A/N: Welcome to my newest creation! So, after finishing Opposite Sides, I wanted to write another story where Johnny and Lulu actually fell in love instead of building on an already existing relationship. I just got struck by this idea and started scribbling and I ended up with a full story (an outline of course but a full outline at that)! So, here it is! Enjoy! And as always, leave a comment!
Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
And dreamed of all the different ways I had
To make her glow…
"Why are you so far away?" she said
"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you
That I'm in love with you?"
You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream…
"Just Like Heaven" – The Cure
Chapter 1 – Escape
He was standing on the edge as he always did. The tips of his shoes hung over the terrace and the wind blew through his short brown hair. He looked down at the ground below. His mother's rose bushes flanked the side of the house and the stone path weaved through the backyard, leading towards the garden shed at the back of the property. The fall was relatively small and wouldn't kill him if he jumped but he thought about jumping anyway. A few cuts and bruises would only surface and would accompany the many others but no one would really care. Sure, he would get scolded by his father and maybe Claudia but Johnny Zacchara stopped caring about what his family thought a long time ago.
"Careful, John…"
He looked behind him and saw his older sister standing in the doorway. She was wearing her favorite black leather jacket, dark jeans and one of her many pairs of fire engine pumps. She smiled at him, a hint of wickedness on her lips but he knew that there was no malice towards him. That's just how Claudia was. Johnny rolled his eyes and jumped off the balcony and back onto the terrace.
"Go away, Claudia…" he muttered and Claudia scoffed.
"Not a chance…" she said.
He walked past her and headed back into his bedroom. He was still angry with Claudia for showing up out of nowhere after being gone for years. She explained that it was their father, Anthony Zacchara, that sent her away but she had plenty of opportunities to come back. Instead, she left him in this hell hole that they called a home. He collapsed onto his bed and she followed him back into the house and stood at the foot of his bed with her arms folded.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked.
"Nothing…" he snapped.
"Did daddy say something to you?" she asked.
"No! Just get out!" he said, pulling a pillow over his head.
"Suit yourself…" she said turning her on her heel and heading out the door.
Johnny heard the door close behind Claudia and he groaned in frustration. He had to get out of this house. Between Trevor, Anthony and Claudia, he was sure to go insane if he didn't do something right that minute. He looked over to his desk and saw his car keys sitting idly. He sat up, swooped up his keys and headed out the door. He needed to clear his head and what better way to do that than going ninety miles per hour on the highway.
"Lulu… why haven't you given me an answer?"
Lulu Spencer looked up from her morning coffee at Logan Hayes, her boyfriend of the last eight months, and sighed heavily.
"Do we have to talk about this now?" she asked, curling her blond hair around her ear.
"Lulu, I asked you to marry me two days ago and you still haven't given me an answer…" he said, walking towards her.
"I told you that I had to think about it…" she said, gently stirring her coffee.
"And have you?" he asked.
She was tired of this push-pull thing that they had going. The more he pushed her to make them official, the more panicked she became. She wasn't commitment phobic but she just couldn't help but to wonder if this was as good as it gets. Yes, Logan was a nice guy. After serving in Iraq in the war, he decided to start his own auto shop and was taking some classes at Port Charles University at night. He said that she inspired him to be better. He was a good and solid person but she didn't want to settle into a life that she wasn't sure that she even wanted.
"I have…" she said.
"And?" he asked.
"I'm—I'm still not sure, Logan… I wish you would just stop pressuring me into making a decision…" she said as she stood up and walked over to the kitchen sink to rinse out her coffee mug.
"What's there to think about? You know that I love you, right?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.
She looked up at him and his blue eyes were fixated on her. She felt uneasy about this whole marriage thing, especially with Logan. They hadn't been dating for very long but he was just so head over heels with her that he just wanted to make it official but something deep inside of her was just screaming not to. She witnessed the relationship between her parents implode and both Nikolas and Lucky had been divorced as well and she just wanted to get it right.
"I know that you do…" she sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Then what's the problem?" he asked.
"I just want to be absolutely sure…" she said softly.
"Ok… just know that I'm absolutely sure that I want to spend the rest of my life with you…" he said, smiling.
She smiled weakly as he kissed her on the forehead and then walked into their bedroom. She exhaled shakily and shook her head. She hated lying to him. She knew that she wasn't ready to get married and even if she were ready, how could she be certain that Logan was the person that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with? She never pictured herself settling down but that's what Logan was asking her to do when he wanted her to wear his mother's engagement ring. Everything that ring meant was everything that she feared. She had a little bit too much of Luke Spencer in her to be with a guy like Logan.
"Do you need a ride down to the MetroCourt for work?" Logan called from the other room.
