was not back. Slash had just lost his mind. He was hearing things because he was already getting the symptoms of Posttramic Stress Disorder. It might have also been because he was hungry, starving sounded more accurate, just at the mere thought of food his stomach was growling hungrily. He tried not to think about food, or the fact that Axl was or could possibly be back, of course naturally the more he tried not to think about it the more he ended up thinking about it, which lead him to where he was at the moment, cowering and trying to control his shaking body and growling stomach. He listened intently for a moment as what sounded like footsteps echoed from overhead, they sounded like footsteps but it was possibly that they weren’t. The house did have a tendency to creek a lot, something that Slash had learned as the hours passed and the house had let out an occasional creek which sent Slash cowering into the corner, shaking and praying that Axl was not home yet. He was not one who believed in God, or even a presence of a super being but this was an exception, he was going to pray to every fucking one of them if it meant that he had a better chance of living through this, or starving to death before Axl got back.

Upstairs he could hear the television as it was turned on to the sports channel. That tells you how loud Axl had his fucking television going that also meant the thing that Slash dreaded the most, Axl was back, and he was probably pissed off. Slash without thinking moved closer to the wall, as he waited fearfully for Axl to come down.

Axl sat down in front of the television, then decided to adjust himself into a more comfortable position, stretching out his entire body and laying on the couch. He was comfortable at last. Tired, hungry and you could probably smell him coming a mile away but he was comfortable. He tried to focus on the game that was being featured on the television. Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins, the Bears seemed to be winning, not that Axl cared. He couldn’t even read the score his eyes were starting to close and he was starting to block out the surrounding noise, and before you even knew it, he was fast asleep.

“Here you go and thanks for the ride.” Axl said as he handed the driver a mittful of bills, waving his hand as the driver began to look for the right amount of change. “Just keep it all, it is not worth the hassle.” He told the driver who nodded his head before thanking him and starting to drive away. Axl looked ahead, there in front of him was the graveyard, and over to the left was a little flower shop. The same shop he always went too, it was like clockwork. He waited patiently on the side of the street as cars passed him, he walked once it was clear and whistled a tune as he played with the keys in his pocket idly taking them out and spinning the keys around on a finger. He looked around, this was indeed Lafayette though if he hadn’t been back to visit his dear old mother occasionally he would not have guessed.

The town had grown vastly since he had grown up and left, no longer was it the tiny little town that kids roamed freely around in the streets, it was huge. Graffiti now covered the sides of buildings, scrawled on with spray paint that hadn’t been mixed properly. Many of the buildings that had been open when he was born were now shut down and boarded up deemed unsafe by the government of Lafayette. The buildings that he and Izzy had snuck around as children had long since been torn down, and the old man they had always pestered had long since been buried, but still through all the changes that had happened over the many years in Lafayette one thing had never changed, and never would change. It was still Axl’s hometown.

He pulled open the door to the little flower shop with ease, it stood out quite a bit from the other buildings on the street, it was painted a bright green that never seemed to fade over the long dreary painful years that had passed. It always seemed to stay in tip-top shape as if the owner of the store cared about that much. The other buildings on the street were already becoming worn down; the paint had faded from the nice colors that had stood out to the bleak colors that seemed to all blend together. He walked into the store the chimes merrily ringing throughout the store calling out to the workers “Someone’s here a costumer.” As the door shut behind him Axl scanned the flower shop. It looked much smaller from the outside then it did now. Axl sniffed the air, it smelt like roses almost, but a bit sweeter, he sneezed not being able to hold it in any longer, it echoed throughout the seemingly empty store. He seemed to be the only one in there, or at least the only costumer.

“Hello there, can I help you perhaps? Anything specific that you are looking for?” A lovely voice asked as Axl turned around looking at the door where he had come in, a older woman with long black hair was standing there, she was tall and quite beautiful. She would easily be able to pass for twenty, maybe even younger if it was not for the gray that was speckled throughout her otherwise dark hair and the lines that seemed to pinch her cheeks, it was only then that Axl realized how old the woman was. She was wearing what seemed to look like a black dress, reminding Axl of the Addams Family television show, the woman, the mother, what was her name? Morticia? Yes that was it, Morticia that was who she reminded Axl of, the long black dress, the pale skin and then the black hair with speckles of gray, almost as if someone had shaken a gray paintbrush over the woman’s head.

