Hey, sorry this took so long I've had lots to do for college before christmas break and had literally no time to write but I hope this is worth the wait! Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Drama, Pillow Fights and Flashbacks
It was a cool summer's night here in Boston, Massachusetts. Friday night dinner had been over for almost an hour and all the dishes had been done and put away thanks to a little help from Nate. Now all that was left to do was relax and get ready for a long weekend of getting the endless amounts of assignments I have due over the next couple of weeks done but right now I just wanted to relax and play my guitar.
The soft breeze was flowing through my window, whisking the curtains around as if they had a life of their own. I looked up and felt the cool breeze wash across my face like a wash cloth. My serene, peaceful moment was interrupted with the loud slamming of a nearby door. I snapped my eyes open and knew exactly what the noise was. I could see directly into Nate's room from where I was sat, our houses were directly in line with each other's and you could see directly into each other's windows. Nate had walked into his room, slamming his door in frustration on the way in; he had his hand to his ear so I guessed that he was on the phone, most likely to his girlfriend Brooke, whom I hated. They had been having problems for a while, mostly because she disagreed with the fact that Nate's best friend is a girl, that girl being me. Brooke was the jealous type.
I moved over to the window and pushed it open a little more so I could hear how the conversation was going, it was easier for me to do that than wait for Nate to tell me himself like he normally would. I went back over to my bed put my guitar down and pulled the little whiteboard and pen out of my top drawer. Just as I turned back to the window, Nate was getting more and more frustrated.
"You know what Brooke, just do what you want, I'm tired of all your crap!" Nate yelled down the phone and snapped it shut launching it across his room and onto his bed. He turned to the window and rubbed the back of his neck like he always did after an argument with Brooke. You spend so much time with a person you generally start to pick up little bits of their body language.
I quickly scribbled 'You Ok?' onto the whiteboard and turned it to Nate, tapping on the window a little to get his attention. When he heard the tap he snapped his head up and quickly read the message, giving me a weak smile he reached for his own whiteboard and pen. This was a regular occurrence for us, you'd think that we'd just open the window and talk but we preferred having a little fun to liven up our Friday nights after Friday night dinner was done. Nate took the pen and scribbled his own words down on the whiteboard then turned it to me.
'Couldn't be better' I raised an eyebrow and wiped off the previous message and replaced it with a new one, 'Brooke?', I turned it to him and he shook his head as he wiped away his message to replace it with a new one, 'How did you know?' At this point we normally gave up and just opened the window and just talked. And that is exactly what I did.
"So what happened this time?" I asked gearing up for a full blown rant from Nate. He rubbed his hand around the back of his neck signalling he was yet again frustrated.
"I called her when I got in. We haven't been out for dinner together for a while so I thought why not go out to dinner so I asked her and she said yeah, so she wanted to know if we could do it next Friday but obviously I can't because of Friday night dinner and that's when it all started. She started accusing me of cheating on her and that I spend so much time with you that I forgot all about her and then she started saying stuff about you and that's when I lost it! I don't care who she is no one gets away with talking about my best friend like that no way!" I smiled at him; I loved how he was so protective of me, at times it made me laugh.
"Nate, I'm sorry I'm causing a lot of trouble between you and Bro – " I didn't get to finish my sentence as Nate cut me off
"Don't you be sorry for her being a spoilt brat, it's not your fault that she thinks you and I can't be friends!" he said sincerely, I smiled weakly at him again. As much as I hated Brooke, I still felt guilty that I was causing a rift between the two of them, she could never accept that Nate was friends with me, she always thought that she was his one and only. "God she just makes me so MAD!" he punched the window frame splitting his knuckle in the process, he instantly regretted it. A smear of blood was left on the wall where his fist had come into contact with it; Nate's flawless face crumpled up in pain as he held his hand in the other hand and cradled it, cursing under his breath.
