Happy Niley day! :)

~xoxo~

"So you have all of your stuff, sweetheart? Your toothbrush, pajamas, all your clothes?" my mom asked worriedly as she fussed around Joe's guestroom grabbing everything in sight.

"Yes mom," I replied in a bored tone. "I made sure to get everything."

"I just don't want you to be without anything once you get back to your house."

"Mom, I'm sure that Joe can bring me anything that I forgot, we don't live that far away from each other, remember?"

"Well I just need to make sure you have everything. There's no need to get upset," she huffed as she continued searching around the room.

Joe walked into my line of vision and leaned on the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. "Hey little bro, how is the packing going?"

"It would be going better if our mother," I paused and shot a look toward my mom, "would stop being freaking out over every little thing."

Her mouth formed a hard line and her hands went to her hips. "If you don't want my help then you just have to say so. I am just trying to be a good mother but if you don't want me to, then fine, I'll just leave."

"Mom…I'm sorry. I just really want to get home."

"Yeah mom, little Nicky doesn't want to hurt your feelings. Isn't that right?" Joe replied in the best baby voice he could come up with.

My mom rolled her eyes. "I can't deal with either of you boys. Here Nick," she said while she pressed a pile of clean clothes into my hands, "pack these away and then I guess you're allowed to leave if you really want to."

"Thank you mom," I smiled, taking the clothes from her. I turned back to my suitcase and carefully packed them away.

"Nick, I'm going to head out. I'll stop by your place later to check in."

"Seriously, you don't have to do that. My concussion is gone, I'm totally healed, everything is fine."

"Okay whatever you say," he chuckled as he walked out of the room.

"So mom I'm going to leave now," I said carefully, inching slowly to the door with my bag slung over my shoulder.

"Fine," she laughed. Then she pulled me into a tight hug that I thought I would never be able to pull myself out of. "I swear if you ever get into an accident like that again, I will not hesitate to kill you Nicholas."

I sighed and hugged her back. "I promise, that won't ever happen again," I whispered softly. "I love you mom."

When I finally received my overprotective mother's blessing to go home alone to my own house, I was relieved. Being here was only slightly better than being alone at Joe's house, only slightly, but still it was better than nothing.

I was sitting on my couch, watching the latest Yankee game when I heard my phone ring. I smiled when I saw the caller ID and answered in a chipper tone. "Well hello there Miles."

"Someone is happy this morning!" she laughed, her laughter carrying through the phone.

"Well actually being at my own home is a very happy experience for me, I must say."

"But now you don't have anybody to look after you!" she pouted. "You could die from that unnamed medical condition we discussed earlier."

"If you promise not to baby me, I promise not to die from the imaginary disease that you think I have."

"Fine, deal," she finally agreed. "Now, I have a surprise for you."

That comment peaked my interest. "A surprise? I love surprises!"

"I know! Now come outside before I decide to change my mind and take away your surprise."

"You wouldn't dare," I replied with a chuckle, but I was already getting up from my spot on the couch and making my way to my front door. As soon as I opened the door, I was met with Miley and her big smile.

"Surprise!" she shouted with a grin. She then stepped aside to reveal my surprise, she even used her arms to frame it like the girls from the Price is Right did.

My eyes went wide when I realized what she had gotten me. "A bike?" I asked incredulously. "You got me a bike?"

She shrugged, "Considering you were in a car accident, I figured that you and cars don't go so well together and the last time I got you a bike you seemed to love it, so here we are. It's a very good way of transportation, plus it's good for the environment."

"Well you know me, I'm all about going green," I joked while examining my new bicycle. I didn't really know much about bikes, only that this one was blue and had gears and that I really liked it. "Thank you, Miles."

"Now don't go reading too much into this," she replied, narrowing her eyes. "I just can't trust you in a car anymore, so you get a bike and I'm taking away your keys."

It took me a second to process what she said, and when I finally did she had already snuck past me and made it into my house where I knew she knew where I kept my car keys. "Miley!" I yelled and quickly ran in after her, but it was too late, she already had the keys in her hand.

"Yes?" she asked innocently, while slightly attempting to hide the stolen keys behind her back.

"I can see them behind your back," I said dryly. I made move to reach for them, but she lifted them out of my reach.

"I'm sorry Nick, but you crashed your car, so you get to have it taken away," Miley smirked and sauntered out of my house and back outside.

"Are you grounding me?" I asked incredulously, following her out to where my new mode of transportation was waiting.

She thought about it for a moment before nodding, "I guess you could put it that way."

"Well then when am I getting it back?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest in defiance. "Because I swear if my keys are not back in my hands in a maximum of two days, you are dead."

"Well it all depends on how good you are. So you better be extra nice to me or you will never get your car back."

"Come on Miles, when am I never not nice to you?" I asked her, half serious, half not. (But honestly, the half serious part was more along the lines of two-thirds serious.)

As she began to list off times when I was apparently mean to her, I took the moment to just look at her. I looked directly into her beautiful cerulean eyes, let my eyes linger over her gorgeous body; I was so taken with her that I hadn't realized another smirk had graced her features and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Enjoying the view?"

"What?"

"Nick, if you are going to stare at me, at least make it subtle."

I felt my cheeks flare up into a blush and I cleared my throat, "I really have no idea what you're talking about."

She scoffed, "Yeah, sure."

I rolled my eyes. "So besides coming here to ruin my good day by taking away my rights to drive, why are you here? Hopefully there is no more surprises coming my way."