“Sure, I just need some flowers to put on my mother’s grave, and I’m not really looking for anything in particular.” Axl said trying to keep his eyebrows in the same position that they were already in. She looked quite strange, and was that a low cut top that she was wearing under that poncho thing that seemed to be made of loose fibre? It sure looked like it. He tried to keep his eyes focused on her face and not well....her chest, and it seemed to be working rather well.

“Your mother’s grave?” The woman repeated slowly as she upturned a eyebrow and began to move towards him, almost like some dark seduction goddess. Get a hold of yourself Axl, and stop gaping as if you’ve never seen a woman before Axl scolded himself before returning his attention to the woman in front of him, she was quite tall, and by quite tall he meant almost as tall as himself, if not taller, she was still a few feet away, maybe she was taller than Axl.

“Yes my mother’s grave, she passed away a number of years ago and it would be her birthday today, the big eight zero.” Axl told her as the woman nodded sympathetically before touching his arm with her long painted nails, they were a deep dark red, not quite a burgundy just a touch brighter than that. Funny, his mom had always referred to burgundy as “the most horrific color known to mankind” that was one of the main reasons that Axl had taken to wearing a burgundy, or red bandana, the other reason being it drove his stepfather mad.

“I am sorry for your loss.” The lady said in a soft tone as she moved her hand up Axl’s arm to his bicep, squeezing it ever so slightly.

“It is fine; she’s been gone for over a decade now.” Axl replied as he met the woman’s dark brown eyes with his own. She patted his shoulder.

“It does not matter how long she has been gone the pain never does really go away.” The woman told him softly, almost entrancing him with her voice.

“I guess,” Axl replied after a moment, before he stepped away from the woman, yes she was good looking but that did not mean that she needed to be so close to him, or vice versa. “But I need some flowers, preferably a nicer bunch.” He said as he cleared his throat, remembering the real reason he had come into the store, and it was not to talk to some lady.

“Of course,” she had as her eyes widened, ah so she too had forgotten the real reason she was there, to help customers, not to talk to them. “Now since you are not looking for anything specific that means there’s a lot of flowers you can pick some, and I am assuming you want a bouquet?” She paused to look at Axl who nodded his head and then continued on. “Since it is a close family member and it is going to be outdoors maybe something like this? What do you think?” She showed him what looked like a fairly big bouquet of dark blue and white flowers, it had a few lighter shades of blue with it as well, little blue bells were scattered throughout the bouquet, it looked okay, but it just was not what Axl was looking for.

“That’s not really what I had in mind, maybe something with brighter colors, my mother was quite a fan of the lighter, spring-like colors.” Axl lied, his mother hated anything brighter then black, so she would just love the colors that Axl picked up, she would be spitting on from heaven that was practically guaranteed.

“Of course, we have some with the brighter colors over here.” The lady said adopting a even more business like tone, probably trying to get rid of the less businesslike approach that had happened earlier. She must have been a employee because if she had owned the store, she would not have cared at all. She took a few steps to the left where the brighter colors that Axl had seen earlier, and had headed for before she had stopped him to talk.

She showed him a few of the brighter ones that were different shades of orange and white. Lovely, his mother would just adore that, he let out a smirk, he could practically hear his mother screaming at him from heaven, or hell, that was probably where she had ended up.

“That’s the one I think she’d adore, she loved red.” Axl said as he spotted the furthest one, it had bright red and pink flowers and then a few white ones scattered about, perfect, it just screamed at Axl to buy it.

“Of course, those flowers are quite stunning if you ask me; they also stand out quite a bit.” The lady said as she turned on her heel and walked back to the cash register as Axl picked up the bouquet and walked back already feeling around for his wallet, which happened to be in his left pocket, like it always was.

