OUT OF THE RED ↝ dave grohl

forty-four.

AUGUST, 1991, SEATTLE, WA

"IT'S REALLY NICE," Reagan remarked, sweeping her gaze across the modestly sized living room of Dave's apartment. "And it's so . . . neat."

"Why are you constantly surprised to see that I don't live like a barnyard animal?" Dave chuckled from nearby the kitchen entrance, leaning against the door frame.

For the first time ever, Reagan was getting to see his Seattle apartment. The occasion had been long put off, mostly because she had been quite busy at work since their return home from Virginia. Dave had accepted her unavailability with grace . He'd been driving out to Olympia anyways for practice with Nirvana.

The adjustment of his moving had been surprisingly smooth considering Reagan's initial reaction to the news. As soon as they had come back from visiting Ginny, Dave had begun to pack, nauseating Reagan though she offered to help him as he boxed up all his things.

What hadn't helped the situation was Kurt's perpetual mopey disposition about it all; he had always vouched that he loved to be alone, but seemed deeply bothered that Dave was leaving him to fend for himself. He'd watched as Reagan and Dave had cleared out Dave's side of the apartment, sulking quietly on the couch.

In a way, Reagan had agreed with Kurt and related to the general mood he had sunken into once Dave left. Things felt oddly different without Dave's constant presence and she knew that for her and Kurt both, the lack of Dave in their lives had its strong downsides.

But even worse than Dave moving cities was the misfortune that struck when Kurt was evicted from his Pear Street apartment, left with his belongings stuffed in cardboard boxes and no steady place to live. Reagan had visited Kurt after it had all happened and found him living out of his car. She'd tried to offer help, but a surly Kurt had told her he was fine on his own, though he had asked her to hang out with him to combat his loneliness.

So much for them both having been in it together. As far as Reagan could see, Kurt had it ten times worse than she did. He was homeless. All she could complain about was Dave not living fifteen minutes away from her.

Kurt had asked her not to tell Dave about him living out of his beat up Valiant, but Reagan had done so anyways, unable to hide the news that poor Kurt was without a warm bed to sleep in. Dave had said he was going to intervene, but under brief second thought, Reagan had stopped him. Kurt would have hated her if he'd known that she'd gone back on her word.

Thankfully in spite of all the trouble arising, Reagan kept busy at Wilson's and told herself that with the amount of hours she'd been working, she and Dave would have had little time together anyways. He was prepping for the release of Nirvana's upcoming record, the decidedly named Nevermind, and she was just trying to scrape bigger paychecks each week. As much as it killed her to admit it, Dave moving had not been as dramatic as she'd thought after all.

Finally though, she'd managed to get in her car and drive out to Seattle to see him for a change. She had originally imagined that she would have been at his place more often in that tail end of summer and it disappointed her that they'd hadn't soaked up the gift of alone time. For once, no one was a room over from them.

"I can tell you love it," Reagan said. She walked by the couch, running her fingertips across the back of it. The place was scarcely decorated with hardly any embellishments. Dave was satisfied with its minimalism, claiming he liked it better with random instruments scattered around and a few stray posters on the wall. In Reagan's opinion, it was a very boyish way to live.

"It's nice to have a place to myself," Dave confessed. "And Seattle is great."

"Yeah it is," Reagan agreed, casting a glance out the window and into the sunset streaked sky. There were hues of red and purple dancing in the clouds, creating a dark evening dim in the apartment.