No One But You

36. Scrabble

Roger

Maddie was supposed to leave the other day after she came up with the name for Freddie's thing. Bohemian Rhapsody she called it. It's actually a quite clever name. She explained to all of us what it meant and the actual name is more meaningful that the actual song. 

However, I must admit Bohemian Rhapsody actually turned out to be a pretty good song. It's different and unconventional and we all agree that it should be the single from this album. Sure I'd like to hear my song as the single, but Bohemian Rhapsody is just...different. We want to be different and to break boundaries and Bohemian Rhapsody does just that. 

We decided to take a couple days break to finish up our other songs after the torture of trying to record Bohemian Rhapsody. My throat hurt the following day after singing to dolphins. If I ever hear or think of Galileo again, I actually might have a conniption. 

Currently Freddie, John, Brian and I are playing Scrabble. We've all grown quite fond of the game since we came here. Deaky talked about purchasing a game for us back home so we can just have nights like this. And honestly I'm not opposed. I never thought I would choose a Scrabble game over a party, but I don't really need much anymore. I used to go to parties to look for a different girl to have sex with, but now that I have Maddie I don't really need anything else besides these goons and music. 

"A?" Freddie asks. I look over at him. Sure enough Deaky, who was starting the game, put down a singular letter - A. 

"What? It's a word," John argues, taking another letter from the bag. I shrug and add one of my letters to it. 

"I'll add a 't' to it to make 'at'," I state. Not the best word I could have played but it's better than 'a'. I take a letter to replace the one I just used from the black velvet bag containing the rest.

"I'll add an 'r' to it to make 'rat'," Freddie announces, adding his letter. 

Brian looks at the board and then his letters curiously. "I'll add onto your 'rat' and make it 'abjuration'," 

Freddie, John and I groan. Every God damn time, Brian. 

"What the fuck?" I whisper harshly. I hear Maddie giggling from beside me. 

"That's 138 points," John mutters. 

"Is that even a real word?" I argue. "No one on this damn planet knows what that means, let alone uses it!"

"It means an oath," Maddie says from besides me. "Comes from the latin word abjurare, meaning to foreswear," 

"Thank you, Madison," Brian laughs, knowing he's already won this game. 

Maddie leans over and rests her head on my shoulder. Sometimes I forget she's as smart as she is. God I love her. So much. 

"Brian, darling, I think you'd be much better suited playing against Madison," Freddie announces. 

Deaky purses his lips and looks around. I narrow my eyes and look at him. 

"What's the look for?" I ask him. 

His eyes find mine. "Oh nothing.." he lies. 

"What? Do you not think I would win against Brian?" Maddie asks. 

"You're not the one I would worry about," John replies. I snicker. 

"Well now you two have to play each other," Freddie says. I admit, this is a game I would want to watch. I probably won't understand half the words they use, but I want to see what the two astrophysicists come up with. 

"I'm always up for it," Brian says. "If Maddie is anyways,"

Maddie takes her head off my shoulder and glances over at one of the clocks in the room. She sighs. 

"I actually think I should get going," she announces. My heart sinks. I knew the time would come but I was hoping not now. Now ever really. "It's getting late and I have a three hour drive. I'm afraid I've already overstayed,"

"Don't be silly," I tell her quietly. 

"Darling, we love having you around," Freddie says sincerely. 

"At least stay the night. It's already dark out," Brian says to her. 

To that, Maddie nods slowly and agrees. 

We decide to put Scrabble away and postpone Maddie and Brian's match. Maddie promises one day they'll go against each other, she just isn't a hundred percent with it right now. 

John and I decide to go to the kitchen to make some food for dinner. Freddie leaves to go help Paul with something I think he said. And Maddie stays with Brian in the other room, talking about some song Brian is writing about time distillation. 

John and I are silent for the most part, making small talk here or there. We work together to prepare some sort of chicken meal. We don't have a lot of food left at the house so we're a little limited. 

"Hey Deaky," I say while grabbing some spices out of one of the cabinets. "Do you think Maddie really likes me?"

I can practically feel John rolling his eyes. 

"Are you slow?" He asks. 

"But like do you think she loves me?" 

John turns to look at me, taking a break from what he's doing. "I know she loves you,"

"Do you think she loves me enough to marry me?"

The knife John's holding falls from his hands, clattering on the floor. 

"What's going on?" Freddie asks, walking into the kitchen. He smells of smoke and looks exceptionally more tired than he did before. 

"I think Roger wants to marry Maddie," John whispers to Freddie. They both look at me with wide eyes. 

"Are you serious?" Freddie asks, walking closer to me. 

I pause. Marriage has never been something to catch my interest. It seemed more like a hassle than not. But I don't see myself without Maddie. She's it for me. I genuinely do want to spend the rest of my life with her, maybe even start a family. So I nod. 

Freddie lunges at me, embracing me. 

"Oh Roger, darling, this is wonderful," he says quietly in my ear. He pulls away. I can't help but smile. Not at him or John, but just the thought of Maddie actually being mine. Not that she isn't now, but officially. 

"To answer your question," John says. "Yes I do think she loves you enough to marry you," 

"We'll need to plan everything of course," Freddie continues. "Venues, flowers, cake. I could even help her pick out a dress and - oh! - the ring! We need to get that,"

"I like how you say we," I huff. "Like it's a team effort," 

"Correct me if I'm wrong but she was friends with all of us before she even liked you as a person," John comments. 

"He's not wrong," Freddie mutters. 

The fact that I know he's not wrong is even worse. 

"Let's just focus on finishing this album, and then we'll focus on the ring, yeah? I need to save up for it. I'm already paying for our house and I want to surprise her with something else too but I need to save up a lot for it," I ramble. The band's been making money, but most of it has been going to EMI. According to our success we should be making significantly more than we have. Not that I'm necessarily complaining, but now since there's all these things I want to buy I'm paying closer attention to what we receive. 

"It's so nice to see you in love," Freddie says. "It's so much better than how you were when we first met," 

I go to respond, to make a snarky comment of sorts, but I can't. He's right. Being in love really is so much better.