Living on the Streets - McLennon AU

26.

4th April, 1957

Thursday came round sooner than both of the boys expected.

John was again waiting at Stuart's house for Paul to arrive, all though this time he wasn't as worried. The clock had only just turned 4:55pm, so he still had a few minutes left to be on time.

"My mum's made us some cake." Stuart said, walking into the room.

"Great, I'm starvin'!" Ringo called from his drum kit, rushing over to Stuart.

A few seconds later there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" John stood up once again, rushing to the door.

He smiled brightly when he saw Paul and George, allowing them inside.

"Hi John." George said. But Paul didn't speak.

John watched as the boy put his things on the coat hanger and headed for the dining room. George went to follow, being stopped by a hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

"Wait, George... What happened to Paul?" John asked, concerned.

"What... What do you mean?" George replied, obviously pretending he didn't know there was anything wrong.

"Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine, John. Just a bad night." And with that he ran to catch up with Paul, leaving John confused.

What the hell happened?

Trying his best to push his worry aside, he walked back into the dining room, noticing Paul sat on a chair, tuning his guitar. He looked lost, scared...

"You alright?" John asked, taking a seat next to him.

Paul nodded.

"Paul... You know you can talk to me, right?" He comforted.

"Yeah, I know." He weakly smiled back at John.

"We ready?" Asked Stuart from the other end of the room.

They all nodded, getting into position.

"Alright, I was thinkin', we should play one of Paul's songs." Stuart suggested.

Paul's head shot up from his guitar.

"Really? Mine?"

"Yeah, do you have any new songs that you've wrote? We'd love to play one of 'em." Asked John, hoping the boy was comfortable with this. "That's if it's okay with you, of course..."

"Y-Yeah, that's fine with me."

"You wrote one the other day, right Paulie?" Said George, who was sat on the table, eating cake.

"Uh, yeah, I did... I can go and get it for you?"

"Yeah!" They all replied.

He exited the room, re-entering with a notebook, passing it to Stuart.

"I've wrote more than one since I last seen you."

Stuart carefully read through three songs, his lips forming into a smile. He started to click his fingers, probably to the beat he was picturing in his head.

"Paul, these are amazing. John, come 'ave a read..."

John carefully took the notepad from the boy, taking his glasses out of his pocket.

He hated wearing the stupid things, but if wearing them meant that he got to clearly read Paul's songs, then he'd put them on without any hesitation.

"I like this one." John pointed to a song with the name 'Hey Jude.' "Isn't thy the one you played for me and Mimi."

"Yeah, it is." A smile that didn't look like it was forced appeared on Paul's face, as he looked over to George, who was still eating cake. "Yeah, let's play that one!"

"Alright, Paul, you play your guitar and sing the way you want it to go first, and then we can discuss things like Ringo's drums and the bass line after, yeah?"

"Yeah, I like that idea." He nodded. "Hey, George."

George quickly looked away from the cake.

"Did you hear that, we're playin' Hey Jude." George smiled at the news, he must have been too focused on the cake to have heard the previous conversation. "When I finish the second verse or whatever, can you add the 'na-na-na' in again? I really liked when you did that the other day."

"Yeah, yeah, of course I will, Paulie!" He quickly put the cake to the side, standing up and heading towards a spare microphone.

Paul turned his attention back to his guitar, not needing to look at the lyrics.

Hey Jude...