Roger's P.O.V.

For some reason my heart was beating a lot heavier than it should have been after asking that question.

It was true. I had practically no money, everything I did earn went on bills. By the sounds of it, it was the same for all of us.

I'd not wanted to bring this problem up amongst them, I didn't want them to think I was being silly with my money and spending it on unnecessary things. I mean, fuck, I found it hard to scrape together enough for a packet of cigarettes.

Knowing I wasn't the only one struggling with money made me feel a little better, but also made me realise just how little we earned, to say we were 'rock stars' and all.

I glanced at each of them in turn, they had all stopped staring at me as if I was crazy and looked like they were actually chewing over my proposition.

I wasn't going to lie and say I'd never thought about this before. I mean it would be damn useful. We'd make sure to pick a house where we all had our own room where we could escape on our own and still have our own privacy.

We saw each other for 8 working hours a day and then most nights went out together after work or we'd crash at one of our houses. We practically lived together already. It was pointless going to separate houses to just to sleep in a bed for less than the average 8 hours and then see each other again.

We were all paying for a house we actually never really lived in seeing as though we were out so much.

Besides. If we were all under the same roof I think we'd get a lot more work done, I don't mean we'd constantly work because that would be shit, but if one person came up with an amazing concept for a song they would usually have to wait until the morning when we're all in the studio to tell the rest of us and more often than not, we forget the details after sleeping on it, whereas if we shared accommodation, that wouldn't matter as they would be able to tell the rest of us right away.

"Well..." Freddie finally spoke up, "I think it's a fucking genius idea. Darlings, we're together most of the time anyway, I've spent more time at Rogers house this week than I have my own...it would save a shed load of money."

Had Freddie been reading my mind?

I saw John discreetly nodding at Fred's comments, he finally joined in, "Well, I have nothing more to loose, I'm in."

Now myself, John and Fred all cast our gaze upon Brian, perhaps the most independent one out of all of us, he liked his privacy and having time for himself, he was probably going to be the hardest one to convince.

I saw his jaw had tightened as he looked down at his fiddling fingers, I saw a shy side smile appear on his face, "I don't know...I mean, can I really deal with you lot permanently?" He said it as a joke, but the rest of us knew he was being serious.

I sighed, "Bri. You'd have your own room. Just because we'd be living together doesn't actually mean we have to act like a fucking family. You can stay in your room for a whole week and I'd not see you once if that's what you wanted and it wouldn't bloody bother me. It's not like Freddie is going to turn all Mother and tell you off for staying in your room all the time." I half joked.

"Umm. Why am I the Mother?" Fred asked with a tad of outrage in his voice mixed with an amused look on his face.

"Because you're the most camp." I giggled back.

He gasped, "Umm rude, Roger. I can be a hot daddy and still be camp." He sucked in his cheeks and  looked smug.

"Guys!" Brian interrupted our funny little bicker. He looked at us all and began to speak seriously. "So, we'd split the bills equally. No family shit. I get my own room and can stay in it for as long as I want. And no questions asked when one of us is going out somewhere and shit, okay?"

There was a tiny pause whilst we all processed his demands.

"So, you're in?" Deaky asked Bri.

"Fucking looks like it doesn't it!" He laughed, "What's the plan for our current houses? We need money to get a house for us all, should we rent our houses out? It would be quicker than selling...and we'd get money from the people who rent our house, so that's more money coming in."

"Brilliant idea Bri!" Fred exclaimed.

"Umm yeah, boys? I don't have a house to rent out." John stated. This was a real obstacle.

"What if myself, Roger and Brian put together to pay for your quarter of the bills for the first...couple of months or so? Just until you've built some money back up? I mean, we'd already be paying less than half of what we were originally paying so we'd still be saving? Would that be okay boys?" Freddie asked myself and Bri.

We both nodded. Of course we wouldn't let John struggle like this all on his own.

Deaky looked a little overwhelmed, "Really?! You'd do that for me?" He sounded a little choked up.

"We'd do anything for you, Deaks." I smiled at him and almost melted when he grinned back at me.

"I promise guys, as soon as I can I'll pay you all back." He gushed.

I caught Freddie's eye and suddenly reality hit me.

I'd be living in the same house as John.

Freddie would be living in the same house as Brian.

How would we even cope with that?!

