and the stars will all come out

chapter thirty-two! ☆

"AND THEN, OF COURSE T'S LIKE, 'HOW MUCH WILL YOU GUYS GIVE ME IF I STREAK ACROSS THE STAGE?'"

"No way," Landry said, laughing.

"So I'm like, 'a thousand dollars,' thinking that he wouldn't do it, and sure enough, there he goes..."

"That definitely sounds like Taylor," she admitted, raising a steaming spoonful of soup to her lips. 

"It was fucking wild, man." Dave grinned. "And he'd only really been in the band for, like, a few months at this point. That was the craziest part."

"I bet." Landry matched his grin. "I like it when you talk about Foo Fighter stuff, you know. It's fun."

Dave was mostly through his steak. "Well, I'm glad you think so. That type of stuff wasn't always fun."

"How so?"

"Well, you know Everlong, right?"

"Hope's favourite song, actually."

"Well, when I wrote that, it was Christmas, and I was literally sleeping on the floor of my friend's house 'cause my ex-wife had just kicked me out, and-"

Landry almost choked on soup. "Ex-wife?"

"I know, but that was years ago. Past life, believe me. It's like we were married one second and divorced the next. So here I was in Virginia, sleeping on the floor, feeling like shit, no plan whatsoever. Everything felt hopeless. And then I wrote Everlong in, like, forty-five minutes. That ended up being our biggest song to date, and the song that changed everything for me."

"Who did you write it about?" Landry asked, fascinated.

Dave just shrugged. "Girl I was messing with at the time. It was basically about being connected to someone so much, that not only do you love them physically and spiritually, but when you sing along with them you harmonize perfectly. Recognizing the moment, recognizing that you don't want to let it go, that type of shit."

Landry tilted her head, feeling something familiar. She was mostly just astonished that he could talk about his writing so easily. "I get that. Must be nice."

"Have you ever been in love?"

She just laughed. "I'm not gonna pretend that I had a life before I met you, dude."

He laughed, too. "So no?"

Landry opened her mouth and immediately started struggling to find the words.

"For a while, I just kinda felt like I couldn't connect with people like that, I guess, so I just didn't. But I don't know, it's not like I really tried to in the first place. And you've met Evelyn. She didn't exactly help my chances. So much of my life has been about trying to keep my head above water, so I guess I felt like I couldn't or can't pay attention to that type of stuff."

"I can understand that."

"Can you? From what T's been telling me, you're kind of slutty."

Dave rolled his eyes, but laughed. "Yeah, of course Taylor would say that."

"All done over here?"

The server had appeared out of nowhere again, and Landry looked down at her basically empty bowl of soup. "I think so, yeah."

"Thanks," Dave said as he handed off his plate.

"Just the bill?" the server asked.

"Yes, please."

With that, she disappeared again.

"I could get used to these dates," Landry said quietly after a moment.