Caught in the rush
Chapter Eleven
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Dirk considered this new development another mistake on Bjornars part, but he wasn't going to hold it against him in the least. The person in deep trouble now was Valleri Tandon, and whenever he found the time, he was going to give her the emotional thrashing of her life.
The article in the South Bay Breeze was titled, "Valleri's Rant of the Week". And here's how it went.
"I'm going to keep this one short folks.
I hear people everyday saying, "Enough of this J-Lo hype already. She's dominating movies, trying to dominate music, she pushes her clothes on us, her new perfume and now she's flaunting Ben Affleck around like a toy." And while I agree with this, at least the woman is talented. I think her singing leaves a lot to be desired, but she's talented.
Which is more than I can say for Penny. You guys know how I feel about her. She tries too hard to sound like other pop singers that came before her. In all her covers of other people's songs, she just sounds like she's imitating the original, she doesn't make it her own. Her own songs fall flat. Anything she writes herself is completely watered down. Yet, she's popular. At first, she was popular for being a nice person, which's the only reason why her second album was given a chance. Now, she's popular because of Trouble.
Yes, the band who has been opening for her on her international tour. Am I alone in believing that she should be opening for them? They don't do half as many covers as she does, and even when they have, Dirk Monahan makes them his own. They write their own songs, play their own instruments. Dirk Monahans lyrics are warm, thought provoking and original. Yet, people credit her with all the pre-album release buzz they got because of her interview on Letterman a year and a half ago. Okay, so maybe that did get people to know the band existed, but they would still be playing dive bars in Scotland if they hadn't been a damn good band.
People talk about how cute Penny is. Yes, Penny is cute, if you call 60 pounds overweight and dressing like a hobo or a slut cute. Dirk Monahan makes her look sexy, without him, she'd be that same girl that dressed whitetrash in highschool. It pisses me off to no end the way she flaunts him around in public. At first, I thought she was just laying claim to her man, letting the world know he was hers, and hell awaits the woman who would dare try and touch him. But it isn't. It's "look what I have. A big rock star who can make my career." It's all publicity. I'd bet anyone a month's worth of my salary that if her little "have my hotshot boyfriends band open for me" publicity stunt hadn't worked, he'd be given the boot.
The pity of what her father, Greg Donovan, did to her as a child, will not last long with the public; and while she depises the very thought of him, and she has just a bit more talent than he does, she's still Daddy's Little Girl.
And as far as Dirk Monahan goes, he's unfortunately about to be inducted into "The Ben Affleck Society for Male Celebrities with Publicity Seeking Girlfriends."
And that's just too bad."
Dirk scowled as he crumpled the article in his fist. For some reason, though he had toyed with the notion that Penny's love for him was a publicity stunt, Valleri's words infuriated him. Bjornar had settled himself back into the back seat with his boss, while Shawn went to go "drain the lizard", as he put it, and continue reading the remainder of the newspaper. Dirk leaned over, and lowered the paper down to look at Bjornar. "What was the point of you showing this drivel to me?" he asked.
"I thought you might like to know what this wretch was saying about your woman," he replied, "being that you agree with her."
"I what?" Dirk protested, "no way, she had no right to say such awful things about her. I don't think Penny is a bad singer, or a lousy songwriter, and I don't believe she made it out of pity.."
"But you believe she was using you as a publicity stunt."
"That's what I said, yes, but…"
"Didn't you say that she said that you wouldn't have been anything without her?"
"Well, she did."
"Then how could she be using you as a publicity stunt? If she meant what she said, then it sounds like she just wants credit for boosting your career, not using your career to booster hers."
"And that was your point?"
"In a way. That and I wanted to see your reaction."
"To prove what?"
"If you didn't get angry, it would mean that you agreed with Valleri and actually believed everything she said. But you got mad."
"Proving what, exactly, Mister Smartie Pants?"
"Proving that you know the truth about Penny. You know she's not using you. You got offended because Valleri smeared her, if for no other reason than to continue to bully her like she did when they were in high school, and that pisses you off because you know what kind of person Penny is."
"Maybe you're right, but that still doesn't clear a lot of other things up."
"Besides the whole "maybe you did and maybe you didn't" cheat on her thing, and the fact that she blatantly rejected your marriage proposal and said you were no better than her dad, what else is there?"
"She's never once looked me in the face and said she loved me. She's said it on the phone, in letters, but never to my face. She's never dedicated any songs to me, or written anything for me…"
"You're starting to sound like a woman, sir."
"That's not all. I mean, they are trivial things, yes, but on top of her lying to me about the pregnancy, accusing me of cheating on her and refusing to marry me, just tells me something I should have known all this time."
"Don't tell me it means she really doesn't love you?"
