So I randomly wrote this out of nowhere at like 2am last night. I didn't do that much editing because I kind of liked the way I wrote it all at once without stopping. It's loosely (very loosely, aka only the parts I wanted) based on the song Together We'll Ring in the New Year by Motion City Soundtrack.
Nick looked around the body strewn room and shook his head. He wondered why he even bothered to show up at this party. It was completely not his scene. He had become somewhat of a recluse during the past few years, much to the disappointment of his friends. He still did the concerts and the meet and greets. He still smiled dutifully at the fans. But he couldn't remember the last time he had gone out without his publicist demanding it was necessary.
The passed out bodies of the celebrities that had been invited were tangled in random piles on the floor and Nick almost had the urge to take a picture and expose these people for who they really were. But he didn't. He shook his head again as he remembered the party last night.
It was now 2020, but Nick couldn't help but think nothing had changed. Changed for the better, that is. He racked his brain trying to remember why he had come again.
Then he looked down at the angel in his arms. Oh yeah. In his other pocket there was piece of paper that was worn, if only by his eyes and decisions.
You have been exclusively invited to
Demi Lovato's New Year's Eve Extravaganza.
8 hours earlier
9 pm and the party was just starting. Nick had already seen far too many people that he didn't want to see and had been asked way too many awkward questions. He was already considering leaving when he saw her sitting on the couch surrounded by a gaggle of girls chatting.
Nick gulped. It had been almost five years since he had been this close to her. Five long, lonely years. She looked older. But in a good way. Her hair was shorter and straightened. She had grown out of her messy tangle of curls and Nick kind of missed them. Her eyes seemed to shine brighter than ever before and her figure was stunning for someone who was on the brink of 30. It was selfish but Nick had almost hoped that she'd be miserable and depressed without him. Maybe she would be wrinkling already. But her skin was as smooth as ever.
His eyes slid to the martini glass in her left hand and he sighed. Then he saw her hand and his eyes bulged out of his head.
A ring.
Before he had time to comprehend what that meant there was a swirl of chestnut hair and blue eyes and he was engulfed in her scent and her arms.
"Nick!" she cried happily, "I didn't think you were really coming! I was beginning to think you were dead!"
Everyone chuckled at her comment and ignored the fact that it made Nick uncomfortable. But that was the way it had always been. And there was some kind of familiar-ness to it that Nick clung to desperately. She didn't let go but rested her hands on his chest as he let his linger on her waist.
"Miley," Nick said. The name itself felt good in his mouth. He licked his lips tried it again, "Miley." He smiled and his muscles felt like they were cracking. When was the last time he had smiled?
"We have a lot to catch up on," Nick added, eying her ring where it sat on his chest obviously. She noticed and cleared her throat. She let go of him and hid her hand behind her back slightly.
"Can we talk?" she asked, "Privately," she added seeing the guests were all staring at the ex-lovers.
Nick nodded. And she wrapped her fingers (of her right hand, Nick noticed) around his wrist and tugged him gently. She led him back through one of the halls until they got to a white pristine door. She let go of his wrist briefly and pulled a key out of her pocket.
"Demi's room," Miley whispered conspiratorially, "she gave me a key in case I needed to crash somewhere. She didn't want just anyone wandering in."
A bedroom. Breathe Nick, he told himself, just because she's taking you into a bedroom that doesn't mean anything. Five minutes and she was already sending his mind down the gutter.
Nick needn't have worried though. The door opened up to a small sitting room area. A set of French doors lead to the bedroom but they were closed. He should have known Demi would have something extravagant like that.
Miley moved quickly to the white couch in the middle of the room and patted the seat next to her. He followed her and sat down awkwardly. After all this time he didn't know how to talk to her.
Not that he had ever talked to her much anyway. She had always been the one who had done the talking. He had thought they both liked it like that.
"How're you doing? How's the music? Where have you been?" she questioned.
Nick's mouth felt dry. He had forgotten how curious she was. And how open. And how she expected him to be just as open.
"Miley," he said again and another smile broke across his face.
"God, I used to love that smile," Miley said reaching up and touching his face. Yeah, there was that openness again. Didn't she know how much things like that hurt? Didn't she ever think before she spoke?
"I missed you," Nick blurted out and reached up to grasp her hand in his lightly. He realized it was true. Despite the fact that she drove him crazy, he had missed it. Miley didn't pull away but her eyes darkened. Uh-oh. What had he done? He knew that look, she was about to chew him out.
"Don't say that," Miley said, her voice was deadly, like knives that cut right though him, "don't you dare come here after 5 years and lie to me."
Lie? She thought he was lying?
"I'm not-" he started, but as usual she interrupted.
"Because if you actually missed me you would've called. Or you would have tried to see me. Instead of just shutting yourself up and avoiding me like I was the plague. You were supposed to be my best friend," tears filled her blue eyes and Nick flinched at how familiar this was. Both of them sitting with his hand clutched around hers. Her blue eyes filled with sadness and hurt. He didn't know how but somehow he had hurt her again.
Nick ran his fingers over her knuckles but was stopped by her ring.
They both looked down at it.
"I waited for you, Nick," Miley admitted bitterly, "I waited three years for you to grow up. But I couldn't wait forever. I need... I need someone who can tell me how they feel without writing a hit song.
