"NINA WILL YOU GET OUT OF THE BLOODY BATHROOM!" Roger Taylor screamed pounding on the door.
"Roger you're just going to have to wait!" I responded trying to finish my makeup.
"YOU HAVE BEEN IN THERE FOR OVER TWENTY MINUTES!" Roger yelled annoyed. He kicked the door and I heard him whine from pain. I couldn't help but laugh.
"ROG LEAVE NINA ALONE! SHE'S GOT A CLASS YOU BLONDE IDOIT!" Freddie yelled in my defense which made me laugh even more.
"YEAH I'VE GOT TO PEE!"
"Rog quit whining I'll be out in a minute!" I responded once I had gathered myself.
There I was a knock at the door and I could tell that it wasn't Roger, but Freddie.
"Come in!"
Freddie came in and hugged me from the side. He was in his work uniform. He had to be in at eight.
"I'm off." He said and let me go.
"I hope you have a better day than yesterday," I said and he nodded.
"That's the dream."
"YOU KNOW WHAT MY DREAM IS? YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT MY DREAM IS GUYS? TO RELIEVE MYSELF!" Roger yelled from down the hallway.
I just shook my head at Freddie and returned to my makeup.
"You're just lucky I got Brian to take me to work today instead of you," Freddie shouted back.
"Brian, Brian, Brian!" Roger mocked. "Isn't he a saint! I could take you! I just didn't feel like it!"
"Yeah because you didn't feel like it you made me go down to the lobby to use the payphone to get ahold of Brian! I wasted money on that call! Maybe if you would fix the dang phone-"
"Maybe if you would learn how to drive!" Roger interrupted screaming. Soon they were arguing. I just continued to put my makeup on, turning on the radio that sat on the bathroom counter.
I left work at six as promised and took the bus to the college where Queen practices. It was still raining but it was lighter compared to yesterday. The power was back on and I was in a better mood.
My hair was curled and in a ponytail today. I was wearing a red turtle neck tucked into my black bell-bottom pants. My black platform shoes gave me an extra boost. I always enjoyed wearing them, I'm five feet and three inches for Pete's sake. The shoes made me taller and they were way easier to walk in than heels.
I walked into the school and made my way into the practice room. I put my brown work bag down.
"Hello Nina," Brian waved from where he was sitting with his red special guitar.
"Hello Brian, hello Rog, hello Fred, how's it going?" I asked plopping myself down on the black couch.
I looked around but didn't see Deaky. Which was odd since they have been practicing for a full hour already.
"Terrible," Roger said from behind the drum kit, his arms were crossed and he didn't look happy.
"Why?" I laughed.
"Deaks isn't coming," Roger said angrily.
"What do you mean he isn't coming?" I asked looking at Freddie. He just shook his head.
"He said he's too busy studying or whatever, that boy is obsessed," Roger said shaking his head.
"He just wants to do well Rog, I respect that," Brian said looking over at Roger who just shook his head.
"He can't take a two-hour break to come work with us?" Roger asked
Brian shrugged and Freddie walked more towards me shaking his head.
"You're always telling me how he doesn't do anything anyway, so why not just get on without him?" I asked as I took a chocolate bar from my purse.
"No, we never said that," Roger responded twirling his drumstick between his fingers. The blonde was wearing a red t-shirt with his usual patched up blue jeans today. His sunglasses hanging on the neck of his shirt. "We do need him to work."
I nodded taking a bite of my chocolate bar. Freddie came over and I gave him half of it. He sat down next to me and began to eat it.
"He's been coming up with some pretty bloody good basslines that's for sure," Brian said and Roger nodded in agreement.
"He's gotten us farther along than any of other bassists combined," Roger said and they all nodded.
"I'll knock some sense into him," I said standing up, grabbing my bag once again.
"Nina you don't have to," Brian said but I shook my head.
"No it's perfectly fine, I'll be back with or without him. It will be fun to see which one it is."
"Do you have any more chocolate bars?" Roger asked and I rolled my eyes. I dug into my bag and pulled one out, tossing it to him.
"Thanks, Nina." He said. "It's the least you could do after making me wait so long to use my own bathroom."
I glared at him.
"You want me to take that back Rog? I'm sure Deaky would appreciate it too." I said putting my hands on my hips. He shook his head before unwrapping it.
"I'll be back you crazies."
I opened the door to his flat and walked in to find him on the floor. Books, papers, binders all spread out on the ground. He was so concentrated. His hair was messy and he had food wrappers all over the floor.
"You don't look good there Deaks," I said making my presence known. He jumped a bit.
"Nina." He said startled. I didn't hear you come in."
