"George, Poppy, this is my girlfriend Iris." Paul introduced her proudly making my blood boil. Girlfriend? Did that mean that not only did she break my relationship up but cheated on Paul?

She smiled sweetly making me realize she hadn't recognized me as the girl she'd ruined the relationship of only weeks ago. I stood there staring at her for a moment in disbelief unable to say anything because of my anger. I heard George mumbled a quick hello looking slightly crestfallen.

"Poppy?" Paul called taking my attention away from Iris.

"Hm?" I hummed in response completely blanking out for a moment.

"This is Iris." He repeated slowly unsure if I had heard him the first time.

"Oh, of course. I'm Poppy Epstein." I replied, forcing the most unnatural looking smile on my face to keep myself from tackling her onto the floor and starting a fight. Her eyes scanned over my face as if she were trying to fit puzzle pieces together. I stood awkwardly hoping she wouldn't recognize me and make the situation even more unbearable that it already was.

"Erm, Pardon us, but George and I really need to go outside for a moment, right George?" I looked over at George pleadingly wanting to tell someone about Paul's two faced sweetheart.

"Oh, right, yeah." George's played along, his eyes lighting up happily, his spirits seeming to lift once again. Without taking a second look at the two I grabbed onto George's hand and this time it was my turn to drag him out to the backyard.

Once we had pushed through the crowd I took a moment outside to take a deep breath of fresh air looking out in the night sky to try and clear my mind, breaking away from George's hand to cross my arms in attempt to keep myself somewhat warm in the sleeveless dress.

"I believe a chat was promised Madame?" George asked innocently making me giggle.

"It's about Paul." I spoke nervously becoming serious making his face fall annoyedly.

"Oh." He mumbled moodily suddenly taking an interest in his shoes.

"Actually, its about that blonde skag with him." I added grumpily, making him perk up once again and eyebrows furrow in wonderment.

I sighed feeling a headache starting to form from all the memories of my relationship with Micheal starting to flood back tearing my insides apart.

"Remember back at the pub, when you asked if the band was the thing that was bothering me?" I swallowed hard, hesitant to open up so suddenly to George.

He nodded intently, encouraging me to to continue. I felt my jaw tighten in spite of Iris, she looked so happy with Paul inside, it wasn't fair for her to be with him one moment then off with another guy the next.

"Well, the singer was a boy I used to go out with." I pursed my lips thinking for a moment how I was going to continue in a way I wouldn't completely lash out.

"That is until I caught him with another girl. The same girl that Paul has his arm draped around in there." I choked out fighting hard to keep back the tears burning in my eyes, looking down at the ground after seeing George's jaw drop open slightly in shock.

"How long ago?" He asked after a moment of thought.

"The begging of December." I huffed attempting to hide the quiver in my voice running a hand through my hair.

"She cheated on Paul?" He spoke surprisedly making me look up to him with watery eyes, barley phased by his sudden realization, instead only infuriated for Paul. I could never understand why people cheated on their partners, it could never end well for anyone.

"I guess so." I spoke miserably letting a single warm tear roll down my frozen cheek.

It was as if I were some sort of curse not only making myself miserable but bringing everyone around me down as well. I'm sure if I had never seen Paul and Iris together they would've stayed together then broken it off sooner or later without Paul knowing anything about her unfaithfulness, but now I only saw fit that he should know, it wouldn't be fair to him going further into this relationship blindly, not knowing the kind of girl she really was.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his eyes locked into mine as I looked up to him, watching him as he looked at me with concern etched across his face as though he wanted to protect me. I nodded forcing a small smile to assure him I was alright, but in my head I kept replaying the awful moment I'd caught my boyfriend of two years who I thought I loved with Iris, seeming to not have a care in the world as they kissed and danced slowly together, their bodies on one another's in such an intimate way that you would imagine they were two young kids in love. I sniffled and shivered as a gust of winter air blew past the two of us, sending cool air down my back and arms and I turned away from him, tightening my crossed arms.

George must've noticed because he took leather jacket and placed it on my shoulders making my whole face heat up. If this one one of those clichés so many people tried to avoid, I could only ask the question why. The simplest act of care made my heart rate shoot through the roof.

I turned to George slowly and looked up into his eyes, just now realizing how they glimmered with something I'd never seen in anyone else's before.

"Can I be honest with ye'?" George asked nervously. I nodded slowly watching him take a deep breath and release it shakily.

"I-I couldn't see why anyone would do what yer' last bloke did to ye'," he paused, his eyes inching their way down to my lips. I watched wide eyed unsure of where this was heading.

"I've never felt this way about any other bird. I really like you Poppy, and, I would never do anything to hurt ye'." He spoke quietly making me suddenly forget about everything that had previously weighed heavily on my shoulders.

