The Singer and the Bookworm | J.P.M

Chapter Five

Paul's POV

Violet. It was such a pretty name.

As soon as Paul ducked beneath the curtain and made his way towards the other lads, he slapped his forehead with his palm. He had messed up so badly when trying to catch her from falling; she probably thought he was a complete freak.

After greeting John, George, Stu and Pete, Paul reached for some of the music sheets he had left backstage in case of emergency. They were going to be performing a couple of rock and roll covers, along with a song called I Saw Her Standing There written by Paul himself and a couple more of the bands' own songs. He hummed the tune to George's song Chains and tapped his foot as he reached for his bass guitar. They were scheduled to go out on stage within two minutes.

For some reason, Paul was feeling nervous tonight, and he didn't usually feel the slightest bit of anxiety before performing at the Cavern. Perhaps it was something to do with Violet watching. He shook the thought away as well as he could and eventually followed the rest of the band onto the staged area.

He instantly spotted Violet sitting at the bar with a glass of water and a fairly short boy with a large nose and sad-looking eyes on her left. He felt a sudden pang of jealousy.

What the hell, Paul? his subconscious said to him. This girl was just some random bird he had tried to save from slipping on ice earlier. That meant absolutely nothing. In fact, she had seemed to dislike him.

But already she seemed different to most girls he knew. For one, she wasn't throwing herself at him. She didn't really seem particularly interested in him at all. Heck, though, she was beautiful, in the way that somebody who doesn't know it is beautiful. She walked and talked and acted as though she didn't think much of herself, and it broke his heart.

Whatever happened, he knew he had to find out a little more about her.

He heard the opening chords of Twist and Shout and began to play.

***

Violet's POV

Ringo was right – the band's performance was wonderful. They played some incredibly catchy songs they had written themselves, as well as some covers. Her favourite of the latter had to be Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley; their rendition was perfect, and and as a fan of him herself she found herself humming along to the lyrics.

Paul's voice was something else. He held so much passion within each note, and playing his bass guitar on the Cavern Club's stage he looked so at home. She decided that he was going to be destined for a career in rock and roll music.

It turned out that John was incredibly talented too, and so was George, Stu and Pete. Ringo leaned over to her during a song and semi-shouted in her ear, "I really hope to audition to be a drummer for these guys soon."

"You should definitely go for it, Ringo!" she encouraged. Ringo was an extremely skilled drummer.

She could barely take her eyes off of Paul. What was a boy like him doing talking to a girl like her? She wanted to hate him... but he was so polite. And so gorgeous.

She almost could've sworn she saw the faintest flicker of a smile appear on his face when they made eye contact a few times. Almost.

Thank you for all the lovely feedback lately - keep it coming! I have a lot of ideas for the story so I hope you guys are enjoying :)