Faking It • Queen FanFiction

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 50

꧁ Aᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's Nᴏᴛᴇ: ꧂
𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒, 𝐼 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑟 :)
𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑡, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑡. 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐴𝑆𝐴𝑃 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟.
𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑤 ꨄ

It certainly did strike Bernie as very suspicious indeed that she was being forced to go out by herself on her birthday. A tiny part of her was hoping that they were planning something, but reality told her that Queen had listened to what she said when she claimed that her birthday was no big deal and left her to her own devices. It was true: she never liked her birthday; growing older; feeling less natural about not being settled; having to relive the memory from her twenty fourth birthday.

28th September, 1973: (!trigger warning!)

"Happy birthday, princess," he'd said, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a kiss atop her head. "I didn't get time to buy you anything, so here's your gift instead." Then his hands dropped lower and started caressing her rear, whilst he waited for her to kiss him in the way he loved the most. The thoughtlessness of his 'gift' stung, but Bernie complied and began to kiss him, introducing her tongue earlier than usual. "You're amazing," he sighed, halfheartedly paying attention to giving her a good time and instead ripping off her shirt to reveal her breasts, his favourite part of her. His head ducked and he began kissing them, which no longer ignited a spark in the bottom of her stomach that roared with life at the feeling. Instead, she wanted to cover up and perhaps go out somewhere to celebrate her birthday, but once he'd started, there was no stopping him. By the end of the night, people would be wondering who's birthday it truly was, as her 'gift' from Holden certainly wasn't at the top of her wishlist...

(trigger warning end)

Back in 1975...

Every year that memory resurfaced along with many others and every year she tried with all her might to repress it. And what a better way to block out the bad than shopping? By herself... nonetheless, she decided to spend Freddie's gift of ten pounds and enjoy every penny of it. Plus, she was so ready to see his excited face when she were to show him everything she'd bought with the money.

As it happened, Wales did not disappoint. It had plenty of little second hand shops, fashionable clothes shops and other ones dotted here and there, leading down winding streets and along the sides of rivers. Usually, it would definitely be too cold to wear what she was wearing at this time of year, but the air was still, making Bernie perfectly comfortable as the number of paper shopping bags she carried around with her multiplied. After a couple of hours or so, she'd only spent under half of Freddie's money, as she was saving the most exciting looking shops until after her coffee break.

Scouring around for the sweetest looking one, she ducked inside a bright café and eyed the menu. Everything sounded mouth-wateringly delicious and it all tempted her. The strawberry whipped milkshake, the frothy toffee cappuccino, the berry burst fruit cooler and the hazelnut craze latte all sounded much too appealing for her to decide from immediately.

"Hello. I'd like to order a...what do you recommend, it all looks great!" Bernie consulted the young woman, younger than her, working at the counter.

"Now that's a good question. On a day like this, I'd say the fruit berry cooler, comes with a tiny umbrella," she said cheerily, which instantly won Bernie over.

"A large one of those then please."

Just over five minutes later and Bernie was sat at the smallest table for two by the window, overlooking the river with the faintest slither of the sea on the horizon line. There was a comfortable hustle and bustle about the place and the pastel decorations gave the place a mid-summer attraction to it. "Here you go," the girl from the counter brought over Bernie's drink and placed it on her table. "I love your outfit by the way, I could never suit something like that."

"Thank you, and of course you can! Look at you, don't say that about yourself." Bernie humorously scolded and the friendly waitress just blushed and went back to serving customers. The first sip of Bernie's drink was absolutely heavenly. The cold drink tingled on her tongue for a moment before quenching her thirst instantly as it travelled down to her stomach. If she hadn't have wanted to savour every drop of the thick smoothie-like beverage, it would have been gone in thirty seconds flat. Its sweetness was perfectly balanced with its bitter sourness and Bernie decided that this was the taste of summer. Through and through.

"Brian! Fred, Rog, Deaks, I'm back!" Bernie stormed straight into the recording studio upon returning to Rockfield after her blissful day out, laden with bags of excitement, only to realise that the studio was entirely empty. And by the looks of it, nobody had been in there since that morning as empty mugs sat on the side. "Oh." Turning back around disappointedly, she went to the main house to go and put all of her shopping into her shared room with Roger. Of course he wouldn't mind that they were sat very prominently in the way...

Upstairs, the guaranteed privacy of upstairs, Bernie couldn't help but feel discouraged: it was her birthday and nobody, even Brian, seemed to care. Obviously his and Freddie's presents were extremely generous, more than she ever would have asked for, but nobody was even present to see her on her special day. Okay, maybe her birthday had lost its shine after what happened two years ago, but she at least hoped her favourite people would be around to spend time with her. That wasn't selfish or irrational, right?

So instead, she decided to call Flo, as she hadn't spoken to her sister for a few days and she'd definitely have finished her shift by now, if she wasn't round June's. On the third ring, Flo picked up, sounding slightly breathless. "Hello?"

"Hi Flo. Are you okay, or were you having a shag?"

"No, I was hoovering, you cheeky sod. You've been spending too much time with those blokes. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BERNIE!!" She yelled down the line, and Bernie held the phone at arms length, worrying for the welfare of her eardrums.

"Thanks Flo. It's been pretty lonesome so far, I so wish you were here. Birthdays are so dull without you," it was true. Flo was the designated party planner of the family and boy, did she throw a wicked celebratory bash. Her and Freddie would make an excellent event planning team, they'd be raking in millions.

The conversation was interrupted by a gentle knock on the door. "Bernie?" John called from the hallway, not wanting to come barging in in case she wasn't decent.

"Oops, gotta go, bye Flo, I love you."

1/3/23 - Happy March! No way is this the 50th Chapter?!?! Thank you for the support and there'll be plenty of excitement in the future <3