Let Us Cling Together

Chapter 2

A/N: I decided that this chapter we should give (y/b/f) a name and make her an actual character, so your best friend is called Diane

Brian sat on a barstool alongside Freddie and Roger. With Roger not leaving a minute to spare, he began chatting up some girl as soon as he'd gotten there and offered to buy her drinks. As it was his gig, Elton John was of course there and engaged in rather animated conversation with Freddie. Brian looked down into his drink glumly, before raising the glass to his lips. He tossed it back and felt the whiskey warm him. His eyes flickered back up to the clock and he realised the time. They just about had enough time to have one last quick soundcheck before they went on. He turned around to Freddie and awkwardly tapped his arm and spoke in a quiet voice.

"Listen, Fred, we don't have that much time, shouldn't we all go and have a soundcheck?"

"Hold on, Bri, wait a second. This is Elton John, I think you'll already know were playing before him tonight, really a wonderful musician!" Freddie, spoke, praising Elton's efforts. Brian awkwardly offered his hand to Elton and looked at the floor, refusing to make eye contact, as was usual with new people.

"I think I've heard you play before Brian! You're all not too bad of musicians yourselves, and that guitar of yours is a damn good piece of work!" Elton was enthusiastic in his approach towards the guitarist, causing Brian to awkwardly laugh.

"Can you imagine what I thought when I came across our Bri and Rog here? A guitarist wearing clogs! Fucking clogs!" Freddie chortled.

"I'll have to agree with you on the footwear there, I do find them rather comfortable on my days off!" Elton raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side. Brian laughed a little bit too, not really knowing what to say.

"So I hear you've found us a bassist, darling?" Freddie spoke.

"Yeah, I told him to go straight backstage, his name is John Deacon," Elton spoke effortlessly, however when Brian heard the name his vision snapped up to Elton. He remembered when you two were working on your project for class, you had mentioned that you had a brother called John. Surely there couldn't be another John Deacon? He turned on his heel and went backstage, not speaking another word. He stood alone in the corner with his guitar case as he began to prepare for the show ahead, already looking forward to after the show.

You arrived backstage, just as the pre-act were about to go out on stage. You heard a soft voice speak and address the cheering crowd, introducing the band. Smile. You'd heard about them. You'd never been to one of their gigs, but there was always a first. It was Diane that told you about them, saying as she went out more often than you did. You knew that she had a bit of a crush on the drummer, but she never knew his name. Or any of the other band members for that matter.

There was already a few people in the backroom, but you just about could see your brother standing by himself and looking at the wall with glazed over eyes and an absent look on his face. You pointed him out to your best friend, who was also glancing around for familiar faces, and you pushed through the crowd towards John, whose expression brightened when he saw you.

"Hello! How've you been, sis?" John was quite laid back when you'd known him your whole life, but around people he hadn't know as well, you'd known him to be on edge quite a bit, but then again, it was just a thing that happened to run in your family.

You raised your eyebrows at John and cocked your head to the side, grabbing a cup and downing a glass of whiskey.

As the night progressed, the backroom began to fill up a bit more with all sorts of different characters, though the number of people made the room feel a bit cramped. You stuck by Diane until you saw the familiar face of Elton John walking your way and smiling manically. Yourself and Elton have been great friends for years as the two of you had gone to secondary school close to each other and in him, you had found someone with a shared love for music. You beamed back at him and hugged him.