[Continued from where I left off the previous chapter]

I continued to stare at Nick, wondering if our eyes would ever lock again. They hadn't since that day. I missed the way we would look at each other, lock eyes and have a conversation just through looks. The way my eyes would always find his when I was down. It was how I got the strength to pick myself up after I fell. I needed those eyes. I depended on them, I depended on Nick. How could you walk away from someone so helpless, someone so hopeless and alone? Who could do that?

I stared at him as I drowned myself in self pity, knowing how low it was. Just as the chorus to 'Highway to Hell' was approaching, Nick looked up. His eyes met mine almost immediately. My first instinct was to look away, like I always did in awkward situations. But this time, I just looked at him. He looked back at me. His expression was unreadable, and I assumed it was because he had so much going on inside his head. Oh, what I would do just be in his head for minutes. It must be so filled with thoughts and love and answers. He blinked twice, and I wondered if he was trying to speak to me. My eyes filled with hot tears, and I suddenly felt extremely greatful for being upside down. That way, the tears couldn't fall.

I didn't blink nor did I move, I just sat there, upside down and backward, staring into his eyes. Suddenly, he cleared his through and spoke. "Can I help you?" he asked me. His tone was aggressive and annoyed. I arched my eyebrows absentmindedly, racking my brain for something to say. Nothing came up. Instead of speaking, I picked up my iPod and changed the song to 'All The Way Up', turned the volume up and shut my eyes. Perhaps I would seem like a bitch for not responding, but I took that thought out of my mind and replaced it with a new one; all the way up, all the way down, never look back.

We arrived in New York nine hours later. I had spent nearly the whole flight listening to Selena vent dramatically about how much she loved life. Meanwhile, Nick and Demi couldn't keep their hands off of each other. They sat right next to each other, leaning in every five seconds for a kiss and every two to whisper something in the other's ear. Nick would laugh at everything Demi would say. He seemed genuinely happy. He held her little hand tightly the entire flight and shared iPod speakers. Only once did he turn his head and look at me, our eyes meeting for a nanosecond before he turned back around to Demi.

I studied them closely. Demi seemed so head-over-heels in love, I doubt that I ever even crossed her mind when Nick asked her out. Even though I knew what it felt like to be under Nick's spell, how it just captured the mind and hid it away from the rest of the world, I would never forgive Demi.

Flashback

I sat in the vast hotel room I shared with Selena in Barcelona, my head completely focused on my keyboard. My fingers dramatically ran through the soft keys, each creating a wonderful noise. I looked up at Selena as I did so, and she danced just as dramatically to my music. We both giggled and pretended as if we were performing for a royal family. The way Selena danced looked so effortless, her feet landing on the cold floor with barely a thud, her face glowing in the sunlight everytime she would spin and face the huge open window in which light poured in from. My fingers traveled along the keys, creating an odd but beautiful melody.

I gasped when the door suddenly flew open, revealing a tired looking Nick. I shut my keyboard but Selena continued dancing, only to reveal she hadn't been listening to my music at all; she had her iPod earphones in.

"Ever heard of knocking?" I asked Nick unneccesarily rudely, to which he responded by rolling his auburn eyes and approached Selena, pulling the earphones out of her head and rudely asking her to get out. Selena pouted her bottom lip at me and turned to Nick, probably ready to debate on whether or not this was fair. But Nick, who was clearly in no mood for games, closed the door on her, leaving just me, Nick and the quiet hotel room.

"Yes?" I asked him. I stood up and walked over to him, wrapping my arms across his neck, expecting a kiss. I didn't receive one. Instead, Nick pushed me off of him and sat me on the arm of the couch, standing over me protectively.

"Miley," he spoke, his voice echoing througout the room. I nodded slowly. "What happened to you?" He asked.

I was taken aback by his question, completely confused as to what he was talking about. I think he realized how confused I was as he answered the question for me.

"You've changed," he said. For a second, I was still confused, and then just as I was about to confront him about what I thought he was going to talk to me about (not answering Nick's texts, not answering Nick's phone calls, not bothering to have any sort of relationship with Nick for the past few weeks) but once again, he spoke for me. "You haven't answered my calls or my texts, you haven't even tried to come talk to me at or after concerts, and throughout the entire day that we are not rehearsing or performing, you're on that stupid keyboard writing God knows what!" he didn't yell this, but he didn't exactly speak it.

"Do you even know what you're talking about?" I asked him, standing up off of the arm rest he had sat me down on and approached him.

"I know exactly what I'm talking about," he said, stepping back but raising his voice. "This is about you having zero respect or acknowledgement for those who have been here for you this whole time! This is about you not even bothering to respond to all of our cards, not even bothering to show up at your own dad's funeral!" he yelled.

"You don't know what it's like!" I yelled back. I would have said so much more if I hadn't started balling my eyes out in front of him. Normally, I would have held them in to show Nick how strong I really was, how much I could keep myself together. But this time, I let him see all of my tears, feel all of what I'm feeling, because this is real.

"I don't care if I don't know what it's like!" he yelled and I prayed that Selena would hear and enter the room to save him from saying what I hoped he wouldn't say. "You are the one hiding away from everyone. What are you going to do, Miley? Eh? You're just going to keep it bottled up in you 'till the day you die?"

"No," I said lowly, wanting this fight to end.

"Well too bad," he muttered, "it's too late now. You had weeks to reach out to us, but you had to go and act like the bitch you are and not even give a fucking damn!" he approached me more, coming super close to me, probably only to scare me more. "It's too late now. I'm not waiting for you anymore. I'm done with being your security blanket at all the wrong times. I'm done with being completely used by you!"

"What the h-hell?" I yelled through my sobs, stuttering uncontrolably. "My dad d-dies a-and you're the one who's s-suffering? What kind of superficial j-jerk are y-you?"

"Oh, please," he spat, "if anyone here has self pity it's you and God knows it! Nobody's going to help you anymore, Miley. You wanted to be on your own? Well now you're on your own."

With that, I stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face, hoping it would hurt like hell. Nobody spoke to me like that.

I wasn't expecting him to be so violent, but he pushed me off, a litte too hard, and yelled, "get the hell out of my life! Just get out! We're over, everything's over!" He walked out of the room and slammed the door hard, clutching the place that I had hit him.

End of the flashback

I sat in my hotel room, my head totally focused on my keyboard, reminding myself of that day in Barcelona. Only this time, I didn't share this room with Selena. It was small and cramped, and there was no room for dancing. And I was in New York.

The only thing I actually liked about this room was that it had a balcony that over looked some dump street where lots of bums moped around, looking through trash cans. I sat out there, on a white plastic chair, you know the kinds that are usually used to look at some beautiful oceanfront? Well, I sat back in one of those, shut my eyes and took it all in.

Hi, it's the author. I know that this chapter is extremely boring, but I just wanted to get the break up out of the way so the real story can start. Thanks!