AUGUST, 1989, SEATTLE, WA
AFTER ENDURING THE longest two months of her life, Lindy finally felt like she could breathe again when she received a phone call from Kurt late one evening.
"I want to come home," he'd said in a small voice, sounding utterly miserable. He had not sounded like this before, not throughout the entire tour. Lindy had sat up on the couch immediately, worry gripping her into a tight vise.
She probed him with concern for answers to his sudden sadness. "What's wrong? Is it turning out to be a shitty time?"
"My stomach hurts," Kurt had said, before once again hanging up in a rush as someone behind him called his name. Shortly after that call, he'd called again to announce that they were cutting the tour early and cancelling two weeks worth of shows so that Kurt could return to Seattle.
Three days passed as Lindy awaited Kurt's arrival. Finally, in the midst of a particularly rainy afternoon, she heard the sound of Krist's van rumbling up the street despite being on the second floor of her apartment. Barefoot and hardly dressed to go outdoors, she flew downstairs without a second thought, disregarding the rain.
Kurt was waiting for her at the foot of the staircase, seemingly having forgotten that he had things to unload with his bandmates. The rainfall had drenched him head to toe. When Lindy reached the last step, he grabbed hold of her and crushed her to his chest, gasping with happiness.
"Oh god, I missed you," Lindy cried. She didn't even mind the fact that her clothes were being soaked through; all that mattered was that she had Kurt back. She tangled herself in his arms, staring lovingly into his face. He was smiling, but she was shocked at what she saw.
In the two months that Kurt had been gone, his face had grown drastically thinner, now gaunt and even paler than before. It looked as if he'd been starved. She touched his cheek timidly.
"Do you feel okay?" she questioned curiously, her voice smaller than before. A frenzy of worry began to bubble within her body. The thought of him being ill pained her almost as much as if she were the one who was sick. Kurt kissed her hand.
"I feel great now that I'm with you," he answered, knowingly ignoring the real wonder behind Lindy's question. He refused to release her from his arms, too busy delighting in all the things that he had sorely missed about her while away.
Krist and Chad had been looking at them with an air of obvious annoyance over being left to unpack the van on their own, and in the rain on top of that. Lindy felt bad, knowing that her high maintenance boyfriend had most likely demanded that they drop him off first before proceeding anywhere else.
She'd gone back upstairs to retrieve an umbrella and Kurt had snorted at her, considering that she was already rain-sodden.
Nonetheless, she brought the umbrella over to the van where Krist was starting to get out. She offered her help as they retrieved Kurt's things, setting them down on the pavement underneath a slab of roofing. Kurt and Chad had begun to walk his things upstairs, leaving Krist and Lindy alone.
"Hi Kristy," Lindy smiled, aiding Krist in rearranging what had been left behind in the back of the van. The rain had begun to slow, dimming to a soft smattering around them. She was hit with a burst of shock over how much she had missed Krist too, her pretend brother who she had come to love as much as her real one.
"Hi there," he smiled back, though his face held lines of tiredness.
"How was it?" she asked innocently. She was interested to see if Krist would divulge any information on Kurt's apparent state of malnourishment.
