Lyrical Love Letter

“Ow,” Juliette groaned clutching her head. Waking up in an unfamiliar bed had woken Juliette up enough to sit upright abruptly which quickly induced the hang over of the year. The room was spinning and distantly Juliette realized she was still buzzed as light seeped through the closed blinds making her squint. “Ow.” She mumbled again, unable to make out anything else. After a moment of clutching her head and realizing she was relatively okay. No stab wounds: Check. No handcuffs: Check. No Jail cell: Always a plus. Clothes: Whoops…It was then that Juliette realized there was a sleeping body next to her. The single stream of sun light that managed to shine through the blinds made his lip ring glint in the light and even while nursing a hang over Juliette knew that she should know this person. “Wake up.” She ordered with a grunt as she nudged him lightly with one hand while the other clutched the blanket to her naked chest. “Wake. Up.” She nudged twice for each word. It was then his name dawned on her. “Mark.” The name on her lips was wrong and her eyes furrowed in response. “No that’s not it.” She mumbled to herself as she sat quietly deep in thought as she searched for his name, meanwhile ‘Mark’ continued snoring lightly. “Matt” She grinned happily at the revelation. “Matt,” She shoved him once. “Matt wake up.” When she received no response she shoved him harder and Matt rolled off the bed and onto the floor. “Oops.”

“Umph.” Matt moaned from the floor as he slowly lifted himself to his feet. “What the hell?” he questioned peering at Juliette through squinting eyes. “Oh shit.” His eyes went wide as he took in Juliette’s form. “Alex is going to kill me.” He mumbled under his breath but Juliette hadn’t herd.

“My brother is going to kill me.” She ran a hand through her tangled locks. “Kill me! Me. Murdered. Dead.” Her eyes landed on Matt. “Declan is going to kill me!”

“Inside voices.” Matt whispered as he rose on unsteady legs and began gathering a collection of clothes off his bedroom floor. “Why is he going to kill you?” Matt asked while shimmying into his boxers.

“I’m not supposed to sleep with anyone...or get drunk.” A frowned creased her lips. “Last night was a bad idea.”

“Why?” For some reason Matt knew that it was deeper than Declan being an overprotective brother. There was a story to be told here.

“The last time I got drunk, I got arrested. The last time I slept with someone it was with Chelsea’s boyfriend.”

“Woa!” Matt’s head snapped to Juliette, an action he instantly regretted as his head pounded in time with his heart beat. “You slept with Chelsea’s boyfriend. Chelsea as in Chelsea Dawson.”

“It wasn’t my finest moment, alright?” Juliette snapped back defensively. “And I’d prefer it if you didn’t go around announcing that to everyone, especially my cousins since Chelsea doesn’t know.” Matt nodded slightly in response,

“I won’t, I promise.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way but I don’t exactly trust that just now. You know, seeing as how your friends with people like Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat.”

“Jack?”

“Jack can’t keep a secret to save his life. I don’t even know why I told you,” Juliette grunted in an after thought as Matt tossed her purple tube top to her. “I’m still drunk I think.” Matt disappeared from the room leaving Juliette to survey her surroundings. Clothes were scattered haphazardly across the floor, a Blink-182 poster had been tacked (unevenly) upon the white wall, and the calendar on the wall had nearly every day written on. Juliette walked across the room to better examine the calendar.

Thursday- Call Diveto’s and lock in gig.

Friday Play Artie’s.

Every Saturday of the month had been crudely written ‘band practice.’ While Sunday’s were always blank, a free day of sorts.

Monday Pick Katy up from Lacrosse at 4.

Tuesday Take guitar to repair place.

“Hey.” Juliette turned only to find Matt directly behind her, a Tylenol and glass of water in hand.

“Thanks.” She mumbled taking them from him. Juliette glanced up at the calendar again, “You’re really busy.” She commented as she turned away and headed back toward the bed. “Are you always that busy?”

“Pretty much. I mean, pretty much as long as I’ve known Alex anyway.”

“He must be a pain in the ass to deal with, especially as a manager.”

“Not really,” He gave her a sidelong glance and Juliette’s eyes flickered to his as though she had said something wrong. “Alex takes his music seriously. He’s not really that hard to handle as long as you’re steering him in the direction of a guitar. Jack on the other hand…his ADD kicks in and he’s impossible to find. He’s in a million places at once.” Matt chuckled and Juliette laughed quietly, she could picture Jack running around venues getting himself into all sorts of trouble. “So…” Matt drawled slowly and Juliette’s eyes shot up to him. “You really hate Alex don’t you?” There was no joking edge in Matt’s question and for some reason it made Juliette seriously consider her reply.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “He’s insufferable 24/7.”

“ ‘I don’t know’ isn’t really an answer,” Matt said gently. “It’s a yes or no question.”

“It’s really not.” Juliette retorted with a bitter laugh. “He annoys the hell out of me but I don’t hate him…yet anyway. He’s working his way up there though.”

“He only does it to get a rise out of you, you know that right?”

“No I don’t.” She replied evenly. “Alex gets a kick out of cracking jokes at my expense. He has no idea what I’ve been through.”

“What have you been through?”

“Forget it.” She snapped defensively as she crossed her arms over her chest. Juliette reached for her jeans and shimmied into them easily. She walked hastily across the floor and grabbed the one shoe there before she hobbled to the other side of the bed to grab the other. All Juliette wanted to do at the moment was get as far away from Matt and his questions as possible. As Juliette made her way to the door a single sentence stopped her dead.

“I suppose this is a bad time to tell you that Alex gave me a note to give to you then, huh?”