Encino, January 14, 1998.
"Happy birthday Dave!" They all screamed in chorus looking at the dark-haired man who, with a broad smile on his face, was hidden behind the candles placed on his cake and blew them after a few seconds where he seemed to express his desire. Claudia approached him immediately after, taking his face in her hands before leaving him a long kiss on the lips that left the others stunned. "Wait, since when is this thing going on?" Pat asked breaking the silence that was created in the room. Diane tried to hold back her laughter, failing miserably within seconds of her friend's question. "Since she stopped rejecting him, maybe." Answered Nate intent on dividing the plates for the cake to his friends, earning a look of false reproach from the frontman who, bringing an arm around the hips of the brunette bass player next to him, adjusted the birthday hat on his head. "Oh, no, Claudia!" Joan, who in the meantime was starting to cut the cake, looked up at the brunette who looked at her worriedly. "You don't have to force yourself to do charity." They all burst out laughing again, leaving the frontman looking defeated and stunned. "You are awful, really." Claudia giggled shaking her head, after having moved away from the frontman and started pouring the prosecco into the glasses and then letting each of them take theirs. "What's this?" Asked the drummer bringing the glass closer to him, then bringing it to his lips to taste it. "Fancy stuff, Taylor. Maybe you're not used to it." Pat laughed at him as he took his glass to first toast with the others. "Hey, what's going on with y'all tonight?" Asked the redhead with an amused expression on her face, shifting her gaze to everyone as the drummer bent to crouch on her shoulder. "We're taking your place, little sis." Joan answered her almost immediately, raising her glass towards the redhead who brought her own, with water, in turn to toast. "Since you can't try so hard to talk, we'll take care of it."
"And so in conclusion, David Bowie is one of the best people you can smoke weed with." Joan announced with a pleased expression before bringing the cigarette to her lips, observing the various faces of the boys sitting in a circle around the still decorated table, who were mostly in shock from her story. "Did you smoke with the White Duke?" Asked Taylor leaning towards the table with his mouth ajar, observing the guitarist who, moving her hand in midair both sides, gave him a first answer. "Not really, the White Duke passed away just a few years prior. But I was in good company, Freddie was there too." The drummer threw his hands in the air, getting up from his chair to start pacing back and forth under the eyes of the others who began to laugh. "Joan was living your dream, Taylor." Added Nate with his arms crossed over his chest, further raging on the blond's suffering, watching him as he put both hands over his face before letting out a desperate moan. "Oh, come on T. You'll get the chance too, one day." Dave chuckles as he sits next to Claudia, his arm around her shoulders as she holds his hand down on her shoulder. "Fuck you, Dave. I didn't play with and for him for his 50th birthday." The drummer said, destroyed by his own words, while he had returned next to the redhead who gently hugged him as if to console him, giggling in the meantime.
"I forgot this little detail!" Announced Joan looking at the smirks printed on the faces of Pat, Nate and Dave. "You are literally killing him." Claudia added, making everyone's gaze shift to Taylor who, at that point, had crouched on the table with his head in his arms, unleashing yet another general laugh from around the table. "You know what, he was the one who actually called the studio when we were recording The Colors and the Shape and guess who answered?" Pat rolls his eyes at Dave's question, before shrugging his shoulders and bringing the cigarette to his mouth and then making a small bow when the frontman points to him. "The best phone call I've ever received in my life!" The guitarist said, raising his voice slightly as he leaned over to the table to throw the excess ash from his cigarette into the ashtray. "Oh please, he's already suffering enough." Diane laughed weakly, running a hand over the blond's shoulder which he replied with another moan, continuing to hide his face on the table. "You do the dishes tonight." He then announced by finally showing his face, pointing at them with a threatening expression before throwing himself dead weight against the back of his chair, putting the hands on his arms. "What a drama queen..." The frontman shook his head. "Yeah, tell him, Queen Bee..." Whispered the redhead joining the laugh of her the friends, making fun of the blond and Dave too, then Taylor looked at her as if to say "You too?". She continued to smile at him and took his hand to intertwine his fingers with hers. She was finally managing to have a quiet evening with what had become her family, after all that she had been through and passed on to those people, it was the least she could do to organize a birthday party for her best friend. After checking the time on the wall clock, Diane squeezed the blond's hand tighter to get his attention and he turned immediately to her. "I'm tired, I'm going to the my room." Diane whispered as she stroked the back of his hand with her thumb, leaving a kiss on his cheek just before he could explain to their friends that the redhead was going to sleep. "Oh, Foxy. I should thank you for this nice evening that we had." Dave got up from his seat, running towards her friend which he held in his arms. Diane laughed just as she returned the hug, kissing him on her cheek too before turning and greeting everyone with a general wave of her hand. "Taylor, go with her. We'll settle down here." Announced Pat as he started to get up, starting to pick up the plates from the table shortly after. The blond nodded and they didn't repeat it twice, running after the girl who had already reached halfway up the stairs. "Cherry, you could have waited for me." Diane leaned on his arm, also holding on to the railing and they began to climb a little faster than before. "You're doing so good, you know..." He smiled keeping his gaze down to make sure she didn't put her feet badly on the floor. "The doctors say that in less than a month, if you continue like this, you can go back to being almost totally autonomous." In the meantime they reached the singer's room and, while Diane lay down directly on the bed, Taylor