I watched the three boys playing pool from my bench. I was sitting next to George in a cafe. 

  “Thanks for coming,” I said out of nowhere.

  George looked at me with a soft smile. “Nah, thank you Liz.”

  “Why me?”

  “You are letting these annoying asses sleep in yer house every night.”

  “Those asses are not that annoying Geo, I enjoy having your ass around, thank you.”

  He laughed a little. “Don’t mention it, Lizzy.”

  Some seconds later, I spoke again. 

  “They seem to be having fun,” watching John and Ringo play around with their billiard cues.

  “They adore you”

  “Really?”

  “Yeh.. Especially Paul,” he looked at me with half a smile masking some weird dance with his eyebrows.

  “What are you talking about?” I answered nonchalantly.

  “C’mon Lizzy, ya know what I’m talking about.”

  “I really don’t.”

  “I’ve seen how you look at him.”

  “George, I’ve known the boy for like two days.”

  “Yet you know every single detail of his life,” he joked again.

  “Well I’m sure he can’t say the same thing about mine.”

  None of us said a thing for a moment.

  “At least give the fella a chance, I’ve never seen the boy really into someone before.”

  George was totally giving me up to Paul. Did he ever at least like me? I really thought we had something.

  “Maybe I will.”

  “Good,” George smiled, though I could tell something in his look wasn’t right.

   Ringo came to us and left the other two where they were.

  “Ah, I don't think I've had this much fun in ages. We do nothing but touring nowadays,” he said, sitting right between George and me.

  “Aw, well you’re always welcome here Ringo.”

  “Thank you miss, I’d feel like I’m being treated like royalty here if I didn’t have to sleep on the floor.”

  “Well you could sleep next to John now that Paul is sleeping with Liz,” George told him just like that. Ringo turned and looked at me with an expression I couldn’t describe.

  “Hey, don’t look at me like that! He had to come into my room 'cause he couldn’t stand John’s snoring!”

  “Oh, really? I didn’t hear a thing,” Ringo wondered.

  “Me neither, I slept like a baby last night,” Geo added.

  “That’s 'cause you had a bed to yourself.”

  George didn’t seem to care much. He took one of his cigarettes out and offered one to his friend, who lit them with a lighter he had on his pocket.

  From where we were, I could see Paul and John talking to some weird guy I’d never seen before. They all started to play and I could tell they had a little competition going on.

  Oh no.

  “Are they competing with that huge guy over there?”

  “Ah, not again,” Ringo said as if he knew how this all was gonna end.

  “C’mon, let’s take this two outta ‘ere before they make us lose the whole tour money,” George told Ringo and started to walk to the challengers over the billiard table, followed by his little friend.

  When we got to the place where they were with the huge man, he had an annoyed look on his face and seemed like he wanted to strangle John with his hands.

  “You hav’ to pay me or I’mma kill ye, ye bastards,” said the man that looked like a shaved bear.

  “Hey calm down there Danny boy, you’ll have yer money,” John told the man while tumbling and speaking with a cracked voice.

  I went past George, who was just standing there staring at the critical situation.

  “Okay, what’s happening here?” I said and turned to John, who was looking at me and hanging from Paul’s shoulder because he couldn’t stand in his own two feet. “Have you been drinking?” I almost shouted, like a mother the first time her son comes home drunk from a party.

  “it was just a coupl’ of bevviessss,” he said, almost inaudible and impossible to comprehend, though somehow I did.

  The man I presumed was called Dan or Daniel was about to explode. He had this huge vein in his forehead that looked like it wanted to jump off him. 

  “Alright, guys take John home please,” I said to the rest of the lads that were apparently completely sober.

  “Yeh and who’s gonn pay me, lil lass?” the giant animal that once was angry at John now turned all his anger at me.

   “If yer gonna talk to the lady like that, you better kiss me ass first,” shouted John back, trying to defend me somehow.

  “Oh I know what to do with ye ass,” Danny answered. This was bad.

  “Okay, calm down everyone here. George, Ringo; take John home. I’ll deal with this," Paul said.

  “Are you sure, Paul?” Ringo asked with a worried look in his face.

  “Yeh, now go.”

  “You ain’t takin’ me nowhere before I put me foot on his…” you could hear John protesting while being dragged and pulled by the guys through the door.

  “Alright fella, I think we can arrive to some sort of agreement.”

  “Pay me or I’mma destroy yer baby face, you ain’t gonn be so pretty after this.”

  That is pretty much impossible, I thought to myself.

  Paul looked nervous; he took his wallet out of his pocket and started to rummage around for his money.

  “How much do you owe him?” I whispered, though Dan was still able to hear me.

  “20 pounds.” 

  “WHAT?!” I shouted-whispered.

  “Hey, we were winning” 

  “But 20 pounds? Really? You are such dumbasses!”

  “I’m so dead.”

  “How much do you got?”

  “5.” 

