Getaway

[19] The First Dance

Walking out onto the patio balcony, Jayla breathes in the city lights in the thin cool air, and the sounds of police cars and ambulances. Perfect. She inhales again, nervously and clicks the green button to accept the call. Trembling, her hands press the receiver to her ear. In the cool night breeze, she leans over to look down at the pool, the gently rippling water sparkling in a luminous glow under the moon and stars.

"Look, shit shit shit. I am SO sorry! Fuck, I do not know why I did that. I wasn't thinking please, forgive me..."

Raven sounds more distraught than an animal at slaughter. What is he on about?

"Hey, hey, it's okay..." Says Jayla calmly, just desperate to know what on earth the truth was. What was going on?

"Really?" Squeaks Raven hiccupping.

"Um, yeah. I mean, at least, I think so?" Sensing this is going to be a long call, Jayla sits herself down on the cushioned chair and closes the hotel patio doors.

"What's happened?" she prompts.

Silence, and another ambulance wails into the darkness.

"You're not mad at me?" Raven sounds like a whimpering dog.

"No, I mean. I don't know. Why would I be mad at you. Oh my god." She starts to panic. "Raven, what have you done? Is it Leya? She told me she was scared. Oh my god, ple-"

"No, it's not. It's not Leya. It's you! It's you. Fucking shit... It's you, Jayla. I did something stupid I shouldn't of done it."

"Please. Whatever it is. Just tell me now."

Silence again, it's killing her. "Come on, I can take it."

"I lied. I lied, in my court case."

She waits.

"I lied and I told them that you bribed me and forced me to play the shows... I said you threatened me... and said you would get your dad to sue me for plagiarism if I didn't play the shows, because... you wanted the fame for your dad's company so you could make money, and it worked because now his artist... is all over the newspapers from our show in Cardiff where she supported isn't she? So, I wound this fucking story up in my head on the car journey there. I'm such a terrible liar. I mean I'm fucking great... I can think of anything. I think fast. And they believed it, it had evidence and was plausible. So now, you're wanted and they're going to arrest you, Jayla. They are going to arrest you! You're in serious fucking shit. And shit shit shit, if I had just owned up to the truth, and got arrested myself... this never would have happened... I'm such a bad, bad person..." His strong voice is crying. He sounds angry at himself.

Either way, he did it.

Jayla just sits there, fixated and frozen cold. It's all lies. Raven lied about her to the court. To the law. To the police. And here she sits on a balcony of a hotel in LA with Blu Lawless and her sister and her best friend sleeping on the bed behind her. It's all a dream. She thinks. It's all a dream. Since when did this happen to me?

But it's not, and when she opens her eyes it's still all there. Everything's the same.

"Okay," at last she breaks the silence with acceptance and she doesn't know why. And she remembers everything Orlo said earlier. 'It's for Jayla. Over £100,000. I just don't want you to get unfairly arrested.' And it all makes sense now.

"Raven, it's going to be okay." High up above all this shit going on in her life, Jayla directs her gaze to the man in the moon, as if hoping somehow, somewhere he could see that DDR machine. It seemed so stupid. She had hope in such a materialistic, pathetic object. But it wasn't really the moon or the Dance Machine she believed in. It was Orlo. It was Leya, her best friend. It was Sapphire, her sister and her best friend Aspen. And it was herself. She knew they wouldn't let her down. And with that she told Raven, "goodnight," and not to worry. "Please sleep sweetly. I don't know when I'll next see you, but everything will be okay by then. I promise."