She doesn't know why she watches it. She doesn't even want to think about why she even knows he is supposed to be on Ellen today. It has been a a long time and she shouldn't bother to know what he's even up to and she was doing so well and with everything going on she just didn't have time to think about him. But now…if it wasn't for that damn song. Wedding Bells. Just reading the title she knew it was about her, because that is what they do. They write songs about each other and put them on worldwide selling albums for everyone to hear. Or at least that's what they used to do.
She doesn't blame him for writing about her, even if he's not supposed to anymore, even if it was a long time since he even had a reason to write anything about her, it's okay. She gets him, it's what they do. Liam is furious and thinks it's a PR trick and if he didn't already loathe Nick, he sure does now. But she knows better, because she's an artist too and she would like to think that if the roles were reversed, if he was about to marry someone that wasn't her, maybe that old lady she still can't understand why he was even with, she would have written a song about it too.
And besides, he did say that he wasn't having those feelings anymore, that it was just the initial reaction, and that it was just something he had to get out of his chest. So it's okay. She doesn't blame him for anything, she did write 7 things after all, which was, in her opinion, much meaner. And the whole Seventeen magazine interview, not so nice that either.
But none of those things are the point; the point is that after she found out about that damn song, she's sucked in once again. So that's the reason why she's sitting alone in front of her TV, with her dogs by her side and Liam far away shooting his movie, watching Nick Jonas play Pictionary. Like it's just…normal or something. She could be doing a thousand different things at this moment besides watching her ex-boyfriend make a fool out of himself on television. Because that's what he is doing, contrary to popular believes, apparently Nick Jonas isn't spectacular at everything he does. But she already knew that, which isn't weird considering she spent her all of her teenage years being in love with him. She remembers playing Pictionary with Nick, Joe and Kevin and whoever else was around at the back of an old tour bus, being fourteen and not having a care in the world. That was always Joe and Kevin's favorite game, because Nick always sucked at it. If it was one thing he couldn't do, it was draw. That did please them an awful lot. But only for a little while, because the more in love they fell with each other, the closer the got and eventually they understood each other so well they didn't even have to use words to know what the other person meant. By the end of the tour, she and Nick won every round of Pictionary, but not because his drawing skills had gotten better.
After the show is over, she finds herself reaching for her phone, pulling up a text message and she even gets to typing the whole thing out before she stops herself. She has to remind herself that it isn't 2009 anymore, she can't just text him. They don't do that stuff anymore. Still, lately…She finds herself thinking of stupid silly things she wants to tell him, like she used to and it still hurts in that weird way in her stomach when she remembers that she can't.
But maybe she can make an exception, for one time only. She did spend half an hour watching the show, she can at least say something. She knows it is an irrelevant argument and it's stupid that she's even talking to herself about it, but she still presses send.
That was a perfectly good drawing of an iPhone.
She just sends him that, out of the blue, like it's crazy and stupid and what is he going to think, what does he even has to say about that and-, She finds herself having a minor heart attack and when her phone vibrates a few minutes later, she thinks she's about to have an aneurism.
I know. We always made the best team.
She chokes a little on her own spit because she doesn't know how to react to his text. She wasn't expecting him to go all out like that, make her feel all those things he so easily made her feel before by sending something so suggestive and just…like that. She wasn't expecting it at all. She doesn't know how to answer, knows any reply is walking into dangerous territory, but she can't not answer him.
How are you?
It is lame, she knows it's lame. But whatever, she doesn't know what else to say, anything about the song and how he doesn't want to love if it isn't her makes her dizzy. Anything about her getting married on their day is just being stupid. How he is the only thing she can ask him without having to think twice about it. It is just a polite thing to ask. That's what people who haven't heard of each other in a while ask each other, that's what friends do.
Are we really doing this?
The thing is, they were never really friends. Even if they weren't always together at times, it was always something more and he knows it. She does too, that's why she gets knots in her stomach when he calls her bluff.
What do you mean?
It's a coward move, but she gets antsy when the minutes starts ticking by and maybe he doesn't, like, mean what she thinks he does. Maybe he'll play along. She snorts to himself, because it's Nick. He doesn't play along for anyone; she of all people should know that.
