Lyrical Love Letter

“Where the hell have you been?” Alex demanded as the group approached the Dawson house. Missy and Jack were sitting on the porch when they arrived, side by side, their elbows touching. A gesture Juliette was sure that only she noticed.

“We ran for it man,” Jack explained easily. “I took Miss back to my house. None of you were home.”

“Yeah we were busy bailing these guys out of jail.” Zack stated jabbing a finger at their recently freed friends. Alex eyed Missy, not overly convinced with the story Jack was feeding him and Missy knew this wasn’t the last she’d hear about it.

“Come on,” Rian said ushering them all into the house. Everyone but Matt Young and Logan who had gone home flooded into the Dawson house.

“Juliette, J, what’s wrong?” Missy questioned alarmed when she spotted the girls tear stained faces.

“We’re getting to that.” Declan told her as they filed into the Dawson’s living room. They took to the couches but Declan, Juliette, and Jonnie didn’t feel nearly comfortable speaking about the matter they would talk about in such a blasé easy going matter. So they chose to stand, to pace. “To understand the things that are biting us in the ass now. you have to understand what caused it.”

“J, never got along with her parents-“

“I can tell it.” Jonnie spoke up quietly. “They divorced when I was just a little girl. I felt like I grew up so much faster than everyone else my age. My parents were divorced, I endured countless days in court over the custody battle. I spent countless days listening to my parents scream and say things I would never dare. I hated that I wasn’t allowed to be ignorant to it all. I lashed out. Even when I was little I was disruptive in class, I fought with the boys on the play ground, I cursed at my teachers.” She looked at her feet; she hated telling this to people. Her new found friends didn’t know the shadowed past of Jonnie Posen. Not the full story anyway. Telling them—she was afraid they would see her differently. “When I got older it was silent, more deadlier ways of acting out. I did pot when I was younger—like twelve or thirteen and it escaladed. I was always out looking for the most shock worthy thing to do. I switched hands when I was sent to live with my father in L.A after my mother gave up on me.” She laughed bitterly. “Los Angeles—land of trouble.” The bitter laugh slipped from her face. “I got pregnant when was fifteen,” She murmured quietly. “with a drug dealing gang member for its father.” She whispered. “By a series of events I had a miscarriage, something I still carry with me to this day. After that I was sent to boarding school for two years and my father kept a closer eye on me. He never knew about the baby but he knew enough. After he found out I was sleeping with one of his clients—Matt, he sent me back to New York.”

“Jonnie didn’t turn a goody goody into a troublemaker,” Juliette began. “I was already there.”

“As was I.” Declan added.

“Granted, we didn’t do nearly as bad of things as J did in L.A. We had a taste for speed as you witnessed tonight. We raced, we gambled, we partied, in secret. To the world we were the polite and elegant Baraklow Twins, destined to be some of the richest unknowns in Manhattan.”

“Six months before we came here Jonnie, Declan, and I got in a car accident after a drag race. It left one of the kids in a coma for weeks, it totaled our cars and any trust our parents had in us.”

“My mom had this boyfriend. A real dirtbag, he used to throw me around.” Several faces in their small audience stiffened, blind anger in their eyes as Jonnie continued. “I ran away. I couldn’t go back to my father so I tracked down Bip and Bop here.”

“Tonight wasn’t the first time we were arrested.” Declan interjected. “After the rave, after the car accident, after getting arrested—it’s no wonder our mother abandoned us here.”

“What does this have to do with right now?” Missy questioned quietly.

“We made a promise to more people then I can name that we would never race again. You can’t fathom the trouble this could get us in if my father is informed of what happened. He’ll tell Renee, he’ll tell Collin, he’ll tell powerful people.” Jonnie stated. “Matt…He was a lot of things to me, he was my protector for a long time. In thanks, I sent my father a demo of his band.” She sighed tiredly, rubbing the back of her neck. “As luck would have it my father signed his band. We call him Cha-Chi based on how his personality used to be and on a joke that I was Joanie for Halloween one year. Anyway, the point is Matt knows almost all my dirty secrets and he holds every one of them over my head. If he informs my father of exactly what took place tonight…” She trailed off, not finding the words to explain the severity of the situation.

“They could send us back to New York.” Juliette murmured quietly. “They could send us to Juvenile Hall for this.”

“What was all that about you threatening Matt?” Rain questioned curiously, turning his attention to Declan.

“Matt screwed me over,” Jonnie explained. “We were together in secret for three months when I caught him cheating on me. I flipped. Long story short he revealed everything to my father and had me sent away. It pissed Declan off—As much as he won’t admit it, he loves me.” She beamed at Declan and he scuffed, rolling his eyes in response.

“Like a sister.”

“Didn’t you two used to date?”

“Old news,” Jonnie waved her hand dismissively. “The times have changed.”

“So what are we going to do?” Alex questioned drawing the party back to the predicament at hand and a small part of Juliette was comforted by his use of ‘we’.

“We’re going on vacation…kind of.” Juliette announced.

“What?” Kara questioned dumbfounded.

“I owe you, Kara. I owe all of you. Personally I’d love a vacation, I don’t know about you but I’m thinking Los Angeles.”

“L.A? Isn’t that where-“

“Daddy dearest is, yeah.” Jonnie answered. “I’m going to plead for our lives but I’m not going to do it without getting an escape all the same.”

“L.A? It’s Christmas time.” Zack stated.

“Exactly. Why not?”

“I thought you didn’t have money for bail?” Rian questioned.

“That wasn’t the idea behind calling Matt, that idea was the fact that neither one of your parents are home and I needed someone with enough money to bail me, plus Logan, your girlfriend, Matt, and Vinny out too. And it had to be someone with the oddball chance of not telling my parents.” Juliette explained.

“L.A though?” Matt questioned doubtfully, “That sounds like trouble—land of trouble as you put it.”

“We won’t get into any trouble,” The two girls held their pinkies up grinning.

“We pinkie swear.” They stated in unison.