Faking It • Queen FanFiction

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 31

That evening, Flo and Bernie sat on tenterhooks, eating dinner together in uncomfortable silence. Luckily, Flo had a day off tomorrow, meaning that there'd be somebody home when Bernie arrived back from college. Of course both sisters mapped out how much threat Flo was under, which mounted to none at all as Holden was mysteriously convinced she was a lesbian and so didn't want anything to do with her.

"As nice as it is to know that I'm in the safe zone, I really wish that he'd stop telling the neighbours that I'm supposedly gay, plus judging me for it." She shovelled a forkful of pasta into her mouth and held her cutlery up as she spoke. It was true, Holden had been spreading the rumour that Florence Maxwell was in fact gay; the response from the neighbours had been varied. But more importantly, where on earth had he gotten such information from originally?

"...Are you?" Bernie asked curiously. Truth be told, she had frequently wondered if her sister was indeed homosexual, as she hadn't had a boyfriend in years. Bernie knew that was nothing to go by as Flo was an extremely busy lady, but if she was gay, then Bernie certainly wouldn't judge her in any way, especially not how Holden was. He barely acknowledged Flo's existence.

"No!" Flo replied, almost too forcefully, too bluntly, too quickly. "...No." She repeated, putting feigned calmness in her voice that Bernie could tell from a mile off.

"I wouldn't love you any less if you were, just saying," Bernie said conversationally, shrugging and directing her focus back down to her dinner.

There was a long silence where Bernie continued to eat, but Flo just pushed the food around her plate with her fork. "There's this...person, at work." She started after a while, breaking the silence and causing Bernie's ears to prick up. Flo had her full attention. "We get along so well, and we're kind of well, dating."

The two sisters' eyes met and in that moment Bernie had complete, wordless understanding. "I see. When will I get to meet her?" The food had been forgotten, Bernie's hands were no longer gripping onto shiny cutlery, but cradling her sisters's hands. At her words, Flo's tilted her head up and her eyes met Bernie's caring gaze.

"I'm not so sure. She doesn't work as many hours as me, so hopefully she can come and stay round soon. Her name's June."

"June, I like that name. She better treat you right, otherwise she'll have an angry ginger police officer at her doorstep." Flo's face lit up entirely at Bernie's acceptance and they both sat still for a moment, hunched awkwardly over their meals and wrapping each other in a sisterly embrace. "Right, enough of this soppy hugging malarky, I'm bloody hungry," Bernie tore her arms away from her sister and continued to finish her meal. The rest of the evening was spent talking about June, all woes about Holden forgotten...for now.

Washing up conversations circulated around how Flo and June met. The television was swapped out for stories of June's future goals, appearance and hobbies. The adoration in Flo's eyes as she spoke about her girlfriend filled Bernie with pride that her sister had found her Happy, she couldn't think of anybody who deserved it more. Underneath the merriment, Bernie felt a strong stab of something powerful enough to make her turn on her sister. But she wasn't going to, she was going to remain cheerful, celebratory and supportive. Jealousy.

Bernie was only a couple of years younger than her sister, so why hadn't she met her Happy yet? She'd been landed with a Holden instead, leaving all the joy and good fortune to go to Flo. But shaking her head, Bernie knew that that was no way to think of either herself nor Flo, so went back to being happy for her sister. Still, she had this niggling feeling of dread, as the Holden problem still didn't have an answer. Perhaps that was the answer, that there wasn't one to begin with. Bernie would just have to live with the constant anxiety 24/7 for a month and a half. At least he worked a lot of the time.

Only two more weeks and Bernie would be free. Free from early morning get ups, being yelled at by Mr Bletch and unrealistic rules that would never be encountered in the real world. Inside one of the college classrooms, Bernie was sifting through her notes, using her precious hour to revise for her theory exam. Droplets of water were racing each other down the aged window panes as the wind rattled against the peeling frames. The weather was dreadful and the field was boggy, but not too boggy to terminate practical training for the day. Glancing out at the mistiness on the other side of the glass, Bernie wished Queen & Co. all the best with their journey to Ridge Farm. Hopefully it wasn't raining where they were, or at least not as heavily as here.

The hour was up and Bernie packed away her things reluctantly, glad of the opportunity to get up and stretch, but definitely not looking forward to what was ahead of her, not in the slightest. Of course she'd been out training in more extreme weather than sunshine before, but could she really afford to have any more accidents this close to the finish line, which had already been prised out of her grasp once? Apparently, Mr Bletch thought the same, as when he saw Bernie crossing the field, looking better conditioned at acting official than all of the others who ambled over in a small herd, he beckoned her over to stand with him under his umbrella.

Rain bounced off the material and drizzled onto the boggy grass around them. "Bernadette," he said in a hushed whisper, peering round, ensuring there were no onlookers. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off? I've seen you've been working hard indoors and although that's no excuse, we both can't afford for you to take any more wrong footings." All of this was muttered in a hurried whisper, so quiet and rapid that Bernie was reading his lips to keep up more so than listening to the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"Oh... thank you Mr Bletch. As much as I'd love to protest, I'm not going to. I'm knackered and in pain, I bashed that right knee this morning when I was maki-"

"Alright, alright, I don't need to hear your life story. Just be subtle about your early departure." Mr Bletch cut her off and began to walk away with the umbrella, drenching Bernie immediately as the wind and rain mingled in the air. Water was being flung at the trainees from all directions, impairing her vision considerably as she made her way back inside to fetch her backpack. Unluckily for her, there was no umbrella in it, meaning that both herself and the contents of her bag were about to get rather soggy.

If she wasn't pissed off enough from walking a mile in a torrential downpour that soaked her right through to her knickers, then she certainly would be after seeing Holden lurking in the corridor of the hallway outside their flats. "What're you doing here?" She quizzed him, scrunching up her nose in disgust that they were both home at exactly the same time on a weekday. "Your shift doesn't end until four."

"Well, you see Princess, I am extremely successful around here. So I quit my job and am a full time landlord. Did you know, out of the thirty five flats in this place, I own sixteen of them? Marvellous!"

24/12/22

꧁ Aᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's Nᴏᴛᴇ: ꧂
𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜! 𝐼'𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑠 :) 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠!
𝑆𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑎𝑠, ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑒 - 𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝑏𝑦𝑒 ♡︎