"Let's not tell our parents about this" I advised as we neared our street, "Grow Up" playing softly in the background.
"I don't think they'll appreciate the fact that we were forcibly removed from a home improvement store…"
We pulled in to the Jonas garage, having controlled ourselves for the most part, and unloaded the trunk of the car where the paint was. I could only be thankful that we had been kicked out after buying the paint, or else we would have been in a little bit of trouble.
The four of us stood for a minute, looking out our accomplishment with smiles etched on our faces as we relived the past half hour.
"Alright! To work!" I announced, picking up the two nearest cans of paint and, with quite a bit of effort, made my way out of the garage and across the lawn to my house; the Jonas's trailing closely behind me until they were next to me. I noticed with slight chagrin that I had taken the bulk of the load with Kevin hauling the other can and Nick and Joe carrying nothing.
"Wait!" I cried, causing the guys to stop abruptly and stare at me confused. I looked again to the things we were carrying and frowned.
"Please tell me someone remembered to pick up paintbrushes and such while we were there" I asked, but defeat evident in my voice, knowing that neither of them had remembered.
The looks dawning on their faces were enough to tell me that I had thought right. I sighed and placed the paint cans on the ground and flexed my fingers a bit to regain feeling in them.
"Well that's great. Now what?" I asked dejectedly; all that work to end up not having everything we needed. I guess we had been too wrapped up in our mission to remember the necessities…figures.
"Well, we could always go back and grab some" Joe offered, running a hand through his hair.
"Please, we just got kicked out like 10 minutes ago. Something tells me that we aren't exactly going to be welcomed back with open arms" I reminded him sarcastically. He shrugged in response.
There was a moment of silence while we all considered our options – however limited they were.
"I got it!" Nick suddenly yelled, a light bulb visibly going off over his head (no, not literally…geeze). The rest of us snapped our heads up to look at him expectantly.
"Didn't dad paint the basement like…two months ago?" he asked.
"Um…yeah?" Kevin replied, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Well then he's bound to have brushes and stuff lying around from then; he's such a packrat that there's no way he would have gotten rid of it" the youngest brother explained, smiling triumphantly, a weird air of accomplishment surrounding him.
I smiled brightly as well, "Nicholas Jonas you're a genius" I exclaimed, hugging him. I know it may seem like I was getting a tad overexcited but hey – after you've been kicked out of Home Depot for a project, that project is going to happen at all costs.
I then released him and spun him around so he was facing his house again and gave him a light push in the same direction.
"Now go! We'll meet you back at my house – just come right in, don't worry about knocking or anything. My room is up the stairs and at the very end of the hallway. You can't miss it" I told him before giving him one more shove and watching him walk off. Once he had hit the garage, it turned back to face Joe and Kevin.
"Alright then" I muttered to myself before stretching my arms and flexing my fingers to loosen myself up for the weight of the cans again.
Above my head the two brothers shared a look before bending down and each taking a can of the paint right as I was about to pick them up. Without another word they bounded towards my house, looking not at all phased by the weight. I scowled at them for a moment before jogging to catch up and open the door for them.
"We're back!" I called in to the house as we entered. My dad looked up from the couch and set the book he had been reading on the coffee table.
"You kids get everything you needed?" he asked, eyeing the cans of paint that Kevin and Joe were carrying as they continued towards the stairs. I noticed with amusement that their fingers were starting to turn white and they were walking in somewhat of a rushed pace.
"Sure did Mr. Truscott!" Joe called as he almost ran up the stairs, his older brother close behind him.
"Nick ran back to their house to grab a few extra things that we forgot to pick up at the store" I said, moving over a bit to talk to him.
My dad opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a loud crash coming from upstairs followed by, "Joe you're such an idiot!" A moment later Joe's head appeared at the top of the stairs, looking a bit nervous.
"No need to panic everyone! Everything's good. We didn't break anything, I swear" he assured us before the head disappeared again.
I looked over at my dad who was staring at the spot Joe had occupied a moment ago with an amused expression on his face.
"That boy is quite a character, isn't he?" he marveled, turning his gaze back to me. I smiled in response, laughing slightly.
"Yeah, that he definitely is" I told him, a paused for a moment before adding on, "he reminds me a lot of Oliver" I confessed.
There was a moment of silence before my dad gave me a sympathetic look, "you'll see him again, sweetie, don't worry. I promise" he assured me, hugging me lightly. I gave him a small smile before running up the stairs as well.
I entered the room, somewhat hesitantly to find an annoyed Kevin, pushing himself off of the floor and brushing himself off.