"I didn't think you'd just leave, Nick. I thought... I thought you might finally just tell me how you felt about us. Where you thought we were going. But you didn't. And you didn't come back."
A single tear fell down her porcelain face.
This was his chance. He couldn't tell her it back then. After their reunion in 2013, Nick had never been happier. Love song after love song had poured out of him, wowing the world. Nick had been at the top of his game. Four years, four years he had spent with her, never wanting anyone else, proclaiming his love for her through song in front of thousands of girls each night. He had thought everything was perfect.
So imagine his surprise when he had gone to see Miley after another successful tour and had found her sitting on the couch just like she was now. And how she had turned her face when he tried to kiss her. She had told him that she was tired of trying to guess what he was feeling and where they were going. That he needed to tell her. And if he couldn't tell her then he needed to leave.
He had tried. He really had. But things like that, they weren't easy for him. He wanted to tell her how he felt but his tongue had suddenly felt huge in his mouth and he couldn't. He wanted to tell her he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And have babies with her. But his throat had closed up as he tried to describe his feelings. How could he even begin to describe them anyway? A tear had fallen then too.
Tell her, Nick, he told himself. Now was his chance to redeem himself to her. He looked down again and the sparkly ring caught his eye. No, he couldn't. She was going to be married. She had found someone else.
At least that's what Nick told himself.
Miley wiped the tears from her eyes and composed herself.
"You'd like him," she said now with a smile on her face, "I wish he could have been here to meet you. Jeremy, I mean," she said looking down at her ring with a spark in her eye, "He's a good guy, Nick. A music nerd, just like you," she laughed.
Nick doubted it. That he would like him, he meant. What he didn't doubt was the love and adoration he had seen in her eyes. She was happy, without him. Miley made a move to get up and Nick panicked suddenly.
"So how have you been?" Nick said quickly. He hated small talk but he would do anything just to keep her here. She settled back down and smiled as she began the tale. Nick continued to ask questions about her life, her parents, and her siblings. He wasn't really listening to her stories but he enjoyed her voice and the way she laughed. Nick surprised himself by laughing too and sometimes adding his own anecdote. Time past quickly and before they knew it, someone was yelling "5 minutes 'til midnight!"
They both looked at the door but neither of them got up.
"I don't think I can stomach going back out there," Miley said honestly, "all the happy couples and random strangers hooking up. It'll just make me miss him..."
Nick shrugged. It wasn't like he wanted to be out there. He looked over to the mini bar and noticed a bottle of champagne. He could always pay Demi back for it later.
He went over and opened it and brought over two flutes. He poured them each a generous amount as the one minute countdown started. They listened to the guests shout out the numbers.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
"Happy New Year, Nick," Miley said and she leaned in. Nick's breathing stopped. She was going to kiss him. At midnight. And he wasn't going to stop her. He watched her plump pink lips and he thought about how soft they would feel against his. But instead of touching his lips, they gently grazed his cheek. False alarm. Of course. Miley had always been a stickler for fidelity.
"To the New Year," Nick said raising his glass and taking a gulp.
Miley gave him a look.
"You call that a New Year's toast?" she said skeptically. She filled his glass back up. Nick shrugged.
"Here's to a great year full of happiness, health, and wealth," Miley toasted, drinking her glass.
"To success," Nick toasted, filling hers up.
"To the least stressful wedding possible."
"To a new album and a new tour."
"To at least one blockbuster movie."
They continued to fill their glasses and make silly toasts until one time, Miley tipped it over and nothing came out.
"Oppsy, no more," she giggled, releasing a tiny burp. Nick laughed at her and finished off what was left in his glass. God, even after all this time she was so beautiful. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to do it so bad. She looked so loose and uninhibited as she lounged against the cushions next to him. She looked free, like the Miley he remembered falling in love with.
He could do it easily and claim that he was drunk. The party was still going strong in the main part of the house and he doubted Demi would be coming back anytime soon. He could kiss those pink lips and then pick her up and bring her into the bedroom...
As good as it sounded, Nick knew that he couldn't. He would never be that guy. He couldn't be the home wrecker that came between Miley and her fiancé. And even if she was single, he probably wouldn't have the nerve to do it.
Suddenly, her head was tucked under his chin on his shoulder. She cuddled up to him and stretched her legs across the rest of the couch.
"I'm so tired," she said yawning. How could he have forgotten? Whenever she drank she became drowsy. His fingers weaved their way
through her short hair and her eyes fell closed. In no time she was snoring softly at his side. Nick didn't want to get up and wake her so he closed his eyes too and drifted into a strange slumber.
When he woke up, it was quiet. Nick looked at his watch. 5 am. Miley's head was in his lap while he was uncomfortably sitting up. That was definitely going to hurt later.
After getting up and leaving the room, Nick found himself feeling detached from the rest of the party goers. Nothing had changed. As he left the sleeping bodies that had become the party, he wondered what he had been expecting when he came here. He knew he couldn't be the man Miley wanted, but maybe he had hoped she had changed. Because Nick knew he hadn't.
He found his car parked a little ways down the street. He got in and Miley's old parting words echoed in his head, "be happy."
Yeah, maybe after the next decade.
This must be it, welcome to the New Year...