An 8 hour car ride with the person who broke your heart the day before was a lot harder than it sounds. Especially when he's sitting right next to you. For the first time I wished Vanessa would've taken the spot. But she didn't because apparently sitting in the middle seat gives her headaches. So Joe took the spot and put both of us between a rock and a hard spot. So I put in my headphones and listened to Justin Bieber sing about violins sinking or swimming. Somewhere between hour 3 and 4 I fell asleep to Miley Cyrus' 'angelic' voice singing about not being tamed. I unfortunately woke up in what felt like a few minutes later when Dad decided to stop.

"Are we there yet?" I said groggily as I buried my face into the seat. Since when has the seat cushion been so... hard?

"No. But we are at a gas station. If you would kindly give me back my shoulder, I need to go to the bathroom." Joe said and I could sense the smile on his face.

"What?" I opened my eyes to see while I was asleep I let my head rest on Joe's shoulder. "Oh. I'm sorry." I blushed.

"It's okay." This time I saw his smile and my heart ached. Let him go Riley. Let him go. "Do you need anything from inside?"

"Um. No? I don't know. I'm going to go inside anyways. I have to use the bathroom too." He nodded as we got out of the car and made our way to the lovely gas station bathroom.

"Riley I got you some of that Chex Mix you like." Mom said as I walked passed her.

"Thanks Mom." I stopped to chat as Joe went to talk to Vanessa and then to the bathroom.

"Do you want anything else?"

"A water please."

"No problem sweetheart." Sweetheart? Mom is in a good mood today. I gave her a smile and went to use the bathroom. After I walked back into the store area and I saw the coffee machine also dispensed hot chocolate. That sounds so yummy. On impulse I got a cup. I mean who doesn't love a steaming cup of chocolate?

"If only they had whip cream right?" I jumped and saw Joe smile as he got a muffin.

"Yeah, it's the best part. But it will do."

"But it's a like a root beer float without root beer. Just plain vanilla ice cream."

"That's still delicious though." It felt awkward happily chatting with Joe. Yesterday I was angry with him, but now I was talking to him like it never happened. But it did happen. He said he doesn't want you. Why would he want you? You're nothing compared to Vanessa.

"You got me there. Let me pay for it."

"What? No, I can pay for it. I don't need you to pay for it."

"I don't feel obligated to," He moved closer to me and whispered, "I want you." What did he say? "I mean I want to. I want to pay for your drink." He said quickly as his cheeks became rosier. I nodded my response as he went up to the clerk. What did he say? I couldn't hear him and the way he quickly tried to cover it up makes me think the worse. "Here you go." He weakly smiled as he handed me my drink.

"Thank you." I started for the door.

"Riley?" I turned to face Joe. "I'm... I'm sorry about how I handled things yesterday. I regret...I regret how I said it. That was a jerk move on my account. I'm glad that you're still talking to me. I really hope we can be friends. I know it sounds cliché, but I don't want to lose our friendship." Just friends? That hurt more than what he said before. Now I'm going to be his friend and pretend to be happy when he's with Vanessa.

"Yeah. That's fine. Thank you for apologizing. I'm sorry too, for reacting the way I did. How about we go back to car and go meet your family?" He nodded as we followed my advice. I sat in the car for the remaining hours trying to hold back tears as Joe kissed Vanessa every other minute. Now, this is a jerk move.

Finally we arrived at the Jonas family cabin. It was in a beautiful location, but not even that could cheer me up.

"Joe! Stop we're here. I need to look amazing when I meet your parents. You're smearing my lipstick." Vanessa shrieked as I quickly undid my seatbelt.

"Fine. One more kiss?" I heard Vanessa giggle before they kissed again. I can't stand this. I hopped out of the car and moved towards the trunk to get my things. I deliberately took a long time so everyone could get out of the car and go meet the Jonases. I grabbed my bags and dropped them onto the driveway.

"Need any help?" I glanced up and saw a tall curly-haired boy smiling at me.

"Um. I don't think so. I might," I slung my backpack on one shoulder and attempted to carry my duffle bag.

"Here, my parents sent me down to help you."

"Really?" I readjusted the heavy bag.

"Yes," He laughed and took my bag. He made it seem like it was weightless, "I'm Nick by the way. Joe's little brother."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Riley. Vanessa's little sister." He smiled again and I returned the smile. We walked up to the deck where the introductions were being made.

"And this is my other daughter, Riley." My Father smiled and put his 'happy family' face on. "Riley, this is Mr. and Mrs. Jonas."

"Hi Riley!" Mrs. Jonas pulled me into a big hug. I hugged her back and said a hello. "Nice to meet you. Joe has said a lot about you."

"He has?" I sent Joe a smiling 'what did you say' look and he shook his head.