Dirk kept quiet. "Mr. Monahan," Bjornar said, leaning over towards Dirk, "do you remember what you told me, what happened in the courtroom when she ran up to her father as a little girl, and what he said to her?"
"Yeah," Dirk replied quietly, as Shawn opened the door and stepped back into the limo, "he rejected her."
"From what I read in the People Magazine article, she ran up and said "Daddy I love you."
"And he rejected her."
"Maybe that's why she doesn't look you in the face and tell you she loves you. She's scared. That's why she doesn't dedicate songs to you, or write anything for you, maybe your opinion and your feelings mean so much to her, that she doesn't want that rejection from you. That maybe you won't like the song she dedicates, or what she writes to you, that she's afraid it won't be good enough."
"Yeah," Shawn agreed, "I heard Penny from Heaven. It would be hard to top that one, maybe it just overwhelms her or something, that whatever she writes won't nearly be good enough."
"But..." Dirk started, but he stopped himself. What point was there to argue with them, they would just counter anything he came back with anyway.
"You told her to prove it," Bjornar stated, leaning back into the seat, and proceeding to read his paper, "lets see her prove it."
"What does Besame Mucho mean?" Nichole asked, as Penny let her rifle through her cd collection. The two girls from the "binocular incident" (as Kathy put it) had just walked over and taken Penny up on the invitation she had extended to Christine a little while before. Penny could barely contain herself.
"Stick your tongue down my throat," Penny replied, suppressing a giggle. Nichole shrugged and returned the Dean Martin cd to the case. Kathy frowned.
"Is that what it really means?" she asked. This time, it was Christine's turn to try and suppress her laughter.
Penny wasn't sure which was worse. Nichole just blindly believing her, or Kathy having to ask. She shook her head as she put her crocheting back under the seat. "It means," Penny retorted, as she sat back up, "kiss me a lot. You guys are so easy."
Nichole briefly looked up at Penny and frowned as Kathy stuck out her bottom lip, as she dug a pen out of her purse. "Penny, can I interview you again?" she asked, as Christina started working on the Zima that Penny gave her. Penny frowned.
"For what?" she asked, watching Nichole continue to snoop through her cds.
"I'll just ask you questions and you can answer how Dirk would answer, seeing as how I'm probably not going to get a chance to anyway."
"Alright, go ahead."
"Full name?"
"William Dirk Monahan."
"Birthdate?"
"August 30, 1968."
"Age?"
"34."
"Parents?"
"Elizabeth and Wallace Monahan Jr."
"Siblings?"
"One sister, older I believe, her name escapes me at the moment."
"Birthplace?"
"Edinburgh, Scotland"
"Instrument of Choice?"
"Bass guitar."
"Vocal range?"
"I don't know, I'd say something between a heavy tenor and a light baritone."
"Hair and eyes?"
"Short, lightish brown hair, slightly thinning on top, but just enough to give him character, deep, beautiful green eyes."
Nichole sniffled. Christine elbowed her. "Height?" Kathy continued. "Five foot, seven inches," Penny replied, starting to get teary eyed again.
"Weight?"
"I don't know, just good enough?"
"What's his favorite song of his?"
"I don't know."
"What's his favorite song of yours?"
"I don't know."
"He never told you?" Nichole asked, looking up from the cd case. Penny's eyes looked downwards. "He told me once that he liked, Too Soon, Too Late," she replied, "but he never commented on anything else I did."
Nichole, in her 20 years on the planet, was under the impression that celebrities were like some kind of super human beings. It wasn't until she saw Penny start crying, that she realized they had feelings too. "Oh honey," Nichole cried, reaching over and putting her arms around Penny's shoulders, "don't cry, it's not over yet."
Christine leaned over towards Kathy, who was by now starting to cry as well. "We have to do something," she whispered, as Penny started crying on Nichole's shoulder.
"But what?" Kathy replied, wiping a tear away from her face, "he said she had to prove it. How are we going to help her prove it?"
Christine leaned back and sighed. She knew that answer just as well as anyone else in that car did, not at all.
* * *
Dirk was starting to feel slightly nauseated. He never did very well flying, and it was starting to show. As the plane hit a patch of turbulence, he gripped his armrest and opened his eyes wide with panic. "It's only turbulence mate," Lane remarked, trying his best not to laugh at Penny, who was sitting behind them, next to Val, singing a Squeeze song at the top of her lungs, "nothing to worry about."
"Easy for you to say," Dirk mumbled, "the damn thing feels like its breaking apart."
"Ah man, don't say things like that," Dom remarked, sitting across from Lane and was handling the whole ride just fine up until that point, "you know how my imagination is."
They all looked over at Dave, who was soundly sleeping in the seat across from Dirk. "How does he stay so calm?" Dirk sneered. Dom shrugged.
