Midnight Auto Supply

Chapter 4: Much Ado About Music

"What's this, then?" Pauls' foot scuffed by carefully curated box of tapes and CDs, all intended for this old piece of junk.

We had only been driving for an hour total, after stopping for gas and a map, and while the boys had been talking amongst themselves, I had tried to remain focused on the road, as I am, of course, a responsible driver. But apparently not responsible enough to get rid of the music that was there. 

"Um, it's music. Sometimes I play it in the car." 

"Music, you say? Mind if I have a look?" He didn't really mean to ask it as a question, as he just went straight for the box. My mind raced. What would he do if he saw himself on a record that hadn't been released yet? How was I supposed to explain that to him? What if they didn't agree? I didn't want to be the one to fuck up time completely.

"I do mind, actually." Fuck, that came out aggressively. They already thought I was a colossal bitch, and now I had to be even more of a bad cop. Paul turned and looked towards me, and considering that this was the first time that anyone had spoken above a small mutter, heads were turned.

"Oh. And why's that?" Paul leaned forward, and while he was trying to convey genuine curiosity, you could tell he was annoyed. 

"Um. Ah, fuck, it's hard to explain. Well, basically, uh-" Shit, shit shit. To explain this sort of thing, I had to seem sure of myself. 

The rest of the group peaked over the seats and I could see them in the back mirror. 

I sighed.

"I guess I should get this out of the way early, but I don't want you to accidentally listen to any future music. That, y'know, you wouldn't know about in the 60s." 

They still didn't say anything, almost like they were processing it. 

"Well, basically every movie or TV show that I've seen, which is all I have to go on right now, says that people from the past learning about the future is, like, not good. And I really don't wanna accidentally fuck time things up or anything. Uh, sorry," I rubbed the back of my head with my hand like I did when I was embarrassed.

"Hm," was all George had to say.

"Why's it bad?" Paul finally asked.

"Well, okay, like, and this is just hypothetically, say you learned now that the queen had died or something." 

John snorted.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, just, the queen? Really?"

"Well I don't know how much fuckin' history you know. Anyway, let's say that you found out that the queen died or something and then you went back to your time. You'd have to live with the knowledge of her death, when she would die, and how it would happen. You might do some things differently, and of course you wouldn't know it because they hadn't happened for you yet, but I would know because I'm here. History would go differently, and, um, that's usually not good." 

"Are we going back to our time?" Ringo asked softly. I felt a small pang of guilt.

I bit my lip in thought as Paul nested himself back into his seat. 

"Yer bleedin'" he commented.

"Hm?" I tore myself out of my thoughts as Paul looked dead at my lips. I felt the blood trickle down to my chin. 

"Oh, shit," I wiped across my mouth with the back of my hand.

I hated this. I hated that everyone was watching me.

"Um, well, I don't want to promise anything, but I do know that as long as you're with me I am going to be trying my damn hardest to get you back. Y'know, it'd be bad if you went back knowing about the queen's death, but it'd be worse if you didn't go at all."