Sad_Girl
Blue Crack Supplier
U2, unfortunately, are not mine. They are real people who I have written about here in a fictional situation that never happened. I don’t have their permission to use their likenesses, but I make no money from the story and it really is just all meant in good fun. Remember, please, that this is just a twisting, turning story out of my imagination which should not reflect upon the band or the individuals within it. It’s only make-believe. There will be some adult themes within this story, and almost undoubtedly a lot of offensive language. Read at your own discretion.
Catalina Chronicles Book 4:
Someone else’s dream
Chapter Four
No one said it would be easy
But no one said it’d be this hard
No one said it would be easy
No one thought we’d come this far
Sometimes I wonder who he’s picturing
When he looks at me and smiles
No one said it would be easy
No one said it’d be this hard…
from ‘No One Said It Would Be Easy’ by Sheryl Crow
“Why didn’t you tell me about this the first time he called?” Larry demanded, watching as Simone arranged the buffet table for the birthday party which was due to start any minute. She stole a glance at him, trying to figure out just what she had to do or say to get him to drop the subject, at least for a few hours. They could fight it out after their daughter’s first birthday was over.
He was standing on the other side of the island in the center of the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest, the ropy muscles in his arms flexing as if he were ready for a fistfight. Not that she would ever have to worry that Larry would hit her; he wasn’t the sort. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t want to hit something, though, and she hated to think about the first man at the party who said the wrong thing to him.
“Because I thought it was the sort of thing we should talk about face-to-face,” Simone explained as calmly as she could. “Obviously, I made a mistake.” She added bitterly.
“I just don’t see any good reason why your old boyfriend would start calling and asking if he could see you again that you wouldn’t tell me about,” he grumbled, relaxing a little at her self-blame.
“Pauley,” Simone corrected him. She moved hurriedly back and forth between the fridge and the buffet, worrying that she was going to run out of room.
“What?” Larry asked, scowling at her still.
“He wants to see Pauley, not me,” Simone replied distractedly. “There’s no reason to be jealous.”
“I’m not jealous,” Larry informed her, seeming very much like a pouting child. “Besides, I don’t know how healthy it is for Pauley to have this bloke just show up suddenly, announcing, ‘hey, guess what, I’m your dad!’”
“I don’t like it, either, but at the same time isn’t it better that he know his father? At least that he should have some idea who he is?” Simone argued, her voice softening as she stood directly in front of him, reaching out to rest her hands on his slender waist.
Larry sighed dejectedly, reaching out to bury one strong hand in her curly auburn hair, his thumb stroking her cheek gently. She smiled at him as he leaned close, nuzzling her nose with his. He was admitting defeat, though he was too proud to say it out loud. She didn’t need to hear the words, though. She was thrilled to have more or less settled the argument before the guests began to arrive.
“Oops!” They heard Cat declare as she stepped into the kitchen and caught the couple in what was clearly a private moment. “Getting started on the next baby already?” She teased, grinning at the way Larry’s cheeks pinkened. He tried to scowl at her, but his cheeks pulled upwards as he grinned against his will.
“Sod off,” he told her, tossing a handy dish towel in her direction. Cat easily avoided the assault with a sidestep and Simone knew the moment had passed. She finished arranging the food just as Laney arrived, carrying the cake carefully. She showed her where to set it, which Laney did gratefully.
“Where’s the birthday girl?” She asked, looking around at the brightly decorated kitchen and living room.
“She and Pauley are in the back yard playing,” Simone replied, fussing over the cake.
“Where do I put these, then?” Bono asked, appearing in the doorway with his arms so full of toys he might’ve been Santa Claus.
“What the…? I thought I told you no presents?!?” Larry reprimanded his friend, moving to help lighten the load.
“I have no recollection of that,” Bono joked. “Besides, if I can’t spoil your kids, whose kids can I spoil?”
“I think I just walked in at the wrong moment,” Adam said playfully as he stepped through the door with Lawry in his arms.
