I'm sorry that I made you wait eight days for this, but here it is! Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I've decided there's going to be at least one chapter per episode, so sometimes there's not much to work off of but this way you can imagine there was at least some missing Nick/Macy moments if you ever rewatch the episodes. ;) This one takes place in episode three, Slice of Life. After Nick approaches Stella and Macy to ask Stella for advice, Stella calls an emergency Jonas meeting. Three seconds later they're in a different part of the school, Macy has on a different outfit and she's carrying different equipment. So I can't help but to ask, how did Nick and Macy get there? I guess we'll find out.. By the way, Stella clearly ships Macy and Nick. Enjoy!
The aroma he carried was an unusual mix between that of warm apple cider and the bitter frost that hangs in the air before snowfall. Macy began wondering about how it was possible for him to have this contradictory smell, because she knew very well that he wore the scent of Polo Black by Ralph Lauren cologne (she was the president of their fan club, after all, so she could justify her knowing this) but there were no traces of that on his skin. She also noted that his eyes were rather striking up close, more so than they were when she was admiring him from a safe distance. It wasn't until she felt her arm graze against his that she realized how close to him she was actually standing. Her cheeks colored, realizing how uncontrollably she'd jumped to his side when he'd said to Stella, "I'm trying to get close to a girl."
He shot her a look of annoyance, and she could literally feel her heart sink. He'd never looked at her like that. On the contrary, out of all the brothers, he was the most calm about her (not so occasional) fangirl moments like this. Somewhere she knew that he didn't intend on hurting her feelings, that he was just exaggerating to get a point across, but the look was painted clearly, directed only at her, and her thoughts ran cold.
"A specific girl," he spat, and she silently took a step back. Stella couldn't suppress a smile, and Macy couldn't help but notice. For a moment she wondered what was going through her head, but ended up shaking it off because the actual Nick Lucas (who'd just snapped at her, by the way) was still standing less than two feet away from her.
Nick continued on to Stella about how he had a crush on some girl that two other 'Mac Daddies' also had their eyes out for. If her limbs weren't frozen, as they usually seemed to be when she was in the vicinity of a member of Jonas, she would've just left because she felt so out of place. Instead, she could only stand still and offered nothing but her presence as they conversed.
"Wait a minute!" Stella exclaimed. "My Stella senses are tingling."
As Stella's face grew a dramatic demeanor, Macy could imagine the bold beat of a drum that, had they been in a movie, would have been played in the background of this sudden theatrical moment. Apparently, Nick experienced the same notion because he'd begun looking around for the source of the sound as if it were real and not just in his head.
"Would these two Mac Daddies happen to be Kevin and Joe?" she asked knowingly.
"Mac dang it, you're good," Nick replied.
"Emergency Jonas meeting in three, two, one!" Stella announced loudly, but when she was finished counting nothing had changed and the three just stood there in an awkward silence.
"You do realize that nothing actually happened right?" Nick whispered to her, breaking the quiet. Stella remained upright and waited for a few more seconds, but still nothing happened and she finally turned around dejectedly.
"I'll get Joe," she mumbled, "and you guys go find Kevin. Meet us back here in five minutes."
Within an instant, she was gone and Macy was left alone with Nick and a difficult predicament at hand. On the one hand, she could just follow him silently and continue feeling out of place until they found Kevin and she could sneak away. The problem with that was that once she was in the presence of more than one Jonas there was definitely no way she could get her legs (which would definitely have turned to Jell-O by then) to carry her away. Also, she wasn't sure if Nick even wanted her there, especially after the way he'd spat at her. The other possibility was to just leave now while she thought she could.
Yeah, the second option sounded good.
"I, uh," she tried to think of a decent excuse, "I have to go to the sports department and get my archery equipment," she announced meekly. She decided it was a good justification, because she had to get her equipment some time that day anyway, so she didn't feel all too bad about leaving. Besides, he probably didn't even want her there anyway, she reminded herself. Turning on her heel, she started toward her destination and away from him.
"Wait," she heard him call from behind her, "I'll go with you."
Her feet froze momentarily in shock, but she somehow managed to get them back into motion after a second. Granted, her strides weren't as long as they were before, but at least she was moving.
Once he reached her side, she looked up at him with curiosity written clearly over her features. He found it sort of funny that no words needed to be said and just by giving him that one look, he knew that in a way she was asking him why he followed her (for a second time, actually - the first being when he started following her to her class after their run in at the school store).
"Well, Stella told both of us to find Kevin," he explained. The curious look on her face had diminished slightly, but it was clear to him that he hadn't done a very good job at justifying himself to her so he added, "I've learned to always listen to Stella. If I don't, things tend to get messy."
