The Less I Know The Better [complete]

34 ;; talking

Surprisingly good weather fell upon Liverpool that day; only a few clouds were dispersed across the sky, and there was no breeze rattling the branches of the trees sheltering the park that John was strolling through, a nearly finished lemonade in hand, Cynthia walking alongside him. She had her bleached blonde hair in a loose ponytail and was still dressed in her school uniform - as was John, since he'd come straight from his school on that Friday afternoon and picked her up outside her own to go and eat at a diner. He hadn't seen Ringo, George nor Paul much at school that day, and he'd decided he just wanted to spend some time with someone who didn't know about all the recent drama and would not pester him about it. His other friends were great, but.. he just needed a break from it all for the day. Just pretend everything was normal. It probably wasn't a good idea in the long run - to pretend nothing was going on - but he honestly didn't care at the moment. And he missed Cynthia's company, anyway; it had been a while since they'd last seen each other. They'd had some chips at the diner and decided afterwards to take a walk through the park and continue chatting about idle things.

"You know, I saw Thunder Road the other day." Cynthia began, hands crossed over her chest as she glanced at John before turning back to the path they strolled along.

"Is that so?" John raised an eyebrow. He hadn't been to the movies in a while. He had the sudden exciting idea that he should take Paul on a secret date to see one, but he quickly reminded himself of the situation with Paul, and his enthusiasm immediately deflated.

"Yeah. It was pretty good. A lot of gun action, though." She shrugged.

John only hummed in response. He wondered if Paul was a fan of action movies like that, or if he would gravitate to the softer, maybe romantic movies. He quickly shook his head, unable to stop himself from chuckling a little. Jesus, he really couldn't stop thinking about Paul. Nothing had changed between them over the last few days so far, but their encounters were often so awkward that both of them would make up an excuse not to be around each other. He knew he had to do something about it soon. And he planned on doing just that. He just couldn't get over that initial, irrational fear that Paul simply didn't want him back in his life. That he'd gotten tired of John and they probably weren't going to get back together at all. He knew it was stupid, from the amount of times Ringo, Stu or George would remind him that Paul did, in fact, like him, but he'd carried those insecurities with him his whole life. It wasn't like they were just going to go away now.

"John? Your head's in the clouds. What's going on?"

He blinked, turning to Cynthia - he deliberated for a few seconds, chewing the inside of his cheek before turning away with a shrug, resolving not to tell the truth. He didn't feel like talking about it anyway.
"Just thinkin'."

"Is that so?" She smirked a little, spinning around to stand in front of him, though continuing to walk backwards. He chuckled, watching as she nearly backed into a tree; she leapt out of the way just in time with a small noise of surprise, and instead gently grasped his wrist and tugged him towards a grassy clearing where they sat down opposite each other, not feeling like walking anymore. "Well, why don't you share with the class?"

"The note says "Frank has a big fat pimple on his nose" Ms Powell." He joked.

"Hilarious." She rolled her eyes, though a playful smile still played on her lips. "But c'mon, can you tell me?" She leant forward a little, gazing at him with honest eyes; she gently touched his knee with her fingertips for a moment before drawing back. "Only if you want to, of course."

John shook his head, determined not to say anything. He didn't want to bore Cynthia with his stupid relationship problems.
"It's okay. Don't worry 'bout it."

"I'll still worry, but okay."

He sighed. Draining the glass bottle cradled in his grasp of its last drops of lemonade, he tried to come up with some kind of subject to talk about so things wouldn't turn awkward. But, it seemed Cynthia beat him to it.