Here's to the Friends That Were Alibis

Jesse's P.O.V. (4:30 a.m.)

Ronnie, Mattie, and I piled into the taxi they sent us and waited to arrive at the airport. Honestly, even though Ronnie was probably one of the reasons Lex left, his heart's in the right place now that we have to find her.

Hopefully, not just for the sake of our band, but for Lex's happiness, they reconcile. I didn't realize what was making her happy these past few months. Sometimes we're all a little blind. I personally like Ronnie. Sure, he's had a fucked up past, but he's trying his hardest to right the wrongs he created. If he makes Lex happy, then I'm cool with it. It's just something Mattie's gonna have to accept, sooner or later.

As of now there is some serious fucking tension between those two. At first I thought it was because Mattie was just being over protective. But with the way he's acting now, I'm pretty sure there's more to it than that. I think he might actually have feelings for her. I'm hoping not, because that would just make this even more complicated. And right now, I'm in the middle of it. Literally, I'm sitting in between them. Thank God I have a plan to steal the window seat on the plane...

Lex's P.O.V.

"Dad?" I opened the door to see him sitting on the leather sectional. His head immediately snapped toward my direction.

"Alex!" He jumped up and lifted me off my feet in a bear hug, squeezing all the air out of my lungs. My dad was a pretty good sized guy. He was 6'4, and about two hundred pounds, in muscle. He had short wavy brown dark hair and big green eyes, just like mine. He was happy almost all the time, and one of the most patient people I'd ever met. His easy going personality made up for the fact that I never really had a mom. He was the one I'd run to with my problems, and we'd been through hell, with drugs, arrests, fighting, and abandonment, all throughout my childhood. He was one of the reasons I'm happy to be home.

"I thought you weren't comin' back to Philly until the tour was over?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"We got a month of, figured I'd come home, y'know?" Here I go again. Not even home for an hour and my accent comes back full force.

"How was the tour? I mean the phone calls left a lot out." He mentioned as we walked over to the sectional and sat down. He grabbed the cable remote off of the coffee table we've had since I was a toddler and smiled.

"Well, I'm starving. You wanna go to taco bell or something?" I asked and his eyes lit up.

"You wanna drive?" He asked, probably knowing that I haven't been able to drive in months.

"Yup." I nodded and got up. I grabbed the keys to my '93 red mustang that took me two years to save up for when i was sixteen out of the dish by the front door and we were on our way.

"So, how's touring and being a rockstar?" My dad joked from the passenger's seat.

"You mean living on a bus with eight sweaty guys and playing video games all the damn time?" I laughed and my dad smiled and nodded.

"Great. The fans are amazing. I love hearing the cheers and screams when we walk out on that stage. It's amazing." I smiled at the memory, and felt yet another pang hit my heart as I remembered the first time Ronnie and I sang together, and that I was leaving it all behind.

"You were one of those fans once." My dad nodded and looked out the window as we got on the highway. "I remember when I was working as a security guard at the eagles and phillies games and you would ask me almost every weekend for money for concert tickets. And me, being the pushover that I am, almost always gave it to you." He smiled at the memory and then laughed. "I just wish you wouldn't have gotten arrested so damn much." He joked.

"Hey! You did too!" I retorted, pretending to be offended.

"I know, I was kidding." He smiled as we pulled into the 'drive thru'

We ordered, paid for, and received our food. On the way home I turned on the stereo in my car. For once, my seven disc changer failed me, and put on 'There's no Sympathy For The Dead'

"Sonuva whore." I grumbled and switched it to Metallica's 'Ride The Lightning's and smiled.

My dad laughed and shook his head. "Strange child."

"Shuddup." I grumbled, pretending to be mad, before lighting a cigarette. I was going quit because Ronnie did, and I didn't wanna be the one causing him to start again. There goes that idea...

Ronnie's P.O.V.

"Fasten you seat belts, We are now landing at Northeast Philadelphia Airport. We hope you had a nice flight." A chipper pilot's voice rang through the intercom. After the plane landed, I was one of the first one's up. I was excited for a number of reasons.

