Chapter Ten

It's a long way from.
Miami to L.A.
It's a longer way from yesterday,
To where I am today.

It's a long way from my thoughts,
To what I'll say.
It's a long, long way from paradise,
To where I am today.

We're here!

Where you ask? In New Jersey! We just passed a sign that said 'Welcome to New Jersey'.

And we're going to be here for the next three days. Tonight, we've got a show to do and then we've got tomorrow and the day after off. Tomorrow's the wedding of Nick's mom's brother's wife's sister's daughter (if I got that right), and we've all been invited!

I'm so excited to be going to a wedding. I mean, I'm pretty sure that Selena, Demi and I were only invited because we were there with Nick and Joe and they didn't want to seem rude by just ignoring us, but still… a wedding!

...Like the one that I was supposed to be having.

Oh great, now I've got that stuck in my head.

Never mind, I'm going to try and forget about that and focus on the positive things in my life: I've got Nick back, I've got my music back, and I've got my friends back (Joe, Demi, Selena). When I think of it that way, Liam was the one holding me back from all these amazing things, really.

Psh, who needs Liam.

I'm not going to pretend like my heart doesn't twinge at the thought of him or how I was supposed to be getting married to him, but I will say that that twinge has been getting duller and duller as the days pass by.

My eyes drift off towards Joe and Nick, who are having some sort of arm wrestling war over by the counter. They never really get tired of competing against each other no matter how old they get, do they? Nick wins the round and pumps his fist up the air, looking over at me and grinning.

I smile back and then without any warning, the butterflies set in. The realization that I haven't seen Nick's mom or dad in over four years makes my stomach cramp. Normally, I wouldn't be nervous about something like this, but I know how much his parents' opinions matter to Nick. What if his mother didn't approve of me anymore?

I shake my head to try and rid of that thought, trying to convince myself that I was being paranoid. I mean, they used to love me. Just because I haven't really spoken to them or seen them in a while doesn't mean they don't like me anymore, right?

I don't really have any more time to obsess over it, though, since Joe's suddenly yelling, "We're here! We're here!"

And sure enough, the bus has come to a stop outside of a beautiful house complete with a lawn, a white picket fence, flower bushes and everything else.

Before I can even stand up, Joe's running out of the door, closely followed by Nick. I pull down my plaid button up shirt that I've got over a pair of black pants and walk out behind Demi and Selena.

Joe's hugging his mother saying, "Mommy, I missed you!"

Nick is standing beside him, thoroughly annoyed with the fact that Joe won't either let go of their mother or let Nick hug her. I'm pretty sure he's doing it on purpose just to annoy Nick, not that he couldn't have missed his mother. Denise notices and laughs, pulling Joe off and hugging Nick.

They pull away and Denise looks at Nick closely, "How are you doing, Nick? Everything Ok? How's your blood sugar? I almost had a heart attack when I heard you fainted on stage!"

Nick rolls his eyes playfully, "I'm fine, mom. See," he says and stops to take a deep breath in, "I'm breathing."

Denise shakes her head, "You know I worry about you, sweetie."

"I know, I promise I'll be more careful."

Joe's grumbling something about how no one asked him how he was doing when the three of us walk over to them.

Denise flashes her million dollar smile at the three of us, pulling us each into a hug. When she's hugging me, she says, "Wow, Miley, how long has it been? You've sure grown up since the last time I saw you. You look great, dear!"

I blush, "Um… thanks Mrs. Jonas, you look great as well."

She does. I wasn't even just only saying that to impress the mother-of-the-boyfriend.

She laughs, brushing the compliment off, "How many times do I have to remind you to call me Denise?"

"Right," I say as she moves on to Demi and Selena.

See? Didn't I tell my stupid, over-analyzing brain that it was just being paranoid? She seems to not care or not remember the fact that all three of us have been ex-girlfriends of either one of her sons at some point in the past, and also, you know, that I'm a current one of Nick's.

We all chat pleasantly as we walk into the house where greeted by an ever calm and collected Mr. Jonas. The whole troop then goes into the living room.

Just then, Frankie comes running into the room and tackles Nick and Joe together. We all laugh at how cute the whole scenario is. Then he scrambles off the floor and yells each of our names out and hugs us, not as if we had just seen each other after four years.

"You guys make yourself comfortable," says Denise, "Dinner will be ready in an hour."

"Oh, well, we need to get settled into our hotel rooms anyways. Why don't we come back in an hour?" Says Demi as she stands up. Selena and I nod, following her

"Oh no! You guys aren't going anywhere. We've got plenty of rooms in the house, you can stay here."

"Uh… we don't want to be any trouble," I offer.

"Nonsense, dear. You're all staying here and I don't want to hear any arguments. You can get settled into your rooms, if you would like to. I'm sure Nick and Joe wouldn't mind showing you to them."

"Sure," they say.

The three of us then follow Nick and Joe upstairs and are each given a room. Demi gets the guest bedroom, Selena gets Kevin's old room, and I get Frankie (who grudgingly agreed to sleep in one of his brothers' room for the night)'s bedroom.

Nick stands at the door with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face as I fall on the bouncy bed over and over again.

"Miles, stop," he says, laughing.

I do, and lay on my back, grinning. I lift my head to look at him and see that he hasn't moved.

"Frankie was pretty upset he had to give his room up," I say.

"He'll get over it," he says.

"I don't know, maybe we should give it back. I mean, I could always sleep with you."

His eyebrow shoots upwards, "Sleep with me, as in?"

I roll my eyes, "In your bed."

"Aw, snap."

I shake my head, laughing as I get off the bed and walk up to him, grabbing the collar of his shirt, "You're all talk, you know," I say, challenging him with my stare.

He raises his eyebrow again, "Really?"

I nod, "Really."

