Stories of the Flock Through Music: Brick
By MyNameIsCAL
Song by Ben Folds Five
After FANG. Move to the future. Dylan and Max find themselves knee deep in a relationship that Max feels is not right. When the irreversible happens, Dylan realizes something. The original song, written by Ben Folds and Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five drummer) about Ben Folds' high school girlfriend and how they had to go through abortion.
-Dylan's POV-
6am day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
Here we are, far from where things should be. Max was right. Those people that created me, along with Jeb, they lied.
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb
It's barely morning, but we're in New York City, far from where the rest of the flock is. I convinced her to get away now that Fang's been gone for five years. Now that we had time to ourselves.
Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
"Max, are you ready?" I ask her.
She looks up at me. "Let's go."
I let her lead me out of the apartment and we make our way into my car. She says nothing as we head towards the hospital.
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before
Max was supposed to be the one. I loved her, or at least I thought I did. She was special in so many ways. And now that she's pregnant with my child, I realized how wrong this all was. I had gotten ahead of myself, wrapped up in what I wanted, what I thought I was supposed to do, but not what I needed or what was best for Max.
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Last night on the phone, all she did was cry. I felt like I was drowning in her pain. We would have been better off staying with the others. I should have listened to them. I should have listened to Max. How did we let ourselves get this far?
They call her name at 7:30
I pace around the parking lot
Then I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got
I'm not family so they don't tell me and I leave her there. The doctor knows I'm the father of the life we will be taking away. Max is too fragile, too mentally unstable to deal with it. As much as the both of us wanted to save it, we knew we couldn't. The life we lived was not one for a child.
The waiting room seems colder than outside, so I go to the parking lot, snow now falling, the sun nowhere in sight. I watch my breath and lean against my car, feeling lightheaded.
Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for
Now she's feeling more alone
Than she ever has before
The truth was that Max was still in love with Fang, wherever he was. Those nights we had spent together, talking, promising each other that we'd stick it out to the end, she was really wishing I was Fang, and I would never be him.
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
This was always a train wreck waiting to happen. I remember sitting in the hospital weeks ago with Max, wondering what could be wrong with her. They told her she was pregnant.
As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me, "son, it's time to tell the truth"
And I confessed to the doctor it was me.
She broke down, and I broke down
Cause I was tired of lying
We weren't living reality. I remember crying when I was alone, no one to talk to. How was I supposed to live with this?
Driving back to her apartment
For the moment we're alone
Yeah she's alone
I'm alone
Now I know it
But after this, we had no one. Or at least I wouldn't. There was no way I could ever show my face to the flock, Max's flock. Maybe she was ashamed too. Whatever the future had in store for us, it wasn't going to be us together.
I say goodbye to Max after helping her into her apartment. She says goodbye back and closes the door. For a while, I stand there, and then I walk away, wondering if Max will last another fifteen years.
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
In no way do I support abortion. But I listened to this song, wondering how Ben Folds might have felt, that he was brave enough to write this song and actually tell his fans what it's about. It inspired me.
And I know these songfics don't seem as great as my stories, but it's a little break for me from writing my stories. They're something I can write in a short span of time and not get too attached to what's going on, nothing too complicated to figure out.
Thanks for reading.