âmes pétillantes ~ classic rock imagines

• John Lennon (II) •

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for such a lovely year, I really appreciate every single read my little book gets. Here's to a happy, healthy 2023.

This imagine involves a female-specified reader.

--☆--

It was around the exact second that your right leg was hanging out of the window with John unhelpfully tugging at your boot that you questioned your sanity. Just for a moment.

After all, you wouldn't have dreamt of doing such a thing only a year before. In the New Year of 1956, your dreams were made up of hazy images of Elvis, puppies, holidays abroad and running into obscene amounts of money in the most preposterous of circumstances. Now, with 1957 only two hours away, the boy who you had cast as the leading role in your dreams ever since you'd miraculously met him in March, was coaxing you out of your bedroom window from the garden trellis attached to the wall of your house while your parents hosted a New Year's party only downstairs.

"Christ's sake, you'll be fine, woman. I climbed up the bloody thing, didn't I? Just get your leg over here and you'll be fine." John had given up on gentle words to encourage you out from the warm safety of your home into the dark shadows of his mad scheme and was now whispering furiously from halfway down the garden trellis.

Upon convincing you to join him on his mysterious escapade, John had clambered down to give you some room. Although he could just manage to reach up to give you a helping hand, the responsibility of actually getting out of the window was mostly yours. And this is where John's cunning plan was beginning to fall apart at the seams.

It wasn't that you didn't want to. The rebellious idea of climbing out of your bedroom window to spend some alone time with John, shielded from the twinkling eyes of any other fifth years by the deceiving curtain of night, but you couldn't help listening to the familiar sound of your parent's party downstairs.

You knew you'd been acting out over the past year, or so your parents put it. Missing curfews, skipping school, dropping grades, skiving on chores. Generic teenage hijinks, as your parents spat out through gritted teeth.

You knew differently, of course. Being the right age to understand, you knew these actions were the result of a teenager who could maybe, potentially be falling in love.... possibly. After all, it was your numerous escapades with John that were the root cause of the signs that gnawed at your parents worried minds.

But, despite all that, you didn't want to let them down. And sneaking out in the middle of the night with a boy your parents would sooner spit on than invite graciously into the family was certainly letting them down.

In a moment of heart-wrenching clarity, you tuned into the sound of your mother's laughter, a trill flurry of flute notes echoing up the stairs like a warning bell. For just a second, you considered slamming the window shut, turning on your heel and joining your parents and their friend's downstairs for a champagne-drenched night that would lead you into the New Year like so many before it. Monotonous, repetitive and mundane.

However, that second of hesitation was mercilessly crushed by the twinkle in John's eye. You knew in that moment that the only way you wanted to see in the New Year was by his side, that mischievous twinkle in his glinting eyes illuminating your way through the darkness.

"Alright, alright, move down a bit," you demanded in a whisper, finally giving in completely. With a grin, John shuffled down a little further, managing to keep his hand on your foot and guide it gently onto the trellis above him.

With his guidance, you finally found your footing, and clambered out of the window. Clinging on tightly, you stopped by your open window just for a second, wondering whether you should close it or not. In that one second, you heard the rumbling sound of your parents' laughter downstairs, their gramophone playing their favourite instrumental, the clink of their friends' cocktail glasses. Firmly, you slammed the window shut.