Hey You ⌲ Paul McCartney

9 // remember the time

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July 6, 1961 // 7:36 pm
{ Soundtrack; Remember The Time - Michael Jackson }

After Jean had given me almost 2 weeks to rest and scarf down all the chocolate ice cream in the fridge, I headed out for the town. My first stop was Penny Lane, hoping to just sit and watch cricket on the field.

The wind was thick, with a subtle jasmine scent being carried through it. I sat on the wall near the intersection of Penny Lane and Woolton Street. The breeze was pleasantly beautiful, soothing me with a wonderful feeling of being content.

"Well, isn't this a sight for sore eyes! Two Penny Lane's. What a perfect picture moment!" It was a very condescendingly keen man's voice. From my peripheral vision, I could tell it was John, Paul's friend I had met a few weeks ago.

He sauntered over wearing a dark, velvet coat with a white loose collared shirt under it. His hair was longer, more curls. He also didn't have the fire in his eyes anymore and he knew it, but it was still the same John regardless.

"Oh hey, John. What are you up to on this fine day?" I asked, attempting to strike up conversation.

"Oh y'know, just wreaking havoc and taking over this world one step at a time," he smirked up at me and I remembered his eyes and how they were so incredibly hard to decipher. He looked away with a handsome smirk adorning his features.

"What'd you do?"

"I haven't told anyone this, but I pissed off me girl, Cyn. I've just been spending so much time with Stu." The growing shadow from the willow tree obscured the auburn in his eyes. He dropped his head in his hands, just like Paul did when he remembered he left his friend at the Cavern Club.

"I'm sorry to hear that. And I'd also like to apologize for leaving you at the Cavern Club all night... It's really all my fault, not Paul's," I managed to explain as I watched the cars pass by. I tried to look more relaxed but the knot in my stomach prevented me from doing so.

"It's quite alright. I actually met up with Cynthia there so she took me home. Paul hasn't shut his trap about you, y'know... He's been writing poetry and songs and playing his guitar all week. His mind is occupied with the thought of you - well that's what it says in his songbook, anyways." I nodded at that. John was so intriguing, and I was enamored with the way he talks and goes about himself.

"That's great to know, thanks for the useless information," I remarked sarcastically. He just let out a laugh and leaned back onto the bushes. He seemed to love this place as much as I do.

"Hey, Penny. Let's go to Strawberry Field. We can climb over the fence," he insisted and I consented. I've always been infatuated with adventures, and maybe that's why I began to fancy him.

For the next few minutes we trudged our way down the narrow path, laboriously taking in and appreciating the elusive sunny weather. John though, would occasionally tease me and fake a jump in front of a car. "John!" I would yell, but he would just chuckle.

"St. Peter's Parish church. Where I met me buddy Paul. Exactly 4 years ago from today, actually. It's rather sad how fast time flies, don't ya think?" He asked me with a tilt to the head.

"It sure is," I agreed, but my stomach was churning. All the thoughts of James raced around my mind, because the day he broke up with me was this very day from 4 years ago as well. He vowed to spend the whole day with me, but he left to see some band playing on Woolton Street. I couldn't stop him, because, well that was his dream - making music. He then came back with the disheartening news: "I can't love you."

I felt my world crashing down by just seeing the look in his eyes. The look of rejection. I would have thought his last words to me might have been more forgiving, such as "I'm sorry" or "it's not that I don't" and all the other responses you'd think of that you would see in movies and heartbreak novels. Instead, all I received was a blank stare and 4 pathetic words.

I brought my sweaty hand to my pulsing forehead as I read the street name just above my eye level.

W O O L T O N S T R E E T

I glanced over at John, who was scoping the premises. I could tell he felt nostalgic. Nostalgia: it's delicate, but potent. In Greek "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart that both me and John were evidently feeling, far more powerful than a memory alone - a feeling of a place where we ache to go again.

"John, did Paul play Twenty Flight Rock for you?" He nodded, and that's when I finally got the closure I needed.

"How'd you know?"

"Because earlier that day he was playing that song nonstop. After every chord, he would shoot his bright hazel eyes up at mine, seeing if I was listening... And I always was. I knew his favorite songs, and he told me about his dreams. And then we kissed, it was so awkward that he ran out without a word, hoping to catch your band playing," I reminisced as tears started to brew in my eyes because when he left - I said it was his loss, but deep down I knew it was mine too.

"Oh..." He suddenly become cold and distant, like he had something to do with our parting. His eyes wandered around as we made our way to the vivid red fence with painted strawberries plastered precisely to the top. "Look, we don't need to climb it, let's just go get something to eat."

"Why not?"

"Penny?" John and I both turned sharply to face the boy who had been the topic of our last conversation. He was on the other side of the red fence.

"Is this why you wanted me to come in the first place? Really? Just so I could make amends with Paul?" I shouted at John as I then started to walk away with tears coating my cheeks. Paul had broken my heart twice and I couldn't forgive him. I was not going to run back to him just because he is and forever will be my first love.

"Well, well, well - if it isn't my old friend, the dawning realization that I fucked up real bad," John muttered.

I turned to face him with a stern scowl. "So you're saying, you're the reason why he broke up with me? You didn't want one of your band mates to have a girlfriend, wasn't that it?"

Paul then unexpectedly came face to face with me as I walked back down the narrow cobble-stone road. "Do you remember... Back in the spring? Every morning birds would sing. Do you remember the time when we fell in love?" He spoke poetry in a world still learning the alphabet. And that's when I realized - that's why I fell so deeply in love with him all those years ago.

"Yes, I do. But being at 15, I realized I was ignorant to fall in love with someone like you."

Perhaps the fact that I chased a boy who ripped me to shreds says a lot more about me then it does about him.

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Heyy thanks for reading and votes, etc! But for those of you who live in/ near Liverpool, I'm sorry if my directions to these real life places are not entirely accurate!

I've actually visited every place I mentioned here and Liverpool will forever be a favorite place of mine ♡