"He was always a motion baby," he replied, grinning. Dave, who apparently wasn't as asleep as they believed, proceeded to give his cousin the finger.
"What's up with Penny?" Dom asked, as she started giggling for reasons that completely eluded them, "did she have another wine cooler again?"
"No," Dirk replied, leaning over and grabbing an airsick bag from underneath his seat, "the decongestants must have just kicked in."
"Hey Penny," Lane called, grinning like a maniac. Penny took off her headphones.
"Yo Lane," she called back, "what's up?"
"What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephant coming over the hill wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap?"
"Oh Christ," Dirk mumbled, expecting the inevitable.
"Is this a trick question?" Penny asked, on the verge of a full-blown laugh attack.
"He didn't say anything," Lane replied, "he didn't recognize him."
Penny exploded into hysteria. Dirk sneered. He was already nauseated, now he was started to get annoyed. He normally didn't mind when Penny got giggly, but for some reason, it was really starting to eat at him.
Penny got out of her seat and knelt down next to his seat. "So," she whispered in his ear, "wanna join the Mile High Club?"
Dirk grabbed his airsick bag, and proceeded to vomit into it. "You gonna eat that mate?" Lane asked, jokingly, as Dirk closed up the bag. Penny reached over and grabbed a small packet of napkins out of her purse, and started to gently dab at his face, laughing at Lane's joke. "I can get that myself," Dirk snapped, pushing Penny's hand away. Penny recoiled as though he had slapped her. She stood up, and threw the napkin packet in his lap. "Fine then," she replied, "do it yourself, and you can choke on em for all I care, jerk."
Penny went back to her seat, returning the headphones to her ears, and turning up the volume on the cd player she was listening to. As Val leaned over and patted her on the shoulder, the rest of the band started staring at Dirk as though he had offended the Virgin Mary. "What?" he snapped, placing the bag back under the seat. "That was harsh," Dom sternly stated, as Lane just leaned back in his seat and looked out the window.
After a couple of minutes of complete silence, the realization of what he had done to the woman he loved, finally sank in. He turned to look at her. She was sitting sideways in her seat, with her knees pressed against her chest, her head leaning on the seat, and her hand covering her eyes. "Penny?" he called to her, chewing on a stick of spearmint gum that Dom had handed him.
Nothing.
"She can't hear you," Val yawned, peering at him from the top of her sunglasses, "she's got the volume on earthquake. Trade with me."
So, they traded seats. Dirk, as he knelt into the seat, leaned over and gently removed the headphone from Penny's ear, and pressed his mouth against it. "I'm dreadfully sorry," he whispered, "I never meant to hurt you.."
He then gently kissed her earlobe, then slide his mouth down her neck, then kissed her shoulder, placing his face in the crook of her neck. "I forgive you," she whispered, shuddering, despite herself. She took the headphones off, sat them on the seat behind her, turned completely around in her seat, sitting up completely, and then turned to face him. Dirk grabbed her hand and gently pulled her over to join him in his seat, and as soon as she slid in next to him, he took her face in his hands and hungrily kissed her.
And they stayed, locked in that embrace until the plane got ready to land in Honolulu.
Despite Penny's misgiving, the concert that night went perfectly well.
They landed in Honolulu, on time; they were greeted at the airport by about 200 (maybe more) screaming fans, holding up signs that read: "Penny Rules!" or "I love you Dom!" (if Dom had been a lesser man, he would have gone with his first instinct and taken the girl back to the hotel with him, as it was, he just blew her a kiss); the press conference went rather well, the members of the press were very polite and everyone had a good time. Dirk and the rest of the band, after checking into their hotel rooms, ran and caught some waves on the beach, while Penny took a quick nap before heading down to the concert hall to check out the set up with Marvin and other members of her band.
The concert went off without a hitch. Dirk (still forever the classic pessimist) was very surprised that during the band's whole set, no one in the audience started screaming for Penny or pelted him with tomatoes (one of his recurring nightmares). At one point, near the end of their set, Penny had run out and put a lai around Dirk's neck and ran back off, to which Lane remarked "Well folks, that'll be the first time Dirk's been lai'd since he got here!" (the whole thing was set up by both him and Penny), which sent the audience into howls of laughter.
Of course, he got Penny back by coming out during her performance of "Bigger than You" and slapping her rear end. Penny, despite wanting to break out laughing, kept her composure during the rest of her set.
Both Penny and Trouble did a three-song encore. Penny sang backup during their cover of "Too Much Time on My Hands"; Penny dueted with Dirk during a cover of "Listen Like Thieves" and Dirk played acoustic guitar for Penny for her "Too Soon, Too Late".
Everybody partied backstage, there were no fights, no one got obnoxiously drunk (Dave came close) and by the time she and Dirk fell asleep together in her room, Penny had completely forgotten about the incident on the plane.