“Lawrence, you are getting so big!” Larry exclaimed, reaching out with his free hand to muss up the boys hair and make him giggle.
“Hi,” the boy said, to which Larry replied in kind. “Hi,” the baby said again, and Larry said it, too. Cat rolled her eyes.
“This could go on for hours,” she told Bono who was eying the kitchen table as a potential place to set down the bundle of gifts in his arms. Laney saw the look in her husband’s eye and hurried to help him find the gifts in the living room. When they returned, the other guests had arrived, including Edge and Tessa. Larry had been sent to fetch the birthday girl and her big brother.
“Does the frosting on this cake seem really thin in spots to you?” Simone was asking Cat, and Laney exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Bono. Bono smirked and ducked out the back door to find the children. Adam took Lawry out as well, and Larry followed.
“It seems things are going smoothly for the two of you,” Cat commented to Simone, trying to make it sound casual. Simone looked at Cat with her eyebrows raised in question.
“Sure, about the same as usual. Why?” She asked, pausing from her hurrying about to really study Cat’s face.
“Nothing. No reason. Just an observation,” Cat replied with a shrug.
“Are you and Adam having some sort of trouble?” Tessa asked, having overheard their not-quite-private conversation. Cat frowned and when she glanced around, she saw that she also had Laney’s full attention now. She sighed tiredly and rubbed her eyes as she decided how much to say.
“No, we’re not. Not really… I’m sure it’s normal. Since you had Lorna, things have slowed down between you and Larry, right?” Cat inquired of Simone, who nearly laughed out loud. Thankfully, she managed to catch herself before her amusement became audible.
“Uh… I assume you mean…” here she paused and glanced around to be sure it was only the four women in the kitchen. “in the bedroom?” She finished her sentence in a hushed voice, not wanting to risk Larry overhearing even part of this conversation. He would hate her discussing their sex life with anyone, but especially Cat. The two of them were like sulfur and phosphorus; highly combustible. Larry’s reactions to things were multiplied dramatically when it came to Catalina, and the same could be said of her.
Catalina nodded in response to her question.
“Well, at first, for obvious reasons, sure it did. Then, lately he’s been gone with the tour and all…” Simone replied, letting her voice drift off and hoping that would be enough.
“I feel silly for worrying,” Cat told her with a shy laugh.
“That’s why women talk to each other, isn’t it?” Tessa told her sweetly. Cat smiled with relief, and Simone couldn’t help but be a little pleased to know that things were just as hard to understand between Cat and Adam as they were for her with Larry. As Bono would say, there was a mysterious distance between a man and a woman.
****************************************************
Lunch was officially served soon after that and the guests helped themselves to whatever they wanted; Simone had enough food there for two armies, according to Larry. It had barely been half eaten even when the guests had all been served, and he teased her that they would be eating leftovers for the rest of the year.
After that, they cut the first piece of cake and lit the single candle on top for Lorna, who was so excited over it that Larry was quite worried she was going to burn herself. Pauley was more than happy to blow the candle out for her, though, so there was no chance of that happening. Simone put the cake on the tray of Lorna’s high-chair and the girl dug in immediately with both hands, squealing with glee.
Simone snapped so many pictures that she almost immediately had to change to a new roll of film, thankful that she had gotten the shot of Larry opening his mouth as if asking his little girl to share her cake, and then the next shot of Lorna smearing frosting on his nose with a chocolate covered hand.
Tessa was happily helping to cut the cake and serve it to the other guests, so Simone took the opportunity to sneak into the living room and snap a few pictures of the stack of neatly wrapped gifts before the lovely paper and ribbons were torn off and discarded. She was smiling to herself as she listened to the ruckus in the other room. It was a happy sort of ruckus, she thought. Then the front door opened and she heard someone step in. Before she could glance back at the late arrival, she heard him speak. The sound of his voice made her heart turn to stone.
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble for my sake, Moni,” he told her playfully. She didn’t have to look at him to know that he was smiling that cocky grin of his. Her hands began to shake, with fear or anger; most likely a bit of both.
