The Punk and the Princess (A Dave Grohl Fanfiction)

Ch. 6 - Try To Make Her My Own

Two hours after the dinner you were sitting backstage at the venue, watching Dave and his band gear up for the show.

"Are you excited?" He asks, ambling over to where you were sitting.

"Super excited" You say with a laugh.

"Me too! Its your first punk show! You'd better be watching us from the crowd not backstage like a wuss" He exclaims and you roll your eyes.

"We'll see what I do, it might be too late for me to get up there—" You begin but Dave cuts you off.

"No man I'm telling you—you gotta get in the crowd, it's the only way to watch a hardcore show! I'm telling you Julia!" He cries out enthusiastically.

"We'll see!" You respond with a smile.

"Dude, its time to get out there!" Yells one of his band mates and Dave gets up from next to you.

"At least promise you'll have a good time, gotta promise me that" He mutters and you nod.

"I promise" You say holding one hand over your heart as a pledge.

After he's out on stage you walk over to where some other people were standing to watch the show.

"Isn't he so hot?" Says a voice next to you and you realize Amy has been standing by you the whole time.

"Who?" You ask naively.

"Duh, Dave." She says and you laugh.

"He is a really good drummer—that's all I'll say" You reply.

"Well take if from me, hook up with him if you get a chance." She says and you nearly cough up a lung from shock.

"Uh, um—well I didn't think anything like that was going to happen. He said he would just buy me dinner and I'd watch his band play. I don't think he had any of that stuff in mind." You say and Amy snorts.

"My god you're so naïve my dear. He isn't the quarterback at your high school who will take you out for a milkshake and then hope for a peck at the end of the night—he's a musician, he's an adult." She explains, holding a cigarette between her lips,

"He barely has any money why would he buy you dinner if he didn't think he was going to get some at the end of the night?"

You stand there speechless, hit by so much information at once that you don't know how to process it all.

"I'm going to go get a drink, do you want anything kiddo?" She asks in a condescending tone.

You shake your head no and suddenly just looking at Dave on stage gives you a sick feeling in your stomach.

You walk back over to the couch you had been on before the show. After 5 minutes Franz Stahl comes over and sits next to you.

"Hey listen Julia I heard what Amy said to you before. Honestly don't listen to her, she's had a crush on Dave forever and he's never reciprocated. She's just bitter." He attempts to reassure you, "Dave's a good kid, he's not sleazy and he's not a jerk. I don't know him very well but I don't think you have anything to worry about with him."

"Thank you." You say, grateful for his sympathy, "And I know you're right about Dave."

Before you know it Dave's set is over and he's bounding back over to you guys.

"How was it did you like it?" He asks enthusiastically.

"Yeah, you were really good! I didn't realize you were so talented Dave!" You say and the wide smile that spreads across his face makes you smile too.

"You thought so?! Really?" He asks, looking more excited than you had ever seen him.

"Completely, I don't know much about music but I know you were good, I could tell" You assure him.

"Sweet, did you go out into the crowd? I couldn't see" He asks and looks slightly disappointed when you shake your head no.

"That's totally fine though! It'll be better if I take you anyway. I'll watch out for you, the first time in the pit can be a little daunting." He says taking your hand and leading you out the door and to the main crowd area.

"Just stick by me and you'll be ok." He says as you get deeper into the crowd.

You hold his hand as you are engulfed by dozens of sweaty teenagers, all packed together.

As soon as Scream comes out everyone starts moving and when the music starts you realize why. The beat moving so fast and the fact that the singer was literally screaming made you want to move as fast as you could with the rest of the crowd.

The lyrics were about injustice and distrust of the government and things you never, ever discussed with your friends and probably would be shunned for bringing up.

Even though you never thought you would find some sort of kinship with a bunch of teenagers with safety pins through their ears and tattoos all over their bodies, you loved the community of the crowd. When someone fell they were picked back up, everyone seemed to know each other, however vaguely.

Before you knew it the show was over and Dave was pulling you backstage again.

"So did you have fun?" He asks, a huge grin across his face.

"You were right, I did need to be in the crowd. I completely understand why you said that, the solidarity of that group made it so much better—I loved it." You reply honestly.

"I'm gonna go out for a smoke, do you want to come?" He asks and you nod, not wanting to leave his side yet. You had so much more to say about the change you had felt after going to this show.

Dave lights a cigarette and perches on top of some crates in the alley behind the venue.

"That was such a great show" You sigh, pushing yourself up onto the crate next to him.

"Have you ever been to a concert?" He asks and you shake your head.

"Nothing like that. When I was 10 my older cousin took me to see Tom Petty but obviously that was not the same experience. This was so...I don't know...raw? It was just so dramatically different than anything I've ever done before." You say and Dave laughs.

"Yeah my first punk show, it changed my life man. All I wanted was to like spike up my hair and put a pin through my nose—I just thought punk was the coolest thing of all time, like you said it was just so different from anything else I experienced." Dave reminisces fondly.

"Thank you for taking me" You say, looking up at Dave. He leans in and for a split second you think he might kiss you.

"Of course, the more squares I can convert the better." He laughs, hopping off the crate. You don't say anything, too lost in your thoughts, at least you are until he interrupts them by speaking again,

"You wanna get out of here princess?"