Save Me (Roger Taylor FanFiction) [Wattys 2019]

27: Hungover Reconciliation

*7th January 1972*

"ROGER, WAKE UP. NOW!" I wasn't having this this morning. I pulled the covers off him and shook his shoulder, roughly.

"W-What?! What's going on? Where am I?" Roger sat up in bed, obviously startled, trying to open his eyes.

"You're in heaven," I replied, my voice oozing with sarcasm.

"You know, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, and that's why I picked it for you," I snapped back, pulling his arms so that he nearly fell off the side of the bed.

"What the hell, Jules?" He asked, pulling his arms out of my grip.

"You're getting up now and you're coming with me to the cafe,"

"What? And why on earth do you think I'll do that?"

"Because I'm telling you to," I replied, really sounding like a mother. I pulled some clothes out of his drawers and threw them at his face.

"What's going to happen is, you are going to get up and get dressed, I'm going to make you breakfast, then we are going to the cafe, I'm going to phone John, get him down to the cafe and the three of us are going to sit and work this stupid shit out together,"

He groaned and fell back into the bed, pulling the covers over his head.

I sighed, walked forward and pulled the covers straight back off him. But this time I took them off the bed and carried them downstairs with me.

"Jules, please!"

"Please, what? You punched one of your best friends in the face last night and there is no way I'm going to allow this problem to remain. I will not be the cause of friends fighting," I told him, reaching the bottom of the stairs.

"You've got ten minutes and breakfast will be ready," I called to him, to which, only a groan was heard in reply.

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Roger sat at an empty table with his arms folded, grumbling away to himself in the cafe. He looked like a child who had been dragged along to his mother's work place because there wasn't a babysitter.

He had a killer hangover and he wanted to be in bed, so he told me a million times. I had used the phone in the cafe to ring John and get him to come along. He was very awkward on the phone. The confidence provided by alcohol had long since worn off and he had returned to his usual fumbling self.

We'd been waiting a good 20 minutes for him but I didn't mind, I just got on with my work. I had told Sarah what was going to happen today to make sure she was alright with it and she was. She was the best manager ever.

"John!" I exclaimed when he walked in the door, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets. He glanced over at me and then at Roger and his face showed that he wanted to be anywhere but here.

But before this day was through, this crap was going to be sorted out.

"Please sit down," I instructed him, showing him to the seat across from Roger at the round table. "Do you want me to get you anything?"

"A black coffee would be lovely," He asked politely and I set to work making it for him.

"Here you go. Now," I said, setting the coffee down and taking a seat. "We are going to talk about last night,"

"I was way out of line and I'm so sorry for betraying you, Roger and for making you uncomfortable, Julie," John apologised immediately and it was clear he'd rehearsed this a few times.

"Yeah, you're damn right you were," Roger scoffed, folding his arms.

"You were both out of line," I hissed at Roger, glaring hard. He rolled his eyes and said nothing.

I whacked his arm and he glared at me. Sighing he finally said, "I'm sorry too...for hitting you. I shouldn't have done that,"

"It's okay," John said, smiling lightly.

"Right, so now that you've both apologised, I need to say John that that cannot happen again," he opened his mouth but I stopped him. "I'm not saying it will, I'm just telling you that it absolutely cannot happen again and if it does, I won't be as forgiving." I knew I had to be quite stern. He nodded, looking down again.

"I'm with Roger and I can't come between your friendship with him," I told him, making him nod again.

"I know, I'm really sorry," he repeated.

"We've maybe got a gig opportunity on the 28th, did Brian tell you?" Roger changed the subject and I decided that was my time to leave them to it.

Drama between male friends was so much clearer than female friends. With girls, everything was underhand and sneaky whereas with guys, they just battered each other, talked it out and got on with it. No grudges.

I continued with my shift expecting them to leave not long after I left them but no. They sat for my whole shift chatting away, laughing loudly together. There was no way you could tell that they were the cause of the bruises on the other one's face.

Men were very strange creatures indeed.

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A/N

So, here the sister chapter to the last one. I hadn't planned on posting two chapter in the one day but I started writing this and just couldn't stop. It's only wee but it goes with the last one which was quite long.

I'm trying to update as often as possible because I've got exams coming up in a few weeks and I'm going to need to start serious studying so I might not be able to update as often as I have been.

More on that as it happens.

Keep reading!

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