I know you've heard the song and I also know that you know that I'm in town right now, while Liam isn't. It says everything.
She can't help to feel a little hurt at that, how he thinks that the only reason she is reaching out it because she's feeling lonely without her fiancé. Maybe it's true, but maybe it's also true that without Nick Jonas in her life, she always feels a little bit lonely. Reading his text over and over again, she gets more and more convinced that she wants to see him. To talk about well, everything. After all, she did say that if he texted it she would delete it…
Could you come over? Just to talk about things.
When the screen lits up to let her know that the message is sent, she feels like she just walked through a fire, because her entire body is buzzing with fear, excitement and just a little bit of everything. She feels brave, but also stupid at the same time. Really stupid, like so stupid it probably ends up on the list of the most stupid things she has ever done. Thinking about it, a lot of those things involve Nick. Like sending him half naked pictures, dating a stupid underwear model just for him to notice or calling him Prince Charming in her book and write a whole chapter about their relationship.
7 minutes exactly goes by without any reply, which is kind of ironic if you think about it, so ironic that she is starting to think that he's just going to ignore it and pretend like they didn't even talk to each other for the first time in months today.
I'll come over after our show.
He's coming. He's really coming. All though he said after the show and the show was supposed to end an hour ago and he's still not here, maybe he's changed his mind maybe- She doesn't have to panic for long, because when she is convinced he was just playing her, the doorbell rings. She bolts up and rushes to the door, halting in front of it, feeling a blush creep upon her cheeks at her eagerness. She takes a deep breathe, smooths her shirt down and opens the door.
He still looks like the same boy she fell in love with all those years ago, he still has the same brown curly hair, the same freckles on the left side of his face, probably the same crooked smile even though he isn't smiling with his teeth at the moment, of course he's not. He has that stupid tight lipped smirk on, that makes him look all mysterious and desirable. She can tell he has recently showered with the way his hair is curling in that way it always used to do after a shower and how his body is still wet in in some places. She's transformed into being thirteen again, when she used to sit on his bunk bed and wait for him to get ready after a show, so they could kiss and cuddle one last time before they had to go sleep in different beds.
"Hi Miley."
It's been a really long time since her name left his lips and she shivers and resists the urge to close her eyes at the sensation. Instead she steps back and lets him walk in, which he awkwardly does, probably because she hasn't greeted him yet, which is weird, she knows that, she's just so entranced by him and that he really is right in front of her. Like in the sense that she could even touch him, if she wanted to. This is the moment she wished for thousand times, all those years ago when she would beg him to come. It stings that it has to be now, when everything is changed.
"Miley?" He looks at her with raised eyebrows, almost looking concerned, like something is wrong with her.
"Uhm, yeah, sorry, do you…want anything? Like water…tea maybe?" She deadpans, mentally slapping herself and wishing she was smoother than this, but she's never been that kid, always the happy go lucky girl without a mouth filter who constantly got into awkward situations because of it.
"…Since when do I drink tea?" He says, teasingly, just like he always used to do, to help her out of the stupid situations she puts herself in. Everything is just so familiar and weird and good at the same time and just crazy. Because if someone would have told her a year ago that Nick Jonas would be standing in her kitchen at night teasing her, she would have laughed and told them no way in hell.
"Yeah, right..uhm, well then…how was the show?"
His eyes lits up and he starts talking about the one thing that Nick Jonas could go on about for hours : music. He tells her how amazing it felt to be on stage with his brothers for the first time in three years, how it felt to hear the crowd drown out everything but the music, how it finally felt to feel right for once in a really long time. She nods and grins, because she knows exactly what he's talking about, that rush, that throbbing feeling you can't get anywhere else but on stage.
That's the thing that connects them to each other, their love for music…and each other. At least that was how it used to be. She ignores the stinging pain that comes with the thought of all the things that used to be, the deep in her gut pain when she realize there isn't one single thing that she can come up with that is still the same as it used to.
