Caught in a landslide. No escape from reality.

FREDDIE'S POV

"Believe me, Freddie! He is just in for the money!" Paul tried to convince me.
I rolled my eyes.
"And? What does it matter? He's a good bass player and he's doing his job well. What are you trying to achieve?"
Paul raised his eyebrows, staring at me in disbelief.
I was still waiting for an answer.

"Well..." He started, inhaling some smoke. "It wouldn't matter if he wouldn't manipulate our finances, of course." His gaze separated from my eyes and wandered towards the ceiling.

Yesterday, we'd had our last concert in the states, in nine days we would head off to Japan to continue our tour there.

I frowned. "He's messing with our finances?" I asked, and Paul could hear my skeptical undertone.
He just nodded slowly. "Do you really think I'd attack him for no reason? If he continues our financial business like this, we're broke in less than a year and the band is history - well, for us. Nobody else will remember, of course. We're not big enough, yet." He made a dramatic pause in which he blew some cigarette smoke into the air above him, then he continued: "John will be rich, though. He's taking most of our income, after all." He smirked. "Even though he's just the bass player."

"You are lying, aren't you?" As my song from a few years ago popped into my head, I quietly started singing: "Liar, ohh, nobody believes you-" But I quickly got interrupted by Paul again: "Just check out the finances, then! We're going down. Why do you think we can't afford a nice hotel with separate rooms for all of you even though we're always sold out? Why do we need to travel in a shabby old tour bus even though other bands have limousines? Think about it, Fred." And with those words he left me there, alone.

Paul's words really had me thinking. He was right; we didn't see much in terms of money, even though the band was doing quite well. Deaky was handling our money, together with Bri but Deaky did most of the things. And then there was Paul, who was sharing the financial insight with Deaky - so he knew what he was talking about.

Skepticism filled my mind and I felt the urge to have a look at how John was handling our income. I trusted him, of course, but Paul's accusations made sense in my opinion.

--

JOHN'S POV

My thoughts kept on bothering me as I was sitting in front of the sheer endless ocean of San Diego, blue and wide, no land in sight. It made me sad in some way - I was far away from home, from my family - but that didn't cause my melancholy and my sadness. No. I was sad because I had no-one I could miss.
Sure, I missed my parents, of course. But I didn't have a family on my own at home, nor a sweetheart.
I was sipping on a famous Mint Julep - something typically American - to keep my mood intact and to get some inspiration.
I've never ever felt that lonely before.
I sighed as I was chewing on my pen, thinking about some new lyrics for a happy song but as always, just negative words kept falling onto the paper on my lap:

'He spends his evenings alone in his hotel room
Keeping his thoughts to himself; he'd be leaving soon
Wishing he was miles and miles away
Nothing in this world, nothing would make him stay'

Sometimes I felt like I was spitting my own emotions onto the paper as I wasn't really able to talk about them to anyone.

I jumped as something patted on my shoulder.
As I heard Freddie laugh right behind me, I sighed in relief.
"Oh, darling! Did I scare you? I'm sorry!"
He sat down right next to me and I hid the piece of paper I was scrabbling onto - I didn't want anyone to see my song texts before they were finished.

"How are the finances going?" He suddenly asked, a fake smile on his face.
"Uhm... Pretty well, I guess." I answered, not knowing what he was up to.
"Oh, you think so? When can we afford a proper hotel room then, one each?"
I shrugged. "Soon, I guess. But I like sharing rooms, to be honest. I think it brings us clos-"
"I don't."

Freddie's answer kind of went right through my heart like a spear.
"O- Oh.. You... Don't..." My gaze dropped to the sand in front of me and an awkward silence filled the atmosphere.
"We should be earning more money than we are right now and I found out that some of our earnings are... Well, 'disappearing' into someone's pocket."
My eyes widened and I looked at Freddie again. "Paul's stealing your money?"
Freddie frowned and shook his head.
"No, darling. Paul told me that you are not splitting the money evenly.", he explained and I quickly shook my head. "Can't be. There is no such thing, Fred."

"Well.." He sighed and shrugged. "I don't know who's lying, I'm no expert in handling money, just in spending it!"
I smiled and shook my head. "Ever since you've decided to look after yourself, Paul seems to hate me..."
"Oh, don't worry, dear. He hated you before that. He just blames you for saving my life."
We started laughing but then I got serious again and I looked into Freddie's eyes. "Roger was right... You should send him to hell. He's destroying Queen."

I felt like Paul was trying to turn Freddie into our enemy. As much as Freddie's words hurt me, I kind of knew that it was Paul who was telling lies about me - even though he didn't know me.
The only thing that was breaking my heart was Freddie believing Paul's fairytales.

FREDDIE'S POV

I don't know why but those words coming from Deaky, had more power than the same ones coming out of Roger's mouth and he really had me thinking about if I should ditch Paul or not.
But deep inside me I already knew that I would have to fire Paul sooner or later. He was way too controlling, way too interfering.