"Nate you idiot what did you do that for!" I said climbing down from the window seat, "Don't move, I'm coming over!" I walked away not waiting for an answer, I grabbed my guitar from my bed and keys from my nightstand and made my way downstairs to Nate's house. Once I was out into the cool night air, I turned and locked the door, you could never be too careful in this neighbourhood. I made my way over to Nate's and let myself in with the key he gave me for emergencies although I used it all the time. I ran to the kitchen and collected the first aid box from the cupboard and went upstairs to Nate's room where he was still sat in the window cradling his hand and wincing in pain. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop punching walls?" I said dropping my guitar on his bed alongside his own, "Come on bathroom," I said moving towards the bathroom, Nate following close behind.
"Why did you bring your guitar?" Nate asked as he closed the lid of the toilet and sat on it waiting for me to treat his wound,
"Because we need to cheer you up!" I said as I turned on the hot water filling the sink, I added a tiny amount of alcohol to the water so I could sterilize the wound before I did anything else.
"Mitchie I don't need cheering up!" I scoffed as I dipped a cotton ball into the water and squeezed it to get rid of the excess water,
"Excuse me, who's hand am I patching up?" I pressed it to his knuckle and he winched as it stung the gash.
"Ouch!" I tutted,
"You baby!" I pressed a little harder this time and wiped around his knuckle collecting all the blood that was left behind.
"Am not!" I raised an eyebrow at him as he winched again when I pressed a new cotton ball to the gash.
"All done, you can stop crying now Nate!" I said laughing. Big mistake. He reached his hand into the water in the sink and splashed the water at me forgetting that there was alcohol in the water. The water went into my eye and made them sting badly. "Nate, there's alcohol in that water you idiot, now it's in my eye!"
"Oops, sorry Mitch!" he let the water out of the sink and went to get a towel for my eyes, I ran the cold water and splashed it into my eyes rinsing out the alcohol. "Here," he handed me the towel and I dabbed at my eyes. They felt better instantly.
"Come on music time!" I said dragging him to his room. I grabbed my guitar and took my song book out of my back pocket and put it on Nate's bed open at the page I wanted. I had written it a while ago when I found out about Shane and Tess. Nate sat beside me and glanced at my lyrics, "It's meant to be a duet, the bit in blue is what you're supposed to sing , the pink is mine and green in both of us," I pointed to the relevant parts then began to show him the chords for the melody I had made it up, it was basically the same 4 chords over and over again with only 2 changes for the chorus. "1...2...3...4" I counted out the beat and we both began playing, after Nate had practiced over and over again.
(AN: Nate/Mitchie/Both)
Yeah
Woah
I know this isn't what I wanted
I never thought it'd come this far
Just thinkin' back to where we started
and how we lost all that we are.
I sang first as it was my song after all I should be able to sing a verse of my own song first. I stopped and carried on playing to let Nate begin his part.
We were young and times were easy
But I could see it's not the same
I'm standing here but you don't see me
I'd give it all for that to change
And I don't want to lose her
Don't wanna let her go
Nate finished his part and I began my next part that I had decided was the chorus.
I'm standing out in the rain
I need to know if it's over
Cause I will leave you alone
Flooded with all this pain
Knowing that I'll never hold her
I jumped in with Nate and sang the rest of the chorus. Like I did before the storm (yeah)
Before the storm
With every strike of lightning
Comes a memory that lasts
And not a word is left unspoken
As the thunder starts to crash
Maybe I should give up.
I'm standing out in the rain
I need to know if it's over
Cause I will leave you alone
Flooded with all this pain
Knowing that I'll never hold her
Like I did before the storm
My voice got stronger as I got into the song and finally listened to the subconscious message in the song.
Trying to keep the lights from going out
And the clouds from ripping out my broken heart
We always say,
A heart is not a whole
Without the one who gets you through the storm
Standin' out in the rain
Knowing that it's really over
Please don't leave me alone.
I'm flooded with all this pain,
Knowing that I'll never hold you
Like I did before the storm
Yeah
Like I did before,
The storm.
