a/n: Reason why this story is rated M; There will be implied scenes throughout the story. References towards alcohol, drugs, etc. Profanity will be used in the story, but very minimal. Enjoy (:

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Twenty One

Chapter Five

Hypnotizing

Nick was shocked by Miley's tone of voice; she sounded upset, really upset. "Who is who?" He asked, playing dumb.

"The girl who answered the phone. Who's your girlfriend?" Miley asked again. This time Demi's head shot up from where she was and watched Miley intently.

"Joe, uh, I'll call you back in ten minutes. I love you." Demi whispered and hung up.

"Oh, she's uhm, she's Mikayla." Nick replied lamely.

"What are you doing? I'm not your girlfriend!" Mikayla whispered yelled toward him.

"Shh." Nick told her. "I was planning on telling you earlier, but I didn't know how to." He replied, unsure to where he was taking this conversation now. He was lying to his best friend. He never lied to her. He just hoped she bought it, but for some reason he didn't exactly know why he was lying to her in the first place…

"Oh." Miley's voice began to break, but she cleared her throat quickly. "Well, I'm happy for the two of you. I, uh, I gotta go. Dem and I are going shopping. I guess I'll talk to you later or something." She quickly hung up.

"Miles…" Demi started, but quickly went over to Miley and hugged her. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm not sad…" Miley answered and Demi pulled back to look at her.

"You aren't?" Demi asked surprised.

"I mean I'm hurt, but I was thinking a lot during my jog and if Nick can't even admit to me that he has a girlfriend… who knows what else he could be hiding from me. I mean, we live thousands of miles apart. I don't really see Nick and I having a future together anymore anyways. I think I need to move on." Miley told Demi, but it seemed like she was trying to convince herself more.

"You got all that from a 20 minute jog?" Demi asked and raised her eyebrow a little. "I don't really know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything." Miley grabbed her bag and walked over to the door. "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come with me to the mall? I need a new outfit for when we go out on my birthday." She smiled toward Demi.

"Psh, of course I'm coming." Demi laughed and grabbed her stuff before walking to the door. "So, where exactly are we going for your birthday?" She asked when Miley closed the door.

"I don't really know. I thought you would suggest something." Miley laughed.

"I know you're not into the whole party scene and what not, but the other night when Joe and I were driving around... I saw that they had opened up another club a few blocks down from UCLA. Even though Nick broke his promise on taking you out, how about Joe and I take you out instead for your birthday?" Demi suggested with a nudge.

"You two probably already have something planned for that night anyways. It's okay. I'll just go out by myself or with Emily or something." Miley argued. "I don't want to be a damper on your and Joe's plans."

Kind of disappointed that for the past few days Miley has been getting closer to Emily; Demi forces a smile, "Come on, Miles. You would never be a damper on our plans. I want to be with you on your birthday to celebrate the big day and I'm pretty sure that Joe wants to be there with you as well. I mean, it's the big twenty one, Miles." Demi reasoned.

"I know it's the big twenty one." Miley's voice went a little lower when she said her age. "You already know that I'm going to be complaining and stuff, so I just want to give you the option to bail out before I ruin plans that Joe has probably already set up for the two of you." She explained, hoping Demi would get the picture that she wanted to be alone on her birthday.

"I just don't get why you want to be alone on your birthday though, Mi. Wouldn't you rather be with friends to celebrate the big day?" Demi asked.

"I don't know… I just feel like being alone to celebrate. Not saying that I don't want to hang out with you and Joe on my birthday, but don't you get that I'm going to be like a third wheel or something on my birthday, Dem? I'm just saying…" Miley sighed.

Demi frowned, "Miles, I never wanted to make it seem like you were going to be a third wheel. I was saying as like three friends going out for a drink for your birthday. That's all I'm trying to get out of this."

"Demi, can you just say you're going out with Joe on my birthday? Please?" Miley asked.

"But I... fine." Demi muttered, defeated. "But we're still going out for dinner before we separate with other plans. My treat and you can't argue anything about that because this conversation is done." She said quickly before Miley could say anything.

"Fine, but we'll see who grabs the check first." Miley smirked.

"Miles, it's your birthday! Of course I'm not going to let you pay and Joe isn't going to either. It's two against one, you have no chance. Ha!" Demi said triumphantly.

