Where I Was Before You

29. the art of ignorance

He landed at the bottom of the stairs, and despite how much I immediately despised him or thought I despised him, I could hardly keep my laugh in when I saw him.

He had his very badly put up man bun, which he very obviously needed help doing. My baggy jeans, which were noticeable less baggy on him. And one of Lances ugliest shirts. It was red and orange vertical stripes with a weird dragon emblem on the front.

"Hi." No, oh my lord he isn't doing this. When I said 'put on a voice' I didn't mean his crappy Australian accent. I looked at Kaleb, and he was just staring at him, eyes wider than I've ever seen. I could tell his main reasoning for coming here, probably wasn't to flirt and get with Freddie, although that was probably in his plan somewhere. But it was to see just how much my roommate looked like himself. Or how much Jordan looked like Freddie.

Freddie had managed to get into my makeup cabinet and turn himself into... a panda bear? A lot of dark brown and black mascara surrounded his eyes. It almost didn't really look like him. Wow, I underestimated him. He really could almost pass as not Freddie Mercury.

"Uh, hi... Jordan! I'm Kaleb!" Kaleb stuttered, so obviously nervous and taken aback. He stood up to shake Freddie's hand.

"Oh, right I've heard a lot about you. You're Mandy's boyfriend aren't you?" He joked. Still in his terrible accent. And I'm flabbergasted at the fact that Kaleb didn't seem to pick up on it.

"NO! Jesus! Jordan, I've told you a million times! Kaleb is Gay!" I had only told him once, literally 5 minutes ago. I'm not sure why I said it like that, it was hard to stay truthful when Freddie was being Jordan. Kaleb still looks at Freddie. Intensely.

"Has anyone ever told you you look like Freddie Mercury?" Kaleb coughed up the inevitable question. I looked at Freddie, waiting for his answer. He just stared back at me. For longer than he should have, and then finally back to Kaleb.

"Who's Freddie Mercury?" He asked. That's really the best he could come up with? I wanted to slap him for that answer. Honest. Kaleb spluttered and looked at me for back up. And my blood went cold. Don't bring me into this. Don't you dare tell him how much I obsess over Queen. I swear to god Kaleb I swear to god. I could almost feel Freddie slipping away from me. I could imagine him being so repulsed with me that he didn't even want to stay and finish the conversation. He would leave through those doors, and never come back. He would hate me forever and ever and there would be nothing I could do about it. I wanted to cry, and I'm sure that showed on my face, because Kaleb's expression changed, and he looked away from me. No longer needing my opinion. Oh, thank the f*cking lord. I could feel my stomach untwist itself. That was close, I needed to tell Kaleb why Jordan couldn't know I liked Queen. Why the hell wouldn't he be able to know I liked Queen? Maybe he had a traumatic Queen related experience when he was little? Maybe he gets called Freddie Mercury so much that even one person bringing it up caused him so much stress and anxiety and annoyance. I'm not sure, but I need to tell him.

"Uhh, only the single greatest singer and songwriter of all time!" Freddie's expression didn't change, but I could tell he was trying to hide his massive smile.

"Oh, well he must be a pretty good looking bloke." Oh god, he has to stop that voice. I will piss myself. That's not even an overstatement.

"Oo, you can say that again." Kaleb swoons. And Freddie looks more intrigued. Kaleb is more Freddies speed. He's going places, dedicated, attractive, and a guy for that matter. Now that I knew Freddie had really no interest in girls, or if not, just specifically no interest in me, Kaleb was ready to push in and have his own go. There it goes again, the f*cking pain in my chest.