“What are you doing here?” She demanded, finally turning to scowl at him. “This is my daughter’s birthday party…” she stopped when she saw the camera crew following him and shook her head adamantly. “Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!”
“Is it time to do the presents yet?” Trine asked from the hallway between the kitchen and living room. “Oh my…” she stopped short, words failing her as she recognized the young man in the doorway.
“Not yet, Trine. Keep everyone in the other room while I deal with this, please,” Simone replied, stepping forward and taking Toby by the shoulders, trying to guide him to turn and leave.
“Woah! You said I could meet my son, in case you’ve forgotten,” Toby objected, wrestling away from her and stepping further into the room.
“Yes, but not today! and not with a fucking camera crew following you around!” Simone objected. If there was one thing Larry hated, it was the media getting too nosy about his family. He was so protective of Pauley and Lorna that Simone developed her own photos of them in a private darkroom so that no one else had the chance to make a copy and leak it onto the internet.
Trine was so surprised at the scene playing out in front of her that she couldn’t seem to get her feet to carry her anywhere. All she could manage was to stand and stare.
“This is my life, Moni; I’ve agreed to let them film me for a year doing anything I do, big or small. This is one of the biggest things that’s happened to me, and I don’t think I should have to wait because of the show!” Toby objected, catching Simone’s arm by the wrist when she reached for him, trying to push him out the door again.
Suddenly there was a rush of activity as Larry caught a glimpse of what was happening and rushed in. The others were close behind, except for Tessa and some of the other women who were keeping the children corralled in the kitchen and out of harms way.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Larry demanded, charging Toby like a bull that was seeing red. Because of his slender build, most people underestimated Larry’s strength. Toby was one of them, because he cried out in shock as soon as Larry had his arm in an iron grip, making him release Simone’s wrist immediately.
“This must be Larry,” Toby said, glaring down into the older man’s eyes with a look which was half amusement and half irritation. His eyes scanned the room, looking over the faces behind Larry, stopping and staring when he saw Bono. “Fuck,” he mumbled, his eyes turning back to his ex-girlfriend. “I knew your new guy had to be rich, but no one fucking told me…” he let his words drift off as he considered his situation. Did he press his luck and risk pissing off one of the most influential men in the world?
“You’d better turn that fucking thing off!” Larry growled at the cameraman who had dared to continue recording. Fortunately, the man was smart enough to listen. Simone’s stomach ached with the fear and tension of the moment.
“Let’s go outside to talk this over,” She suggested gesturing for Toby to lead the way out the door. He paused for a moment as if expecting her to lock him out, but opted to trust her. Larry started to follow her, but she placed one of her slender hands on the center of his chest.
“Just him and I,” she told him firmly. When Larry opened his mouth to argue, Simone interrupted. “This is between him and me.”
“It’s about Pauley,” Larry objected in a hushed voice. “That makes it my business too, doesn’t it?”
“No,” Simone told him bluntly. She saw the muscles in Larry’s body tighten up reflexively, almost as if she’d reached out and slapped him. She felt an immediate pang of guilt, but forced herself to stick with her position. She’d done a lot of thinking about it lately, and she truly felt Toby had a right to know Pauley, and vice versa. She knew it might hurt Larry a bit at first, but he would get past the emotional difficulty of the situation and realize she was right.
Simone turned and walked away with Toby, settling on the swing which was on the deck overlooking the pool. Larry could see them, but not hear a word either one was saying.
“Ok, people, let’s get back to the party!” Bono declared, taking the attention off of his friend for the moment. He led the way back into the kitchen where he sang a round of ‘the hokey pokey’ and danced with the children.
“You all right?” Cat asked, stepping up behind Larry and gently touching his hand. He jerked away from her touch and scowled at her.
“I’m fine,” he lied. It was Cat’s turn to wince from the verbal out-lashing. Larry drew his cell phone out of his pocket and began dialing.
“Who are you calling?”