“Indeed they do stand out, I think that’s something my mother would appreciate if she was here.” Axl said with a chuckle as he stepped up to the cash register and the woman behind the cash register punched a few numbers in. Oh Axl’s mother would have beaten him if she was around still, she liked to stand out as much as a mouse loved to be hunted by a cat.

“Your mother does sound like quite the lady.” The woman mused as the cash register made a sound before opening. “It is nineteen ninety-five for that and is that everything for you?” She asked as Axl pulled out a twenty dollar bill from his wallet.

“Yep, that’s everything I need.” He said as he handed the twenty dollar bill over to the lady, she took it with her long crooked fingers as Axl slid his black wallet back into his pocket which also contained his cell phone. He had to replace both of those, his wallet and his cell phone, they had both been stolen, or he had simply misplaced them, which could have happened, after all he was not the best with remembering where he had put things, but after a day or so of looking everywhere he could think of he had decided to repurchase both objects, which was harder then he thought it would be. A new phone and wallet? Those things were simple enough to replace it was the things that lay inside that had taken quite the toll on Axl. He had to get a new drivers license, new credit cards, make sure to change his pin since he had it written down on a slip in his wallet, he had lost a hundred dollars, to Axl that was nothing, he could afford to lose that much, he had replaced all his credit cards, his bank cards, his driver’s license, his pin. Those were the things that were replaceable, he had lost other things, things that weren’t replaceable, like the scraps of paper he had stored in there, the scraps of paper that had parts, or entire songs written down on. He would not be able to replace those things, like all the phone numbers in his phone, he was not able to replace them, a few he had managed to get back, like Mike’s phone number and anyone else who had called him on his home phone. He had lost business information on his cell phone, such as when they were planning to start rehearsing again, and get into shape so they could tour again.

“Have a good day Mr Rose.” The lady said as she handed Axl his five cent piece coin back, she had surprised him by recognizing him and saying his name. Normally people avoided saying his name, as if he was going to snap of something if anyone said his name. He highly doubted that, he took the bouquet of flowers off the counter and nodded his head.

“Have a good day.” He replied as she gave him a sinister smile as he turned around, the flowers in hand and left the brightly colored shop and went back to the dreary streets of Lafayette.

He left the store and shut the green door and headed towards the cemetery which held his mother’s grave. He walked down the street, passing no-one on the streets, they were desolate. Empty, void of life, some of the buildings that Axl passed seemed as though they had never been entered let, alone there was anyone in there now. He reached the corner as a car passed him then waited for a minute or two before it turned and proceeded down the road. He waited for a minute as cars began to pass him, he waited until people stopped for him before he crossed making sure to just give a little wave to the drivers as he hurried across the road and into the cemetery. To get into the cemetery was one thing, to find his mother’s grace was a completely different thing. He went straight passed the army graves, the white crosses that were in rows and rows and then to the regular graves, the ones that people had paid for to bury their loved ones. Up ahead he could see the little row of bushes, if his memory served him correctly, which it often failed to do. As he approached the trees he looked around, maybe the flowers that he had put on her grave on mother’s day. He stopped once he thought that he had gone too far and looked around before heading to his right and going down the nearest row of graves. It seemed familiar, and Axl recognized a few names on the graves, he did not know the people but he recognized the names. He briefly wondered who they were and if they had any other relatives left, or people that came to visit, he shook the thought from his head and continued down the row until he saw it, his mother’s grave, she had been gone fifteen years now, or a little more if he was going to be specific about it, he bent down and placed the flowers on the gray faded gravestone and stood there awkwardly for a moment unsure of what to do and what to say. It was like her funeral, when the day had come it had been sunny and bright outside, there hadn’t been a whole lot of people, Axl, his sister, there stepfather along with a few other people. Axl had stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to say, not knowing who to talk to who to avoid, what to feel, he knew nothing, why? Simple because he had left the second he could, he had left Lafayette as soon as he could and gone to LA, he had made a living the second he could, that was something that his parents had never wanted for him. They wanted him to stay in Lafayette and earn a living like some respectable man, he had left the second it was possible and he had become famous, he had done what he wanted too and hadn’t bothered to stay in contact with anyone from Lafayette he did not have or feel the need too. Not in the slightest. He stared at the gravestone for a few more seconds before he turned away and began to walk away. That was it that was the entire reason that he had decided to come here, for that thirty seconds it took to put flowers on the grave.

