'Till the end of times -Roger Taylor

1971.1

Rory woke up to someone bouncing on the door. She thought it was weird, she didn't shut the door the night before and whoever might have needed her, could call on her cellphone, no need to break into her house. She tried to roll over, but fell on the cold hard ground, bumping her head on what she thought was the nightstand. Whoever was knocking on the door, kept knocking at a more insistent pace. Instead of the bright sun that usually shone into the room, she opened her eyes to a dim colourful light. She soon found out that the "nightstand" she bumped her head on, was actually a toilet. She stood up and walked out, letting the insistent girl enter her stall.
'Why am I in a dirty loo?'
She could swear she went straight home after watching the movie.
'Am I hallucinating? Or was I hallucinating yesterday when I thought I went to bed?'
She washed her hands and looked at her reflexion in the mirror. Those were not her clothes. Sure, she used to dress vintage, possibly with her mother's clothes, but why on earth was she dressed as someone who just came straight from the 70s?
She was in a club, there was no doubt about that, but how she ended up there was the mystery. In the club was playing something familiar that she couldn't quite recognize. She looked for her phone to Shazam the song, but she couldn't find it anywhere.
'Great I even lost my phone'
She kept staring at the image in the mirror, trying to recall what might have led to that situation. A girl noticed that Rory was looking at herself and walked over to her.
"Don't worry dear, you look bomb" she winked.
"Uhm thanks..."

Rory walked out into the big room, stopping at the bar for a glass of water. The familiar voices were still playing in the background, but she was really on another planet, alienated from the current situation and she couldn't bring herself to recognize them. It was probably some minor artist from the 70s that she might or might not have heard from her parents' vinyl collection. She waited for her water to arrive, looking around, thinking that whoever organised that event managed to do a pretty decent job with the place since it looked exactly like her mum's pictures. She took the glass that the barman handed her and turned towards the stage. As soon as her eyes managed to focus on the four figures up there, the glass slipped out of her hand. She couldn't believe her eyes. She could recognise those figures anywhere. That man was unmistakably the one and only Freddie Mercury. And the music playing was clearly Queen's. At that point, she was even more confused. That must be just a weird dream.
She asked the group of guys next to her what was the year.
"1971"
Rory ran out of the club, hoping that some fresh air might help her get back to her senses.
She was prone to those types of dreams. It had happened before that a dream felt like real life. She looked down at her hands, trying to count her fingers. If it was a dream, she wouldn't have been able to count them. But there they were, her ten fingers, counted from the first to the last.
She lit up a cigarette, inhaling the hot smoke, still trying to make sense of that situation. When she finished, she threw it on the pavement, putting it out with her shoe and walked back in.
They had just started playing Keep Yourself Alive. Rory leaned against the wall, moving her head to the beat, humming the words.

The concert was over and the band had been greeted by loud cheers. The club was emptying as people walked out.
In that moment Rory realised that she had nowhere to go and she thought she might stay at the club a bit more. She ordered a pint and walked over to one small table right next to the stage. The guys walked out of the backstage, one after the other. John was the only one not there yet. They started to put their things away, walking around the empty space.
Rory was sipping her beer, looking at how Brian moved his Red Special around. Freddie put away his tambourine and went chatting with someone. Last time she saw Roger, he was carrying out his drum kit.
"Hey sunshine"
Rory shook her head, as someone sitting in front of her caught her attention. When she realized that he was the Roger Taylor, she almost chocked on her beer.
She tried to keep herself together and put together an answer.
"Uhm hey hi"
Rory hoped that the light in there was dim enough to cover the redness on her face. She could feel her cheeks burning.
"So you liked the show?" He asked sipping on his beer and Rory nodded.
"Even the new song?"
She sent him a questioning gaze. For her, all of the songs were rather old.
"Y'know, Keep Yourself Alive"
"Oh that one, yes I loved it! Your solo was simply amazing"
Roger's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Rory nodded. "It's actually my favorite from the album"
Roger looked at her weirdly.
"Wh-what album?"
'Shit, they don't have an album yet'
"Um, nothing nevermind"
Roger shook his shoulders and raised the bottle of beer, waiting for Rory to cling the glass with it.
"I didn't catch your name"
Roger leaned towards her on the table.
"That's because I didn't give you one" she smirked back
Roger chuckled.
"Rory!" Someone screamed.
Rory turned around and looked at the person walking into the room, open-mouthed.
"So I assume Rory is your name"
Eleanor turned back to Roger, nodding.
"Is everything fine? You look like you've just seen a ghost"
She nodded "Yeah, yeah, it's just..."
The woman who called her name a few moments before walked up to them, followed by John. Their hair was messy, something must have happened between the two of them between the end of the concert and that moment.
The woman was exactly who Rory thought she had seen.
"Mom" she whispered under her breath, hoping no one heard her.
"C'mon Rory, let's blow up the cheese"
Rory looked at her in shock, unable to speak.
"Wh-what?"
"Let's go, c'mon"
Lauren pulled her by her hand, making her stand up.
"Peace out guys!" She screamed, pulling Eleanor out of the club.
"Bye Lauren" they screamed back.
"Bye Rory" added Roger.