Suddenly all that that mattered in that moment was that George and I shared feelings for one another and I'd never felt happier. His hands cupped my face delicately and brushed away the tear gently, as if I would break if he wasn't careful.

Slowly he leaned in, closing the gap between us and placed a soft kiss on my lips, which I returned instantly in pure bliss. Electricity shot through me as our lips moved in sync, almost seeming to be meant for one another's.

George brought his arms to my shoulders, then slowly lowered them to the small of my back, pulling me in closer to deepen the kiss, and I put my hands around his neck, suddenly feeling much more courageous.

The kiss was unlike any other kiss I'd ever shared with anyone before, there was so much passion and chemistry with George, it seemed almost frightening how right it felt considering I hadn't even known him for that long.

"Epstein and George!" John yelled and we heard cheering coming from the back door of the house. We broke away from each other quickly both extremely embarrassed seeing John, Paul, Ringo and Pete standing outside clapping their hands together.

"Oh shu'rup John." George spoke extremely embarrassed and bothered. John put up his hands to claim innocence as the rest of them tried to suppress their giggles.

"It's about time, a couple more days and I would've had to duct tape his mouth shut. Oh, Poppy looked so lovely today, I wonder if Poppy is single, do you think Brian will be mad if I ask Poppy out?" Ringo spoke mockingly leading George to stride over to him and push him back inside, disappearing indoors after him most likely to tell him off.

Paul sent an okay sign and winked over exaggeratedly before heading back indoors followed by Pete who seemed to be tipsy, stumbling his way back inside with a grin. I smiled and shook my head, Paul's sudden outburst from the other day hadn't been a joke as I suspected, all the guys must've known how he felt.

John's sly smirk sent a sudden thought shoot through my head almost giving myself a heart attack. I gasped and covered my mouth with red cheeks.

"You're not going to tell my uncle, are you?" I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to hide my heated cheeks with my hand. He look smugly at me, contemplatively tapping his finger on his chin in jest, making my stomach churn uncomfortably. Who knows how long I'd be grounded for if he'd known I'd just kissed one of his "clients". Maybe this time he'd even send me off to a boarding school. It was difficult enough to convince him that the boys were responsible enough to make sure I'd be alright at this party, but now that I had kissed George, the one boy he'd suspected least to be up to any sort of mischief, this was bound to end badly.

"What's in it for me?" He smiled largely, sending a jolt of annoyance through me.

"How about, I don't break my foot up in yer' arse?" I smiled with insincerity, making his eyebrows shoot up challengingly.

"That's some chat for someone as young as you ain't it?" He mocked me making me roll my eyes.

"You're only four years older than me." I whined making him chuckle. For a moment I wondered if having siblings was similar to this.

I had never gotten the chance to know what having a brother or sister was like, but I've seen it before and for only a millisecond I felt as if John was like an older brother. He noticed my expression change and tilted his head in confusion.

"I'm going inside." I spoke quickly walking past him inside back into the overheated house, if John knew that thought had ever even crossed my mind he wouldn't let me forget it.

My eyes wandered around the room to land on the most ironic couple, Minnie and Rory, being unable to keep their hands off each other on his couch, surrounded by rowdy drunk teenagers all of which were too loud for my comfort, making me cringe slightly.

"So your friend and my lead singer?" Ringo asked coming up beside me, so obviously having just escaped from George as he looked back in paranoia.

"I suppose so." I spoke disgustedly switching my focus to the bright blue eyes drummer.

"I know I was joking before, but George really does like ye'." He spoke pausing to take a sip of his beer. "He's a really good guy y'know." Ringo assured me making my cheeks redden.

"Yeah, he's a really sweet lad." I smiled down at the floor thinking of the kiss we'd shared before we were so rudely interrupted by John.

"You must be a pretty special girl." Ringo said softly making me blush further, something that I'd been doing a lot of lately.

"Oh I wouldn't say that Ringo." I shook my head with my nose scrunched.

"You can call me Richard, or, Ritchie, Ringo's only my stage name." He smiled warmly and I nodded feeling very welcomed by the only one of the boys I could be at eye level with, him being around the same height as me measuring up to 5"6'.

"Well, Ritchie, I couldn't really say I know what you mean. I'm probably the most normal person I know." I spoke shrugging. Not that I knew a lot of people of course, between school and work I barely had time for a social life at all. Richard chuckled lightly shaking his head.

"I have to admit meself, there is something about you that other birds aren't like." He smiled.

"I'm unnecessarily sarcastic? My unwillingness to shriek in joy at the sight of musicians? My lack of ladylike behaviour? Take your pick." I joked making him laugh.

"You're strong," Ringo concluded. "I've never before met a bird that could give John's wits run for their money before you." He smiled brightly, filling me with a sudden sheepishness.

But how strong I needed to be, wasn't clear until only weeks later.