Crossroads

“Joanna. HEY PENIS JOCKEY!” I heard Aden yell pulling me out of my nap.

I didn’t move, I had my head resting on the back of the couch with my feet up on the ottoman with Dribblez head on my lap.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re godson wants you.” She replied. I knew she was holding him because I heard him gurgling and cooing.

I sat up and felt the pain hit my neck. I rubbed it and made a face while I woke up Dribblez. He jumped down and walked to the kitchen, more than likely to get some water. I looked up at Aden, who just as I figured, was holding Jude and smirking at me with Lolly sniffing after Jude. She for some reason STILL could not get used to his scent. Jude was now 3 months old and was getting massively curly hair like his mother. I reached for him as he started to smile. I bounced him on my leg and started to make faces at him.

I looked up and noticed Aden still standing there. She had a nervous expression on her face. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Uhm, you’re not going to like me.” She said.

My mood changed. She only said that to me when I was going to actually be angry with her. “What?” I asked getting up, resting Jude on my hip.

“Amber’s coming to visit.” She said.

I looked at her in confusion. “Okay? I’ve known this for a week and you know I love your sister, why would I be upset about that?”

“Uhm, she’s bringing a friend.” She replied.

“Alright? And that’s a problem because?” I asked.

She opened her mouth to answer but paused when we heard the front door open.

“Aden my loveee! Where art thou?” we heard Amber call out.

“In here!” Aden called out as she took Jude from me.

I looked at her as she clutched the child. I furrowed my brow, “Why are you holding onto him for dear life?”

She looked past me and to the door way and got my answer. My blood boiled immediately. “OH FUCK NO!” I screamed as I glared at Kristin.

“Joanna Joanna Joanna.” Amber said walking up to me and taking my hand. “Please come outside and talk to me.” She said pulling me towards the back.

She slid the back door closed and turned to me with her hands up. “Joanna, just listen to me please. She’s changed I swear!”

I stared at her. “I do not believe for one second that bitch has changed. Why did you bring her here?!”

“She really wanted to apologize to you, and she really needed to get away from the east coast for a bit.”

I went to answer but my phone started ringing and buzzing in my back pocket. I pulled it out and saw Caleb’s ID on the screen. I held up a finger and turned to answer the call.

“Hey Caleb.”

“Hey guess what?” he said sounded rather anxious.

“What?” I asked growing rather curious.

“Well, answer your door and I’ll tell you.”

“Wait, YOU’RE HERE?!” I screamed and ran through the house, pushing Kristin aside, and to the front door.

I swung it open and jumped on him as I saw a couple of flashes the succeeded in blinding me.

“What the fuck!” I yelled rubbing my eyes.

“Hey Joanna.” I heard from behind my brother. When my vision cleared up I saw it was our manager Jake.

“Oh hey Jake.” I said walking up to him, giving him a hug. “What’s going on?”

“Well, these are photographers from the Revolver Magazine. They wanna do an article on you two.” He replied.

“An article. On Caleb and I?” I asked shocked.

“Yes. They wanted to do an article about siblings being in a band. So they already have Gerard and Mikey Way and now they want Caleb and Joanna Toscano.”

“Oh cool. Alright.” I said rather excited.

“This is Simon, he wants to do an interview with you.” He said introducing him to us.

“Hey Joanna.” He said holding out a hand. I took it and shook it. “I hope we didn’t catch you at a bad time. We just figured after not seeing your brother for a while that him surprising you would get us one of the best pictures, which it did.” He said showing me the picture of me jumping on him.

I smiled at the picture. It was a great picture. “No it’s not a problem. Come on in.” I said before leading everyone inside.

Jake filled Aden and Lucy in while we set up on the back porch for the interview. Fifteen minutes later we were ready to begin.

“So,” Simon started, “The first question is for the both of you; growing up, were you influence by each other music wise?”

Caleb answered first, “Well, honestly I was more into strictly metal growing up, listening to bands such as Metallica, Pantera, Overkill, Rob Zombie, and Dream Theatre.”

I smiled, “I however was into different genres of music, I still am today. I do in fact like every band he just listed but I also like some rap, techno, and I love dubstep.”

“Nice!” Simon said smiling, “On to the next. Joanna, you were in the band before Caleb was….whose idea was it to bring Caleb in to replace Katie?”

“Well, actually it was Lucy’s. We were eating dinner and we were talking about the next time we were going to New York to see Ray and Caleb. Then somehow we ended up talking about high school and the talent show we had been in where he was drumming, I played the guitar, and our brother Ray screamed, and well we won. So Lucy said that it was a shame how he was laid off from his job, then she came up with the idea of him drumming for Katie.”

“Well, I never thought it would have gone down like that. Now this question I personally thought of, because I know how it would go down if I was in this situation. Now, does having each other on tour and the two of you being so close make you any less homesick or do you tend to get more on each other’s nerves?”

