They locked eyes. A moment passed as he waited for her to speak. Then, a sigh, and her shaky hands went behind her neck to undo the clasp of her necklace.
"This is my favorite necklace," she told him. "I want you to have it. Not-" She continued, cutting him off as he opened his mouth to protest, "-not forever. I'm loaning it to you. Just for a little while. You have to give it back, okay?"
She pressed the ornament into his hand and smiled.
It was a promise; her way of making a promise; of insuring that they would meet again. He realized this, and nodded, opening his mouth to try and say something-only to be cut off once more, this time from someone outside the room.
"Come on!" The person urged, "We're cutting it close enough as-is! We need to get going!"
He had turned when the person had started speaking, to the direction the voice had come from, and turned back now, to say goodbye to her. But he couldn't. She had left, leaving behind her only the small, black strawberry pendant he held in his hand.
Strawberries
Chapter One
It was well past 3am on a Thursday when Nick Jonas was startled out of his heavy sleep by the dream he had had. It had been so vivid…so oddly real.
Duh, he reminded himself, it was.
And it had been. It was a little over a month ago that it had happened, but the memory of it was at times so fresh it took hold of him in the same way it had when it first happened. That was what had happened tonight.
With a sigh of frustration, Nick rolled over onto his side and tried to go back to sleep. But his mind refused. Impatiently, he reminded himself that he had to be up in a few hours, and that he needed to get to sleep, but no matter how he tried, or what position he lay in, sleep eluded him. He only had one thing on his mind, and it didn't seem it would be going away soon, not unless he did something about it.
Finally, after having lied awake for the past half hour, futilely attempting to fall back asleep, Nick rolled out of bed and landed gracefully on the floor of their tour bus, close enough to see Frankie's peacefully sleeping face in the lower bunk.
A quick, surreptitious glance around the rest of the sleeping quarters verified that Joe and Kevin were both still, thankfully, asleep. A short sigh of relief left him, and he slowly slid one of the bunk's built-in drawers open. He pulled from it a shoe box; in it was a pair of sneakers he had loved when he got them, but only had the opportunity to wear once before realizing he had grown out of them, and one other thing. Nick's breath caught as his fingers brushed against it, before cautiously pulling it out. Light leaking in from under the doorjamb caught one of the rhinestones on it, causing it to sparkle prettily. He undid the clasp of the necklace and put it on.
Immediately, his racing brain quieted as it touched against his chest. He felt at peace, and the late hour caught up with him again. He yawned; once more feeling tired, and replaced the box, sliding the storage drawer shut before climbing back into bed.
He fell asleep easily, and did not wake for the rest of the night.
"Alright, then, one last question," the interviewer promised, shooting the boys a smile.
Nick smiled back, fingering absentmindedly with the strawberry around his neck. He and his brothers had been at this interview for the past hour, for one of those tween magazines that covered their every move. Not that he minded, much. Having your every move followed kind've came with the territory when you were a celebrity.
The interviewer opened her mouth to form the question, when her eyes caught sight of Nick and thought better of it. She closed her mouth and mentally figured out how to best phrase her question, before barreling straight ahead.
"So, Nick…what can you tell me about that necklace?"
Surprised, as well as a bit confused, Nick's brows knit tightly together. "What do you mean?" he asked for clarification.
The interviewer pointed at his chest. "That." she stated, "You've been seen wearing it more and more often and I'm wondering what the story is behind it. It's awfully feminine for a 15 year old boy to be wearing."
Nick blushed and looked down at the necklace in surprise. Thinking on it, he wasn't sure why he had worn it to the interview. It had just felt right. "You think so?" he asked, stalling for time. Of course it was feminine! A girl had owned it before him!
"C'mon, Nick, stop stalling," Joe nettled from next to him, "I want to know to!"
"Yeah," Kevin agreed, "You've had that thing for more than a month, and never once told us anything about it."
The interviewer's eyebrows shot up. "A month?" she inquired, surprised. It hadn't started showing up in pictures until a few weeks ago.
"Yep. But he hasn't started wearing it all the time until recently." Joe told her offhandedly, and then nudged his brother, "C'moooon, Nick, I wanna know!"
"Fine," Nick said, giving in, "I got it about a month ago, yeah. A…someone gave it to me. To hold onto for awhile."
"Could this someone have been a new girlfriend, perhaps?" The interviewer asked with a slight smirk. Romance was always a celebrity jackpot.
Nick flushed bright red. "No!" he insisted.
"Aw," Joe teased, grinning at the sight of his brother's face, "Little Nicky got himself a girlfriend?"
"No!" Nick insisted again, more vehemently.
"Of course not," Kevin said, "he would have told us, right?"
"Of course!" Nick replied, and before any more could be said on the subject, a phone went off.
Kevin pulled out his phone and stood, shooting Nick a look that clearly promised a talk in the near future, before going off to the side to talk.
"Sorry," he apologized as he came back a few minutes later, "Joe, Nick, that was Dad, we've got to go,"
The three boys shook hands with the interviewer and left. As they did so, Kevin and Joe wrapped their arms around Nick.
"Now," Kevin said tightly as they exited the building, "mind telling us what's really going on?"