God Bless the Broken Road

“JONAS…JONAS…JONAS”

Leigh Ann banged her head against the wall as she stared at her phone and tried to gain control of her emotions. She glanced over at Frankie who was currently listening to her iPod. He was scared at first but overall he found their current predicament funny. She was just glad he didn’t freak out. How could she be so stupid? Why wouldn’t anyone answer their phone? She banged her head once more as a few tears slid down her face. The answer was obvious of course. The reason no one would answer their phone was because the boys were smack dab in the middle of an interview with XM’s twenty on twenty. She had tried Mr. Jonas, Mrs. Jonas, Kevin, Nick and even Big Rob. The only person she hadn’t called was Joe, for obvious reasons of course.

So I guess your wondering where Leigh Ann is and what exactly her problem is. Well Leigh Ann, along with Frankie are currently locked in the girls bathroom at the Edgewood mall in downtown L.A. with about a hundred screaming girls trying to beat down the door. How did this happen you ask?

Well, it started like this…

Two hours earlier…

“Frankie, cars here.” Leigh Ann called at the foot of the stairs.

“Just a second,” Frankie called. A few seconds later he came running down the stairs.

“I’m ready.” He panted as he stopped in front of her.

Just as they were about to head out Leigh Ann rand back in to grab something. When she came back out she slid a baseball cap on Frankie’s head, “You forgot your hat.”

Frankie just rolled his eyes and fixed the hat on his head.

The car ride to the mall took about twenty minutes. Once they were safely inside Leigh Ann grabbed Frankie’s hand and asked, “Alright Frankie, where to first?”

Frankie thought about it a minute and smiled, “Video games!”

After what felt like an eternity of looking at every last video game in the store, Frankie finally picked the one he wanted and they headed up front to pay for it. As Leigh Ann was handing the clerk the money Frankie tugged on her shirt and announced, “I’m hungry Le-Le.”

Leigh Ann rolled her eyes at Frankie’s choice in nickname, “Okay let’s see. It’s two thirty now so yeah I guess we have a few minutes. Why don’t we head down to the food court and grad a bite to eat?” She asked.

Frankie grabbed her hand and began swinging it back and forth, “Okie dokie.”

As they began walking towards the food court they continued swinging their hands. Leigh Ann looked down at Frankie and smiled. He was just about the sweetest kid she had ever met, not to mention absolutely adorable.

As they neared the food court a group of girls brushed past, one of them bumping Frankie and knocking his hat off. When she realized what she had done she stopped causing the rest of the group to stop as well. She began to apologize as she bent down to pick up his hat for him, “Oh I am so sorr.” The girl froze when she caught site of Frankie.

“OMJ, You’re Frankie Jonas!”

Frankie began to panic as he jerked his hat from her and slammed it on his head, “No I’m not.”

Leigh Ann pulled Frankie closer to her as she began to back up, “His name’s not Frankie.”

“Yes it is. He is” As the girl looked up at Leigh Ann she paused. “Oh my God you’re the girl from TMZ. The mystery girl, what was it they called you. Cinderella, that’s it. OMJ, you’re dating Kevin aren’t you.”

Leigh Ann looked at the girl in confusion, “No I’m not, what are you talking about?” She really just wished the girl would just shut up she was beginning to cause a scene. It seemed like the number of girls in her group had doubled in a matter of seconds.

The girl put her hands on her hips, “Yes you are I couldn’t mistake that frizzy mess you call hair anywhere.”

Leigh Ann’s jaw dropped, “Well I never.” She turned around pulling Frankie with her as she began to walk the other way.

The girls began to follow, “Oh come on if you’re here then so are they. All we want is an autograph and picture.” The now annoying girl called.

Leigh Ann glanced over her shoulder. There were even more girls following them and as if that wasn’t enough people were stopping and staring at the scene they were creating.

One brave girl reached for Leigh Ann trying to get her to stop. Leigh Ann really began to panic as she felt the hand clamp on her shoulder. She jerked away and screamed in pain as she felt some of her hair being ripped out. In full out panic mode she and Frankie and began to run. Noticing a bathroom she pulled Frankie towards it. She swung the door open, pushed Frankie inside, ran inside, slammed the door shut and locked it. Just in time too because as soon as Leigh Ann rested her head against the door to catch her breath the crazed fans began beating on the other side.