Sitting beside him, cross-legged in her living room sofa makes her miss him more than she has in a really long time. Even though he is sitting right beside her, even though he is closer to her than he has been in years, she misses him so bad it wrenches in her stomach, almost making her whimper. She misses the thing they are doing right now, the most trivial thing of all, having a conversation about music. She misses him in her life. He belongs there; she knows it, even though she's been trying to push it away the last three years.
"Why did you write the song? No, I mean, I know why you wrote it…why did you sing it in front of the whole world to hear? Was it some PR-trick, to get the buzz up? Tell me the honest truth." She finally says, getting into the inevitable part of the conversation they both have been waiting on for the last twenty minutes, the same part that none of them really wants to have, but both know they still have to talk about.
"Why did you put all those songs about me on your albums? You wanted me to hear them. I would never ever…not when it's you. "
"That's different, we were going back and forth every week at that time…that was the only thing both of us wrote about then."
"Well, it might be different for you now, obviously…but it isn't for me." He tells her in this thick, vulnerable voice that she's only heard a few times in the past, the last time being when she broke it off with him in Georgia. She can feel tears building up behind her eyes, because it hurts seeing him like this and all the hope building up in her chest makes her want to sob until she can't breathe, anything to get away from them. It can't be happening again, she has been so good and she's been doing so well keeping Nick Jonas away from her train of thoughts.
"I, Nick…"
"You don't have to say anything. I'm sorry for singing the song like that, and I really tried to not make people think that I-, I mean I even had that speech prepared! I was hoping it wouldn't affect you or your relationship. But I'm not sorry for the song, I was just being honest." He says quietly, but firmly, letting her know that he is being nothing but honest. She feels her heart beating a little faster at the fact that he truly didn't mean to create trouble between her and Liam, when she knows Liam wouldn't care less about hurting Nick or putting him in a bad light for the press. But still. Why does he have to let her know that song exist now, why not when he wrote it, months ago, when it was crucial? He says he doesn't feel that way anymore, but she finds herself wanting him to, because if she would have known back then…
"Why are you doing this now? Why not when I first told you about the wedding? You told me you were happy for me, I believed you! If you would have, maybe I would…" She manages to stop herself before she gets any further, feeling embarrassed for almost letting him know something she has known since she was thirteen, that it is impossible to fall out of love with Nick Jonas.
"You'd what? Not go through with it? Yeah right." He snorts sarcastically, suddenly sounding angry, which makes her pissed, because if anyone has the right to be angry, it's her. She is about to bark some snarky remark in his face, but when she looks into his deep brown eyes she doesn't see anger, she sees heartbreak, watery dull eyes and rejection. So instead she bites her tongue, sighs and looks down into her lap.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to be selfish, I had already hurt you so many times in the past and I didn't think you needed to have my feelings on your conscience when you walk down the aisle…" He mumbles, sounding strained, something she knows he always does when he is trying to keep his emotions at bay.
"And then the song just…poured out of me, you know how it is…and it's the most honest song I've written in years. The song really turned around our recording process, because the sound and lyrical play and everything…it just fit with everything we're trying to create. I couldn't just not use it and I guess it just proves how selfish I am…how much I don't deserve you anyway." A tear slips from his eyes and she balls her fist to prevent them from reaching up and wiping it away. She knows how much it takes for him to be this vulnerable, to lay himself out to someone like this. It's not something he does easily and it just makes her feel for him even more.
"Oh Nick…I'm sorry, I don't know what to say…" She clears her throat, focusing on anything but his hurt expression that's just begging her to give in and she has a feeling that if she looks into them, she will.
"It's okay…just, why did you text me, why bring me here? We could have done this over the phone."
"I know, I just…I miss you in my life, it's crazy because we used to talk all the time and I could be myself with you, I didn't have to care about being stupid because I knew you would still lov-, uhm…be my friend. It was just real and I miss having real in my life." She tells him, flushing a little at the fact that she almost said the "L" word, but not saying anything but the truth, but at the same time not knowing what she's hoping she's going to get.
"I miss you too, all the time, I mean, I'm trying to see the light instead of you in white…" He lamely jokes, shrugging his shoulders in this fake careless way that makes her winces.