"Oh, uh, okay," she obliged quietly. Part of him expected her to laugh her classic I'm-only-laughing-because-my-celebrity-infatuation-just-made-somewhat-of-a-joke giggle, but he was surprised to see that she remained silent and there wasn't even a trace or remnant of a smile on her face. For some reason, it was extremely unnerving to him.
"So uh, you like sports, huh?" he asked in an attempt to strike her interest, gesturing to the clubs she was carrying in a rolling golf bag.
"Y-yes," she replied softly, her eyes remaining ahead.
"What's your favorite?" he offered, making sure to line his voice with a tone of interest. She took a breath and he was sure that he'd gotten through to her, but she'd only exhaled slowly and shrugged.
Finally his curiosity got the better of him and he asked bluntly, "Is something wrong?"
"N-no," she replied quickly, her voice coming out in a squeak. She cursed herself on the inside for stuttering (again) but she really couldn't help it because the actual Nick Lucas was walking less than a mere foot away from her (again). Still, her body remained straight as she walked, her eyes fixed forward. She was convinced that if she did this for as long as possible, he'd give up on her and she could finally get away. Part of her wondered why he'd even come this far, because most people wouldn't have even followed her in the first place. Maybe he really was just afraid of what would happen if he didn't listen to Stella, she figured, but somewhere she knew that he was only (half) joking when he'd said that. Still, she decided that his initial reason for following her wasn't important and what was important was that any second now he'd inevitably leave her side.
But ten seconds later, and he was still there.
Thirty more seconds passed, and his steps were still matched with hers.
A few seconds after that, she realized that he wasn't intent on leaving, and she sighed dejectedly.
"I'm sorry that I always injure you and your brothers," she said, realizing that she at least owed him an explanation for her behavior. "And I'm sorry that I always forget about your personal space or whatever," she added, thinking back to a few minutes before when she'd stepped so close to him and he'd snapped at her.
"You don't injure me," he stated simply before adding, "that much anymore. I mean, you just missed me with that golf club earlier when I walked up to you and Stella, but I dodged it," he pointed to the driver sticking out of her bag.
Macy only smiled in response, and a few seconds of a (not totally) uncomfortable silence passed before she realized that he'd said "me". When she apologized, she'd addressed him and his brothers, but when he responded he didn't say, "You don't injure us." He said, "You don't injure me." And for some reason, her heart began to dance. It made her unbelievably happy to know that he didn't talk to her like he Nick of Jonas, the boy band she'd been obsessed with for years, and that he didn't talk to her like she was Macy Misa, the boy band's number one fan.
He talked to her as Nick, and treated her like Macy.
"All of them," she said suddenly, softly in a daze.
"What?" he asked in his normal tone, pulling her gently out of her thoughts.
"Oh," she jumped, realizing that she'd probably just confused him due to her lack of self control - she accidentally spoke her thoughts aloud too much, she realized. "It was n-nothing," she added, shaking her head.
"You sure about that?" he asked, his brow furrowed.
"Well, you asked me what my favorite sport was," she tried to explain, her voice coming out barely above a whisper. She embarrassedly cleared her through and said louder, "My favorite is all of them."
"Why?" he asked, and it made her heart do another flip in her chest because somewhere she knew that he hadn't just asked for the sake of conversation, but because he genuinely wanted to know. While her heart remained pounding, she was faced with the seemingly impossible task of not only rationalizing why all sports were her favorite, but also figuring out a way to describe it to Nick of Jonas, who was staring at her expectantly, waiting.
Okay Misa, just don't stutter. Whatever you do, do not stutter and furthermore embarrass yourself in front of Nick of Jonas.
"Well," she gulped. "It's like, people know who I am but," she could hear her voice starting to shake, so she stopped and took a small breath, "they never really notice me. When I play sports it's like," she paused to take another shaky breath, "it's the only place where I can be the center of attention. I can be the one that people notice," she shrugged, trying her best to explain herself but feeling like she was coming up short. She looked over at him momentarily, the blood rushing to her cheeks when she realized his gaze was locked on her thoughtfully. "I don't think I'm a star or anything like that," she corrected quickly, suddenly realizing how shallow she could have possibly sounded. "I mean, I don't only play for the attention," she added. For a moment the realization that she was talking to Nick of Jonas - or, even just Nick - about a personal part of who she was flashed across her mind and she felt her knees give in a little, but she somehow managed to continue. "I guess it's just that when I play a sport, no matter what sport it is, there's this feeling I get that I'm just-"
"On top of the world?" he finished for her, and she turned to him in surprise.
