speechless | roger taylor

thirteen

Elise found herself in the hallway upstairs a few hours later, perched on the chair beside the small table with the telephone on it. She held the note which contained Brian's phone number in her hand as she dialled, her heart warming at the sound of Roger and her family laughing downstairs. 

"Hello?" Brian said into the phone, "who's this?"

"'S just me, Elise," she laughed, "I'm not some creepy old person that wants your toes."

Brian laughed at that, a smile overtaking his face. "Hey, girlie. How's your day going?"

"It's going well, I suppose. Roger's getting along very well with my family—it's quite cute, actually, how he's telling all these stories about you two in college, making my mum laugh harder than she has in a while. I just miss you guys, you know?"

Elise had grown close to the band over the two weeks that she'd been spending with them. She'd spent almost every day with them since John had taken her to their gig for the first time, and she rather enjoyed their company. Brian had grown especially close to her and had made her feel like she belonged.

"We miss you too, love," he smiled. "Freddie's going insane without you here. Says he misses his sassy girl."

"Do you have his number, by chance? I'll give him a call before I go to sleep," Elise asked. She missed Freddie as well, and she'd promised him that as soon as they got back she'd go clothes shopping with him.

"Yeah," Brian said. He gave her his number and she wrote it down before they continued on their conversation.

"Thank you," she smiled. "The sky's really clear here tonight, I think I may go look at the moon once it gets dark."

"That sounds magnificent," he said excitedly. "I got you something for your birthday that I hope you'll find as interesting as I did. Was thinking that maybe we could look at it once you get back, and I could teach you about it."

Elise smiled and felt as if she was a child in a candy store. She didn't expect any of them to get her anything—her birthday was something she found unimportant. "You didn't have to get me anything, Bri."

"Oh, be quiet," he laughed, "I saw this while I was going to get more film for my camera, I thought it'd be something you'd enjoy, and it is your birthday anyway."

"You're too kind," she chuckled. Roger made his way up the stairs and peeked around the corner to see if Elise was up there, his eyes landing on her immediately. Elise's attention shifted to him and he nodded his head, indicating that dinner was ready.

"I've got to go eat dinner," Elise told Brian, her fingers twisting in the telephone cord. "I'll call you again soon."

"Have fun, make sure Roger doesn't explode," Brian laughed. "See you, Elise."

"See you!"

Elise hung up the phone and stood up, smiling at Roger. "Dinner's done?"

"It is," he said, walking up the stairs and following her into her bedroom. She placed the note with Freddie's number on it on her desk and turned around rather abruptly, her chest hitting Roger's accidentally.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her breath hitching as she looked up at him. She could feel his breath on her cheeks and he smiled, his hands gripping at her waist, steadying her.

"'S alright," Roger mumbled. The two of them stayed like that for a moment as he debated on kissing her.

"We should get down there before dinner gets cold and we get in trouble," Elise said softly, her hand grasping at his gently. Roger let out a small sigh as she turned around, pulling him from her bedroom and back downstairs.