“Our lawyers. I want to make sure that tape is never viewed,” he said, turning and walking off, deeper into the house. Cat understood that he felt the need to react. He needed to be something other than just a bystander. He loved Pauley as if he were his son, and that bond was being threatened. She’d never known a man who was more devoted to his family.
Catalina Chronicles Book 4:
Someone else’s dream
Chapter Four
No one said it would be easy
But no one said it’d be this hard
No one said it would be easy
No one thought we’d come this far
Sometimes I wonder who he’s picturing
When he looks at me and smiles
No one said it would be easy
No one said it’d be this hard…
from ‘No One Said It Would Be Easy’ by Sheryl Crow
“Why didn’t you tell me about this the first time he called?” Larry demanded, watching as Simone arranged the buffet table for the birthday party which was due to start any minute. She stole a glance at him, trying to figure out just what she had to do or say to get him to drop the subject, at least for a few hours. They could fight it out after their daughter’s first birthday was over.
He was standing on the other side of the island in the center of the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest, the ropy muscles in his arms flexing as if he were ready for a fistfight. Not that she would ever have to worry that Larry would hit her; he wasn’t the sort. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t want to hit something, though, and she hated to think about the first man at the party who said the wrong thing to him.
“Because I thought it was the sort of thing we should talk about face-to-face,” Simone explained as calmly as she could. “Obviously, I made a mistake.” She added bitterly.
“I just don’t see any good reason why your old boyfriend would start calling and asking if he could see you again that you wouldn’t tell me about,” he grumbled, relaxing a little at her self-blame.
“Pauley,” Simone corrected him. She moved hurriedly back and forth between the fridge and the buffet, worrying that she was going to run out of room.
“What?” Larry asked, scowling at her still.
“He wants to see Pauley, not me,” Simone replied distractedly. “There’s no reason to be jealous.”
“I’m not jealous,” Larry informed her, seeming very much like a pouting child. “Besides, I don’t know how healthy it is for Pauley to have this bloke just show up suddenly, announcing, ‘hey, guess what, I’m your dad!’”
“I don’t like it, either, but at the same time isn’t it better that he know his father? At least that he should have some idea who he is?” Simone argued, her voice softening as she stood directly in front of him, reaching out to rest her hands on his slender waist.
Larry sighed dejectedly, reaching out to bury one strong hand in her curly auburn hair, his thumb stroking her cheek gently. She smiled at him as he leaned close, nuzzling her nose with his. He was admitting defeat, though he was too proud to say it out loud. She didn’t need to hear the words, though. She was thrilled to have more or less settled the argument before the guests began to arrive.
“Oops!” They heard Cat declare as she stepped into the kitchen and caught the couple in what was clearly a private moment. “Getting started on the next baby already?” She teased, grinning at the way Larry’s cheeks pinkened. He tried to scowl at her, but his cheeks pulled upwards as he grinned against his will.
“Sod off,” he told her, tossing a handy dish towel in her direction. Cat easily avoided the assault with a sidestep and Simone knew the moment had passed. She finished arranging the food just as Laney arrived, carrying the cake carefully. She showed her where to set it, which Laney did gratefully.
“Where’s the birthday girl?” She asked, looking around at the brightly decorated kitchen and living room.
“She and Pauley are in the back yard playing,” Simone replied, fussing over the cake.
“Where do I put these, then?” Bono asked, appearing in the doorway with his arms so full of toys he might’ve been Santa Claus.
“What the…? I thought I told you no presents?!?” Larry reprimanded his friend, moving to help lighten the load.
“I have no recollection of that,” Bono joked. “Besides, if I can’t spoil your kids, whose kids can I spoil?”
“I think I just walked in at the wrong moment,” Adam said playfully as he stepped through the door with Lawry in his arms.
“Lawrence, you are getting so big!” Larry exclaimed, reaching out with his free hand to muss up the boys hair and make him giggle.
“Hi,” the boy said, to which Larry replied in kind. “Hi,” the baby said again, and Larry said it, too. Cat rolled her eyes.