“Oh come on, just call the boys and let us get our autograph then we will leave you alone.”

“OMJ I am sooo calling Missy!”

More knocking, “Come on you can’t stay in there forever.”

Present Time…

Leigh Ann had really started to cry now. She had just tried calling Mrs. Jonas for the tenth time and still no answer. She pulled up Joe’s number on her screen and stared at it through blurry eyes as her finger hovered over the call button. She had not tried to call Joe yet and she was hesitant to do so for two reasons. The first was she really didn’t think he would answer, if his parents and his brothers didn’t then why would he. The second was because of what happened last night.

When Joe spoke up after she finished her song she freaked out. She was frustrated, terrified, curious, hopeful but mostly confused. Why was it okay for Kevin to hear her play but not Joe? She didn’t know the answer to that, but she did know that with Joe it felt more personal. She didn’t know why but she knew she wasn’t ready for it yet.

After the way she treated him; the catty comment, brushing past him, slamming the door, she seriously doubted he would answer the phone even if it he did have it on.

Making her final decision she pushed down on the call button and placed it to her ear. It rang once, twice, three times…six times. Just as she was about to hang there was a click and she heard his voice reverberate not only through her phone but through her soul.

XXXXX

Joe was completely and utterly bored. They were currently on a break for their interview with twenty on twenty. Kevin had gone to ask their dad something, Nick was talking to the DJ, and Joe; well Joe was swiveling side to side in his chair and trying his best not to push any of the buttons laid out before him. Joe looked at the clock and sighed, only five more minutes and they would free for the rest of the day.

Just as Joe began to turn his chair around in complete circles his phone began to ring. Oops he had totally forgotten to turn his phone off. As Joe dug his phone out of his pocket he glanced up at Nick and shrugged. They still had a minute fifty-eight till on air so he stuck his phone up to his ear.

“Hello, Leigh Ann? What’s that noise? Are you, why are you crying? Is that, Why do I hear chanting? DO WHAT! Are you okay? Is Frankie with you? Is he okay? Where are you? Don’t worry… It’s okay, calm down… Don’t cry, please don’t cry… Breathe Leigh Ann, deep breaths… there you go. Listen don’t you worry about a thing; I’ll take care of it okay. You and Frankie just hold tight, we’ll be there in a minute.”

XXXXX

It had been exactly fifteen minutes and thirty eight seconds since Leigh Ann had talked to Joe and from the sounds of it the crowd outside had only gotten bigger. She couldn’t help playing their conversation over and over again in her head. He had said two things that had worried Leigh Ann to death. I’ll take care of it and we’ll be there in a minute.

He wouldn’t be that stupid would he?? No he couldn’t possibly… Would he?

As Leigh Ann pondered over this her phone began to ring. She quickly flipped it open, “Hello.”

“Ms. Williams, its Big Rob. Look we are out side but we are having a bit of a problem with crowd control. It’s going to be just a few more minutes till we can get you two out of there okay.”

Leigh Ann sighed in relief, thank God. “Yes sir.”

A few minutes later there were three sharp raps on the door, “Ms. Williams, It’s me. Can you open the door?”

Leigh Ann sighed in relief as she quickly flipped the lock and let Big Rob, who was quickly followed by a police officer, in. Once Big Rob came in and surveyed the scene he shrugged his jacket off and handed it to Leigh Ann. She smiled in thanks as she slipped the overly large jacket on.

“Okay so this is how it’s going to go. I’ll go first, then Frankie, then you, and then Mr. Newman here will follow up behind you. Stay close and don’t stop till you get to the car. Alright, ready?”

As Big Rob opened the door Leigh Ann got her first chance to survey the scene. There had to be over a hundred screaming teenage girls here; some even had signs. There were so many of them that it was taking a combined effort of the mall security and police officers on scene to keep the crowd parted enough for them to walk through. As they walked forward Leigh Ann caught sight of what was behind the crowd. What Leigh Ann saw made her freeze. She only started walking again as she felt Officer Newman gently push her forward. There before here stood paparazzi, news crews, reporters, the whole nine yards.

Dear Lord what had she gotten herself into?