Shelter In Your Love (Beatles Fan Fiction)

8. For You Only

Just call on me when you're lonely,

I'll keep my love for you only,

I'll call on you if I'm lonely too.

'Hannah?' George said. I stopped looked back over my shoulder at him, surprised to find him only a couple of steps behind me. Lost in my own world, I must have not heard him. 

'You've only been here a day,' he said. 'You can't have that much to pack.'

I blinked at him, not understanding.

'Why don't you come back and wait at ours for Minnie? They won't have gone far in this rain, so it shouldn't be long.' 

It was just about the only civil thing he'd said to me all day. I hesitated then as the rain appeared to be falling even heavier now, I nodded, 'Okay then.' 

George led me back to where he and the others were staying. It was at the top end of the street, at the back of the club they'd started off in, The Indra. The entrance was off the street, through a rotten looking wooden door and down a narrow corridor. 

'Welcome to the pit,' George said drolly, shrugging his jacket off as we arrived. Underneath he had the same black shirt on that he wore the night before, half buttoned over a black t-shirt. George hung his jacket on the back of a wooden chair to dry off. 

'This is my room, and John and Stu's,' George explained, sweeping his arm across the bedroom, if you could call it that. It was a small box of a room with a tiny window at one end. Three small beds arranged in a U shape took up most of the space. 'Paul and Pete share a room next door,' George continued. 'Stinks, doesn't it?' he said and smiled when I nodded in agreement. 'The club's toilets are just there,' he said, pointing out the door. 'That's why.' 

'That's the club you were playing in?' 

'Yeah, but there's a woman who lives above here and some other people who live over there. They were complaining about the noise, so we moved down to the Kaiserkeller and they turned this place back into a strip club.'

George picked some clothes up from the bed at the far end of the room and pulled the grey blanket that covered it straight. 'Sit down, if yer like,' he said, tossing the clothes on to one of the other bed. 'Do you want a drink?' 

'A drink of what?' I asked, sitting down on the bed. There was a half empty bottle of whisky on the floor, next to one of the other beds. 

George followed my eye-line and laughed. 'I was going to have a cuppa tea, but you help yourself. It's a bit early for me.' 

'Tea would be good, thanks.' I smiled, unsure. He was being absolutely horrible before, now he was offering cups of tea. I was still feeling shocked by what he'd said to me earlier. I'd never seen that side of him before. He was always so... so nice back in Liverpool. I supposed he thought himself a man of the world now. Two months away from home and already too big for his boots. 

George knelt on the bed next to me and I drew back, uncertain of what he was doing. He opened the small window behind me and cold, damp air rushed in as he leaned out to retrieve a bottle of milk from the other side of the window ledge. 'Think it's still alright,' he said sniffing it as he closed the window again, and got off the bed. 

George made me a cup of tea in white tin cup with chipped enamel. I wrapped both hands around it, relishing the warmth. I hoped Minnie wouldn't be long, although she'd probably be perfectly happy to stand around in the rain. I knew what she was up to. She thought that if she stayed away long enough, made me wait for her with George, then we'd end up making up again and we could stay in Hamburg. Well, she was wrong. If I hadn't made my mind up this morning, I definitely had after our little heart-to-heart.