Just a quick heads up - the italics are a flashback.
I woke up the next morning feeling like the night before had never happened. It was like Liam was going to be sticking around and Nick had never kissed me, like Selena had no vendetta against me and everything was normal (or as normal as things could be since things got complicated between me and Nick).
I sat up in bed and crawled out. I walked straight to the door and crept past Selena's sleeping form on the couch. I made my way to Demi's bedroom door, pushed it open, then quickly closed it behind me.
"Demi!" I hissed.
Her eyes fluttered open. She balled her hands into fists and rubbed sleepily at her eyes. She sat up slowly. "Miley?" she grunted, squinting over in my direction.
"The one and only," I replied. I sat down on her bed and bit my lip. "We need to talk about what you said to me last night about Selena."
My head had been spinning ever since Demi had come into my room after 2AM and told me what Selena had been saying when I wasn't around about Nick and me …
Demi closed the door quickly. "You will never believe the things I have to tell you!" She jumped down onto my bed and bit her lip nervously. "So, you know how you left the party early? Selena was totally trying to find stuff out about what's going on with you and Nick."
"What did she want to know?"
"Basically why you've been acting so weird around him lately, and why he's been so nervous around you," Demi said with a shrug. "Anyway, completely not the point! The point is that, after that, she started saying that it was a bit weird that you had a boyfriend down to visit and yet you and Nick were blatantly flirting in front of him."
"How the hell does she know that we've been flirting? She's hardly around to see!"
Demi shrugged again. "Don't shoot the messenger," she replied. "Sel is my best friend, but the way she's been acting over Nick has been driving me crazy. Therefore, I am Team Miley."
"Team Miley?"
"You know, like Team Edward and Team Jacob, Team Peeta and Team Gale?" She shook her head. "Again, not the point. So then I told her to back off and that you and I are friends, then she started grumbling about how you were stealing her boyfriend AND her best friend now."
"I didn't steal anything from her!"
"Selena seems to think you have." Demi sat up excitedly. "Yeah, so anyway! After that, she got totally pissed off with me. She basically followed Nick around the entire party and then – this is the best bit – he turned around and literally yelled at her in front of everybody about how they were over and he just wanted to move on."
My heart beat a thousand times faster. Nick had told Selena to back off. Which meant that he was definitely single. Which meant that, once I had respectfully given Liam's ego time to re-inflate, Nick and I could start things up like nothing had ever happened …
"Miley, it's early. Can we please talk about this later, preferably when I've had my morning dose of caffeine?"
I slapped Demi's leg. "And you call yourself my friend," I mumbled, getting to my feet and walking across to the bedroom door. "I'll be back to discuss this with you, you know. The dance is tonight and we really need to sort this out before we start getting ready with Selena."
"As I said, when I've had my morning dose of caffeine." Demi collapsed back into her pillows, lifting a cushion and placing it over her head.
I chuckled at her behavior and walked out into the living room. I once again crept past Selena and wandered out into the backyard.
I checked the time quickly on my phone – 7:30AM. Okay, it had been pretty early, but I was way too awake to do anything but think about the previous night's events.
I heard footsteps come around the side of the house. I turned quickly, just in time to see Nick come into the backyard. He was wearing shorts and a worn old band t-shirt. When he saw me, he stopped.
Nick nervously wiped the sweat from his morning run off his forehead. "Miley," he said softly. "You're up early."
I knew what he was doing. He had clearly gotten up early for his run to avoid bumping into me. What a failure that move was, huh?
I sat down on a sun lounger and looked up at him, ignoring the insane back flips in my stomach. "I couldn't sleep. My mind's been racing lately, you know?" I immediately regretted my comment. That had been attention-seeking beyond denial.
Nick smiled slightly. "I know exactly what you mean."
"Selena's sleeping in the pool house," I said quickly.
Nick nodded. "So Demi told me." He hesitated, then glanced over his shoulder. "Do you want to come inside? I think it would be best if we talked inside." He nodded his head to the pool house.
I turned and realized that Selena's sleeping body was in clear view of us. It occurred to me that he was referring to the fact that, if she woke up, she would hear every word of our conversation, something that wasn't exactly a good thing.
I followed Nick in to the main house. He closed the French doors leading in to the kitchen behind us, then closed the door out into the hallway.
"Joe came back for the Homecoming game," he explained. "Everybody knows that he'll be the first to be listening in the hallway if he thinks there's drama going on in this house."
I nodded. "I see."
"Miley …"
"Nick, we talked about this."
"But I –"
"We're giving it time, remember?"
Nick leaned against the island in the centre of the kitchen and sighed. "This is driving me insane, Miley. You only broke up last night but now that I know …" He trailed off and shook his head. "I can't do this whole staying apart thing."
"It's only for a little while," I said weakly. Hearing everything he was saying made it so hard to stay away, but I knew I had to. It wasn't right or realistic to go straight from one relationship to another.
"How much longer do you need me to wait? I've been chasing you for weeks."
"I would hardly call it chasing," I replied. "We nearly kissed in your truck and then you avoided me until Liam arrived. I heard everything you said to Demi about me at the start of the week, Nick. I know that you're just as damaged as I am after everything you've been through with Selena. We both need time to be sure that this is what we want." I bit my lip and looked away. "You might not understand that right now, but some day, you're going to thank me for it."
Nick took a step towards me, reaching out his hand. "Miley …"
I quickly pulled my hand away from his and looked away. "You're going to thank me for it," I repeated. I needed to repeat it, not only for Nick but for myself.
The kitchen door opened and Denise walked in. She stopped just inside the door and looked between us, her brow furrowed slightly in confusion. "Am I interrupting something in here? I can go if you need me to," she asked.
