More than just a friend || Roger Taylor

13- I like you too

26th March 1978

Tw- mentions of abuse

"Right... you've got until mid April to make your mind up on the Natalia Crown movie." Mel sighed, pushing her glasses up the edge of her button nose to get a clearer view of me rolling my eyes dramatically. She and I both knew what my answer was, but she still always tried.

"Ok..." I paused, biting the skin around my nails as her's tapped against her wooden desk. "Can I have a break ? Like just a pause from everything. No shoots or interviews or commercials for a week or two. At least don't book me anything for a little while. I'm tired."

I was tired, of course I was. But I'd been tired for as long as I could remember, so that wasn't at all my real reason for asking for a short break. I wanted to squeeze every last drop I could out of the normal life me and Roger seemed to have together before it was snatched from me for a handful of weeks. And I couldn't do that with a photoshoot every other day.

"Are you ok ?"

"Yeah. I'm just fed up." I shrugged, my lips sat tight together as she nodded slowly. I wasn't entirely lying to her, because really in all truth I was fed up, but I had been for far too long to let it finally affect my job now.

"I'll tell companies you're sick for the next two weeks. But that's it. Two weeks." I smiled gratefully, Mel tucking her ginger curls behind her ears with her navy blue painted finger tips. "Have you spoken to your dad since you last did ?"

"No. He said something about coming over here and... well I didn't like the idea of it. At all." My shoulders tightened, leg bouncing nervously when my teeth gritted together at the mention of the name dad. The same itch that I felt I could never scratch crashed over me like a wave, crawling across my body as memories of him edged across my previously clear mind.

Mel seemed nervous. Incredibly anxious. She couldn't let her eyes stay fixed on one detail for longer than a second, her pupils scattering across the room as her bottom lip fidgeted under the clamp her teeth held it with.

"Your dad called me, said he couldn't get hold of you. Hun... your mums ill. I'm not saying you've gotta see them... but she's not doing well Adelynn."

"Fuck." I mumbled, head dropping to my hands to let out a shaky sigh. I always hated that dad kept us apart. Because as much as she had torn my childhood in ways he did, she was there for me. She was just as scared as her daughter. She would clean my cuts or cover my bruises, desperately feeding me any reassurance she could. She was the one person I felt like I had permanently growing up, like she wasn't gonna leave or hurt me, but she was in no state to mother anyone now.

She relied on booze like it was air. And she hadn't spoken to me since I'd moved. And she lived with my dad. And if anyone knew anything about my mum, it's that she was in a trap so deep there was really no escape. And that's why it came as little surprise to me that she was apparently ill. But it hurt. A lot.

"I need to see her don't I ?"

"Don't force yourself. Don't push yourself in that direction if you're not ready." The two of us nodded. "But enjoy your two weeks of freedom whilst they last. If anyone asks you've got an awful stomach bug that's keeping you glued to your bed."

-

"Oh hiya... you alright doll ?" Julian asked, a concern consistent in his tone when his door peeled back to reveal my figure practically chewing down on my thumb.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Just spoken to Mel and thought I'd stop by... that alright ?" I didn't bother telling him about my mum, there was little point boring him with the brief amount of news I actually knew. Once I found out more than just 'she's ill', there was a fair chance I'd tell Julian. But just not now. Now it was nice to have a distraction to avoid letting my mind wondering.