Author's Note: Okay, so here is the next chapter! I am happy that people are interested in this story, which is good cause I really am so excited about this story and can't wait to continue it.

I hope you like it and tell me what you think!:)


CHAPTER II


THEN

Roger hadn't always been like that with Lily. Overly sentimental, emotionally involved, whatever you wanted to call it. There had been a point where he could talk to her like it was nothing because back then she was nothing to him. She was just Deacy's very endearing (and at times annoying) childhood friend.

Actually, if he wanted to be honest about it, Roger had actually really hated Lily when he first met her. All because she had accidentally scratched his car.

It had been a few months after John had joined the band. They were still getting used to each other, so they didn't know a lot of John's acquaintances. One afternoon, when they took a break from rehearsal, John had asked them if it was alright for them for his friend Lily to come over. Roger, Freddie, and Brian looked at each and agreed, seeing no harm of having someone else join them.

"Perfect. We need an outside perspective," Freddie said, clapping his hands. "Cause I think we sound like shit right now."

"Now wait a minute," Brian objected. "We don't sound that bad. We just need to practice more."

"Exactly, shit."

"If we sound like shit it's because Roger—"

"Hey, watch it," Roger barked from his drums.

"Great," John interrupted them before it became a full on fight, and smiled at them. "You're going to love her. She's really great, more than great."

So, she's that kind of friend, Roger thought and shared a knowing look with Brian, which didn't go unnoticed by John.

"When I mean friend, I just mean friend," he said flatly.

"Ignore them," Mary spoke up from the couch, getting up and going over to them. "I for one, am excited for another girl to come here."

"I bring girls over all the time," Roger pointed out. Mary shot him a look which made him laugh. "Okay then, I see where you stand with them."

They quickly resumed with their practice and Roger quickly had forgotten about John's friend until it was the end of the practice. He had been fiddling with his drums when he heard the door open and a low, urgent voice.

"Deacy!"

Deacy? Roger lifted his head and frowned. Who the bloody hell was Deacy?

By the doorway, stood a redhead girl and was motioning wildly. For a second, Roger thought that it was to him until she saw John get up from his seat and go over to her. That must be his friend, Roger realized.

He saw them speak in hushed tones. Roger thought John was about to introduce them to her when he glanced over his shoulder, but then he followed her outside without a word. No one seemed to notice the stranger interaction, making Roger doubt he even saw it happen if it weren't for John's absence.

It wasn't until minutes later that John came back with the girl in tow and finally introduced her.

"Everyone," John called the attention of them. "This is Lily Hathaway, my very good friend. Lily this is Freddie and Mary."

"Hello, darling," Freddie greeted her, along with the others.

"Over there is Brian. And Lily, this is Roger Taylor," John said, emphasizing in Rogers name. He was surprised but didn't mind. John's friend was very attractive and there was nothing more Roger loved than an attractive girl.

"It's so nice to meet everyone one, John has spoken very highly of each and one of you," his friend said, in a warm voice. "I'm sorry for crashing the practice."

"Nonsense, we are so pleased for you to join us, especially me," Mary said, going over to Lily and dragging her towards the couch. "It gets lonely for me having no one to chat with."

"Then I'm happy here," Lily laughed, sounding relieved.

"So, how long have you been friends with John?"

"For quite a while now," she said, taking a seat on the couch. "We grew up in the same neighborhood but it wasn't until we went to the university when we got closer."

"Really? What are you studying?"

Mary continued questioning Lily, who answered her distractedly. Roger didn't miss the glances that Lily kept giving him. He had a hard time hiding his smug smile. If John insisted that he was just friends with Lily, then surely he wouldn't mind Roger take a shot with her.

When Mary got distracted by Freddie, Lily took that opportunity to get away from her. She cautiously approached Roger, who suddenly seemed to be deeply interested in his drumsticks at that moment.

"Are you busy right now?" she asked, giving him a small smile.

"Nope, I'm free, love," he said, giving her a charming smile.

She grimaced. "Well, I guess first of all, hello, pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasures all mine."

"Um, well, I'm Lily as Deacy just said."

"Deacy?" Roger frowned.

"I mean, John and you're Roger Taylor, right?"

"Yes, that's me," he said, straightening up. "What can I do for you?"

"Look I know this is kinda strange but I just wanted to tell you…" she trailed off, looking a little nervous, making him smirk. Her nervousness over him made her even more attractive.

"What is it?" he asked her. "You can tell me."

A weird look passed her face before she said rather quickly, "I really am sorry but I'm pretty sure I hit your car."

Whatever he expected to hear from her that was not it.

"I'm sorry what?" He said a little too loudly, catching the attention of the others in the room.

"You own a small blue car, right?"

No. No. NO.

Not answering her, Roger abruptly stood up and raced outside, with Lily at his feet. He stopped in front of his car and for a second felt relieved when he didn't see it wrecked. But then he took a step closer and his relief quickly was replaced by horror. His car had an ugly long scratch in its door.

"My car," he said in disbelief.

"I am so sorry," she said from behind him, and really did sound like she meant it. But for Roger, it didn't matter. She had wrecked his car. He was beyond pissed.