"Okay, what happened?" I sighed, resisting the urge to cross my arms across my chest. Kevin shot a glare at Joe who smiled back sheepishly before turning to me again.
"Well, Joe here thought it would be a smart idea to set the can of paint he was carrying right in front of the door and I happened to trip over it on my way in" he explained.
"Hey, it's not my fault you didn't look where you were going" Joe defended, before wincing as he earned himself another glare from his older brother. I laughed and shook my head,
"You okay?" I asked Kevin, still smiling.
"Yeah" he told me, "but that's going to be a huge bruise in the morning. Oh, I think I might have gotten a scratch on your floor from the paint can" he admitted, looking apologetic as he pointed to the floor.
I tilted my head to the right and squinted as I searched for this scratch he was talking about. It took me a minute but I finally caught on to the faint line about a foot or so long. I straightened back up,
"Oh please, that's nothing. I obviously wouldn't have even noticed if you hadn't said anything" I assured him. He nodded in appreciation.
It was at that moment that Nick came in, carrying 2 of those paint tray things filled with paint brushes, rollers, tape, a few old, folded up sheets, paint stirrers and a screwdriver. It was an impressive haul that made me feel like this was really going to go somewhere.
"I think we're all set now" he said as he set the stuff down, the triumphant smile from earlier still showing.
Note to self: it is very easy to make Nick Jonas feel as though he has accomplished something important.
"What's the screwdriver for?" I asked as I picked it up and turned it in my hand.
"Opening the cans" he replied taking it from me and kneeling down next to the first can of green paint. I watched him as he carefully stuck the point of the screwdriver underneath the edge of the lid and gently pried it open until it popped off showing a pool of shockingly bright green.
Joe whistled low as he moved next to me, "that is some color" he commented as Nick moved on to taking a one of those giant tongue depressor looking things and began to stir the paint.
"I like it" I said taking a brush from the pile of supplies, dipping it in to the paint and after removing excess paint, moved to the closest wall, brushing the color on to it. I looked at it for a moment, my head tilted slightly as I examined it. I then turned to look at the guys and smiled.
The fun began.
Nick proceeded to pour the paint in to the tray while Kevin and I laid the sheets on the floor to protect it from the paint and Joe grabbed my iPod and dug my speakers out of one of my suitcases (with my permission of course). As soon as everything was set, the opening chords of "Got Me Going Crazy" blasted across the room. I turned my gaze to Joe feeling horrified as I remembered that I had every singly one of their songs on my iPod. That wasn't embarrassing at all or anything…
In response he simply smirked, picked up a small paintbrush, dipped it in the paint and moved towards me,
"And you say we're not your all time favorite band" he commented as he placed a streak of paint on my nose. My mouth flew open and I moved to retaliate but he was already on the other side, innocently painting the wall. I narrowed my eyes, vowing revenge in my head, but at another time. When he least expected it.
The four of us continued on, singing along to the music and painting the walls. I had to admit that their painting skills were definitely up to snuff, something I, for some reason, hadn't really expected.
That probably has to do with the fact that I distinctly remembered that Miley and Oliver had both tried to help me paint my room back in Malibu a few years ago and I had learned that neither of them could do it very well. In the end, it had been Jackson who had been the most help (yeah, I know, it sounds surprising, but as we grew up, Jackson became less of a dork and more tolerable) while Miles and Oliver simply kept us company.
As "Burnin' Up" came on, I couldn't help but laugh as they took on their personalities from the video as they painted. If anyone else had walked in the room they would have figured all three of them were mentally unstable, seeing as Joe had even gone so far as to give himself a lime green mustache. I had been a little concerned about the fumes right under his nose but then I remembered that it's not like he could get any worse…
Kidding!
But anyway, I found it hilarious as I watched Kevin paint the wall in a Karate Kid fashion and had soon joined in by taking on my own persona. Even when the song finished, we kept up the acting until we couldn't stand it anymore and started laughing.
For the record, Joe kept his moustache even when we stopped acting. Whether it was because he forgot it was there or because he wanted to keep it is beyond me.
After a good hour or so of painting the green, we decided on taking a break before starting on the black stripe that would go around the entire room. We turned the music down to put it in the background and sat down on my floor.
As we talked about random things, I remembered the paint on my nose and picked up a paintbrush from the nearly empty tray. I made sure that there wasn't much paint on it before sneaking behind Joe, who was distracted in talking to Kevin.
As I moved, Nick spotted me and eyed the paintbrush in my hand skeptically, obviously assuming the worst of me. I simply held a finger to my lips and reached my hand over Joe's head. Nick watched silently in amusement as I painted a long streak across Joe's forehead. He jumped and shot around to look at me while Kevin, Nick and I burst in to laughter.
