I'm in the kitchen, sitting on the counter, with my book in my hand, eating cherries from a bowl, waiting for the kettle to boil, when all of a sudden, the door barges open and a pair of drum sticks are flung in the room. One of them –as my luck would have it – fly in my direction and hits me on the cheek. "Those bastards!" Roger fumed, walking through the door, not realizing that he nearly took my fucking eye out.
"Roger, what the fuck!?" I yelled, wincing at the pain, and rubbing my cheek. Roger, however didn't even hear me, as there was practically steam coming from his ears.
He walked over to the fridge, to pull out a beer, and sit on the stool in front of me, as I rubbed my sore eye. "What happened to your eye?" he asked, confued.
"Take a wild guess" I blinked, giving him a tight-lipped, annoyed smile, as I held up his drum stick, that landed on my face. "Oh... Sorry... Here" he offered me his can of beer.
I gave him a confused look, as I eyed the beverage in his hand. "It'll stop the swelling" he smiled.
"Oh... Thanks" I accepted it and held the cold can upon my cheek. I winced at the contact it made, making Roger raise his brows. "Does it hurt badly?" he asked, guilt and concern in his voice.
"No, not that bad" I reassured.
"I'm going over to the studio to practice with the boys today, would you care to join?" he asked, grinning, from ear to ear. "I'd love to, but Vicky, Fate and I are going over to Ashley's today. And to sneak a peek of the new chap she's with" I admitted. Roger rolled his eyes, and smirked, "you lot are so nosy" he stated the obvious.
"Fate is more nosy than any of us!" I tried to excuse myself, but he just looked at me and shook his head, before popping a cherry in his mouth, and walking to the door. "Don't forget your weapons!" I called out, referring to his drum sticks. "Thanks. And get over it. You look fine now" he rolled his eyes, taking his drum sticks and making his way back to the door.
"The pain and trauma is still there though!" I called back, absent-mindingly reaching into the bowl for a cherry, only to find it's empty. "You, prick! You ate the last of the cherries!" I yelled.
"I'll get some more, while I'm out!" he yelled back, leaving the flat. "Thank you!" I called, smiling as I remembered the kettle was still on, when I started to smell something, steamy. Shit.
⚜︎
"We can't just walk in, unannounced! What if they're... Y'know..." Fate tried to explain. "They won't be, they're not animals, they know that we're coming over at this time" I rolled my eyes, trying to encourage the girls to just go in.
"I wouldn't chance it, Alice, last time I came around here... Well I ran out, traumatized, screaming and bawling... Still haven't recovered" Vicky shudders, slightly, over-dramatically.
I just looked at them, re-thinking about just barging in. "Okay, maybe we should just try knocking again" I shrugged. I didn't feel like walking in on people who weren't exactly decent... I've experienced too much of that, even my therapist is now going to therapy at this point.
"That's if they can even hear us, again" Fate uttered, under her breath.
"Ashley. Open your door. We're hungry and cold" I whined, banging on the door.
After a few moments, the idiotic part of my brain took over and I swung open the unlocked door. "Alice!" Fate shrieked. We walked in, superstitious, as if we were in a horror film, walking in a haunted house.
"Yoo-hoo, Ashley" I called, in a sing-song voice. "Maybe, she's not in?" Vicky suggested. "So why would her door be unlocked? She'd never forget-" my words got interrupted by the sound of kissing noises and moaning coming from the living room. Kill me. "Well at least it was somewhat predictable" Fate, awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.
"I think I'm gonna hit the boak" Vicky mimicked gagging. "I want to die" I put my fingers to my head in a gun sign. "Ditto" they both said in unison.
We walked into the living room, I covered my eyes with my hand. "Do they even know we're here?" Vicky asked, raising one of her eyebrows and lowering the other, as she usually did.
"I don't think so" Fate answered, cocking her head to the side. I uncovered my eyes, and just furrowed my eye brows. Ashley was on top of the guy, making out with him. Not even coming up for air. "Ashley!" I yelled, startling her. She finally detached herself from a tall, medium-length brunette, with big brown eyes, who was panting, heavily.
"Hi. Sorry. I forgot you were coming over" Ashley apologized, also ou of breath. "We can see that" Fate answered, head still to the side.
