Don't Talk! (Freddie Mercury / Queen)

32. The Kettle Is Boiling Over (Hayes)

A/N - A long, boring, but necessary one I'm afraid😂 Enjoy!

H.G
England, U.K
February 1st

"What are you so broody about Griff?" 

I exhaled slowly.

"Like, I'm admittedly turned on by that scowl, whatever that says about me I don't know, but I'm also concerned."

I encounter an imbecile at every turn.

"I'm not broody," I practically glared at Julian's silver Mercedes and ignored his latter comment, "And I explicitly told you that I didn't need to be collected from the airport."

Julian pinched the back of my neck before he cracked the door open for me, "I'm sorry, that's incorrect," he did an awful attempt at McDonald Hobley's voice, "That was actually a lie."

"You watched 'Tell the Truth' as a child and proceeded to become a lawyer?" I mused and slipped into the passenger seat, "Do I even need to point out the irony Jules?" I fastened my seatbelt, trying to hide the slight nervous tremble from my hands. It seemed to appear whenever I was in this bloody country.

Julian turned about in his seat to stare me down. He always did so in a matter that unnerved me because it seemed as though he truly had the ability to read my mind. That's how we met actually.

I felt someone burning their gaze into the back of my bloody head in Oxford's dining hall and turned around to lock eyes with Jules. He exclaimed 'oh thank god, a kindred Tory opposing spirit' (in a room full of legacy tories) after studying my face for a brief second. Naturally, I wanted to hide under the table because the stranger was clearly insane. Later Julian would tell me that he recognised my sulking mug from pictures in the paper with my family and that he would break me free of my misery. Then we turned out to be roommates, so there was really no escaping him.

Whatever Julian saw on my expression right now, warned him not to irritate me further, but of course that's exactly what he did.

"Come on Griffy," Julian reached over to squeeze my hand, "Give your aunt Julie a kiss and tell me all of your troubles."

"Aunt Julie?" Despite of myself, I scoffed, "You're ridiculous."

"I was going to say 'fairy godmother' but I felt that would have been a little on the nose." Julian chuckled and drew his hand away after another tight squeeze.

I don't know why I didn't think of seeing Julian before, because for the first time since Christmas a sense of ease settled over me. We had been in contact quite a bit since we reconnected, but I really should make more of an effort to see him.

"What are you feeling guilty over Griff?" Julian frowned as he did his best to beat the Heathrow traffic.

I studied his side profile for a moment, noticing his now bare upper lip, "You shaved." I pointed out, changing the subject.

"It's a lot more maintenance than you'd think." Julian replied and rubbed at his phantom 'stache.

"Yeah, Freddie is constantly at it..." I started the sentence with a laugh but ended up trailing off with a frown.

I don't know why I felt I couldn't be upbeat when speaking about Freddie just because things had been a little rocky lately. I still loved him more than anything, and ending things didn't even seem to be an option on our minds. I suppose I was the one dragging things down for us, and I felt guilty. We just needed to bounce back. One rough patch in almost a year of being together isn't exactly a bad track record. I just need to pull myself together.