Hello my dear Ciarán lovers! The first chapter of 'I don't like you, Roger Taylor' will be uploaded today! Remember that the book takes place in the same universe, so you might catch a glimpse of a familiar someone every now and then (; please go check it out, it'd be super if you did!
Here's the chapter
"Still not picking up?" Lisa asked from the corner of my couch.
I shook my head and furrowed my brows as I put down the phone. I had been trying to phone John all morning, but he wasn't picking up.
"Perhaps he's just busy. I bet he's at Freddie's already, helping him out before the party begins." She said with a comforting smile.
"Yes, that must be it. We should probably get going soon, there's going to be a lot of traffic in London once we get there." I said to Lisa and she nodded.
"Are you sure Freddie won't mind me coming along?"
"Positive. They like you anyway. Especially Roger, he said you're good in bed." I said and shot a smirk in her direction. She threw one of the pillows from the couch at me and giggled.
"Shut up. You don't have to know all my dirty secrets. Speaking of Roger, did you see the paper yesterday?"
"No I didn't." I said and furrowed my brows.
"That American punk band, Blood rats or something, they visited England a couple days ago. Roger managed to get into a proper fight with their drummer, Zaliki I think was her name. People say that the two hate each other." She said and got up from the sofa to fix her bangs in front of the mirror in the hall.
"Really? I've heard about them in the past. Quite popular in America aren't they?"
"I suppose yes. I'm just surprised Roger could ever hate a woman." Lisa said, earning a giggle from me.
"That sure is a surprise. But we should get going. Gather your stuff and bring them to my car. My stuff's already loaded." I said to her and put on a coat over my pink cardigan. The summer was almost over and days we're getting a little cooler.
Lisa looked down at my cardigan with a face of disgust. "You're wearing that?"
"What's wrong with this one?" I asked her.
"You look like my grandmother. This is a party we're going to, Loretta." She said and threw a duffel bag over her shoulder.
"You muppet, this is just for the ride. I'm never driving to London in a small dress again. Don't you remember how uncomfortable it was last time?" I asked her as we stepped out of the door.
"Okay, that's a good point. But you better have something sexy planned out for tonight." She said and nudged my side with her elbow.
Lisa and I pulled up at John's driveway to find that his car wasn't there.
"Hmm... That's odd." I said and turned off the engine.
"He might be out running errands. Let's get our stuff inside. We'll meet him at Freddie's anyway." She reassured me and began making her way to the front door after getting her things out of the boot.
I pulled out my copy of his key from my pocket and opened the door for us. A wide smile spread across my face as we stepped inside the house that had become my safe haven. We hung our coats in the cupboard and took our things upstairs.
The feeling I felt when I stepped into the house was the polar opposite of what I felt back in Cambridge. My entire being was filled with warmth and peace. Knowing that I would be spending the next three weeks here with John felt better almost anything in the world. I showed Lisa the way to our-, John's guest room so she could settle down for the night. She could only stay for one night, but I was happy that she came along. This was her first time seeing John's apartment and even though she wasn't going to admit it, she felt like a celebrity.
"I can't believe that I was the original Queen fan and you got to move in with one of the members." She groaned as she jumped on the bed.
"Jealous?"
"Very."
We both laid on the bed for a while, talking about just how surreal the situation was. We could have stayed there for hours, but we had to get ready to go to Freddie's party. Lisa was finally satisfied when I showed her the red dress I had picked out of the party. I put my hair up to keep it away from my face. Last time I had gone to one of Freddie's parties I had ended up getting sick all over the front yard and in case that was to happen again, I would be prepared. I paired my dress with a pair of red pumps and I was ready to go.
"Ready Lisa?" I shouted downstairs. Soon the tall woman appeared at the top of the stairs, looking stunning as usual. She was rocking a back bodysuit and back heels.
"Yes. Should we get a cab there? Let's face it, neither of us will be in the condition to drive us home anyway."
Lisa was right and we ended up getting a cab. Thankfully the driver didn't recognise us until the very end of the ride and we were able to travel in peace. Once we got to Freddie's place, we were glad to notice that only few people had shown up this early. It was only eight and the party was set to begin at ten.
The first thing we noticed was John's car sitting at the end of Freddie's driveway.
"So that mystery is solved." Lisa said and shook her head.
"Yup, it sure is. I'm just a little puzzled as to why he didn't call me that he'd be coming here early.
We walked in through Freddie's front door and looked around to find someone. "Freddie?" I called out and soon the black haired man appeared from one of the rooms.
"Loretta! How wonderful to see you darling! Oh and look at who you have with you! Lisa, it's been way too long, you should visit us more often!" He said and wrapped his arms around the both of us.
