A/N: This is a short chapter… it's just a quick chapter to follow on the plot. It's quite important even thought it may seem boring. I still want you guys to try and guess what NJs trying to do. All these little things… what are they? What's going to happen? Tell me…

xo

Chapter 19 – The Other Side Of the Story

"Stop it!"

She whispered giggling, as his fingers nimbly ran up her sides bringing bubbles of laughter and amusement to her lips as he tickled her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Her t-shirt was high around her navel and his shirt had long been unbuttoned to reveal his wife beater underneath. His floppy hair was crawling into his eyes with each movement he made, while he pushed hers from her face with his gentle lips that teased her. There legs entwined on the couch as just like the very few hours they had spent alone together previously, they held on with both hands to the very little time that they had left together before it was time for him to jet off somewhere again. She smiled at him, and kissed him on the cheek as he chuckled in her ear, grabbing hold of her arms to bring them behind her back where she couldn't stop him from raining his ticklish hands down upon her.

"Stop it!" She hissed warningly as she heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs towards them, pausing in the kitchen and opening up the fridge and taking something out. The squeaking of the rubber soles of some converse on ceramic tiles told her that the intruder wasn't going to be leaving any time soon, they were staying put.

At the same time, from their position lying on the couch, Joe squashing Mandy like a pancake, the two young lovers shot their heads up over the back of the cushions to see Joe's younger brother wandering the kitchen like a lost little lamb trying to find Bo Peep. He was dressed in his red plaid shirt and an old pair of jeans that he looked like he hadn't worn in months. They were old and worn but they looked like they were as snug as a bug in a rug considering how he wasn't fidgeting with himself as much as he usually did. He was wearing his old gross converse that had been worn through so much crap and dirt that it was impossible to tell what colour they actually were anymore. The most noticeable thing of his current appearance was the messy and unkempt style of his hair. He looked like the old Nick… the one who didn't give a crap what his hair looked like because there was no reason to care what people thought. Someone loved him back then… someone loved him just the way he was.

"Whatcha doin' there bud?" Mandy asked, her heart aching a little at the sight of his lost little face. He looked like he was about to hurl. He was apparently nervous. He had all his classic signs… the pacing… the loud exasperated breaths and the need to hold onto something as his hands seemed to want to twitch and tap and drum things in lack of something better to do as he waited.

His head spun to look at them and he jumped back slightly shocked to see them there, especially with both their hair in disarray and their cheeks pink and obvious with enjoyment, "Oh… hi guys… I… uh… didn't see you there…"

"You okay, bro?" Joe said as Nick waited moments to talk, failing to answer the previous question that had been aimed at him, "You look like you just broke something of Mom's…"

Nick chuckled out a breathless, nervous and shaky laugh and shook his head, "It's nothing… I'm just waiting on someone… to umm… to stop by…"

Mandy unravelled her legs from around Joe and leant up on her knees to look over the back of the couch inquisitively. Her eyes narrowed, "Is it a girl?"

Nick looked around at her, his hands behind his back and he played nervously with the infamous ring on his left hand, "It's nothing, Mandy… really… just…" he sighed and suddenly he was wiping his brow nervously, "It's something I need to take care of…"

Joe looked at Mandy as she stared at Nick's hands. His ring was fine… but further up he was wearing something that she was sure she'd seen many, many times before. She was sure that she'd seen it too many times and that she'd once hated the sight of it. Sometimes she hated that she had an awful memory.

When the door bell rebounded off the many walls of their house and sounded loud and proud around them, Nick quickly jumped to attention and ran to the door to open it. Mandy and Joe, like lions hunting their prey, both instantly began to crawl slowly across the floor of the living room and over to the kitchen where they could get a closer look, a better view of the person they would later discuss with the rest of their friends when they were continuing their new found favourite hobby: the discussion of what the hell Nick was doing with his life and where the heck he had been disappearing to at the most strangest of moments. It was the subjects lack of answers that kept it them all most interested. The stories of Lena and Justin were old news now and everyone who was close to them knew the truth already. Mandy and Joe always needed something new and fresh to keep their thoughts occupied on other things but their deepest darkest desires.

Mandy and Joe hid behind the island in the middle of the kitchen, listening carefully as Nick talked to the woman who had recently entered the hallway. She laughed when Nick said something to her that Mandy and Joe didn't hear. But they looked around at each other shocked at the middle-aged sounding laugh of a very throaty and nicotine ridden woman. Joe's eyes widened and Mandy muffled her mouth trying not to laugh. They peered around the corner and saw her, mid to late thirties dressed in a summer dress and a leather jacket, apparently trying to look cool for her age. She was still shaking Nick's hand and he was smiling at her nervously as he directed her through to his private music room in the garage.

Mandy and Joe collapsed onto the tiled floor, leaning against the wooden island in the middle of the kitchen as they heard the door slam. Mandy looked around at Joe and shrugged her shoulders confused.

Joe simply smiled, "I can't believe that we judged Miley for dating someone a few years older…" he took hold of her hand and shook his head amused, "Nick's apparently secretly dating someone whose old enough to be his mom…"

Mandy laughed at him but at the same time she shook her head unsure, biting her lip and closing one eye, "Something tells me that this has nothing to do with that woman and Nick… but maybe another Nick and someone else…"

She waggled her eyebrows at him and he furrowed his own in confusion, "what do you mean?"

She laughed and slapped her hand onto the one she was holding, "He's wearing Miley's bracelet..."

Out of pure nervousness and fear, Joe's face fell and he looked down at their hands. What the hell was he going to do now?

"Listen, Clara… thanks for letting me do this so close to when the issue's actually going to print…"

She laughed setting herself up and placing her camera on the tripod, rearranging the lights that she was carrying around in a bag and sitting him down in the leather button back armchair where so many of his songs had been written.

"Well you just count your lucky stars that Britney pulled out on us at the last minute and didn't give us an interview…" she chuckled to herself like it was nothing, like not having a person on the front cover of her magazine was nothing, something that happened every month, "I was just glad that you called and said that you'd picked us to give us your little statement about the September issue… it was one of our big sellers…"

Nick smiled and brushed his hair from his eyes nervously, "As much as I don't doubt that this issue will probably sell more issues than I want it to… I don't really care about how many people read it… just one person…"

Clara turned to him and shook her head, "I don't understand what you're saying, Nick…"

He smiled and groped around for his own copy of that magazine everybody had been raving about. He found it and flipped through the pages quickly looking for that face he was still, even though she hated him, desperate to see the up close face of again. She was so much more beautiful in real life when you could touch her. He found the page and paused for a moment, smoothing out the wrinkles that had already started to appear after mere months. Clara looked at him confused and took the magazine from him confused. She shook her head and looked closer at the pages like they had magical properties.

"You want to set the story straight, right?" she mumbled flicking through some of the own handy worked she'd picked herself, "I thought you called me up to say how she's crazy and a liar… I thought this is what you'd decided with the editorial team…"

He took the magazine and shook his head, "I have nothing bad to say, Clara… she beat me to the punch to come clean about the one story we'd been desperate to tell everyone… I just want to say all the things she couldn't say herself…"

Clara shook her head at him confused and what appeared to be slightly pissed off, but still a sneaky smile formed at her lips as she took out her cigarette packet and shoved the white stick between her lips.

"Is it going to be good?"

He smiled at her and motioned for her to sit down and hear him out. He looked down at the magazine and smiled as he ran the soft pad of his thumb over the curves of her cheeks on the page and imagined that it was her real soft skin he was touching.

"It's going to be… unforgettable…"

A/N: The next chapters quite revealing… fifteen reviews and I'll let you read it… if you can do more… I'll write a few more chapters ready to update ;)

Love you all B xo

PS. It's freaking snowing. Again.

PPS. WTF? $4Billion? There is something wrong with the world. I'm starting to believe that Racism is just a media tool. Fuckers.