Page 119 of Stage Dive: Short Stories & Novellas
“No, Tommy.Please don’t put that up your nose.Thank you, son.I appreciate your restraint.”Mal gave his wife a look.“Definitely gets that from your side of the family, Pumpkin.”
“While it’s been great to share all of this deeply personal information with our nearest and dearest,” said Anne, “why don’t we revisit this topic once the tour is over and we’ve had a chance to catch our breath?”
Mal pressed a kiss to her lips.
Just then, the string quartet started playingJacksonby Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.One of my all-time favorite songs and kind of relevant to how we’d started.Because we sure had gotten married in a fever.A drunken one.Next a stupendous croquembouche decorated with bright fresh flowers and golden lines of delicate spun sugar was wheeled in with much pomp and pageantry.Everyone started clapping.
“Cake,” yelled Tommy.
“Wow.Who did this?”I asked, my face hurting from smiling so hard.
Jimmy sketched me a bow from across the room, and I blew him a kiss.Best brother-in-law ever.
David slipped his hands beneath my hair, placing a white gold diamond solitaire pendant around my neck.“Happy anniversary, baby.”
“Oh my, God.It’s beautiful.”I wound my arms around his neck and held on tight.“Thank you.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead.“I love you.”
“I love you too,” I said, getting teary.“Everything is absolutely perfect.”
He gave me a devil may care grin.“And it’s going to stay that way.”
Everything was about as far from perfect as it could get.Life-altering things have a habit of happening to me on bathroom floors.Approximately seven years and eight and a bit months ago I woke up in Vegas hungover and married to a rock star.Now this was happening…
“Oh, fuck!”
Another tight and terrible cramp seized me around the middle.I gritted my teeth and panted and just generally did my best to live through it.Damn, it hurt.And they were coming closer together now.Somehow I was going to have to get to my feet and reach the cell I’d left on the bed.I’d put off calling an ambulance, but this was ridiculous.Obviously something was very wrong.The pain eased, though the general tightness didn’t.But at least I could catch my breath.
Why the hell did this have to happen now, today of all days?I was looking forward to joining David for the last few cities of the tour.Stage Dive had been at it for almost a year, circling the globe.I’d been with them off and on, trying to juggle managing my coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, and spending time with my man.
Music streaming services paying next to nothing meant bands needed to tour more now than ever.It wasn’t an easy lifestyle to maintain.However, it was almost time for them to come home.I planned to hang out with my husband for the last few shows, then we’d come back together.Which made it the worst damn time for something to go wrong with my insides.
“Child Bride?”The concerned and somewhat surprised voice came from the general vicinity of the living room.“Where are you?”
“Mal?I’m in the bathroom off the main bedroom.”
Heavy footsteps rushed up the hallway toward me as I wiped the sweat off my face and wrapped my robe a little tighter.I thought a hot shower would help, and it had for a while.I stood in there with the spray on my back.Now, however, everything sucked to the extreme.
The drummer stuck his blond head around the doorway, and his eyes went wide.“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.”And I was done.Guess it was the knowledge I was no longer alone.I burst into tears.“I-I think it’s a kidney stone, maybe.Or just really bad period cramps.”
“Shit.”
“Call an ambulance.”
“Yes.Right.On it,” he said, pulling his cell out of one of the pockets in his battered black leather jacket.“Yes, hello, my friend is in real bad pain.She thinks it’s a kidney stone or period cramps.”He listened for a moment before putting his cell on speaker, turning to me.“She’s in her late twenties.Ev, describe the pain.When did it start and stuff like that?”
“Um.I had this weird back pain all day while I was working at the café.Then I came home to pack and it just got worse and worse.”I stopped to suck in a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling, trying to hold myself together.“I keep needing to sit on the toilet.Like I want to push something out, but nothing’s coming out.And the cramps or whatever they keep coming in like waves, closer and closer together.They’re really bad.”
“Ma’am,” said the voice over the cell.“How far apart are the cramps?”
“Every minute or so now.”Which was when another ripped through me.“God…fuck!”
“Pre-existing conditions?”
Unable to speak, I shook my head.
