False Starts || Dave Grohl

Chapter 50

" I Should Have Known That It Would End This Way"

April 8, 1994

Seattle, WA

Six days.

It had been six days since I last saw Kurt in that run-down Los Angeles hotel room and there has yet to be a phone call. I wasn't expecting the man to drop everything and run off into the sunset with me. We aren't in some fucking romance movie where my life was a joke until I met him, but I really thought he would have called to make sure I got back to Seattle safely.

Last night when I arrived at the Novoselic's, the couple shifted into mom and dad mode. Shelli scavenging through their stocked cabinets for a quick meal while Krist grabbed a blanket from their bedroom and let me curl up to him on the couch.

Every other aspect of my life may currently be in shambles, but it is nice to know that these two hadn't changed much along the way.

After downing a bowl of left-over spaghetti, the three of us talked about anything and everything, at one point even making fun of some random late-night cartoon on the TV. The world could've been on fire outside, which it basically was for me, and none of us would've given a shit. All that mattered was being with each other.

It wasn't until nine in the morning that I decided to head back to my own place to pack, knowing that Dave's insomnia would have him up and out of the apartment by now. The two offered to help multiple times, Shelli claiming that she could take off from work while Krist told me that he didn't have any other plans for the day.

However, I wanted to do this alone.

I needed to be alone.

Krist and Shelli don't need to be casualties in mine and Dave's war. The two of us have to fight it on fair terms, and right now we're at a draw.

When the elevator doors slide open to the floor that houses Dave and I's small apartment, a feeling of dread washes over me. The stained carpet looks the same as it did when I was here a week ago, but I could've sworn a serial murderer was about to jump out and snatch me as I stare at the flickering overhead light a few feet away.

The floor had lost its hospitality.

Just like the couple a few doors down had lost their minds.

Many late drunken nights had been spent out here with Dave. Us giggling like children as we try to get through the small doorframe together. Then there were those few nights that we'd trip and give up, opting to curl up on the dirty floor and sleep until a neighbor would make us move.

My feet unconsciously take me to a spot two doors down from our own place, my hand grazing over the floor to ceiling crack in the white wall. The result of one too many shots of Jameson and the drummer's impatience. "What a fucking spaz..."

A smile creeps up on my face as lean my forehead against the wall, balling my hand into a fist before knocking on the plaster two times. "How can one place have so many good and bad memories in it?"

The elevator ding sounds a moment later, giving me a warning to straighten up before any neighbors saw me on the verge of a breakdown out here. However, when two familiar long-haired brunettes walk out of the rectangular box, my shoulders slump.

You have got to be kidding me right now. My eyes glance up at the ceiling, internally cursing whatever god is watching and laughing at my luck right now.

"You're back."

I squeeze my eyes shut again before biting the bullet, "Yeah well I kind of need my things."