“Well.” We both laughed, “I mean, we’re brother and sister, of course we’re going to get on each other’s nerves at some point. Hell we all do when we’re stuck on a tour bus or in hotel rooms for so many months at a time. But yes it did take the edge off of the homesickness.”

Simon laughed, “I see your logic there. Now Caleb, since you’re still relatively new in the band, how do you get along with the rest of the band?”

Caleb cleared his throat, “Getting along with the band is as easy as breathing to me. I grew up with them, and they’ve always felt like family to me.”

“Wow I didn’t realize you all were so close for so long. Okay guys, I have one more question for you. Embarrassing story about your sibling. GO!”

“OH! ME!” Caleb yelled raising his hand. I smacked myself in the forehead. “Alright so, Joanna and I have had to change schools quite a bit growing up, and sometimes we’d end up transferring back to a school we have already been to. This girl she was really good friends with in third and fourth grade ended up being in one of her classes in the seventh grade. So they caught up and everything and she asked Joanna to sleep over one night over the weekend. So naturally she said yes. Well I get a call about 2 in the morning to come walk her home. She sounded scared and freaked out. So naturally, I ran over and she was standing by the mail box with her stuff in her hand. We started walking back and she looked horrified. So when I asked her what was wrong,” he paused to laugh and collect himself, I just shook my head and tried not to laugh, “she told me that her friend had turn into a lesbian and when she asked her to sleep over she thought it was a date and she tried to kiss her and make her sleep in the same bed. It was hilarious!”

“Okay, for the record! I have no problem with gays or lesbians, but I’d rather not get hit on by a lesbian.”
Simon joined Caleb in laughing for a few moments before he got to me, “And you Joanna, what do you have?”

I smirked at Caleb, “Well, that movie The Ring? Yeah I walked into the house and I heard him watching it upstairs. So I went into the basement and into the box we had old costumes in and found a black wig and walked upstairs. The door was cracked so I got on all fours and did that creepy crawling shit like Samara from the movie. He screamed like a girl. There was this cut out in the wall that had a railing to overlook the den, and if you looked down you could see the couches and the table. So as I crawled over to him, and he got up and jumped over the railing and landed on the couch half assed. He ended up spraining his wrist. And when I got downstairs, he was crying. I asked him why he was crying and to this day he will say it was because of his wrist when I know for a fact that it was just because he was scared.”

Everyone outside laughed, except for Caleb. Once again he was blaming it on his wrist. I told him to suck it up and move on.

We took a few pictures. It was actually really fun, then when Lexi and Jimmy got home, we took a picture with everyone in Shattered Halo, even Katie, Alaina and Jude. It was one of the best photo shoots I think I’ll ever part take in. Soon after, Jake and the people from Revolver left and told us it should be published next week.

Caleb and I caught up from the couple of months we were apart while I made some grilled cheese. As I set down the plate with a bunch of sandwiches, I saw Kristin walk in. My mood plummeted again.

“The fuck?!” Caleb exclaimed as he slammed his hands on the counter.

“Oh, h-hey Caleb.” she said nervously. I didn’t blame the bitch, whether she changed or not she was still on the top of our shit list.

Caleb was about to say something back, probably insulting but I wouldn’t know because he was interrupted by Amber. “Hey Kristin, Aden wants to go with the baby, Katie and Alaina to the park, wanna go?”

Her face seemed to light up, “Oh definitely!” she said as they practically galloped to the door.

I looked over at Caleb, “Wanna see my bike?” I asked.

“FUCK YEAH!” he yelled. With that being said, well yelled, we made our way to the garage.

I handed him my helmet and said he could take it for a spin, something he was not ever going to turn down. He put the helmet over his head and smiled as the bike roared to life. A moment later he was flying out of the garage and down the street.

I stood in the garage while I waited for him to come back. I heard a car come down the street and thought it sounded like Matt’s Charger, and sure enough it was. He pulled into the drive way and climbed out of the car along with Lucy.

Lucy got out of the car and smiled at me. “Where did you guys go? I didn’t even realize you left.” I said laughing.

“Yeah guess what!” she said practically jumping.

“What?” I said giggling at her.

“Matt’s getting me a bike!” she squealed.

“Really? I thought you wanted to stay off of them for a while haha.” I replied.

“Well we were passing by and I saw it and I, well Joanna I just have to have it.” She paused for a minute,

“Where’s your bike?”

“Caleb took it for a spin. He should be back any second now. Hey, when he gets back to you wanna ride bitch with me to go get it?”

She smiled, “Yes that sounds amazing.”

A minute later Caleb pulled back up the drive way. Lucy grabbed her helmet out of the back seat and hopped on behind me. We then took off to get her new prized possession.

When we pulled up to the building, I balanced the bike and took off my helmet. I walked over to the bike and took a good long look at it. A man walked out a moment later and walked over to us smiling.

“Hey, you came back!” he said.

“Told you I would.” Lucy said smiling back.

“And who is this?” he asked looking at me.

“This is one of my good friends and fellow automotive enthusiasts Joanna.” She replied. I smiled and waved.

