I didn't know what I was watching and I sure as hell didn't know what I was doing. But, I had promised Roger I would come see his band. I had a drink in my hand and a peculiar look on my face. My god, it was loud, it was crowded in here, dark, kind of smelly and...what the hell was I doing here again? I don't know why I promised him I would come to this bloody thing tonight I just...I felt so sorry for the guy. He begged people to come see this...this whatever I was looking at right now. Sebastian would never dream of inviting me to weird crap yet here I was doing weird crap. I cannot believe I agreed to watch this guy bang on stuff. It made no sense to me at all. Shit, they had stopped doing things...was I supposed to clap, scream or cry?
I wanted...no begged Chrissie to come with me tonight so I wouldn't be alone. However, she had a date. Couples at the bar surrounded me and the crowd was 50/50 otherwise. My god! I wasn't dating Roger and I still agreed to come to this place! What was wrong with me. But, in that moment I thought of something even worse...what if he asked me what I thought of the show after he was done!? I had to rehearse something to say.
I finished my drink and looked for the bartender for another; after all I would need it. I had made a decision in my slightly vodka-induced mind: I'd just sleep with Roger because we clearly came from two different planets. I already learned that I was far more structured than he but I felt it a bit funny the way he tried to suddenly get his life together in the past month I'd been around him. In some strange way, I think I was influencin' him. I was very neat and organized. I was the type who sorted my clothes by color and season. Roger...did not...but it was endearing that he had arranged all three pair of his jeans from the lightest to the darkest after I confessed my method to him. I think he owned two pair of shoes; I had at least twenty. I could afford to eat but chose not to many times; he couldn't afford to eat and was always starving. He had a record collection; I had two records. He was getting better in bed thanks to my guidance but he still had a ways to go. The point was, I had decided this was someone I would fuck but never take seriously. Sure he was sweet, had a lot of innocence and I won't lie, I found myself a little bit more than infatuated.
The bartender handed over my third drink. I knew this one would get me good and buzzed to the point where I may figure out what to say once this bloody gig was over. I was so distracted in sipping on my drink and on all the commotion around me that I didn't realize that Roger's band has stopped playing. Well, I realized it when I practically spit my drink across the bar at the feeling of two anxious hands on my shoulders.
"Hey! Hey Lydia! What'd you think?" Oh god. Ooooooh god, Roger was behind me asking me difficult questions of which I didn't know the answer and I hadn't downed this drink yet!! There was only one thing to do. I was a girl who knew how to swallow and so I put that cosmo down my throat in three gulps and turned around on my barstool. Shit. He looked like the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. He was sweating, not just a little hot but all out sweating. His awkwardly neck length hair was soaked. I had never seen Sebastian look like this. Sebastian was always 100% polished without even a shoelace out of place...Roger Taylor looked like an untamed, wild animal. I don't know what had come over me. He was looking at me with those enormous eyes awaiting a response. "Lydia?" he repeated. Shit. I was caught between a state of being in an erotic trance and not having a damn clue how to answer him. I hadn't had enough time to rehearse.
"Uh...um...it...it was....um...loud?" I finally squeaked out completely idiotically. There was that beautiful smile, tearing down the walls of this place.
"Really!? Did you think so? You thought it was loud? Oh Lydia, that's a really nice thing to say. I...I appreciate that, that's sweet." He said rooting in beside myself and the patron beside me. How in the name of hell did I give the right answer? That was the most bullshit answer anyone could ever give and yet somehow he was beyond satisfied with it. Something happened to me as I watched Roger lean over the edge of the bar to get the bartenders attention. What happened was that I had completely forgotten about Sebastian as I reached my hand around his sweat-soaked waist. I may have found the chance the finally break free of Sebastian's grip. I motioned for the bartender to put his tab on mine. I'm not sure that Roger realized how the bar bill got paid that night.
August 1
"Game! I win!" Freddie proudly announced to John who was panting miserably.
