Where I Was Before You

25. the return of Mr Fahrenheit

"Have a nice day." I hear Kaleb say at the other end of the store. I can see the old lady that comes into our store almost every week walk out of the store. I'm pretty sure her name is Susie, if not, I had written a song about her called Susie, so I guess that's even less conspicuous if I didn't use her real name. I never did anything with my songs, not that I wrote many, I would just write them and move on. Not even Kelsey knew about most of them.

I kept flashing my head toward the doorways. I had tried to call Freddie 8 times, but he either didn't know how to pick up or didn't want to. I would be lying if I said I wasn't annoyed. What if I had to drive around town to find him? What if I didn't find him? And he's passed out somewhere in an alleyway after being knifed in the kidney? Just 20 more minutes, twenty more minutes then I can go home. Or should I say, drive aimlessly around town looking for him?

I bounce over to Kaleb, pretending like nothing is wrong.

"Sweetie, what is with you? You look hot but you're acting like a hot mess."

"Nothing! I just reeeaaallly want this shift to be over."

"What? You hate me that much?"

"Oh shut up!" I punch him in the arm and look again over to the door again. Maybe he was just messing with me. He wouldn't go outside without me, right? No. He just wanted to rile me up. Of course. Ugh, Freddie you f*cking asshole. But I chuckled anyway. I caught Kaleb staring at the door as well, but more intensely like he was actually seeing something.

"Omg, that guy looks soooo much like Freddie Mercury." I can't properly explain the combination of defeat, annoyance and anger I felt in that moment. It might be a good Idea to tell you that Kaleb is also a gigantic Queen fan. Not as much as me, or not for as long as me, but absolutely enough to be called obsessed. I hesitantly looked to the front of the store, and of course, standing in the broad f*cking daylight, was Freddie f*cking Mercury. I groan and put my head in my hands.

"He really does, omg. It's almost uncanny." Kaleb goes on.

"That's not Freddie Mercury! It's my roommate." I mumble.

"Freddie Mercury is your roommate?" He asks confused. Freddie looks very confused as well, obviously too intoxicated to figure out where the door is.

"It's Jordan. He's living with me for a while." I cough up. Not wanting to go outside and help him.

"He's living with you? What does Kelsey think of that?"

"Kelsey doesn't know. She's in Hawaii." Kaleb snaps his head toward me.

"Since when?"

"Since about five days ago," I say, as I reluctantly walk towards the door. I see him outside, still looking very disoriented, but not causing much of a ruckus.

"Freddie," I whisper harshly. He turns around and gives me a huge hug. He smells like vodka and smokes, but it's not even a bad smell, I like it on him. And I hug him right back.

"Oh, Mandy love! I knew you would come to rescue me!"

"Freddie! Shush! We're in public! And you're not even wearing your glasses!" He did manage to get his hair into a very messy bun though.

"Oh, you're no fun! We should go dancing!"

"Freddie, you're drunk. We'll dance at home."

"Oh, I like the sound of that!" Freddie says as he leans closer to me and almost falls over. I catch him and pull him back on his feet.

"That's it, you're going in the car," I say, not asking, as I practically drag Freddie to my little Honda. And I say drag, but I really mean attempting to drag, for a skinny man, he did have a lot of muscle weight on him. I'm looking around to make sure no one else is seeing this. There are people on the street, but it's pretty quiet, thank god. How did he even find out where I worked? Or how to get here? I honestly didn't care, I just wanted him in the car. I probably only got another half step towards the car when I felt a very foreign, and unwelcome sensation on my ass. I had no idea what it was, and at first, I assumed it was Freddie. But I looked behind me and saw a tall, slightly overweight man with a cap and messy hair looking me up and down. F*cking hell.. did I just get felt up but this f*cking stranger?

I involuntarily jump and let go of Freddie, which shocks him as much as I am. For being as drunk as I assumed he was, he caught on to the situation pretty fast. He looked at me, and then at the guy.

"Nice ass." The douchebag comments as he begins to walk away. Amazingly, Freddie manages to get up and walk straight, and fast. Before I can think what's happening, or even try to stop him. He's fast approaching the guy. I want to call out 'Freddie! No!' or anything. But this is when it actually hits me. And I start to shake. This has never happened to me before. I've always worn baggy, plain coloured clothes, no reason for anyone to want to catcall me, or hit on me in any way. I've been catcalled, don't get me wrong, there's a poison for everyone. But no one has ever directly groped me like that. I hated it. I hated it so much, I felt so disgusting, and I wanted something baggy on me, right now. Please, anything.

Freddie tries to tap the guy's shoulder but its harder than a tap. The overweight man turns around and this is then when Freddie starts to stumble.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Freddie asks the man.

"Pft, alright homo." The guy passes him off and tries to walk away again.

"Freddie.." I cough up, but it's much to quiet for anyone to hear.

"YOU DO NOT TOUCH HER," Freddie shouts to the man. He stops, and I can audibly and physically see the hustle of the street pause, for a moment, from the loud and sudden interruption. Kaleb walks outside, obviously because of the yelling. But pauses when he sees the situation. He slowly starts to walk over to me.

"Woah mate, I didn't do anything." The guys admit, acting entirely innocent, and inching his way away again.

"Mandy, is Jordan alright?" Kaleb whispers to me, but I haven't been able to move.

"Get in the car," I mutter so that not even Kaleb who is standing right next to me can hear me.

"What?" He asks.

"Oh yes, you DID you, f*cking LIAR!" Freddie screams at the man.

"GET IN THE CAR," I yell. I don't know how I managed to will myself to make that much noise. But I needed to catch Freddie's attention. He turned around to me, after a few seconds of staring down the man.

"Mandy, I-."

"Kaleb, I'm leaving early," I say, walking over to my car and opening the driver's side.

"Ugh, yeah that's fine Mand, I'll cover." I hear nothing from behind me until I can tell the man scoffs and trudges off. Kaleb says goodbye and goes back inside. I'll talk to him later if he has any questions. I was too mad, too mad and upset and I couldn't tell which was more overwhelming. I heard ridged footsteps approaching the opposite side of the car, and Freddie gets in. Nothing is said for a good couple of minutes, it could have been longer, I was too busy steaming in my own emotions. I didn't even think about starting the car, I was just staring at my hands. I locked the doors.