"Let's be friends then. Like, you got a tattoo! I never thought I would see the day." She exclaims, still feeling uncomfortable shivers run down her spine, but doing her best to ignore it. She knows it's kind of stupid to change the subject like that, but she doesn't want him to leave, she would do anything to keep the conversation flowing, it is after all the most real one she's had with him in a really long time.
"Yeah, I know…it just felt right, I guess. I really like it too. And you cut your hair and bleached it and just…it really suits you. It's really…Miley." He tells her, smiling shyly and pushing his arm out in front of her, titling it so she can see his tattoo. She looks down on the black ink imprinted on his skin and reaches out to touch it.
"Thank you, I just wanted to do something crazy, just for me…" She tells him while she touches her index finger over the words mercy that will now be on his arm forever, stroking it lightly and loving the feeling of his warm skin piercing through hers.
"You still look as beautiful as ever." He whispers and she tenses, lifting her blue eyes to meet his brown ones, which is suddenly looking a little darker than usual. When the words falls over his lips, it is as if everything is suddenly clearer than ever. He is still the same guy who blushes a little when he gives her a compliment, he is still the same guy that has unbelievably nice eyes, especially when he's looking at her like he is doing now…lustfully, he's never done that before, but boy does she like it. He is still the same guy with pouty lips that she knows taste amazing and he is still the same amazing guy that she used to love over everything else.
"Please kiss me." She says out of the blue, surprising herself, but not really, knowing that when she invited him over, he wasn't going to leave her house without anything happening.
"..W-what?" His eyes widen, like he didn't expect that at all, even though the air around them is charged with need, tension and want.
"Please just kiss me, you can't come in here and tell me all of these things and make me feel all this stupid things for you again and not just-" He shuts her up by pressing his lips fiercely against hers, swiping his tongue over her bottom lip making her gasp and him taking advantage over it. Her heart beats faster than ever and there is no doubt he can feel it too, because his chest is right up against hers and if she concentrates hard enough, she is most certain that she can feel his heart wanting to burst out if his chest, too. She tangles her fingers in his out growing curls, a familiar feeling that sends a warm stirring to her stomach. He removes his lips from hers and lays a sweet, gentle kiss against her forehead. She flutters her eyes open, meeting his whom are with no doubt searching his for any sign of regrets and she knows he's seen that there is none, judging by the happy smile that spreads over his face and showing of his crooked teeth. And yes, they are still the same as when he was hers. Her stomach feels squirmy, because even if everything is different, everything about him is still the same.
She motions for him to lie down beside her, which he happily obligates too, pulling her into his chest and holding her tightly, as if he's afraid she might disappear. She presses her face down into his neck, inhaling his sweet scent mixed with the same cologne he has used for years.
"I love you." She whispers against his warm skin, smiling, coming to the conclusion that those words are as true today as they were when she first said them back in 2006.
"What did you just, uh…say?" He tenses, almost like he is sure he's imagining things, she moves away from her place tucked under his chin and sits up so she can reach up and stroke his scruffy cheek with her fingers.
"I. Love. You. I loved you when I was thirteen and I love you now. I don't know why, but falling out of love with you is impossible, I should know, I've tried so many times." She giggles at his flabbergasted expression and reaches down to plant a soft kiss on his lips. He breaks out into the biggest proudest grin she's seen him wear in a long time.
"Wow…I love you, too. So much. I'm never going to let you go again, you're stuck with me forever now." She nods, approvingly, because she wouldn't have it any other way.
"So…do you wanna play Pictionary?" He suggests after a whiles silence and she laughs, in that loud and kind of obnoxious way only she does, expect it's more real and raw than it has been in years.
They always say that a heart is not a home, without the one who gets you through the storm.
So, this I'm not that proud of, it starts of good but I think the ending turned out kind of bleh. Hope you like it anyway! And please check out my other story, Don't come back for me, reviews make me write. :) However, the next and last part will hopefully be up by Monday.
So what do you think? Thank you for reading at least and have a good day/night depending on where you are. :) xx
