If I Fell│John Lennon/Beatles FanFiction

Chapter 6 - 14.May.1960

Chapter 6

May 14, 1960

I slipped through the back door of Lathom Hall, my arms filled with bags of food. Enough to feed an army. I made my way through the ill-lit hallways toward the room I hoped held the boys as they waited for their set.

Fumbling with the door handle, I finally grabbed the damn knob and twisted, pushing the door forward. I almost fell into the room as I clutched the food like my life depended on it...I knew how they got about their stomachs.

The room was tiny and smelled of smoke. Someone was strumming a guitar and John was shouting at someone. Typical.

"What the bloody hell do you mean you didn't bring yer drums?" John stood in front of Tommy Moore. They stood almost nose-to-nose, John's breath coming out in exasperated huffs. The new drummer simply shrugged.

John closed his eyes and threw his hands in the air, turning on his heels as he stalked away from Tommy. Allan Williams, the boys' new unofficial manager, suggested bringing Tommy on board, and he'd only recently started playing with the boys. John was already livid from an incident a few days prior when Tommy had shown up late to an audition, forcing them to play with a drummer they'd never played with before. The man they were auditioning for, Larry Parnes, had requested to hear the band without Stu. John simply refused. "We're a group, all or none. That's the way it is," he'd said. The audition hadn't gone well, but I'd gotten some decent photographs.

I didn't know much about Tommy, and he didn't seem to want to know much about me. He looked older than the boys and never seemed happy to be playing with them.

"Well, the fuck are we gonna do now?" John said, turning toward Tommy again. "We're on in an hour."

"Settle down," Tommy mumbled, his eyes barely meeting John's. "I'll go see if I can borrow drums from one of the other bands."

"Yeah, you go do tha." John's hand went into his hair, and his fingers gripped the ends. He was proper livid, so I avoided him. He mumbled something that sounded like, "Dead from the neck up, that one."

Paul and George sat on a pair of wooden chairs, their feet resting on a small, wobbly coffee table. Stu brushed his hair in front of a cloudy mirror, a cigarette dangling from his lips. It was George who spotted me first.

"Finally," George mumbled as his feet hit the floor, and he pushed himself out of the chair. He came toward me, pulling the food from my arms and depositing it on the table. He was dressed identically to John, Paul, and Stu, all in button-down black shirts and slim-fitting black jeans.

"Alright, Liv?" Paul muttered as he raised his eyes to meet mine, but they fell quickly again as he strummed his guitar. A chunk of Paul's hair fell forward, covering his forehead.

"Hope the food isn't bloody cold," I said as I pushed my fallen hair out of my face. "Sorry it took me so long to get 'ere. Completely plastered couple wouldn't leave at the end of me shift."

I'd gotten my job back, and I suppose I was happy about it since my father seemed to be appeased. Or maybe that somehow made me want to slap someone to get fired again. I couldn't be sure. It had taken a day of begging and a fortnight of probation, but Harry took me back, and I'd been working my arse off trying to impress the bellend.

John's face softened only slightly when he saw me. "Find the place all right?"

The boys were originally supposed to have a gig at the Casanova Club. It was only John's frantic call to the restaurant two hours earlier that had informed me of their location change. Something about someone being double-booked, and now they were to do a live audition. I'd never heard of Lathom Hall until I had to find my way there with an armful of food.