"Well hello!" said a cheerful Stacey.

"Um, hey. How are you so energetic right now?" replied Dawn.

"I sleep when Zack sleeps" she answered.

"Lucky you. Thanks for letting me call you this late."

"Is everything alright?" Stacey asked. "How is River? Ben? Are they ok?"

"Yes, of course. Everything is fine with the fam, Stace. I just had a very interesting dinner with my parents last Friday and I kinda need to vent about it" she said.

"Oh, ok. Well, go for it" said Stacey.

"Weeell..apparently Jeff's out of jail."

"Oh REALLY? Wow!" exclaimed Stacey.

Dawn continued on. "..he's been out for about two years now, talking to my Dad and Carol the whole time and they never even told me about it."

"Oh hell. Are you kidding me?!" said Stacey angrily. "Why wouldn't they tell you?"

"Carol claimed I 'didn't need drama in my life' but I still think they should have told me" Dawn answered.

"No, you're right. They should have told you" she agreed. "I'm sorry about that. How are you feeling about him being out?"

"Oh, I'm not even done" muttered Dawn.

"Oh boy.." replied Stacey.

"He's getting married!" she exclaimed.

"Married?" said a stunned Stacey. "To..what?"

"Ha!" laughed Dawn. "That's kind of what I was thinking too. So anyway, hes getting married in 3 weeks and he wants Ben, River and myself to attend. Sunny too, but not sure if she will."

"Wow" said Stacey for a second time. "Are you going?"

"I'm not sure yet. I am going to let him come over next weekend with his fiancee though. So we'll see how that goes. I'm just a little torn. Mary Anne, my mom and Sunny think I should just suck it up and go for the family. I just wanted to know what your opinion is."

"Well, I'm pretty much like you and kind of a grudge holder. Remember when you brought him along to that party at my dorm? What was he? Like 15 or something?" asked Stacey.

"Oh yeah.." replied Dawn.

"That little shit stole $20 from my purse AND one of my needles!" she exclaimed.

Dawn shook her head, remembering the incident which devastated her to find out her brother was shooting drugs too.

"So you know MY thoughts about the situation but family is important too. So you definitely need to be there for your Dad and Carol. Your mom and Richard too. It's really unfair to say but I think it might make YOU look like the bad guy this time around."

Dawn sighed and said "You're right" before she heard crying in the background.

Bummed knowing that she'd now have to end her short phone call with her friend, she said "someone's awake."

"Yeah. He probably needs a bottle" said Stacey, who paused for a second before asking "so you said you're meeting with him this Saturday?"

"Yeah" she replied.

"Why don't you come up and visit on Sunday, then? Are you up for driving to L.A.? I'd love to have you over for lunch or something."

"Hmm..I think I can do that."

"Awesome. I'll talk to Dave. Claudia too. You sound like you need an escape" she said.

"Yeah. It would be nice to not think about this for a day" said Dawn. "I'll call you when I can figure out the times."

"Sounds great. Sorry to cut you off so short but I'll talk to you soon" said Stacey and she hung up.

That definitely put Dawn in a better mood and even though she was dreading the meeting with her estranged brother, now she at least had a nice day with some great friends to look forward to.