Miley laughed, "You know what I just noticed?"

"No, what?" Demi asked curiously.

"I noticed that you turn everything into a competition and when you know that you can't win... you bring Joe into the competition, so that I would lose which means that I'm better than you." Miley laughed.

Demi knew for a fact that Miley had made a point, but she wasn't going to admit that to Miley. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She answered as they stepped out into the chilly weather. "We need to go shopping for jackets or something." She wrapped her arms around herself and zipped her thin sweater up.

"Yeah, like I have enough money to buy a jacket right now, Dem. I don't get my paycheck for another month and with how the economy is… I think I'm okay with the one I have back upstairs." Miley replied.

"You call that thing a jacket?!" Demi scoffed. "Seriously, Mi, you've had that thing for such a long time. You really need to get a new one." She laughed. "And well, let's just say you'll thank me at your birthday dinner."

Miley's eyes went wide, "You didn't…"

Demi smiled, "Of course I did."

"Oh my gosh, Demi!" Miley pulled Demi into a tight embrace. "You're the bestest friend ever!"

"I know." Demi giggled cockily, "But it was nothing, really. I know how you were eyeing the one that they had displayed in the glass window at Urban Outfitters, so I decided to get you it before this snobby rich chick did. You should've seen the look on her face. Priceless."

Miley laughed, "You should've taken a picture of her face. I would've loved to see it." They walked up the crosswalk and waited for the light to turn green. "Demi?"

Demi turned to look at Miley as they started walking down the crosswalk, "Yeah Miles?" They turned a corner and walked down the busy streets of Los Angeles.

"I think you're a really amazing person, you know that right?" Miley said.

"Okay, this is coming out in a non-cocky way, okay?" Demi laughed. "Yeah, I know, but you're an even more amazing person, Mi." Demi smiled. "And I'm pretty sure half of our student body would agree with me and the reason why the other half wouldn't is because they probably don't know who you are, but if they did they would agree... You know what I mean right?"

Miley nodded and laughed before linking her arms with Demi as they walked into the upcoming Forever 21 store. "Oh my gosh, that dress looks gorgeous." She let go of Demi's arm and walked over to an elegant dress that they had displayed on a mannequin. "Too bad I don't have anywhere to where it to." She let go of the dress and looked over at Demi, who had a goofy grin on her face.

"You should so buy it." Demi said, looking for Miley's size.

"Why? I just told you that I have no where to wear it too…" Miley said, still a bit confused. "Demi." She pulled Demi back.

"Just because you don't have anywhere to wear it now, doesn't mean you won't later on in the future and I know for a fact when that time comes around, you're going to want a dress and this one isn't going to be here anymore." Demi gave Miley a look.

"You talk too much…" Miley said, grabbing the dress out of Demi's hand. "I guess you're right, I'm going to want to wear this one day and it's going to be gone…" She looked at the dress and smiled.

"Don't you dare think about changing your mind, Miles. I know you love the dress. I can tell by the way you're looking at it." Demi laughed.

Miley looked down at the price tag and her smile widened. "It's just 40 dollars." She handed the dress over to Demi and took out her wallet. "Are you serious?"

"What?" Demi asked.

"I don't know what happened to my money... I had a fifty in here left over from my past paycheck and not it's gone." Miley continued rummaging through her purse, checking every pocket and zipper just in case she placed it somewhere instead of her wallet.

Demi swallowed nervously and cleared her throat, "I might've borrowed fifty dollars from you a few days ago… I wanted to pay Joe back for the stuff he bought me and I was sort of short fifty dollars."

"Why couldn't you have just asked me, Demi?" Miley sighed and put her purse down. "I guess I can't get the dress now." She looked down sadly at the dress in Demi's hands.

"No, no. Just because you can't pay for it doesn't mean I can't." Demi handed the dress back over to Miley and pulled out her credit card. "My dad sent me it two days ago and I've been dying to use it." She smiled.

"Are you crazy? How are you going to pay off your credit card when you max it out today?" Miley asked.

"Who said I was going to max it out today…?" Demi asked and Miley gave her a look. "You're right… I'm going to max it out, but I'll think about that later. Right now, we're going on a shopping spree for new clothes and you can't say no, Miles. Please…" She jutted her bottom lip out and batted her eyelashes.