"Yeah I do… the transmission on my car is still broken…" she said.
"Lu… how many times have I told you to go and get a new car?" he asked.
"A thousand times but you know that we can't afford a new car!" she said, putting her hands on her hips.
Logan appeared in the hallway and looked at her. She knew that he wanted to give her everything that she could ever need but mechanics didn't make much and anyone who paid the slightest attention would see that despite his best efforts, it just wasn't working.
"I'll take care of it…" Logan said.
"Logan… a car payment on top of the rent for the apartment and then the tuition for your night classes isn't going to be good… let me talk to Nikolas about loaning us some money…" she started.
"No! You're not going to Nikolas… I'm going to take care of it, Lulu… just believe me…" he said firmly.
He left the room and she covered her ears as he slammed the bedroom door behind him. When she didn't hear Logan storming around the apartment anymore, she uncovered her ears and sighed heavily.
"And he wonders why I haven't given him an answer to his proposal… go figure…" she muttered to herself.
Behind the wheel of his car, Johnny was in control. His hands gripped the wheel firmly and they flowed steadily from side to side, making the car glide swiftly down the highway at an unearthly speed. He pressed on the accelerator gently, sending the arrow past the eighty miles per hour mark. His eyes were intense and focused ahead of him. No one else existed when he was driving. It was him, the car, and the road. There was no Anthony, raving about his dead mother or Claudia's latest betrayal, no Trevor, scheming his way into a more prominent position in the organization, and no Claudia, trying to make up for everything that had happened years ago. He looked up as he zoomed past a weathered sign that had to be from the seventies from the font and color choice.
"Welcome to Port Charles… great…" he said, matter-of-factly as he read the welcome sign into the sleepy seaside town.
The downtown area rose before him, office buildings, the hospital, and the MetroCourt hotel all towered above him. Johnny never went into Port Charles because of the presence of Sonny Corinthos. The town was always deemed unsafe for Johnny and Claudia because that was Corinthos territory but no one really knew who Johnny was, he figured that he would take his chances.
After all, what was the worst that could happen?
He slowed down and surveyed all of the buildings and looked for the tallest one. He cut across two lanes and swerved into the parking lot of the MetroCourt hotel. The hotel was by far the largest building in town. He kicked the door to his yellow convertible Mustang closed and headed into the lobby. It was a nice hotel, almost too nice for a drab town like Port Charles, Johnny thought. He headed to the elevator and hit the button for the top floor. The doors closed in front of him and he sighed heavily as the elevator slowly rose. He made his way over to the stairwell to the roof. The air was cool but still. He walked over to the edge of the building and hopped on the ledge. He leaned over slightly, looking at the fall. He chuckled to himself as he paced along the ledge. Now, this was a fall. The hotel had fifteen floors plus the roof. The cars below looked like ants scurrying along wildly in the street. He closed his eyes, held his arms out and stood there for a moment, hoping that a strong gust of wind would give him the push that he needed to dive head first into a fatal freefall.
"Don't!"
Johnny's eyes shot open and he turned around and saw a girl standing in the door way to the roof. Her eyes were wide and full of fear as she held the doorknob with all of her might. She was wearing a chocolate colored leather overcoat over a white t-shirt and jeans. Her hair was brilliantly blond and was in loose curls that sat gently on her shoulders. After he got past the emotion in her eyes, he noticed that they were a warm coffee brown. If he weren't so angry, he would've really noticed how stunningly beautiful she was standing before him.
"I wasn't going to jump…" he growled, turning away from the girl.
"Funny… when someone is standing on the ledge of a fifteen story building with his arms stretched out, I don't think he's enjoying the view…" she retorted.
He turned back around to face her. His eyes narrowed on her as she walked towards him. She stood there with her hands on her hips with her head tilted, as if she were examining him. He felt his mouth curl into a cruel smirk and he stretched his arms out and teetered on the edge, taunting her.
"I mean it! Stop it!" she screamed.
He laughed and jumped off the edge, landing right in front of her. She was shorter than him, the top of her head barely passed his chin. She noticed their closeness and she stepped back.
"What's your deal? You don't even know me…" he said.
"Doesn't mean that I want to see you die…" she said.
"Relax… it's not like I haven't jumped off a fifteen story building before…" he said, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
"Oh, so you're even crazier than I thought… nice…" she quipped, folding her arms across her chest.
He looked up at her as the last syllable rolled off her tongue. Who the hell did this girl think that she was? Crazy? Him? No, he was the farthest from crazy. He took offense to anyone who made cracks at his sanity because they had no idea what he lived through with Anthony Zacchara's insane mood swings.
