Chapter 13

Confusing Day

"You want to take a break?" Jake asked and dropped his arm from my shoulders.

"No Jake, I don't know what I want to feel." I sighed and placed my hands on my thighs.

"Breaks aren't fun, I'll admit that, but I'm just… scared."

"Why are you scared? Of commitment? We've been together for so long and now you want to take a break?" He whispered softly so no one could hear, but you could still see he wanted to shout at me. "What's happening between us? Are we really going to go through this again?" He took my hands in his and squeezed tightly

"No Jake, this was a mistake, I don't mean it it's just…" I sighed. Stupid Matt, I blame matt for everything right now. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't feel confused right now. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be questioning my relationship with Jake right now.

"What do I do to prove that you really are everything to me Miley? How do I make you understand that I don't want you to leave me and that I don't want you to be seeing anyone else?" He whispered with a painful look in his eyes.

I don't want him to fall back into his depression, but I don't know what to say. All I wanted was to see how he felt about our relationship and here we are with him practically begging me to not leave him when I didn't intend to.

"You don't need to prove anything Jake." I softly said and noticed the audience we were gaining. I stood up from my seat and pulled Jake up from the seat. I didn't want to cause a scene of a, what looks like, a break up with rumors flying around.

I pulled him toward the exit of the mall on the second level, but Jake then sped up with his hand still locked to mine, pulling me in another direction. I was going to go to Lilly's car, but I think he was bringing me to his.

We did go to his car which was parked far in the back of the parking lot. He led me to the side of the car and placed his hands on either side of me. I kept my eyes low as he moved as close as he could to me.

"Talk to me Miley, what's wrong?" He asked and I shook my head.

Times like this make me want to tell Jake what's on my mind. How everything is so wrong when he thinks everything is so right. I hate this and I hate that he's laying this on me. I just, really don't need this right now.

"Jake." I softly said and he stepped closer to me. My face was staring straight into his hard chest. He lifted one of his hands to my chin and pushed my chin up.

By now I was staring straight at his eyes. He looked confused as ever and I really didn't know what to tell him.

"Please Miley, tell me what's wrong." His eyes softened a little bit.

My breath caught my throat as I started to say my next line. "I saw him." was the only thing I could say. My eyes drifted to the side as he still held my chin in place.

"Matt…"

I could feel his fingers shaking under my chin as he said Matt's name. I can't believe this is going to happen again. I hate this so much and I hate that everything is making me feel so screwed up. Ugh, this is seriously my screwed up life. No longer perfect and simple, but hard and screwed up to the fullest.

Suddenly I felt a thud next to me and my eyes shot to Jake's hand on the other side of me. He punched his car and I shook my head.

"Do you hate me?" I quietly said as I sniffled, feeling my eyes burn with the tears now streaming down my cheeks.

"No Miley, I don't hate you. I love you too much to hate you." He traced his finger from my chin toward my cheek, wiping my tears away. His finger then went toward my lips and I could taste the saltiness from it.

"I'll take care of you Miley; I'll make sure that he won't hurt you."

He moved his face down and closer to mine. I could feel his breath on my cheek and he kissed my cheek. He pressed his hard body against my small frame and moved over to kiss my eyelids, the tip of my nose, my other cheek, and my chin. He finally moved on my lips.

"Jake." I managed to say between kisses.

He hesitated for a second and continued to kiss me. He tilted his head and slipped a hand behind my neck, holding me in place.

I didn't mind being like this, but I wanted to go home. Man, why does his kisses seem so irresistible.

We finally parted and he stared at me. "Miley." he said and quickly kissed me once again.

"Jake, can we go home?" I asked him before he kissed me again.

"Okay…" He sighed and dropped his head.

He finally let go of me and I walked to the other side of the car. He unlocked the car and I got inside. I guess a break wasn't needed, just the truth.

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We got home soon after that without a word spoken with me. I noticed Jake being in deep thought and I myself thinking about so many things. I really can't believe that so many things can happen in such little time and it really does suck.

We went inside of the house and I found my dad sitting on the living room couch, watching TV, and looking quite tense. He had his legs crossed and the house phone in his hand. He's been completely stressed out since the Matt news and the interview I had last week.

"Daddy?" I said and I sat down next to him. "What's up?" I asked.

He sighed and stretched out as he leaned back into the couch. He lifted his feet off the ground and onto the coffee table.

"Well there's that concert this weekend and you know that Makayla girl that was being all nasty to you when you went to Florida a few years ago?" He asked and I nodded.

Oh how I hate Makayla and how she thought she was better than me. I would love to see her and her record deal fall apart for being such a snob. She hates me and I hate her right back. She thinks she's so cool just because she had that one song that reached the top 10.

"How can I not remember her?" I said and crossed my arms.

I looked up at Jake who was leaning against the arm rest of the couch, watching the TV. He glanced at me and smiled. I nodded my head at him and looked back at my dad. Ugh, it's embarrassing talking about her in front of him. He used to have a big ego and I hated him so much like how I hated Makayla so much before.

"Well, she dropped out of the concert because of a family emergency and they asked if you could take her place-"

"Why should I? What good has she done to me?" I hissed.

Makayla has tried so many times to ruin my reputation, saying false things about myself and continuously telling people I'm a bad influence to children saying its alright to lie about their identity. She says having an alter ego is like not being true to my fans. She says that I'm just afraid of people and that I love being fake.

