I Learnt To Love In Liverpool | George Harrison ✅

♥ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 ♥

"I heard crying," Mimi said as she came down the stairs and into the living room, "what's -" She cut herself off when she saw me sobbing in her nephew's arms. "Emeraude?" She hurried over to me and knelt down, "what is it, dear?"

"I'm still trying to get that out o' her, Mimi." John replied, "she's hysterical -"

"Poor child." Mimi wrapped her arms around me and batted John away from the settee. He stood up and she took his seat. "Run over to her house and get -"

John nodded, turning to fulfil his aunt's order, but stopped when I screamed out his name, "John!" Mimi jumped back in surprise and stood up, gesturing for John to sit back down beside me, to soothe me.

"Mimi," John said as he wrapped his arms around me and used one to press my head into his chest, rocking us both back and forth in an effort to soothe my tears, "would you call Paul? I meant to do it, but she was -" Mimi nodded and hurried out of the room. "Tell him to come over!" John called from the living room when we heard Mimi speaking to somebody from the hallway. John turned his attention to me, "you have to tell me what happened, Em."

I nodded as much as I could in his arms and then took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself enough to speak. "K-Kevin..."

"Your stepdad?" I nodded.

"W-went into t-the -" I hiccuped, "l-living room and... and..." I sobbed more and John tightened his arms around me, effectively suffocating me, but making me feel safe at the same time. I found that I calmed down very quickly, and stopped crying almost immediately. I took another deep breath and continued, "I went i-into the living r-room and he... he... oh, John!" I exclaimed, "Kevin was on the f-floor, and he w-wasn't b-b-breathing -"

"Kettle's on, and Paul said he'd be over as soon as he could." Mimi popped her head round the door and John and I looked to her as she spoke.

John nodded, "thanks, Mimi." I nodded in agreement. She gave me a sympathetic look and then left the room. We heard her going into the kitchen. John turned his attention back to me, "Em, are you sure?"

I replied, "John, he was cold... and w-was lying i-in a puddle of his own -"

John shushed me, stroking my hair with one of his hands repeatedly, humming a soft tune into my ear. I relaxed in his arms and he continued rocking us. "My mum used to do this to me when I got in a state." As if it had happened twenty years ago, I remembered Paul telling me about John's mum. I wanted to open my mouth and say something to him, but before I could, he continued, "she's gone now, but it's still comforting, ain't it?"

"John, I feel so... so..."

He shushed me gently again. "I know, Em. We've all been through it; Paul with his mum and me with mine. We know how it feels." He paused for a few seconds before he said, "he'll be here soon, and -"

"Tea's ready, dears." Mimi came into the room with a tray in her hands. On it there was a teapot, a milk jug and a sugar pot with two teaspoons and two teacups with their saucers. She poured both John and I a cup and added plenty of sugar and milk into either one. "Hot, sweet tea," Mimi explained as she handed my teacup and saucer to me, "it'll solve anything."

I bowed my head at her in thanks, feeling numb. I sipped at the tea and felt the knots in my muscles loosen immediately. Hot, sweet tea had really done wonders for my nerves, but I couldn't get the image of Kevin's body in a pile of vomit out of my head.

What felt like seconds later but was probably about fifteen minutes, there was a knock at the front door and I jumped, spilling the now-cold tea down my clothes. I didn't even react as John went to grab a tea towel from the kitchen and began to mop me up, being careful to avoid touching my breasts too much. Had it been any other time than the present, I probably would have teased him about it.

Mimi answered the door and I heard her say something, and then Paul rushed into the living room just a second later, his brown eyes darting around the room until they landed on me. He rushed across the room and knelt down in front of me, taking both of my hands in his.

"What happened, Em?" He asked in a worried tone. "Dad's stir crazy - wanted to come over 'ere himself -"

"It's her stepdad, Paul." John said for me, "she found him..."

"Christ." Paul said, mostly to himself as he regained his full height and began to pace back and forth across the room, his hand against his head as he thought about what to do. "You don't know what happened...?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"You'll stay here for a bit, o'course -"

"Like Hell she is." Paul replied, turning to his best friend, though he spoke politely. "Dad says she's got a bed at our's - he's up waiting for us now."

I was silent. I was numb.

"We'll go get some of your stuff, and then we'll get going." Paul said as he put his hand at his side once more, "then we'll head off -"

"Have to call the bizzies before then." John pointed out. "If they find out we knew about a body then they'll get suspicious -"

"You don't think...?" I hiccuped, sobbing again because the thought of somebody killing Kevin was just too much to think about - even though I hadn't liked him, he was still the man that I had called dad until very recently, and the man who had always looked after me and mum and had always funded us - for a few seconds, I felt bad about the way I had treated him in his final days - but then I remembered how he had lied to me for years. How he had pretended to be my biological father, and how he had probably never intended to tell me the truth. Silently, I thanked Paul for writing me that letter.

"Mimi!" John called, his arms still around me. She came into the room, "Paul and me are going to grab some o'Em's stuff - watch her, would you?"

She had her arms crossed her against her chest, not looking amused at the way her nephew had just spoken to her, but when she looked into my eyes, she couldn't say no.

She nodded, coming into the room further and gesturing for John to move. He stood up and she sat in his place again, putting her arms around me, "I won't leave her for a second, John." She promised. "You two boys get on, and we'll be here waiting."

John and Paul nodded. "Mimi," Paul said, now speaking directly to the woman, "would you mind telephoning the police? I'd do it myself, only I want us to be in and out of there in double time."

Mimi hesitated for a few seconds before she nodded. "I will." She promised.

I knew that she didn't like Paul, but I though that she liked me because she was being so kind - or maybe it was the fact that I was in such a state, or perhaps it was that I had just found my stepfather dead in the living room of our house. I wondered if I would ever know.

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