It was a quick yet urgent call.
A call that was long enough to show Demi Lovato that something was wrong.
There was trouble in paradise.
Silently, she placed her phone down on the table in front of her, her eyes remained strained on the object that sat in front of her, yet her fingers worked on scratching at the nail varnish she had previously painted black earlier on that day.
Absentmindedly she sorted through all of the scenarios in her head that it could possibly be.
Had she done something wrong? No, he would have called her out on it over the phone.
Was he going to break up with her? She could only hope not, although, she had previously seen him break up with an ex over the phone before, so surely this would not stop him from doing it again, he wouldn't need to meet up to talk then, would he?
Or was this different because not only were they dating but they were best-friends, permanently glued to one another's sides... maybe, he wanted to let her down easy... just maybe.
But the urgency in his voice told her otherwise; it told her that there was something he was going to reveal to her; almost like a secret and from the tone in his voice, she could tell that whatever it was wasn't going to be pleasant.
That's what she feared most.
Her nervous thoughts were almost getting the better of her and yet she tried to focus on the past, on the memories she had shared with him as keep sake of sorts.
She had met him in fall 2007 on the set of Camp Rock; they had hit it off the first time they met; thus beginning their friendship.
From then on they were inseparable, no one or nothing could break them apart. They toured together, wrote songs together, acted together; they were pretty much as the saying goes, two peas in a pod.
All until 1st April, 2010.
When Demi admitted on The Billy Bush show that she was indeed dating Joe Jonas, her best friend, she doted on him, she praised him, he was perfect, at least to her.
There first official couple appearance together was on Ryan Seacrest where they both admitted they were taking the next step, evolving their friendship into a relationship. She even confessed that although she never wanted to believe it; the feelings for him were always there.
This she knew would never change. Her feelings for Joe would always be the same, whether they fought, disagreed or argued they always made up in the end; she would always love him, even if she wouldn't admit to it.
Demi's train of thoughts were interrupted as she heard her front door knock.
Slowly, she arose to her feet and walked towards the door; she dreaded what was to come.
Pulling it open, there he stood; he was dressed in a white v-neck, the same white v-neck he had previously worn to the kid's choice awards with Demi on his arm. He had on his signature blue skinny jeans, Demi looked at him, from head to toe, style wise he looked good, but his facial expression told her otherwise.
His hair was left messy, sort of like he had got out of bed and not bothered to do anything to it; she knew that wasn't like Joe, he would spend endless hours on his hair, only to moan if anybody touched it... besides her. He had a pink tinge to his cheeks, feeding off either embarrassment or...
But then she caught it; his hand ran through his messy hair that was his sign of nervousness.
She reached out for him, but instead he side stepped her, walking straight into her house.
She found that unusual, Joe always properly greeted her; not once had he rejected her embrace, except for now.
That just made matters worse; clocks were now beginning to turn in her head, maybe she had done something wrong, she had started to second guess herself.
Wordlessly, she followed him into her living room, only to have him stare at the ground.
She stood still, her hands slightly shaking, sweating as she rubbed them up and down her black leather shorts, something she had also previously worn on a date with Joe.
"I think you should sit down, Demi."
It was the first time he had spoken, and it only made her feel even worse, he only called her Demi when it was something serious, or they were arguing, other than that she was known to him as 'Dem'.
Reluctantly, she sat down on the sofa, eyeing him as she did so, her hair falling over her left shoulder as she tilted her head to the side; what could possibly be wrong?
"Is everything alright?"
The three words that had been haunting her ever since the phone call had slipped out of her mouth; sort of like word vomit, they were now surrounding them, almost taunting her.
She watched on as Joe sighed, his head bowed ever so slightly so that she could only see a glimpse of part of his face, which showed a rather sad expression, he merely shook his head, his teeth sinking down into his bottom lip.
"No," He mumbled.
Demi couldn't take it any longer, every little question was eating away at her inside, she needed to know what was wrong, and she didn't know any other way of finding out besides asking.
"Joe, what's wrong?" She asked, her voice was thick with concern, so much so he lifted his head to look her in the eyes.
"You're going to hate me forever, Dem." He whispered; guilt was displayed across his face, she hated seeing him like this.
A tiny piece of her heart skipped a little at the use of the nickname; however, the rest of her heart dropped to her stomach, hate him forever, why would she ever hate Joe?
"I could never hate you," She replied, finally admitting it to him and to herself, it was true, Demi could never hate Joe, no matter what he had done.
