The Jonas family is very tight-knit, but no one gets along better than twin brother and sister Joe and Brexley. They've been inseparable for their entire lives, and even during the Jonas Brothers years, when Joe was off touring with Nick and Kevin...
I spent the whole night after the performance last night calling and texting Brexley, with Kevin and Nick by my side for moral support. However, she never got in contact with me, never picked up any of my calls, never responded to any messages. I even tried to DM her on Instagram and got no response. I have to talk to her though, no matter if she's going to make it easy on me or not, so that's why I decided to fly back to New York with my brothers. I have two days off from performing tour shows anyway, so it's not as if I don't have the time. Yes, I know this is an impulsive decision, but it has to be done.
Right now, we're about three hours away from LaGuardia, the airport we're flying into, and both Nick and Kevin are passed out in their seats on either side of me. I'm just pumping Coldplay's album Ghost Stories on three-quarters volume through my headphones, trying to figure out what I'm going to say to Brexley now that it's been so long since we've spoken. I've been trying to come up with this for roughly the whole flight now, and I've got nothing, so I do what I always do when I'm stuck. I reach out to Sophie.
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As usual, she's got great advice, stuff I know I will be able to use and hopefully get my message through to Brexley. I just need her to understand why I did what I did but know that I'm sorry for the pain I caused with it. All I need is for my sister, for my best friend in the whole world, to forgive me.
"Have you been up this whole time?" Kevin asks sleepily, blinking his eyes as they try and adjust to the light.
"Yeah," I tell him, pulling an earbud out of my ear.
"Doing what?"
"Thinking."
"Joe, don't worry so much about it. Will this be easy? No, probably not, because she's thick-headed just like you are and probably won't accept an apology right away. But she'll come around. She's missed you a hell of a lot, you know. Even if she won't show it now," he says.
"How do you know?" I ask.
"Just because you haven't talked to her in two years doesn't mean the rest of us haven't," he says, and I can only stare at him. I guess I didn't really think about that, but it makes sense. "Listen, quit stressing out so much over this. It's not going to change the outcome anyway; she's going to do what she wants with the situation regardless. Try to get some sleep for however long we have left. I know you didn't really get any last night, and now you're going to be jet lagged on top of it. That's not going to be a great combination."
"Okay. I'll try to get some rest," I say, and Kevin nods, going back to sleep.
I turn off the music and try to get comfortable. My elder brother is right; I didn't sleep at all yesterday because I was getting all the details straight for this last minute trip, and I'm actually exhausted. There's no way I'll be able to have a productive conversation with my sister if I'm running on straight adrenaline, and I want our talk to be meaningful. I don't want to fly all the way across the country for nothing; I want to fix my relationship with her and finally get my entire family back. And as soon as I close my eyes, my mind clears and I slip into a dreamless slumber.
"Joe. Joe," I hear Kevin say, and I wake with a start.
"What?"
"We're in New York. We just landed," he says, and I nod, looking past Nick to see out the window. Sure enough, I'm back home.
"How is this going to work, then? When are you going to talk to Brexley?" Kevin asks.
"I mean, I don't know. I can't afford to wait, because I have to leave for Vegas tomorrow night so that I'm back with the band in time for the next show. I'm just going to have to talk to her as soon as we leave the airport. I'll probably call her once we get off the plane, see if she answers, and then figure it out from there," I say.
"Sounds good. If you need us to drive you anywhere, that's fine, okay?" Kevin says, and I nod.
"Thanks, Kev."
It takes us a good twenty minutes to get off the plane and into the airport terminal, but as soon as we do I whip my phone out of my pocket and call my sister again. Surprise surprise, straight to voicemail. There's only one thing I can do now, I guess.
"Can you guys take me to my house so I can grab my car?" I ask, and Kevin shrugs.
"Sure." With that, he proceeds to lead Nick and I out of the airport to where he parked his car.
"Joe, what's your plan right now? How are you gonna get her to talk to you?" Nick asks me.
"I'm just going to drive over to her apartment and see if she's home. She can't refuse to talk to me if I'm literally standing on her doorstep! And if she's not home, well, I still have my key. I never ended up giving that back. So if I have to wait in the apartment for her to get home, I will. I have to clear this up," I ramble.
"Jeez. Okay. Well, call me or Kev if you need something, okay?" Nick says.
"Okay. Thanks."
Given I only live a few minutes from the airport, only twelve minutes or so, it doesn't take us long to reach my house. As I hop out of Kevin's car, both my brothers give me looks of reassurance.
"Good luck, Joe. I'm sure it'll be okay," Kevin says.
"Brexley will get over it quickly. She probably just wants to hear your apology," Nick says.
"Yeah, I know. Thanks, guys. I'll keep you posted," I say, and they drive off while I go inside to change quickly.
Around forty minutes later, I pull my car into my old parking spot in front of the apartment building. Now that I'm actually here I'm kind of freaking out, but I know this is my last opportunity to fix things. And it only takes one memory of time spent with my sister to push me into the lobby of the complex.
Once inside, I walk right up to Brexley's apartment like I still live in it too. Nobody questions me, probably because a lot of these people were so used to seeing me here for so long, and the rest of them don't care enough to say anything. When I reach the door, I take a deep breath, steeling myself, before rapping on the door three times like I used to. I get no response, so I try again. Still nothing. Growing impatient, I let myself in and discover all the lights off. She's not even here, but I can't afford to leave and try again another time, because I don't really have another time. I'm just going to have to wait for her to get home, and hope she's not spending the night at her boyfriend's place.
Not knowing what else to do, I make myself comfortable on the couch, body angled towards the door as I run through the list of everything I want to say to her. There's a lot that needs to be said, and I want to make sure I articulate everything the way I mean to so it doesn't make the situation worse. When I've got my speech together, there's nothing I can do except play Coldplay music off my phone to keep my mind occupied and sit here, hoping against hope that my best friend in the whole world walks through the door soon. That, and she's actually happy to see me when she does. We'll find out, I guess.
