Beauty and the Beatle II

Chapter IX

There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by hedonist Lord Henry 

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The fancy restaurant was not only full by some of the people behind the documentary, but also their friends and family. The stars were obviously the most requested, something they felt so inadequate because there were at least 10 reporters asking them as if they were responsible for it, when in reality they knew almost nothing about it; when Ted Dumas approached them with the idea, they found it innovating, they would have loved to know the behind the scenes of Elvis' concerts. So, their answers sounded a little bit snarky to the reporters. Norm and Shake found it very difficult to correct some comments they were making, it was 4 against two, not very fair.

"Will you be showing your fans how you play guitar? Or what else?" one of the reporters asked George.

Quickly grabbing one of the beverages a waiter was offering, he confidently answered, "I'll be teaching my fave one, the three letter word activity," he said, the reporter raised his eyebrows, thinking he meant one that starts with 'S' "...eat, we love cereal," George answered after some seconds

Ringo was trying to ruin Paul flirtatious answers to a reporter, "possibly we could show some of your nasty habits," he said, making Paul deny and joke about Ringo's snore.

"So, tell me, John... John right?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking on changing it," he drank from his glass, "to Pluto or Willie E Coyote." He said in a posh accent,

The reporter scribbled his answers, "do you think this project will get you more fans?" he said, hoping he would get genuine answers.

"Maybe, but that can't be the point of everything, that'd be so much pressure... specially for the other three who don't get as many fan letters as I do," he joked, with gleam in his eyes. He turned to see the others who were tired of this so called "party", George pretended to hang himself, making him laugh.

John went to the restroom, he looked at himself in the mirror, he was fidgeting, now he felt a lot of pressure, he considered himself to be the leader of the band, and a lot of new things were happening their way. He decided he couldn't look unsure in front of the others. He tapped his cheeks, forcing a frown to turned to easiness in his face; he'd had talks with that Lord Rattbauten about sharing that business pressure with someone who knew something about it. He didn't like the way he had talked about his band as mere negotiations, but he had begun to have doubts about his own personal beliefs.

He left the restroom and as he walked through that small hallway, he bumped into Michelle, she had already seen him coming her way, she stood aside to let him pass, looking down. That morning she had told her friends about her relationship ending, and also about that new job she had been hired for. Mina lent her a beautiful purple dress, with a halter neck, and told her to use it for the party 'make him regret it' she had told her; she decided just minutes before leaving to not use it, she took it off and used a plain white sweater and a plaid skirt.

John had stopped for maybe two seconds, she thought he was going to talk to her; she only heard him exhale "excuse me," and he passed by.

Before going on this new project, Michelle went to help for a charity soup kitchen; some neighbors had asked for help and to get more people to volunteer, the only one that was free that morning was Deena.