𝕃𝕖𝕥 𝕀𝕥 𝔹𝕖 | 𝕁𝕠𝕙𝕟 𝕃𝕖𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕟 ✅

14

29th September, 1960

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Not even Stu was awake when Ruby left for college the next morning, her sketchbook under her arm and pencil tucked behind her ear since she had left her tote bag on Mimi's tea-stained carpet the previous day. She caught the bus to the college, once again making a mental note to invest in something very quickly before her money started to dwindle, and then she walked from the bus stop to the campus, which was only about half a mile.

When she got there, Cynthia was waiting on the stone steps which led to the front door. She looked, Ruby thought, quite dowdy - like the clothes she was wearing didn't quite suit her. Cyn had on a very plain beige blouse and a black skirt with a pair of stockings on, and some ugly shoes that looked like they had seen better days in the 1940s.

Nevertheless, Ruby climbed the front steps and tapped her friend on the shoulder. Cyn turned and smiled, throwing her arms around the girl. "I thought you'd never show!"

Ruby chuckled, "just been busy. The bus was a bit late, too -"

"Which one was it?" Ruby told her the bus route number and then Cyn said, "George's dad drives that one sometimes, y'know. You should tell him to keep to the schedule!" She teased, giggling.

Ruby laughed along, though she hadn't found Cynthia's joke very funny.

"Let's get going." Cynthia nodded in agreement and led the way to their classroom.

It was a still-life class, so the two girls sat down at an easel each, beside each other. The professor handed out some larger-than-normal, A2 sheets of paper and told everybody to get started on sketching the man in front of them, who was (thankfully, Ruby thought) wearing a black suit and deep red tie, one leg propped up on a chair and one arm hung over that leg. He looked like an idiot, and when Ruby mentioned it to Cynthia, the girl laughed in agreement, nodding.

They started to draw, and the class worked in almost-silence for half an hour or so before a conversation arose, each person conversing with the one beside them. Cynthia looked at Ruby, "so how's John, then?"

"John?" Ruby echoed in surprise, almost dropping her pencil which she had retrieved from behind her ear at the mention of his name. "What about him?"

"Well Rosie Dormer said she saw you and him eating chips yesterday." Cynthia replied nonchalantly, peering at Ruby out of the corner of her eyes, "how is he?"

"Um, he's fine..." Did Cynthia suspect something? Did she have any right to? Had something happened between Ruby and John that Ruby hadn't picked up on?

"Hmm," Cynthia hummed in reply, glancing at their model before adding some shading into her early sketch. "And what about Stu?"

"I like Stu -"

"But not John?"

"Um -"

"Only, when I asked you about John, you were vague, but when I asked about Stu, you said that you liked him -"

"I like them both." Ruby told her friend, "equally." She added. "Stu just seems a bit more open to the world, I think... but it was John who asked me to move in with them -"

Cynthia dropped her pencil and gasped.

The model glanced over at her, and the entire class stared. Cynthia went bright red, retrieved her pencil and then quietly cleared her throat. "Um, sorry everybody. I just... I had to sneeze, and -" She cut herself off when she realised that nobody cared. In fact, they had all gone back to their drawings.

"I thought John would have told you -"

"I haven't..." Cynthia sighed, "I haven't spoken to him - seen him, actually - since the day you came into class... but you say that he asked you to live with him?"

"And Stu." Ruby supplied, hoping that it wouldn't seem as weird if she was living with both of them rather than just Cyn's boyfriend.

"He's never even asked me to stay..." it seemed like she was talking more to herself now than Ruby, "why would he ask you...?"

"If it helps," Ruby said, causing Cynthia to look at her, a slightly annoyed look in her eyes, "they're going to Hamburg on Monday. I wanted to ask, actually, if you'd like to stay with me at the flat for a bit while they're gone? I don't know Liverpool very well, and I'd like to have you with me. We're friends, after all... aren't we?"

Ah yes, the good old fashioned guilt-trip. Ruby had pulled it well.

Cynthia hesitated, but then smiled and nodded. "Friends..." she echoed, "o-of course we are..."

"We could maybe have a party one night?" Ruby suggested. "That'd be fun?"

Cyn paused, "usually it's John who throws the party. I just show up and look after him when he drinks too much -"

"I can take over his role, if you want?" Ruby teased.

Cynthia wasn't too amused, which was obvious, but she just shrugged. "It's not the most glamorous job. I'd rather I didn't have to do it."

Ruby chuckled, "it'll be fun. Me and you... I've taken Stu's room, anyway." Ruby left out the fact that the night before, she'd been in John's bed whilst he had taken the settee. She thought that telling Cynthia that piece of information wouldn't have been helpful to their friendship.

"I'll take John's then..." Ruby nodded, "it sounds fun. We have an exam on Monday anyway, so I'll just come back with you after that?" Ruby nodded again. "If you wanted to, you could come to Hoylake and help me collect my things. Mum could make us tea?"

Ruby nodded. "That sounds nice, sure."

Cynthia smiled and went back to her drawing. Ruby did the same, though she couldn't shake the feeling that sharing the flat with Cynthia would be hard, and probably quite awkward. What if the letters which the band wrote to Ruby weren't for Cynthia to read?

Ruby had heard stories in the twenty-first century of what The Beatles had gotten up to during their Hamburg days, and she'd also heard that they had treated their first wives and girlfriends quite badly, serially cheating on them. Ruby was sure that Cynthia didn't want to know about her boyfriend's infidelities - she hoped that the band didn't include anything untoward in the letters which John had promised they would write to her during their time abroad.