Love. Hurt. Fame. A Niley Story

Chapter 1

It was a Friday early afternoon and Miley had taken the day off work to help Emily, her best friend, prepare her 19th Birthday party. Joe, her boyfriend, had a concert in LA and would head back to New York the next day. Miley couldn't help but think of the upcoming party. It was to take place at the Gray New York city townhouse. Her thoughts went wondering to the day she would be forced to see her former boyfriend, Nick Gray after a whole year of total silence. Miley decided to play it cool and stay away from him as much as she possibly could. She still loved him with everything she had but she had gotten accustomed to her routine and a life without him. She was dreading the day she would see him again because she knew the effect he had on her. It had taken her months to get used to living without him in her life and she wasn't about to throw away the progress she had made. She knew that she could be back to square one in a blink of an eye; she was still so fragile.

She looked over at Emily who was taking ticking what she had done on her list of things to do.

"Em, you know I really want to make it to your Birthday party..." Emily interrupted her immediately:

"Still thinking of the fact that you're gonna have to see Nick, are you?" She looked at Miley, raising an eyebrow. Emily was proud of the progress Miley had made in her life. She was at a good place and she only hoped that it would last.

"I can't face him Em... not after all the heartache and all these years." Emily gave Miley a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry Miles..." Miley knew she couldn't miss her best friend's birthday party just because she felt weak and vulnerable. She decided to be strong and face whatever she was going to have to face. For Emily's sake. Emily was looking forward to this party she was organising herself. With the help of Miley, of course. She wanted it to be simple yet meet the standards of the many celebrities who had been invited.

Two days later at Miley's apartment:

Miley was on the phone with the caterer when Joe walked in and Emily squealed as she saw him. She ran into his arms and he picked her up, spinning her around. Miley went to the other side of the room so she could hear the caterer on the other end of the line. She was so concentrated on explaining what Emily wanted to the caterer she did not even notice that two other guys had entered the room. Her back was facing everybody else in the room. She hung up and froze as soon as she heard a voice she knew all too well.

"We have a few days off". Miley slowly turned around and looked at him. Nick Grey was standing in her living room... a year after they had said their last goodbyes. Their eyes locked for a few seconds before she looked away and forced a smile.

"Welcome back Joe. Hi Kevin!" They came over and hugged her. Out of the corner of the eye she could see Emily trying to distract everybody so that she didn't have to face Nick. It was too late. He came towards Miley and said "Hey Miley!" He flashed her his gorgeous smile... And she smiled back genuinely.

"Hey Nick" They just stood there awkwardly looking at each other till Joe said:

"Come on guys! Hugging is allowed!" Typical Joe! She didn't know whether to thank him or kill him. Of course she wanted to hug Nick... She loved his arms... But she knew she would regret it... She didn't have time to think further because Nick opened his arms for a hug. She hugged him lightly and pulled away. There was an awkward silence so Miley quickly looked at Emily and smiled to hide her nerves going wild:

"The caterer is all set!" She saw Emily sighed with relief. Emily had been freaking out, saying that nothing would be ready on time. But things slowly started falling into place and she felt herself relaxing.

"Thanks for that... I don't know what I'd do without my personal birthday party planner"! Miley laughed. Joe looked at her and mouthed 'Thank you'. She could tell he felt guilty for being away and not helping as much as he could with the preparation of the party.

"Maybe I should switch careers!" Miley joked. She knew she had hit a sour spot. Her career. Part of the reason Nick and her had broken up.

As time went by Miley was surprised by how calmly she was handling Nick's presence. She was being myself even though the guy she loved was standing in the same room and giving her his full attention. She had a tendency of becoming nervous and saying stupid things in these awkward situations... But again... Nick and her knew each other too well. Emily's voice brought Miley out of her stupor:

"Guys if you want drinks, you know the way to the kitchen!" They boys walked off. Emily looked at Miley trying to read through her and searching clues to how she was feeling. Miley looked at her and smiled:

"I'm ok, don't worry." Emily smiled slowly and gave her an apologetic look.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't know they were coming so soon... and I didn't think Joe would be so clueless to bring Nick to your apartment!" Miley giggled. She was nervous, yet happy. Above everything, she had missed the brothers. They had been so close in the past!

"It's Joe! What do you expect?!" Miley laughed and went on "Don't apologise Em! I swear I'm ok... plus you have a million other things to worry about!" Emily giggled before saying:

"Not anymore now that you took over!" Miley laughed. It was good to see Emily relax a bit. She wanted everything to be perfect. "You looked so tired I couldn't let you do everything alone!!" Emily flashed Miley a grateful smile and whispered:

"You know I'm here if you wanna talk about Nick, right? If you are ok and if you aren't, ok sweetie?"

"Thanks Em. But I promise I'm alright as of now!"

The afternoon went by quickly... everybody was so busy with the preparations Miley didn't even have time to think of Nick and their past... Things seemed to be pretty natural. They all joked around the way they used to... She had missed all 3 of them...

"Do you still have a crazy schedule?" Kevin asked out of the blue. Miley's career had taken a sharp turn. From singing and acting she had gone to being a fashion designer in one of the most popular companies in the US. She saw Nick look up, eagerly waiting for an answer. She glanced at him and back at Kevin before saying:

"It can get pretty crazy. But it's mostly irregular... There are times when we have a lot of time to ourselves and others when so many retailers have demands at the same time... you have to learn how to juggle several contracts at the same time" Kevin smiled as he said:

"Sounds like you know what you're doing!" Miley shrugged and said:

"The Fashion world is pretty unique... I don't see myself doing this same job for the next 40 years!" Nick smiled at her randomly, or so she thought. Miley was puzzled by his behaviour. He had been really nice, giving her space when she needed it and being friendly when she wanted him to... ugh this guy was too perfect! She chased these thoughts out of her mind and reminded herself of the reasons why they had gone their separate ways. She knew that his love for music would never fade... and she knew he would never let his brothers down. Maybe if she had sacrificed herself and opened up at the time, just maybe... they would still have been together... She looked down and tried to push all these thoughts out of her head telling herself that she was torturing herself with all these unanswered question... She went to the kitchen to get something to drink. Joe followed her and sat down across from her.

"What's up lil sis?" She giggled. She loved it when he called her that... He smiled and then became serious:

"Miles are you sure you're ok with Nick being here?" She nodded slowly.

"I'm doing better than I thought I would..." He gave her a look and she saw his eyes narrow.

"You don't know how to lie so I know you aren't lying... and that makes me so confused?" Miley laughed. Joe could be so random.

"I'm ok Joe! Of course I have all kinds of thoughts running through my head... but I'm ok" He frowned.

"What kind of thoughts?" She shrugged and said simply:

"Things like where would we be if I had opened up and been honest with Nick... would things have worked out? Or was it really not meant to be and we made the right choice by going our separate ways? Stuff like that..." He smiled sympathetically but his expression turned into a smirk.

"Why don't you ask Nick?" Nick walked in at that second and asked:

"Ask me what?" Miley gave Joe a warning look and said:

"Nah we were wondering how you managed to curl your hair like that when everybody wants to straighten theirs!" Joe and her burst out laughing as Nick chuckled.

"Well that was random... and something tells me that wasn't what you guys were talking about... so come on... tell me!!" He looked at them expectantly, half smirking.

"I'm out of here! Good luck Miles!" Joe ran off as Miley glared at him.

Hey guys, please review if you want more! I promise the next chapters will be alot better!!

Xoxo