All Those Years Ago - Lennison Fan Fiction - Beatles Slash Fan Fiction

chapter thirty-one, 1976 part B

Paul settled into the armchair with a cup of tea and a thoughtful expression on his face. He sighed and checked his wristwatch again. He knew they'd turn up though neither John nor George were that great at keeping time. Through the years he'd grown accustomed to their inability to arrive on time but he still found it annoying.

The two of them were doing plenty of things he found irritating those days. Their appearance at a gay pride event for instance, had ignited a media fire-storm. Paul had never been one to shy away from the spotlight, but he felt that this new-found interest for the sexuality of his former bandmates during their eight years together was intrusive.

He didn't have anything to do with what John and George had been up to, but that didn't matter because insinuations were being made about everyone's sexuality, the press treating them as one entity instead of four individuals again.

Paul tried not to let it bother him, not finding anything wrong with being gay or thought of as being gay but he now had to deal with cameras and microphones being thrust into his face on a daily basis and with questions asked about his own sexual proclivities that he refused to answer.

He'd shared a tense exchange with John over the phone after the gay pride appearance, asking why he hadn't been told about what they intended to do. John's straightforward response had been that it wasn't any of his business, leaving Paul hurt by this exclusion. He knew that they had every right not to tell him, but this was just another instance of Paul feeling left out of John's life.

After his mate had revealed the true nature of his relationship with George, he had felt that perhaps he and John might become close again. He was beginning to realize that much to his distress, maybe too much had happened between them for their friendship to return to what it had been. It made him sad to think that they would never share the same closeness they had in their youth, that carefree time when making music had been fun and exciting, before fame and all its trappings.

Paul placed his cup of tea onto the coffee table, leaning back against the armchair and staring at the blank television set. He'd convinced himself that after the news of John and George being together had gotten old the press would move onto something else, perhaps even real news, who knew?

John and George's interview on The Dick Cavett Show had put to rest any doubts about them being together but even after that, the media's appetite for the story and all its salacious details had grown tenfold, everyone wanting to know what had been going on between the four of them. Paul absent-mindedly chewed on the nail of his index finger.

There had been another phone call between John and him, not as tense as the previous one but stilted, mostly on Paul's end of the conversation. He had tried his best to be pleasant and had invited John and George over to his hotel suite later on in the week. Paul was in New York with Linda and the girls attending to business matters but also making a small holiday out of it, and he had thought it would be a good opportunity for them to meet up.

He didn't hear Linda walk into the room behind him and it wasn't until he felt her hand on his shoulder that he realized he wasn't alone. He looked up at her, his expression softening. "The girls are asleep?"

She nodded, running her hand down the side of Paul's face.

"They're late."

"They'll be here, Paul," she replied soothingly. "And the three of you can get caught up."

Paul snorted. "All I've got to do is turn on the telly or read the paper to catch up on those two."

Linda tensed a bit at the bitterness in her husband's words but she knew that more than anything, Paul wanted things to be the way they used to. She was not sure they could be be anymore.