"You know that only works on Joe." Miley rolled her eyes.

"Yes, but I was hoping it would finally rub off on you. Pleeeeease Miles." Demi pleaded like a 5 year old girl. "I'm not going to stop bugging you until you say yes."

"Yeah, but you know how I feel about having other people buy me stuff. I have to pay them back." Miley sighed.

"Well, you can pay me back whenever… so, is that a yes?" Demi asked hopefully.

"Yes…" Miley mumbled.

"Yay!" Demi squealed and quickly started rummaging through clothes. Miley rolled her eyes and laughed at how immature Demi was acting before she joined her in looking for clothes. "God, this would look gorgeous on you." She held a shirt up to Miley. "Here, hold it." She threw it to Miley, who luckily caught it. "They should have shopping carts in here…"

**

Nick sighed and shut his phone before looking up at Mikayla, who was giving him a really mean look. "Look, before you say anything. I panicked and made something up…"

"Yeah, something really stupid!" Mikayla took off the beret she was wearing and hit Nick across the arm with it. "I wanted her to like me, not hate me now since her best friend was stupid enough to lie to her that he has a girlfriend when he's planning to propose to her in a matter of a few hours." She growled.

Everyone was now looking at the two of them; Nick's cheeks turned pink and he gave Mikayla a look. "Can you keep it down? I don't want the whole world to know about it." He spat at her. "And like I said, I panicked okay? I don't even know why I said it."

"How hard was it to say 'oh, she's my friend from class.'? Yeah, not that hard, Nick since you told her that we were a couple." Mikayla shook her head and took a sip from her coffee.

"Okay, I get it. I said something really stupid. Can we just stop talking about it now?" Nick asked, getting annoyed with how Mikayla was treating him. "There's no need to treat me like dirt because I'm pretty sure when I get there, I'm going to get the cold shoulder from her." He grabbed his cup firmly and took a sip.

"Sorry. I just sort of got caught off guard with what you said… Never in a million years would I think you would ever say that I was your girlfriend…" Mikayla took another sip from her drink and looked up at Nick. "And sorry for hitting you…" She grabbed her hat off of the table and put it back on her head, trying to fix it.

"It's okay… I don't blame you for your reaction." Nick took another sip and they just sat there in silence for a few minutes.

"You should probably head back up to your dorm to get your bags." Mikayla said glancing down at her watch to see what time it is. "Maybe you're plane could take off a little earlier than you planned." She stood up.

"Yeah, uhm, good idea." Nick said quietly, throwing his cup into the trash can before they walked out of Starbucks. "So, uhm, what are you going to do when I'm not here?" He stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, hoping they would give his fingers some warmth.

Mikayla shrugged and tried to move her hair out of her hair as they walked down the pathway back towards the dorm. "I'll most likely be studying the whole time and I'll probably fly back to Utah to see my parents for Thanksgiving." The wind started to pick up and started blowing more fiercely, causing Mikayla's hair to get blown in her face again. "Right now would've been a great time to have a clip handy." She laughed, trying to push her hair out of the way.

Nick stopped walking and grabbed onto Mikayla's arm, making her stop as well. He gently moved her hair out of her face and stared at her for a few seconds before they awkwardly stepped away from each other and start walking again. "Oh, that sounds like good plans. You should tell them hi for me or something."

"Uhm, yeah, I'll do that." Mikayla responded quietly as she thought about the moment that she and Nick just had. The thought of it brought a soft blush to her cheeks. She tried to shake the thought away. She didn't like Nick. Of course she didn't. He was just her friend and she was just his friends. He was going to propose to Miley and they were going to be happy. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought that she might have feelings towards Nick.

"Mikayala?" Nick called out.

Mikayla quickly snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Nick. "Huh?"

"You kind of zoned out on me." Nick chuckled. "Are you okay?"

"Uhm, yeah. I was just thinking about my mom's home-cooking. I really miss it and I couldn't help but think about it, since I'm going to get to eat it again in less than a week." Mikayla lied.

"Oh, then, why were you making a weird face?" Nick asked.

"I was?" Mikayla asked. "I mean, of course I was… I was also thinking about how my dad is after the dinner. He kind of just passes out on the couch with his belly showing and what not. It's not a pretty picture." She laughed nervously, hoping Nick would buy her lies. "Oh, look at the time. I think I should get to studying now before I know for sure that I will fail out of the class. Have a good flight, okay?" She smiled meekly at him.

