Entwined

ten

"Well, I should get going. The rest of the guys are probably looking for me. It was nice meeting you though."

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Mitchell."

Standing up to leave, Mitchell brushed himself off, flashing Juliette a friendly smile as he stuck a hand out for her to shake. "Till next time, Miss Juliette."

"Yeah, till-"

"Road trip!"

Both jumped at the sudden presence of Piper, who stepped into Juliette's room and dropped her bags on the floor, closing the door behind her. "We gotta get going soon if we're going to Vidcon, am I right?"

----------

"Piper, we can't go to Vidcon. Not on such short notice!" Juliette stammered out, twirling a lock of her lilac hair nervously.

Mitchell nodded, agreeing with her. "Yeah, and I have to be in London by Monday, and I honestly don't know if I-"

"Okay, hear me out. So if you have to be back in two weeks, then I can make sure of that. I thought about this whole thing, and I figured that if we get going tomorrow morning, we'll be able to make it to California in two days if we keep up a good driving schedule."

"Two days? Piper, that's if we drive non stop. And I don't even know how to drive, and neither do you!"

"Shit, that's a good point," Piper said, defeated, trying to think of alternatives. "Mitchell, how long can you stay up without sleep?"

"I dunno, a day if I have enough coffee and-"

"Perfect! Then we'll just bring you tons of coffee and energy drinks so that you don't pass out while you drive us. See, it's all good," she said cheerily, smiling proudly at her plan. "This plan is foolproof!"

"Oh yeah, definitely. Now how will we be able to get my mom to not notice me being gone, hm, Piper?" Juliette wasn't so sure about the whole plan that her best friend concocted, pretty uneasy to the whole idea of escaping behind her mother's back.

"Jules, your mom disappears for weeks sometimes, and it's all fine. Maybe this is one of those times, if we're lucky."

Now that part was true. Susan did have a habit of simply falling off the face of the earth, not showing up at home until several weeks have passed, looking awfully stressed, and much older than Juliette remembers she last was.

Juliette sighed, biting her lip as she shrugged her shoulders, folding her arms across her chest. "I dunno, maybe? I mean, we can never exactly pinpoint when exactly she'll do that, it just happens."

"Okay look, this whole thing is full of risks, Juliette. Now tell me how many times you've took a risk in your life."

"I-"

"Exactly. Now that's why you have to take this chance to go meet your idols, okay? Mitchell and I are gonna have your back, and-"

Mitchell coughed, raising his brows and saying, "Who said I was coming?"

"Me, that's who," Piper said, recovering from being cut off. "It's not like you'll be able to decline anyway."

"And why's that?"

"I snagged your passport, and I hid it."

"Piper!" Juliette scolded, shocked at what she did. "You stole it?"

"Well, technically, I pick pocketed-"

"Give me back my passport!" Mitchell said with a loud voice, patting the sides of his pockets to make sure she wasn't bluffing. "I need to be in London by-"

"Just take us to Vidcon, and it'll be okay," Piper said through gritted teeth, eyes staring him down. "If you don't, you might as well get a new passport once I even think of letting you out."

He fell silent, hands clenched at his sides as he considered her offer. It was either take them to Vidcon, getting his passport back after four days, or being kept for who knows how many days, getting a new one.

"Fine, I'll take you to Vidcon."