Lauren had almost to pull Rory all the way home. She was not surprised to see that her mum lived in the same flat as in the future, or rather that she had lived in the same flat since the 70s.
It was not very different from the present, or rather, the future. Things were all over the floor, records were everywhere. Lauren walked over the record player and placed the needle on the disk. The soft sound of Bob Dylan's guitar invaded the living room.
"So, L-Lauren, how do you know Roger?" she asked sitting on a chair in the kitchen while Lauren put the kettle on the stove.
"Oh, he was in Marcus' biology course" Lauren answered, pouring the cold, strong tea leaves infusion in the two mugs, waiting for the water in the kettle to boil.
"M-Marcus? Am I supposed to know him?"
"Oh dear, what did you drink tonight? Don't worry, the tea is coming right up"
Before Rory could answer, Lauren had already started talking.
"Don't you remember Marcus, my Welsh boyfriend from last year?"
Lauren handed her a cup and Rory nodded.
"Right, Marcus, the Welsh guy"
They both sat at the table, drinking silently. She had missed drinking tea with her mum, even if she didn't know who Rory really was.
"So, you and John uh" pointed out Eleanor, wanting to know more about that version of her mum.
"Me and John what?" she replied, with a really fake cluelessness.
"Oh c'mon, I saw you two coming back from the loo together"
Lauren blushed.
"Oh well, I guess there is no point to hide it anymore then"
Rory took a big sip of tea.
"Y'know, the bass isn't the only thing John's fingers can work their way around, if you know what I mean" she said with a smirk.
Rory choked on her tea, spitting it back in the cup. She knew exactly what her mother meant and she wished she'd never asked that question. Even though she knew that her mother had had a pretty wild youth, she would have never expected that it was that wild. Also, she was having a little bit of a hard time picturing her mum with someone else who was not her dad.
"And James?" Eleanor tried to ask.
"I don't know any Jameses. It's actually been John for a couple of months now"
Rory looked around, there were no pictures of her parents hanging on the walls. They hadn't met yet, evidently, but she still felt lowkey betrayed. If her mother with someone other than her dad was difficult to picture, Lauren with John was just so weird that she didn't even try to imagine it, especially after her mother gave her details of what they did.
It was John Deacon, for God's sake, not just any other British man. Her mother had always had a soft spot for the bassist, but never she would have thought that it was based on a real story.
"Enough about me. Rather, I saw you talking with Taylor earlier"
So many things had happened and so many thoughts were rattling about her head, that she forgot she had been talking with Roger back at the club.
"Uhm, yeah. He came over to me. He's cute"
Rory had always thought that Roger was way more than cute, the Roger from the 70s especially.
Lauren rolled her eyes.
"What?" Rory asked, chuckling.
"I don't like the lad. He's always like that with cute gals. But all he does is take them to bed and then disappears."
Rory knew that as well. Roger Taylor had always looked like the Casanova of the band and she didn't expect anything else from him. But she didn't really care. It was Roger Taylor they were talking about, her biggest crush of all times.
"Also, he isn't really fond of me either"
Lauren shook her shoulders, got up and placed the mug in the sink. She put a kiss on Rory's cheek. "Goodnight dear"
"Goodnight mum" she whispered once Lauren was out of the room.
She finished her tea and went to her room. Despite the furniture being different, her bedroom felt extremely familiar. She picked up a t-shirt from her wardrobe and laid in bed, thinking about that day.
One moment she was in London in 2018 and the other she was in 1971, being her mum's roommate, witnessing her mum's... adventures.
Thinking of them, she remembered that her parents had yet to meet, and she started fearing they might never meet, now that she was there, changing the past. After all, she had watched Back to the Future several times, as well as many other time travel movies. Then she started rambling: if her parents never met, she wouldn't be born and, for the time being, she was not fading away.