  “WHA?!” I wanted to stab his pretty face so bad.  

  And kiss it.

  Shut up inner voice; this ain’t the moment! 

  “John took me money and bought alcohol with it, I didn’t know that.”

  “Alright, let me see what I’ve got,” I said with a sigh.

  I took my wallet out and started to search for money. I only had 3 pounds.

  “Only got 3,” I told him, worried.

  “Uhh okay, gimme that. I’ll see what I can do,” Paul said taking the money out of my hand.

  He walked up to Daniel or Dan, whatever it was, and started to talk to him. I couldn’t really hear what he was saying from where I stood, but I could see he was using his charm to bring him round, and though it seemed like it wasn’t really working for Danny, it was for me.

  His lips moved like if they were born to be perfection and his smile just entrance you without even trying. That’s when I remembered what George had said. With the anger I had over George not liking me, I hadn't stopped thinking about Paul: did he really feel something for me?

  Before I could jump to conclusions, I saw Daniel exploding in anger.

  “I won’t accept any less than what is owed to me, baby face!”

  “Hey calm down fella, we can-“ before Paul could finish the sentence, Daniel went to him and threw him over a table, making some bottles and cups crash to the floor.

  “Paul!” I cried and ran over to him while some employees held Danny back before he could destroy Paul’s poor face.

  Oh, now you arrive. Ok, thank you waiters. Oh, and fuck you.

  When I got to him, he was trying to lift himself from the table, hardly succeeding. Dan had hit him hard. “Paul, you alright?” I said, trying to help him. I offered him my shoulder so he could hang from me.

  “Agh, not that much y’ know,” he said hesitantly, leaning all his weight on me.

  “You have pieces of glass everywhere, let me help you,” I volunteered.

  As I removed the little and dangerous bits of glass from his hair, we were millimetres away from each other; his eyelashes could almost touch my cheekbones. Paul continued to stare into my eyes nonstop. He had this sad face I couldn’t help noticing.

  “What’s the matter? You shouldn’t have to confront that man and you know it.”

  “I just know that I want to kiss you”

  My face reddened, “huh?”

  “Please don’t tell me I said that out loud,” Paul whispered with his eyes wide open. I didn’t know it was possible to open your eyes that much.

  “You wanted to kiss me?”

  “Um, yeah but I can’t,” he said again with his sad face.

  “Why not?” I was half terribly happy and half disappointed. 

  “'Cause of George,” he looked as if he were trying to explain something with his sight, something I understood perfectly.

  I gently shook my head, and tried to find the words to explain to him that nothing was happening with George. 

  I just stared at him and he stared at me until an irritating voice broke us apart.

  “What’s going on ‘ere?! What happened to my cups? Who’s gonna pay for this huh?” 

Great, I thought to myself, another thing to pay for.

  “Do you still have the money you were going to give to Dan?” I murmured to Paul who was standing paralysed besides me.

  “Uh, no; he took the money and then pushed me onto the table.”

  “Ugh, great” I said, more to myself.

  “Um, don’t worry sir; I think we could fix this debt by washing some dishes maybe?” Paul suggested to the irritated man who looked like he wanted to strangle us both. He gave a sigh and spoke.

  “Alright, but them dishes better be bloody brilliant, I better be able to see myself on them” he started to guide us to what seemed to be the kitchen.

  We were given some plates, cups, forks and knifes to clean with some detergent, a soap and a sponge. He also left a broomstick next to the door so we could later sweep the pieces of glass that were scattered all over the place.

  Paul and I started to wash the dishes and couldn’t help but play around a little bit. We were splashing each other with water and he had this adorable grin in his face that made my knees weak. He looked like a little kitten.

  After we ended all our work, the owner of the place set us free and we went home. We came across George and Ringo that were waiting for us in the kitchen.

  “Paulie! You’re alive!” Ringo exclaimed on joy to see that his mate came back in one piece.

  “Yeah, sort of,” George added when he saw the state Paul was in. His hair was a mess and he had scratches all over his face.

  “How’s John?” Paul asked not minding his friend’s comments.

  “Asleep, the poor soul threw up a little on the bathroom and headed to bed.”

  I looked at Ringo with a disgusted face, “ew.”

  “Oh don’t worry love, I’ve already cleaned it,” Ringo said with an understanding smile. Man, I loved that little person. “Thank you,” I said, relieved.

  “Don’t mention it miss, now why don’t we all go to bed?” He suggested, I saw Paul taking an aspirin behind me. Poor soul, his head must be aching.

  “Yeah, I’ll take a shower and go to bed right now,” I left George and Paul in the kitchen and Ringo and I headed to our bedrooms. I whispered goodnight to him and went to shower. When I came back to my room, Paul was there in my bed, deep in sleep, he didn’t even take his clothes off. The poor boy must have had a heavy night.

  I went up to him, took his shoes off and then lay at his side, caressing his hair till I fell asleep too.