Disclaimer: I do not own JONAS or Sonny with a Chance.

A/N: I know that this story is crawling forward in the romance department, but it seemed necessary when I was writing it. And a special thanks to MissNata13 for sending me the prompt for this chapter (pick up lines). I used Portyln to avoid putting the name of a real celebrity in the story (paranoid, much?).

Nick stood outside the girls' locker room, casually leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He had nodded to all the members of the volleyball team as they exited, hoping that he would look like he belonged there and not like a creepy pervert. So far it seemed to be working, except for the fact that he still hadn't seen Macy.

His eyes narrowed for a moment. This had better not have been one of Stella's jokes. Just as he was considering giving up and going home, the locker room door opened to reveal Macy, lugging a massive duffle bag.

He immediately perked up. "Hi, Macy."

She squeaked, dropping her bag in surprise. "Oh! Hi, Nick."

Her eyes darted around nervously. She picked up her bag and gulped. "You know what? I forgot something inside."

She turned and put her hand on the door.

"Just so you know. I'll still be here when you get back."

Her shoulders slumped, and she turned to look over at Nick. "Why? Can't you just let me go on avoiding you?" She pleaded. "I would think you'd be excited to get rid of the weird, spastic fan girl."

"What if I like the weird, spastic fan girl?"

Macy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, I can do without the weird, spastic fan girl," Nick admitted. "But I sorta miss my friend Macy, so it's worth putting up with your occasional fan girl moments."

"But I kissed you," Macy stated with a tinge of horror to her voice.

"On the cheek, Mace. It wasn't that big of a deal," he insisted.

"Maybe not to you," Macy replied. "But it was horrifyingly embarrassing to me."

"You still talked to Joe after you tore off most of his clothes in the middle of the hallway. Why is this different?"

Macy looked thoughtful. "You're right. I should just avoid all of you!"

Nick sighed, racking his brains to come up with some way to make her understand that it wasn't important. Everyone did embarrassing things. He considered just kissing her full on, which would make her little peck on the cheek pale in comparison, but that didn't seem like a great way to get her friendship back. And that would probably create more problems than it would fix. Instead he settled on sharing a truly humiliating moment with her.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I hit on Portlyn from Mackenzie Falls?"

"Nick!" Macy exclaimed. "Isn't she like twenty-five?"

Nick flushed a brick-red before mumbling. "I can't help it. I have a thing for brunettes."

He was looking down and missed seeing Macy's eyes widen in shock as one hand shot to her hair. Recovering quickly, she asked, "So what happened?"

Her question reminded Nick why he was sharing the story in the first place. "Well, Joe had just gotten done telling me how much girls like cheesy pick up lines…"

"Please tell me you didn't listen to him," Macy groaned.

He nodded, taking the duffle bag from her hand and turning to walk towards the parking lot as he continued his story, "I was young and stupid and extremely inexperienced with girls. So I walked up to her and used an old classic, the library card line."

Macy winced. "How'd that work out for you?"

"She pinched my cheeks and told me I was adorable. Then she went and hooked up with some thirty year old producer."

"Ouch!"

"Yeah. Not my best night." Nick looked thoughtful, "Come to think of it, I still owe Joe for that one."

As the two of them reached the parking lot, Macy stopped and asked, "That's a great story, but why exactly are you sharing it with me?"

"Because that was truly, horrifyingly humiliating. What you did was cute – sweet even. See the difference?"

"I guess," she answered, still sounding a little doubtful.

"Thank you! So can we just forget about it and move on? Please?" Nick gave her his famous puppy-dog eyes.

Macy smiled shyly at him. "Okay."

"Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Are you hungry? Do you wanna go grab something to eat?"

"I'm starving! Coach really worked us hard today." Macy replied. "But can you go to a restaurant? Won't you get mobbed like at my mom's store?"

"My dad knows the owner of the pizzeria on Main. If we call ahead, he'll let us in the back and hide us in the party room."

"Awesome. They have the best combo in town. And by the way, I can eat a small all by myself, so you'll just have to get your own."

Nick grinned. Both Stella and Macy weren't afraid to be real around him, and he liked that about them. Most girls he knew would have ordered a salad and a diet soda. Holding open the car door for her, he realized that he felt ridiculously happy. He wasn't sure what that meant, and he didn't feel like analyzing it. He was just going to enjoy having Macy around again.