"I get the same feeling when I'm on stage," he explained simply, and she nodded in understanding before looking away. Other than that he didn't say anything in response, only sort of nodded slowly as if he was still processing something. She accepted this as a response because it was something and a something from Nick Lucas was just that - it was something.
"So, Ms. Snark didn't actually call your coaches and get you suspended from the teams because you were late the other day?" he brought up, already knowing the answer.
"Well, when I walked into class she told me that she was going to but," she paused, her nose crinkling as she thought back to that day, "the next day she acted like it never even happened."
"Weird," Nick commented, suppressing a smile but feeling relieved that he calling Ms. Snark to tell her that it was his fault that Macy was late had worked, and that Macy didn't even seem to have the slightest inkling that he was the reason Ms. Snark had forgotten all about it.
"We're here," Macy said suddenly, pointing to the double doors of the entrance of the sports department. "You really don't have to wait for me," she turned to face him, but her eyes remained on the floor. "I don't want to make you and Kevin late to the meeting."
"Just don't take five hours," he joked, his feet remaining planted in their place. Her cheeks turned a light crimson and she started walking toward the entrance.
"I'll be right back, then," she smiled cheekily over her shoulder before jogging through the doors. He couldn't help but smile at the way she still looked graceful as she jogged, her feet moving quickly yet softly like a gazelle. It wasn't until the doors had closed behind her that he realized he was actually waiting outside for a girl. He never waited for a girl. He always thought that girls who make a guy wait for them weren't worth it, because they were probably just testing the guy to see if he actually would wait and if they were testing him then that probably meant a whole lot of stupid games were in the near future. If any other girl - like, say Penny - had asked him to wait while she changed her clothes, he probably wouldn't have waited for her, even while he was infatuated with her.
But Macy? She was different. He didn't know why she was - she just was.
"Nick of," he heard her squeal suddenly, breaking him from his thoughts. "Nick! We only have one minute until we have to meet Stella!"
"Don't worry," he reassured, taking note of the archery equipment she'd thrown over her shoulder. "I know exactly where he is," he explained, and he didn't take her hand but he did tap his fingertip against the back of it as a gesture for her to follow him. She pretended not to notice the way the veins underneath the skin he'd grazed went cold after he'd returned his hand to his side, the way the nerves went on a frenzy.
The next thing she knew they were at the atrium and Nick had opened the door, leaning closer to her.
"It's like his place," he whispered as he gestured to Kevin, who was sitting on the bench inside with his eyes glued to the grass. "He's convinced that the school actually lets bunnies roam free in there or something."
"Oh," she laughed in response, and it didn't take more than a half of a second for Nick to realize that it was her first genuine laugh. Sure, there had been giggles and hardy laughs whenever Joe did something stupid, but they weren't real laughs. He knew that she only laughed then because she felt she had to and she would do just about anything to impress them. But this laugh, it wasn't for show. It was real, and he liked it.
And for some reason, he smiled.
"Kevin of Jonas," she called, not noticing his smile. When he turned to face her, her mouth opened to continue but she could form no words after their eyes connected. It was all she had in her not to faint.
"Stella's holding an emergency Jonas meeting in less than a minute," Nick explained for her, and Kevin shot up off the bench quickly. He pushed through Nick and Macy, who followed after him in a mild run. They rounded a few corners and got to the front steps just as Stella and Joe were arriving.
"Phew," Macy said quietly, more to herself than to anyone. Nick looked over at her and she gave him a sheepish smile. His arm brushed against hers and he joined Kevin, who'd already sat down on the stairs and was awaiting the beginning of the meeting. Stella looked on for a moment, shifting her gaze between Macy and Nick before repeating for a second time, "Three, two, one," and turning around abruptly.
When Stella had finished giving her perspective of the boys' predicament, she called the meeting to an end and told Macy to follow her. After saying some silly remark about pizza over her shoulder (because sometimes she still couldn't suppress her need to impress them) Macy joined in step with her best friend.
"So Macy," Stella began knowingly, "do you have a favorite Jonas?"
"Are you joking?" Macy deadpanned.
"No," Stella shook her head innocently.
"I could never pick a favorite!" Macy exclaimed, appalled at the question.
"Well, who have you spent the most alone time with?" she asked, a knowing smile adorning her features.
"Nick," she admitted in a mumble, her hand covering her mouth to muffle the name.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Stella leaned closer, cupping her hand over ear.
"Ugh," Macy rolled her eyes (somewhat) jokingly and crossed her arms across her chest. Stella was well aware that Macy wouldn't respond to anymore questions she would ask, and only smiled calculatingly at her best friend.
So, thoughts? What did you like? What didn't you like? Feedback = better story. :)