Living Like A Runaway

Sweet Emotion

My cheeks flushed deeply at his recanting, and I sighed. "So everyone saw me stark naked?" He nodded and laughed, telling me that the same thing happened to Steven, who apparently had no shame. It did explain why he was naked this morning, though.

"You wanna get breakfast?" Axl asked, cracking his neck. "We'll leave a note for them and tell the guys to meet us. The Crüe guys have to leave for their own shit soon, and that kid Trixie had already left, so... if we wake Slash up, he'll end us."

A smirk crossed my face. "Since when is that supposed to scare you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Since I want to get to know you." He put on his shirt from last night, and we went downstairs. Axl picked up a piece of paper and wrote: "With Stella- iHop down the street- meet us there if we aren't back when you get this- -Axl." And with that, we headed off.

"Table for two?" the waitress guessed, smiling kindly at the both of us. Either she didn't know who Axl was, or it didn't phase her. I nodded, and the girl led us to our own booth, then asked us accordingly if we wanted anything to drink, and if we already knew what we wanted. Axl ended up getting a stack of blueberry pancakes with bacon, eggs, hash browns, a coffee, and an orange juice. I myself got a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and a side of bacon with a grapefruit juice.

Once the waitress had went to place our orders, Axl leaned back in the booth. "So, should I go first?" I had no idea what he was talking about, of course, so I merely nodded. He didn't seem to notice my confusion, but in any case, he told me a lot about himself; how he'd grown up in Lafayette, about his childhood abuse, how he'd started singing in his church choir, and how he and Izzy and made their way to Los Angeles. He discussed how Guns N' Roses formed, where all of the songs on Appetite came from, anything he could think of. He let me get to know about himself. This lasted all the way up to when we got our food, at which point, Axl decided it was my turn to talk whilst we ate.

"Where to begin," I sighed. "Not surprisingly, I wasn't exactly a planned pregnancy. In fact, my mom and dad never ever liked each other. Dad was sixteen, so was mom- this was before dad was in Steel Panther, mind you, he was just a player back then. So, mom had me, and had full custody. I never got to meet dad till I was about six or seven, actually, and mom only allowed it because dad was starting to make actual money. Of course, the first Steel Panther album didn't come out until I was nine, but not the point.

"The summer I had turned eleven, my mom met my now stepdad, John. The two of them had been happy together, but we didn't exactly have a lot of money. Mom refused to tell dad about it, even for my sake, and threatened my life if I spoke either- she claimed it was for pride's sake- so, to start making money, John started selling drugs. Eventually, he got into them when I was around twelve. By my thirteenth birthday, both of them were raging heroin junkies.

"So, they got violent. It was for stupid, little things, too. To cope, I actually went through a good amount of time cutting myself, among other things. I quit the cutting when I was fifteen, but it's still after me, I swear... Anyway, my dad could tell something was wrong, but, due to the nature of my mom, he never saw any reason to be fatally concerned. Around three weeks ago, I moved in with him and his band, and well, here we are."

Axl didn't really know what to say, and honestly, I didn't blame him. "What else did you used to do to yourself?" He finally asked, knowing what a dark topic it was.

"I stopped eating properly. I'd bruise myself, pull my hair out, try to overdose on whiskey and sleeping pills. A lot of it was the cutting- they weren't deep enough to leave long-lasting scars unless you look for them- but there were a lot of them. Uh, what made you ask?"

He shrugged, but his expression looked as bitter as it did calm. "Because I wanna take care of you, make sure you don't do that stuff again... because even though I've known you for what, two days? I care about you." At this point, he'd exited his side of the booth and sat next to me. I accepted his hug graciously and sighed, burying my head in his chest.

"I told you, Stella," he mumbled, "You're different. You're better than a lot of the bullshit out there..." He lifted my head up with his index finger and gave me a serious expression. "Give me a chance.." It came out as more of a plead than a question, but it was close enough. I nodded, not needing to say a word, and Axl pulled his pinky ring off and slid it onto my middle finger, kissing my forehead once he had done so.

We finished breakfast and made it back to the cabin before anyone'd woken up. Well, the Crüe boys had left, a note being placed on Sonic's cheek, but otherwise, it was the same. The two of us went outside, and I changed back into my bikini, Axl merely taking his shirt off again. We laid back in some sun chairs, letting the mid-morning light soak into our skin, and I lit myself a joint, Axl lighting his own cigarette.

"Hey Axl?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"So how are we going to deal with my dad, then?"

"Well... I can always just ask him."

I sat up, looking at him as if he were crazy, and he shrugged over at me. "Keeping secrets isn't exactly the way to get him to trust me with you. Besides, for all he knows, stage Axl and offstage Axl are two different people." When I continued to stare at him in disbelief, he shrugged. "You have any better ideas? What would the other guys in that band have to say?"

At this, I chuckled a little. "Satchel would be the easiest to get help from. I suppose he'd advise against it, but he's pretty chill with me doing whatever. Lexxi, I would have to convince more, but if we pressure him, he'll be fine. Stix and dad won't have it, though, I'm telling you." I think I could convince Stix, but it would be pulling teeth, and I wasn't quite willing to resort to that- yet.

Axl shrugged, standing up and coming over to me. I edged to the side of the chair, where he pulled me into him for a cuddle. "How about you tell Satchel first then, and see where it goes from there? Until then, we'll try to keep it a secret. By the way, we have two shows at the Park Plaza Hotel Ballroom tomorrow and the day after. It's our video shoot, actually, for Welcome to the Jungle. You and your band are more than welcome to come, backstage, of course."

"Sure!" I replied happily, pecking Axl's lips. "The guys are in their songwriting phase, so it'll be relatively easy to be free, I think." And that's how we spent the rest of the hour- cuddling, and making out. Sooner or later, however, everyone woke up. We spent awhile cooking burgers and curing hangovers, but eventually, we had to leave.

Now, however, was going to be the biggest challenge as of yet: hiding the secret from my dad.