- 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓕𝓪𝓶𝓲𝓵𝔂 -

Chapter 10: Bad Boy

After a week, George finally came home, much to the surprise of his family. Paul nearly hugged him to death, John scolded him for running away on such short notice, and little Ringo gave him some welcome-back candy as a gift.

"Oh, George," Paul sobbed, his arms still tightly clamped around his son's torso. "Oh, George, we were so worried about you. Why did you have to do it? What got into your head?"

"I just needed a break, that's all." George put his hands up in the air. "Calm down, Mum, it's not like I was kidnapped or anything."

"Well, you could've been!" his mother sniffed. "Don't go running away like that again, is that clear?"

Paul examined George's features just to make sure that nothing was out of place. He checked his hair, eyes, nose, lips, cheeks-

Cheeks.

"George," Paul began. "George, dear, you've got pimples."

"Yeah, so what?" George rolled his eyes.

"Have you been stuffing yourself with fast food?"

"I dunno, maybe," George drawled. "Who cares?"

"Hey, I smell something." Paul scrunched up his nose. "Is that...is that weed?"

George pursed his lips and was about to make a run for it when John grabbed his arm and said, "Stay where you are, young man."

"Have you been doing drugs?" Paul demanded. "Don't lie to me! Have you?"

Ringo, cowering in fear, clutched his elder brother's trousers and whispered, "George, what's Mummy talking about?"

"Ringo, go upstairs and play," John said. "This is grown-up talk."

"But I wanna stay and listen-"

"Go upstairs, Ringo." John raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fine," the little boy muttered, trudging reluctantly away, but this didn't stop him from eavesdropping at the top of the stairs.

"Well?" Paul tapped his foot. "Have you been doing drugs?"

"...Yes," George mumbled, looking down at the floor.

John and Paul both shook their heads in disgust.

"You're grounded." John wagged his finger.

"For a month," Paul added with an approving nod.

"A month??" George exclaimed in disbelief. "But that's far too long!"

Paul pointed at the stairs. "Go to your room, young man."

George shook his shaggy mane and stomped his way up the stairs, grumbling, "This is bullshit, this is all bullshit."

"Language!" John yelled after him.

"This is all bullshit!" their son countered in defiance before slamming his door shut.

Paul slowly sank down into a chair and buried his face in his hands. "What is happening to our children?" he whispered, his voice trembling. "Tell me, John, what is happening to them?"

John didn't know either, and he could only stand there and rub his dear husband's back in a soothing manner.

Paul lifted his pale face up. "George is turning into a drug addict, Ringo wants to go around and assault people with a hammer...oh, John, I just can't take it. What am I going to do with them? Have we been raising a pair of criminals all this time?"

Later that night, as the four Beatles were having their supper, Paul still couldn't get over the fact that his eldest son George was doing drugs. He made this quite evident by guilt-tripping George with words like, "I did not wait nine whole months just to give birth to a pothead like you." and "If you like weed so much, maybe I should just feed it to you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, everyday, for the rest of your life!"

The more he guilt-tripped George, the angrier George got, and at one point, the surly teen just couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and banged his hands on the table.

"Do I have to remind you that I am not the only one who uses drugs in this family?" he spoke firmly.

"W-What are you talking about?" Paul stammered, dropping his utensils. "George, sit down!"

"Oh, don't lie to me, Mum." George narrowed his eyes. "I know that you smoke weed in the backyard whenever Ringo isn't around to see you."

"I-" Paul stared at him in complete and utter horror. "George!"

"And you get a big bang out of doing it too, don't you?" His son pointed at him. "Don't you!?"

Paul immediately hurried over to where Ringo was sitting and covered his ears. "Ringo, don't listen to your brother. Don't listen to anything he has to say. It's all false-"

"And you." George pointed at John. "I've seen you inject yourself with heroin a few weeks ago, when Mum was out shopping for groceries, so don't act all innocent and tell me that you're clean because you're not! You're all bloody liars, all of you, and it sickens me! It sickens me to death!"

Upon hearing this, all the color from John's face had been drained, his skin turned pale, his eyes grew wide with panic, while Paul sobbed in shame and cradled poor Ringo, who was also on the verge of tears. George, seeing that his family was afraid of the things he knew, turned around and ran up to his room.