A little shudder of excitement ran through me at the thought of having John constantly there...and Freddie.

I bit my lip as I tried to squeeze that thought out of my head. I liked John and only John.

I don't like Freddie. Roger. You don't like Freddie.

"What do you think, Rog?" Brian asked and was staring at me, waiting for a response.

"Sorry, what was that?" My cheeks reddening as I hadn't been paying attention.

He sighed before repeating himself, "After work, we help Fred and John get John's stuff out of his house and into Freddie's, then we all go into town and try and get our houses put up for rent."

"Yeah, sounds great."

"And then we all go out and get absolutely off our tits!" Fred giggled with dramatic arm gestures.

"I could do with that!" Deaky giggled.

If he was going, I was.
"Me too!" I replied.

Once again our stares had settled on Brian. He eyed each of us cautiously before grinning and shrugging, "Well alright. I'm sure I can get the evening off!"

We all cheered.

"Come on you slackers, let's get some bloody work done." Freddie giggled as we all got up and started to do stuff.

"Oh! Roger! We need to record your drums for the new song, umm...John! Can you help Roger record his drum piece?" The cheeky singer asked.

The bastard. He knew exactly what he was doing. This was his plan to make us talk to each other. The bastard.

"Oh...umm, yeah. Sure."

"Thank you, darling." Fred grinned and then gave me a secret eyebrow raise as if to say, 'you better fucking talk.'

I wandered into the next room where there was a separate drum kit that was already hooked up to the wires and whatnot to start recording.

I heard the soft plods of Deaky's footsteps behind me as I closed the door behind us and watched him as he took himself off into the control room that was behind a window.

I took a seat at the drums.

John had to press a button in the control room whenever he needed to speak to me and his voice would be carried through some headphones that I had put on, if he didn't press the button I wouldn't be able to hear him.

"Ready, Rog?" I heard his voice through the headphones...but decided to ignore his question and ask him a question of my own.

John would be able to hear me through speakers in the control room so no button had to be pressed on my behalf.

"Did Freddie come and see you last night?" I asked. I tried to sound confident, but that was failing as my voice was trembling.

He didn't look up at me through the window, just kept his head down looking at the control desk.

"You know he did." He muttered after a slight pause. "He came to see you after, didn't he."

Shit. I didn't know John knew Fred was coming back to mine. "Umm yeah. Yeah he did."

"Did he say anything to you?" His voice was a little strained and he still didn't look at me.

"No. No, he didn't stay, said he had to go, he said...he said that it wasn't his business to tell and...and that I should talk to you..." my voice trailed off now as he looked at me through the window.

No matter how hard I tried to get close to him there always seemed to be some kind of barrier between us.

"He's a good sport, our Fred. Well...you're talking to me now." He raised his eyebrows and rested his chin in the palm of his hand as he stared at me.

I didn't know what to say, we just stared at each other through the glass. I had to ask him. I just didn't know how.

"J-John..." I choked.

"Mmm?" He responded.

I tore my eyes away from him, swallowing and taking a deep breath.
"Wh-why did you...umm...run out when I...came out?" I asked shyly.

It was his turn to look away now, he looked as if he could throw up at any second.

I waited until he tried to speak.

"Because...it was a l-lot to handle..."

"More so than Freddie?" I asked.

He nodded slightly, "Roger..." he covered his mouth and stopped talking abruptly.

I watched him intently as he looked frightened.

Finally he croaked out some more words. "B-because...I am...too. I'm...I'm gay...too." His voice was hardly audible through his whispers, stutters and chokes but I heard him. I heard him many times over as my mind immediately began to play it back to me multiple times.

I couldn't react. I couldn't do anything. I was frozen, just staring at him, my grip tightening around my drum sticks as I began to sweat and my heart tried to beat out of my chest.

I watched Deaky lower his head and grab handfuls of his hair, maybe in anger, maybe in fright. I wanted to stop him but I couldn't. I couldn't even move.

"I never expected you to be gay, Roger. I'd been trying for so many years to convince myself that I was straight. That's why when you came out it was overwhelming because it made me feel like...like I wanted to do it too. Like I had to do it but...it still felt wrong. I'm not as brave as you..." I saw his head lower until it was out of sight, leaning on the desk.

I finally snapped out of my trance when I couldn't see him anymore.

"But you are brave, Deaky. You've just done it. You just came out!"