KISS THE RING ☆ Taylor Hawkins

6. Old Pals

Los Angeles, 1996.

The Christmas holidays had just passed, holidays spent wonderfully with friends and relatives. Joan's return to town had made Diane return at home to visit her family in Van Nuys. Not that she had a bad relationship with them, but it was the people who seemed to be staying overnight in their home that was the problem. Uncles, cousins, Diane has always thought that her mother was too kindhearted, people, as much as there may be the blood bond, always tend to take advantage of it. That was the straw of hers that broke the camel's back, so in 1990 she moved in with Pat in Encino.

The Garbage album was released at the end of the summer, it seemed to be doing well in the charts, especially Queer, Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl, the last one consecrated the group. At the end of September they performed Top of the Pops with OHWIR and Diane seemed to touch the sky with a finger at that moment, the view was beautiful but from there you could only go down. A vivid memory that has remained of that moment was the face of her closest friends smiling at her, seeing them genuinely happy for her made her heart burst with joy. Pat, Dave, Claudia, Alanis and finally Taylor.

Taylor.

She only saw him on TV after that night at the Top of the Pops, Alanis' tour was off to a great start, in three months they did all the Asian dates. When she saw him again, for Christmas day, she noticed that he had cut his hair: it was a more platinum blonde than usual, with the regrowth a little darker in plain sight and with tufts that fell on his face, almost hiding it. That day they exchanged a quick kiss because the priorities were very different, that is to try to recover the lines lost in the past months.

"You're too high to stand up straight." Claudia claimed holding her friend close to her by her waist, while the redhead laughed heartily, pushing the Viper's door with both hands. "Oh, no. The concert has already started!" Diane complained trying to keep her balance. "I'm going to drink." She slipped away from her friend's grasp, disappearing into the crowd to get to the counter as soon as possible. She ordered a gin and tonic and turned to look at Patti, intent on enchanting the audience with her otherworldly voice and filling their ears with poetry, just as she can. "Here I go and I don't know why, I fell so ceaselessly. Could it be he's taking over me?" The singer raised her hands to the sky, closing her eyes and, letting herself be carried away by the music of her bandmates, she lit a cigarette. 

Diane looked at her spellbound, she has always been one of her favorite singers. A complete artist. The redhead took her cocktail, immediately bringing it to her lips to take a long sip, enjoying those few seconds in which the gin burned her throat. The fog she had in her head seemed to slowly dissolve. "You look enchanted." A man next to her announced while she was singing along with Patti; she turned and noticed that his face was familiar, nose pierced, raven hair and hat. "Izzy?" She stared at him with wide eyes before throwing her arms around his neck. "Jeffrey Dean Isbell!" She screamed in his ear, lifting her legs off the ground. He hugged her while he was laughing, spinning them both in place. "I see you still have a good memory." - "How could I forget the man who saved my life?"

They both stood aside, sitting on either side of an abandoned table at the back of the room. She took his hands in hers, intertwining her fingers. "You didn't remove the nose piercing." He said, looking almost shyly at her through his hair that fell on his face. "Why should I? I've always liked it, you know ..." The redhead smiled at him shrugging her shoulders before continuing to drink her gin and tonic. "I missed you so much, I didn't expect to find you here." Izzy had always been a disarming delicacy, very shy and reserved with everyone, only with the few selected over the years had he really managed to open up. Diane for him was like a bolt from the blue. "I missed you too, but I thought that not having contact was for the good of both of us. Now we are here, perhaps it was already written." She smiled at him again, this time bringing a cigarette to her lips that he set about lighting in seconds.

"She is re-creation. She, intoxicated by Thee. She has the slow sensation that he is levitating with she."

"I love this song." Diane admitted as she stared at a random spot on the stage. "More than Estranged live in 91?" The girl wrinkled her nose, smiling and looking down after staring at the guitarist next to her for a few seconds. "Fuck, I don't know if I can decide." He laughed pleased with the cigarette between his lips. "The only song you remember perhaps from that year." He added, laughing even harder than before. "Yes! The fault is obviously Duff's, we were always drunk or baked." The girl shook her head starting to rock on herself on the seat of the box they were sitting in. "No one has ever forced you to do anything, you know..." The guitarist whispered shrugging before putting out the cigarette on the floor , squeezing the filter with his shoe. "Of course, I just needed to distract myself, you know."

"I'm dancing barefoot, heading for a spin. Some strange music draws me in, makes me come on like some heroine."

"You always had a beautiful voice." He stated while looking at her with a half-smile on his lips as she was stroking the back of his hand with her thumb. "I saw the performance at the Top of The Pops. Fuck, you look fantastic. From backing vocalist to Garbage frontman, it feels like more than a win." She blushed, definitively, she had never liked too many compliments, even more if it was someone with whom she had been romantically involved. "Izzy, Christ. I always hated you when you did that." She withdrew her hand from the guitarist's, bringing them both to her face to hide her embarrassed expression of hers.

"Diane, where the fuck have you been?" Claudia showed up at the table accompanied by Dave and Pat. "Why isn't Joan with you?" It was the first thing the redhead asked, looking at the three worried. Pat smiled mischievously, nodding towards the bathroom. "I don't think we need to add anything else." He then turned to Izzy who made him tick an expression to say the least stunned on his face. "Oh, Izzy. Hi. We thought you were dead." - "Pat!" Diane scolded him making both Dave and Claudia laugh. "Well, that's the truth!" Izzy shook his head as he watched the redhead rise from her seat. "I'm sorry, Izzy." She held out her hand to him, letting him take it and kiss the back. "Hope to see you again soon, Miss Larkin."