Every time you make a move

Friends Will Be Friends-Pt 2

Garden Lodge, 9:30am

"The rest of the boys have agreed to take on Live Aid, Fred. Bob is pulling his neck out for you but needs an answer by tonight, what have you got to lose?"

Freddie was sitting in one of the white monobloc chairs next to his pond of expensive koi carp with Tiffany contently purring on his lap as Jim Beach's words played in his head. The proposition for the charity concert had been on his mind for some time, and now he was faced with an ultimatum as it seemed that Bob Geldof wasn't giving in. As if a tough decision to make wasn't bad enough he was waiting for Monica to come back with her (in his eyes) unwelcome old friend at any minute.

Whilst waiting to take his mind off one thing or another, Freddie tried to figure out what it was that he had to lose, "Queen had been part of me since the boys and I were trying to get a big break whilst Mary and I practically starved. Not to mention that when David stepped in and ended our six years, or at least my goddamn sexual appetite ended it anyway. The band was at its peak then really... then along came my Monica, and then those two followed..."

He looked at Johnny and Roshni playing across the garden at that moment, and started picturing what their future would be like if Queen were to be hit by another wave of success. He didn't want them to be known as 'Freddie Mercury's kids' like they were at their old school St Barnabas, especially after what happened to them on their last day there. Naturally, he wanted them to be recognised for more than that. And he knew that if he himself got any form of media attention then the price of fame would implicate their lives even further.

"What do you think, Tiff?" Freddie cooed as he affectionately scratched the ragdoll cat behind her whiskers, "Should Monica and I consider home-schooling them? You wouldn't like that, would you? Me neither, they might try and shear your coat off again"

Tiffany silently hopped off his lap and onto the grass, and kicked fleas out of her leathery brown ears with her fluffy back leg.

Freddie sighed and looked back at his children as they picked twigs and leaves up off the grass. Despite Freddie's best efforts to turn his daughter into Elizabeth Taylor, Roshni had gotten her own way in the wardrobe and was now wearing her pastel pink Andy Pandy-like overalls with her long sleeved blue sweatshirt underneath. It was the nicest attire she owned that wasn't a dreaded skirt or a party dress, and Johnny was forced by his father into wearing his closely matching mint green stripe overalls over his red sweatshirt to correspond with his twin sister, much to his dismay.

"Monica better be damn pleased with the job when she gets back. How dare she force this situation upon me," he thought, his fists clenching in irritation, "And her friend better not ask me to play the piano or sing anything either... I'll leave Johnny do that bit. He was like me when I was his age, he will be more than happy to show off-"

"Hey, stop playing with that!"

From inside the piano room, Phoebe suddenly knocked on the window he was in the middle of cleaning to catch the attention of the twins who were standing around the round stone cherub bird bath, stirring the rainwater with fallen twigs in their hands, "You'll get your clean clothes all muddied up and stained!"

"But we're pretending to be witches!" Roshni shouted back.

Johnny followed, "We're making a potion and this is our cauldron!"

"Oh, fuck no..." Freddie pushed himself up off his seat and marched towards them, ordering, "Listen to Pheoebe and step away from that filthy thing! You don't know what's been in it"

Johnny and Roshni groaned in protest as their father grabbed them by the hand and was ready to walk them away from the birdbath when there was a jingle of the house keys over the wall and the locks cracking in the bottle green front gate. Monica was back with her friend Paula, and sooner than he would've liked.