"Because you're so sucked into these books." I laughed sitting down next to him.
"I know, I know, I just gotta study." He replied putting his book down.
"John, you do realize how smart you are right?"
"I'm sorry?" He said looking up at me.
"John you are like one of the smartest people I know, you're gonna pass with flying colors."
"Well thank you, Nina, but that doesn't mean I don't have study my arse off until the exams."
"But it does mean you can go to band practice," I told him and he sighed.
"I wanted to, I really did, but there is too much information to make sure I know before exams. I'm really sorry to let the guys down. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to replace me, I haven't been much of help lately."
"Deaky they aren't gonna replace you, they love you too much for that. But are you planning on going to practice at all until the exams are over?" I asked and he sighed again.
"Probably not,"
"I would bribe you with a chocolate bar but Rog ate it."
"Typical." He said laughing.
There was a moment of silence before I spoke again.
"Listen to me, you know the material, I know you do, you know you do, so lighten up a bit, and if you absolutely need to fill that need to study, bring your stuff to practice, just please, take a break for me Deaky."
He just stared at me for a second. Then he slowly nodded.
"I must seem crazy to you, right?"
"Not at all, you just want to be the best you can be. Trust me I can understand that. Now go get ready we are going to practice."
He smiled at me and got up to go to the bathroom.
Gosh, I really do have a mad crush on this man.
"Look who I found!" I said walking in the door with Deaky trailing close behind.
"Deaky!" Freddie exclaimed. "Thank the Lord."
"How did you convince him to take a break?" Roger asked clearly impressed.
"I'm just that good, now get to it," I said once again plopping myself back on that black couch which always seemed to be my spot when I came here.
I set John's study backpack on the couch and watched him tune up his bass. It was then that I caught Freddie smirking at me. I glared at him, shaking my head and he just smiled at me.
I got to reading one of John's textbooks. It was amazing, I could hardly understand anything the book was talking about, same for the other books and papers I went through. It was all this really complicated stuff, to me I guess. I was always terrible at maths and science-related things. English and music type things were where I really excelled.
"Enjoying yourself there?" John asked coming from the conversation with the rest of the boys he clearly wasn't being much help with.
"John, how do you understand this stuff?" I asked and he laughed. "This stuff just looks so complicated, how do you do it?" I asked and he laughed.
"Oh I don't know, I've always been good at maths, I like fixing things, thought it would be a good career to go into. I'm sure you'd be able to understand it if you spent as much time studying it as I do Nina, it's not as complicated as it looks." He said shyly as he rubbed his neck.
"Nah I'm just going to go with the fact that you're really smart," I responded and he blushed. He looked down at his shoes for a moment before looking back up to make eye contact with me.
"Deaky come over and play that thing you just came up with again!" Freddie yelled and John smiled and went back over to them, taking his bass off its stand.
I've fallen hard for John Deacon and it's way too late to pull myself out.
"Now you have to promise me you're going to go home and go to bed now."
I looked at John, his bass case slung around his body, the bags under his eyes were more prominent than normal. He looked exhausted.
"Alright Nina I will, I'll see you later." He said and he was about to walk out the door when I grabbed his arm.
"John, I'm serious," I said looking into his eyes. He was surprised by my tone, I could tell. He's studied for none stop for God knows how long. He needed sleep.
"Okay Nina, I promise I will." He said and I nodded. We just looked at each other for a minute. "Bye-bye Nina," He said with a sweet smile. He opened the door to the outside and closed it. I watched him through the glass door light his cigarette and walk to the parking lot where his car sat.
"Gosh, darling you really have it bad for him."
I jumped around to see Freddie.
"Will you shush it!" I told him.
"Will you relax? Roger and Brian aren't even around, they are outside waiting for us." Freddie told me chucking.
I sighed as Freddie opened the door. I followed him out and closed the door behind me.
Four days. It had been four days since I last talked to Maggie. I missed my best friend, a lot. But the things she said hurt and I wasn't just going to let her get away with that.
"I saw Maggie when I popped into Beba to see Mary," Freddie said as he sat down next to me on the couch.
"And?" I asked.
"She didn't look good, to be honest, she asked me about you and I said that you were still very upset about the things she had said and she looked very upset by that. She told me to tell you that she wants to talk."
"When?"
"She didn't say but I'll talk to Mary more about it tomorrow."
"Well, that's a relief, I just want my friend back," I said. I was starting to get annoyed by the situation. But I wasn't going to apologize for something that wasn't my fault.
He nodded.
"I don't blame you."
A few more days went by and I heard nothing from Maggie. I didn't understand it. Mary hadn't seen Maggie since Beba so she was of no help.
