Long Away

Chapter 27

The next morning Ben got woken up by a pillow hitting him in the face. Before he could muster up the energy to move, Roger groaned next to him.
"What the hell Fred?"
Roger had left his room to his sister for now, so he was sharing Ben's mattress in Freddie's room. The latter removed the pillow from Ben's face to check if he was awake.

"Good morning sleepy heads. Band meeting in an hour."
"What why?", Ben yawned.
The smug grin on Freddie's face immediately gave him a bad feeling.
"Because, my darlings, I managed to get us a gig on New Years Eve. You are welcome."

"Freddie, we literally never practiced with the new guy," Roger reminded him, his voice agitated and tired. Ben grabbed his hand to soothe him.
"You mean the new guys," Freddie corrected him.
"Ben's performing too."
"Wait, what?"
Ben sat up, suddenly wide awake. Freddie's grin grew even bigger.
"You heard me, dear. You are a member of the band, afterall."

"Freddie, that is really not a good idea. I can barely play."
"Oh you'll just be playing in the background anyway, you can do that," Freddie brushed it off. That however wasn't even Ben's biggest concern.
"I really think you four should be playing alone," he insisted, hoping Freddie would take the hint. He did not.

"Nope. Too late. Brian and I already decided."
"When did you even talk to him?", Roger asked.
"Just now, when I scheduled the band meeting. So up you get, now." He lightly kicked both of them in the sides and left the room, giving them no ear for further complaints. Roger sighed.
"Alright, her Majesty has spoken."

~~~~

The practice went about as well as Ben had expected. Which was not well at all. Of course Brian and Roger were playing together just fine, but Ben kept playing the wrong chords whenever he got nervous, throwing Deaky off his rhythm, which in turn confused Freddie. After an hour of trying his best, Ben put down the guitar Brian had organized for him.

"Freddie, this really isn't working," he said.
"Not with that attitude." Freddie picked the instrument back up and wanted to hand it to Ben. He refused.
"No Freddie, I mean it. I am nowhere near skilled enough to perform."
"You just need more practice."
"Yes. A lot more practice. More than I can get in five days."

"Brian, what's your assessment?", Freddie asked. Brian looked from Freddie to Ben, visibly unhappy to be dragged into the conversation.
"Well... It depends on how fast you can memorize what you need to play," he said.

"You did learn the chords I taught you quite fast, so I think maybe you could do it?"
Freddie nodded, a pleased expression on his face.
"But I also don't think we should force Ben to play if he doesn't want to," Brian quickly added.

Freddie rolled his eyes.
"You said yourself that you could imagine being our background guitarist," he reminded Ben.
"Well yes, but not before I even learn how to play."
"If you're going to be a member of the band, you should be there for our first gig."
"Then you shouldn't have agreed to that in the first place." Ben was starting to lose his patience.

"He does have a point, you know?", Roger defended his boyfriend.
"Oh of course you would say that," Freddie groaned.
"Guys...", Brian tried to interrupt them. Deaky was awkwardly sitting in the corner, watching them argue.
"What is that supposed to mean?", Roger snapped at Freddie.
"Rog, don't," Ben sighed. He didn't mean for this to escalate into a fight.

"May I give a suggestion?", Deaky asked quietly.
"Yes, please." Ben was relieved.
"Why don't we let Ben practice for the rest of the week and see how far he gets? In the meantime we can focus on ourselves. That way we will all improve faster and it takes out the pressure."

"Finally someone with some sense in his brain," Brian said.
"Can we agree on that?"
"Fine with me. I won't make it anyway," Ben agreed.
"Fine. And yes, you will," Freddie said.
"And I will personally make sure you actually practice every day."

"Good, now that that's settled, can we get back to work? We still have a lot to do. Ben, maybe you can unplug your guitar and do your exercises alone?", Brian suggested.
"Will do."
Ben took his guitar to the other side of the room where he hopefully wouldn't disturb the others.

At first he really tried to focus on what he was doing, but it was way too tempting to watch what was basically a private Queen performance just for him. He bobbed his head along to the beat of Keep Yourself Alive, and, whenever he thought that the other three weren't looking, made flirty eyes at his boyfriend.

It was hard to tell since he was a very skilled drummer in general, but Ben had the feeling that Roger was putting in an extra amount of effort to impress him. It worked.

They kept playing for a few more hours, and eventually Ben felt like he was actually improving. Deaky's idea was good, but he still was sure that he wasn't good enough to perform with the others at the end of the week. Not to mention it was a terrible idea to begin with. He had no idea what had even gotten into Freddie. He decided he would question him about it when he got the chance to speak to him in private.

***

Hey guys! Slightly early upload, I know, but I figured you wouldn't mind. I hope you liked this chapter and see you next time!

Tay