Caught in the rush
Chapter Six
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Dirk was beginning to realize that maybe drinking all those beers wasn't such a good idea. "How is anyone supposed to take a piss in this mess?" he asked, starting to feel his head start to swim from the effect of the alcohol. Bjornar rolled the window down and turned to look at him. "You could always step out and go on the side of the freeway sir," he suggested. Dirk looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
"Any other suggestions?"
"Well..."
Bjornar looked over at the empty beer bottles on the seat next to Dirk and back to Dirk. Dirk then looked over at the bottles and then to Bjornar, and this time, looked at his as though he was completely, certifiably insane. "You can't be serious," he protested, "that's so unsanitary, the whole limo will smell like piss."
"Ahh, the memories of home."
"Maybe your home.."
"Sorry, I thought you were just trying to avoid a flashback."
"Just watch it."
Dirk glared at Bjornar and opened the door. He squinted as he stepped out, realizing clearly that he been sitting in that dark limo too long. He walked around the truck next to him and towards the side of the freeway. He unzipped his pants and took all the necessary steps to go to the bathroom, but he couldn't. He had to go, but he just couldn't. It almost felt like someone was watching him.
Probably because someone was.
Two someone's in fact. A blonde someone named Nichole and a brunette someone else named Christine. And it was through Christine's binoculars. "Christine, check this out," Nichole squealed, elbowing her friend as they sat on the hood of their car, "I think Dirk Monahan is taking a leak over there."
"Give me that," Christine snapped, snatching the binoculars from Nichole, who stood up, trying to get a better look. She couldn't believe it, Nichole actually spotted the one of the objects of her search, "oh my god, that is him…"
"Can you see his dick?"
"I'm trying Nichole, Christ, will you sit down, you're wiggling the car.."
Out of nowhere, Nichole was struck on the shoulder. As she sat down, she saw that it was a lime that hit her. As she looked over, she saw, sitting on the roof of her own limo, Penny who was glaring at her. "No one looks at his dick but me sweetie," she shouted. Nichole turned and looked at the lime as Christine meekly sat the binoculars down. Suddenly, something occurred to Nichole and she stood back up and screamed "Oh my god, Penny just hit me with a lime!"
"And I'm going to hit you with my fist if you don't sit down," hissed Christine, putting her face in her hands, "you're embarrassing me."
Dirk zipped up his pants, wondering what all the shouting was about, and walked around the side of the pickup truck, and knocked on the window. The young man, who had earlier called the television station, rolled down the window. "Man," he called out in surprise, "what's up?"
"Well, I really need to take a leak, would you do me a favor and watch my back. It's kinda hard when you're trying to go to the bathroom and there's people everywhere."
"Sure thing man, say, can I get your autograph for my girlfriend? She totally loves your band, we both do."
"I'll sign autographs for your whole family, but can we do this? Cause it won't look so good if I piss myself now…"
"I'm Shawn, by the way."
"Nice to meet you Shawn."
Shawn stepped out of his truck and provided Dirk with the cover he needed, and did his deed. As they both walked back over to their prospective cars, Shawn stopped him. "Can I ask you something man?" he asked. Dirk looked at him as he got ready to open his car door, and nodded. "Are you really going AWOL on the tour?" Shawn asked. Dirk sighed. "I seem to be going AWOL, as you put it, on a lot of things."
"I don't know what happened dude, and I know you seem pretty hurt or whatever to just walk out on your fans and your babe, but a lot of people are going to be disappointed. A lot of people."
"I don't know what else to do. It's hard to face someone day in and day out when she tells you she doesn't love you."
"She said that?"
"She didn't have to."
Dirk got back into his limo, flashing Shawn a smile, and shut the door. He was starting to feel more tipsy than he had when he went outside, and it got into his mind to turn his cell phone back on, type a quick reply to Penny and dial Val's number.
"What the fuck are you doing?" she screamed, as she recognized his voice, "you can't just walk out on your mates, we're in this together…"
"You lied to me."
"Lied to you about what? What the devil is wrong with you?"
"You lied about Penny being pregnant."
"I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you what happened."
"That's just as bad. You knew she had an abortion and you didn't tell me."
"What? No, Dirk, that's not what happened. She started miscarrying in the airport, Marvin and I took her to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do. She didn't have an abortion, she really did miscarry. Is this what this is all about?"
"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let her tell me she wasn't really pregnant?"
"Don't be mad at her about that. It was my idea not to tell you."
"Why?"
"Mate, I've known you since grade school. I know how you are about small creatures. You cried so hard about having to dissect that wee frog once that you threw up, do you remember that?"
Dirk winced. In the sixth grade, him, Val and another classmate had chosen to do their science project on the biological system of a frog, and when it came time to chloroform the frog and dissect it, Dirk burst into tears and suddenly didn't want to do the project anymore. When the other child (who's name at the moment escaped him) insisted that it was too late for another project, he cried even harder, and made himself vomit.
Val then suggested that they do the project on what digested food in the stomach looked like. The teacher gave them A's on the condition that they just get the damn project out of the classroom as quickly as humanly possible, before she threw up herself.
"What does that have to do with anything?" he snarled, trying to decide whether he wanted another beer or not. Val sighed.
"You cried over a frog Dirk. What the hell would you have done if it were a baby? Your baby, your baby that the woman you loved was carrying and lost? If you had known she was pregnant and miscarried, it would have killed you, and you know it."
