Paramour | 𝗥𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗼𝗿

Chapter 10

The dressing room was on fire as the soundcheck had some delays and they ended up spending more time than usual while doing them. Roger had insisted that the acoustic in the venue was shit as John was trying hard to adjust the amps but there was no way the sound was getting any better until they found a solution to sound less shittier.

Eliza was working hard on Roger's hair as he apparently was more pissed than in the morning and only in the moment he had stood up to change his outfit, Grace had remembered the drumsticks and searched for them frantically on her purse as she avoided watching the band getting changed.

"Let me know when you're done!", she said while facing the wall as Freddie and Brian chuckled.

She tapped her feet in nervousness until John had told her that the view was safe now. 

"Roger, I have your new drumsticks", she said while coming closer to him as he was finishing buttoning his white shirt. She seemed to be shy around him, after the conversation they had before. She remembered the small peck he had given her, but nonetheless, they didn't do anything else but walk together until they reached the dressing room.

"Cool, thanks Gracie", he said in a soft voice that when Freddie heard it made him lift his eyebrows, but he wasn't the only one as Eliza was doing the exact same thing as she saved her last brush. Everybody knew Roger was in a bad mood but he suddenly had turned soft for Grace and her only.

"Good luck guys, I'll be cheering on you!", she waved goodbye at them as she smiled widely.

"Oi Gracie", Eliza nudged her as the other stylists went out of the door and they were left alone as Grace was grabbing her bag.

"What?"

"What's up with Roger?", she asked referring to his bad mood. 

"Don't know really", Grace shrugged as she tried to keep confidential the band personal matters, since it was part of her job and it had nothing to do with her. She didn't wanted to, you know, drop the news at that exact moment; well, someone could listen to them and then the word would spread around.

Gossiping wasn't her favourite thing in the world, she hated it. It was gossiping that once almost ruined her life, anyways.

When Grace had turned nine years old, there was a rumour going around since her parents had fights almost every day and her father would end up going to a bar to get drunk and talk about his marital problems. In one of his ramblings, he had ended up telling the bar guys that he doubted Grace was his daughter. It ended up being in the whole neighbourhood's mouth and people would mess with her in school, laughing at her and saying that her mother was a whore.

She ended up doubting if she really was her father's daughter as she realised that there were many differences between her and him. Not only that, but also Theodore hated him ever since Grace had any memory of her brother socialising with their father. Tamis Warrington was a scary man from beginning to end. The way he would look down on you and would scoff at anything you'd say as if you were a inept. Many times she had told herself that even if he was more of a careless and loveless father, she would still care for him and love him - even though Theo would always curse his name.

She would hear the boys in town asking her mum how much did she charge for a night and how her mother would only look down and keep walking while people laughed at her. She never had the heart to ask her the truth. She only kept living while ignoring anything else, only breathing and trying to survive.

Until the last day she spent in her hometown, she and her mother were crossed with horrible nicknames until they finally forgot about it as they found another thing to gossip from. 

The day she moved to London, her mother had cried a lot. After all, she was being left there on her own, with a man she no longer recognised as her husband, in a town where she was being pointed at as a whore. Grace felt bitter every single time she remembered that, not being able to go back home not even once ever since she started college. No matter how bad her situation was, she was never able to go back home only to see her mother aging and dying slowly in sadness.

Theo took care of her, even though he was busy working as an astrophysicist, he would still beg her to call and usually would visit her when he could. He was the shoulder she cried on for the first months she had been away from home, not really accustoming herself to the big city and everything in it. Then she had met Eliza in the library and everything started falling in place. She had never revealed herself in front of anyone but her brother and her friend. And many times she had thought it was better.

"Brought the drinks, move your ass", Eliza came back from the loo and bringing some drinks for them as Grace was stuck in her thoughts, but moved aside anyways. "Don't be gloomy, drink up and you'll feel better", her blonde friend said while passing her a beer can.

"Thanks", Grace said while taking it and opening it.

"Shit, I really needed to take a piss and the fucking groupies are fucking everywhere", her friend started ranting. "You might hear them whimper and squealing between them as they beg to get the attention of their favourite member", Eliza laughed.

"I can't believe they actually keep doing that", she simply said while trying to hide her jealousy. It was obvious that one of them would end up in Roger's bed that same night. "Who cares anyways? It's not like their dick is made of gold or something--"

"You might never know", Roger had entered the room dripping in sweat and his hair all messy as he was rubbing his hands. Grace had never blushed as hard as she did in that same moment.

"I never knew Gracie was able to say the word dick in public", Brian snickered as he entered behind Roger and then John and Freddie followed him.

"Oh, shut up", Grace rolled her eyes and hid her smile while drinking her beer.

"She's all turnt up already", Freddie clapped as a staff member passed him a towel to dry his sweat. "I like it, thank you for getting her drunk Lilibeth", he blowed a kiss to the blonde stylist that laughed.

"She's not even drunk, that's her first can-- she's just being wild"

"That's new", John said with a laugh as Grace rolled her eyes again and then pulled her middle finger up. "Woah, I think it's bedtime for you, young lady... you're going way too far", he teased as everyone in the room laughed at his silliness.

"I think I need some distraction tonight", she ended up confessing after entering in the after party and then heading straight to the bar with Eliza following her. "Shots please... nevermind, anything strong", she said to the bartender as her blonde friend was quite surprised.

Grace needed to take the memories and the jealousy off her mind as she avoided eyeing Roger in a booth with a short black haired girl all over his lap, ready to jump on him. His arms surrounding her shoulders as they were visibly flirting. She didn't knew how to describe how disappointed she was. Of course, she knew what he was.

She was more than grateful that Freddie was only looking at her from afar rather than messing with her, Paul was with him and even though she enjoyed talking with him, she preferred not having him around for the night either as he was kind of Freddie's hound dog.

The music got louder the more she lifted her glass for a refiling. Eliza went to dance and even though the band and her friends were constantly eyeing her as she was kind of rebelling herself that night, that didn't avoid her from getting completely shitfaced and dancing with a man until he got touchy and she definitely didn't mind having some company that night.

The manager felt as it was better that way, feeling completely numb and using someone else to take out her frustrations. Their way to her hotel room didn't take long and taking her shirt off didn't take any time either. Pleasure was better than overthinking. Who cared what she did or whom she went back with? Everybody was losing control in that party and she wasn't the exception.