The Night Before

17. Fixing A Hole

The first half of the next day was grueling for Monica. Paul and Ringo were both avoiding her and she had no one else that she actually wanted to talk to. They didn’t go anywhere for most of the day, so she just sat by herself while the others talked amongst themselves, and she was silent at breakfast and lunch while the others made conversation with each other.

Ringo was mostly quiet and he didn’t make any effort to hide his moodiness. Paul on the other hand was being strangely upbeat and friendly to everyone other than Monica. At one point George approached Monica and pulled her away from everyone.

“What did you do to Ringo and Paul?” He asked, once they were out of earshot.

“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”

“Well that can’t be true, Paul hasn’t spoken to you since yesterday and Ringo is obviously in a terrible mood.”

“How do you know that’s my fault?”

“Because when either of them is upset it nearly always ties back to you.”

“Well it doesn’t matter, I can’t tell you anyway.” she said, looking at the ground

“I know you kissed Ringo.”

Monica’s eyes widened and she looked up at him, “How do you know that!?”

“Well first of all I was there, I sleep in that hotel room too.”

“I didn’t see you.”

“I was in the bathroom, and had just taken a shower, so I heard what happened and also I talked Ringo through it a bit after you left.”

“What did you say to him?”

“Well, he was talking about giving up and he said he felt stupid for thinking he could win you from Paul and blah, blah, blah, you know how dramatic he gets, but anyway, I kind of encouraged him to keep trying, I may have inflated his ego a little along the way too.”

“Dammit George you caused this!”

“How?”

“you gave him confidence!”

“And that's a bad thing?”

“Well he was being a little over confident and I had to shut him down, maybe I was a little harsh, I don't know, but he won't even look at me now.”

“So why is Paul mad?”

“I told him I wasn't ready to move in with him.”

“Why?”

“I don't know… I'm just…” She tried to think of a reason but George cut her off.

"It's because of Ringo!” he said triumphantly.

“No… no it's not.” she said unconvincingly

“Whatever you say.” George said with a smirk. “Anyway, we are going to a club tonight, so be ready.” and with that he walked away and sat down with everyone else.

Later that night they all went to the club. Monica sat on the side of the room watching Paul dance. She saw Ringo sitting at the bar by himself.

She decided she would try to get Paul to talk to her. She walked over to where he was dancing. “Mind if I join you?” she asked nervously.

"Yes." He said without hesitation.

Monica shook her head with irritation. “Why are you being like this?”

“I'm not doing anything.”

“Exactly! Why won't you be my boyfriend?”

“Because it doesn't seem like you want me to be your boyfriend.”

“Of course I do!”

“Well you don’t show it.”

“Why? Because I'm not ready to move in with you?”

“Exactly, shouldn’t we be trying to move forward in the relationship? Because if we aren’t moving forward then what are we even doing?” He started to raise his voice.

“I just think we are good where we are.”

“Well I don’t! I think we should have some kind of future and if you won’t make an effort toward that then maybe we shouldn’t even be together!”

Monica’s eyes widened sadly, “You don’t mean that.”

“I do, so you need to figure out what you want, because I can’t keep playing this pointless game with you anymore.” With those last words he turned around and walked away.

Monica felt like she could cry. She didn’t want to lose Paul, and she already felt like she’d lost Ringo. Normally after a fight like this he would have been the first person she went to but she knew he was still mad at her.

She thought for a moment about what she could do, she didn’t feel like spending her night alone at the bar, she needed someone. She didn’t want Ringo to hate her forever, so she figured it was time to apologize to him and make things right. She made up her mind and stood up to go find him. She walked around to the bar where she had last seen him but he wasn't there.

While she was looking she ran into George, “Where is Ringo?” She asked him.

George responded, “He went back to the hotel, said he wasn’t feeling well or something.”

Monica nodded and turned around to leave. She thought about finding him at the hotel and remembered what had happened last time she had been in that room with him. She paused, What if something happens? She shook her head and kept walking, she wasn’t going to let something happen, she just wanted to talk, that would be all.

_______________________________________________________________

This chapter is a little rushed, sorry.