JOHN

Rain pelted the back of my coat, a soft thud with every drop. I quickly made my way up the stairs of the building and let myself in, slamming the door behind me.

I despise the rain. Yet another thing that makes London so dull and grey.

Letting out a breath, I shook off my coat and hung it on a hook near the door. I whistled a little tune as I made my way down into the studio.

I expected three angry faces for my tardiness. Instead, I only saw one glowering expression, from George in the corner. I knew what that was about, and so decided to leave it alone for now.

"Hi, all!" I said cheerily, walking over to my usual chair, across the room from where George sat seething. If looks could kill...

"Why are you late?" Paul asked, not out of annoyance, but rather of having nothing else to say.

"I told Ringo to pass on the message," I said, picking up my guitar and starting to tune it. "Yoko got sick."

"Yeah, Yoko's sick," Ringo echoed quietly. "I told 'em," he said to me.

I nodded a thank you, still ignoring George, who sat plucking his own guitar violently.

"Well?" I said. "What should we play first?" Satisfied with my tuned guitar, I held it on my lap. "I was thinking we could start off with a little 'something'..." I grinned cheekily at my joke, knowing it would set George off.

RINGO

At that remark, George flew from his seat, nearly throwing his guitar to the ground. John stared at him, asking for a challenge. I braced myself for a fight scene.

"George-" Paul began, but George cut him off.

"You knew how much that song meant to me! You knew how I felt about it!"

"I also knew how amazing it sounded!" John shouted back, a small smirk on his face.

"I..." That stopped George for a second. We all knew John wasn't one to give out compliments like that. Despite his evident anger, a spark of gratitude flew across George's eyes for one second.

Paul and I looked at each other. A tiny smile spread on Paul's face, mirroring the one on mine.

It's been nearly ten years, and George still looked up to John, all this time.

George quickly mustered up anger again. "That doesn't matter! I wasn't ready to share it with everyone!"

"You shared it with me," John replied.

"That was an accident..." George quieted down, and turned away, facing the wall. After a few beats, he spoke up again, very softly.

"I was going to show it to Pattie. But when I came home, Eric was there..."

I turned stiff. I heard Paul suck in a breath.

Eric, at George's house, again? I hadn't known he would be so persistent.

"Bloody hell," John muttered.

"He was showing her the song he wrote for her." George looked at us, pain apparent on his face. "He wrote her a song. I was coming home to show her my song, and she was there, listening to the love song he wrote.

'Layla'," he started singing the song softly, his voice wavering, "'got me on my knees, Layla, I'm begging, darling please, Layla...'"

And with that, he bolted out of the room. None of us dared follow him.

John looked at me, then at Paul. "I thought Eric was George's mate," he said, a hint of anger in his voice.

Paul shook his head, dumbfounded.

The room went silent for a second. Suddenly, we heard a rattle in the corner. I spun my head around.

Heather looked up from the folders she dropped in the corner, a sheepish grin on her face.

We'd forgotten she was there. Paul smiled and walked over to her.

"My little clumsy girl," he chided. "I ought to send you to finishing school for this."

The two of them began to pick up the mess, giggling to each other as they did so.
I continued to stare at John, and he at me.

"Well, Ritch," he said. "We might as well go help out."

I nodded, and we both went over to Paul and Heather, finding nothing else to do.

GEORGE

"I need a smoke," I muttered to myself, walking down the hallway to the door. I swiped my coat off its hook and threw it on, pulling out the cigarette box and lighter that lied in the pockets.

I thought of Paul, John, and Ringo's reactions when I told them about Eric and Pattie. Ringo's freeze, Paul's gasp, John's mutter.

"Bloody hell," he said.

Those two words, that gasp, the freeze, were exactly how I felt. The three of them encompassed all the anger, confusion, sadness, despair, fear that billowed inside me.

I felt I was acting paranoid. Up until the point that I told them. The way they reacted meant that my fears were being realized. Had it all really meant nothing, had I really been acting foolish, they would've thought so and told me. They wouldn't have frozen, or gasped. They wouldn't have said "bloody hell".

Because they froze, and gasped, and muttered "bloody hell", it was true. There was something going on between Eric and Pattie. And it scared me, and angered me, and tore me apart.

I swung the front door open, and nearly tripped over a drenched figure sitting on the stairs. Rain thundered, drowning out the noise of passing cars, or people's heels clicking on the pavement.

Regaining my footing, I began to shout an apology to the person I nearly trampled in my excitement. The figure stood up, startled, and turned around.

"I'm really sorry, love, I didn't see you th-" I stopped talking, all words knocked out of me.

Her eyes were wide in surprise, mimicking my own. Her hair, hanging loose, draped around her face and clung to it with rain. She stood with her arms wrapped around her, shivering slightly. Her cheeks were red, and her eyes shone a deep hazel.

It was Prudence. Not across on another building rooftop, a mirage all those days ago. Right in front of me.

PRUDENCE

George and I stood frozen, staring at each other. A cigarette hung out of his mouth, unlit, clinging to his lip as he gaped at me.

His hair had grown out, hanging by his shoulders. Despite seeing pictures of the boys in the papers, I still had thought of them as those four mop-tops. Now they  looked so... different, aged.

I had seen John again, this time alone. He was walking down the street, wrapping himself with a coat to protect himself from the rain. Just like last time, I had begun to follow him. I ended up following him to this building, where I stopped. Realizing the extent of my madness, I sat on the steps, ignoring the rain. I had sat there until George came outside.

The two of us said nothing for quite some time. Suddenly I felt the need to leave.

"I-I'm sorry, I'll b-b-be g-going," I stammered, beginning to turn around. Trying to sound confident failed, the cold rain wavering my speech.

George snapped out of his stupor. "Wait!" He grabbed my shoulders and spun me back, pulling me into a hug.

"Hello," he said softly.

I let out a small sigh. Even through all this time, George was still the wonderful friend I remembered.

Pulling me under his arm, George looked at me with concern. "You must be freezing. Come, we'll go inside for tea." He paused for a second, his eyebrows slightly raising. "Is that alright with you?"

Neither of us forgot the last time we saw each other. The fight with John had left a bitter taste in my mouth. I still hated him. Yet somehow I had felt the need to see him again.

Now that the opportunity was in front of me, I was doubtful.

"We could go somewhere else," George said, "but I think the paparazzi will hound us." He grimaced, thinking of those crazy days.

"N-no, it's alright," I said. "D-d-on't w-w-"

George jumped, not letting me finish. "Christ, I'm letting you die out here!" He chuckled softly, squeezing me tighter by his side. "Let's go in. It's brass monkeys outside."

He opened the door for me, and the two of us walked into the building.

{WOW GUYS I WROTE A CHAPTER

THIS MUST BE A MIRACLE

Yeah so I guess I'm back :)

it's been three months wow I'm lazy

Let me just catch you up on what's been happening with me

So I got jaw surgery

yeah that's a thing that I needed to do

and it was suuuuuuuper annoying

i couldn't open my mouth for a week and I still can't eat normally

and I'm puffy and stuff and I'll be kinda puffy for eight more months

but now my profile is better and healthy so YAY

yada yada yada.... how are you guys?

I hope your summer has been great so far!

it's been so long i think i probably got some parts of the story wrong

(does prudence have brown/ hazel eyes? i don't even remember lol)

anyways, have a wonderful morning/noon/night!!!

PEACE AND LOVE L***}