He turned away and began to walk out of the graveyard, that was one reason he had come, the other reason that he had come was simply to check in on his step-father and maybe chat for a little bit, he looked at his watch, it was getting late, already nine in the evening, he would not be leaving Lafayette until at least ten, and the hour long drive to the airport from Lafayette, he would not be there until eleven, and that was if the traffic was good, which it probably would be, after all it was late, and not many people would be driving at this time. No he would have to spend the night in Lafayette, maybe at his old home, probably not, he would probably check into a hotel somewhere in Lafayette, after all he had no desire to spend time with his stepfather at all, he was simply going to check in and make sure the old man was still breathing.

As Axl left the graveyard he hailed a cab that was probably on his way home, at least they had a chance to make a few more dollars.

“Where too?” The driver asked as Axl got into the taxi, making sure to check that his wallet and cell phone were still in his pocket, they hadn’t moved an inch. Axl told him the address, and just like that he was thirteen years old again. On the streets roaming around freely, he was late, extremely late. He had lied, told his parents he was going to church when in fact he had decided to do something the church had heavily frowned on, smoking, with a Mr. Jeffery Dean Isabell who normally kept Axl company as he accomplished his list of a hundred plus things a teenager should never do, let alone in the seventies. He was thirteen again just for a moment, too far away from home to get there within the next hour, he hailed a cab and told them the wrong address, a street over, he had taken the cab and told the driver he was going to get his parents and they would pay for him, and then jumped the fence and simply vanished, and he had been late, by more then what was considered the appropriate late time frame, he had gotten his ass kicked around the house that night, oh yes, not by his mother, his mother was understanding his stepfather, not so much. The car rattled and shook as the driver made his way to the address that Axl had given him, taking the corner. Up ahead Axl could see Lafayette high school, once it had been the only high school in Lafayette, now there were three high schools, including the one that Axl had dropped out of during his “teenage rebellion years.” His house was a mere five minute walk, thirty second drive away from the high school.

“Is this the address?” The driver asked as he pulled up outside Axl\s house. It was the same as he remembered, although it hadn’t been taken care of since his mother died, which had left it to fall into a huge mess of faded peeling paint and a veranda that you could nearly put your foot through. It was the same as Axl remembered the last time he had to unfortunately come and visit his stepfather,

“Yep that’s the shithole I remember living in.” Axl replied as he opened the door and felt around for his wallet that had still remained untouched in his pocket his pulled it out and withdrew a five dollar bill and a ten dollar bills, handing them both to the driver before he undid his seatbelt and got out of the yellow cab before shutting the door and walking up to the front of the place he had once called home.

To say it had been run down in the years that had passed since his mother’s death would be a understatement, the brown paint was beginning to peel off and the shingles were starting to peel off the roof, the wood on the veranda was rotting, Axl would be lucky if he could get to the door without putting a foot, or more than a foot through the wood and onto the dirt below. It hadn’t always been such a shabby looking house, in the first few years that Axl could remember, when his mother had still been alive, when him and Amy had both lived there, it had been a nice looking house, not gorgeous enough that people would stop on the streets and look at the house, but it was a decent looking house, up until his stepfather had majorly come into the picture. The years after his mother’s death and while she had been ill, that was when the outside of the house began to fade and rot away.

He stood hesitantly in front of it before he knocked on the hard wood of the door. He had knocked on the door more times than he could remember, normally a softer knock, one that would wake up his younger sister Amy that slept just down the hall from the door. It was when he came home late from smoking pot or doing some other illegal thing, after his parents had figured out that the windows locked, and he had figured out that they had decided to glue his window upstairs shut. He would tap at her window softly until she woke up, then he’d point at the front door and she would unlock it, sometimes she would rap at the door, gently, so he would not wake up his sleeping mother and stepfather.

