A @metanoia & @spooner Collaboration featuring Jackson “Sonny” Drake & Julie MacMillian
As he pulled into the driveway of the MacMillan Manor, even though he had been here plenty of times before, Sonny still couldn’t get over the sheer size of it. Compared to his parents’ house, it was
massive. But then again, what else should Sonny expect from a family whose name in the fashion industry was equal to that of his father’s in the sports entertainment business or his mother’s in the overall business. They were fashion royalty and here Sonny was in his new Audi TT, sweating up to his neck hairs about to walk up the yellow brick road about to ring the doorbell and take the queen to the ball.
And while that sounded too stress-heavy than it actually was, that’s because it’s not as serious. Truth be told, Sonny wasn’t thinking about how nervous he was about fucking this up. He wasn’t thinking about how he was going to treat Julie tonight or even how he had a flowery surprise for both of them.
None of that was on his mind. What was stuck up there in his barely-utilized brain was something that happened less than twenty-four hours ago that honestly threw him and still gave him butterflies. Yeah, could you imagine? Is Sonny Drake actually getting butterflies from someone other than his girlfriend? Well, don’t tell Marisol that. The last thing he needed was another Victoire Bailey incident.
Date: Wednesday, February, 13th, 2019
Location: The MacMillan Manor, Crown Heights, Palm Beach, Florida
Sonny had spent most of the week traveling from his house and Julie’s house. Some days were spent with her going through his wardrobe and others were them shopping and finding a color that pleased her enough (Sonny was an innocent and willing participant in this experiment). The end result was a total repurposing of Sonny’s style, a makeover that cost more than his allowance of the past three months, and the sort of rigid, assertive, coordinated assault on his way of life that he expected from his own mother. And in a lot of ways, Julie MacMillan and Viola Banks mirrored each other in personality and the way they got shit done.
But Julie had one thing about her that Sonny hasn’t seen from his mother
yet: empathy for his suffering. So, after some last-minute double and triple-checking were finished, Julie, on Wednesday, which was going to be the last day they would meet up before Saturday, in what Sonny could only assume was her own guilt eating at her (or at least that’s what he told himself), he was treated to the Sonny Drake’s Favorite Food Variety Hour. Between the diner styled smash burgers, homemade potato wedges, twice baked potato skins, and a ribeye steak with a spicy dry rub, Sonny felt as phat as he knew he was.
“That was honest to god the best meal I’ve had in a really long time. Mom never lets me eat all of my favorites like that.” Sonny laughed, coughing and belching at the same time.
“Never thought my bar food favorites could taste so...luxuriously!”Julie just giggled as she re-folded the napkin that had been resting in her lap.
“Well you know sometimes you just need to add that extra touch! Do you want to take the leftovers back with you?” she asked, smiling before turning to face Claire, the MacMillan’s personal chef. She signaled that they were done and for her to start to pack up.
Glancing from Julie’s blue eyes to the spread of all the food that still remained, Sonny had to admit it was tempting to dig into some more of it but he was full from what he had just eaten.
“Yeah, that would be great!” He smiled at the redhead.
“This is way too much food and too delicious to go to waste and you don’t strike me as the type who would eat this as much as I would,” he laughed from his gut, so it was much deeper and louder than intended.
A pleased smile spread across Julie’s face as Sonny spoke.
“Great, I’ll have Claire pack you a bag.” she chirped. The slender girl stood up pushing her chair in after her.
“Do you want to sit down in the sunroom?” she asked, walking past the boy and into the other room without waiting for his answer. The sunroom was where Jason MacMillan had made his makeshift home office. It was a room with open high windows, letting in the Florida sun with the large white cotton curtain fluttering in the breeze with its ocean-scented air.
There were form fitters with samples for the MacMillan Fall 2020 collection spread across the room but in the corner stood a set of plush brown leather sofas and chairs surrounding a big oak coffee table. When they had settled down Julie crossed her legs and looked fondly at her friend
“Would you like an after-dinner drink? Whiskey perhaps?” she asked, gesturing with her hand towards a cabinet filled with crystal bottles with various liquids in them.
As the boy settled into the seat opposite of Julie, he relaxed and immediately his senses became overcome by the scent of the salty sea. Between that and the gentle rays of the winter sunlight, Sonny could get used to this form of luxury.
“Sure,” he said, answering Julie, not even he remembered exactly what she said. He was too fixated on feeling like he was at a spa or something.