I was walking out of class when I saw her, Maggie, looking over the crowds of people, standing to the side of the student traffic.
What in the world?
I gripped the strap of my messenger bag and started to walk towards her. She catches sight of me and sighs.
"Maggie, what hell are you doing here? You don't even have class today."
Maggie was studying interior design. We met at a party freshman year and we became best friends soon after that. She still has one more year in her degree than I do in mine.
"You wouldn't answer my calls, I had no other choice!"
"You know that Fred and Rog's phone doesn't work, or else I would have."
The realization hits her face.
"Why wouldn't Mary tell you that?" I asked.
"Well, I only started trying to call you after when Freddie came into Beba. I was going to call Mary and ask her why you weren't answering but I figured I annoyed her enough with my problems."
Maggie pushed her brown hair out of her face. She sighed. She looked at me for a minute before she spoke again.
"Nina I'm sorry," She sighed readjusting her bag on her shoulder. I just looked at her. Maggie was one of the most stubborn people I knew. It would always take her a long time to admit she was wrong. The fact that she said sorry so quickly shocked me.
"The things you said hurt me, Maggie. When you said that I wasn't grateful for getting to live with you that hurt. Because you know how grateful I was! I am! I didn't have any money, and you were always there for me. I told you all the time how grateful I was. And for you to say that-"
"I know, I was a jerk. I say dumb things when I mad, you of all people know that." She said cracking a smile, which caused me to as well. But I soon returned it to my frown. " I was dumb to blow up at you like that. You didn't do anything wrong. It was me. I always tell you not to come home but this time it wasn't planned. I'm sorry. I was wrong. You're my best friend Nina. You are everything to me. You are always there for me and I'm sorry I caused this very dumb and unnecessary fight. I love you, Nina, I'm so sorry." She said I could see tears forming in her eyes. Which caused me to start crying, and soon we were both crying. I grabbed onto her and we cried into each other's shoulder. Normally I would feel a bit uncomfortable crying in the middle of a hallway filled with students. But honestly, nobody was really paying attention anyway, and if they were, I wouldn't know.
We let go of each other and laughed at our running makeup.
"I promise I will try not to hook with someone without letting you know"
"No, that's alright, just put something on the door or a note or whatever it doesn't matter if it happens it happens," I said waving it off. I was going to let Maggie be Maggie. I used to bring guys home to a lot too. So I'm done being an arse about it. I was just mad that she was mad about it. But we were all good now.
"Well I have to go clean myself up before I go to my next class so, I'll see you at home?" I asked and she smiled.
"Yes at home. I'll see you later." She said smiling brightly. She hugged me tight again before disappearing into the crowd.
I sighed a sigh of relief and made my way to the bathroom.
"Well I'm glad you made up," Freddie said as I picked up all my stuff from his flat. "But I'm not going to lie. I'm going to miss you." He said and I dropped my bags to give him a hug.
"Aww me too Fred, me too, but you don't want me here taking up more space than you guys hardly have to begin with."
"She's right," Roger said chewing his cereal. "The bathroom is tiny enough without all the makeup and curling irons and all that bloody crap."
I laughed.
"I'll miss you too Roger," I said going over to hug him.
"Alright alright alright, it was nice having you here. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
I nodded.
I waved them both goodbye and left the flat. I took the bus up to my flat with my three bags and when I got home I got another hug from Maggie.
I do have to admit.
It was nice being home.
As I was putting everything back to its rightful place in my room I couldn't help but stare out at the moon and the stars. The stars were really out tonight. It was a somewhat warm night so I thought that it would be okay to open the window. The air of the early spring night filled my room. The smell took over me and I sighed. A new season was on way.
I looked down at the many cars passing by on the street below us. Being on the tenth floor you could see quite a lot. My record player playing in the background was drowned out by the loud sounds of London.
If you had told sixteen-year-old Nina that'd she be here in London, leaning out the window of her flat she would have laughed at you.
Back then there was no way I thought I was going to be able to pull off what I did.
I watched the cars drive by, the little people on the street, watching the smoke around their heads. Music was coming from somewhere but I couldn't quite figure out from where. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I leaned against the window frame and sighed.
"What are you doing?"
I turned to see Maggie in her pajama shorts and rolling stones t-shirt.
"Just thinking about how fortunate I am," I told her.
She smiled as she leaned against my door frame.
"It's everyone who has the pleasure of having you in their life who is the fortunate one." She responded coming over to the window with me.
I smiled at her as she looked down at the ground below.
"Where do you think life is gonna take us?" I asked out of the blue.
"All I know is, as long as it has you in it, it will be some great adventure."