Faking It • Queen FanFiction

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 38

꧁ Aᴜᴛʜᴏʀ's Nᴏᴛᴇ: ꧂
𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑡. 𝐼 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛!
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦, 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑐, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝑠𝑜 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤.
𝐵𝑦𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑤 ༄

"Always one for sympathy," Bernie rolled her eyes and put her hand on her cheek, knowing Brian did care but wanted the facts first. "This morning he- he..." as much as she tried to get the words out, all her emotions suddenly came to the surface, causing her to choke on her words.

Brian put a steadying hand on her knee and looked into her flooding eyes. "Bernie, whatever it is, you can tell me."

Although Bernie knew she was in safe hands, she still struggled, but was consoled every so slightly by the bubble of safety that seemed to emanate from Brian. "Before I came here, he came to my flat with the intention of...of-" the first tear escaped, "having sex with me." Brian's hand left her knee and flew to his mouth in shock.

"It gets worse. I said no, but when I went into the corridor to leave, he, he grabbed me and..." she squeezed her eyes shut and more tears fell, her voice struggling and lip wobbling, "he kissed me and squeezed my..." suddenly it felt very awkward telling this to a man. But then she remembered what man she was talking to and decided to just get it out there. "He squeezed there-" she waved a hand over her chest area instead of saying it "-and it hurt so, so much. Except I couldn't make any sound, because- he'd shoved his tongue down my throat. And he held my wrists behind my back so I couldn't do anything. It was only until I bit his tongue till it cut open that I made my escape. Then he slapped me round the face, didn't even see it coming. God knows what could've happened after that." Shivering, she put her knees to her chest and let the tears silently fall.

"That's the last straw. I've reached my breaking point, Brian, but I can't get out. Flo and I don't have enough money to move and wherever we go, he'll know, he's our landlord." Talking about it made her realise how bad everything truly was, so she spoke about it more so that she could hear it scaled up instead of it all being crammed inside her head. Brian couldn't believe what he was hearing and he barely knew what to do, so he listened to the rest of her story.

"When you were gone, he quit his job. He's self sufficient from being a landlord to quite a few flats now and doesn't need to work. So almost everyday he knocked on my door and tried to come onto me. I hit him a couple times, but I was afraid he'd hit back. Flo isn't there to protect me, she's got a partner and work. Brian, I don't know what to do. This morning I just took off and decided I didn't have enough energy in my head to go to college even though my exam is two days away. I'm not sure what's happening to me. I don't want to do anything anymore, I just feel too...tired." No more tears left Bernie's eyes, but it sounded like she was still crying.

Not quite taking it all in, Brian leaned over the edge of the sofa, putting both elbows on his knees and shoving his hands into his thick hair. "Fuck. Oh my god...This is what you've been getting up to whilst we've all been having fun in the sun?" He blinked at the floor, images of Bernie kicking Holden's arse flashing into his mind.

"...Yeah. Pretty much."

"Oh my god..." he said again, mind still not wrapping around how evil Holden was. He suddenly felt a pang of guilt for leaving her here defenceless whilst everybody else went off galavanting to the countryside. "Come here," Brian opened his arms and wrapped Bernie in a hug. In the past couple of weeks she had opened up a bit and she often received hugs from Brian and the rest of Queen, she was liking the band more each day and was beginning to believe in the fact that hugs brought happiness and made people feel more connected with one another. To imagine her sitting at home, alone, anxiously awaiting Holden's inevitable presence without even a shadow of affection from any of her friends (or even her sister!) for six solid weeks made Brian's heart ache. And what happened that morning to top it all off... "You're extremely brave," he told her, but she didn't reply. "Bernie? Bernie?"

Peering down, he moved her loose hair with his thumb to look at her. She was asleep. "Oh." He said to the room, sitting and holding her whilst she slept for as long as he could before his muscles cramped up from staying still for so long. Whilst sitting there, she moved in her sleep slightly and pushed her head closer into his chest, putting her hands in her lap, but they slid down lazily and landed on Brian's legs instead. Carefully as to not wake her, he lifted up her hands, examining the bright red marks imprinted onto her wrists as if Holden had them in his clutches only thirty seconds ago. Brian daren't think about the bruises that'd be left behind and sympathised Bernie more than he had ever done so in his life towards anybody. Her cheek was reddening rapidly and something needed to be done about it.

After about half an hour, he couldn't stay still any longer and placed her head on some sofa cushions, putting a blanket over her bare arms. He could only imagine how many sleepless nights she'd spent at home because of Holden. God, what were they going to do with him? Brian went into the kitchen and wet a cloth with cold water to put on Bernie's flaming red cheek whilst she slept.

"Bernie, Bernie, sorry to wake you-" Brian shook her awake some hours later, much to his own guilt. Her facial disposition completely changed when she was asleep: from somewhat tense to entirely relaxed, giving off a feeling of freedom. Slowly but surely, her eyelids split apart and her pupils were exposed to the forceful brightness of the living room. She lightly stretched and sat up, searching for her glasses. "Oh, here," he took them off the tea table where he had placed them earlier for safe keeping whilst she was crying and handed them back to her.

"How long was I asleep for?"

"About four hours. It's getting on for three o'clock and I thought it'd be about time you had some food, beings as you obviously haven't had any breakfast, it's you."

"You got me." Swinging her legs over the sofa, she stood up and they made their way through to the kitchen with the intention to make food. "God, I never nap." It was true. Bernie hadn't napped since she was a child and it felt unrealistically revitalising. Her sleep schedule had been all over the shop, so those short four hours worked wonders for her. But boy was she now hungry. Putting her hand to her cheek instinctively, she winced at how tender it was, but when she looked in the mirror there was almost no mark.

21/1/23