Nick looked at me and sighed dramatically. "No, Ma. I was just going for a shower." He then turned around, slipped past his mother and thundered up the stairs to his bedroom.
Denise closed the kitchen door once more and turned to face me. "Actually, Miley, I've been meaning to talk to you for a while now."
"Oh, okay." I sat down at the breakfast bar and looked at her.
"Would you like some coffee first?" she asked.
I nodded and watched as she got two cups from the cupboard and poured coffee into them from the machine on the counter. She then turned around, handed me one of the cups and leaned against the island, just as her son had been doing moments beforehand.
"What did you want to talk about?" I asked nervously.
"It's about my son," she said. She observed me for a moment and took a sip from her coffee cup. "Nick hasn't been himself lately. Usually he's happy and cracking jokes and - let's face it - cocky. A conversation with Demi has led me to believe that you're the latest object of his affections."
I looked away, staring down at my coffee. The last person I wanted to have this conversation with was Denise. My biggest nightmare ever since the whole Nick thing had started was that she would change her mind about me; that she would call my parents and tell them that I needed to come home to them. The last thing I wanted was to spend time with my parents when they were fighting so passionately about everything they had once shared, including me.
"Paul and I talked about it, and we noticed that you haven't been yourself either. I just want to know what's going on between you."
"I would have thought Demi would have told you all there is to know," I said softly.
Denise smiled. "You're lucky, you know. You have a loyal friend in Demi. She decided that you and her brother should be the ones to tell me everything, and she was right. It isn't her place to talk about things that don't involve her. Now, I need to know what my boy has done to get you so tied up in knots."
I looked up at Denise. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore," I whispered. It was taking everything, and I mean everything, in me to hold back tears. All the emotions that had been draining me for the past few weeks were all starting to come out, and I was falling apart.
"What's going on, honey?" Denise asked, reaching her hand out. She placed it over mine and looked at me sympathetically. "I can't help you unless you tell me what's bothering you."
I took a deep breath and realized that maybe it would be better if Denise knew everything. "Nick and I had been having these … moments, I guess. It was getting to us both. I mean, I broke up with Liam because of it. I mean, it wasn't just that – we were drifting apart anyway. But I realized that it wasn't right to jump straight from one serious relationship into another one that might not even last, especially when Selena still wants him so badly. It's just so hard. I want to be with Nick, I do. But I can't. I have to respect the fact that Liam might only be on a flight back to New York now and it isn't right to just jump straight to Nick." I wiped away the tears that had already started to fall. "And it's already hard enough being so far from home, but what makes it worse is that everything is so new here and I'm trying to take my mind off my feelings for Nick but he's one of the only people I know well around here."
"Oh, Miley," Denise breathed. Her eyes crinkled in compassion as she squeezed my hand encouragingly. "Why didn't you just tell me all of this before? We could have helped made things easier for you. We would have done anything we could have to help you."
"What could you have done? You can't fly my friends down to Dallas. You can't make my parents stop fighting over the little things that they don't even care about. You can't get my feelings for Nick to just switch off like a lightbulb," I said, trying to control my tears from erupting into full-on sobs. I no longer cared about how awkward it might have been to speak to his mother about everything. I needed to just let it out.
Denise came around the island and wrapped her arms tightly around me. "Maybe you're right about jumping into another relationship so quickly, but staying away from my son is clearly making you miserable," she said soothingly.
"But Liam –"
"Would want you to be happy," Denise said quickly. "Honey, if he cares about you as much as he said he did, he wouldn't want you to be miserable just out of respect for his feelings."
"And Selena –"
Denise pursed her lips and let me go to allow me to reach for my coffee. "Selena and Nick are … complicated." She hesitated. "My son has treated that girl like dirt for years, and she still keeps running back. It makes me wonder of she just likes the drama of it all."
"Does it not mean that she just cares for him a lot?"
"You would think so, but she never seems as heartbroken as she lets on." She shook her head. "But we aren't here to discuss Nick and Selena, are we? We're here to talk about you." She smiled warmly at me. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at my son and see how much he cares for you, Miley. No one has gotten to him like this before."
I look down again. I quickly finish my coffee. "I should probably go and get dressed," I said quietly. I got to my feet and smiled weakly at Denise. "Thank you. For listening."
Denise smiled warmly back at me. "I know that your parents aren't here to help you at the minute, but always feel free to talk to me if you need an adult opinion."
I smiled once more and made my way to the French doors.
"Miley?"
I turned and looked at Denise, who was leaning against the counter again with her coffee cup in hand.
"I know that everything seems scary right now, what with the move and the break-up with Liam and your decisions regarding Nick, but whatever you decide, you need to remember that you need to make yourself happy, because at the end of all this, I don't want you to look back at your time down here with us and think about what you could have done to make yourself content. Do you understand?"
I nodded and made my way out into the backyard, processing Denise's words. As I thought about everything she said, it hit me that maybe time wasn't what I needed where Nick was concerned. Maybe all I needed was him.
The number of reviews I received went down a little in the last chapter. I won't lie by saying that I'm not disappointed, because I was. However, I decided that, despite my disappointment, I still needed to update. Thanks to fabulousmarie, SillyyPandaaGirll, IWantNiley3.0, nileyfan0314, LetItRainx3 (I actually did manage to get A* in my English Lit module, haha), xnickslightning, Fatimaaa, lifesaclimb11, jonasluver4ever21, YouSaidForever, ijustneedyounow, NickJisoffmychain2828 and Guest (Yes I am :-) ). All reviews were much appreciated, and I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you thought in a review x
I wrote a new oneshot (I deleted my last one as I need to edit out song lyrics - I'll repost that soon) and I hope to post it soon, so keep an eye out for that.
