KISS THE RING ☆ Taylor Hawkins

9. Live through this

Gothenburg, 1997.

"And so I said to her: fuck you Court, you should thank me for still being here!" Melissa announced, causing a general laugh from both the sofas. "You're still the same grumpy." Courtney turned to Diane, thanking her with her gestures for standing up for her. "Fuck you too, what do you all have today?" The bassist crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the colleagues present. "Oh come on. You all talk like we don't know Courtney." Donita, the lead singer of L7, took a stand in the speech. The Hole singer gave her the best middle finger, continuing to remain mute to rest her voice before taking the stage, rest imposed by their manager. "Jesus, I hope I don't find you in Hamburg." Claudia complained as she held her head with her hands, Diane looked at her amused: she knew she never liked the Hole girls, she said they were too toxic for the scene. A few seconds later she got up to go get something to drink, leaving no time for Melissa to argue. "Always so nice." She said sarcastically, looking at Claudia up and down. "There is no need to make those comments, Mel." The redhead cut her short while raising her hands to the sky so she could stretch. Diane began to look around her for bandmates, noticing Steve shortly after her, her guitarist, talking to Eric, the drummer of Hole. "Hey! How long does it take to get on stage?" Diane yelled at him, catching the attention of both of them. Her guitarist looked at her with a very, very serious expression and showed her his open hand. "5 minutes?" She asked in shock before getting up quickly from the sofa where she had been smeared for the previous half hour. Their set would open to L7, but she still had to rush to get ready for their show, so she quickly said goodbye to her colleagues before taking refuge in her dressing room.

"What the fuck are you doing?" It was the first thing that came out of her mouth as soon as she stepped into the dressing room, watching her colleague clinging to one who seemed to be a random metalhead. "Diane!" Claudia yelled before getting up and trying to compose herself at the sight of her friend. "But firstly, why are you in my dressing room? The others might come in, you know." The redhead tossed her cigarette butt at her, giggling at the sight of the expression on her guy's face. "Yes, sure... this is Glenn, anyway." The singer nodded her head, sitting down in front of the mirror and starting to settle down as if they weren't there. "Glenn, get out." She announced then, watching the long haired man slip out of the room not before having whispered something into her friend's ear, making her giggle. Diane continued to spread the powder on the table and, as she was arranging four lines, she felt Claudia's arms on her shoulders. "Make them double."

Their set had gone beautifully, even the girls' had not been bad. The Swedish audience was always very kind to them, they seemed crazy, with each song they found the excuse to start to smash while dancing. "When I went to school ... oh, fuck." Now it was the Hole's turn, Diane smiled as she listened to Rockstar's first notes. "When I went to school, a-ha." She laughed along with Courtney who looked at her before starting jumping along with the audience. "When I went to school in Olympia..." - "Fuck, how they rock though." Claudia stated while keeping her arms folded and pushing the redhead with her shoulder to get her attention. "I know, but you don't want to listen to me." She raised her eyebrows, looking at her friend with a satisfied expression. "Do you think Kurt would have liked this?" She then asked the bass player, keeping her gaze on stage. The redhead smiled bitterly and then nodded. "Kurt was a fan of this group, I think so."

Manchester, May 1997.

When will you tell him?

What?

Do you think I'm stupid?

I don't know what
you're talking about, Eric.

Pat and I have ours theories.

Good for you, so keep your brains out
in training.May them ever atrophy.

I bet you are definitely the most
nice of the family.

No, that's Joan.
What's your point?

I talked to Taylor,
he will be our new drummer.

I already knew when
you told me before you set foot
here in England.

Are you happy about that?

I mean, to bring y'all on tour with us?
Why shouldn't I?

I don't know...
I hate these counter questions...

Perfect... see you at the hotel, Eric.
Always a pleasure to hear from you,
say hello to Pat.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. She put down the phone before getting a nervous breakdown. The last few months have been on fire, literally. After the European tour with the L7, Dave proposed to both groups to go and open for their European tour, thus trying to form a shoulder supergroup. In short, one of the usual thoughts of Dave Grohl. Obviously they all agreed, they were not in a position to turn down such an opportunity. However, only Garbage would complete the tour alongside Foo Fighters, as the other group was due to return to the studio within two months. Her phone rang again calling Diane to the reality, and getting ready to answer, she nearly tripped over the pile of clothes that lined the floor of her suite. "Diane here, who is this?" - "Miss Larkin, could you be ready in 10 minutes?" She made a confused face before realizing who the voice belonged to, even with a terrible fake English accent. "Izzy? Where are you?" - "In the hall, do you think you can reach me in a short time?" She laughed at him, dropping the phone from her hands to immediately run out of her room, looking for her boyfriend. "Where the fuck are you going?" Claudia yelled at her, accompanied by Demetra, her drummer and closest friend of the L7s, which were possibly returning after a day spent hanging around the center of Manchester. "To find my boyfriend!" She answered before disappearing into the elevator. The ride seemed to be longer than usual, but as soon as she saw the elevator doors open she felt her heart burst in her chest. "Taylor... what... why are you already here?" She was in shock, looking at the drummer who was crammed with baggage. "Nice way to say Hi after almost a year of not seeing each other."