I'm Happy Just to Dance with You

~Chapter 43

~*~July 15

School  has been out for a month now. There really hasn't been much to do and the boys are scheduled to leave in a month. I was trying to spend as much time as I can with them before they left.

George and Paul went to the cinema with their other friends and John is always with Cynthia, which broke poor Kaithlyn's heart. Veronica was on vacation and Kaithlyn was visiting her grandmother for the weekend. There wasn't much to do without them so I decide to kill some time at the park.

It wasn't a particularly nice day for the park but I didn't mind. I sat below the tree and redid my headband.  I began to play with the grass when I heard sniffling.

I got up and saw someone dressed in black. "John?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

He quickly wiped away his tears, embarrassed. "What'er ye talkin' about? I'm fine," he said.

I gave him a look that told him I didn't believe him. "John."

He drew a breath in defeat and patted the spot next to him on the branch. I climbed up and sat in the spot. "Today is July 15," he started.

I nodded my head. "Yes, it is," I say.

"It may be for ye and the rest of the world but for me; it's the anniversary of me mum's death," he said.

"Aw, John. I'm so sorry. I never knew," I said as I gave him a hug. It was obvious he didn't like it but I didn't care, I could tell he needed it.

"How could ya," he asked. "I really never talked to anyone about it except for maybe Paul."

I studied the pattern on my dress. Pink and orange and yellow flowers were what I saw as the silence continued to make the atmosphere awkward. "Can't you talk to Cynthia about it?" I asked.

"Nah, she sees me as a brute ted who doesn't give a fuck," he explained. "It would ruin it a bit for her and for me as well."

"I see."

The wind blew back my hair and into John's face. I apologized but he just simply laughed at me.

"Ye remind me a lot of her, y'know," he says. "First of all, yer name is the same as hers."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she had red, beautiful hair that made every other woman jealous, even Mimi! She could make a laugh out of anything. She could be walking out of a burning building and say something like, 'Boy, was it hot in there!'" he smiled.

It made me smile too to see how happy she made him. He reminisced some more before coming back to earth. "She sounds like a wonderful person," I said.

"She was. She really was. That's why reminds ye remind me of 'er. She was always happy and made others happy too. Ye do the same. The first time I met ye, ye were shy at first but ye seemed so giddy when ye came out of yer shell."

I blushed. I remember as if it had just happened yesterday. I was excited to have met people my age on my first day in England. Part of it was that they were older and much more attractive than the rubbish boys in Chicago.

"She was always so kind to everyone too. She even taught me how to play the banjo," he said proudly.

"Is that where you got it from?"

"Yeah, she taught me a lot of what I know now."

There was another awkward silence that I wasn't sure how to get rid of.  "So how long has she been gone?" I ask hoping I wasn't hitting a subject too touchy.

"Er... about two years now," he says.

That was about when I moved here. It must have just been before I came. "Do you mind me asking what happened?"

He shook his head. "A car hit 'er. He was drunk. She was coming back from tea with Mimi and it just happened. Just like that." His voice cracked at the end and I could see his eyes holding back tears that he has been holding back far too long.

"I'm so sorry, John. No one should be taken away in such a brutal way." I place my hand in his shoulder and looked into his eyes. I smiled and opened my arms for him to hug. His tears wet the side of my neck but I didn't mind at all.

"Y'know my dad died a terrible way too," I say.

He looked up and wiped his eyes with that back of his hand. "I'm sorry," he says.

"Don't be," I say. "There was nothing anyone could anyone could do."

"Do ye mind me askin' how?"

"He -uh, had cancer in his pancreas. It's the worse you can possibly get. There was no cure or treatment. He always described the pain in such detail you could almost feel the pain itself. He died shortly before we moved here."

We both looked at each other with an unspoken understanding. We both knew what the other was going through and it had happened almost around the same time.

"Well, it's been fun talkin' with ye, Julia, but I've got places to be" John says like his old self, no sign of sadness as far as I could tell. He quickly hops down from the tree, staggering a bit before walking to the places he he needed to be. He turned around and gave a small smile of thanks and I smiled back in return.

I sat there for a bit absorbing myself in the information about Julia Lennon. I pictured her in my head what she might have looked like. Even in just my mind she was beautiful.

It made me happy that John was comfortable sharing all those things with me. It made me see everything in a whole new perspective.

~**~

I sat on my bed staring up at the ceiling counting how many more days until the lads are off to Germany. I have already marked the date in my calendar.

27... 28... 29 it was depressing me already. I had about a month left but even I know that time will fly faster than we expect.

I'm already missing them.

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DSOCIGNH I'm sosososososososososo sorry about writing my life is so busy with school and I made the basketball team (yey for Lauren)  so practice is 75% of my time and I haven't as much time and motivation as I did but I promise I will make an effort to write more and I apologize for the quality of this chapter it isn't one of my best but I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH