a/n: Sorry if it seems a little rushed at the end, I've realized I'm rather bad at writing dramatic confessionals…

Disclaimer: I don't own JONAS, the characters in it or the song presented in this fic… all I own is the plot

Nick carefully spun the dial on his locker. It had been an agonizingly first three periods, and he'd never been more grateful for lunch… or more hesitant to open his locker. He shouldn't have worried though; the silver disc was lying in its case on the top shelf, just where Stella had promised she'd leave it before lunch.

Sighing in relief, Nick pulled a Sharpie from his pocket, uncapping it with his teeth and carefully labeling the disc in neat writing, spending special effort on each letter of her name. He'd been unwilling to label it earlier, lest the CD find its way into the wrong hands during its time with Stella, but now that he was quite sure it was never leaving the safety of his backpack again, it was alright to give it its working title.

For a minute Nick just smiled down at the demo. It had been a pain to record, and a little scary to show his brothers the lyrics. He wasn't used to that, being afraid of sharing his art. It wasn't so much that he'd been afraid that they wouldn't like the song - he knew it was awesome. It was more that, he knew there was a good chance that his brothers would see right through his pretenses that it was "just another song." That it wasn't about… the girl whose name he'd just written on the cover. It had been worth all the stress though, Nick was sure this song was going to win him a shelf full of awards and maybe… if he could get up the nerve to play it for her, the heart of--

"BOO!"

Nick jumped a mile into the air, whirling around to face his oldest brother who was beaming widely at having successfully surprised the un-suprisable.

"Ha!" Kevin cried, pumping his fist madly, "I told Joe we'd get you eventually. It just took a few years longer than he expected. Do you think I could convince him to consider inflation when giving me my winnings?"

Nick shrugged, stuffing his CD into his backpack, intending on pretending that the whole incident had never happened, "Maybe, but don't you guys usually bet in jelly beans?"

He looked up in time to see his older brother shoot him an incredulous look, "Uh, duh Nick, I was talking about jelly bean inflation. It's a serious issue."

"Of course," Nick replied good-naturedly.

"Oh, word to the wise little bro'," Kevin stopped abruptly just around the corner from their usual lunch table, grabbing Nick's arm to stop him as well, "Stella and Joe broke up second period today."

"They broke up again?" Nick groaned, having long since grown sick of his brother's on-again, off-again relationship. They obviously really liked each other, if they could just man up and admit that they could handle a relationship, it would be a lot less stressful for the rest of the lunch group.

"Yep," Kevin popped the 'p' and resumed walking, "So I don't think we'll all be eating together today… you know the cycle. I myself plan on dining with the cheer squad. You're welcome to join us if you promise to be a bit more… cheery."

Nick snorted, "Thanks Kev', but I think I'll sit this one out. Speaking of out… the atrium sounds like a good spot."

"If you're sure… I think Joe plans on sulking some more before classes resume, so you might see him," Kevin rolled his eyes, obviously not supportive of his brother's drama queen antics.

"He's doing the sulking this time? So I'm guessing Stella dumped him this time? Any idea as to why?" It was better to know all the facts straight off rather than wait and find out later.

"Hm… I think she said she was breaking it off cause he never wrote any romantic songs for her, or did anything especially romantic at all. This was just after she listened to our latest demo too. It was like mood swingage to the max, one second she was all 'aw' and 'super awesome' and 'tell Nick that I see smiles in his future' the next it was 'Joe why aren't you more like Nick!?' And then they were broken up. Again." Nick felt his heart swing. So Stella had seen it, she knew the meaning behind the message… he could only pray that she had kept it to herself. Though, what with the stress of her and Joe's latest breakup, who could be sure?

"Thanks Kev," Nick nodded as he turned into the atrium, "If you see Joe, tell him girls like flowers?"

"Gotcha," Kevin smirked and started down the hall, throwing his parting words over his shoulder, "Oh and word to the wise part two little bro, Macy is looking for you… and she's angry."

"Wait, what?" Nick called after his brother, but Kevin was already gone. Nick threw up his hands in defeat and slunk into the atrium, plopping down on the bench and dropping his bag on the path. He tried not to think about what an angry Macy might mean. Had she heard the song and hated it? Had she realized what it meant? Had Stella told her everything? Or was this just about Stella and Joe?

"Stupid Stella," he muttered, his eyes covered by his hands.

"You!" a familiar voice cut through his reverie. He looked up, shocked to see Macy Misa towering over him, her arms tightly crossed and a murderous look on her face. He leapt to his feet, debating running for it.

"Oh no, you don't Lucas," she snapped, grabbing his wrist, obviously seeing his intentions on his face. Nick tried to ignore the sparks that flashed from his wrist as her hand touched it.

"Macy, err, hi?" Nick offered helplessly, had he had use of both hands he might've thrown them up in defeat.

"Don't you 'hi' me bucko," Macy continued to glare, but didn't remove her hand from his wrist.

"Uh, Kevin said you were looking for me, and that you were angry, which is obviously true…" Nick trailed off, wondering where his smarminess had fled to, and how to get it back.

"Darn straight I'm angry!" Macy affirmed, but did not elaborate. Great, it she wanted to play the guessing game. He decided to go with the least offensive of his assumptions first and cross his fingers.

"Is this about Joe and Stella breaking up again?" he asked, trying to keep all feelings of hope out of his voice. He wasn't happy about his brother's latest breakup after all.

"What?" Macy's face lost its anger and instead swirled into a mask of confusion. Apparently she hadn't yet heard about it yet. Excellent stall tactic!

"Yeah," Nick seized his opportunity, "Apparently they broke up during their study hall second period."

"They broke up again?" Macy groaned, "That's like the third time this month! They've only been dating for what, a year? And they've broken up thirteen times already!"

"Fifteen," Nick corrected quietly, "You're forgetting about the Valentine's Day hoopla when they broke up and got back together three times in two days."

"Oh yeah… I think I blocked that out," Macy sighed, then straightened, "Nevertheless! As interesting as the latest Joella breakup will undoubtedly not be, you're getting me off topic Lucas!"

"So it wasn't the Joella breakup?" Nick sighed.

"Of course not! Why would I be angry at you when I'm supposed to be angry at Joe? Even Stella isn't crazy enough to blame you and Kevin every time Joe supposedly messes up!" Macy re-crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one foot.

"Can't you just tell me what I did already?!" Nick couldn't take the suspense or the guessing anymore, they were eating him alive.

"Why? I'll tell you why, it's because we had a deal!" she half-shouted, stomping her foot on the last word.

"A deal?" asked Nick puzzled.

"A deal," she confirmed, tossing her hair angrily over her shoulder. Nick just blinked at her, drawing a blank. His obvious ignorance only seemed to increase her irritation.

"Oh come on Nick," she fumed, "Our deal, remember? After you apologized for that whole 'lets pretend Macy can actually sing even though she causes people to cry in pain when she does' plan, you made me a promise."

"Oh… you mean that deal," Nick muttered quietly, his insides turning to ice. He had honestly and conveniently forgotten about that deal. It was like his memory wanted his heart broken again.

"Yes Nick, that deal," Macy snapped, uncrossing her arms and planting her hands firmly on her hips, "The one where you promised to let me hear every demo you guys record when you show them to Stella. Now I know that you made that promise over a year ago, and I might not be that super-duper-crazy fan anymore, but I'm still your number one fan who doubles as a rather close friend of yours. You didn't put an expiration date on that promise Lucas! So, why are you holding out on me? Fess up."

"Macy…" Nick said slowly, desperately searching for a safe way out of this mess and seeing none.

"Don't Macy me! I know you gave Stella a copy of a demo; she was listening to it during algebra! And I know you must have told her not to share it with me, cause when I asked her what it was she told me 'a new song of Nick's' but when I asked her for an ear-bud to listen in, she said she 'couldn't let me hear if you weren't ready for me to hear it!'!!" Macy shot Nick a look of pure hurt and betrayal which made Nick's heart shudder in pain. He hadn't meant for this song to hurt Macy; she was never supposed to know about the demo. Well maybe someday, when he'd figured it all out, but he hadn't intended for her to find out about it today.

"You're right," he conceded, hanging his head in his hands, "I was wrong to break my promise to you about the whole demo thing, I'm sorry."

Macy deflated some at that and came to sit beside him on the bench, propping her elbows on her knees and her chin on her palms so she could look Nick in the eye.

"Why?" was all she asked, and it was enough to make Nick wish she'd just stayed angry with him.

"I… wasn't ready for you to hear that song," he replied slowly, wondering if maybe, just maybe, he should quit with all the pretenses and just tell her already.

"Do you honestly think I won't like it?" she asked with a half smile and he chuckled half heartedly, Macy always liked their music.

"No, I mean, maybe. It's more of the meaning and implications that I'm worried about," he answered honestly, making his decision. She had to know, one way or another it would be decided and he could move on (and/or ceremoniously burn the CD and the song lyrics if the mood required it).

"Nick?" she asked uncertainly as the boy started to dig around in his bag, producing a portable CD player which he handed to the girl.

"I think, maybe, you should hear it," he hesitated before handing her the case that he'd so neatly labeled only minutes before, "I imagined being a lot more smooth about giving this to you…"

"Since when do things ever go the way we plan?" she smiled up at him, not commenting on the case's pointed title, popping the disc into the player and handing him one ear-bud as she put in the other.

"Here goes everything…" Nick whispered, mostly to himself, and with a shaking finger pressed play. His own voice filled the silence.

"There she goes again,

The girl I'm in love with

It's cool we're just friends…"

The usually average-length song seemed to drag on for hours, each chorus just another punch in the stomach as the silence outside of the music dragged on.

And then, the song was over.

But the silence wasn't.

For a long moment the silence dragged on and on as Nick's barely-beating heart dropped lower and lower. He was too stressed to speak, if he hadn't been able to feel his heart messing up his stomach, he would've sworn it was clogging up his throat.

Then Macy broke the silence, "My name is on the cover of this CD case," she noted, brushing her fingers over the letters.

"I know," he replied, mentally praising his amazing charisma in times of stress. It really was quite remarkable.

"So, can I, assume that the song, the amazing one we just heard, the one you didn't want me to hear cause you were afraid I'd hear something in it I didn't like, that one, can I assume it's about… me? Or would that be just as ridiculous as I've always assumed you liking me would be? 'Cause it is kind of ridiculous you know. Just 'cause I'm in love with you does not magically make you in love with me. No matter how much I wanted you to be it just ---!" but before she could finish her ramblings, Nick threw away all pretenses of charisma and just kissed her. Like it always happened in movies when the heroine goes off on a rant and the protagonist cuts her off with a kiss, Nick gave up on telling Macy the truth, he just… showed her.

When they broke apart, Nick returned to her earlier question, "You can assume that that song was about you, you can certainly assume that I'm in love with you, and you can definitely assume that I'll be kissing you a lot more often if you feel the same way..." He smirked on the last line as Macy raised her eyebrow at him.

"Well then you can assume that I'll be filling up quite a bit of your free time…" Macy beamed; and she too adopted the 'show' don't tell method, as the two leaned in for another kiss.

a/n: I know I never really resolved the Stella/Joe breakup drama, but you can assume (=P) that they get back together again with some help from Nacy and the gang. Reviews welcome per usual, let me know what you like/didn't like!