I sat at one of the middle tables of the food-court with my three best friends. We had already been at the mall for a few hours but now just got around to eating. Hearing my tummy rumble with food pangs, I stabbed my Panda Express orange chicken and brought the heaping forkful toward my mouth. Well apparently I didn't stab it hard enough, because a huge piece of chicken fell off the fork onto John Lennon's face.
"SHIT!" I exclaimed in horror. My friend, Skylar, who sat to my left, snapped her head over at me.
"What is it, dude?" I looked down at my favorite Beatles shirt to show her the orange stain on John's face.
"Oh my god, he looks like freaking Snookie now!" The whole table chuckled at my joke but I was genuinely upset. I wanted to cry but then I remember the old saying: "There's no use crying over spilled chicken." That's how it went, right?
My other friend, Jamie, who sat diagonal from me, rolled her eyes at my dismay.
"Come on, Kim, it's just a shirt. I'm sure the stain will come out." She assured me. Everyone else nodded in agreement with her, but I was still pissed off.
Even though I was still a little cheesed, I decided to go on with my lunch. I paid extra close attention to the food on my fork, as to make sure I didn't fuck up my shirt anymore. My friends all thought I was crazy for caring so much about it, but even if it is just a shirt, I still feel bad in a way for screwing up any of the Fab Four's faces. And another thing my friends don't understand about me. I love The Beatles with all my heart and they just don't get it. All they know is that the Beatles were a pop group from the '60s and that their crazy friend is obsessed with them. Don't get me wrong, I am crazy, but my friends don't even try to give them a chance. All I'm saying is give Beatles a chance!
Sorry, off track. Anyway, back to my friends. Skylar was the only one who seemed to be open minded about it, but still. She was way too into My Chemical Romance to give two flying shits about any other band. And then for Jamie, it's unfortunate to say, but she's a hopeless 'Belieber' and you just… you don't get through to them. Ever. Then there's Sarah. She just err, she is, let's say, a little slow. I love her to death, but she just isn't the brightest crayon in the box. She can't understand any music deeper than the profound lyrics of Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok'. Yeah…
As our group lunch started to close up, Sarah watched my Beatles' Abbey Road t-shirt with deep interest. I finally realized that she was staring at it and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Sarah… why you checkin' out my boobs?" Jamie and Skylar both cracked up while I kept my line of vision on Sarah. She snapped out of her deep thought and looked up at my face.
"Oh no, it wasn't that!" she blushed. "Um, I was just wondering, why do you like the Beatles so much? I mean that one in the middle has a big nose and the other one has bushy eyebrows. They're kind of ugly." My jaw dropped and I pulled my jacket over my shirt, but the other two seemed to get a kick out of what she said.
"Ugh, they are not ugly! You don't know what you're talking about. And you want to know why I love the Beatles so much? Four words: Sir James Paul McCartney."
I'd heard enough of my friends so I took out my beloved iPod touch and stuck my headphones in. I rejoiced when I turned it on to see a sweet picture of a background of Paul McCartney on John Lennon and George Harrison's shoulders. A goofy smile spread across my face as I pressed the play button on my current favorite Beatles song, 'Every Little Thing'.
I guess everyone had been watching me go through my little process, because I looked up and they were all smiling at me. I took one headphone out and narrowed my eyes at them.
"Kimmy and Paulie sittin' in a tree…" Skylar teased me. The blood rushed to my face. I tried ignoring it, but Jamie then continued it for her.
"K-I-S-S-I-N-G…" she poked.
"First comes love, then comes marriage…" Sarah kept going. Then they all joined in for the last line.
"THEN COMES A BABY IN A BABY CARRIAGE!" The group sang with glee. I stood up from the table and shoved my chair in. I grabbed my drink and headed toward the trash can just to get away from them. But before I left completely, I turned back to them and stuck up my middle finger.
"I hate you guys!" I rang with a smile. They giggled and made heart shapes with their middle fingers.
"WE LOVE YOU TOO, KIMMY!" I rolled my eyes at them and then turned away.
As I neared the trash area, I walked past one of those dark hallways that randomly branches off at malls. I have no clue why but when I walk anywhere I always tend to walk along a wall. Don't know why, I just do. I feel exposed if I walk straight down a hallway.
So any who, I was walking along the wall and as I walked past the creepy, random hallway, a hand extended out and grabbed my arm and pulled me in. Frightened, I dropped my half full Dr Pepper all over the floor. I let out a little shriek, 1) for the soda, and 2) for the fact that some stranger just pulled me into a dark hallway and that I could be raped or murdered within the next few seconds.
"Look what you've done now, ya twit! You made this nice, young lady drop her drink!" a charming, British accent came out of nowhere.
"Well how was I supposed to know I would make her drop her soda? I'm just trying to find us some help or direction." Another British accent spoke, only this one a little thicker.
I still couldn't see anything so I questioned who was there. A lower voice than the other two spoke.
"I'm sorry, miss, we just seemed to have gotten a tad lost and just need some help." My face twisted a little.
"That sounds strangely like the whole 'I've lost my puppy, can you help me find it?' story." I joked. The three men I had already heard talk plus a new voice started murmuring. They sounded strangely familiar.
"What the hell are you talking about? What puppy are you referring to, miss?" Just as I was about to explain, my phone vibrated in my back pocket.
"Sorry, excuse me one moment." I opened my phone to a text from Skylar.
Guurl where'd you go? We were only jking… ):
I rolled my eyes and snapped the phone shut. There was a mumbling among the men.
"What's that vibratey box thing you just pulled out?" One of them asked. I pulled my eyebrows together and slowly replied.
"It's my phone…"
"But there's no wire." I started getting a little smart-alecky.
"Dude, it's a cell phone! Heard of 'em?" There was no response.
The phone vibrated again, causing one of them to jump and hit my hand.
It was like slow motion. I saw my phone flying through the air and proceed to land splat in the middle of the soda puddle.
"Son of a…! Oh god, no! I just got this phone!" My hands fidgeted as I tried to find my phone in the dark.
"Look what you've done, Ringo! This girl…" After I heard the name Ringo, everything all of a sudden made sense. The witty replies, the accents. Only it didn't make sense. It can't be them, can it? No! Two of them are dead! I quickly got back up with my soda-soaked phone. Thankfully the light on it still worked. Slowly, I raised the phone up in front of the four men's faces. As the light shone on their faces, I recognized each one. Right in front of me stood George Harrison, behind him, John Lennon, behind him, Ringo Starr and then right behind him Paul McCartney.
Out of shock, I ended up dropping my phone again.
"Look, you've scared her with your face Ringo!" John quipped. While they all bickered a little bit, I regained my stability and picked my phone back up. I put the light back up to them and stared in disbelief.
"Y- you guys are the Beatles!" They glanced at each other and nodded. "But that's impossible! How are you here?" John's eyes narrowed.
"What do you mean, here?" I paused. What do I say? I can't just be like 'Oh yeah, two of you are dead.' Obviously they're not! They're all here, young and alive. So they must have somehow gotten here from the '60s… It made no sense but it was all I could think of.
Paul stepped up from behind Ringo and put his hands on my shoulders. Holy shit. Paul McFreakingCartney is freaking touching my shoulders.
"Now miss, if you could please just tell us, where the hell are we?" My jaw dropped as I thought of what to say.
"Guys, you're in the year 2010."