"the sun could shine or not shine all day & i wouldn't care"

Today is gorgeous, Miley thinks.

The sun is shining, a break from the unusual rainy weather of the past few days, and Miley is basking in it, her hair lifting and falling with the breeze. She should probably be wearing sunscreen, she thinks; if her mom knew she was lying out here without any, she'd be in trouble. Oh well, the lotion would stifle her tan and she really needs to brown up.

There's footsteps on the grass. She strains hard to hear them, tries to figure out who they belong too. Probably Braison or Noah coming outside for the sole purpose of annoying the shit out of her. Ugh, siblings.

There's a plunk, and then the mystery person lies down beside Miley, their arm touching hers lightly.

"Hello," Miley says, greeting the person without opening her eyes. She just feels so good right now; warm and cool all at the same time, the grass soft beneath her back.

"Hey."

Miley sits straight up as a cloud moves directly in front of the sun.

"Nick?"

He looks at her, his wicked beauty turning into a mixture of a smirk and a smile, a facial expression she's been associating with him for years.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can't an old friend drop in to say hello?"

Miley levels him with a stare, "An old friend? Yes. You? Not so much."

Nick rolls his eyes, "I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah," Miley says, because she doesn't really know where he's going with this and she feels uncomfortable all of a sudden. Yeah, they haven't seen eachother in a while. She hasn't spoken to Nick since Dallas, and the last time she saw him was at Elton John's party when she was sitting on Liam's lap, and yeah, that was... awkward, just really fucking awkward.

"So... how's life?" He asks, lying back on the grass, his head resting on his tan arms.

Miley mimics his position, "Busy, like always. Interviews, appearances, promotional stuff for the new record, finishing up Hannah."

"That's so weird," Nick says, and Miley watches his eyelids drift shut, "I can't believe it's ending."

Miley feels a pang of sadness in her heart, "God, me either. It doesn't seem like I've been wearing that wig for five years."

Nick chuckles, "Disney's gonna lose a lot of ratings once you're gone."

"Yeah, well, maybe your girlfriend can pick up the slack."

Shit. Miley can't believe she just said that. She would find a way to ruin a perfectly nice conversation; that's practically her thing by now. Miley bites her lip and waits for Nick to spit something back at her, but it never comes. He just smiles.

"Selena's not my girlfriend, and you know it just as well as she does."

Miley's confused because, actually, she didn't know that. They went on dates all over the place (Nick never took her out on dates when they were dating and she knows she should be over that and it shouldn't have hurt, seeing them golfing and shit, but it did. It did) and everyone kept shouting that Nelena was back, Nelena is back. And they sure looked like a couple.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nick looks at her, "You'll always be my first choice, Miles. Everyone knows that, even Selena."

And then he leaves, walks away as Miley's mouth drops open, her hands grasping the grass underneath her, trying to figure out what the fuck just happened.

"So, I was thinking we'd go out for sushi tonight? We haven't had it in like, three days."

"Sure, yeah, sounds good." Miley murmurs and Liam continues to talk, his cute little accent slipping around her, making her feel a little more settled.

Nick can't just show up and mind-fuck her like that. It's totally not okay; there she was, having a perfectly amazing day, and poof, there's Nick Jonas, arriving just for the purpose of screwing up her life. He has a habit of doing that, making everything all complicated. Miley's done with that, though.

She's so tired of keeping secrets and hiding and denying things that she wants to scream out for the entire world to hear. She's over Nick and his privacy issues. She has Liam now; pretty, honest, simple Liam, and she's happy.

Miley's happy.

So why is Nick the only thing on her mind right now?