I Hate You, Don't Leave Me (D.L)

No Longer

A Few Months Later – October 1986

The music thumped loudly from inside the house. So loudly in fact, that Demi could hear it as she drove up the driveway. Of course she enjoyed having Fleetwood Mac at the house everyday, even if it was without Stevie. Demi frowned as she walked into the house. She was so worried about Stevie it almost killed her on a daily basis. Stevie had called Demi right before she went on tour to promote her new record, Rock A Little, to tell her she’d been to a plastic surgeon. “You don’t need any work, Stevie! You’re gorgeous!” Demi had said with a laugh. Stevie had laughed nervously in response and Demi knew instantly that she was withholding information. “What’s wrong?” Demi had said. “I’ve got a hole in my nose. From the coke.” Stevie had admitted at last. “And?” “The surgeon said that my next snort of coke could be my last.” Demi stood in the kitchen, almost crying. She thought about Stevie, out there on tour, still taking coke because she felt she couldn’t cope without it. “I’m going to rehab straight away after the last show.” She had promised Demi. The last show was only a few days away and Demi was planning on going out to Red Rocks to take Stevie straight to the Betty Ford Clinic, accompanied by Mick. And she didn’t care what Lindsey thought about it. Stevie was her best friend and Demi would be there for her. But Demi did care. She cared about everything Lindsey related. Including his own cocaine use. She’d received the call from Stevie a few days before the recording of ‘Fix A Heart’, a song she wrote for Stevie after hearing the news about her nose. When she saw the love of her life snorting that disgusting white powder, she thought about what it had done to her best friend and she just couldn’t stand the thought of what it was doing to Lindsey. So she’d made a decision: she was leaving. She had her music and her grandfather’s legacy; she didn’t need the heartbreak of watching the man she loved destroy himself to ruin every else in her life. So, a few days after the recording of ‘Fix A Heart’, she left Lindsey.

Lindsey heard the front door slam shut. “I’ll, erm, be right back.” He said to his three present bandmates. He closed the studio door behind him and walked quietly up to the kitchen. He spotted Demi straight away, trying to lift a large box full of her things up. Her long brown hair kept getting in the way and she sighed in frustration. “Let me help?” Lindsey asked, taking the box from her. Demi cleared her throat and moved her hair out of her face. “Thank you.” She said, picking up a smaller box. They walked out to her car in silence. They went back and forth for a few minutes, loading boxes in silence. Once they were all in, Lindsey grabbed her hand, tears now rolling down his cheeks. “Please… Don’t leave…Stay with me…” He begged her quietly. “You know I can’t.” Demi replied, finally looking up at him. “Please? Marry me? Be my wife. Please Demi. I can’t… Please?” Demi caressed his tear stained cheek with her free hand. “You know I would love that. But I can’t stay with you when you refuse to stop using. Look at what it has done to Stevie. She could die, Lindsey. She’s my best friend and she could die. But she’s getting help. Not because someone told her to. But because she knows she needs to. But you? You refuse. Even when I ask you, and I’m supposed to be the love of your life.” She freed her other hand held his face close to her. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.” She whispered, planting one last kiss on his lips, before getting into her car and speeding away, promising herself that this time, she was out of Lindsey’s life for good.