He waited for a few seconds and no-one answered. A frown settled upon his face as he knocked again, this time louder, maybe he was just upstairs, on in the bathroom or something else and he hadn’t head, after all he was old, and his hearing was probably already beginning to fade. He waited a few more minutes patiently in the cool Indiana air; no one came to the door. He checked his watch which read nine twenty two. It was getting late, too late for the old man to be out drinking, added to the fact it was a Tuesday night, he was not out drinking, which lead to the question of where on earth could he be.

“This is ridiculous, I came to visit and you are not even home, how goddamn typical.” Axl muttered to himself as he looked around the house, now how the hell was he supposed to get in? The front door obviously was not going to be an option considering it was two inches thick of solid oak wood, his mother had probably paid a arm and a leg for that door, and even while she was dead he highly doubted she would appreciate him kicking, or ramming in the door. Which meant that he would have to go through a window, he looked to the right, where Amy’s window was, the window he had constantly tapped on, the poor soul who had slept in there, Amy, she had hardly gotten any sleep, after all, it was hard to sleep when Axl was constantly tapping. He could even remember a time when Amy had gotten caught letting him in, more getting caught going back to bed while Axl managed to sneak upstairs and pretend that he had been in his room the entire night. Axl could remember hearing his younger sister shriek like it had been yesterday; they still seemed to echo in his ears.

A shiver ran up his back and he shook the thought from his mind and approached the old, dirty window, it was full of cobwebs, he examined it for a minute before placing his hands on it and trying to move it upwards in high hopes that it was unlocked. It did not budge, not an inch, his step-father, or more likely deceased mother had been one step ahead of him, as if she knew she would have to lock the windows or else something terrible would happen, Axl again shook the thought from his mind as he looked around trying to find a piece of wood, or metal, or something that he could use to break through the thin layer of glass so he would have a place to sleep tonight. Of course with his luck there was nothing in sight. He sighed; this was going to be painful. He carefully positioned his elbow a few inches away from the glass, making sure his sleeves were down as far as they could go before he moved it suddenly backwards towards the glass as it shattered his elbow and the rest of his arm went through it.

“Son of a bitch.” He swore as he withdrew his arm and stuck his hand inside the window, trying to feel rather than see his way around. His hand met something cold, and metallic, the lock. He struggled to remember, did the lock slide or was it a flip? He couldn’t quite remember, not to mention he hadn’t really used the locks a lot, he was more preferable to the front door, or the window in his room on the top floor, which didn’t a lock after a single night when Axl hadn’t been particularly pleased with a punishment his step father had given him.

He tried moving it to the right, and then the left, neither one worked. That meant that it was an actual switch type lock, was the even the technical term for it? Probably not, but at this point Axl really did not give a damn at this point in time, he just wanted to get in the house and see what his step-father was doing and why he hadn’t answered the door, although Axl did not like his step-father at all and was rather against a lot of what he stood for, he was quite curious and did not want anything to happen to the old man. He fiddled with the lock again, trying to slip his fat fingers around the lock itself and not quite managing and having to fiddling around with it for quite a few minutes until he managed to get it open.

“Finally.” He grunted as he withdrew his hand making sure not to catch it on any of the glass that still remained in the window, the stuff that had shattered but Axl hadn’t quite managed to break in smaller pieces just yet, he pulled his sleeve over his hand and brushed the glass pieces off the ledge before placing his hand on the window ledge and against the window and pushing up once again. The window heaved and creaked but as Axl applied more and more force it began to move, not willingly and it fought Axl inch by inch but it still moved.

“There we go, now time to get in the house.” Axl said to himself as he pushed the window up as far as he could and moved his hands carefully away, like always the window remained where it was. That had been the easy part, breaking the window, unlocking it from the outside and opening it, now for the extremely tricky part, to get into the house. Of course it was not difficult for a small child to get in, even a teenage perhaps, but for a five foot nine inches, one hundred and ninety five pound man who was more than slightly out of shape it would be quite difficult for him to get into the house. He carefully began to try and crawl into the house, proving more than once to smash his head on the window and hearing his feet crunch on the broken glass that had shattered when Axl had broken the window. “Ouch.” He said as he failed to pay attention for the umpteenth time as he managed to crack his head on the wooden window frame. He could hear the television playing in the living room that meant that his step father was home, but why hadn’t he opened the damned door when Axl had knocked? Perhaps he had passed out on the couch, but Axl highly doubted it, it had been a number of years since his father had gotten so drunk that he had actually managed to pass out completely. Normally he would get drunk enough to just slur his words, he would have enough to drink so that people would tell that he was indeed drink.