She took her time picking out what to pour for her friend tapping the ornate bottles with her nails. Finally, her hand paused at one of them filled with an amber liquid from which she poured a small amount into an equally ornate glass and handed it over to Sonny. Julie then poured herself a glass and settled back down. She lifted her tumbler as a salute and took a sip.
“Quite good, right?” she mused smacking her lips.
He wasn’t used to whiskey or even hard alcohol as a whole, so when Sonny took his first sip, the alcohol smacked his throat aggressively with a strong burning sensation, causing him to cough a few times. Once it subsided, however, he took another sip and he tasted what Julie was asking about. It was strong and maybe Sonny’s palette wasn’t as refined as it should be to pick up on the deeper layers, but it was good.
“Oh yeah!” He nodded and held the glass in his lap.
“I haven’t tasted hard liquor this smooth. My only experiences were when me and Drea snuck my dad’s whiskey when we were younger but it wasn’t nearly as smooth as this is.” As he spoke, Sonny took another short sip, suddenly feeling sentimental about Drea, which showed as his smile inverted itself into a slight frown.
“Are you close to your sister?” Julie asked carefully sensing the shift in tone.
“I bet it must be nice to have her around when she comes home” she smiled
“I and my sister Iris are very close... “ Julie paused
“It’s pretty hard now that she’s never really home anymore. Right now she’s in Europe doing fashion week, and before that, she was in Shanghai doing a campaign.” she offered a weak smile.
“So I haven’t seen her physically in like a year.” she let out a small sigh.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..” Sonny glanced down at the caramel-colored liquor in the glass that was in his lap. The way he saw it brought a memory forward and he smiled.
“I can relate to what you’re feeling. Drea doesn’t live with us. She’s in New York, studying to become a journalist. I haven’t seen her in a few months. And there are times where I wish she was still down the hall. I,” Sonny, again, paused and looked up at Julie.
“I took her for granted when she was still living at the house. I got so annoyed with her cause she always left her makeup lying around and she had this bad habit of leaving her curling iron on.” Remembering how much they fought and how he grew to it being a regular thing, when it was suddenly ripped away from him after she had left for college, that’s when Sonny started to miss it. And maybe without Drea around, Sonny felt a piece of his life was missing.
“What’s Iris like?” He asked Julie.
“Funny how that is… not knowing how good you have it until something goes missing.” she mused. The redhead re-crossed her legs as if getting ready to tell a story.
“Well we’re pretty similar I would say… Well, you see daddy was always pretty busy so me and Iris had to pretty much take care of each other since my mother is pretty much… out of the picture.” she fell silent. It wasn’t many people she would discuss her mother with but she kept going
“But Iris is the one that taught me to be rougher around the edges.” she let out a little laugh.
“Without her, I probably would have never slapped Kavi at school” she pursed her lips at the memory.
“I miss… you know having her at a minute’s notice. But I talk to her every other night on facetime.” Julie took another sip of her whiskey before putting it down on the coffee table.
“And I have Chanel who has always been like a sister to me, April has re-entered my life now… And I have you right?” She shot him a genuinely warm smile.
Her last comment caught him off-guard and it was evident with how surprised he was but pleasantly so. There was something about Julie that reminded him so much of Drea, well when D wasn’t being infuriating. She was comforting, compassionate, yet told him the blunt truth when he needed to hear it. That was something he appreciated about her and was eternally grateful that he had a friend like her.
“Right!” He smiled, giving her a rare and genuine smile only so few have seen from him.
“Let me go look if Claire has finished packing your food.” Standing gingerly, she smoothed her dress before floating out of the room back towards the dining area.
Sonny stood in front of the twin glass doors and took in a deep breath. He didn’t know why he was so nervous, but he was and he had to shake off his nerves. Before he rang the doorbell because there was no way his sweaty palms were going to ruin the clarity of the door, he double and triple checked that he had everything.
“Keys, wallet, phone, gift....” Sonny patted every part of his jacket as he counted them aloud.
And so, as his right index finger pressed hard on the doorbell, he stood as straight as he was physically able.
As the doorbell rang a soft voice could be heard calling from the second floor
“Daddy! Could you get the door? I’m not ready yet!”. Jason MacMillan was usually at the office this close to revealing his new collection, but he couldn’t miss seeing his youngest daughter walk in one of his most precious creations.
Within a few seconds, the large man was at the front door slowly opening it.
Jason had a reputation of being quite the intimidating man and he was living up to it tonight. Towering over Sonny as he looked down at the young man.
“I expect you’re Sonny?” he asked stepping aside so that Julie’s date could enter.
