Baby's in Black (Beatles One-Shot)

Here, There, and Everywhere

Jessie smiled toothlessly and slightly rolled her eyes. "Hi, John."

John smirked to himself a little, glad at the fact she remembered his name. John was one of those boys girls could never forget, no matter how hard they wanted to and no matter how hard they tried. When Jessie began walking again, ignoring John, he started to pedal his bike to catch up to her.

"Where are you headed off to?" He asked, looking over at her with a grin. She giggled.

"My home. You?"

"The same." He paused. John's chocolate eyes locked on Jessie's for a moment, but she suddenly turned away silent. "I can walk you home if you'd like." He muttered, hardly in her direction. Jessie stopped for a moment. John did as well, and wheeled his bike onto the sidewalk. He walked over to a thick tree with yellow and orange leaves and leaned it against its trunk.

"Don't you need that?" Jessie questioned. John shrugged and stuck his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket which he wore over his school uniform shirt.

"Ah, I'll get it. Don't think some pri- kid would steal a bike." He chuckled. But Jessie wasn't sure if that was true based on the behavior of young men she'd seen in Liverpool so far.

Her mind wandered to the question John muttered before. About walking home. She never got the chance to answer him. But she assumed it didn't matter anymore because here she was, walking next to him in the way to her home.

"Where d' you live?" John asked suddenly, glancing over at her. Jessie perked up the slightest.

"Um, Mendips."

"Really?" Jessie nodded as John grinned. "Me too." He said.

"Oh? What street?" She asked in reply, looking from her nails to his eyes.

"Menlove. Avenue." He responded promptly.

"Me too!" She laughed just a bit and glanced over at the rows of skinny trunked trees that lined the sidewalks. The leaves at the bottom were a light green, and as she looked up the tree, they turned to beautiful shades of yellow and orange that seemed nearly translucent and soaked in the little sunlight. Her moment of tranquility she found in the trees was suddenly cut off by John's voice.

"How long have you been in Liverpool for?" He questioned, trying for polite conversation for once.

"Me? Just, uh, the end of last spring and over the summer." She said, putting a strand of her golden hair behind her ear.

"And why'd you move?"

She froze. She hadn't really told anyone. No one had asked. Should she make something up? Jessie had always told herself she'd come up with some kind of excuse in case someone asked her, but she never did. She kept walking, silent. She sighed a bit and decided to tell him anyway.

"Uh, my mum... Well, she kind of passed away. And my father's family is here in Liverpool. I, uh, used to live in London."

John replied without hesitation.

"Me too."

"What?"

"My mother died too, I mean." He said, looking straight ahead of him. Before she could say anything back, he continued. "We were never close."

"Oh. I'm sorry, John." She said back, then focused on her feet.

"I live with me aunt, actually... They, uh, they never really... got along well. We were all kind of closer near the end of her life. It was actually nice. But then..." His voice suddenly trailed off.

Meanwhile, Jessie wasn't sure how to respond. So, she just gave a simple "Yeah." in reply as they walked onto the sidewalk of Menlove. Some girl in her front yard leaned over the fence in her front yard and smirked at John.

"Surprised you're not taking the roof of a bus home, Lennon." She said. John just put on a wide, taut smirk of his own and shook his head a bit walking off.

Jessie suddenly stopped in front of her own home. "Um, this is my house." She said, smiling the slightest as John whipped his head around with a grin. He walked backwards, a little farther to the house right next to hers.

"And this is mine." He threw his hand up in the air in a wave.

John Lennon. That teddy boy. That so called troublemaker. And now, that new London girl's neighbor.