I looked over at Lisa who seemed to be over the moon and I can't blame her, who wouldn't be? Freddie Mercury just asked her to pay him a visit more often.
"It's great to see you too Fred. You don't happen to have any idea where my bass player might be?" I asked him and his face dropped a little bit.
"About that... yes I know where he is." He said and sighed, rubbing his forehead with his thumb. "I hope you have a lot of love for him."
I instinctively took a small step back and furrowed my brows. "What is that supposed to mean?" I asked him, my heart beating like crazy.
"You'll see." He said and began walking upstairs. We walked down the same hallway I had walked after the last party. It didn't take me long to realise that he was taking us towards the restroom. Please don't tell me...
He opened the door with irritation radiating off of him. Our eyes were greeted with an absolutely hammered John Deacon throwing up into Freddie's bathtub. He was leaning over the side of the bathtub, his long legs spread on the floor. He didn't even notice us walking in before Freddie kicked his leg.
"You have a visitor Deacy." Freddie and John turned around and he stared us for a moment with a clueless look on his face.
"Wipe your mouth." I mumbled and took some toilet paper and threw it to him. When he simply stared at us, clearly not recognising who we were, I took the paper I had just thrown onto his lap and lifted my hand to wipe his mouth, but he grabbed me by my wrist and shook his head.
"No, don't. I have a girlfriend." He slurred and moved my hand away from his face.
I looked at him with a confused expression and turned to Freddie and Lisa. We all stared at each other in perfect silence for a second before bursting into loud laughter. John looked up at us and furrowed his brows, clearly not following.
"Trust me, she wants me to wipe your face John." I said to him and reached for his face again, trying not to laugh with Freddie and Lisa who were both still absolutely hysterical.
"Yeah?" He asked me.
"Yeah."
"Alright then. But don't you try anything. I'm hers only." He said and finally let me wipe his mouth.
"You guys can go, I can stay here with Mr. drunk. I'll make sure he doesn't throw up on the floor or himself." I said to Freddie and Lisa. "But you're going to explain to me how and why the hell did he end up in this condition." I added and Freddie nodded.
"Will do. But you have fun with him for now. Come on Lisa, let's go get you some champagne." Freddie said and put his hand on her shoulder as they walked out of the bathroom.
I sat down on the toilet and put a hair tie into John's hair to keep it away from his face as he turned around to throw up again.
Seeing him in this condition felt odd. I had only seen him drunk when I had been drunk as well. Now he was laying on a bathroom floor, slurring something inaudible every now and then, unable to even properly lift himself off the floor.
"Oh John, why did you get so drunk?" I sighed and petted his hair. He looked up at me and straight into my eyes.
"Are you mad at me?" He asked.
"No. I'm not mad at you. I'm a little confused as to why you did this and surprised. But I'm not mad at you." I said and petted his hair again.
"Good. Cause I lo..." He mumbled something I but I had no idea what that something was.
"I'm sorry honey, I didn't hear what you said."
"It was nothing. Forget it." He said and gave me a weak smile.
It wasn't nothing. I just learned that a lot later on. Perhaps a little too late.
After sitting in the bathroom for two hours, John had finally sobered up enough to get up from the floor and walk by himself. I made him brush his teeth four times before I let him leave the bathroom.
"Thank you honey. For staying by me. That must've been annoying." He said and wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked put of the small room.
"You're welcome. It was truly a pleasure." I joked and he shook his head.
"I'll explain everything to you afterwards." He said, still slurrling quite a bit. Although he had sobered up quite a alot, his walking was still very wobbly and he slurred as he spoke.
We somehow managed to make it downstairs. John leaned on me the whole duration of the stairs, almost making me fall. We began making our way to the main room where we knew everyone else was going to be. But the closer we got, the more John began making excuses for going somewhere else.
"We could go and socialize. There are always plenty of new and interesting people at Fred'd parties. We could go make new friends. In a quieter place." He said as he grabbed a beer from the counter.
"You hate meeting new people and making friends." I said to him and furrowed my brows. He was acting very strangely.
"What are you talking about, I love making new friends!" He tried to argue but I simply ignored him and walked forward.
We soon reached the main room and immediately saw Brian and Roger talking to some girls. I waved at them and once they noticed me, a wide grin spread onto their faces.
"Loretta!" Roger shouted out in excitement and John shushed him.
"What the hell did you do that for?" I asked him, feeling quite offended. Was he embarrassed of being seen with me? My pondering was interrupted by Roger wrapping his arms around me.
"It's been a while. How are you?" Roger asked and squeezed me tightly. I hugged him back with a wide smile.