A a moment of awkward silence went by, Vicky, Fate and I, sharing glances. Until Ash's boyfriend stood up and made his way over to us. "I'm Eddie" he announced, with an American accent, smiling and shaking each of our hands. We introduced ourselves, "I'm gonna get going now. I'll see you later, Ash" he said, walk in to the front door, and giving Ash a small wave.
"So you want some tea?" Ashley asked, smiling awkwardly, walking over to the kitchen.
After a few minutes, we sat on the couch with our tea in hands. We chatted about Fate arriving in London and stuff.
"So, are any of you's seeing anyone?" Ashley asked, sipping on her tea.
"I'm still seeing James" I answered, looking down at my tea, not raising my head.
"I'm seeing this guy, River" Vicky answered, casually, we all turned our heads to look at her in shock.
She sipped on her tea, before looking at us, in confusion. "What? Why do yous look gobsmacked?" she raised an eyebrow.
"When did you start seeing him?" Ashley asked, still looking shocked.
"I don't know? A few weeks ago, maybe" she shrugged, looking up in thought, then back at us.
We all started asking more questions about her and River. "I think I've told you every single detail about him. Can we change subjects now?" Vicky asked.
"Roger nearly took my eye out this morning" I said. "Oh, Jesus Christ" Fate rolled her eyes, and put a hand over her face.
"What!?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. "You've told this story 20 times already" Fate complained. "Yeah, but Ashley hasn't heard it" I fired back. "Alice, if I hear this story one more time, I'm gonna lose my fucking shit" Vicky intimidatingly stared at me.
I was silent for a moment before I spoke up. "Anyways" hearing that made Fate and Vicky groan in annoyance. "I was sitting on the counter, reading a book when Roger barges in and throws his drum sticks then one of them hits my eye" I told Ashley, who didn't look that intrigued. "Anyways then he told me that Queen has another gig tomorrow, are you all going?" I asked, pointing the question more directly to Ashley.
"Actually, I might. I miss seeing them play" Ashley answered. Vicky and Fate agreed, as this was the first time Fate was going to one of their gigs.
"When do you think they'll start getting more noticed?" asked Ash. "I'm not sure. They seem to be getting a lot of attention right now. Id give it a few years maybe" I shrugged.
"Just think, you could potentially be living with a future rockstar. And who knows what else" Ashley nudged my side. "Right. First of all things are going well with James. Second of all, you could potentially be broken up with a future rockstar" I said, grinning. "I'll have you know that Eddie plays guitar" Ashley corrected. "Do you have a thing for guitarists, aye?" Vicky teased. "As a matter of fact I do" Ashley answered, sipping on her tea, as we all just laughed.
⚜︎
I was walking back to the flat, when something – or rather, someone caught my attention. It was James. He was outside of a pub, waiting for someone. I was going to walk over to say 'hi', when i saw exactly who he was waiting for.
It was a blonde girl, I had suspicions but I didn't want to think much of it. I'm sure she's just a fr- that's when I saw her, leaning up to kiss him. -Borderline skank.
I turned around and continued walking back to the flat.
I unlocked the door, fighting back tears as I walked in and just threw myself on the couch. I brought a cushion to my face as tears started forming in my eyes.
I couldn't wrap my head around all of this, we had been dating for months and it was starting to get serious. Why? How could he do that?
I couldn't stop the tears just flowing onto the cushion, dampening it. I tried to calm myself down, but every time I would stop crying I'd think about it and start again.
I wasn't sure how long it had been, but I felt a hand, stroking my hair, in comfort. "Alice?" Rogers soft, and gentle voice caressed my ears.
I didn't want to look up at him, because I knew my face would be red and puffy, so I continued to just lie on my front, with my head securely tucked into the cushion. I could tell he was crouched down, in front of the couch, on hand on the arm of the chair, while the other was softly caressing my hair.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. I wanted to answer, but the words got stuck in my throat. I sat up, my elbows resting on my lap and my hands on my head, hiding my face. Roger sat next to me and pulled me in his embrace, I lay my head on his chest as his arms wrapped around me. "James" was all I answered, my voice shaky. I felt Rog grow tense at the name.
"What did he do?" he asked, trying to clear the anger from his voice, but I could easily tell it was there. "He was with another girl" I answer. Roger let out a sigh and kissed the top of my head, continuing to hold me.