took off his clothes, remaining only with a pair of black boxers on. "Fuck, T..." she whispered as she watched the blond's half-naked body approach her bedside with a half smile printed on his lips, then starting to take off her shoes. "Atta girl, you can't speak decently yet you swear perfectly well." He made her raise her arms above her head to be able to take off the green 60s dress she had decided to wear for Dave's party, leaving her in her underwear and pausing for a few seconds to look at her body. "Tayl -" - "No, I was just noticing that you can't see the holes on your arms anymore, good girl... Shit. Fuck." Starting to fold her dress that he had in his hands, he turned away, with his back to the singer to hide the blush that had appeared on his cheeks. The redhead giggled just before wearing a burgundy Ramones t-shirt that surely belonged to Pat back in the day. After that, thanks also to the help of the drummer, they both got under the blankets, with Taylor's arm around Diane's shoulders who rested her head against his chest, letting her long hair be caressed by him on her shoulders. "You could have stayed down with the others..." The blond smiled hearing her calm and delicate voice, observing the girl's fingers that slowly ran along his torso with linear and circular movements. "Knowing that you were up here on your own? Dave won't be offended, and then there's Claudia, I've clearly lost places on my best friend's priority ladder." He gave her a fake cry, wailing wryly as the redhead lifted her face to look into his eyes and laugh with him right away. "But let's say it's the right punishment for spending little time with him on tour, right?" He asked when he saw her resting her chin on his bare chest, causing her to raise her eyebrows and then nod a few seconds later. "It's all your fault, Cherry." She stood up, breaking their physical contact to be able to show him her middle finger and turn to the opposite side, turning her back to the drummer who, laughing, turned in turn to hug her, leaning his chest against her back before leaving a single kiss on the back of her neck and fall asleep after a few minutes, lulled by the scent of her skin and their calm and serene breaths.
Unfortunately, given Diane's health conditions, Garbage had to postpone the release of their second album scheduled for February of the same year. The redhead, sporadically, when she could and felt like it, would join them in the studio to make herself a minimum participant in the recording sessions, because she herself advised Butch and the others to continue recording even though most of the songs were missing the voice. At the same time, Dave was moving between Virginia and Los Angeles, beeing busy with the organization of the house that he bought in Alexandria not even a month earlier. Usually he was very dedicated and determined on what he wanted to do, nothing and no one could make him change his mind. Not even Claudia, who was forced, in a certain sense, to lead this life as a "commuter", when the commitments with her group allowed it, of course. As the weeks went by, the house began to empty more and more: Nate returned to Seattle for personal commitments, but above all because, before disappearing for who knows how long in the woods of Virginia to record a few songs and go on tour, he wanted to spend time with his family.; Joan returned to the studio to record an Iggy Pop tribute album with other musicians, We will fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute; and finally Pat, who returned to record full-time House of Style with Cindy Crawford for MTV, managing an entire column of his own and interviewing various personalities from the world of music in the backstage of their concerts. Taylor then resigned himself to having to stay in Encino, leaving Laguna Beach for a period of time to be able to be with his... his girlfriend? They hadn't had a chance to talk about it with open heart, they just hadn't had the opportunity to talk about it at all, maybe there wasn't even a need to, just because there were other priorities at the time. Diane resumed living her life slowly, one step at a time, always accompanied by the blond beside her. Those moments of everyday life spent with Taylor seemed almost surreal to her, she never thought they would ever reach such a point, not only with the drummer but in general, with herself. "You should come with us in Virginia." Taylor whispered to her one morning, still hugging her belly from the early hours of the morning. "You've seen the photos Dave sent, haven't you? I'll fight for the most secluded, and largest, room in the house so you can rest as long as you want." Diane, still sleepy, stretched before putting her hands on the blond's head, pulling his hair back when he looked up at her so that he could look into her face. "What do you think about it?" The redhead nodded, hinting a smile to the drummer who returned it, immediately lifting up on his elbows to be able to get closer to her face, leaning towards her lips to be able to leave a kiss on them. "After the recordings with the band, though..." She said in a faint voice before kissing him again, making the blond nod quickly and he took her face in his hands, almost out of necessity, to continue to savor her lips. The drummer rose to his knees and, locking her right leg between his, remained with his torso bent over her to maintain contact with each other. The phone began to ring on the girl's bedside table, but neither of them seemed to care much for it, at least for the first few seconds. Diane kept her eyes closed, trying to ignore the deafening ring of the phone and focus on the blond's lips that were slowly running down her neck, until he sighed on her skin, getting up from the bed annoyed to lean towards the handset which he brought to his ear immediately.
Taylor, who's this?
What stopped you from replying immediately?
Fuck you Dave, what do you need?
Oh, I see. I have definitely interrupted something.
It's certainly none of your business.
What do you want?
Yea, yea, whatever Start packing Blondie.
The Grohls have the pleasure to
invite you to spend this weekend
in their humble dwelling.
Now you have become the Grohls...
It this by chance an invitation to your
wedding?
No, we're still getting organized for that.
I've arranged everything so that Diane doesn't
have to worry for anything.
See you in four days, Hawkins.
YOU ARE READING
KISS THE RING ☆ Taylor Hawkins
Fanfiction"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...