"Maybe you're right."
"I shouldn't have kept it from you, and it wasn't Penny's idea to lie to you, it was mine. Maybe we should have told you the truth, but she doesn't deserve you running out like this."
"You and the rest of the band don't deserve me running out like this, but I can't continue this tour and have to be around her and have to deal with her."
"You can still finish the tour and not have to be around her, I don't get it though, I told you what happened, why the hell can't you face her?"
"She said a lot of things to me Val, and it was probably all true, I just can't, I'm sorry.."
With that, he hung up the phone.
"Hey Penny," Kathy called out, sticking her head out of the sun roof, "your phone just beeped."
Kathy had, a few minutes before, paid Darshan, the horn honking taxi driver, what she owed him for the cab ride and, with complete bravery, knowing any minute that traffic could start moving, walked over to Penny's limo a few hundred feet ahead. That was why Penny was sitting on the roof, so Kathy could see her. But, out of shear boredom, she decided to stay there. That and she liked waving to the newscopters that flew by.
Penny reached over and took the phone from Kathy and sure enough, a note from Dirk flashed out at her, and it said:
"No."
Penny huffed and dropped the phone back through the sunroof. "Sorry," she called down as she heard Kathy cry out after the phone accidentally hit her in the head.
* * *
After leaving the hospital, Marvin and Val managed to make it to the club where the band would be playing a short set. Dirk ran up and embraced Penny as they walked unto the dance floor, where the DJ was playing a remix of Penny's "Bigger Than You" single (her biggest hit from her first album, that some speculated was about her absent father, but she never indicated either way). "What took you guys so long?" he asked, kissing Penny on the cheek. Marvin and Val looked at one another and Penny kissed Dirk back. "I had to go to the hospital for a bit," she replied. Dirk stepped back, stunned, and then looked over at Marvin.
"She twisted her ankle on the escalator," he explained, trying to hide his nervousness, "they just wanted to make sure the x-rays were normal before they let her go."
"You're walking on it okay now," Dirk replied, looking back over at Penny. He now noticed that she looked very pale, "are you really okay?"
"Pain pills must have kicked in," Val chimed in, "she could barely walk before."
"Yeah," Penny agreed, "pain pills must have kicked in. They said nothing was broken, but it hurt like a bitch. I feel a bit weak though, but I'm okay."
"Hey Marv, thanks for going to get her for me," Dirk acknowledged Marvin, putting his arm around Penny and motioning towards the bar with his head, "drinks are on me."
He walked her over to a secluded booth and sat her down. "So tell me," he politely commanded, sitting down close to her, "did you get the test?"
"Yeah, I did," she replied meekly, struggling to look him in the eye.
"Well?"
"It was just stress. The test was negative."
Dirk just stared at her. Penny looked into his eyes, and could not decipher what they were telling her. She wasn't sure if he disbelieved her, or if he was disappointed. Tears started to fall from her eyes again. "I'm sorry," she whimpered, "I shouldn't have said unless I knew for sure, I probably got you all worked up."
"It's okay, it's right for me to know these things. Hey, don't cry, its okay."
"I know. Maybe we weren't meant to be parents right now anyway. The time will come, we have the rest of our lives."
Somehow, saying it out loud didn't make her feel any better.
Dirk leaned over and placed his forehead against hers. "You're right," he replied quietly, lightly touching her cheek with his fingers, "and you're probably just tired. You'll feel better after you get some sleep."
Meanwhile at the bar, Marvin sat staring into his beer. "Do you think it felt anything Val?" he asked sadly. Val downed her shot and stared at him.
"Do I think what felt anything?" she asked, frowning.
"The baby."
"I don't think so Marv. She wasn't far enough along for the baby to have developed its senses. I'm sure it didn't feel anything. Why would you ask?"
"I never saw anything like that before. Poor Penny, she looked like she was in so much pain."
"Miscarriages are very painful. I think Penny felt all the pain."
"I always liked kids.."
"Penny will have a baby one day. Maybe she just wasn't ready yet. Her relationship with Dirk is still kind of new, they will have a baby one day when their careers are stable and they can completely trust one another and handle another life. The baby knew that, and he or she will be back when the time is right."
"I bet you're right."
"You're kinda a sensitive guy Marvin. Never would have expected it of you."
"A lot of people seem rather surprised by a Filipino punker who plays bass for a female pop singer."
"Marvin, if I weren't gay, I'd probably date you."
"I appreciate that. By the way, do you think we did the right thing, you know, convincing her to lie to Dirk? I mean, I would want to know."
"Mate, you don't know Dirk like I do. Knowing would kill him; he's a lot more sensitive about the wee creatures of the world than he lets on. Trust me."
After the band did its set, Dirk took Penny out on the dance floor to slow dance with her. She didn't like the whole idea of not telling Dirk the truth, but she thought Val was probably right. The limo driver that Dirk had previous to the nice Norwegian the studio hired, quit after a slightly intoxicated Dirk tried to attack him after he kicked a stray dog. Though she secretly thought the driver deserved to get his ass kicked, she also felt that if he were going to fly off the deep end over a dog, what would he do over a baby? She didn't know him that long to say, so she took Val's word for it. She seemed obviously concerned for Dirks emotional well being, so she thought Val was probably right.
Penny then pressed herself closer to Dirk and lightly clutched his shirt in her hands as she buried her face in his neck and wept.