"I'm typically not a shit driver, I promise you," she started talking rapidly. "It's just that a cat appeared out of nowhere and I didn't want to run it over, because that is always disgusting, so I swerved too much to the right and then I heard a noise and when I parked I saw, well…" Her hand motioned the scratch on Rogers car and let it fall to her side. "I panicked and that is why I got Deacy to go outside and…"

"Just shut up," he finally said. Lily immediately stopped rambling. Roger exhaled deeply, trying to control his anger, and glanced over to Lily and saw how she looked uncomfortable. "My car," he said again, the only thing he was able to think about.

"Can I speak now?" she asked carefully.

"Don't have much I choice, do I?" he said rather spitefully.

That comment seemed to bother Lily because she suddenly didn't look apologetic. "Look, I'm sorry for hitting your car but you don't have to be rude."

"Excuse me for not being in my best behavior. I think I have the right to be angry."

"I—true," she admitted reluctantly. "I would be upset too if something happened to my car. But you don't have to be rude about it."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, besides, you don't have to worry, I will fix this."

"What? Are you a mechanic?"

She ignored him and walked away from him, going to her car. She came back with a pen and a scrap of paper. Scribbling quickly, she handed the paper to Roger, who despite being incredibly angry at her, was taken back by her unexpectedness.

"I don't normally complain but why are you giving me your number?"

She sighed impatiently and went over to him, grabbing his right and slamming the paper in his palm. "When you get home, you call me and then we can change information to deal with this mess that I made."

"Fine," he said and was about to pull away but she refused to let go of his hand. "Now's the time to let me go."

"You're not going to hold this against John, right?"

"Why would I do that?" he asked impatiently.

"I don't know. He's new and your car got ruined because he invited me last minute. Just to make it clear, it was all me, he had nothing to do with it so don't be an asshole to him. Because if you are, I will make your car look even worse."

Roger stared at her, not sure what to make out of her. She was John's friend and didn't want to offend him by going off at her but at the same time, she had ruined his car. He chose to focus on something that wasn't his anger and current disbelief.

"Why are you wearing a scarf?" Roger found himself asking, finally noticing the bright blue scarf that hung around her neck. She blinked and glanced down at her scarf.

"I'm cold," she said, looking back at him.

"It's summer."

"Yes, I am aware its summer. I can still be cold," she said defensively.

"Alright," he said, and then added, "And no, I am not going to be an asshole to John. I like him."

"Good," she said but sounded relieved.

Refusing to look at his car again, he sighed heavily. "Come on, let's go back inside before you get frostbite."

"Wanker," she muttered under her breath.

He glared at her. "Oh, I'm sorry, was I the one that destroyed a car?"

"Destroyed?" she exclaimed loudly. "It's a tiny scratch, don't be a baby. I said I'm going to pay for it."

"There are some things that once they're broken, can't be fixed."

"Oh dear God, it's a bloody car, get over it."

"It's my bloody car, and I will not get over it," he snapped at her.

"You know I was kind of enough to let you know what I did. I could have chosen to pretend that it was a random person and gotten away with it. But I didn't. I made the adult choice to tell you."

"Congratulations," he said sarcastically. "You're an adult."

"And you should try to act like an adult, instead of a big baby," she shouted at him. "You've been acting childish since we met."

"You hit my car," he yelled, pointing at it.

"I know!"

"Everything alright?"

Both of them stopped shouting and glanced back, seeing John standing by the door, looking at them wearily.

"You've been gone for a while and Brian thought it was best to check if Roger hadn't murdered you, Lily."

"Don't think I haven't thought about it," Roger muttered earning a reproachful look from Lily.

"No, we're done," she informed John and turned around, heading back to the building. Giving one last longing look at his destroyed car, Roger went back inside. He made a point to be farthest away from Lily.

"What happened?" Brian asked curiously.

"She destroyed my car," Roger said sullenly, glaring at the back of Lily's head. Why did John's friend have to come? Why was she still wearing the stupid scarf inside?

"Don't be dramatic," John said, joining them. "I saw the scratch, it's not bad. It can be fixed easily."

"Oh but you don't know Roger," Brian said, laughing. "It doesn't matter if they fix it, it's been tainted for life in his mind. But, what are you going to do now?"

"I got her number," Roger said without thinking.

John looked over him sharply.

"So, we can change information and deal with it," Roger clarified, but smirked at John's reaction.

"Lily has a boyfriend," John informed him.

"You?" Roger said slowly, positive he had heard him refer Lily as a friend.

"No, not me," John said, rolling his eyes. "Someone else, so how about you don't try to get into her pants. I'd appreciate that."

"Don't worry, Deacy. I think I can keep my hands to myself with your friend," he said dryly.

"Good, I don't need any problems… wait, what did you just call me?" John asked, looking slightly mortified.

"Nothing… Deacy."

"Deacy?" Brian asked in amusement.

"No, Deacon. It's Deacon, not that."

As John tried to salvage his reputation, Roger smirked as he lit a cigarette. From the corner of his eye, he could see Lily talking again to Mary, with Freddie joining their conversation. Despite what John thought, Roger did mean his promise. Attractive or not, his interest in her died when he saw what she did to his car.

He didn't pay much attention to Lily afterward, only when he wanted to act like a little shit to her. But other than that, the only reason he would put much thought on her was that Mary had taken a deep liking to her and started making sure she would join the band during practices and any other social events. And if Mary loved Lily, then Freddie loved Lily. And if Freddie loved someone, pretty much everyone else loved that someone.

That was how she went from a stranger to a constant background presence in his life. But that seemed to not be enough, because slowly and then all at once, Lily became the center stage in his life.