Chapter 20
Amelia's P.OV.
The drive from Rusper to Brighton didn't take long at all, despite the busy traffic on the road and the couple of queues we ended up having to wait in which set us back on the way. Even when we were stationary, we certainly weren't sort of entertainment to keep us amused. Most of the journey consisted of the guys arguing over what music to play on the radio, with suggestions coming from Charlotte and I every so often to try and keep the peace between them. Brian wanted Beatles, Roger wanted some Who, Freddie wanted Hendrix (John suggested some funk to settle the dispute, but we all firmly said no to that). It was a nightmare. But after going through their collection of cassette tapes, we eventually settled on listening to Physical Graffiti, a fairly recent album, and the arguing was brought to an end.
When we arrived in Brighton and drove down through the town of many streets towards the waterfront, I wasn't surprised to see that the place was absolutely heaving with people. Everywhere you looked, there were holidaymakers and families lining the pavements going about their business - which I knew would make finding a parking spot prove very difficult. We drove around the town checking out car parks for any free spaces, preferably as close to the beach as possible, but to no avail.
'It's just so damn busy.' Brian sighed as we pulled out of another fully accommodated car park.
'Well, it is the height of the summer, Brian. Is it any wonder? Roger replied to his comment, rolling his eyes.
We drove around for a bit longer, our hope wearing thin, until John pointed out a sign for a car park which we hadn't been to yet.
'There, look.' he informed Brian, pointing to junction quickly before the guitarist drove straight past it.
Turning in, we weren't expecting to find a free space here either, but our luck soon changed when someone in a red Vauxhall began pulling out of a space just meters in front of us. Brian sat at the wheel with determination on his face as he waited for the car to drive away. When it finally did, he swung into the space with ease before putting the handbrake on and switching off the engine.
He smiled to himself, 'At long last.'
Luckily for us, we'd found a parking spot just a few minutes walk away from the beach (you could even see it from here) so at least we wouldn't have to walk for miles to find the van again, or struggle to remember where we had left it either. We all jumped out and shut the doors behind us, the guys grabbing some stuff from the boot, before Brian locked it up. As we began walking, I couldn't help but notice Freddie's edginess as he looked around him, as if he were searching for someone.
'You looking out for somebody, Freddie?' I asked, putting my sunglasses on.
'Hm?' his gaze landed on me, 'Oh. No, no. Just...looking around.'
'You're not keeping an eye out for photographers, are you?' I asked worriedly. Maybe going somewhere with the band further afield from the farm wasn't such a good idea after all.
'No, the press won't be here. I'm just, uh, observing my lovely surroundings, that's all. Brighton brings back a lot of childhood memories, you see - I used to come here often when I was younger.'
I nodded my head in reply, although I still think he was hiding something. Not wanting to question him further, I said nothing more about it and caught up with Charlotte as the two of us strolled along the pavement together. However, my suspicions were right as when we made it to the seafront, there was a surprise waiting for Brian, John and Freddie - although he was the one who had planned it. As we walked along the seafront, we were approached by two women - a brunette and a red-head, who was heavily pregnant. Being me, I just assumed they were fans at first glance, but after seeing the guys reactions, I realised they were much more than that.
'Chrissie!' Brian exclaimed as he jogged over to the brown haired girl and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly.
'Veronica?' John walked towards the red-head in disbelief before kissing her, 'What are you doing here?'
'Ask your lead singer.' she smiled pointing to Freddie,
Freddie's bandmates looked at him as they waited for an answer, 'Well, I figured seeing as it's been a while since you've seen your other halves, we should take this day out as an opportunity to do just that. So I phoned up the girlies and asked if they wanted to meet us here and they agreed to. I thought it'd be fun.'
'Well, I just hope it'll be worth calling into work and pulling a sickie for.' Chrissie replied before her attention landed on Charlotte and I, who were standing there feeling slightly awkward in this current situation, 'Who's this?'
Freddie was quick to introduce us, 'Oh, of course, where are our manners? Girls, I'd like you to meet Amelia - her father owns Ridge Farm where we've been staying at - and her lovely friend Charlotte. Amelia, Charlotte, this is Chrissie - Brian's wife, and Veronica, John's wife plus baby Deacon.'
