Song: Super Trouper by ABBA
AN: This has been in my drafts for like a week now but I forgot to publish it. Warning, depressing once more.
"Can you just fucking go in please? Freddie, are you sure this is the right screw- Aghh, fucking shitty little cunt bolt" the lanky, curly haired guitarist cursed loudly at the metallic trinket in his rough hands, the combination of the swear words and vein popping from the guitarists forehead causing the young child next to the tool box to burst into pearls of laughter. The guitarist flushed apologetically once he realised Lola had witnessed his volatile tirade. Deaky smirked, his sleeves rolled up to his biceps as he leant against the postern wall.
"I did tell you that I didn't mind doing it, Bri. You're not known for being the best with your hands after all" John smirked. Brian ignored him, holding his hand out to Lola expectantly. The small child handed him the screwdriver.
"You and Victoria already said you'd been struggling to get it up for hours, so don't act like you're any better at this than I am" the guitarist grunted through gritted teeth as he slid beneath the half-erected IKEA table set, his hands once more sliding the stubborn screw into the designated slot. "Freddie and I said we'd do it , and we meant it" Freddie looked half a sleep behind the instruction manual, his eyes half closed as he slumped on his elbow and mumbled a stubborn "we?". He had rather been forced into assisting Brian after a long drive.
The humidity of the living room did little to help the band's endeavour; soft layers of sweat rolled down the guitarists brow as he exerted his efforts into the table, determined to prove a point. Ever since Roger had left, something within him had felt the burden of trying to provide for Victoria and Lola, to fill Roger's shoes, so to speak. Not because he still loved her or even because he felt guilty for the sins of the past, but because they had been friends once, and he wanted to be there for her.
Slowly, as she were forced to spend more time with the guitarist in order to be around her friends, they had began to build up that fragile friendship once more, although he knew it would take much longer - if at all - for them to reach the level of friendship they had ascertained all those years ago. Still, the fact that she had extended her usual Thursday lunch invitation for Freddie and Deaky this week to include Brian had meant the world to him. If he had been told in July that by the end of the humid August he would be seated in her living room, lounging back on her white plush carpet building IKEA furniture, he wouldn't have believed it. Neither would she. Her life had changed so much in the space of a month.
She had left Roger. She had moved back home, resuming her business as if he never was, until those Friday nights when he would emerge on her doorstep to collect their daughter, his very presence on the dark side of her door causing her heart to skip a beat. They would exchange pleasantries, a polite 'hi, how are you?' as Lola was passed from one set of arms to the next, and that would be it. That would be her only experience of Roger Taylor for the next week.
She tried to adjust to it, but it was hard. It was hard going from knowing every little detail about a persons life to being left completely in the dark as to how they were, what they were doing. In those early weeks, she had craved those doorstep interactions like a morphine addict; like a morphine addict, she would feel guilty days after her high, internally shamed for allowing herself to still think about him in that way. She would be alone for days, without even the lightness of Lola's laughter to lighten the gloomy abode. She had felt friendless, completely alone in the world.
It had grown somewhat easier when the boys moved up North, deciding to finish the 'Sheer Heart Attack' record in York to allow Roger to be closer to Lola for the summer. Now the parents were able to split custody more flexibly, meaning neither had to put up with that insufferably long week of not seeing their child, whilst during the time Lola did spend with Roger, Victoria had the company of the band. It made it somewhat easier to ignore the headlines.
