This chapter takes place on February 24th. The boys are in Louisville, Kentucky, and Miley is in LA preparing for her appearance at the Academy Awards.

Without you, I find it so hard to breathe

You lift me up, you make me believe

This is my one shot, no room for mistakes

So come back here please, I don't need this space

"That sounds amazing Kev, write it down," Joe called out from his bunk, where he was lying face up, texting some girl or another.

I was strumming a few chords on my guitar, trying to come up with a melody for the chorus of the song that Kevin and I were writing together.

Kevin looked up from his notebook and put his hand on my guitar. "That is Nick! Play it again." I grabbed my pick and replayed the chord progression.

From the mountains, to the ocean

You will always be by my side

Never let anyone tell you

That all you need is time

He quickly picked his pen back up and began to write. I was glad that Kevin had finally gotten enough courage to write a song of his own, because this one was turning out to be one of our best yet.

"Kev, why don't you play the whole thing from the top to help you think of a refrain," Joe said as he got up from his bunk and entered the room. As Kevin and I began to play, my cell phone started to vibrate on the table in between us.

"Just answer it now, Nick, or you'll be distracted for the whole song," Kevin stopped playing and grabbed his notebook again. "Besides, I think I just came up with the second verse."

I set my acoustic down beside me and leaned towards the table, grabbing my phone. Incoming call: Miley. I frowned slightly and glanced up at Joe. He read my apprehension. "Miley?" I just nodded. "You need to stop screening her calls eventually. You haven't spoken to her more than three times since this tour started and I know it isn't because of lack of time."

I just sighed and flipped the phone. "Hey Miley, how are you?" I mumbled.

"Nick! I haven't heard your voice in so long. Where have you been? Why haven't you returned my calls?" At least she wasn't yelling. In fact, she seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

"Sorry, I've just been a little busy lately. All these concerts must be wearing on me." I looked up at Joe and he gave me a hard look. I didn't want to lie to Miley, but how could I tell her that the reason I hadn't returned her calls had been because I was afraid that if I heard her voice or saw her face, I would start crying.

I guess that situation with the webcam had affected me more than I thought.

"I understand. But you're keeping healthy, right? You aren't feeling sick or anything?" Could I feel any guiltier? Yes, apparently. That question crushed me. Not only had I lied to my best friend, whom I had also been avoiding for the past three weeks, but now she thought that it was because of my diabetes. Great.

"No, I'm feeling fine, but thanks for your concern. We both know that Kevin and Joe don't show any." She just laughed softly in response. "Anyway, what's going on with you? You sound excited or anxious or something."

"Well, tonight is the Oscars! I'm getting my hair and makeup done now."

"Oh yeah, aren't you announcing or something?" I got up from my chair and went to my bunk. It was getting a little awkward having Joe and Kevin staring at me while I was talking.

"Yeah, I'm presenting for one of the best song nominees. Are you busy tonight? If you're free, will you pretty please watch me?"

"Our concert starts at 6 EST, so it would probably be over around 8. What time does the show start?"

"The red carpet presentation starts at 8 your time, and I have to be there for that. The awards are at 9, so it's perfect! I wish you were in LA right now so you could come with me tonight. To be honest with you, I'm actually pretty nervous."

"Miss Miley Ray Cyrus, nervous? No!" I feigned shock.

"Shut up Nicholas. For concerts, I perform in front of thousands of screaming 10-year-old girls. Think about it. Tonight at the Oscars, those little girls are replaced with millions of adults just waiting to judge my every move.

I could tell that she was really getting worked up over this. "Whoa, Miles, slow down. I didn't mean to make you more nervous. You'll do fine. You are a beautiful, talented young woman." My heart broke a little as I heard a sniffle on the other side of the line.

"Miley…"

"Can you just sing the song for me? I really need to hear it right now."

"Alright, just let me grab my guitar." I walked back to the living room and was welcomed by two curious stares from Joe and Kevin.

"She really nervous about tonight and wants me to sing the song." They just nodded their heads in recognition and went back to perfecting Kevin's lyrics. I grabbed my guitar and walked over to my laptop.

I requested a web chat with missmiley92. By the time that everything was loaded and ready to go, she had calmed down quite a bit. She was sitting in a stylist chair and her hair was up in a sort of fancy ponytail for the show. I just smiled at her and adjusted my guitar strap on my shoulder. "Ready?"

She just nodded her head in response and shut her eyes.

I strummed a chord and softly sang the first few lyrics.

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and I cried.

Ever since Miley and I became friends, we have turned to each other for comfort. Whenever one of us was nervous, sad, or stressed out, the other would come over or call and sing our song, You Are My Sunshine by Johnny Cash.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

Miley began to hum along to the tune. I don't think that she could possibly be more beautiful than she was in this moment. She didn't have any makeup on yet, and her eyes were a little puffy, but she just looked so real.

I was glad that she came to me with her apprehension today, let me know that she was nervous, wanted me to be there for her. I really cherished this bond that we had with each other.