'Lovely to meet you.' Charlotte and I exchanged greetings with the two girls.
We knew that the boys probably didn't want to stand around listening to us chatting away about our outfits, so we quit the girl talk and started making our way down to the beach. Like the rest of the seaside resort, it was crawling with tourists, but we managed to find a spot where we could all sit down and enjoy in the sun, after a while of searching. We began setting up some sunchairs - one with an umbrella for Veronica to sit under so she wouldn't get too hot - and also some towels to lay down on. We'd also brought along a cooling box filled with ice cold drinks, which would no doubt be empty by the end of the day.
Once we'd made ourselves comfortable, it wasn't long before the guys had their shirts off and started lathering themselves in sun cream, which gave us girls all something to happily gawk at. Roger's eyes soon met with mine when he caught me looking at him. He smiled cheekily at me, biting his tounge, as I could feel my face become bright red. I turned my attention back to Charlotte who was trying to show me something in the magazine she was reading. These sneaky glances between Roger and I were becoming more frequent by the day, and almost each time we'd catch each other out - we couldn't be more obvious even if we tried. Anyway, as we all lazed on the beach chatting, I took it as an opportunity to get to know the three girls a bit better.
I looked up at Veronica who was lounging contently on the sunchair, 'So, how long until you're due? It must be pretty soon.'
'A week.' she replied, smiling broadly.
'A week?!' I exclaimed, wide-eyed, 'Are you sure it's a good idea to be away from home when you're so close to your due date?'
'My words exactly. I tried telling her that, but she wouldn't listen.' Chrissie told.
Veronica shook her head chuckling, 'I'm allowed to have a life, y'know, even if I am pregnant? Besides, I wanted to see John.'
'Well, if you end up going into labour here on the beach, there's no way I'm going to help deliver the baby. I'm far too squeamish.' the brunette shuddered.
'Gee, thanks, Chrissie. Glad to know I have your support.' Veronica rolled her eyes, 'Anyway, enough about child birth, I don't really want to think about it until it happens. What do you do for a living, Amelia, if you don't mind me asking?'
'Well, I just graduated from uni last month, but I start my new job in London next month as a veterinary nurse. I'm quite excited, actually.' I told them.
'Oh, that's brilliant. Congratulations!' Chrissie exclaimed, 'That'll be a great job. Very fascinating too.'
'Thank you. And yes, it will be. I just love animals, always have done. I can't wait to finally put what I've learnt into practice and hopefully make a difference.'
'I'm sure you will,' Veronica smiled, 'What about you Charlotte? What do you do?'
'Um, I work in a local primary school part time, as a teaching assistant.' she told them.
'Really? It's funny you should say that, I was training to be a primary teacher before...well, before this happened.' the red haired girl looked down at her bump, chuckling.
'What a coincidence!' Charlotte beamed, 'I also work at my mum's cafe the other half of the time. Lee works there as well - the two of us are like partners in crime.'
I chuckled, 'Aren't we just? Makes it more hard to come to terms with the fact I won't be there for much longer though...'
'Don't remind me,' she said woefully, 'You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you when you leave the cafe. Who am I supposed to gossip with and complain about arrogant customers to during my lunch break?'
'There'll be other staff to take my place,' I shrugged, 'Isobel, Samantha, Roz, Dorothy...Even your mum - although I don't think bitching about customers in front of her would be a good idea.'
'Yeah, she'd probably fire me,' Charlotte laughed lightly before frowning again, 'Still, it won't be the same without you.'
'Aw, bless you, Char.' I patted her hand and smiled sweetly.
Once Charlotte and I had stopped the heart to heart conversation, we continued to talk to the other girls for a while longer, asking them about what they did and whatnot. We even got into a discussion about where they'd met their other halves to which they said they'd met them mainly through college or through the bands they were in before Queen was formed. All I knew was that Chrissie andVeronica were both lovely girls and the Brian and John were lucky to have them. It kind of made me wish I had something similar to them, in a way...
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by my name being repeated over and over again by the girls who were desperately trying to bring me back to reality.
'Sorry, I was in another world there,' I laughed nervously, 'What were you saying?'
'We were wondering if you wanted to come shopping with us,' Chrissie told me, 'There's some really nice shops here and the market place which I'm just desperate to go and check out. What do you think?'
