Before the Storm
Prologue
.Miley.

January 1st, 2008

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

Times Square erupted into deafening cheers and applause. Beside me, Brandi and Noah blew their noisemakers, along with the boys, who also broke into crazy dancing.

And I sat in a lawn chair, silently, with my head in my hands, acting anti-social, like I usually don't.

"Are you okay, Miley?"

I looked up at the youngest of the brothers and put on a fake smile for him. "I'm just awesome, Frankie." I ruffled his brown hair. "You excited for the new year?"

"Yeah!" he exclaimed, his face spreading into a wide grin.

I smiled back. "Great."

He nodded, smiling, and ran back to Denise. I sighed, and laid my head back into my hands, as a couple of loose tears ran down my cheeks. I wiped them away with the sleeve of my white sweater, and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

"Still depressed over Nick?"

I kept my eyes down, looking at my black heels.

"He misses you, you know. More than you can imagine."

I sighed. "Joe…"

He pulled up a chair and sat beside me. "Miles, I'm just telling you what you need to know."

"I don't care, Joe. I don't love him anymore."

"Miles, look at me."

I reluctantly raised my head to meet his brown eyes. "What?"

"Then why'd you write those ten pages about him?"

I arched an eyebrow at him. "What? Who told you about that?"

He sighed. "Brandi told me."

I jumped up and opened my mouth to yell my older sister's name, but Joe stopped me.

"This isn't about her, Miles. It's about you and Nick." He paused. "Besides, she's just trying to help."

I sighed again and looked down. "Joe, you're making the new year crappier than it already is."

He grinned a lopsided grin and apologized. I glanced over at him, my elbows resting on my knees and smirked. "You look like Abraham Lincoln."

He kept smiling. "Yeah, but Abraham Lincoln wasn't a studmuffin like me."

For the first time in two weeks, I laughed.

Nick looked over at my loud giggling, and we locked eyes. He smiled at me, and despite how I was feeling about him, I returned the smile.

Joe broke out into a happy dance.

CRAPPY FIRST CHAPTER. xD
But they kind of have to be. xDD

Thanks so much for reading this!
I'll update hopefully within the week.

Thanks again!
:D