“Dad? Are you there?” Axl asked loudly as he took a few cautious steps towards the door, brushing off the dust off his pants as he went, there was no reply, Axl instantly assumed that his step father had indeed had too much to drink and had passed out while watching the football game, just like he had once upon a time ago when Axl had lived here. He shook his head and muttered something under his breath in a language that only Axl Rose could speak as he steadily moved towards the doors that lead to the hallway which would take him to the living room and the kitchen. He looked around the room he was in. It had been his younger sisters, Amy, it had been her room at one point and Axl assumed that from how it looked his mother had never gotten around to remodelling the house like she often promised she would.

Amy’s room was still painted the pale pink it had been once upon a time when they had both been young; the pink had long since faded away. Overtop of the pink wall was the posters that Amy had pasted to her wall. The old posters of the Beatles faces stared at him blankly eyes glazed and unmoving. A shiver ran down Axl’s spine, they were creeping him out; after all he was never really a fan of the Beatles, or any of the bands that his sister listened too. He continued to walk, ignoring the posters that seemed to be staring at him and the room that reminded him of his childhood, something he had spent many long years trying to forget. He reached the door which held a old rusty handle, he reached out and grabbed it, feeling as the rust scratched against the palm of his hand. He twisted it to the left and for the first time that night something seemed to go his way as the knob turned with ease, he pulled it towards him, the door emitted a small squeak almost as if in protest before it swung inwards which such ease, like it was just being opened for the first time. Axl cautiously stuck his head out the door looking around, just in case, it was something that he had always done as a child, looked outside the door and down the hallway before he left, to make sure that it was safe, especially when he planned to leave on his late night excursions. He slipped slightly out of the door and shut it quietly behind him and began to walk normally down the hallway. The television was playing, rather loudly which mean that his stepfather was probably passed out or asleep in the couch, Axl knew that it was a ninety nine, almost a hundred percent chance that indeed his dad was asleep on the couch but that he should and would check on him before he went upstairs and fell asleep on his old bed.

He tiredly rubbed his eyes, maybe he would just go to bed, after all if the television was on that was practically guaranteed that his stepfather was indeed in the house, on one of the couches, after all he would not just leave the television on and go out for the night, he was quite tight on cash, even with the amount of money that Axl had sent down monthly, just to help the old man out and help pay some of the bills. He stifled a yawn, he would just go to bed, after all it would not be a huge deal. He looked down at his clothes, he would have to sleep in them, and then have to get up, and sit on the plane in them. He would reek and that was the polite way of saying how bad he would smell. Without a word he retraced his steps back down the hallway, went up the flight of stairs trying to be as quiet as possible, which proved to be difficult considering the creakiness of the staircase. He would run, simple as that, that would lessen the squeaking, not to mention he had often been light on his feet, who knows, for once it might actually come in handy. He raced up the staircase, trying to make as little noise as possible reaching the top and he was already panting slightly, he made a disgusted face, he was disgusted with himself for being so fat and so overly out of shape. He would need to be in shape soon, especially because Guns N’ Roses was planning to go on tour quite soon. He walked down the little hallways, pass his parents old bedroom which had probably remained unused since his parents death considering his mother was basically the only person who had ever slept in that room with the occasional visit from either himself, when he had been younger, or Amy who had always managed to sneak into her bed late at night after being awoken by childhood nightmares. He walked down to the end of the hallway where a lonesome door stood closed.