"Awh, you can't put off studying for just a little while?" Nick asked, opening up his arms.

Mikayla stared at him, confused to what he was doing. "Uhh…"

"First you're going to ditch me to study and now I don't get a hug?" Nick asked as he lowered his arms a little and looked at her confused. "You sure you're okay, Miki?"

"Pfft. Of course." Mikayla answered and gave Nick a quick hug. "Call me when you get there." She quickly left the building, glad that the breeze was hitting her warm cheeks. "Ugh, what the hell is happening with me? I can't like Nick, I just can't…" She sighed and ran a hand through her extremely tangled hair.

-

Nick stood there confused to what had just happened. Why was Mikayla acting so weird? Was she still mad at him for what happened at Starbucks? He shook his head and quickly went up to his room, grabbing all of his bags, making sure that the ring was securely in his pocket before he exited.

He got into a cab and sat there, getting nervous about what could happen in a matter of 10 hours… He took in an intake of breath and looked out the window, his thoughts quickly getting replaced with thoughts of Miley. He smiled to himself, hoping that she would finally let him call her his girl.

**

Demi laughed as Miley struggled to unlock their dorm room door. "Here, let me help."

"No, you're going to make the two of us drop everything." Miley laughed as the two of them stood there, struggling to do such a simple task. Finally, after two minutes of battling with the door, they came up with a compromise to drop their bags and try to open the door. The two of them walked into the room and threw all of their belongings onto the bed.

"That was so tiring." Demi sighed, laying down on all of her stuff. "And this is really uncomfortable." She rolled over and onto the floor. "And that was really stupid."

Miley laughed, "come on, we don't have much time since you took an hour just to find something to wear tonight." She started rummaging through the bags and looked for the dress that she had bought for the dinner out with Joe and Demi.

"Hey, it's not my fault that everything you found looked great on you. There was something always wrong with the thing that I tried on and I'm just glad I found something." Demi pulled out the dress she had picked out.

"Joe won't be able to keep his eyes off of you." Miley told her.

"That's my point." Demi winked and walked into the bathroom.

Miley gasped, "Demi, what do you mean?!" She asked, then realized that Demi had walked into the bathroom. "Oh, come on. Can't you let me have the bathroom first for once?!" She laughed.

"Of course not!" Demi hollered out and laughed.

Miley rolled her eyes and stripped down to her bra and underwear when she heard someone knock on their door. Thinking it was the dorm advisor or something, she walked over to the door and opened it, surprised to see Joe standing in front of her in a suit with flowers in his hands.

"Uhm…" Joe stared down at the floor awkwardly. "Maybe I should've called first."

"Oh my god." Miley shut the door and looked frantically around the room for something to cover herself up. She saw Demi's robe on the floor and quickly put it on before opening the door again, her cheeks red with embarassement. "I'm really sorry about that… Uhm, please come in." Miley opened the door wider.

"I know we're doing the birthday dinner a day before your birthday and all, but I wanted to get you these." Joe said handing the bouquet of flowers over to Miley.

"Oh, thank you." Miley smiled and looked around for an empty vase of some sort. "It was nice of you to come alone by the way."

"Of course I'd come along. It's the big twenty first birthday, Miles." Joe chuckled.

"That's what Demi said." Miley laughed and set the flowers down into an empty glass cup. "Uhm, Demi just went into the bathroom." She pointed over to the door. "So, we might be waiting here a while until she comes back out." She chuckled. "Make yourself at home... do you want anything to drink?"

"Oh no, I'm good." Joe told her.

"Here, let me put some of this stuff away." Miley bent down and picked up some of the stuff from her bed to make room for Joe to sit down. "I'm just going to put this away… I'll be in the other room if you need anything." She blushed and quickly walked into the closet, dropping all of her bags onto the floor. She quickly took off the robe and looked around for her dress, remembering that she had left it outside on her bed next to Joe. "Crap…"

"Miley, who was at the—" Demi walked out, sporting a pair of black lace bra and panties. "Joe, what the hell?!" She screamed and grabbed the tablecloth off of one of the tables, trying to cover herself up. "When did you get here and where's Miley?"

