AN-My sister is currently rehearsing for a talent show and the song she is doing has stuck in my head. 'Out Here on My Own' by Irene Cara, from Fame. The lyrics, for some reason, have led me down this path. This goes out to Tora, Jen and Kami-sisters forever because family is where you find it.
I own not one single thing connected to FNL. If I had enough money I would buy Tim Riggins for my very own, but that is beside the point.
A Texas sunrise was, by far, the most beautiful thing that Tyra could think of. It had nothing to do with the actual beauty of the moment, it was all about the memories. Week-ends at the lake with Tim, Jason and Lyla as they dreamed about their futures. Later on, waking up with Landry, happy in the future that she had achieved. Most of all, they reminded her of that long summer after Julie's graduation. That summer when Julie and Lyla had been her strength as often as she had been theirs. This particular sunrise was no different and Tyra was lost in her memories as she sipped her coffee on the back deck. The ring of her cell phone broke her from her reverie. Glancing at the name on the caller ID she was surprised. Flipping it open she said, "Hey, Mrs. Coach."
On the other end of the line Tami smiled at the nickname that Tim Riggins had bestowed on her all those years ago. "Hey Tyra, I hope I didn't wake you. I need to talk to you Hun, and I didn't want to miss you."
"Oh no, I've been awake for hours. Landry left for a business trip to Dallas at 5am this morning and his parents picked the twins up for their annual trip to Disney World. I'm just chillin' and enjoying the peace and quiet" Tyra replied.
"Well then, I'll just get right to it. Have you heard from Julie? She finished her last therapy session yesterday afternoon but none of us have heard from her since. Shelly said she left her a note saying that she was going home, but we haven't seen her yet and she's not answering her phone." Tami paused and Tyra could hear her struggling for control. After a few moments she continued "Shelly said that she's been looking at her scrapbook a lot. You know, the one you girls made that summer before she left for college. Do you think that could mean anything?"
An idea started to form in Tyra's mind but she kept it to herself. "I'll look into this for you. I'll call Lyla and we'll see what we can find out. I'll call you the minute I know anything."
She spent a few more minutes assuring Tami that everything would be okay and promising to keep in touch. When she finally closed her phone she went to the bookcase and pulled out her own scrapbook from that summer. On the cover was her favorite picture of the three of them. Julie was lounging in a lawn chair wearing Tim's rattiest Panther T-shirt and a battered straw hat. Lyla was in a chair beside her in one of her sundresses with a huge smile on her face and Tyra was sprawled on the sand in front of them in shorts and a tank top, raising a beer to the camera. They had just shared a toast with the guys and Tim and Jason's "Texas Forever" had been echoing across the lake. Every time she looked at the picture she could remember the exact feeling of that moment. It was the last day that the whole group had been together. Just two weeks later Tyra watched as Tim and Julie walked away from each other.
Tyra picked up her cell and dialed Lyla's number. An hour later she pulled into Lyla's driveway and honked the horn. Lyla came running out the door carrying a duffle bag and a small cooler. She threw her stuff in the back of the truck and climbed into the passenger seat. "Okay, let's go find Julie. Do you have any ideas if she isn't at the lake?"
Tyra shrugged "Hopefully that's where she is. If not, then we go to plan 'B'."
"What's plan 'B'?" Lyla asked.
"Heck if I know. Pray that we don't need it." Tyra drove for a few minutes in silence. "Hey, do you remember what made us start coming out here without the guys?"
Lyla smiled at the memory. "Yeah, I do. You were still in real estate school, I was home on summer break and Julie had just graduated….
Tyra could barely understand what Julie was saying to her through all of the tears. "Calm down Julie and tell me what's wrong. Tell me where you are so I can come and get you."
"I'm at Tim's." Julie replied through her tears.
"I'll be there in 10 minutes." Tyra flipped her phone closed and ran out to her truck. On the way to Tim's she spotted Lyla sitting in the park. Making a quick decision, she stomped on the brakes and came to a screeching halt in front of her. "Get in Garrity. Julie needs us." When Lyla hesitated, Tyra almost left her standing there, but something made her pressure the other girl into getting into the truck. "For Christ's sake Lyla get in , don't just stand there like a dumb ass. You're fixin' to make me mad."
"Why did you even stop for me that day? Didn't you still hate me then?" Lyla asked her with a grin.
"Must have been low blood sugar because I can't think of any other reason." Tyra glanced over at her with a smile. "Best decision I ever made, huh? Well, except for Landry."
Lyla propped her feet on the dash and pushed her hair behind her ears. "Ya know, I don't even know where I would be now if you hadn't stopped that day." She absently pulled at some threads hanging from the frayed hem of her Levi's. "Do you remember what Julie and Tim were fighting about that day?"
Tyra thought for a minute. "I have no idea, could've been anything. It's funny, I don't remember why we were rescuing her but I remember everything else about that day like it was yesterday"
Tyra pulled into Tim's driveway beside his truck. Looking over she could see all their camping gear still in the back of the truck and an idea popped into her head. "Wait here Jules, I'll be right back." She marched into the house to find Tim lounging on the couch watching TV. "Gimme your keys."
"What for?"
"Julie, Lyla and I are going camping and all the gear is in your truck. Don't make me hurt you, just give me the freakin keys and consider yourself lucky that I'm not asking you why she's out there crying and you're in here." Tyra stood with her hand out waiting for the keys.
Tim gave her a long look and decided that the best course of action would be to give in to her. He had seen that look many times before and it never ended good for him. Reaching into his pocket he tossed her the keys. She took them without a word and stomped out the door. "Change of plans girls. Get in Tim's truck, we're going camping."
