A/N: This is how I think, in the movie, the song "With a Little Help From My Friends" should have gone. Lyrics for the song are in italics. Some lyrics are spoken by Max and Jude, others are just out there. Warning: slash. Don't like, don't read. Also, this is my first fic ever, so be easy on me. My beta was the spell check on Microsoft Word, so all mistakes are mine.
"Well, Jude," the blond American, Max, said, sticking his cigarrette in his mouth, "as a stranger to our shores the least I can do is offer you some Ivy Leage hospitality." He rummaged around in his pocket, taking out a flask and tossing it over.
Jude caught it. Why not? he thought. Make a friend while I'm here. "Cheers," he said, and swallowed the alcohol down.
Five minutes later and he was in "the Nursery" as Max had called in, being introduced to all of Max's friends. He was sat down on a couch and Max handed him a can of beer.
"What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song and I'll try not to sing out of key. Oh, by with a little help from my friends. I get high with a little help from my friends. Gonna try with a little help from my friends…"
Soon the joints were being lit and passed around. Jude, relitively new to the wonders of marijiana, listened to the guy next to him – Chris, was it? – explain how to hold it in. He coughed, already starting to feel the buzz. He watched Max walk over to the huge black and white poster of Bridgitte Bardot hanging on the wall.
"What do I do when my love is away?"
"Does it worry you to be alone?"
"How do I feel by the end of the day?"
"Are you sad because you're on your own?"
"No, I get by with a little help from my friends. I get high with a little help from my friends. Gonna try with a little help from my friends…"
They journeyed out to the roof of the building and Jude got to see first hand why those other guys had been chasing the gang this afternoon. They didn't like the broken window any better the second time around.
Jude whooped and laughed along with Max, running down the halls of nighttime Cambridge. The party had scattered during the chase, and somehow they had ended up on their own. It was a while before they slowed down, not hearing the sound of pounding footsteps behind them anymore. They stood, trying to catch their breath, in a seemingly deserted part of the college. Jude leaned against the wall – alcohol and drugs and running wasn't a very nice combo. Max seemed to have the same idea, but somehow missed the wall and landed flat on the ground.
"Fuck!" he cried, and Jude burst out laughing. Max was sprawled on the ground and couldn't get up.
Jude held out a hand. "Do you need anybody?" he asked with a laugh.
Max grinned, taking the offered help, and Jude hauled him to his feet, still giggling. But suddenly they were standing way too close, barely inches apart.
"I need somebody to love," Max almost whispered, answering Jude's question. Jude's breath caught in his throat. He was really too high and drunk to be thinking properly and Max hadn't let go of his hand and he really shouldn't be doing this and how had he not noticed how insanely blue Max's eyes were?
"Could it be anybody?" he asked. This was so wrong, what was he thinking? He wasn't queer, couldn't be, that was disgusting, he fancied birds…
"I want somebody to love," was all Max said. Jude's spinning thoughts brought him back to their initial meeting, just this morning…I hardly know him! Jude thought. But there had been a reason he had helped the stranger pick up his dropped papers…
"Would you believe in a love at first sight?" Jude asked. His brain was making him stall as long as possible. This is a stranger and another bloke for fuck's sakes and hadn't his mum warned him that people were strange in America?
Max grinned that easy grin of his that Jude had already come to expect. "Yeah, I'm certain that it happens all the time." He stepped closer to Jude, their chests touching. A wild fluttering assulted the Englishman's stomach. Max's fingers – they were still holding hands, why were they still holding hands, Jude had helped him up ages ago, seconds ago – intertwined with Jude's and squeezed gently.
Suddenly, the lights in the corridors flickered, and the spell was broken. Max stepped back, laughing again, not serious anymore, and their hands drew away. Then the lightbulb shorted all the way and the two were left in the pitch black, Max cursing at their luck.
Jude, unable to see anything, reached a hand out blindly in front of him. "What do you see when you turn out the light?" he asked. His fingers found something soft, Max's hair, he reckoned, but Max stopped him before he could pull away.
"I can't tell you, but I know its mine," Max replied, and suddenly the connection between them was back, stronger, as if they'd never been interrupted in the first place.
Jude leaned forward and his forehead collide painfully with Max's but in his drug-induced haze even that didn't jarr him back to reality. After a few more akward seconds, they finally got the angles right, and…
Kissing a bloke was nothing like kissing a bird, first off. It was like dancing, and two people trying to lead just didn't work. Jude felt rough scatching on his cheeks from the other man's stubble. Max tasted of cigarrettes and alcohol and, beneath that, something else entirely, sweet like strawberries.
Just as he deepend their kiss, trying to get more of that taste, the light flashed back on. Startled, the pair jumped apart. Max put his hands to his head, a nonchalant expression on his face, and Jude stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket.
Stumbling footsteps warning them of people approaching – it turned out to be two of Max's friends, Chris and some other guy. "There you are!" They exclaimed when they found them. "We've been looking for you everywhere, Max. We were planning on going out to Jimmy's Bar, pick up some girls, but we'd lost you."
"Nice, man," Max grinned. He turned back to Jude, looking for all like he hadn't just been kissing him thirty seconds ago. Like picking up girls was the only thought on his mind. "You coming, Jude? They have pool and everything."
"Uh, yeah," Jude stammered. "Sounds fun."
"Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. Get high with a little help from my friends. I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends…"
They spent a good portion of the evening at Jimmy's Bar, but neither Max nor Jude picked up a girl. Others in their group certainly did, leaving in turns during the night. And girls were lining up left and right to chat with the foriegner – apparently a Liverpudlin accent sounded sexy to the ears of eager American girls.
"Do you need anybody?"
"I just need someone to love."
"Could it be anybody?"
"I want somebody to love."
Jude couldn't help but notice the glances Max kept throwing him during the night and into the early hours in the morning. He would be laughing at some pointless joke, look up, and see those blue eyes staring at him. Jude didn't know if he wanted those stares and debated the options of abstaining from the influences the rest of the night or just get sloshed. His final decision was to keep to the minimum – he was already loose enough to let a bloke kiss him, enough to kiss Max, to like it – what the in bloody hell would he do totally off his head?
With that resolution, Jude kept a sharp eye out – well, relitivley sharp – for any more foolery on Max's part, but the American didn't approach him again. At some point they left the bar and found their way back to the Nursery, and had another round of window golf. Luckily, by this time, everyone was way too drunk to hit a window, and they all missed. Jude thought that was a good thing, because he couldn't walk straight anymore, let alone outrun five enraged men.
"Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends. I get high with a little help from my friends. Yes, I get by with a little help from my friends…"
The couch, or the floor next to the couch, in Jude's case, was the final resting place that evening. Morning. Jude's eyes finally slipped shut just as the sun's first rays were streaming in through the window. It lit up the room, shining on five bone-tired men, sprawled out across the living room.
"With a little help from my friends…"