"You no idea what the hell you're talking about so I suggest that you just turn around and go back downstairs before you say something really stupid…" he growled.
She rolled her eyes but she turned around and walked away. Johnny watched her move towards the door to the stairwell and she slammed it behind her. It astounded him that even in a town where he knew absolutely no one, he could find a person that just wouldn't let him stand on the ledge of a building.
The sun was setting as Lulu's shift ended. She logged off her computer at the front desk of the MetroCourt hotel and picked up her purse. Sure, being a desk receptionist at her cousin Carly's hotel wasn't exactly her dream job but it was a decent paying job and that was all that mattered.
"Hey, are you ready to go?"
Lulu looked up and saw Logan standing at the desk. She smiled quickly and said yes. He held out his hand and she walked around the desk and took his hand in hers. He kissed her cheek and they began walking towards the parking lot. Her mind was in a million different places: Logan's proposal, stress from work, and that jerk that she met on the rooftop earlier on her break.
"Are you alright?" Logan asked.
"Yeah… I mean… I just had a rough day…" she muttered.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Oh nothing… just when I was on my break, I went up to the roof and met this guy who was just infuriating…" she said, opening the door to Logan's pickup truck.
"What? What did he say to you?" he demanded.
"Nothing really… he was just really rude…" Lulu said, sliding into the car.
"Forget him… but hey, why don't we head down to Kelly's and grab some dinner?" he asked.
She looked up at him again and was instantly hit with an overwhelming feeling of guilt. He was really trying and she wasn't being fair to him by not making an effort. She squeezed his hand and smiled.
"Sounds perfect." She said.
Johnny pulled up to the front of his house and parked the car. The guards that were posted at the gate immediately opened the door for him and Johnny handed one of the guards his keys so that he could park the car in the garage.
"John? Is that you?"
Johnny groaned as Trevor Lansing, the family attorney stepped out of Anthony's study. It was no secret that Johnny disliked Trevor but he put up with the lawyer just to appease his father.
"What do you want, Trevor?" Johnny asked.
"Your father wants to see you… he's been asking for you for over an hour, where the hell have you been?" Trevor hissed.
"I went out, ok? I got back here as soon as I got your messages…" Johnny explained.
"Fine… he's waiting for you…" Trevor said, motioning to the door.
Johnny sighed heavily and walked into the study. Anthony was sitting at his desk, reading the New York Times and Claudia was on the couch reading one of her magazines. Johnny cleared his throat loudly, letting his father know that he was standing right there. Claudia laughed and went back to reading.
"You know I don't like your attitude, John…" Anthony said with his voice laced with subtle anger.
"Sorry…" he muttered as he sat down next to Claudia.
"Where have you been?" Anthony demanded.
"Out…" Johnny quipped and Claudia hit him on the shoulder.
"John…" Claudia warned.
"I was out driving… I went into Port Charles and then came back as soon as I got Trevor's eight million messages…" Johnny said and Anthony's eyes raged with fury.
"How many times have I told you not to go into Port Charles? You know that's Corinthos-Morgan territory and now that the Alcazars are sniffing around, they're going to be on the lookout for any small threat and stomp it out immediately!" Anthony roared.
"I'm not going into Port Charles again… the people there are just—obnoxious…" Johnny said.
"What happened?" Claudia asked.
"Did you get accosted by one of Sonny Corinthos' men?" Anthony asked.
"No… I was at the MetroCourt hotel and this girl just randomly gets in my face and calls me crazy…" Johnny said and Claudia laughed.
"Well, what were you doing?" she asked.
"I was just standing on the roof of the building, minding my own business…" Johnny said, folding his arms.
"I can hardly believe that some random girl would come up to you and call you crazy for no reason…" Claudia said.
"John… do I need to get Trevor to get on this?" Anthony asked.
"No! I was just standing on the ledge of the roof, so what?" Johnny cried and Claudia shook her head.
"John… how many times do I have to tell you to stop acting recklessly? You know that we can't afford to lose you… you're going to be the head of this family and I will not tolerate any more of your antics, do you understand?" Anthony roared.
Johnny's blood ran cold as his father screamed at him. He was the only person that Johnny was truly afraid of. That was how Anthony Zacchara became Anthony Zacchara… by instilling fear in every person that he crossed paths with.
"I got it…" Johnny said quietly.
"So, no going into Port Charles?" Anthony said, picking up his news paper.
"I won't set foot into Port Charles…" Johnny said, putting his feet on the coffee table.
"I've never seen you so worked up about some girl calling you crazy, John… I'm starting to think that you might like her… was she pretty?" Claudia teased.
"Why does it matter? I'm not going into Port Charles anymore and I'm definitely not going to see that girl ever again." Johnny said.