"She's a red headed woman with a cigarette and evil in her eyes, she's a red headed woman with a cigarette that's her clever disguise." - Samson, Regina Spektor.
LA, mid 90s.
Diane Larkin is the lead singer of Garbage who, after a rather eventful li...
Stupid Diane, you're just a fool. Seconds after the nurse left her room, the redhead put her hands to her face before bursting into tears. "Diane, Taylor said he will be delayed a few minutes." Only those few words said by Cynthia were enough to make her worry. You've just got worse, weakened. She thought, shaking her head in the meantime. It happened what didn't need to happen, what she feared would happen. To go into deep despair just because the blond was delayed was such a ridiculous thing, she thought on one side, while on the other she was totally submerged in this similar emotional codependency that she hoped she wouldn't develop. And to think that she would have to leave him for who knows how long to go detox was the last thing she wanted to do at that moment. She was just too weak and unstable to go through it all without him.
Subsequently, diverting her attention from her thoughts and shifting her gaze to the huge bouquets of flowers brought by her closest friends, she decided to get out of bed to be able to read the cards that accompanied them. The physiotherapy done in the last few days was starting to pay off, there was nothing that Diane hated more than not being able to move, talk, or generally depend on others. Moving slowly among the colored vases, with her feet bare and the IV always beside her, she began to collect the various paper bags in her hands. Butch, Alanis, Nate, Claudia, Sandy West, Courtney and Francis. Nate's was the most talkative of all, mostly because he apologized for not being able to go back to Los Angeles when she needed it most. "I hope Dave doesn't forget to add the little present I wanted to give you to the envelope!" From the white envelope emerged a little photo of the redhead, certainly one of the first photos taken by the bassist in Vienna.
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Get well soon D, we still have lots of photos to take together!
The redhead squeezed the photo in her hands as a shy smile came to her lips, noticing how happy she was during that time. "Ah, so sexy! Who is she?" The voice of the drummer behind her made her turn immediately with her smile that widened further as soon as he saw him a few inches from her. "Hey, honey." He whispered in the ear of the girl who held him close to her, bringing her free arm from the IV to his neck. Diane took a deep breath of his perfume, closing her eyes and letting him caress her above the long white and blue gown that covered her body up to her knees. "Did you miss me?" He then added, moving away a little to be able to look into her eyes, receiving a nod from the girl who approached him again almost desperately looking for his lips that welcomed her in no time, gently caressing hers before their tongues met in a slow and passionate kiss. "You are disgusting." - "Terrible." The blond chuckled amusedly on the lips of the girl who was the first to lean over his shoulder to see who had entered the room, seeing Dave and Claudia, the first with a disgusted look and the other one similar, but more surprised. "Get a room, I don't know..." Added the frontman placing a small green trolley on the table that Diane recognized as her own, opening it before turning to look at her, putting one hand on his hip while the other pointed to the empty suitcase. "So, Foxy?" - "I don't want to go in a community for detoxification." Those were the first words that Diane said that morning, although there had been improvements, the difficulties that she still had in speaking were still audible. So she shook the hand of the blond, who in the meantime had turned to look at the two of 'em, receiving from him small caresses on the bottom of her back. "Community?" Claudia looked questioningly at the frontman who first gave her a similar look and then turned to the drummer. "Didn't you tell her anything?" The redhead blanched her face, bringing her hands to the chest of the drummer who shook his head with a half smile on his lips. "I wanted it to be a surprise, not a shock." Dave rolled his eyes followed by Claudia who, untying her arms from her chest, began to look around the room to start taking her friend's belongings. "What?" The redhead's hands went up on the neck and then on the blond's face, almost forcing him to look at her, while he showed her one of his best smiles. "Let's go home, Cherry."
Encino, January 1998.
"How is my Nancy Spungen?!" Joan peeked out the door of Diane's room with a broad smile on her lips. Her sister returned her smile and, helped by Claudia who was next to her, sat up on the bed, motioning her to enter. "Who should your Sid be, Izzy?" Asked the bass player giggling, deserving of the two dirty looks that soon turned into amused expressions by the other girls. "Don't mention it, please." Added the singer before taking a seat next to her sister who welcomed her into her arms. "By the way... he stopped calling Taylor a few weeks ago, but, Dave, that idiot, decided to give him my number, so now he's torturing me with at least two daily calls." Claudia blurted out all in one breath, putting a hand on her forehead, making the redhead smile and shake her head, while keeping her gaze down. "Claudia!" She rolled her eyes, throwing her head back and snorting when she heard the frontman voice calling her from downstairs. So she walked out of her friend's room, leaving the door open and looking out, leaning her elbows on the stair railing. "Do you need anything, my handsome?" She asked making the singer smile shyly under his mustache who then put a hand in front of his mouth before becoming serious after a few seconds. "Would you mind taking me shopping?" The bass player frowned her eyebrows while observing the expression of Dave who aimed at making her sweet eyes, trying to convince her as best as he could. He later explained that Pat was trying to cook, mainly trying to prepare a semi-decent lunch while Taylor was busy getting a nervous breakdown due to the organization of the house, the rooms to accommodate everyone, the medicines and the doctor's visits for Diane. "And let those leeches of People do another bullshit of theirs?" The brunette asked who in the meantime was slowly coming down the stairs, only after greeting her friends still on the redhead's bed and taking the black shoulder bag and her glasses. "Would you mind?" Dave puts his arm around her shoulders as soon as she comes up beside him, looking at her with an amused expression on his face. "Fuck, not in this case." They laughed together before heading for the entrance. "Nate will arrive in two days!" Yelled the drummer as he emerged from the livingroom with a notebook in his hand, directed towards the two who were already almost outside the door. "We need another mattress for your room, Disco. We have nowhere to put Nate." The singer looked at him in annoyance, moaning as he clutched the keys of the red convertible. "Why don't we let him sleep with Pat?" - "Fuck you, I've already left my place to Joan and I'm not leaving the sofa bed too." Answered the guitarist from the other room, intent on chopping the vegetables for the sauce he was making while he prayed that it would come out cooked to perfection. "Ok, perfect, we'll go get another mattress as well." The two were literally thrown out by the blond who left them with two post-its each where there were written the things that were needed for the house before closing the door behind him. "And maybe we'll get some xanax for Blondie too." Then adds Dave almost in a whisper as he gets into the car, making Claudia laugh as she has already settled in with her legs stretched out the car door.
Meanwhile, Joan was telling her sister how Sandy had freaked out when she heard about what happed to her, including details that made the redhead giggle from time to time. Sandy had seen her grow up, but most of all she had taken Diane under her wing when she began to show interest in her instrument. The redhead had never been very open with strangers, especially with that group of girls who at first she saw as enemies because they took her sister to spend little time with her. Only after several months and afternoons spent in the drummer's garage she did manage to be more sociable, especially with the landlady who gave her music lessons from time to time. As the years went by, Diane became more and more fond of Sandy, she has always seen her as a role model. She was a badass girl who played drums, need to add more? "I swear to you D, she must have cried for a good 10 minutes when I told her about your awakening. She misses you very much, she hopes to be able to come and see you soon." Diane smiled at her with tears in her eyes, thinking back to how beautiful her pre-adolescence with the Runaways had been, when everything seemed so much easier and music was her only reason for living, a reason to move forward. When they spent whole afternoons playing and smoking, there Diane realized that maybe weed was not really her thing, amid the laughter of her sister and her friends. "I hope so too, Joanie."