'Um...yeah, okay sure, I'd be happy to --'
'Not to spoil your plans, ladies, but Amelia and I are going to go and wander around the place together for a while instead. I've got some things planned for the two of us...' Roger intervened, his definite comment taking me by surprise. He then turned to me, 'That okay?'
I don't know why, but I found myself nodding in agreement with whatever he had in mind, even though I hadn't heard a thing about this before now. Looking over the top of his sunglasses and winking at me, Roger turned back over, laying down on his back again while I just sat there rather confused.
When I turned my head around I noticed the smile playing on Veronica's lips. 'I knew it...'
'Knew what?' I asked cautiously.
'That you're Roger's new girlfriend, of course!' she said excitedly, 'I figured it was either you or Charlotte, but I probably should have worked out it was you sooner, Amelia. I mean, the two of you haven't stopped looking at each other since we sat down. So go on, how long have you been going out for?'
'Uh, we're not. We're just friends.'
'Doesn't look like it to me,' Chrissie said, 'I think you'd be a really cute couple.'
'Yeah, you totally have the hots for him, Lee.' Charlotte nudged me and then turned to the girls, 'I've been trying to get her to admit it for what feels like forever but she won't say a word.'
'And so what if I do?' I crossed my arms while trying to keep my voice down as best I could. 'It's not that big of a deal.'
Char looked at me wide-eyed, 'Oh my god, are you actually admitting it?'
I shrugged, 'Maybe I am.'
Squealing excitedly, Charlotte threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly, gaining a few strange looks from people nearby.
'Alright, calm down.' I laughed, managing to push her off me.
'So, do you have any idea what Roger has planned?' asked Chrissie. By now we were all whispering to each other.
I shook my head, 'Not a clue. He mentioned something about doing stuff together the other day but never specified. I guess I'll just have to find out.'
Ten minutes or so passed by and the girls were getting ready to head off on their shopping spree. Veronica wisely chose to stay at the beach with John, as she knew all the walking would be too tiring for her.
'You don't mind me leaving you for a while, do you?' I asked Charlotte as she gathered her bag and got up off the ground.
'No, of course not. Chrissie and Mary are lovely, and Freddie's here after all.' she assured me.
I nodded, 'Okay. Hope you have fun.'
'Thanks, you too.' she winked at me as she went and joined Chrissie. They asked each other if they were ready to go before saying goodbye to Veronica and I and walking away along the beach. I chatted to Veronica for bit, until I felt a shadow looming over me and someone crouching down beside me. I looked my right to see Roger, although now he had his shirt back on. Unfortunately.
'Hello.'
'Hi.' I gave him a small smile.
'You wanna go and explore the place a bit now?' he asked.
'I suppose so,' I replied, beginning to get up off the ground, before Roger took hold of my hand and helped me to my feet, 'Even if you didn't give me that much of a choice.'
'I didn't have to - I knew you'd agree anyway,' he smiled cheekily. He wasn't wrong there. 'We're going to go now, guys.'
Freddie looked up from his current position of lying on his front sunbathing, 'You guys are leaving already too? God, everyone's running off. Oh well. Have loads of fun, you two. But not too much fun.'
'Don't worry, I'm sure we'll behave ourselves.' I said as I swung the strap of my bag over my shoulder.
'Can't make any promises, though.' Roger replied, a smirk pulling at the side of his lips as I looked at him. I couldn't help but smile too. 'Shall we?'
Nodding in agreement, we said goodbye to everyone - Veronica mouthing 'have fun' to me as I walked past her - before Roger and I began heading up the beach towards the promenade, about to embark on our venture together around the seaside town.
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Hey guys!
Terribly sorry about the long wait for this update, it took way longer to write than I thought, not to mention school starting again which didn't help. Thank you for your answers to my question in the last chapter - I'm so glad to see that people actually want to read more! Also, I'd just to point out that I've never been to Brighton myself, so I apologise for any inaccuracies in this and the coming chapters (I'm not even sure if the beach is sandy lmao). But I'm describing it the way I perceive it and according to photos I've seen, so please don't hate me haha! Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and like I say every time, a vote/comment would be really great.
Thank you so much!
- Anna :-) x
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