"Only a couple things. Like how you can cook great brownies." He smiled as Vanessa shot me a dirty look. Only if she knew everything... I shook hands with Mr. Jonas as his wife introduced me to their children.

"This is Kevin and his wife Danielle," I gave them both a hello and saw Kevin took after Nick with his curly locks. "This is Frankie, our youngest. And it seems you've already met Nick."

"Yeah, he's helping me with my bags." Nick and I both smiled. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Joe fidget.

"Well he can show you your room while you're staying with us while he's at it. How about we get you guys all situated and then we have dinner?" We all nodded and set off in our different directions. Nick and I went into the cabin and headed upstairs.

"Thanks again for helping me with my bags."

"No problem. It's the gentleman thing to do. Well I'm sorry about where you're staying. We sort of ran out of rooms so we had to transform the music room into a guest room."

"Music room?"

"Yeah. Joe didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"He's probably embarrassed, but we had a family garage band when we were younger."

"Really?"

"Yeah," He grinned as he opened a door, "Kevin played guitar. Joe sang and played percussion. Also called the tambourine. And I sang, played guitar, drums, and piano."

"Wow, seems like you're a music man."

"Pretty much." I navigated myself in and out of instruments to the bed set up on the far wall. Nick set my bag down on the floor as I flopped onto the bed.

"So which guitar is yours?"

"That red one and that green one," He pointed out as he sat next to me."Oh and that acoustic one by the drum set."

"But there's like 10 other guitars here?"

"Their Kevin's rejects."

"All of them?" I stared wide-eyed at all the guitars.

"Most of them. One's my Dad's and I think Joe has an acoustic one."

"I thought Joe sang?"

"He did. He started with guitar though." I nodded as I glanced at all the beautiful guitars.

"This is really cool," I grinned, "I wish I knew I had to play one of these instruments. I'm sure I would fail at the tambourine let alone a guitar."

"I think you'd be an awesome tambourine player," We both laughed, "How 'bout I teach you how to play the guitar while you're visiting?"

"As long as I get to play the tambourine too."

"Deal." We shook hands and I returned to gazing at the instruments. My mind kept going to Joe. He can play guitar. I never knew that. I bet he's great. I'm sure Nick is wonderful too. I have to admit Nick is adorable. He has a great smile and hair that I want to just run my hands through. "How about a give you a crash course before dinner? Show you a chord or two?"

"Sure," I nodded as he grabbed his acoustic guitar and placed it in my hands.

"Okay, so put your hands on the neck." I gave him a confused look. "This part," He led my hand to the skinny part of the guitar, "Okay so put your fingers here, here, and here. Hold down the strings really tight. No, move this finger. Okay think you got it?" I gave him a scared look. "It's going to be okay, now strum." I moved my hands across the strings and it made a weird sound. "Hold it down tighter." He pressed his fingers against fine as I strummed again. It was a richer sound, not to mention easier on the ears. "There you go!"

"I did it!" We both smiled and then noticed his hand was still over mine. "How about you play something now?" I quickly moved my hand and gave him the guitar.

"Yeah, sure." He blushed a bit as he positioned his hands. A rich melody floated up to my ears. "I pick up all your tears and throw 'em in the backseat. Leave without a second glance. Somehow I'm to blame for this never-ending racetrack you call life. So turn right into my arms. Turn right you won't be alone." Nick sang and I was amazed at how beautiful he sounded. "Yeah, sorry I couldn't help but sing along."

"No, it's fine. It was great. What's the song called?"

"Turn Right. I wrote it with my brothers awhile back."

"Wow, it's a beautiful song."

"Thank you." He smiled and moved closer to me. I couldn't help but lean in towards him. "Riley do you think it would be okay," We leaned further in towards each other, "If I could possibly-"

"Nick? Riley? Dinner." Joe barged in as Nick and I moved away from each other. Great.

"Okay. I'll see you down there Riley." I nodded as Nick walked out. Joe seemed really tense.

"What?" I got up and moved towards him.

"Nothing." He gave me a look informing me it's not 'anything'.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. It's just great to see you and Nick 'bonding'." He had an expression of disgust. Is he jealous?

"Yeah we are bonding. And doing nothing else." He snorted. "You don't believe me? I've known him for a few minutes. And I'm not ready to like anyone right now. Last time I liked someone, they broke my heart." I headed out the door and down to the hallway.

"Riley, I'm sorry."

"I don't want your apologies anymore Joe. They bring me more pain than comfort." With that I left and followed the smell of meatballs down to the kitchen.


Riley officially met the whole Jonas family. Who knew there could be 3 gorgeous guys in 1 family? One of those boys though is extremely jealous. Wonder what Joe is going to do next... -Danica