Joe stood up, "Miley's in the closet and well, I thought the two of you would be finished now and we could drive over to the restaurant before it gets crowded, but I guess I should've called…"

"That would've been a good idea." Demi nodded and ran a hand through her hair.

Joe raised his eyebrows a little and walked over to her, "You look really hot right now." He smiled as he rested his hands around her waist.

"Oh, I do?" Demi smiled slyly and wrapped her arms around his neck, letting the table cloth fall off around her body. Joe kissed her softly on the cheek, slowly trailing down the base of her jaw. "Uh, Joe!" She pushed him off of her and picked up the table cloth to cover herself again when she saw Miley at the doorway of the closet, trying to suppress a giggle from coming out.

"Maybe I'll just wait down at the car for you too." Joe suggested before exiting the room quietly.

"You two looked pretty comfy." Miley gave Demi a look.

"I covered myself up!" Demi defended. "And I didn't expect him to be out here when I walked out. I was expecting my best friend, who seemed to disappear at the moment." She raised her eyebrow.

"Well, Joe saw two girls in their underwear tonight." Miley said embarrassed. "I was kinda getting undressed when he knocked on the door and I thought it was Kelly, but it ended up being Joe…, but I quickly covered myself up and he looked down…"

"Oh wow, Joe is sure one lucky boy tonight." Demi laughed.

"You're not mad?" Miley asked.

"Of course not. I mean it was an accident. I'm not mad at anyone." Demi reassured her.

"Oh, thank god. I mean, I was blushing like crazy… no one has seen me in my underwear except you and Ni—" Miley quickly stops talking.

"Me and who else?" A small grin was forming on Demi's lips.

"No one." Miley said quickly and walked over to her bed, picking up the dress and unzipping it.

"Nick has seen you in just your underwear and bra? When?" Demi pressed.

"It was just one time when we were 16… I was getting dressed and I guess my dad let him into the house and I forgot to lock my door, so he walked in and saw me…" Miley blushed. "And he's seen me in my bathing suit plenty of times. No big deal."

"Of course it's a big deal. I mean, yeah, it was like 5 years ago, but still. I find it really cute." Demi cooed.

"Just get dressed. Joe's waiting." Miley reminded in hopes for Demi to drop the subject.

"Fine fine, but we're going to talk about this later." Demi told her and retreated back into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

Miley sighed, thinking back to that one day.

Miley had just gotten back from an afternoon run; after giving her dad a quick peck on the cheek, she rushed upstairs to change out of her sweaty clothes. She ran up to her room and closed the door, not caring if it was locked or not. She quickly peeled her shirt off of her body and kicked her shorts off, turning up the radio a little.

She heard a faint ring from downstairs and thought whatever her dad was cooking was now done and ready. She danced around to the song on the radio and slowly rummaged through her closet for something to wear. She heard footsteps trudging upstairs and thought it would be her dad telling her to come down for dinner.

"Miles, I—" That wasn't her dad's voice. Her voice whipped around quickly and she stared eye to eye with her best friend, Nick.

Nick's eyes trailed up her body slowly, taking in how she looked. When had Miley grown up so quickly? He remembered clearly when she was just a small, scrawny girl and now she had curves in all the right places, not that he was complaining about it… He quickly snapped himself out of the thoughts that shouldn't have been playing in his mind.

"I… your dad let me in." Nick blubbered as best as he could.

"Oh, it's okay." Miley stood there awkwardly, trying to shield herself with her hands, but had no luck. "Uhm, I'll be right out."

"Right…" Nick said backing out of the room, accidentally hitting his back on the wall. "I-I'll just be downstairs." His eyes landed on her chest for a quick moment before he looked back up at her face. "I.. yeah.." He quickly exited out of the room, tripping on the rug in the hall along the way.

Miley just stood there, trying to settle her heart down a little. What had just happened and why did she feel so happy about it? Maybe it was the way that Nick was staring at her that made her heart jump a little as it beat. She grabbed a t shirt and a pair of flannel shorts out of the closet and slipped into them. She fixed her hair as best as she could and walked out of the room and down the stairs to greet Nick and her dad…

"Miley!" Demi threw a towel at her. "How many times do I have to call your name?" She laughed.

"Huh?" Miley asked.

