KMJ Gone Girls'

JoJo's POV

Four years later...

“You're really okay with this?” Aunt Sherry gives me another once over.

“Of course, Mom,” I squeeze her stiff shoulders, “I'm social media influencer Jojo Dukes of the KMJ Gone Girls', not psycho stalker Dian Fibarthorn.” 

“You know we'll call this off the moment you say the word.” Uncle Will chirps from the back of the car. 

I look back at the Manhattan Mansion and I don't feel any itch. 

I won't miss the nosy neighbors who gossiped about the mysterious couple and their dour-eyed kid that moved into the huge house they'd been eyeing or the enormous space in the house that was always void of humans or fun memories.

I won't even miss my biches. Speaking of, my screen lights up and I see two new messages from our group chat.

A wide grin splits my face. 

Mal: @Me, U gon yet??? I need me ur logins to get these for our next vid. (sent a pic) Moscow has some crazy ice skates. 😏😏😏

Ken: I miss u Jo 🤧🤧🤧

Me: Not❌❌❌ on ur deathbed @Mal 

Me: Ah miss you too loli boo😚😚

Mal: @me miserly Bich. And stop PMSing Ken, she ain't dying. yet.

Ken: Shut up Mal 🙄

Me: Yeah, shut up Mal 🙄

Mal: yeah shut the hell up, Mal🙄🙄

Me: Dumbass

Ken: Crazyass

Mal: Admit it, u biches are obsessed with my ass😝😝😝

I grin like a toothless fool until someone coughs and I see Aunt Sherry staring at me with a small smile.

“Time to go!” 

She draws me in for a hug, “Promise me you won't lose that smile.”

“I promise… Mom.”

With a soft nod, we turn to the Mansion one last time and she squeezes my hand as we stare at our home for the last four years. 

“Let's go,” she murmurs and we head into the automobile that would take us back to where it all began.

                                                            ..…

Contrary to my plan to start anew, things went downhill after we moved to Manhattan. Aunt Sherry was always at the hospital, Uncle Will's Construction Company got swamped with contracts and their twins had gone off to college leaving the house empty half the time and I just couldn't endure the silence. 

I fell in with the wrong crowd and stopped therapy. I skipped classes and went drinking and pot smoking, the adults found out and I got shipped to an uptown rehab for the summer and that's where I met my other halves, Mal and Ken. 

Mallory swung a baseball bat at the head of her sister's boyfriend after learning the asshole had tried to assault her sister. Her actions earned him three weeks in the ICU, a slap on the back by her Dad, and a summer in rehab for anger management issues.

Kendrick was traumatized after her obsessed Ex kidnapped her and tortured her in his family basement for twenty-three days before she escaped. Her socialite parents quietly sent her to rehab because they couldn't handle the stain on their pristine reputation. Their loss.

We bonded like three peas in a pod and became one inseparable unit that at the end of that summer I cried thinking that was the end of our friendship as I packed my stuff, soon we were bawling like three broken fourteen-year-olds, then Kendrick sniffed and suggested we enroll in the same school. Three weeks later we were students of The Trinity Girls Academy, a Catholic boarding school in Connecticut.

It happened on our second friendship anniversary when we'd snuck out of our dorms during lights out and were on the old church rooftop, munching on forbidden snacks and slurping spiked punch when Mallory cleared her throat.

“When I was six, my Uncle would sneak into my room in our vacation home to touch me,” her breath hitched, “He threatened to touch my sister if I ever said a word to my parents and I believed him.” Her voice thickened with self-loathing, “Five years I let him use me. He called me his little whore.”

As we soaked in the silence, Ken spoke, “I never told Lady–her psychiatrist at rehab– but Fin (kidnapper Ex)… when his friends watched, when he hurt me, even when they hurt me… he always made sure I… came. Then he'd laugh in my face and say I enjoyed it, that's why I'd come. He called me… filthy words and made me believe I deserved it,” she shudders, lost in her memories, “That day, I saw an empty can of Gatorade and ripped it in half and was about to use the rough edges to— he caught me. He was so furious—,” She began convulsing so Mal and I held her, muttering soothing words to calm her.

Then I spoke up, “I used to be Dian Josephine Fibarthorn until my parents died…” I told them everything that led to my parent's deaths, the bullying at school, and how I blamed myself for it.

“What about your boy crush?”

“He never came. He deleted our chat, called me a deranged stalker… because I'd mistakenly referred to him as my boyfriend to the cops,” I sucked in a shaky breath, “The town blamed me for my parent's death while kids at school called me a psycho stalker. His Mom filed a restraining order against me but that wasn't enough so she filed a lawsuit for inflicting mental damages on her vulnerable only offspring.”

There's a minute of silence before Ken observes, “Men suck.”

“Yeah.” Mal agreed and brought a straw to her lips.

The idea hit me like a lightbulb, “What if we got our revenge on them,” 

“On who?” Mallory asked.

“The ones that hurt us,” Kendrick answered.

Mallory, always ready to cause mischief, grinned, “Tell me about it.”

And thus “the plan” was born, we brushed up our image and became KMJ Gone Girls' social media influencers. We had to become ‘fashion faves' from Kendrick with a mix of 'goth chic fire' from Mallory.

It took us a year and more of breaking civil laws, doing crazy stunts, and being a headache to our parents to reach over six million followers on our socials. 

We needed an adult on the team so we chose Uncle Will. After abducting and tying him up in his garage, we threatened to reveal his slip into old gambling habits to Aunt Sherry –which we did– he agreed to help us out, after painstakingly confirming we weren't going to end up with a dead body. Or dead bodies.

He convinced Mallory and Kendrick's parents to let them have their senior year with us in California. Kendrick's parents weren't an issue because they couldn't care any less but Mallory's dad was a bit difficult because he's a world-class MMA fighter who's super protective of his girls. Her Mom was all for the adventure but she made Mallory promise to phone and Skype every day.

Aunt Sherry was stubborn about the move though she'd recently been promoted to director of the ER ward in California. She was about to reject it when Uncle Will convinced her about getting closure for me yada yada.

Oh, we're getting closure, we're going to take our apologies from the assholes that thought they could ruin us and we're starting from Sabbel.

Watch your back Kingston, because the Gone Girls are coming for you.