smooth sailing ~ paul mccartney - discontinued

~ twelve ~

;

almost a week had passed since louisa had first been grounded by her dad, it was friday night and usually she would be hanging out with her friends at the casbah but alas she was at home in her room, reading a two month-old issue of vogue her cousin had given her; she received a subscription and would sell the magazines to louisa once she was done with them at a discounted price.

it wasn't too long past ten the last time louisa checked the clock, which was at least an hour ago, but tiredness had not yet hit the young girl, especially as she was so used to being out late on friday nights. she threw the magazine down lightly on her bed beside her and sighed, staring blankly at the wall in front of her.

it wasn't long before she started to here some sort of tapping sound on her window. furrowing her brows, she looked out and saw john stood on the side path next to her house, a handful of small stones in his hand.

"alright hunt?" he asked, grinning.

"what're you doing, lennon? my dad would flip if he knew you were here!" louisa whispered down to him.

"i'm rescuing you! jade told us you were grounded so i'm here to pick you up. now hurry your arse i haven't got all night," he said.

"fine! just let me get changed you twat!" louisa quickly ran to her wardrobe and changed into a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, what her mother called boy's clothes. she threw on her black boots and ran back to the window, sliding it up and stepping out onto her ledge carefully. still with great care, she scaled down the tree beside her end-of-terrace house, greeting john down below.

"that was some fantastic acrobatics lou," he said monotonously as they walked to the car.

"thanks, i've had plenty of practise," she responded, opening the passengers side to his car and stepping inside.

"so how are you and our paulie getting along?" john said slightly teasingly once they were both inside. george had let everyone know about the scene he had walked in on over the weekend and no one had let paul hear the end of it.

"well..." she took a long pause before continuing, "i don't know."

"how do you mean?" john asked, furrowing together his bushy brows.

"i mean, i'm having fun but... well i don't know if that's all it is, just a bit of fun. i know how paul is and all," louisa replied.

john nodded slowly. "i know why it must seem that way, i mean i love the guy but he's got quite the record when it comes to the amount of girls he's slept with but he's never been this way with a girl before," he began, "and i mean he's had a crush on you for a good two years almost."

"really? why would he have a crush on me? he always seemed to hate me, i mean i certainly didn't have any interest in him before recently," louisa said honestly.

"because you were always yourself, louisa. paul wasn't. he always kept you at an arms length by acting like this shallow, sex-crazed guy to you, which he's not. whereas you've always just shown him louisa, the louisa everyone else knows and loves. the way paul acted to you was just a front, i think he felt a bit threatened by the fact that you could put him in his place and he didn't want to show you any sort of weakness."

"but what if that's why he's interested in me?" she asked, "what if he just likes the fact that i'm a challenge to him and that i don't fall at his feet whenever he snaps his fingers?"

"i mean that was probably part of it, no guy in the long term likes a girl who'll just chuck herself at him. but look, you're not giving him such a hard time anymore and he's still stuck around so, i'd say he's pretty serious about you."