Julie sat on the end of the dock, lost in memories of the last time that she'd sat in the same spot. As hard as she tried, she couldn't think of a time since that moment that she had been truly happy. She had spent the last 10 years clawing her way to the top in the world of journalism and for the last 3 she had been a war correspondent for Newsweek. She had lived and breathed dust and death right up until the convoy she was riding with took a direct mortar hit. Along with her cameraman and two other reporters that she considered friends, Julie had lost her own sense of self. They called it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as if giving it a name made it easier to deal with. She had submitted to the therapy to make everyone happy, but she had been counting the days until she could go back to the spot of her last happiness.
Tyra heaved a sigh of relief as she pulled up to the camping spot. "Looks like we won't need Plan 'B'. Get your game face on Garrity."
"I'm with ya. Let's go save our girl." Lyla jumped out of the truck and grabbed the cooler. She caught Tyra's glance across the bed of the truck and without missing a beat she called out to Julie "Get your butt up here Taylor, the tent can't set itself up."
At the sound of Lyla's voice Julie snapped out of her daydream and turned to look behind her. When she saw who it was she jumped up and ran down the dock to throw her arms around her best friends. The next few minutes were a chaotic mess as all three of them tried to talk at once while they were hugging each other. When they finally realized that not one of them had been able to finish a sentence they erupted into laughter. By the time the giggles had subsided they all had tears streaming down their cheeks. After catching her breath and wiping her eyes, Tyra felt like she could actually get a decent sentence out of her mouth.
"Julie, call your mom. Don't argue with me on this one because I promised her you would call when we found you."
While Julie made the call, Tyra and Lyla set up the campsite. They had done it so many times that it was second nature and they could accomplish it without words. When Julie had finally convinced her mother that everything was okay she ended the phone call and let out a big sigh. Conversations with her mother still had the ability to reduce her to a small child. She went to help with the set-up but found the other two girls already settled around the empty fire pit. Without even thinking about it she plopped down into her favorite lawn chair just like she had never been away. As she glanced around she noticed the truck that Tyra and Lyla had come in. "Isn't that Tim's old truck?"
"Same one" Tyra told her. "We've all put so much money into fixing it that we probably could've had a brand new one by now, but we can't bear to let that one go. It's the official camping truck, so we all use it whenever we come out here."
Julie took another good look around and said "This place looks exactly like it did the day that I left. How is that possible?"
Tyra and Lyla exchanged a look and they both knew that they were thinking the same thing. They were wondering if they should tell her the whole truth. They had been friends for so long that words weren't needed for them to come to a decision. The whole truth and nothing but the truth would be told, anything else would be wrong.
"It's like this, we own the place. The whole 50 acres on this side of the lake. Actually we all own 1/6th of it." Lyla told her.
"What do you mean by 1/6th?" Julie asked her.
"Me, Jason, Tyra, Landry, Tim and you. We each own a share, for the last 6 years." Lyla answered her.
Julie was stunned, how could that be possible with out her knowing anything. "How can that be? Wouldn't I have to pay taxes or something?"
Tyra and Lyla exchanged another look, this one caught by Julie. "Just tell me, you've come too far to stop now."
"Tim pays your share on the taxes and upkeep. The land didn't cost us anything because it actually belonged to Buddy all along, so he just transferred it into our names." Tyra told her.
"Tim pays mine? Why would he do that?" Julie asked quietly.
"He does it because we all thought it was important for you to be a part of it but we knew you weren't ready to deal with any of it. We always knew you would come back, someday." Lyla told her.
"Yeah, we knew" Tyra said with a laugh. "You can take the girl out of Texas…"
Julie and Lyla joined in to finish the sentence with her "…but you can't take Texas out of the girl."
Julie shook her head in amazement. "All these years of phone calls and letters and you two managed to keep this a secret. I don't know what to say."
Tyra shrugged her shoulders and said "We didn't want you to feel pressure to come home." When she saw the tears spring into Julie's eyes she reached out to take the her hand. "Don't feel any pressure now, either. We're always your friends, no matter where you are."
"It's not that" Julie told her. "I just feel so guilty for staying away for so long. I was so afraid to come back, but now that I'm here I can't remember why. I've really missed you two. Whenever I was down and feeling blue, I would just close my eyes and think of this spot and that last summer. This place feels like home."
"Why did you leave? What were you so afraid of all these years?" Lyla asked her. "I mean, we always knew that it had something to do with Tim, but he won't talk about it and you've always avoided it."
"Apparently today is the day for full disclosure" Tyra quipped. "So, let's hear it sister."
Julie thought about what she wanted to say for a few moments before she spoke. Maybe it was the time to finally come clean. "I left Tim because I didn't want to be one of those girls who spends all their life trying to change a man. I didn't want him to change for me or because of me, that's not the Tim that I wanted to love. I wanted to leave Dillon and he wanted to stay, that's the argument that we had most of that summer, if you recall. What I never told you is that he offered to come with me." Julie paused and looked at the other two girls. When she saw the compassion and understanding in their eyes, she continued. "That's when I left, I just couldn't do that to him or to me."
"Well, Julie Taylor, I think that you have a time of revelations ahead of you. A whole lot has changed in the last ten years. Some of it is going to knock your socks off." Tyra told her. Sensing that Julie was close to being overwhelmed with the past, Tyra steered the conversation to safer places and the three best friends spent the rest of the day reconnecting.
So, is there any interest in this story? I have to resist bringing Tim in right away because my original idea is to explore the friendship of the three girls. I have an ultimate destination in mind but I could take a few different roads. If you would like to see something specific, let me know and I'll try to work it in.