Sometimes you just gotta let your hair down and just drive.
Knowing the backroads of Phoenix like the back of her hand, Stevie revved up what used to be her now ex-husband's Dodge Charger as she drove down the backroads with no destination, with nowhere to go, she just needed to getaway. Everything was changing so quickly, and even though she was the one that filed for divorce and quickly pushed it through, it still was the fact that it was happening. Lindsey Buckingham was a man she had loved since she was seventeen years ago, and she probably would until she died. He was a man who got her into Fleetwood Mac, who helped her with countless songs over the years, gave the best advice when it came to the business, taught her everything she knows about producing, went to rehab with her, made her a mother and things she couldn’t even remember.
He also made her feel like sh*t, threw guitars at her, mocked her on stage more than once, introduced her to cocaine, left her in the dust more times than she cares to count. Abused her, cheated on her when he was the only man she was even loyal to, and left her alone at a time where she needed him the most. The final straw was throwing their daughter in her face, him screaming how he blamed her because she was a ‘stubborn dumb bitch who couldn’t just listen’. Stevie was tired, she was tired of the abuse, tired of always wondering what version of Lindsey she’d get when she woke up everyday.
Pulling the car into an empty parking lot, Stevie would put the car in park right in the middle of the parking lot before shutting it off. Grabbing the small bag on the floor, Stevie would open the car door and step out before shutting it behind her. Looking around, not a soul near where she is and wanting it that way, Stevie walked around to the front of the Charger before sitting the bag on it. Opening it, she grabbed a few photographs out of it and a lighter before letting out a heavy sigh and placing the papers on the bag she took them out of. One by one, Stevie grabbed a photograph and looked at it before taking a lighter to the corner of it to engulf it in flames as she dropped it down on the ground. Vacation pictures, pictures from when he did songs with her during her one-night-only show in Phoenix in April, pictures of their weekend in Aspen when they got married. Before she knew it Stevie was through the small stack with only one piece of paper left -- her marriage license. Looking at it in her hand, memories of how he proposed hit her head, how she’d finally had everything in life that she wanted and it was with him -- and then it all went to sh*t. It wasn’t that getting the prize was the letdown, it was as much as he claimed he changed over the years he hadn’t changed one bit.
Feeling a few tears fill her eyes, Stevie blinked a few times before she took the lighter to the left corner of the license. Holding it between her index and thumb as long as she could, only dropping it when she almost burned herself, Stevie looked down at it feeling a sense of freedom overtake her body as the paper burned. While she was looking down the sun shined just right where she was standing to where she saw a small glare on her hand as she remembered something she had on - her wedding ring. Looking at it, Stevie would clear her throat before taking the same index and thumb she used to hold the paper to grab the ring, sliding it into the middle of the palm of her hand as she did so. Looking at it briefly, Stevie would grab it with her other hand before she pulled her arm back and threw it as far as she could. As she did so, she felt a chill hit her spine that she only felt when she absolutely needed to - and this was one of those moments. ”I love you too, babygirl.” Stevie choked back a few tears before she’d turn and walk towards the driver’s side of the Charger and climb back in
Once in, she went to toss the empty bag on the passenger's side as she saw the demo disk that had the final cut of the soon she was releasing next week with Maroon 5. The irony of a breakup song like this that she recorded a few months ago to come out on the heels of her divorce. Grabbing the CD case and opening it, Stevie would take the disk out before putting it in the player, hanging halfway out while she started the car. Pushing it in, Stevie took a deep breath while she hit the buttons to roll the windows down. Grabbing her sunglasses off the top of her head and placing them on her face, she would turn the stereo in the car as high as it’d go as she would take the Charger and drive it through the ashes of what she had burned before pulling out of the empty parking lot and flooring it home. He and she had ended things before, but it was never this bad, and Stevie wasn’t any more serious about it than she was this time. There was no going back for them, and for the first time in her life, being away from Lindsey Buckingham was perfectly okay for Stevie Nicks. It was time for her to do things she wanted and do them for herinstead of trying to please him. Even after just turning seventy three years old, she felt a new outlook and feeling about life - and life without him was going to be better than she ever could imagine; Stevie is going to make fucking sure of it.