"I think you're just saying that to get me to kiss you," he says.

I grin at him, leaning in until our foreheads are touching, "Is it working?"

He hums against my lips before tugging my bottom lip in between his teeth before kissing me. Before long, his hands are gripping my waist and my arm has slung itself around his neck, bringing him as close to me as I possibly can.

We pull away slowly, foreheads still touching and both of us smiling.

"I have to go help my mom," he says as he retracts his hands from me.

I pout, "Do you have to?"

"I do," he says, pouting back teasingly.

I sigh dramatically, pushing him on his chest, "Fine, go. Leave me all alone."

He laughs, kissing my cheek softly, "Stop being a drama queen. I'll be downstairs."

And then he leaves. I sigh, going over and falling back onto the bed once again, smiling wide. I don't know why, but I can't seem to stop doing that since the time we arrived here. For once, everything seems perfect.

:] –

I pull on my drawstring pants and an old baggy Simpsons t-shirt and then pull my hair into a pony-tail.

Dinner was nice; everybody made polite conversation and the food was amazing. We'd helped Denise clean up afterwards and then sat around the living room playing games. Then we'd all retreated to our bedrooms to get ready for bed.

I walk into the bathroom, wash my face and then reach for my toothbrush only to realize that there was no toothpaste. I figure Frankie must have taken his along with his brush, so I go downstairs to ask Denise if she had any.

I'm outside the kitchen when I hear Nick's voice and stop to listen. It's not like I wanted to eavesdrop, but Nick sounded pretty annoyed and that made me stop in my tracks.

"…Mom, will you let it go?" He was saying with a sigh.

Then I heard Denise say, "I'm just saying, honey. She would probably say yes if you asked."

I frown. What were they talking about?

"I told you already, mom, she has a boyfriend."

"Who, that Justin kid? Oh, she can't be serious about him!"

What's going on? I'm confused. Is Denise trying to get Nick to ask Selena out? Why would she deliberately do that when she knew Nick and I were together?

"Well, it doesn't matter, anyways. I'm not asking her out."

"Why not? You guys would be perfect for each other!"

And then I realized why… because he hasn't told her. His mom thinks that he's single. That's why both, she and Nick's dad were so cool earlier; not because they didn't mind us dating, but because they didn't know we were.

I feel my heart pang.

Unable to stand there and listen to the conversation anymore, I am about to turn back around and run back upstairs when I hear Denise calling my name.

Shit.

Nick's head whips around at the sound of my name. He looks worried as I walk towards them slowly.

"Everything Ok, Miley?" Denise says sweetly.

I clear my throat awkwardly, trying to think of why I'd come downstairs in the first place. Oh, right, toothpaste.

"Uh… yeah, I, uh, was wondering if-if you had some spare toothpaste. Um… Frankie must have taken his... I think…" I trail off lamely.

"Sure, hold on, I'll be right back," she says and walks out of the kitchen, leaving Nick and I alone.

I walk over to the counter, pouring myself a glass of water and sipping on it slowly, keeping my back to Nick the whole time, although I can feel his eyes follow every move I make.

I know what he's thinking, he's wondering if I'd heard their conversation or not.

"Miles-" he begins.

"What?" I say, cutting him off.

"Did you, uh…"

"Did I what?" I challenge.

He sighs. He knows I did. "I'm sorry, my mom didn't mean that. She was just," another sigh, "She didn't-"

I narrow my eyes, "Oh, I'm not mad at your mom. I'm mad at you."

"Me?" he says.

"Why haven't you told your parents about us?"

He frowns, "I thought-"

"You couldn't have given me a warning? Something along the lines of, 'Hey, Miley, my mom doesn't know we're dating', would have been fine."

"I thought we were keeping this a secret?"

"Not from our parents!"

His frown deepens, "Did you tell yours?"

"Of course I did!"

"Well, I thought we weren't!"

I sigh, shaking my head, "Well, then why couldn't you have told her now, huh? When she was practically forcing you to ask some other girl out, you couldn't have said, 'No ma, I'm dating Miley'?"

"I didn't know what to do!"

I stare at him, "Are you ashamed of me, Nick? Is that why you haven't told them yet?"

"You know that's not true."

I shrug, and wait for him to say something else, but when he doesn't, I walk away and up to my room before I could burst out into tears.

Once inside, I lean against the door and try not to cry. My eyes lands on the shirt and pants I was wearing earlier lying on the bed and then drift over to the open duffel bag sitting on the floor.

By the time I hear a knock on the door, I've stuffed my pants and shirt and some of the other things I'd unpacked back into my bag. I pick it up and walk over to the door, opening it.

Nick stands there, holding a tube of toothpaste. He frowns when he sees the bag in my hands.

"Where are you going?"

I push him aside and walk past him, "You can tell Frankie he can have his room back."

"Miles, where are you going?" he repeats.

"To the hotel."

He sighs, "Its late… and cold outside. Come on, don't go."

"I'll be fine; I'm a big girl," I say as I trudge down the stairs.

"Don't you think you're being a little irrational?" he says as I open the front door and walk outside.

I know it might have seemed that way to him, but spending the whole day in complete delight thinking that everything in my world was finally going right and then finding out that it was simply nothing other than false hope was crushing my heart. And it didn't really reassure me that my boyfriend's mother though that he would be perfect with someone else, and not me.

I turn and glare at him, "Just go back inside, Nick."

"Not until you come with me."

"I'm not coming inside."

"Then I'm not going inside either," he says, crossing his arms.

I roll my eyes, "Suit yourself," I say as I stop a passing taxi and get in before Nick can catch up. The last thing I see when I turn around in my seat to see Nick running his fingers through his hair looking frustrated as we turn the corner and then he disappears from my sight.

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Hello, my dear lovelies. :p Hope you liked the chapter.

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