I watched as the middle Jonas Brother narrowed his eyes slightly at me, "oh. It's on" he announced before jumping up and grabbing the nearest paintbrush. I shot up as well and began to run as Joe chased me around the room with the brush,
"Help! I need backup!" I yelled we passed Nick and Kevin who were shaking uncontrollably with laughter.
It took about three seconds of reaction time before there was a full fledged battle between us. It was me and Kevin vs. Joe and Nick, and in my opinion, it was pretty obvious who was going to win.
In about a minute Kevin had managed to tackle Joe on the ground and proceeded to write "KJ" on his right cheek and "LT" on his left, but also had a rather large streak of paint surrounded by smaller streaks going down his entire arm from when Joe been (fruitlessly) attempting escape.
I on the other hand had taken on the task of Nick and had managed to give him a rather sloppy mustache to match his brother's while he had gotten paint all over my legs and hands (I had attempted to stop his attack by grabbing on to the brush).
It was in these moments were I was immensely glad that the entire floor area was protected by the sheets and I had only noticed a few spots of paint on the furniture, which I couldn't care less about.
The intense paint battle continued for a few more minutes until we were interrupted by the Plain White T's once again being blasted from my phone on the dresser. I looked down at my hands which were still covered in wet paint and frowned.
"Can one of you grab that for me?" I asked, not having any intention of getting my phone covered in lime green paint. Joe immediately leaped towards my phone, despite being the furthest away from it, flipped it open and pressed it to his ear.
"Hello, you've reached the cellular device of Miss Lillian Truscott. This is Joe speaking, how may I help you?"
I restrained from slapping my hand against my forehead for the sole reason of not wanting paint in my hair (it's ridiculously hard to get out).
There was a short pause while he listened to whoever was on the other line before responding,
"Her hands are a little…painted at the moment"
…
"No, I meant painted"
…
"Yes, I know that the expression is "her hands are tied", but her hands aren't tied, they're painted"
Oh Joe…
"Just put the phone on my shoulder" I advised, wanting to stop this before he said something even stupider. He obliged and I squeezed my shoulder to my ear to hold the cell phone in place.
"Hello?"
"Lilly? Is that you? Thank goodness. Was that Joe Jonas?" a voice asked me, it was Miley.
"Unfortunately" I said, shooting a glance at Joe who simply shrugged and smiled.
"I still can't believe that you're neighbors with them!" she exclaimed, "I also can't believe I just talked to Joe Jonas! He's sort of…weird though, you know?"
I laughed lightly, "yeah, I definitely know. So what's up Miles?"
"Oh, right! Well, guess were Hannah has a concert scheduled this weekend?"
I felt excitement boiling up in me, "no way!"
"Yes way! Now, we're not actually in Wyckoff, the concert is Friday night in Wildwood, which is like three hours away. But as soon as the concert's over, we're coming straight to Wyckoff!"
I squealed, ignoring the strange looks I earned from the brothers, "no way! How long are you staying for? Is Oliver coming?"
"I think dad said only about a couple days since I have Hannah stuff back in Malibu the next week, but we'll make the best of it; and of course Oliver is coming! So is Jackson, unavoidable I'm afraid, but he's promised me he wouldn't be a total dork and I actually kind of believe him"
"Aw, that's alright. He's not all bad" I confirmed, smiling like mad.
"Well, I have to go, I've got a rehearsal for the concert and I'm already running late. Love you lots!"
"Love you too Miles, talk to you soon!" I finished and Joe took the phone from me and closed it, replacing it back on my dresser.
"What was that all about?" Kevin asked.
"My friends are coming up to visit this weekend since they're going to be in town!" I told them excitedly.
"That's great!" Nick exclaimed, smiling also.
"Well then, we'd better get this room finished up then" Kevin said, turning the music back up again as we went to work with the black stripe, acting just as stupidly as we had earlier.
oOoOoOoOoOo
A/N: I know, I know, I'm terrible. It's been some time since I last update….And I'm sorry if this seemed like a slow chapter. I know exactly what I want to do with this, but I don't want to just dive right in to my main plot(s) (I've changed my mind a few times on things, so there might be some semi-plots to tie up loose ends). To be honest, I've got a lot of plans for this, I just don't quite know how to get there yet, so bear with me. This story isn't all fun and games, seriousness will ensue…eventually. Thanks to all who have been reviewing!
-Erin
-edit- I reposted this chapter because I read over it and found tons of mistakes that were driving me crazy. So if you reviewed before I did this, sorry! I still appreciate it :o)