“Hi I’m Dave.” He replied.

He took us both through the tour of the bike, he certainly knew his stuff. I was very impressed. He let both of us test drive it before papers were presented to her. She signed the papers and gave the man the money she owed him before we took off and headed to the DMV to get it registered and get plates.

The ride home was amazing. We took the scenic route so she could get used to being on the bike again. Any fear she had of being on two wheels after the accident were wiped away completely. She almost acted as if it never happened.

We pulled into the garage and saw Zacky standing in between the garage and the house. Zacky however, was not alone. He was standing next to a woman, and they appeared to be argueing. Naturally, curiousity got the best of me and I went to investigate, Lucy on my tail.

I was about to step out of the garage when Caleb pulled us the other direction. “What the fuck Caleb?!” I exclaimed.

“Shhhh!” he said.

“What? What’s going on?” I whispered.

“Dude, I don’t know. This chick is psycho. Let Zee deal with her for right now. I think he needs to be alone with her right now.” He said. Lucy and I looked at each other in confusion and concern.

We peaked around the corner and I saw the woman babbling on and on while Zacky pulled out his phone and listened. A moment later he put his phone back in his pocket and I felt mine go off. I pulled out my phone to check it and sure enough it was him.

From: Zee<3

I heard you and Lucy come in on those death traps NOW SAVE ME PLEASE!

I showed Caleb the text and told Lucy to stay with him unless instructed to save both our asses.

I walked around and noticed a child in her arms. I saw Zacky’s face light up as I walked over. I smiled at the woman and she gave a small, sheepish smile back. Zacky put and hand on my shoulder, “Heather, this is my girlfriend Joanna. Joanna this is Heather.”

I smiled and said hello, but I noticed once I was introduced as his girlfriend, the smile fell from her face and she instantly looked at me as if she wanted me to burst into flames infront of her. “Is there a problem?” I asked her.

“Yes actually, there is.” She replied. I heard Zacky sigh.

“What might that be?” I asked putting my hands on my hips.

“I think my childs father should be spending time with his child instead of going off and partying it up with easy, party-going girls.” She replied.

“Uhm, okay. Yeah that sounds reasonable but what does that have to do with us?” I asked.

“Well Zachary should be spending time with his son.” She said.

It took a minute for it to click. “WHAT?!” I yelled. I saw Lucy and Caleb run around the garage and towards us. I turned to Zacky, “You have a kid?!”

“NO! He is NOT my kid!” he exclaimed waving his arms around.

“How can you say that?! Look at him! He has your eyes.” Heather said.

I looked at the baby’s eyes, “Bitch, are you kidding me? Your kid’s eyes are brown!”

She looked at the baby, “Yeah they change from time to time.”

I smacked myself in the forhead, “Fine. If you want to prove that this kid is his, I want a DNA test done. NOW!” I said staring both of them down.

I turned to walk away but turned back around and got in Heather’s face, “By the way,Heather, “ I said her name with a hint of disgust, “I do not appreciate being called easy. Do you see the house I live in? My friends and I did not aquire this house by being easy. We work hard for our shit. So next time you want to refer to someone as easy, look in the fuckin mirror.” And with that I walked into the house.

I walked up to the fridge and took out a beer from the bottom shelf. I popped off the lid using the counter and took a nice long swig as I saw Lucy, Caleb, and Zacky walk in.

“Joanna, I need to explain some of this. She and I-“ Zacky started.

“What the FUCK was that?!” I started, “On second thought, I don’t even wanna fuckin know right now. I need some time. Hardcore.”

“Wait. Whoa. Are you telling me that, that we-“ he paused.

I looked at Lucy and Caleb, “Could you guys give us a minute?” they both nodded before leaving the kitchen.

“Joanna, please.” Zacky said, he looked like he was going to break out in tears.

I put my beer on the counter and walked up to him pulling him into a tight hug, “No Zack, no I didn’t meant a break or anything. I mean I just need some time out of this house, like a vacation or something.” I pulled away and noticed a tear had actually fallen down his cheek. I felt horrible as I wiped it away with my thumb.

He pulled me back into a tight hug and held me for a moment, actually it was more like I was holding him. I rubbed his back and kissed his cheek too many times to count, trying to calm him.

“I think I need to leave for a few days.” I said before cradling his face in my hands, “And I want you to know, even if that kid that looks nothing like you is yours, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always be here for you.”

“Hey.” I heard from the doorway. I turned to see Lucy standing in the doorway with Matt.

“Hey.” I said in return.

“Uhm, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I kinda have an idea. What if we took a roadtrip on the bikes?” she said.

I pondered on the thought for a moment, “You know what, that actually sounds good.” I looked at Zacky who nodded. I knew deep down it bothered him that we were going to be taking the bikes. Oh well guess his wishes as far as the bikes don’t really matter to us.

“Okay, lets plan this out. We’re leaving in the morning.” I said as I picked up my beer and pulled out my phone to look at maps with Lucy for our next adventure.