Summer Of '75 (Roger Taylor/Queen)

Chapter 15

Roger's P.O.V.

My blood was boiling. I couldn't believe what Freddie had the audacity to tell Amelia. What made him think that he had to get involved in this - doesn't he know it has absolutely nothing to do with him? I navigated through the house, my jaw clenched as I stormed down the corridors with no real destination in mind. I didn't care, I just wanted to get as far away from the basement as possible. On my way, I passed Brian, who had just finished his phone call with whoever he had been talking to. He obviously noticed my disturbed nature so was quick to ask me what was going on.

'Roger?' he gazed at me with concern, 'What's wrong, where are you going?'

I pushed past him, ignoring his question as I continued striding down the hallway. I heard John speaking to him from somewhere behind me.

'Leave it. I've got it.' he told the guitarist as John's footsteps followed me along the corridor.

But I wasn't going to stop in my tracks. I upped my pace until I eventually made it to the back door of the house. Swinging it open, I stepped out onto the gravel path which lead to the pool area in the back garden and started walking along it. It was only when I eventually reached the poolside, did my pacing grind to a halt. Agitated and flustered, I quickly took out a cigarette from the pocket of my jeans and lit it up, hoping it would relieve me of some of my stress. I stood there for a minute, staring at the ground, until I heard someone approaching. It was John of course. I took a drag of my cigarette, ignoring him as he walked over to me and stood there with a look of pity on his face. As if I needed his sympathy...

'Freddie was only trying to help, y'know?' Deaky eventually spoke up, 'I'm sure his intentions weren't to dissuade Amelia from getting closer to you.'

I scoffed, refusing to look over at him, 'Didn't sound like that to me.'

'You didn't even let him finish what he had to say,' John informed, 'Maybe if you'd just listened to the rest of his piece -'

'Oh, I heard enough, John. He's obviously trying to discourage Lee from me because he thinks I'm going to play her. He just thinks I'm a massive fuck up.'

John sighed heavily, 'That's not true, Rog.'

I rolled my eyes as I brought my cigarette up to my lips and took a drag from it again. There was a short moment of silence between us, the rustling of the leaves was all that could be heard around us.

'Look, you wouldn't have stormed out back there unless it was something serious. There's obviously something bothering you for a while now that you're not telling us.'

'There's nothing 'bothering' me.'

'You're lying.'

I glanced over at him and huffed, contemplating whether or not to tell him the truth,'Why should I tell you anything? You'll just think I'm being pathetic.'

'No, I won't; none of us will. We can't help if you don't talk to us. Now if you'd just drop your ego for a minute and tell me what's going on, we can resolve this.'

Kicking around the stones beneath my feet, I hesitated to say anything. But I knew if I didn't tell John and the others now, they would find out sooner or later anyway. There wasn't much point in hiding it any longer, now that they'd caught onto me. After battling with my thoughts for long enough, I finally gave in.

'I'm just sick of it.' I said, probably so quietly he didn't even hear me.

'Sick of what?'