Before the Glitter: 1971

Table Tennis Champ

I didn't know what I was watching and I sure as hell didn't know what I was doing. But, I had promised Roger I would come see his band. I had a drink in my hand and a peculiar look on my face. My god, it was loud, it was crowded in here, dark, kind of smelly and...what the hell was I doing here again? I don't know why I promised him I would come to this bloody thing tonight I just...I felt so sorry for the guy. He begged people to come see this...this whatever I was looking at right now. Sebastian would never dream of inviting me to weird crap yet here I was doing weird crap. I cannot believe I agreed to watch this guy bang on stuff. It made no sense to me at all. Shit, they had stopped doing things...was I supposed to clap, scream or cry?

I wanted...no begged Chrissie to come with me tonight so I wouldn't be alone. However, she had a date. Couples at the bar surrounded me and the crowd was 50/50 otherwise. My god! I wasn't dating Roger and I still agreed to come to this place! What was wrong with me. But, in that moment I thought of something even worse...what if he asked me what I thought of the show after he was done!? I had to rehearse something to say.

I finished my drink and looked for the bartender for another; after all I would need it. I had made a decision in my slightly vodka-induced mind: I'd just sleep with Roger because we clearly came from two different planets. I already learned that I was far more structured than he but I felt it a bit funny the way he tried to suddenly get his life together in the past month I'd been around him. In some strange way, I think I was influencin' him. I was very neat and organized. I was the type who sorted my clothes by color and season. Roger...did not...but it was endearing that he had arranged all three pair of his jeans from the lightest to the darkest after I confessed my method to him. I think he owned two pair of shoes; I had at least twenty. I could afford to eat but chose not to many times; he couldn't afford to eat and was always starving. He had a record collection; I had two records. He was getting better in bed thanks to my guidance but he still had a ways to go. The point was, I had decided this was someone I would fuck but never take seriously. Sure he was sweet, had a lot of innocence and I won't lie, I found myself a little bit more than infatuated.

The bartender handed over my third drink. I knew this one would get me good and buzzed to the point where I may figure out what to say once this bloody gig was over. I was so distracted in sipping on my drink and on all the commotion around me that I didn't realize that Roger's band has stopped playing. Well, I realized it when I practically spit my drink across the bar at the feeling of two anxious hands on my shoulders.

"Hey! Hey Lydia! What'd you think?" Oh god. Ooooooh god, Roger was behind me asking me difficult questions of which I didn't know the answer and I hadn't downed this drink yet!! There was only one thing to do. I was a girl who knew how to swallow and so I put that cosmo down my throat in three gulps and turned around on my barstool. Shit. He looked like the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. He was sweating, not just a little hot but all out sweating. His awkwardly neck length hair was soaked. I had never seen Sebastian look like this. Sebastian was always 100% polished without even a shoelace out of place...Roger Taylor looked like an untamed, wild animal. I don't know what had come over me. He was looking at me with those enormous eyes awaiting a response. "Lydia?" he repeated. Shit. I was caught between a state of being in an erotic trance and not having a damn clue how to answer him. I hadn't had enough time to rehearse.

"Uh...um...it...it was....um...loud?" I finally squeaked out completely idiotically. There was that beautiful smile, tearing down the walls of this place.

"Really!? Did you think so? You thought it was loud? Oh Lydia, that's a really nice thing to say. I...I appreciate that, that's sweet." He said rooting in beside myself and the patron beside me. How in the name of hell did I give the right answer? That was the most bullshit answer anyone could ever give and yet somehow he was beyond satisfied with it. Something happened to me as I watched Roger lean over the edge of the bar to get the bartenders attention. What happened was that I had completely forgotten about Sebastian as I reached my hand around his sweat-soaked waist. I may have found the chance the finally break free of Sebastian's grip. I motioned for the bartender to put his tab on mine. I'm not sure that Roger realized how the bar bill got paid that night.