Bed of Roses

Chapter 14

ACT TWO - NIGHT

"Everything is more intense at night."

Chapter 14

It was already summer, a month and a half later, when Roger woke up with Ticket To Ride, by The Beatles, in his head. Y/N was all settled to move to New York in the next afternoon, the last month being a nightmare of packing and getting her parents to prepare her room; Rog and you barely saw each other, between Roger wrapping up the album with the band and you moving her things out.

You didn't pack everything. Your crystals, from your hippier phase, were all around the house, along with your essential oils and incenses. It made Roger sad to see that he missed the part where you gave up on caring so much about these things - he didn't even knew what you were into now.

Whenever he was home, you was out, working with the researcher and meeting with your new bosses. You never took him to meet them, and he tried not to be bothered, but he was.

He knew he had no right to be mad; he also stopped taking you to Queen promotions. Poppy was in each and every one of their meetings and interviews, intoxicating him with her french perfume, blinding him with her diamonds - she always had them on her, rings, bracelets, necklaces.

She would always find a way to touch him, her long nails and cold hands contrasting with your short and warm ones. She was the complete opposite of what you were right now. She still had mystique - something a long relationship took from both you and Roger. But he always told himself that yeah, maybe he was physically attracted to someone else, but that's okay - he was in a relationship, not dead! - as long as he didn't do anything about it. He wouldn't cheat on you again.

He kept a mental list of all the opportunities he had to flirt with Poppy and didn't; it was a defensive mechanism, almost as if he was already in a fight with you, trying to argue that he changed, he didn't cheat. His guilt was already flowing through his body, pumping along the blood through his veins.

He couldn't cope with the idea of you and Poppy in the same room. You were almost like two sides of him: Rog and Roger Taylor, boyfriend and rockstar - and one time he thought, and then censored himself - past and future. The two of you couldn't coexist.

The rest of the band noticed that Y/N was absent. When Deacy asked what happened, Roger told him everything - the graduation, you moving out and going back to New York. "Shouldn't you be spending more time together, then?" Veronica said, wrapped around John. And then Roger looked at the two of them - always in peace, always warm, Veronica always focused on being there for John and very little else - and he knew he would never have that, and he didn't knew if he wanted to. He always liked how you were independent of him, how you always had your goals and interests.

He noticed how that started to be less apparent in you as you tried to adapt to his life, as you tried to be more like Veronica or Chrissie. You'd be quiet, supportive, trying to fade into the background.

And that was not the girl he met at the pub. The girl who cheered on him watching her.

It was always good to play lovebirds, like you did in the little time you were spending together, and you did love each other. But none of you were in a good place now. Not a good place to make decisions.

Sadly, that's exactly what the two of you had to do.

She said that living with me

Is bringing her down yeah

For she would never be free

When I was around.

"Shut up, Lennon", Roger said to himself, putting the pillow over his head as if it would help muffle the music in his head.