John/Ringo: He's Leaving Home

It was 5:00 o’clock in the morning, with the tiniest amount of sunlight peeking through the windows of the hotel room. Everyone was sleeping soundly, except for Ringo, who was wide awake. He had been awake for quite awhile, thinking. He had been pondering something for such a long time, and he now knew his final answer.

Ringo sat up in bed, careful not to wake John. George and Paul were soundly asleep in the second bed. He carefully arose from his bed and tiptoed across the room towards his suitcase. He pulled out some clothing he figured wouldn’t make him too recognizable and through it on in a rush.

The man stared at himself in the mirror. His eyes were red from the extensive amount of tears he had cried during his brain storm. He couldn’t believe what he was doing, but dammit, he knew it had to be done. He walked away from the mirror, not wanting to look at his face any longer.

There was a pad and pen on the counter. Ringo grabbed the pen and began writing a note. He figured he might as well pour his feelings out on paper before departing. As he wrote, his mind wandered through the memories that were causing him to leave...

- - - - -

“Alright boys,” Paul said, grabbing a notepad, “let’s think of some songs we could cover for the album?”

Ringo grinned. “Well, how about ‘Boys’? Oh lordy, lordy how I love that song.”

John rolled his eyes. “What are ya, some kind of fag?”

“Um, no...” Ringo muttered, looking away.

- - - - -

“Dammit Ringo, this ‘Helter Skelter’ take was seventeen minutes and you jacked up the last drum solo!” John shouted, his arms crossed and his face filled with complete disgust.

Ringo blinked. “Sorry John, I thought I had it-”

“Oh, you thought?” John sneered. “Well, next time you should know!”    

Paul put a hand on John’s shoulder. “Be easy on the little guy, would ya, love?”

John sighed, simply turning his back to Ringo.

- - - - -

John had been on Ringo’s case for as long as he can remember. They were such great friends, but he didn’t know why John had started acting like this. And to top it all off, he seemed to be... ‘engaged’ with Paul, and Ringo didn’t like that one bit. He just wanted John to like him, why couldn’t he see that?

He finished up the note, a single tear falling next to his signature. He sat the pad on the corner of the counter, hoping one of the men would notice it.

Ringo turned around to look at them one last time. He waved to the bed across the room. “Goodbye, Paulie... goodbye, Goergie...” He then headed over to John’s side of the bed. He leaned down and hesitantly kissed John’s forehead. “Goodbye, Johnny boy... I love ya...” John’s face scrunched up for a moment, then went back to its blissful, sleeping look.

Ringo picked his suitcase up off the floor and took one last look at the boys. A couple more tears slid down his face as he opened the door and quickly shut it behind him.
   
Ringo was leaving home, for he had overstayed his welcome.