He shook his head, glancing down at the floor and letting out a hefty laugh, "How can I not expect you to hate me? After all, I hate myself for even doing this." He breathed out, Demi didn't reply; what could she be expected to say, she didn't have any idea as to what was going on right now.
"Just promise me, you'll hear me out... you've got to promise me that." His desperate plea fell on deaf ears; She nodded, however, didn't promise; she couldn't promise anything.
"Our relationship; it's..." Joe sighed as Demi prepared herself for the worst, "It's just for show." And the worst came.
Just for show? Demi thought, how could their relationship be just for show? This confused her; yet terrified her at the same time.
"You used me?" She finally asked, her voice unsteady, emotions already taking over.
"It wasn't like that; it isn't like that," Joe gushed, "I didn't use you Dem,"
"Don't call me that!" She screeched her nose flaring as anger took over, "Don't call me that." She whispered, with a calmer tone.
"Please just let me explain," Joe started, Demi was ready to cut him off but Joe spoke up again, "Camp Rock Two's coming up and we needed all the publicity we could get..." He trailed off, hoping that just somehow Demi would understand, hoping she could see where he was coming from.
"So, all of this, us, your feelings," She paused briefly, looking down at her hands, her fingers going back to chip off her nail varnish as she tried to blink away the tears that were now forming, "were fake..."
"You have to know that I was doing it for all the right reasons, Demi, this film-" Demi cut Joe off, she didn't want to hear his reasoning's, never had she ever had anyone be this hard hearted and cold; how dare he do this to her.
"You knew that I had strong feelings for you and yet, you used this to your advantage... you used me."
Joe didn't say anything, he couldn't say anything because all of what she had just said was the truth, he had used her to his advantage, he did know that she had strong feelings for him.
"Maybe, I was the fool, I should have known it was too good to be true; the way you held me in that grocery store, when I kissed you but all you seemed interested in was the flashes of the cameras that were going off outside. I should've known." She couldn't stop the tears any longer, she couldn't stop the lump in the back of her throat from growing, her emotions had complete control over her body, she had never felt so alone.
She didn't know who she could trust anymore.
Joe didn't make any effort to move and comfort her; he just sat there, looking at the ground, he couldn't stand to see her upset, not knowing that he was the one who had caused this.
"You have to believe me Demi, I wanted to tell you, I really did, that's why I'm here now, it was killing me inside, I couldn't do it, not any longer." His voice broke midway through the sentence,
"It's a little too late," She spat, he needed to know how she felt, how she felt so used, she paused as a single tear cascaded down her cheek, she made no attempt to wipe it away, "I'm starting to second guess our friendship, were we even friends? Or was our whole friendship based on lies? Was our entire friendship nothing but a publicity stunt?"
"Don't say that." Joe seethed; how could he be angry, Demi thought, when she was the one who was hurting.
"How can you not expect me to question it, Joe? You were the one who I trusted, I told you everything, you were my rock... I didn't think you could ever be this shallow,"
Joe flinched at the use of the past tense phrases; all hope was lost.
Demi thought about it; she thought about the time she had visited him, when she told him she had developed feelings for him, the look on his face when she said she wanted to take it to the next level; a relationship.
She thought of how there was no objection on his part, how the look in his eyes were telling her he felt the same and most importantly how he confessed to her how he wanted this, he wanted their relationship to become official, he wanted to go public.
All of it was lies. He was a fake, a phoney. He just wanted this movie to be a blow out; he didn't care about the feelings involved, or how hurt she would be.
He knew she had problems in her past, he knew how insecure she was, how she didn't know who she could trust and how she hated the fake people in this business. Yet, he still managed to become all of the things she despised; a liar, a fake.
The remains of her heart was telling her to forgive him, to remember all of the good times, the memories, it was listening to his side of things, but her head was telling her the complete opposite, to delete him from her life; he had caused her pain, he was all of the things she hated. She'd be damned if she listened to her heart.
"GET OUT!" She shouted she couldn't deal with him any longer, the constant battle between; heart vs. Head was tearing her apart. It was destroying her.
She wanted him out; she wanted him out of her life forever.
"Demi, please." He craved for her forgiveness, for her to tell him that everything was going to be alright, but deep down he knew inside, nothing would go back to how it was before; he had completely wrecked their friendship, they were now mere strangers.
"If you have any ounce of compassion left, you'll leave," She whimpered as the tears rolled down her cheeks, her throat dry and scratchy.
He did as she requested and walked straight out of the door... out of her life.