"I'm good I suppose." I said and shot John a glare but he was too drunk to notice. "How are you Roggie?"
"I'm great. Quite drunk. But so is Brian." He said and gestured towards the tall man leaning against the wall, trying to support himself.
"I see." I laughed and pulled away from the blondie. John immediately wrapped his arm around me and kissed my cheek before looking around the place frantically.
"What is your problem?" I asked him. His behaviour was absolutely blowing my mind. And not in a good way.
He kept behaving oddly for God knows how long. He was constantly by my side, not letting me go a further away from him than a meter. He would constantly kiss my cheek or tell me how beautiful I was and the longer it kept going the more it irritated me. But it was bearable. Until he spotted a girl in the crowd.
He froze. I turned around to see what he was doing and when I noticed him staring at someone, I followed his gaze and saw a beautiful woman with thick black hair walking towards us. She was wearing a really short white dress that hugged her quite amazing figure perfectly. Her hair reached down below her breasts and it curled in soft, beautiful waves.
John suddenly grabbed me by my waist again and made U-turn, walking away from the woman.
"John where the fuck are you going? She clearly wants to talk to you. Behave God's sake!" I snapped at him and turned him back around. The girl had almost reached us and she gave us a friendly smile.
"Hi you guys!" She said happily. Her accent sounded foreign, but I couldn't recognise she might be coming from.
"Hello. I don't believe we've met. My name is Loretta." I said to her and put my hand out for her to shake. She gladly took it and flashed me a beautiful smile.
"Victoria. It's great to meet you Loretta. First time at Freddie's party?"
"Oh no actually, this is my second time. I assume you've been to them before as well?" I asked her before she could answer, John spoke out.
"Yes she has, she likes going places where no one wants her to be."
I turned around with my mouth open in shock. "John!" I gasped and stared at him, absolutely gobsmacked. I turned around to apologise to the poor girl.
"Oh it's alright, we go way back. I already know his quirky sense of humor!" She laughed and playfully punched John shoulder with her fist. John looked at her with a look that I had never seen on his face before.
"Touch me again I dare you." He muttered under his breath. I stomped on his toes and he let out a yelp.
"So, Victoria. How about we go meet the rest of the guys?" I suggested and she nodded.
"I would love that!"
We began making our way through the crowd and back to the guys. Once we reached them all of their expressions dropped and especially Roger seemed annoyed.
"Hi boys." Victoria said in a flirty voice and giggled. Brian was the only one to even try to give her a polite smile, Roger simply stared at her. What has she done to piss them all of this badly? She seems nice to me.
The evening continued and the longer Victoria hung out with us, the ruder, and drunker John got. I was having a lot of fun with her, we talked about all kinds of things and she turned out to be incredibly sweet. She would compliment my dress and hair and ask me all kinds of things about my studies and future plans. But every few sentences John would say something snarky and rude to her or wrap his arm around me and kiss my cheek. I had no idea why he was being so weird, but it was incredibly annoying. At first I tried to ignore it, but it grew to be too much handle quite quickly. I pulled him slightly to the side and whispered into his ear.
"I don't know what's your problem but I'm going to need you to sort it out. I want you to wait here with Victoria while I go and get us drinks. When I come back, expect you two to get along." I walked away angrily before he had the chance to talk back to me.
JOHN'S POV
I was left alone with the devil and if there was ever going to be a moment when I wanted to die, it was now. Immediately after Loretta had gone far enough to not hear us, Ronnie turned to me.
"So her huh? That's what you're settling for?" She said and crossed her arms on her chest. With a disgusted look on her face.
"I am not settling for anything. She is the woman I'm dating with because she is smart, funny, kind and beautiful. Unlike you." I stated blantly and lit up a cigarette.
"And very dull. You could do a lot better. I mean we had fun didn't we? And the sex was good too. I bet she only let's you do it with the lights out and in one position." She laughed and took my cigarette from my mouth and began smoking it herself.
Never hit a woman never hit a woman never hit a woman never hit a woman
"Don't you dare fucking talk about her like that. I'm not going to start playing your games. Not again. And she does not deserve your shit. So I hope that you understand to fuck off." I said to her and turned my back to her.
My blood was boiling. I hated her from the bottom of my heart and all I would've wanted to do was to grab Loretta and carry her out of this fucking party and take her home. Then I would carry her upstairs into our bedroom and hug her and kiss her and tell her how much I loved her. I would cuddle and make love to her all night and forget about the Dutch whore Freddie had invited to the party.
But because Loretta was stubborn and wanted to be friends with everyone, I knew that was never going to happen.