As I finished the song, she opened her eyes and smiled at me. "Thank you so much Nick. You are the best, and I don't know what I would do without you. Okay, I had better get going. I have to be at the theater in an hour to rehearse my part and I don't have my makeup done yet."

"Alright, I'll watch tonight. Even if I have to apologize to thousands of fan girls for cutting their concert short, I won't miss one second of the awards show."

"Aww, you're too good to me."

"And don't hesitate to call if you need me. Actually, I'll call you afterwards either way."

"Bye Nick, and thanks again." And with that, she hung up.

"Nick, we have to get going, it's almost 4:30 and I promised dad we would be there by 4:30!" Kevin called to me as he opened the door of the bus and walked outside. "And can you grab my keys? They're on my bunk."

This turned out to be one of the shortest concerts we had ever done because I told Joe and Kevin to rush in between songs as much as reasonably possible. They understood because they wanted to see the awards as well. All I could understand of Joe's rambling was 'Katherine Heigl is soooooo fine.'

We had barely sung the last note of SOS and said our thank yous and goodbyes before I ran back to the bus. I didn't even bother to change first. Kevin and Joe, however, had said something about hygiene and sweat before they both ran off to take a quick shower. I figured I had a good fifteen minutes to myself, so I turned on the television and flipped open my cell phone.

"Hello? Yes, I would like to place an order for delivery. Six spring rolls, a pint of vegetable lo mien, a pint of General Tao's Chicken, and a quart of vegetable fried rice. Fifteen minutes? Perfect, thank you." Maybe Joe and Kevin would let me watch the awards on the big living room TV alone if I fed them.

Apparently I was not going to have any such luck. Joe and Kevin burst through the door of the bus and collapsed onto the couch next to me. "It didn't start yet, did it? Please tell me that I didn't just run like a maniac through that arena to get here and find out that I missed Katherine and her sexy body," panted Joe as he wiped the sweat off of his brow with his shirt.

"Ew, that is so gross Joe," said Kevin as he got up and got three water bottles out of the fridge and then tossing one to both Joe and I before reclaiming his spot next to me on the couch. "What do you guys want to do for dinner?"

"Already taken care of. I ordered Chinese, the usual," I sighed. Thirty feet of living space doesn't give three brothers much room for privacy. Kevin thanked me and walked to the kitchen area to get out some money to pay for the food.

"Ooh! It's starting!" exclaimed Joe, literally bouncing up off of the couch at the sight of the stars.

"Joe, you've been on a red carpet before, don't act like it's any more amazing than walking down the sidewalk in fancy, overpriced designer clothing," mumbled an exasperated Kevin. I couldn't blame him. Sometimes Joe acts like a star struck seven-year-old.

"Can we please just keep it down? I want to hear these interviews." I rubbed my eyes slowly. I don't know how I'm going to handle the rest of this tour. Those two were already getting on my nerves.

After a few interviews that weren't really memorable, I saw her. Regis called her over and made a comment to the crowd about how big and busy she has been this past year with all of her Hannah/Miley appearances. Her dress was…. I don't even know how to describe it. Breathtaking, sexy, elegant. She stood out so much from the rest of the stars because it looked like she really was enjoying being there. I loved how happy and carefree she could be, even in front of hundreds of cameras and news crews.

Just as she was about to walk away, a guy walked up to her and whispered something into her ear. I couldn't see his face because he was turned away from the camera, but I had a sudden urge to smash it in. Apparently he was a comedian as well, from the way Miley was giggling about whatever he had said to her.

Regis asked Miley who her escort was and I gasped as he turned around. It was Ryan, one of her back-up dancers from the Best of Both Worlds Tour. She introduced him as a dancer and a friend who had never been to a red carpet event before and wanted to see what it was like.

So much for her wanting to go with me. She found a replacement escort quite fast. And I knew for a fact that Ryan had more than platonic feelings for Miley. I had heard him talking to his other dancing buddies about how 'hot her body is.'

As she walked off camera, pulling that asshole behind her, and Regis moved down the line to interview Anne Hathaway, Kevin turned to me and patted my back. "Nick…"

"Don't start. I'm just going to go to bed, maybe watch the rest of it there."

"What about dinner?"

"I just kind of lost my appetite." I got up from the couch and walked over to my bunk. After changing into some sweats and brushing my teeth, I laid down in my bunk and turned on my small TV on the wall at the foot of the bed.

The whole rest of the show was kind of a blur of celebrity jokes, mishaps, and fashion faux pas. When Miley came on to present the best song nominee, the camera man zoomed in on Ryan. He had a sly little smirk on his face, like he thought he was hot shit or something because he attended the Oscars with the one and only Miley Cyrus.That was my last straw. The second Miley finished her flawless introduction and sauntered off of the stage, I flicked off the TV and threw the remote on the floor.

So much for fixing our relationship. I fell asleep to the incessant sound of a vibrating cell phone. It was probably Miley wanting to know how I thought the presentation went, but she didn't really want to hear my opinion of the night.

I don't know what came over me this chapter. I think I went on a 'guys are assholes' rant to one of my friends and just brought that thought into my writing. I don't know, but I think it turned out really well. Please review! They really do mean a lot to me!