It's Only Love

Chapter Thirteen

John licks his dry lips and watches the blond girl walking away after Paul and swishing her hips. Then he turns back to the only other man still at the table, who is leaning over his drink and watching the girls on the dance floor with a crazy gleam in his eye. The same crazy gleam that's been in his eyes all evening.

John and the rest of the Beatles had arrived at the bar to meet with a couple of boys they knew as the High Numbers, though their lead singer had insisted that they'd changed their name to "The Who". John had heard their first single. It was outrageous. Too much feedback by the idiotic guitarist and the drumming was way overboard. But George Martin had assured them that he felt like they were "on the brink of something". So they'd agreed to come and have a drink. Only now, it's just John and the drummer, Keith Moon. The rest had gone home or somewhere with a couple of girls.

"They're all so sexy," slurs Moon, licking his lips and swigging his beer.

"Not as sexy as my girl," mutters John, which is what he's blaming his celibacy on tonight.

"That's yer problem," says Moon, grinning wickedly at a girl passing, who scowls at him and storms off. "I don't gotta girl. They don't trust me. Think I'm gonna go off with someone. And this's why. 'Cos they're all good enough to bed."

A piece of this short speech penetrates John's mind, and he stares at Moon, slowly working something through in his head. "Gotta go," he says, standing up abruptly.

"What?" Moon looks off. "But you carn't leave--the birds don't go for the loner--just wait till I get picked up--"

John shrugs this off and hurries away. He's kind of set off by Moon--and he wants to leave before the kid does something crazy. When the guitarist--Townshend--when he left, Keith snogged him. Then he grinned and said it was a joke when Townshend flipped him off. And it seemed like it was, 'cos the bassist just laughed.

The warm wind gently brushes John along the road as he strides off. There's no point going to Madeline's to assure her--again--that he'd never cheat; his only chance is to get the cunt to realize he'd jacked up someone's relationship other than his own.

His foot collides with Connor Bright's front door and he jams his finger onto the doorbell. "Open up, you bloody cheat!" he screams. "You jerk--you cunt! You hurt her! You've made her bloody paranoid! It's not just you, you selfish, cheating sonovabitch!"

The light in the front window turns on and Bright's face appears.

"Get offa it, you drunk!" he growls. "Is she actually dating you? You're dangerous."

"Bloody right I'm dangerous!" John screams. "You're gonna see how dangerous I am!"

"Bugger off!" says Bright. "Bugger off or I'll call the police!"

Panting, John kicks the door one more time. He licks his lip. Then he storms off.