"My god! That's the fifth game in a row!" John whined to him.
"Are you forgetting that I hold the table tennis undefeated title?" Freddie reminded him preparing to serve another ball.
"Hey! Wait, wait hold on! First, I need to recover from the arse-whipping you just handed me and second has Brian asked you to help him move this weekend?" John asked.
"He did yes. I can't believe another semester starts in two weeks." Freddie said, giving John a break.
"So, are you gonna' help or what?" John asked.
"Of course I am! I'm just irritated we had to cancel a show to do it!" Freddie told him.
"It's not like he could help it! Brian's told you a hundred times that his studies won't interfere with the band. You, me, an' Roger have one semester left. This is a big first semester into a Ph.D program for Brian and he wants to get settled early." John defended him.
"I'm aware of all those things. I have every intention of completing my degree. It's just...Roger and I think we should be rehearsing more to get our sound right and once the semester starts..." John stopped him.
"You and Roger have the lightest schedules this semester. Freddie, don't you remember that the reason you and I are down here playing table tennis is because Veronica is upstairs at the University learning center finishing a double shift to pay our electric bill this month? I have got to take this semester seriously so I can get a real job for she and I to finally make ends meet." He said.
"We've been booked double...no! Triple booked for the last month! That's been a lot of extra money. And when we perfect the things we've discussed..." John interrupted Freddie again.
"You live alone in a flat where your electric and water are included in your monthly rent. I live in a townhouse with trash service. That money from all those extra gigs have only helped Veronica and I not to be in the red at the end of the month. She has been working more than ever, attending classes this summer and not missing a single show, Freddie. Of course I want to rehearse, of course I want as many gigs as we can get. I'm only asking that you and Roger understand that...I'm trying as hard as I can to make this work. Brian is trying as hard as he can." John explained.
"I wouldn't ever doubt that you try! I'm just...I'm just considering the necessity of rehearsals and maybe developing new material of our own and I'm unclear where the boundary lies between being serious about where we're going as a band and getting a job in the actual fields we've trained for." Freddie confessed.
"You can relax. I feel confident that we all want the same thing. Hey, listen. I was thinking. Veronica needs a break badly. I need a break. We both need something to distract us from the fact that she's been working her arse off and I haven't been pulling my weight. What do you say we go out tonight? You, me and Veronica?"
"Go out!? Yes! Darling, I'm always ready to go out. Why aren't you asking Brian or Rog to come with us?" Freddie wanted to know.
"Brian is packing. I asked Roger. He said he already had plans. Um...did you know...he's seein' someone?" John Deacon always had the dirt on everyone. He had the power to blackmail any of his friends because of all the secrets he kept on them. He was already well aware that Freddie had been "spending time" with a girl whom he had never met. He knew that Brian had told him in confidence that he would quit the band if he were hired as full time faculty at the university, which he had not, but nonetheless John couldn't tell Freddie. And, he knew that Roger had been sleeping with the same woman since June. John had all the good gossip.
"He's seeing everyone. What else is new?" Freddie asked, tossing the table tennis ball into the air.
"No. Fred. I met 'er. I mean, only for a couple minutes but...I met 'er." John looked up to Freddie with a serious look. Freddie looked puzzled. Typically Brian met all of the questionable women that Roger was 'seeing' if at all. "I can tell you this much. She's about a thousand times out of his league."
"And you deduced that in two minutes?" Freddie questioned.
"She looks like she came out of a magazine." John said seriously.
"John, please. Roger's charming and probably quite the ride in the bedroom. It's no wonder he's sleeping with something like that. Give him two weeks and he'll be through this one and have time to go out with us because you know as well as I do that whomever he's fucking is what his 'plans' are tonight. Now! One more game, love! Let's leave at 9:00 tonight." Freddie said, preparing to serve the ball. John shook his head.
"This isn't another game. It's just another arse busting from you. Alright. I'm ready." He said, preparing himself for Freddie's serve.