One of them, being the most obvious. I was excited to see Alexandria. The second reason was that I'd been to Philly while I was touring once, but I never really seen any of the neighborhoods. I wanted to see where Lex grew up, I wanted to know what her childhood was like. After all, she knows all about mine, but I barely know anything about hers. We got off the plane, and exited the airport.

We didn't bring anything, because we didn't plan on staying. We caught a cab and Jesse rattled off Lex's address to him. He nodded and pulled out of the parking lot. As we drove down a big boulevard, I was confused. This seemed really nice, like there was no crime at all. I guess Jesse noticed the confusion that was practically written across my face, and decided to explain.

"These are the nice neighborhoods. None of us live up here. We'd probably go nuts." He chuckled and I nodded and proceeded to sightsee.

"Tourist." He laughed and shook his head. I mocked glared at him and turned my head back to the window. We made a left on the the boulevard we were on and passed an outdoor mall. We drove down this street for about ten blocks until we hit an avenue. It was then, that immediately noticed what he meant. There were bars, corner stores, pizza places, and chinese takeout places on almost every corner.

Some places looked like they used to be stores, but were closed down. Every street was different, some looked nice, with a few singles houses here and there, and others, there were nothing but rowhomes with some sort of vandalism on them. People walked down streets and stopped and talked to other people. It seemed like everyone knew each other here. I smiled to myself at the thought. We got further down this avenue and stopped at a red light across from some store that resembled a better version on a '7-11' that read 'wawa' across it in red letters. Immediately Jesse stuck his head out of the window.

"Yo Dre! What's up?!" He shouted and a young guy, probably in his early twenties who was sitting at a bus stop, smiled and waved.

"Hey youngin'! Where you been?" He shouted back.

"Around." Jesse shrugged and smiled.

As the cab driver went to drive away Jesse told the guy to call him and he agreed.

"Who was that?" I asked out of pure curiosity.

"Oh, he was our runner before we were old enough to buy beer, he's only like, three years older than me though." He laughed.

"Awesome." I laughed. We kept going for a few more blocks until we hit another red light.

"You can let us out here, thanks dude." Jesse handed the driver two twenties and and a five and we got out in front of a chinese take out place. "She only lives two blocks down that way, but if you wanna get on her good side we gotta bring her some food." He laughed and we walked in. It was small, with only one bench to sit on, that was already occupied by a kid that kind of looked like a drug dealer to me.

"Jimmy! What's good?" Jesse laughed and him and Mattie shook his hand.

"Nothin' much, just chillin'. How 'bout you guys?" Drug dealer responded.

"Just got back, have you seen Lex?" He raised an eyebrow and I picked up a menu from the counter and decided to order the food.

"Yeah, seen her drivin' down the Ave earlier with poppa dukes."

"Where they at?" Mattie asked and sat down.

"Prolly at her house. Like the rest of the neighborhood. You know them motherfuckers are always over there." He added with a laugh.

"Well, Pauly owns the house, Lex lives there, it's you motherfuckers that are always there." Mattie and drug dealer laughed.

"True, but we had gotten into some shit over there." Drug dealer nodded.

A chinese lady behind the counter told me the food was ready so I handed her a twenty and she gave me a bag.

"You guys ready?" I asked and held the bag up. They nodded and said their goodbyes before we exited the store. We walked down a block and I did more sightseeing. There were people sitting out front of their houses talking and laughing. There was a couple pellets sitting on the corner of the street we crossed over to.

"Yo!" Some kid waved at Jesse. "What's up?"

"Were goin' over Lex's, how about yous?"

"Chillin'." The kid responded. Damn, is that what everyone does here? "Tell her and my sister I'll be over later."

"Gotchu'" Jesse nodded and we kept walking until the end of the block. We stopped in front of a single-rancher home with a porch, front lawn, a tree, and it's own mini alley way. It had a walkway followed by four steps leading up to the front porch.

"Ready?" Jesse looked at me and I nodded.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I sighed.

Here go nothing...