Miley shook her head, "Nope, no more surprises. I ran out of creativity to come up with another one."

"Yeah, like you could really ever run out of creativity, Miles. Seriously, you are just one big ball of imagination."

"Okay, so I can't really tell whether or not that is a compliment, but I'm going to pretend it was and say thank you anyway, so thank you Nick. And to answer your question, that is all I was here for. Now I have to go and pick up Demi's present before I forget."

"Demi's present? Like for the wedding?"

"No, to congratulate her on being single," she replied sarcastically before whacking me upside the head, "Of course it's for the wedding."

"Well sorry!" I exclaimed while rubbing the back of my neck in pain. "It's not like you really made it clear. Plus, what about Joe? Does he just not get a present?"

"Oh I got his ages ago, as well as the actual 'Yay! You're married so here's your toaster!' gift. But Demi is my best friend and hers took a little more thought. So when I finally figured it out, I knew that it was going to be perfect, so that's what I've been wrapping my head around for the past couple of weeks."

"You really can't stay?"

"Sorry, I really can't. Call Joe, have him entertain you."

"He has been my entertainment for the past week, I've had enough of him for a year."

"Well then be a loner at home for all I care, all I know is that I need to go. I'll call you later, and don't forget, if you're not nice to me, you don't get your precious keys back."

She threw her head back in laughter and it continued up until she climbed into her car, though I could still see her laughing even after she was out of earshot. I smiled as she drove away; her visits were always somewhat comical.

Like it usually went in my life, when my phone began buzzing as soon as Miley drove away, I immediately could guess who it was on the line. Of course, I was right and I answered with: "Selena, hey."

"Hi," she replied awkwardly. "We haven't talked in a while."

"Sorry," I said stiffly.

"It's fine…how are you?"

"Fine, a little tired though. But I'm glad to be out of Joe's, he can be frustrating."

"That's good, that you're home. I can only imagine what it feels like being around Joe so much."

"It wasn't too bad. We just watched a lot of sports."

"Oh…okay."

"Yeah," I replied awkwardly. I made my way back inside of my house and gingerly leaned against the back of my couch. This was probably one of the most uncomfortable conversations I'd ever had, and that was saying something. Selena and I had not even talked (at least not at length) since she came to visit me the day I left the hospital.

Even then it was a tense atmosphere because of everything with Miley, now, I didn't even know what to say. It was eating me inside to know that I betrayed Selena, even if it wasn't in the way I thought. Sure, I felt terrible for that night and everything that happened, but now it was at the point where I was feeling as if I was betraying Miley, not Selena.

Was that wrong? Probably. In fact, I knew it was wrong; I could feel it in my core; I could feel that this just wasn't right. I think this was the moment I was supposed to feel when Miley first came back into town, but somehow I was able to ignore it until now. But now, it was like a weight laying heavily on my mind and heart.

"Nick?" Selena finally asked softly, her voice barely carrying over the line. "We need to talk, right?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I think so."

"I think…" she paused before starting up again, "I think things are changing or at least they're just going back to the way things were, I don't know."

"I know, I'm sorry. I really am."

"We need to not do this over the phone, I think in person would be better. And then we just need to talk, and I mean really talk, Nick, because you're in love with Miley and that really sucks for me."

"Selena…" I said slowly, but I didn't deny it, obviously.

"Please, please don't even pretend that you don't know it's true. I'm so tired of you pretending, it's honestly exhausting having to listen to you." She said that statement so matter-of-factly, her voice void of any tears or sadness, she just said it and that was it.

I still attempted to argue with her, she couldn't just say something like that without any effort on my part to sedate her. "Okay, seriously, you can't just say things like that, Selena, especially over the phone."

"You didn't even deny it," she replied softly.

"Oh, come on…"

"You know what? I changed my mind, I don't really want to look at you right now, so I'm just going to leave you with this. You have to choose, literally. I know I've said this before, but I actually mean it now. You have to really choose and then you have to stick with it, because honestly, I'm about ready to leave on my own."

Then she hung up.

"Shit," I grumbled and I quickly dialed her number back. Obviously I couldn't just let her say things like that without any rebuttal from me. Unfortunately however, she didn't answer. Then she didn't answer the second time, or third time, or even the fourth time I called. By then I had pretty much given up.

I switched gears and dialed a different number. It rang a couple of times before she finally picked up. "Nick?" she asked curiously.

"Demi!" I exclaimed. "Thank you so much for answering, seriously, I'm dying here."

"More girl problems?" she laughed. "You're worse than the girls I know."

"Selena won't answer her phone."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!" I exclaimed.

She laughed sarcastically, "Oh really? Are you sure about that?"

"Well…it's just Miley stuff I guess. Everything that happened last week and I don't know how to get her talk to me again."

"I don't really know what to say, Nick. I mean, it's not like we are really friends anymore so I don't know what she would want from you. From what I know of everything, I would focus on her for a little while and don't give up your efforts because the minute you stop trying you will lose her."

"Okay, thanks Dem. I really fucked up this time."

"Don't you do that often?" she asked innocently before breaking out in a fit of laughter.

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever, you suck."

"No, I really actually don't. By the way, before I hang up on you, I just thought that I would remind you that you should not be with Selena and how much you should be with Miley."

"Oh my god…" I groaned.

"Bye!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

As I hung up I was reminded of the problem that had surrounded me since the first day both girls became a part of my life: who should I choose?

~xoxo~

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