⇾ 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅𝐅 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 | 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐈

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Where Are We Going, Boys?

December 31, 1961

"Miss Epstein? Donna?"

I was on a little couch in the corner of NEMS. It was way too early for my liking, and after being up late the previous night, I was too tired to think straight. John had woken me up for perhaps the third or fourth time in the past ten minutes.

"What is it?" I asked irritatedly.

"Oh, no need to get worked up," he said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

I curled myself into a tighter ball, pulling my blanket around me. "When are we actually going to leave?" I asked.

John shrugged. "Soon, don't worry, ma douce Donna," he added with a smile when he saw my doubtful look.

"What are you guys doing anyways?"

He shrugged again. "Just a few last minor details. Brian's got someone driving us down there, so we're mostly waiting."

"But—." I frowned. "I want you to go with us," I said warily.

John shrugged with a smile. "I don't make the rules."

"You should look into doing that sometime."

He laughed. "I'll give it a shot. I gotta go back there again," he said. "They think I'm in the bathroom." He winked.

"You're ridiculous."

He shrugged and bent down to kiss me on the forehead. "Go back to your sleeping."

I nodded. He left and I closed my eyes, only to be woken up again thirty minutes later, this time by Brian.

"Ready to head out?" he asked.

"Where's the others?"

They're with their driver," he answered.

I nodded warily. "Alright then." I stood up and dragged myself out to the car.

"Would you like some breakfast?" asked Brian as we settled in his car.

I nodded. "Very much so."

I looked at my watch and saw that the time was 8:30 on the dot, the exact time Brian had wanted to leave. Everyone had decided that since it was New Years Eve, a night on the town might be a nice touch to the trip, so we had decided to leave early enough to be able to do something once we got there.

The drive was as long and slow as every other drive I'd taken in the past month. I spent most of it asleep again, only waking up every now and then when we hit a bump in the road and look out the window or listen to the radio for a few minutes before dozing back off.

We got there at about one in the afternoon. Brian and I waited outside the hotel for the rest of the boys to show up, but after an hour, they still hadn't showed. By this point, Brian was frantic, fearing the worst possible circumstances that could delay their arrival.

"What if they're lost and they never show up?" he asked for the seventh time.

"Oh, Brian," I said, lifting my head off my hand long enough to look at him. "I'm sure they'll be here soon. Maybe there was traffic or something."

He sighed. "Maybe we should just go on up to the room. We'll watch out for them from up there."

I nodded and opened the door, letting in a rush of cold air. I proceeded to put my jacket back on, realizing I had taken it off at some point, and Brian and I unloaded our stuff, checked into our room, and lugged it upstairs.

"Do they—y'know—happen to have the number for this room to—maybe—call us?" I asked.

Brian frowned. "We didn't have one."

I nodded. "Well—." I sat down on one of the twin beds. "I'm sure they've got an excuse. A good one," I added.

He sighed. "I hope you're right."

I looked down at my notebook that was sat in my lap. I'd finally finished my short story I'd been writing. I was actually pretty happy with how it had come out, to put it simply.

As if on cue, Brian started questioning me about it. "Hey, did you finish whatever you were writing the other day?" he asked, sitting on the foot of the bed, opposite me.

I nodded vaguely. "I did."

"Mind if you get your first reader?" He grinned.

"I—uh—well—sure, I guess. I mean...it may not be that good, but—."

"Oh, just hand it here," Brian said, extending his hand with a laugh. I leafed over to where it started and handed it over.

"It's kinda lengthy."

He shrugged. "Well, that's alright."

I nodded as he began to read through it thoroughly, seeming to take in every little detail.

It wasn't anything intricate. It was a fantasy story I'd come up with about a little girl who found out she could see into the future. She kept it to herself and used it to her advantage as long as she could before her grandmother found out. her grandmother helped her hide it, knowing no one would bid well with it, what with it being the 17th century.

If anything, the concept alone could have turned into a whole novel, and I'd even considered that, but I'd need a bit of a bigger notebook to do that.

After a long twenty minutes, Brian looked up at me and said nothing.

"Did you—?"

"Donna, that was amazing!" His face broke into a huge smile.

"Really?" I asked excitedly, my face flushing red.

"Yes, yes, yes," he said. "It's brilliant. You know," he added hesitantly. "This could be something you could do in the future." He grinned. "I just know someone's going to like this."

I nodded, sighing deeply in relief. "Thank you, Bri," I said.

He shook his head. "It's all you, kiddo." He looked off a moment, thinking. "How about we pay a little visit to the family?"

I nodded. "I'd love that."

He smiled and stood, putting on his jacket. "Well, come on then!"

~~~

The Beatles showed up at 6:30 that evening. It seemed their driver, Neil Aspinall, had gotten lost somewhere along the way and had to turn the car around, causing them to arrive way later than it should have been. No one really seemed to be thrilled about it.

We still made it out to eat at a reasonable time, leaving after everyone had explained themselves and taken their stuff upstairs. The boys were in the room beside us and before we had left we got a whiff of just how thin the walls really were as we heard them all yelling happily that chant I'd heard so many times before.

"Where are we going, boys?"

"To the toppermost of the poppermost, Johnny!"