"Hurry up and put on your dress, so we can go out to eat. You've been standing there staring off into space for the past minute. What are you thinking about that has you that deep into thought?" Demi asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just remembering something." Miley slipped into the dress, letting it hug her body lovingly. "I just need to curl my hair a bit and then I'll be ready."

"Here, you can borrow my shoes." Demi pulled out a pair of heels and set them down on Miley's bed. "I'll be down in the car with Joe."

"Don't do anything you'll regret." Miley reminded her as she waited for the curler to heat up.

"Yeah, yeah mom." Demi answered and grabbed her purse. "Hurry up though."

"I'll go extra slow, just for you." Miley laughed. Demi rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. Miley brought the curler to her hair and put soft curls into it. Thinking, she looked as good as she could; she slipped on the shoes that Demi had recommended her in wearing. Stilettos? Since when had Demi own a pair of these and why did she want her to wear them?
Not trying to think too much about it, she grabbed her purse and hurried down to Joe's car to see Joe and Demi in a really heated make out session.

She rolled her eyes and knocked on the window, "Can you guys stop kissing and open the door for me? We'll be late for the dinner." Just then, she noticed that she had walked up to the wrong car and apologized to the couple before she looked around for Joe's car.

"Why were you talking to Jennifer and her boyfriend?" Demi asked from behind.

Miley jumped and turned around, "Don't do that! And well, I sorta thought that she was you and Joe." She laughed lightly. "Where's his car anyways?"

"Right there…" Demi pointed to the car parked a few feet away from the car that Miley had walked up to. "I just went up to see what was taking so long, but then I saw you here talking to Jennifer." She laughed. "I can't believe that you thought that was me and Joe. I mean, we act nothing like them."

"Right… just come on." Miley grabbed Demi's arm and they walked as quickly as their heels could take them to Joe's car.

"What time were the reservations?" Demi asked when we were in the car.

"At 9 and its 8:45 right now. If we don't hurry up, they'll give our seats away." Joe told them as he exited the parking lot.

"How far are we from the restaurant?" Miley asked.

"About 20 minutes." Joe answered.

"You might want to step on it, babe." Demi told him.

"Well, I'm already over the speed limit by 10…" Joe looked over at Demi, who was giving him a look. "I guess I could speed up a little more…"

"Oh my god, Joe, my grandma would so beat you right now." Demi rolled her eyes. "We have 10 minutes to get there on time. Just speed up a little more."

"Do you want me to get a ticket or something?" Joe asked as he stepped on the gas a little more.

"Guys, there's really no need to argue right now. If we get there on time, great. If we don't, it's okay. We can always go somewhere else to eat." Miley told the couple, but they just ignored her. "Fine… don't listen to me."

**

After an hour of listening to Joe and Demi bicker about everything, Miley had gotten in a cab and got off at her dad's place. She rubbed her temples repeatedly, trying to get rid of the migraine that had just formed. She knew for a fact that later tonight when she got home, Demi would be complaining to her about Joe and there would be another restless night.

She walked up the steps of her house slowly, trying to take in the fact that she hadn't been here for a few months. Remembering how her dad had left a key under the mat, she picked it up and unlocked the door, letting herself in. She heard her father's soft snores coming from the couch and she walked up the stairs quietly and into her dad's room. She flicked the light on and closed the floor quietly, careful not to wake her dad up.

She looked around and saw the familiar cabinet that her dad had told her he kept his 'action' figures in there, but found out what was really in there when she was 11. It was where he hid his secret stash of wine, champagne, and other liquors. She opened the cabinet door, wincing as it squeaked loudly. She listened for any movement downstairs, but didn't hear any and continued to do what she was doing.

She took out a bottle of red wine and opened it, taking a small swig from it. She shook her head, not expecting the rush that it had just given her. "Wow." Her voice sounded hoarse and she quickly cleared her throat before putting that bottle back and taking out another. She read over the label carefully before giving up that she couldn't read the fancy name off the bottle. She brought the bottle to her lips and dipped her head back a little, letting the liquid rush down her, coating the back of her throat with a burning sensation.

-

Nick stepped out of the cab and looked up at his dad's house, then noticed that there was a light on at the Cyrus' household. He stared at the figure for a while, thinking it was Billy Ray, but saw that the person had long hair that was below their shoulders.

