Classic Rock Band Imagine #4: Bob Dylan (Solo Musician): Dylan x (Female) Reader
Imagine running into Bob Dylan at a small post-concert shindig that your manager forced you to attend.Â
Warning: Mentions of drug use, death, and suicidal ideation.
26 May 1966. London.
âSo, youâre a glamour girl now, huh?âÂ
He laughs, sadly, hit with the urge to smoke.Â
Again. â
A joint would do him good for now. A fat one, preferably. One fat enough to make him just forget.
âForget about all those pigheaded assholes and their labeling of him as some oracle who magically held all the answers to life.
âOnce he plugged in his Fender Stratocaster, they catapulted him with jeers and boos and jibes. Cried, âWhat the fuck happened to you, man?â as though he had been some pet monkey who lived and existed solely for their consumption.
But he needs even more to forget about the girl standing before him. Or, rather, the memories he has of you.Â
Namely, of you and him.
You chuckle, albeit dryly. âWell, it appears to be that way, donât it?â You toy with the hem of your blouse, eyes dropped down to your feet. Because God knows what could be behind those baby blue eyes of his if you ever dare to find them.Â
You have neither the heart, nor the stomach, for it.Â
To make matters worse, the Ray-Ban Wayfarer shades he has since become known for wearing are not on his face. â
Bob rummages in the breast of his coat for a loose smoke. But for anything, really. If he keeps still, he will go fucking insane.Â
âYou know, I, uh, see you on them magazines. I see you on the newspaper stands. All the time. On the cover of that whatâs it called, that Harperâs Bazaar, whatever it is.â
âIâve shot for that one, yeah.âÂ
You find his eyes.Â
And you would be a damned liar if you said you didnât miss them. Two years later, and still, you ache for him. You love him still â as much as it absolutely nauseates you.Â
You add, in an unusually nonchalant tone, âBritish Vogue and Mademoiselle, too. Oh, and Vogue Paris. Shot for them a few times.â
âGuess I still gotta get used to you beinâ all dolled up.â He forces out a half-assed chuckle. âNames I didnât even think about.âÂ
âDamn if it doesnât nauseate him to pretend to not be in anguish when it clearly reads on his face.Â
And really, he wants to scream, âWoman, who even are you?â at you. But, to be fair, he hasnât a clue to whom he became, either. â64 was the last time either of you had been normal.
Or perhaps âunbrokenâ would have been a better word.Â
Perhaps it was he who had broken you with all of his broken promises.
No doubt, the guilt had broken him.
You scoff. âDid you really expect me to be the same olâ homely girl singinâ for change up in East Village? Iâm allowed to change, arenât I? Well, I am. Just like you.â
âJust like you.âÂ
Three words that gash deeper than any jeer of âtraitor!â or âJudas!â from any angry folk purist ever could.
For so long, he lamented your burgeoning modeling career, persuaded that you would have been consumed by a world that had not even existed. And the sweet peach you once were would have came back merely a bitter and rotten pit. Those ravenous and parasitic industry hounds would have gladly taken everything from you.
And with no reward on your end. And that girl he came to know and befriend and love will have been nothing more than a husk of herself.â
You had been all in his head as he scribbled âTo Ramonaâ furiously on an old, discarded napkin.
For so long, he had deemed himself to be above the smoke and mirrors that seemed to have lured you in.Â
Until you reminded him that he wasnât.
Sex and drugs and madness and despair.Â
The monstrous cycle that each musician found himself succumbing to, he soon followed.
Before you stood an agitated, erratic shell of the awkwardly charming Midwestern boy whose rugged denim overalls loosely fit his stout, ample legs. Now, they are scraggly twigs, having grown limp from three days of no sleep. And the pills, among other things, have made his mind troubled and uneasy. Frantic. Just last night, he nailed the best-looking broad who lacked just enough self respect to throw herself at him.
All while Sara nurses their newborn son at home.
Different, he surely is not.
Silence suddenly befalls you both, deadening the exchange. But the pangs of regret linger among you.
Regret about his failure to see your engagement through. Regret about his unwillingness to be faithful to you. Regret about the miscarriage that he knew for a fact damaged you.
Hell, it damaged him, too. More than he cared to admit.
And yet, he abandoned you still. For that same mythical world he cautioned you against.
* * *
The silence dissipates, at last, once you set eyes on his frame. He looks sick and damn near dead. âYouâre not eating much, are you?â
âAnd youâre askinâ me that, why?âÂ
He groans.Â
I get this shit enough from Albert. Iâm done hearinâ âbout it.
ââCause it donât look like you are, thatâs for damn sure!â
âSure. Maybe he would have looked better with extra pounds put on. But still, he does not need fifty different people telling him what he already knew.Â
Itâs no oneâs fucking business, either.
But you were never the type to bite your tongue. And he knows it.Â
ââChrist, [Y/N].â He slaps a hand on his brow to rub a pulsing temple. âNot like you gotta see me naked anymore.ââ
âOh, weâre well past that.â
âI know, but sometimes,â he confesses, âI wish we werenât.â He runs a calloused thumb across the fullness of your lip, organic in its pout. âI dunno, babe. I still crave those lips from time to time.â
âTuh! The only lips you should be cravingâ â you pull back from his taunting caress â âare the ones that belong to your wife.â
You spit the word âwifeâ with perhaps a bit of resentment. Because had he really loved you as he claimed to have, it could have been you.Â
You were still mourning the loss of your baby when he called it quits. You lost both of your loves all at once.
And your dream of an autumn wedding would have stayed merely a dream.
âSilhouettesâ by The Rays sounds on the stereo.Â
You both remembered it as one of your favorite old records to make love to. Pairs of bodies begin to merge all around you, stumbling rhythmically in a tight embrace. You felt sick.Â
âI gotta go,â you stutter, frantically, before charging out of the suite with a light, fast clunking of the heels.Â
And there, he stands alone, amidst the barrage of dancing lovers. You have abandoned him, as he had done to you a couple springs ago.
Serves me right.
You were gone.
âAnd, perhaps, for good.
He leaves the suite for his room. Knowing the risk, he decides to wash down a couple downers with the meager swallow left from his nearly empty bottle of wine.Â
If I die, I just die.
He blinks at the typewriter in front of him all night.Â
He feels his insides churn whenever he thinks of how badly he hurt you.
And all of a sudden, dying doesnât seem so bad.












