Nowhere Girl ~ John Lennon/The Beatles

Chapter Twenty One: Auld Lang Sine

"Down it, Lennon!" Paul called enthusiastically, taking a swig from his own bottle of beer as he watched John and his cousin engage in some sort of drinking game, both him and Connie racing to finish their pints first.

"Which Lennon?" George asked with a grin, especially as Connie finished hers first, slamming the glass down onto the table and cheering in triumph. As she jumped in the air and George hugged her in victory, Robin made sure to snap a few photographs.

That's all Robin had been doing the last few days since Albert had given her the camera. She'd already filled one roll of film with just mundane snaps of the streets or views from bus windows, and she was pretty sure she would need to go to the shops by the end of the week to get another roll considering how many pictures she'd taken at the party. It felt truly liberating to have a camera, something that could let her capture an instant forever. She had gotten herself in a habit throughout her life that if she saw something she liked she would try and commit it to memory to try and recreate it on paper as soon as she had access to her sketchbook and pencils. Now though she didn't have to worry about that. She didn't have to worry about trying to remember how a certain leaf looked as it dropped from a branch, or how the light shone off the wing mirror of a random car parked in front of the house, or how John looked when he was laughing. She could just take the picture, and that was it, that was the art.

It made her laugh knowing that when she had access to the college dark room to develop all her photographs she'd be greeted with a pile of photos of just strange and random things like walls and streets mixed in with drunken snaps of her friends. With only half an hour to go before midnight it was hard to look around the room and see anyone moderately sober, but that had been the same upon Robin and John's arrival to the New Years Eve party. John had braced her that a party at Connie Lennon's house could turn rather wild rather quickly, so the two of them had started pre-drinking on the bus, sneaking swigs out of Robin's hipflask, but even then they weren't nearly as tipsy as the other guests who were already there.

With no proper adult supervision, the pack of teens and young adults had let themselves go to properly celebrate. Connie had a motto of 'the more the merrier' when it came to parties, especially festive ones, so her house was heaving with people, most of whom Robin didn't really know. Of course there was the usual group, the band and their close friends, and John went round trying to introduce her to certain people, like Cilla White, a friendly teenager with bright red hair, and a group of lads who Robin had seen around the clubs with their band The Pacemakers. Everyone was friendly, it helped they were all merry from the alcohol, but for the most part Robin stuck with the people she was closest to. Maybe it was because it was the change of the year, but she always thought New Years was something to be celebrated with those you were close with, and she couldn't think of many people better to celebrate with in Liverpool than her friends.

Of course, in the back of her mind she kept thinking that she'd happily trade all the mad fun to just be sat in her flat with her Dad, listening to records, watching the countdown on telly and playing daft party games. Most of the time it was just the two of them for New Year, but sometimes one of the other families in Park Hill would throw a flat party and they'd go and celebrate with the neighbours. Sometimes they'd have people round themselves, but the night always ended with a conga around the corridors of the building, before the two of them fell asleep in the living room. The reminder of how different things were in that moment to how they were a year ago kept hitting Robin painfully, but she kept making sure she distracted herself, numbing the searing grief with more drinks.

"Robin," John called from where he was in the kitchen, and she suddenly realised she'd zoned out. "Oi, Bird!"

She'd been sat with Kay and her boyfriend the last she remembered, but the two of the had clearly snuck off somewhere. Part of Robin wondered if that was what John wanted too, if he wanted her to take him off somewhere private, and as much as the thought thrilled her she couldn't see it being true. Even if they'd slept together at least twice more since Boxing Day, both times in his house when Mimi was out and everyone else was busy, she couldn't imagine he was keen to try and start something at the party. It was too public, their affair was meant to be a secret, and even if he was drunk she knew John wouldn't want to expose the two of them.