We finished the song and stopped playing guitars. I looked down at my feet trying not to let the tears I felt welling in my eyes to spill over. Nate noticed as he usually would and pulled me into a hug, this happened a lot every now and again there would be a point where something would trigger the memories of seeing them in his room that night.
-Flashback-
I walked into Shane's house like I usually would on a Friday night. Friday night was usually date night but he cancelled this week because he had a project due for one of his classes and he hadn't even started it yet so I planned to surprise him and come over to see if I could help.
Teresa was sat on the sofa with Mark, her husband and Shane's step-father, I walked into the living room, and spoke up,
"Hey Teresa, how are you?" I asked leaning on the back of the sofa.
"Hey Mitchie, I'm fine thanks, you?" she smiled as she saw me, I waved at Mark and he returned the gesture.
"I'm good, just trying to get these assignments done for college. Shane home? I thought I'd surprise him," I asked, turning to make my way upstairs.
"Yeah, he's in his room studying!" I nodded and made my way upstairs.
As I neared Shane's room, I could hear a girl's voice that I recognised but couldn't quite pin down. I stood at the door for a second and it was quiet so I thought it was probably the TV downstairs. I reached for the door handle receiving an electric shock as my hand came into contact with the round, gold, door handle. The shock went along my arm to my shoulder as quickly as it had happened it stopped.
I turned the handle and opened the door but what was behind the door made my heart plummet from my chest right down to my toes. On the other side of the door was my boyfriend, Shane Gray, laying on his bed making out with one of my best friends, Tess Tyler. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. I swallowed while I watched in horror as Shane was continuing to kiss Tess, unaware of my presence.
"S-S-Shane?" My voice was barely a whisper; I cleared my throat loudly mustering some confidence from the anger bubbling inside me. This stopped them and they looked up at me, I looked at Shane's perfect face and tears instantly fell from eyes as I looked from one to the other Tess had an extremely guilty look on her face while Shane just sat there staring avoiding my eyes.
The anger was still bubbling up inside me as I walked over to Shane, raised my hand and swiped it across his cheek, jerking his head sideways. Once my hand hit his cheek I instantly felt better. I turned to take one last look at Tess and left.
"Mitchie!" I heard Tess shout after me but she didn't follow. Neither did Shane, I guess the slap said it all. I stormed down the stairs taking two at a time not wanting to stay in the house any longer, I grabbed the front door handle wrenched it open and ran as fast as I could.
I didn't know where I was running to but all I knew was that I had to get as far away from Shane as possible. I continued running until I couldn't breathe, I noticed that I had reached the park and plopped down on a bench in front of the small lake. I sat and sobbed looking out over the moonlight dancing off the rippling surface of the water.
Once my sobs had subsided, I pulled out my cell and scrolled through my contacts until I found Shane and Tess I pressed delete, erasing their names from my life. Once I had done that I pressed speed dial 2. Nate. He answered on the second ring.
"Hey Mitch," he said happily,
"Nate?" he could hear the sobs in my voice.
"Mitchie what's wrong?" I could hear the worry in his voice straight away. I sobbed for about a minute before I could answer. "Ok, it doesn't matter just tell me where you are and I'll come get you!"
"The Lake," I choked out.
"I'll be there in 5, do not move from that spot!" he said seriously. The phone line went dead and I sobbed some more. I waited 5 agonizingly long minutes until I heard a car pull up in a lookout spot almost 800 yards from where I was sitting. I was praying that it was Nate. A dark figure ran towards me and as it got nearer I could pick out the chiselled features of Nate's face, panic written across his face. His curly black hair swayed from side to side on the top of his head.
As soon as he got to me I was in his arms, sobbing more than before. I clutched onto his jacket for comfort.
"Mitchie?" he pulled me away from him so he could look at my face. "What happened?" he moved my hair out of my face and looked me in the eye pleading me to tell him.
"Shane...cheated..." I couldn't breathe because the sobs were getting too much for me, "With Tess!" I finally managed to get out. Rage spread across Nate's face and the hands that were gripping onto the top part of my arms balled up into fists.
