- 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓕𝓪𝓶𝓲𝓵𝔂 -

Chapter 11: Hold Me Tight

"George," Paul began, kneeling in front of his eldest son. "George, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see me smoke weed in the backyard."

George looked down and silently played with the fuzz on the carpet. It was a Saturday morning, and John and Paul decided to have a little talk with him about what transpired the night before.

"And I'm sorry you had to see me use heroin," John said. "It must've been an unpleasant scene."

Their son kept his silence.

"We were being hypocrites, we know that now." Paul gently inched closer to him. "But we got mad at you because...because we didn't want you to turn out like us. We didn't want you to struggle with addiction, just like what we're going through right now. We were just trying to be good parents."

"Do good parents smoke weed and inject themselves with heroin?" George spoke coldly. "Well, do they?"

"Oh, George," Paul whispered, leaning in closer to give him a hug, but George backed away. "George, I'm sorry, but your father and I...we just couldn't help it. Things were getting difficult, we were running out of new ideas for our songs-"

"We felt that we had no other choice," John cut in.

"No!" George suddenly yelled at them. "That can't be your excuse!"

"George, please understand that your father and I weren't in the right state of mind at the time," Paul pleaded.

George shook his head and frowned. "I can't believe you two. I can't believe you two!"

He rose up and walked out of the room, leaving his parents to wallow in their worry.

"Oh dear." Paul chewed on his fingernails. "What have we done?"

"Our son hates us." John shook his head.

"Shall we go to the other one who doesn't?" Paul sighed.

John nodded, and they both went over to Ringo's room to have a nice little chat with him about whatever George said the night before.

"Why was George going on and on about drugs and all that nonsense?" Ringo questioned. "What are drugs anyway?"

"Er, well, you see, drugs are..." Paul bit his lip and turned to John. "Should I tell him?"

"D'you think he's ready for it?" John tilted his head to one side.

Paul faced Ringo and said, "You'll learn about drugs when you get older, so just don't think about them for now."

"Oh," Ringo murmured with a hint of disappointment. "Alright."

Paul peered at his rosy round face and  his cute comical nose, and he bent over forward and said, "Hey, Ringo, do you mind if I hug you for a second?"

"Okay, Mummy." Much to his mother's delight, the little cherub collapsed into his open arms and nuzzled his face in his chest. Paul made sure to savour this sweet moment, for he was sure that in a few years time, Ringo would soon turn into a gangly teenager like George, and the bouncy, innocent little boy he was holding in his arms now would be gone forever.