It was ancient and dented and as Axl approached it he could see all the marks that were on the door, most of which he had made. He reached the door and stuck out his hand to the old rusty door handle before carefully turning it and pushing the door inwards and revealing the room that he had spent most of his childhood in. He had been the lucky one and had gotten the best room in the house, of course that was in his opinion. He shut the door behind him and looked around the room in wonder. It had been a very very long time since he had stepped in this room; it was old and just as filthy as he had remembered. In his closet still hung his old clothes, from the days before he had left. The things that he hadn’t managed to shove into his bag due to the lack of space in his knapsack that he had decided to take with him. The knapsack that instead of filling with important things like clothes and food he had filled with rather stupid shit suck as a vinyl that had been his favourite as a child, or rather a young man as his mother had always seemed to call him and a pack of cigarettes among other things, he hadn’t been the smartest person around back then, leaving most of his clothes behind, at least he had been sensible enough to bring as much money as he could, stealing from both his mother and his father but paying them back as soon as they had gotten signed. He stared at the bed that was nearly made but hadn’t been slept in since the day that he left, but his mother had made it none the less almost as if she had hopes that soon her little William would come home. Axl nearly snorted out loud, what a bunch of bullshit that was. He didn’t want to come home,. Not back then and hell he did not even what to come home no, he was only there because it had taken much much longer then it had been expected in the graveyard and in the flower shop, not to mention he didn’t quite feel like sleeping in the airport that night, because in reality it was not very comfortable.

“Oh ma, you really shouldn’t have.” Axl said softly as he saw the bed sheets on his bed, they were the ones that he had used as a child, red and blue with poorly drawn race cars from the sixties, a few posters were strewn across his walls the ones that his dad had never managed to rip off. Some Jimi Hendrix and a few Van Halen ones with David Lee Rot, that was it, he room was empty, barren, just the way that he had left it. He did not have much in his room mostly because he had never been in his room, only to sleep and when he had paced around late at night as he waited rather impatiently for his parents to go to bed so that he could sneak out, again normally with a Izzy Stradlin, or more commonly known as Jeffery Dean Isabell back then, they would sneak out and cause trouble and havoc around the town, usually until one or two in the morning before they would go back home and get three or four hours of sleep before they would have to go to school. Of course Axl in school was almost a joke back then, as was Izzy, they normally would skip class and when the weather permitted they would just simply go outside and smoke a few joints before wandering home, getting yelled at and getting sent to his room where the cycle would more than likely repeat itself. Axl hesitated before he climbed into bed for a second before shaking it off. He was just going to sleep in his clothes it did not matter anyways considering that he was going to be in the airport and then the airplane where he would more then likely fall asleep and be all gross and sweat, so in reality it did not matter because either way by the time that he got home he would be greasy, sweaty and in dire need of a shower. Slowly he slipped off his shoes and pulled back the covers on his bed before crawling into it, it did not take him very long to get comfortable and before he knew it he was fast asleep.

It was not the birds chirping outside that woke him up, they were rather peaceful, they almost seemed to sing to him stay asleep, good night goodnight they seemed to sing as the first rays of the golden sun began to appear over the horizon,. No it wasn’t the birds that woke him from his slumber it was the shrill ringing of his blackberry that startled him and woke him up. His alarm had gone off because he had forgotten to turn it off, it was four-thirty in the morning and now thanks to his phone and his rather forgetful memory he was wide awake and he knew that he was not going back to sleep.

“This is fucking stupid,” He grumbled as he reached into his pocket and fished for his phone, not bothering to take it over all the way, pressing as many buttons as he could until the alarm stopped and the ringing stopped. He laid in bed for a minute looking at the ceiling, there was nothing interesting about it, nothing at all but he refused to get up at the moment, not at four thirty in the morning, he would wait half an hour and if he was still awake, well then he would see about getting up, that was if.” He thought to himself promising that that he would get up if he was still up in a good half an hour maybe he’d wait even an hour, after all it didn’t quite matter how long he slept he would probably fall back asleep on the plane anyways, the dreary boring plane ride from Indianapolis to LA.

“Yeah I’ll just get up in half an hour if I am still awake.” He mumbled to himself half asleep already as he rolled over and buried his head in the blankets before falling back asleep.