I Wanna Be Your Man

Chapter 18

"Wait, so where's John?" George asked after a few more minutes of driving through bad traffic.

"Yeah." Ringo said. "I thought we were taking him home as soon as they finished taking the pieces of glass  out. What happened?"

Paul shrugged. "He's not coming." He wanted to show that he didn't care, even if he really, really did.

George and Ringo both just stared at him. Paul stopped at a red light. After a few seconds of Paul not elaborating, George broke the silence.

"Christ, Paul! Why isn't John coming home with us?! Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine." Paul continued to speak in a bored voice.

Paul kept staring at the road. "I'm just trying not to think about him right now. I never want to again. I'm done with him."

"What?" Ringo asked confusedly. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Apparently he's been sabotaging all of my relationships because he's jealous. And pretty much every terrible thing that has happened lately had been his fault."

Paul turned his head to the back and expected George and Ringo to be surprised, but they just looked out the window awkwardly.

Paul narrowed his eyes, and looked back at the road. "So you guys knew he was ruining my love life, did you? And you didn't care enough to tell me?"

Ringo and George didn't respond.

Paul scoffed. "Whatever. I guess I can't be mad at all three of my friends. Then I'd be alone in the house, and you know I don't like being alone."

George's head suddenly whipped around. "Wait, you mean-"

Ringo interrupted him. "You mean, you're not letting John come home?!"

Paul scoffed again. "Definitely not. Just let him go back to living with Aunt Mimi. Or let him move into a motel and be with a bunch of slimy women. He'll be very happy there."

George and Ringo both looked at Paul confused. Women? It occurred to them that Paul apparently had thought that when John said he was jealous, he had meant of him, not of the girls he was with. He thought John had ruined all of his relationships because he wanted to be with the girls, but George and Ringo knew better.

Ringo and George were both about to say something to Paul, but then looked at each other and nodded. They decided it was best for John to tell Paul his true feelings. They rode the rest of the way home in complete silence.
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John sat up clenching his hair for a few minutes after Paul left. He called himself an idiot over and over, pacing around the room. He finally gathered himself together, put on his normal clothes, and walked out of the hospital. He couldn't see Paul's car anywhere, so he assumed he left without him.

John walked down the long path home. This was the bad part of town, and was full of dirt, trash, and generally grimy people. This made John slightly uneasy. It was also kind of cold outside, and John was shivering. Once, John tripped and fell face first into a pile of mud. He got up quickly, and tried to wipe off as much mud as possible. Then, he continued walking. There were empty, dirty cans all over the street and sidewalk. John walked past some of them, but then found it was more fun to kick them around. He looked up once while walking, only to estimate that he still had 15 minutes left of walking.

After a few more minutes, John heard a whisper coming from far in front of him. He stopped suddenly, and whipped his head all around to look for the source of the sound. He didn't see anything, so he kept walking and kicking. Then, when he walked a little further, he heard a deep voice laughing to the right, down the alley.

John's eyes widened, and he bolted to the left towards the street and away from the alley. He screamed for help, but nobody else was outside. He heard heavy feet pounding behind him, getting louder and louder. He tried to run faster to get away, but he still felt a little sore from the operation.

He quickly felt two giant arms wrap around him, and after a few seconds, he was dragged in the alley. He was thrown to the ground against the wall. He looked up to see about 10 really ugly, really buff men cackling at him.

One of them spoke. "So, buddy. Thought you could go shouting in the street and somebody would come to your rescue?"

Another guy laughed. "You're going be a big man someday."

John did his best to seem unafraid. "And let me guess." He raised an eyebrow. "I have mud all over my face, and I'm kicking cans all over the place?"

All the men went quiet. "What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." John snarked sarcastically. "Is this not some dumb club? The Making Subtle But Not So Subtle Future Song References Club?"

All the men stood there confused. "Huh?"

John laughed and shot his hand across the top of his head. The guys just stood there confused. John stopped smiling. He did the motion again.

"You know?" He raised an eyebrow. He did the hand going over the head motion one more time and explained it to them. "It's a motion you do when something went completely over someone's head. Usually when it's a person with low mental capacity."

The guys continued to stare blankly.

"You know?" John shrugged. "I'm saying you're dumb."

The guys suddenly understood and all started snarling simultaneously. John's pretended he wasn't scared.

"Geez guys. Calm down a little. Be as calm as I am." John smirked.

"No! We don't take orders from you! You need to not be so calm!" One of the guys suddenly shouted and spat in his face.

"And why is that?" John flicked the saliva off his cheek. but inside he was trembling from fear.

The guys laughed. "Because we're going to rob you and then beat you."

John shrugged. "Doesn't sound so bad."

One guy stepped closer to him and grinned. "Clearly you're not from this town. We're the Bimkis gang. I'm Bimkis."

John couldn't hide his fear now. His eyes widened. He had heard of this gang. He tried to pretend he didn't know them. "And what difference does that make?"

The guy laughed, and John felt his putrid breath on him. "It means that we're going to rob you, and then beat you. To death."