QUEEN // Roger Taylor

A Night at the Opera...(17)

Thanks to the Bismillah bitches for helping me with my grammar mistakes, love you guys!
-
I left the hospital sooner than I expected, only staying there for a week.

A lot had been going on after my car accident, my mom forgave me for dropping out of college and I forgave her for not talking to me, the boys and I established a deep connection, now knowing that they are going to be there for me whenever I needed them to and I was going to be there whenever they needed me to be.

Me and Roger haven't talk about anything concerning our relationship if you could call it like that; we acted as if nothing had happened, which was mostly good but I still wanted to be with him, I wanted to mean something to him; but it was hard for me to believe that he felt something for me, he wasn't the 'in a serious relationship' type, he was more like the 'different groupie every night' type.
-
As soon as I stepped out of the hospital we flew back to London in order to meet Ray Foster which was going to invest in our new album. Nevertheless, we still didn't have an idea of what the new album was going to be like.
-
3:21 pm
There we were, sitting awkwardly in the couch. Me between John and Roger, and Brian sitting next to John. I was stressed, Freddie hadn't shown up yet, we were supposed to meet in here at 3:00 pm sharp and he was late, as usual. I could tell Roger was angry by the way he looked so tense. Brian seemed done with Freddie and ready to walk out of here at any moment, John seemed relaxed, he is too pure to think Freddie will ever stand us up.
I, however, was feeling nervous, we were standing right in front of our future investor and Freddie was making us look unprofessional.

3:34 pm
A knock on the door broke the awkward silence that had built up 34 minutes ago. "I'm here my darlings." Freddies' voice filled the room. I sighed, relieved now that Freddie was here. He sat on the sofa next to us, we all looked at him with questioning faces, he simply ignored us.

"You're late" Ray said. "Am I?" Freddie responded with a cocky smile. "We saved you a seat." I mumbled angrily at him. "Lovely." Freddie replied with a sarcastic smile. "Wanker" Roger said in between coughs.

"Okay so now that we are all here, Jim this is Ray Foster, this is the bands' lawyer, Jim Beach-" John Reid, our manager, said but got cut off by Freddie. "You must stop calling him that." Freddie said lighting up a cigarette. "That's his name." John Reid replied. "No, we can't keep calling him Jim Beach." Freddie exclaimed with disgust in his face. I rolled my eyes at him, lately Freddie gets on my nerves easily. "That's absurb, not to mention inexplicable boring." Freddie said putting the cigarette on his lips. "Can you get to the point already?" I barked at him, not something I would usually do; me and John were considered the quiet ones, but now that we were sitting in front of an important recording deal and Freddie screwing this up, I was done.

Freddie spoke up again. "Miami." We all scoffed at this. "From now on, I doubt thee Miami Beach."  I laughed at this, relaxing myself a bit. Roger noticed that I had loosened up and placed his hand over my knee shaking it a bit and giving me a tight smile, I looked up at him and sticked out my tongue at him, he smiled and repeated my action making me laugh, we both started laughing quietly.

"Is there something you want to share with the class, Andy and Roger?" Freddie asked tilting his head to the right. I rolled my eyes at him. "Can we please start talking about the album?" I asked scooting myself away from Roger.
"Sure, why don't you start?" Freddie asked harshly, what the hell was wrong with him? He knew no one had an idea about what the new album was going to be like, why would he ask me to talk about it.

Before I could speak Ray Foster started talking. "Look, we just really need something special, more hits, like Killer Queen, only bigger." Ray insisted. "We can't just reproduce Killer Queen" I answered back. "Okay then tell me what you have in mind." Ray told me, leaning forward placing his arms on the table.

I looked down at my feet and started thinking. Then I looked at the table that was placed in front of us. Brians' tea cup had made an "O" shaped stained. "O" I thought in my head. 'o' 'o' 'o'

"Opera!" I said out of nowhere, they all looked at me confused, all of them except for Freddie, his eyes lit up.

Freddie took a vinyl from Ray Fosters collection and played it in the record player. An opera song started playing. "It's opera" Ray Foster said. "Opera!" John Reid replied. "Opera." Paul Prenter added. "There seems to be an eco in here." John said making us chuckle.

Freddie started moving and dancing around to the beat, throwing papers around the room and banging his fist against the table. We started laughing at this, looking at Rays' reaction. Freddie eventually turned the volume down and leaned against the wall.

"See, we don't want to repeat ourselves, the same formula over and over." Brian explained. "Formulas are a complete waste of time." Freddie added. "Formulas work, let's stick with the formulas, i like formulas." Ray Foster insisted but Freddie ignored him and continued speaking. "We'll call the album, 'A Night at the Opera'" Freddie said turning to look at us. We all nodded at him completely approving his idea.

"Are you aware that no one actually likes opera?" Ray asked a bit harshly. "I like opera." Jim or Miami Beach said. "Do you?" Ray asked sarcastically. "Don't misunderstand darling, is a rock and roll record, but in the scale of opera, it's a musical experience, rather than just another record, something for everyone, something that will make people feel it belongs to them." Freddie said.

His speech inspired me and I could tell the others were inspired too, my heart rate started speeding up, all of the sudden I wanted to start working on this album.

"We'll mix genres." Brian said. "We'll cross boundaries" John added. "We'll speak different languages if we want to." Roger finally said. Still, Ray Foster looked unsure.  "No one knows what Queen means because it doesn't mean one thing." I said. Ray Foster sighed thinking about our idea for a couple of moments. "What do you think John?" He asked our manager. "I-I agree with the band." John Reid replied. "How about you..uh." "Miami" Miami Beach replied making me chuckle. "Miami... Do you agree with the band?" Ray asked. "Fortune favors the bold." Miami Beach replied. "Please don't make me regret this..." Ray Foster finally said in defeat.
-
We left the building excited that the record deal was a success. Brian gathered us outside the building to talk about the recording. "We'll leave tomorrow to Rockfield farm and start recording, does everyone agree?" Brian asked looking at each and everyone of us. "Why Rockfield farm and not here?" I asked clearly confused. "We need to get away from all distractions in order to create the best album ever." Brian answered making it seem like it was obvious. "And how long are we staying there?" John asked. "As long as it takes, it could be a week or a month, depends." Brian replied. "Ok, any other questions?" He asked and Freddie slowly raised his hand. "Yes Freddie?" "Can I bring my cats?" Freddie asked earning a disappointed look from all of us. "No, Fred, you can't." Roger replied.

"It's settled then, tomorrow morning, we'll leave at 6:00 am."
-
After saying goodbye to the boys I walked towards Freddie who was leaving too. "Hey, what was all that about?" I asked, he was such an asshole back there, which was weird, he was always an asshole with everyone but not with me, never with me, and now he suddenly was. "I don't know what you're talking about." He said clearly lying and walking away faster trying to get to his car. He opened the door trying to get in but I closed it before he could.

"Fred, what's wrong?" I asked making eye contact but his eyes were looking away from me. "I know you lied to me." He sighed. "Fred, what are you talking abo-" "When you were in the hospital Roger told me what happened between you two..." He said, this time looking at me in the eyes. "The night when he went to your hotel room, he didn't throw up and leave, did he?" He asked me, but he already knew the answer. "When you where in the hospital I asked you why you had drank and you told me that the concert was exhausting and you needed a drink, but it wasn't just that, was it?" He asked once again. He opened the door and got into his car, but before closing the door he spoke again. "Andrea, I thought we were best friends, I've known you since you were born, I thought we trusted each other... It hurts me that you had to lied to me." And with that he drove away.