Save Me (Roger Taylor FanFiction) [Wattys 2019]

9: Just a Chat

*17th December 1969*

"DON'T YOU THINK THEY sound amazing?"

Here I was watching Smile in a pub again. 

But I was beyond happy this time. 

I had Roger Taylor and he actually liked me.

A girl standing beside me who had had slightly too much to drink was trying to start a conversation with me.

"Uh, yeah, they're great," I replied, very awkwardly. I never really knew how to deal with drunk people, they really weren't my forte. I was kind of hoping she would just go away and try and converse with someone else.

"I'm Jeanette," she introduced herself, sticking her hand out to me quickly.

"Julie," I replied, hesitantly shaking her hand. At this exchange of names, my hopes of her leaving me to go and bother someone else died. 

"That guitarist is beautiful," she told me, smiling cheekily.

"You think so?" I asked her, imagining Brian's reaction when I told him about this.

"Oh yeah, he's a real looker, you know him?"

"Uh yeah, a bit, his name's Brian May,"

"I like that name," she replied, giggling like a school girl.

Jeanette was quite pretty, with her long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was slightly taller than me but then, so are most people. She looked like exactly the kind of girl I'd have avoided back home.

"Jules! You came!" Roger's voice sounded in my ear and I had never been happier to hear it. He could come and save me from Jeanette; or at least be there to support me as I tried to talk to someone I didn't know.

"Of course I came! I'm going to come to every one of your shows!" I told him, placing my hand on his shoulder and leaning closer to him.

"You don't have to do that," he told me, wrapping his arm around my back and pulling me closer to him. He was sweaty from drumming and he smelled like cigarettes that had been unsuccessfully covered by cologne but I was over the moon to be in his arms.

"But I will," I promised, wrapping my arm around his neck.

Suddenly, Brian and Tim appeared from the crowd making Roger and I break apart. It was then that the three boys noticed Jeanette. She was staring at Brian with her drunken eyes and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Who's this?" Roger asked, now wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling my into a side hug.

"Guys, this is Jeanette," I introduced her as if she was already my friend, "Jeanette, this is Roger, Tim and Brian,"

Brian looked just as awkward as me under Jeanette's intense stare but he sent her a small smile that was as soft and friendly as he was.

"Hi," she greeted him, needing to shout of the ambiance in the pub.

"Did you come with Jeanette? You'd never mentioned her before," Roger turned and asked me as she tried to engage Brian in a conversation.

"Uh, no, I just met her like five seconds before you showed up. I came here by myself,"

"By yourself? Where's Freddie?" He seemed a wee bit concerned which was cute.

"He couldn't come tonight, he's studying apparently,"

"It's not really safe for a pretty girl like you to come to a pub alone,"

Some girls would find this protectiveness overbearing and sexist but I just thought it was sweet and it felt good to know that someone actually cared enough to be protective.