"I'm going to kill him!" Nate spat and at that moment I didn't even care if he meant it or not.
I remember that day clearly and I wish I could forget it.
-End Flaskback-
Nate pulled me away from him and looked at me, he reached up to my face and wiped the tears from my eyes. I smiled,
"You ok, or do I need to get a bucket?" Nate laughed, I punched his arm playfully and began to laugh along with him, "I'll take that as a yes then, I have something that'll make you feel better, I wrote it last night, it's sort of a present for you to say thank you for being my friend, I know sounds really girly but anyway just listen." He picked up his guitar and started to strum, he opened his mouth to sing and his sweet melodic voice came out.
I pick up all your tears
Throw 'em in the back seat
And leave without a second glance
somehow I'm to blame
For this never ending race track you call life,
So turn right, into my arms
Turn right, you won't be alone,
You might,
Fall of this track sometimes,
Hope to see you on the finish line
Nate stopped singing to pause to play the guitar before he went back to the next verse. He looked down at his hands gliding over the strings and then drew in a breath and looked at me before starting to sing again.
Driving all your friends out
it's just me that cannot follow
And soon you will be on your own
Somehow I'm to blame
for this never ending race track you call life
So turn right, into my arms
Turn right, you won't be alone,
You might,
Fall of this track sometimes,
Hope to see you at the finish line
A tear snaked its way down my cheek at the beauty of the song. I wiped it away quickly before he noticed but I'm still sure he did.
I did all I could
And I gave everything
But you had to go your way
And that world was not for me
So turn right, into my arms
Turn right, you won't be alone
You might, fall off this track sometimes
Hope to see you at the finish line
Nate finished his song and I stared at him blinking back tears ,
"Nate that was beautiful," I paused collecting my thoughts before I opened my mouth, "You really wrote that for me?"
"Yeah, it's basically a song that I wrote to say that whenever you need me I'll be there," My eyes welled up again,
"Aww Nate," I leaned over to hug him "Love ya Curly Sue!" I chuckled as did Nate,
"Love you too M-Dog!" I chuckled again. They may seem stupid nicknames but when we came up with them we were in 5th grade, just kids, we didn't know any better.
Our best friend moment was rudely interrupted by Nate's cell ringing loudly, the sound of Stevie Wonders Superstition bounced off the walls, Nate moved away from me to answer it.
"What do you want Shane?" Nate never really got on with Shane anymore since that night and Shane tried not to upset Nate since he almost broke Shane's nose the last time.
I could hear Shane's voice on the other end but couldn't make out what he was saying,
"I'm at home with Mitchie, what's so important that you had to disturb my Friday night?" he paused to wait for an answer. I heard a reply but still couldn't hear what was said, "I've been over at Mitchie's and didn't take my phone, Shane just get to the point already!" Nate rolled his eyes at me as I chuckled. Shane answered quickly not wanting to get yet another punch in the nose. "Alright I'll be there at 10 tomorrow morning...yes Shane...SHANE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Nate slammed the phone shut and proceeded to pinch the bridge of his nose. He sighed and looked up at me, "I have to go into the studio at 10 tomorrow, fancy keeping me company, I don't think I could stand being around Shane and Jason for a whole day with no one to talk to," he asked I nodded. I loved going to the studio with Nate, I got to see how everything worked and I got to hang out with Caity!
"Sure!"
"Great be ready at 8:30, we'll grab some coffee at Coffee Chaos before we go!" Coffee Chaos was our favourite coffee house in the whole of Boston, whenever we wanted coffee we'd make the 20 minute trip just to get coffee when there was a coffee place about a mile down the street.
"Awesome, well I better be going if I'm going to be up early!" I said standing to go to the door,
"Mitch, 8:30 is not early!"
"Yes it is! There isn't even an 8:30am there's just an 8:30pm!"
"You're so lazy Mitchie!"
"Yeah what's your point?" Nate laughed at me.
"Just get out!" Nate laughed again, hanging his head as if he'd given up,
"Hey that's no way to treat a lady!"