Man, I remember when I heard that I wanted to slap her. There was a one hour special on the TV asking people how they felt about me being who I am and Makayla was one of them. Many of the people say that they are okay with it, but there were some who were angry with me. It didn't matter anyway, the people who didn't agree were the people who hated me the most so it was alright.

"It's another charity event; it's for the good, which is why I agreed." He said.

I winced. "But dad, I have so many things on my mind right now, I have no time for a concert! I'm not even prepared I don't know what to sing or-" I started and leaned forward, covering my face with my hands. This was the last thing I needed and here I am stuck with something I don't want. Ugh, I hate it when my career gets involved with my personal life.

"Relax Miley; this can get your mind off of school. I told them that you'll sing some of your older popular songs." He said and put his hand on the back of my head. He patted it and got up from the couch. "I'm sorry Miley." Dad kissed my head.

My eyes followed him as he walked to the back of the house. He got his guitar and went out on the porch. I turned back to Jake and he shrugged.

"Don't worry about him. He thinks you're depressed because he's not around much." Jake told me.

"How does he know I'm sad?"

"You can tell Miley. You're usually Smiley Miley and now you're not so Smiley. You're sad and I haven't seen you this depressed since your little scare our sophomore year." Jake got up from the arm of the chair and I stood from my own seat.

"Wow." I said and Jake nodded.

"Yeah, we know you Miley, you're not too hard to get to, you can fall in so easily and it's scary. Knowing why you've been so depressed makes me scared for you as well. We all care you know?" He took a hold of my hand.

I forced myself to smile. "I promise I'll do better okay?"

"Yes, I know." He pulled me toward the door. "Let's go on a walk." He suggested and I nodded.

"Sounds nice." I softly smiled and he pulled me out the front door and onto the sidewalk.

While we walked, we were talking about our past, present, and future. It was nice just talking like this without interruptions. I haven't had a talk with him like this in a really long time and it was just sweet. We talked about our first kiss at Traci Vanhorn's party, when I confessed my love for him when I thought he died, our break up because of Luann, how close we got when I was about to tell everyone about myself, our first time, just everything and it was sweet.

Then when we talked about the future, it was weird. We usually have fun with talking about the future, but it was serious this time. We started off with talking about Lilly and Oliver and then when it came to how it would be with the both of us; we decided it wasn't for now. We're just not ready for it. Marriage, kids, everything is just too much. And the fact that we might not even go to college because of our careers is another thing. Talking about the future is just too scary.

We never once brought up the subject of Matt which was good. I think he just wanted a clean and fun talk and I'll admit. It has made me feel better.

"Are we going to Senior Ball?" Jake asked me as I started to skip on the side walk.

I looked back at him and raised my eyebrows.

"Since when were we going to the Senior Ball? I don't recall anyone asking me, so for all I know, I have Saturday night off." I grinned and he laughed.

"Fine." He said and took a hold of my hand. He pulled me back and I stood in front of him. He took a long piece of grass from the side and tied it, making it a circular shape. He went on one knee and held my hand in both of his hands. It looked as if he was about to ask me to marry him and it would be pretty funny if someone were to catch this moment.

"Will you, Miley Stewart, allow me, Jake Ryan, to take you to our Senior Ball?" He said and I giggled. He slipped the piece of grass on my ring finger and smiled up at me.

"I'll think about it. Is a piece of grass all you can afford?" I asked him and smiled.

"Well, I did give you that promise ring before I left; I hope you still have it." He pouted and I rolled y eyes.

"Of course I do, I can never take it off." And with that I reached for the collar of my shirt and pulled out the promise ring he had given me a couple of years ago. It was a perfect fit by now and I could wear it on my finger, but I didn't want anyone to know about it. The only people that know about it are Lilly, Oliver, Luann, Jackson, and Freddy. Freddy walked in on me when I was holding onto the ring and singing in the auditorium the first time I met him.

"Good you never took it off. Makes me feel better." He said and got up from his knee. He took my hand and we started to walk again. "

Take all your time thinking about it, because I already paid for it. We don't have to go even if I paid for it, but it's all up to you." He said and I nodded.

"I'll think about it and I'll tell you when I decide." I said again and then we started to talk about random things again.

We were heading for the beach about now and we were passing a bunch of parking lots. I never walked so long without being bombarded by people or paparazzi in a long time and it really feels good.

We were passing the parking lot of one of the beaches when I noticed a parked car with a long slender figure which looked like Timmy leaning against it and looking inside of the opened window of the passenger side.

"Hey look over there, is that Timmy?" I asked Jake as I lightly pulled on his sweater.

Jake looked in Timmy's direction and he nodded.

"Yeah, that is." He said and we walked slowly as we watched Timmy stick his head into the car.

He came back out and had a smile on his face. For some reason it looked like he was making a deal with a person. Suddenly, he passed something into the person in the car and in return was given a small envelope.

"Is he dealing drugs?" I hear Jake say and I shrugged.

"I really doubt he does that, but what the hell is he doing? I hardly see him around now, but what if he is doing something illegal like that?"

"Then I'll kick his ass. Doing bad things like that plus dating Luann, that's stupid." He hissed and pulled me faster toward the beach.

We finally reached the beach without being noticed by Timmy, but it makes me curious. Maybe I was wrong for not doing that background check on him. Hmm, today just keeps getting even weirder and weirder for me. I wonder if my week next week will be even more weird and dramatic than usual.

A/N I hope this fic isn't confusing people. I'm sorry if it all seems rushed, I keep on trying to make it make sense, but I have a feeling not much people understand what's going on.

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter.