𝕃𝕖𝕥 𝕀𝕥 𝔹𝕖 | 𝕁𝕠𝕙𝕟 𝕃𝕖𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕟 ✅

26

15th October, 1960

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Ruby let herself into the flat which she and the Hurricanes were staying at; they were fortunate, she realised, because it was a lot better than the digs which The Beatles had. Stu though, it seemed, was the most fortunate - he was living with Astrid in her flat.

"Where have you been?" Ty asked as soon as she walked into the living room. Already it looked like a doss house; Ty was lying on a mattress on the floor, Johnny Byrne the guitarist was asleep on the settee, and Lu Walters was knocking about in the kitchen. Ringo and Rory were missing, but Ruby didn't pay too much attention to this.

"Is it any of your business?" She asked, tired of Ty already. She was still annoyed with him because of the previous day on the plane.

"Off with a boy, then?" He smirked and she felt her skin crawl. Ruby fought the urge to slap the stupid look off his face. "Or with more than one?" He was winding her up and he knew it. She did, too.

Technically, she had been off with a boy - with John - but it was none of Ty's business, and she was going to make sure that he knew it.

"Fuck off." Ruby snapped, "don't be such a fucking dick, Ty, you know I'm not going to tell you even if you guess right - I have friends in this city - something that you don't know anything about - and there will be times when I'm gone all night with them. I don't need you quizzing me every time I step foot over the bloody threshold, alright?" He looked flabbergasted. His jaw was hanging open, his eyes wide and he was frozen. "Now leave me the fuck alone and don't talk to me unless I talk to you first."

Perhaps she was being too rude, but she couldn't take Ty.

She never had had much patience for people who she hated, and she would make it abundantly clear if she didn't like somebody.

"Everything alright in here?" Ringo walked through the door and Ruby felt relaxed immediately. He had such a calming presence - usually.

"Ask your bird." Ty scoffed, "thinks she's got the right to talk to me like I'm a piece of shit -"

Ruby looked at him and scowled. "If I was you, I'd shut your gob before I do it for you. I'm not like other girls, Ty O'Brien, and I swear to God that you will regret crossing me if you do."

There was a dead silence in the room after her words, punctuated only by Johnny's snores every few seconds.

"Ruby?" Ringo asked after a solid minute of awkward eye contact between the three of them, "where've you been all night?"

Ruby was half expecting Ty to scoff, or say something like 'I asked the same thing', but he stayed silent. Perhaps he had taken her words on board. She hadn't expected him to, but she was pleased that he had. It would (hopefully) make her life a lot easier in the near future.

"I was with the band," she replied, which wasn't a lie, per se. She was with John for some of the night, and presumably at some point the other members had come to bed at the Bambi Kino, too.

"I was worried about you."

"I'm sorry," she replied because she honestly was. She hadn't meant to worry him, and as she thought about it, she realised what it could mean for a young girl to be out all night on the Reeperbahn - a shiver passed down Ruby's spine as she realised that something actually could have happened to her and nobody would have known it for several hours. "If I'm going to be out all night again, I'll tell you." That was a promise she intended to keep.

Still in the middle of them both, Ty cleared his throat. Ruby glared at him and he frowned, daring to speak up, "are you going to be long in here? I was hoping to go back to sleep -"

"No." Ruby replied shortly, looking from Ty to Ringo, "actually, I came to get changed. The Beatles and me are going for brekkie. Maybe you'd want to come?"

Ringo smiled a little but then shook his head, "thanks, but it was a late night - early morning, really. I need to get some more sleep before tonight."

"Oh..."

"I'll see you later, though?" She nodded and went to get changed.