“This could go on for hours,” she told Bono who was eying the kitchen table as a potential place to set down the bundle of gifts in his arms. Laney saw the look in her husband’s eye and hurried to help him find the gifts in the living room. When they returned, the other guests had arrived, including Edge and Tessa. Larry had been sent to fetch the birthday girl and her big brother.
“Does the frosting on this cake seem really thin in spots to you?” Simone was asking Cat, and Laney exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Bono. Bono smirked and ducked out the back door to find the children. Adam took Lawry out as well, and Larry followed.
“It seems things are going smoothly for the two of you,” Cat commented to Simone, trying to make it sound casual. Simone looked at Cat with her eyebrows raised in question.
“Sure, about the same as usual. Why?” She asked, pausing from her hurrying about to really study Cat’s face.
“Nothing. No reason. Just an observation,” Cat replied with a shrug.
“Are you and Adam having some sort of trouble?” Tessa asked, having overheard their not-quite-private conversation. Cat frowned and when she glanced around, she saw that she also had Laney’s full attention now. She sighed tiredly and rubbed her eyes as she decided how much to say.
“No, we’re not. Not really… I’m sure it’s normal. Since you had Lorna, things have slowed down between you and Larry, right?” Cat inquired of Simone, who nearly laughed out loud. Thankfully, she managed to catch herself before her amusement became audible.
“Uh… I assume you mean…” here she paused and glanced around to be sure it was only the four women in the kitchen. “in the bedroom?” She finished her sentence in a hushed voice, not wanting to risk Larry overhearing even part of this conversation. He would hate her discussing their sex life with anyone, but especially Cat. The two of them were like sulfur and phosphorus; highly combustible. Larry’s reactions to things were multiplied dramatically when it came to Catalina, and the same could be said of her.
Catalina nodded in response to her question.
“Well, at first, for obvious reasons, sure it did. Then, lately he’s been gone with the tour and all…” Simone replied, letting her voice drift off and hoping that would be enough.
“I feel silly for worrying,” Cat told her with a shy laugh.
“That’s why women talk to each other, isn’t it?” Tessa told her sweetly. Cat smiled with relief, and Simone couldn’t help but be a little pleased to know that things were just as hard to understand between Cat and Adam as they were for her with Larry. As Bono would say, there was a mysterious distance between a man and a woman.
****************************************************
Lunch was officially served soon after that and the guests helped themselves to whatever they wanted; Simone had enough food there for two armies, according to Larry. It had barely been half eaten even when the guests had all been served, and he teased her that they would be eating leftovers for the rest of the year.
After that, they cut the first piece of cake and lit the single candle on top for Lorna, who was so excited over it that Larry was quite worried she was going to burn herself. Pauley was more than happy to blow the candle out for her, though, so there was no chance of that happening. Simone put the cake on the tray of Lorna’s high-chair and the girl dug in immediately with both hands, squealing with glee.
Simone snapped so many pictures that she almost immediately had to change to a new roll of film, thankful that she had gotten the shot of Larry opening his mouth as if asking his little girl to share her cake, and then the next shot of Lorna smearing frosting on his nose with a chocolate covered hand.
Tessa was happily helping to cut the cake and serve it to the other guests, so Simone took the opportunity to sneak into the living room and snap a few pictures of the stack of neatly wrapped gifts before the lovely paper and ribbons were torn off and discarded. She was smiling to herself as she listened to the ruckus in the other room. It was a happy sort of ruckus, she thought. Then the front door opened and she heard someone step in. Before she could glance back at the late arrival, she heard him speak. The sound of his voice made her heart turn to stone.
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble for my sake, Moni,” he told her playfully. She didn’t have to look at him to know that he was smiling that cocky grin of his. Her hands began to shake, with fear or anger; most likely a bit of both.
“What are you doing here?” She demanded, finally turning to scowl at him. “This is my daughter’s birthday party…” she stopped when she saw the camera crew following him and shook her head adamantly. “Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!”