Curiosity got the better of him and he set his bags onto the porch and walked over to the Cyrus' home and looked up to get a better look, but couldn't see anything because of the curtains. He walked to the front door and turned the knob, much to his surprise it was unlocked and he walked in. He knew for a fact that it wasn't Billy Ray because he could hear him snoring loudly; he tiptoed up the stairs quietly, stopping almost instantly when he heard Billy Ray mumble something and roll over.

He let out the breath he was holding when he heard Billy Ray resume with sleeping. He continued up the stairs and saw the light coming from Billy Ray's room, confused he pushed the door open a little and saw Miley standing there, looking as breathtaking as ever.

Miley was swaying around the room with her eyes closed, stumbling every so often as she hummed along to a tune that's he didn't know the words to. Nick noticed something in her hand, it was one of her dad's wine bottles from his champagne cabinet. Nick frowned, disappointed that Miley had done this without him, but then remembered how he told her he had a girlfriend. He shook his head, more disappointed in himself now.

Nick cleared his throat, making Miley's eyes shoot open and stop swaying abruptly, making her stumble into her dad's lamp. Nick's arms were instantly wrapped around her body, making sure she didn't harm herself in any way. "Are you okay?" He asked as he looked over her body, swallowing a lump in his throat.

"Nick? W-when did you come back? Miley asked quietly, looking down.

"I-I came down to surprise you for your birthday, but I guess you wanted to celebrate without me…" Nick let go of her, making sure she was able to stand before stepping a few steps back.

"But you have a girlfriend." Miley choked out and looked up at him, tears glistening in her crystal blue orbs. "You told me you had one…"

Nick's finger ran along Miley's cheek, wiping away a tear that had fallen, "I know…" He whispered.

"Why would you lie to me, Nick? You never lied to me." Miley pushed his hand away. "I thought you were going to miss my birthday and everything. Why would you tell me that, then come here?" She asked angrily.

"I thought it would be a good surprise. I didn't mean for you to get upset about it…" Nick explained, hurt evident in his voice. "I-I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't going to change anything, Nick…" Miley pushed past him and sat down on her father's bed, taking another long drink from the almost empty bottle.

"Miley, I think you've had enough." Nick tried to take the bottle from her.

Miley pushed him back, "I'll know when I have enough, Nick. Don't tell me what to do." She glared at him, taking the last drink from the bottle before putting it onto the side table.

"Are you trying to make yourself so drunk to the point where you can't remember anything?" Nick asked her.

"Maybe I am… maybe I'm not." Miley tried to stand up to look at him. "Why would you care anyways, Nick?"

"Of course, I'd care, Miley. How could you even say that?" Nick asked, trying to hide the hurt in his voice.

"Because you left me and went to Boston!" Miley slurred. "You never even told me the reason why, you didn't even tell me you sent an application to Boston! You just picked up and left. I was so lost without you, Nick. You promised me we'd be college buddies, but you broke that promise and then you broke another one when you told me you couldn't make it to my birthday." She hit him on the chest with all the strength that she could, which was not much.

"Miley, stop." Nick grasped onto her wrists and held them down onto her side.

"No! Let go of me!" Miley tried to pull her hands back, but Nick wouldn't let her. "You're a liar!" She said coldly into his face, not knowing that it was ripping Nick's heart into hundreds of pieces. "That's all you'll ever be. A big fat liar." She spat.

Nick let go of her wrists and stared at her, "I love you, Miley." He told her.

"There's another lie." Miley laughed harshly. Clearly, the alcohol had reached her brain and she wasn't hearing what Nick said clearly.

"A lie, Miles? I've loved you since I first saw you…" Nick told her.

"Then, why did you never tell me?" Miley asked.

"I was afraid to…" Nick answered. "But I'm not anymore." He walked up to her and cupped her face in his hands; he leaned in and kissed her lovingly, glad that after all these years, he was finally able to kiss her. "Please tell me you love me back…" He murmured into her ear when they parted.

a/n: See, faster update (: I got flooded with ideas… that's why. I hope you guys are satisfied with this chapter because I really don't know when the next one will be up. School starts on Wednesday for me and let's just say someone was putting off their AP homework for the whole summer.. Gee, I wonder who that was lol xD Like it? Hate it? Love it? Criticize away... :)