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Maeve 1972
I couldn't believe my life. I sat myself on the cold ground, cigarette between my thin fingers. I always felt dirty when I did this, but smoking was the first thing I went to when I was stressed. I took a small puff and exhaled deeply. I heard the front door to our house open wide. I almost looked over, but didn't bother considering I already knew who it would be. The blonde drummer slid down the side of the house and sat beside me, snagging my cigarette pack from my lap. "These are awful."
"I don't smoke then to enjoy them." I replied cooly, taking another huff from the cigarette. Roger pulled a pack from his pocket and lit it quickly.
"Look, I'm—"
"I was hardly expecting you to tell me that." I flicked ash from the cigarette. Oh how disgusting it was. I hated being a stress smoker.
"I know..." He trailed off. I looked over at him but he wouldn't look back at me. He stared off into the darkness. He looked peaceful. "I believe you've always known... how I feel."
I nodded, even though he didn't see me anyway. "When?" I asked, turning to look into the same darkness as Roger. "When did you know you had developed feelings?"
He didn't respond for a minute or so. The smoke from his cigarette floated across my field of vision. "The moment you met the three of us. Tim made an absolutely absurd comment to you, trying to woo you." I rolled my eyes as Roger looked over at me. "You struck him right across the face and told him to remove his head from his arse."
I laughed, leaning my head back against the wall. "That's when you knew, really?" He nodded, smiling over at me. "That soon?"
"A normal woman would have gushed and fed right into it, but you didn't. You're not a normal woman." He went back to his cigarette. Roger confused me. I didn't know how I felt. Or rather, I knew how I felt, but I didn't know if I was ready to accept it.
"I'm glad Dominique is gone." I interrupted the silence, smirking as I took a huff from my gross, addictive cigarette.
"I know you are. You hated her." He said with a chuckle.
"I did not hate—"
"You hated her, by god. If looks could kill, you would have killed her the moment you met her." Roger chuckled again, smiling to himself. "I understand why though. You wanted to be Dominique. To be with me."
"You really have the biggest ego of anyone I've ever met, Taylor. I did not want that." I pressed my cigarette onto the stone walkway, putting it out. Good.
"Liar." He said quickly. "And even if you didn't want to be with me then, you do now." I scoffed loudly at his remark, despite knowing that it's true. "I remember how you were at our debut showing."
"I recall how you were too." I looked over at him. "You left the stage for me. Stopped the show. Do you understand that? You have feelings for me."
"That's very clear now, isn't it? I've told you many times just tonight." He said, a smirk playing on his lips. His lips. No. "Now I've admitted it. Why won't you?"
Why won't I? "You saw how Tim just left. Like there was never anything between us. Like we hadn't been dating for over a year! Like I was absolutely nothing to him." I felt a crack in my voice, so I paused before I continued. "Like my father left. They always say that the people who love you never leave you, but the two men I've loved in life have both left me. So why would people say that?" A small stray tear fell down my cheek, causing me to quickly move away and break our gaze.
"Some people lie. Some people are bastards. Not all people are like that though." I felt Roger's hand graze my own, then pull away quickly. Like he was afraid he had overstepped.
"Is this the cliché part where you tell me you're not like those other men? That you're different?"
"Oh, no." He said quickly. "For god's sake, I'm just like those men." He said with a laugh. I looked at him like he was insane. This was how he was going to convince me to be with him, huh? "I won't promise you that I won't hurt you, or that I won't be... well... a dumbass. But I can do something that Tim and your father couldn't. I'm going to try. Try to stick it out when things get difficult, try not to hurt you like they have. I'll try. For you." He tilted my head back towards him. "And that's the closest I've ever gotten to promising a woman anything."
I laughed a bit, wiping my tear. I always knew that Roger was a sweetheart deep down. He displayed a rugged and tough exterior, but inside, he was a softie. He cared. He cared about his friends. He cared about me. Just like I cared about him. "Roger..."
"Listen, you took a chance on school. You took a chance on this band. You can take a chance on me." At this point, my heart was going a kilometer a minute. I felt myself breathing faster. This was really happening. Before I could even speak or think, I leaned into him quickly, locking our lips together. My heart was racing still, pulling myself closer to him.
I thought he was going to pull away from me, but instead, he pulled me up onto his lap. His strong arms roped their way around my waist as I linked my arms around his neck. This kiss quickly deepened as he pulled me closer to his body. We stayed like this for a few moments more, our mouths barely breaking for air. I ran my thin fingers through his soft, blonde hair, enjoying the kiss and the silence. The silence was quickly broken by the sound of the front screen door swinging open. We broke quickly and both of our gazes met the figure standing in the doorway.
The man clapped his hands together, casting a smile in our direction. "Perfect." Freddie said with a toothy grin. "Perfect, perfect, perfect." And with that, he made his way right back inside, leaving us to ourselves again.