"Well we'd have no problem there then you're not a lady!" I opened my mouth wide in mock shock, Nate repeated these actions. I grabbed a pillow off Nate's bed and hit him square on the head before he'd even seen it coming. "Hey! Watch the do!"
"Nate you're such a girl," I hit him over the head again,
"I'm more woman than you!" I laughed at his mistake, "Wait that didn't come out right!" by now I was literally laid on the floor clutching my stomach from the pain of laughing. I tried to speak but just couldn't stop laughing. "Ok Mitch you can quit laughing now!" Nate said trying not to laugh himself. "Mitchie, stop it!" Nate laughed more and soon Nate was laid on his bed clutching his stomach also in hysterics.
After about 10 minutes of laughing Nate finally stopped and hit me with another of his pillows.
"Ok Mitch I think we're all laughed out now!" I hit him back and soon we we're raged into a full blown pillow war. "Oh it's on Torres!"
"Bring it West!" I challenged, hitting him once again with the baby blue pillow I had in my possession.
An hour later we were done, spread on the living room floor stray feathers lying around us out of breath from running.
"Well Nate I think it's safe to say that this is the best Friday night I have ever had!"
"I can second that!" Nate rose up from his position on the floor getting to his feet then offering his hand out to help me up. Once I was on my feet, Nate looked around his living room. "Hey there's something different about this room but I can't quite put my finger on it," Nate pondered. I looked around not noticing anything new.
"Umm, could it be the few dozen feathers on the carpet?" I asked,
"No," Nate paused for a second scratching his head and looking around the room sceptically, "Oh it's these pictures did you put them there?" it suddenly clicked in my brain. A month or two after Nate had left to go on tour, I went into his house to check everything was alright and noticed that none of the rooms in his house displayed any pictures whatsoever. So I went out and bought at least 30 bucks worth of photo frames and spent another 30 bucks on getting pictures of various sizes printed to display around Nate's home to liven things up. The only pictures I had were ones of us when we were kids, last summer with Jason, Peggy and Caity, the band before me and Shane got together and Nate and my brother and sister. I chose some of the nicer prints got some blown up and framed them, then the next couple of days I spent cleaning and finding places to leave the pictures. Nate had been back a week and had only just noticed. Ugh boys.
"Yeah, I thought your house looked a little bland without any pictures so I thought I'd get some printed and put them out while you were gone so that when you came back your house felt more like a home. I bet that tour bus of yours doesn't feel as homely. Plus I noticed that you don't have any pictures of us displayed anywhere in your house!" I pouted playfully,
"Mitch have you seen the wall near my bunk on the tour bus?" I shook my head, "The whole wall is literally covered in pictures of me and you, Me, you, Hallie and Nathan and there's like one of me and the band and one of me and Brooke but I never really thought about putting pictures up here 'cos I spend most of my time on that tour bus than I do here!"
"Oh." That was all I said when I had processed all the information that had passed through my brain.
"But thanks Mitch, it definitely does feel more like home now!" Nate studied all the pictures and then sat on his sofa. I glanced at the watch on my wrist and noticed that it was nearly midnight. I needed to get home.
"Oh my gosh Nate it's nearly midnight I better go back next door and go to bed if you want me to be ready at 8:30!" Nate chuckled
"Ok Mitch, I'll walk you to your door!" Nate got up from the couch and walked me to my front door, I grabbed my keys out of my pocket and opened the door. I turned around to face Nate,
"Now don't go punching anymore walls tonight I don't want to have to come over again later to patch up another split knuckle!"
"Ok Mitch I won't!" I smiled
"Goodnight Nate!"
"Night Mitch" with that I closed the door and headed upstairs for a good 7 hours worth of sleep.
I hope you liked it. The songs used were Before the Storm by The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus and Turn Right also by The Jonas Brothers. Please review it'll make my christmas.
Merry Chritmas to all of you that celebrate it and A Happy New Year.
-cookie-cutter-rockstar-