Okay, erase every reason Sonny had to be nervous about, because as soon as he saw who opened the door,
this became the source of why he was having an internal panic attack.
Sonny walked in, side-stepping really, and stood about two feet away from this tall, clearly well-built man who, if he wanted to, could snap Sonny’s tiny form like a twig.
“Y-yeah! That’s me!” He tried to regain
some composure.
“Sonny Drake, sir,” he managed to say without stuttering.
The man looked Sonny up and down before giving the boy a small smile and shaking the trembling boy’s hand
“ Jason MacMillan“ he gave Sonny’s hand a tight squeeze before commenting
“Nice suit.” he winked before retreating back into his office. At the same time, his daughter was descending the marble stairs wearing a one of a kind
MacMillan dress and her red hair done up in an
extravagant hairdo.
When she reached her date standing at the landing her face went from excitement to worry when she saw the look on Sonny’s face.
“Are you ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost” she whispered.
Oh, just a large man with muscles the size of boulders. Nothing too serious. Sonny met her gaze, shaking off his entire body.
“No, it’s fine. I’m okay.” Yeah, now he was.
As he calmed his nerves, the teen was just now realizing how ...stunning Julie looked. He remembered how nice the dress was when she had originally shown it to him but the way it naturally complimented her skin tone and the curves of her body, and in addition to the way her hair was styled...Sonny wasn’t a beauty guru - he left that to people like Chanel and Stella - but even he knew when someone had put in the work and Julie certainly did.
“You look...breathtaking!” He found himself saying. If Sonny was speechless, man, he knew Rye was going to have a difficult time speaking simple words.
“Oh you’re too sweet.” Her eyes sparkled as she snaked her arm around Sonny’s.
“Shall we?” Julie asked as she tilted her head in the direction of her father's office.
“Bye Daddy! We’re leaving now!” She yelled out.
Hurried steps could be heard from within the other room. Jason stuck his head out and with one look at his daughter, the stern-looking man softened.
“Have fun kids! Try to not do anything stupid. I don’t want to pay for another wing in the library!” He laughed at his own joke as he once again retreated back into his work. Julie just huffed and rolled her eyes leading Sonny out of her house.
He remained quiet until he knew the door was closed. The closer they seemed to be to Sonny’s car the more relaxed he became. Truth be told, Sonny was still reeling from the feeling of dread he got when he saw Julie’s father but her smile helped him calm down. Before they would get inside his Audi TT, Sonny stopped a few feet away from it and turned to Julie. “I have something for you.” Sonny reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, transparent box with an elegant decorative ribbon on top of it. The box had
one white rose corsage and boutonniere inside it.
“I know it’s not traditional and this isn’t like a prom or anything formal like that, but,” Sonny’s cheeks shined light pink as he tried to find the right words.
“But you’ve been so wonderful and kind to me this week that I wanted to do something nice in return!” Her perfectly painted lip pouted and a small squeal left the girl.
“You’re so cute!” Julie exclaimed as she grabbed the small box. As she put the corsage on she inspected it. Normally this was nothing she would wear but since it came from such a good friend, an exception was made.
“Perfect!” Sonny nodded, smiling proudly.
Before they entered his car, Sonny rushed around the front and opened the passenger door for her. Even though he knew she was one of the more independent girls -- young women -- at King’s and she had plenty of feminist energy to spare, Sonny
wanted to treat her as well as he knew she deserved. This was a friend date, yes, but Sonny was dead set on treating her as properly as he knew she deserved. That and somewhere not-so-deep down, he feared if he didn’t do this, her father would manhandle him for not being a true gent. And fear a hell of a motivator.
“Thank you” she whispered as she entered his car.
“Hopefully this won’t be as big of a disaster as homecoming” she said as she carefully buckled her seatbelt so as to not create any creases in her dress. “But I’ve probably just cursed it haven’t I?” A small laugh escaped her as she settled in her seat.
Sonny laughed as he went over to the driver’s side and clicked his seatbelt. No way did he want to get a ticket or attract any unwanted, legal attention. He wasn’t Kavi.
“I wouldn’t worry. Everything that could have happened already did. I’m sure it’ll be a fun, reasonably-eventful night!” Sonny did his best to reassure Julie but as he slid the keys into the ignition and the German luxury car’s engine revved up, at the pit of his stomach, past the dread of Julie’s father, was an uneasy feeling slowly churning that maybe it
was going to be like Homecoming.
Oh, I sure hope not… Sonny thought as he pulled out of the MacMillan driveway, setting his sights on the open road and the country club.
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