“Is it time to do the presents yet?” Trine asked from the hallway between the kitchen and living room. “Oh my…” she stopped short, words failing her as she recognized the young man in the doorway.
“Not yet, Trine. Keep everyone in the other room while I deal with this, please,” Simone replied, stepping forward and taking Toby by the shoulders, trying to guide him to turn and leave.
“Woah! You said I could meet my son, in case you’ve forgotten,” Toby objected, wrestling away from her and stepping further into the room.
“Yes, but not today! and not with a fucking camera crew following you around!” Simone objected. If there was one thing Larry hated, it was the media getting too nosy about his family. He was so protective of Pauley and Lorna that Simone developed her own photos of them in a private darkroom so that no one else had the chance to make a copy and leak it onto the internet.
Trine was so surprised at the scene playing out in front of her that she couldn’t seem to get her feet to carry her anywhere. All she could manage was to stand and stare.
“This is my life, Moni; I’ve agreed to let them film me for a year doing anything I do, big or small. This is one of the biggest things that’s happened to me, and I don’t think I should have to wait because of the show!” Toby objected, catching Simone’s arm by the wrist when she reached for him, trying to push him out the door again.
Suddenly there was a rush of activity as Larry caught a glimpse of what was happening and rushed in. The others were close behind, except for Tessa and some of the other women who were keeping the children corralled in the kitchen and out of harms way.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Larry demanded, charging Toby like a bull that was seeing red. Because of his slender build, most people underestimated Larry’s strength. Toby was one of them, because he cried out in shock as soon as Larry had his arm in an iron grip, making him release Simone’s wrist immediately.
“This must be Larry,” Toby said, glaring down into the older man’s eyes with a look which was half amusement and half irritation. His eyes scanned the room, looking over the faces behind Larry, stopping and staring when he saw Bono. “Fuck,” he mumbled, his eyes turning back to his ex-girlfriend. “I knew your new guy had to be rich, but no one fucking told me…” he let his words drift off as he considered his situation. Did he press his luck and risk pissing off one of the most influential men in the world?
“You’d better turn that fucking thing off!” Larry growled at the cameraman who had dared to continue recording. Fortunately, the man was smart enough to listen. Simone’s stomach ached with the fear and tension of the moment.
“Let’s go outside to talk this over,” She suggested gesturing for Toby to lead the way out the door. He paused for a moment as if expecting her to lock him out, but opted to trust her. Larry started to follow her, but she placed one of her slender hands on the center of his chest.
“Just him and I,” she told him firmly. When Larry opened his mouth to argue, Simone interrupted. “This is between him and me.”
“It’s about Pauley,” Larry objected in a hushed voice. “That makes it my business too, doesn’t it?”
“No,” Simone told him bluntly. She saw the muscles in Larry’s body tighten up reflexively, almost as if she’d reached out and slapped him. She felt an immediate pang of guilt, but forced herself to stick with her position. She’d done a lot of thinking about it lately, and she truly felt Toby had a right to know Pauley, and vice versa. She knew it might hurt Larry a bit at first, but he would get past the emotional difficulty of the situation and realize she was right.
Simone turned and walked away with Toby, settling on the swing which was on the deck overlooking the pool. Larry could see them, but not hear a word either one was saying.
“Ok, people, let’s get back to the party!” Bono declared, taking the attention off of his friend for the moment. He led the way back into the kitchen where he sang a round of ‘the hokey pokey’ and danced with the children.
“You all right?” Cat asked, stepping up behind Larry and gently touching his hand. He jerked away from her touch and scowled at her.
“I’m fine,” he lied. It was Cat’s turn to wince from the verbal out-lashing. Larry drew his cell phone out of his pocket and began dialing.
“Who are you calling?”
“Our lawyers. I want to make sure that tape is never viewed,” he said, turning and walking off, deeper into the house. Cat understood that he felt the need to react. He needed to be something other than just a bystander. He loved Pauley as if he were his son, and that bond was being threatened. She’d never known a man who was more devoted to his family.
Ok i just wanna read it again. Any excuse. 
