a/n: Enjooooy my loves! (: Excuse any grammar mistakes that I made… Argh, I can't notice everything xD haha.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"You'd probably be nothing," Demi joked.
"Yeah, I think you're right." Joe answered no hint of amusement in his voice.
"Really?" Demi asked, astonished. "You know I was kidding right?" She nudged his arm a little.
"I know you were, but I wasn't."
"Awwh, Joey. I love you." Demi leaned up on her tippy toes and planted a soft kiss on his swollen, pink lips.
Joe smiled, embracing her petite frame in his arms, "but I love you more." He kissed her lips passionately.
**
Miley sighed, running a hand through her hair. She picked her phone up and pressed the speed dial on her phone swiftly, placing the phone to her ear as she waited for the person to answer.
"Hey." Demi's voice filled the other end.
"Dems, I'm so sorry that I haven't been home these past few days." Miley said in one breath.
"Mi, it's alright." Demi giggled, "I've been perfectly fine."
"Really?" Miley asked surprised.
"Why do you sound so shocked? I'm pretty capable of being by myself, Miley." Demi's tone had a bit of annoyance to it.
"I didn't mean for it to come out as a bad thing. It was just that the night before my birthday, you and Joe seemed a bit tense and I thought you two would've gotten into an argument or something…" Miley sighed.
"We did." Demi replied, "But we fixed it, so you have nothing to worry about."
"Okay."
"Where are you anyways?"
"I'm at my dad's." Miley played with her over-large t shirt and frowned a little when she realized Nick had given her this t shirt a few years back.
"You okay?" Demi asked suddenly.
"Perfect." Sarcasm dripped in Miley's tone, "just fantastically perfect."
"Hey, what's up?" Miley could hear Demi shift onto her bed and listen closely.
"I don't even no where to begin, Dem…" Miley rubbed the side of her head, trying to rid of the migraine that was starting to form when she thought too much about the situation.
"Just tell me, Miles." Demi demanded softly.
"Well, uh… please don't yell at me." Miley said at first.
"Mi, what's going on? Why would I be mad at you?" Demi held the phone closer to her ear.
"Well, okay let me start from the beginning—"
"That'd be a great idea." Demi stated.
"I don't need your sarcasm right now, Dem."
"Sorry." Demi apologized, "go on."
"Well, that night you and Joe seemed a little bit ticked off between each other… I decided to go give my dad a small visit or something and then I started to think too much…" Miley could hear Demi sigh from the other end, "and thoughts of how Nick wouldn't be able to come to my birthday party really got to me and when my dad had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, I went up to his room…"
"You didn't…"
"Yeah, I did… I opened up his stash and I started to drink like there was no tomorrow…" Miley ran her hand through her hair again.
"Mi, you're better than that…" Demi lectured.
"I was in the moment, everything was just going wrong and I couldn't think of anything, but to get back at Nick."
"How does that get back at him, Miles?" Demi asked.
"Because I broke that promise he and I made, but that wasn't the only promise I broke that night…"
"Oh, god…" Demi dragged on.
"I'm not quite sure what happened that night, but when I awoke that morning… I was naked in my dad's bed with Nick beside me. He was naked too." Her voice got caught up in her throat.
"You and Nick had sex?" Demi said in a small breath, "what?!"
"I can't remember a thing, Demi and that's what's been eating me up inside."
"What did he say about it?"
"I can't remember. All I remember is that we finally told each other how we felt." Miley smiled a little.
"Mi, that's great! You guys are together now, right?" Demi questioned.
"That's just the beginning of it." Miley sighed, "that night, he took me out to dinner and everything was going good until I was thinking too much again, so I decided to go to the bathroom and just snap myself out of it and when I got back out, he asked me to marry him and it was so sudden that I told him no." Miley said in one quick breath.
"You what?!" Demi yelled into the phone.
Miley cringed, pulling the phone away from her ear, "I told you not to yell."
"Miley, you're fucking IN love with this guy, why in the world would you just reject him like that?!" Demi asked in disbelief. "He was the only guy you would talk about ever since we met and now that he's finally step up and asked you, you say no?! Are you crazy?" Demi said.
"I get it, Demi. I was stupid, are you done making me feel even worse?" Miley felt tears start to form at the brim of her ears. She looked up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly in hopes of getting rid of her tears, but that didn't seem to do the complete opposite. Tears fell down her cheeks and she wiped them away quickly, "I'm just so confused, Demi."
"I know sweetheart, I'm sorry. Maybe the two of you just need to talk about it…" Demi suggested.
"I know we do, but I'm just so afraid to confront him about it." Miley wiped at her eyes again, feeling the wetness on the back of her hand.
"You can't let fear get in the way, Mi. The two of you love each other; you guys even admitted it to each other… I think the reason that you said no was because you're afraid that Nick doesn't love you as much as you love him, but you know what?" Demi asked.
"What?" Miley answered.
"You're never going to really know that unless you give Nick a chance. You two are practically bounded at the hip, there isn't really a need to get to know each other, you guys did enough of that while growing up. God is giving you two a chance to form something unique and special; you can just throw this special opportunity away, Mi."
"I know, Demi… I know…"
Miley hung up the phone with Demi and sat at the end of her half-made bed; dressed in a pair of old sweats and a plain white t shirt that she had owned from when she was a teenager and a plain white t shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a side pony tail and her phone was currently in-between her hands, her fingertips fondling with the sides of the phone, flipping it open and close, open and close.
A week later…
Miley sat in deep silence again. The sun was blocked out by her dark curtains and she felt no need to let any lightness in. Her fingertips ran across her knuckles lightly as she felt how cold they were. She stood up and walked over to her mirror, not recognizing the girl standing in front of it. The girl standing in front of the mirror looked thin, too thin. Her hair sat on top of her head in a tangled mess, her skin looked pale white. Her facial features were emotionless. She looked gaunt and way too thin for her full face. She brought her fragile hand up to her face and brushed it across her bony cheek, gasping at the sudden cold. She brought her hand down lower and touched her collar bone, feeling her bone stick out. She gulped down painfully and licked her dry lips.
"Bud." Billy's Ray came from the door.
Miley jumped up at the sound of her dad's voice startling her, she turned toward the door and looked right at her father, "dad, you scared me." She gasped a little, a hand covering her heart.
"Sorry, Miles." He leaned his shoulder against the doorframe, "I just wanted to see if you were hungry or not, you haven't really eaten anything all day. I made your favorite." He said, hoping to convince her to leave her room and get something to eat.
"I'm just not that hungry." Miley looked down at her hands, "I'll go down later."
Billy Ray sighed, "Alright bud, I'll put everything in the microwave for you."
"Thanks." Miley listened to the soft tapping of her dad's footsteps against the hardwood floor grow fainter and fainter until she could hear them no longer. She then continued her actions of staring down at the phone in her hands. She wasn't quite sure why she sense the feeling that Nick was going to call her, but after a while she realized that it was her own fault, so why would Nick be the one calling her to apologize.
She leaned over and placed her phone onto the table before curling her knees up to her chest and leaning her chin on top of it, then she heard the familiar ring tone echo throughout her silent bedroom and she leaped toward her phone like a cheetah would leap toward their prey.
"Hello?" Her voice sounded raspy.
"Hello, my name is Jenny and I just wanted—"
Miley quickly hung up on the advertisement ad. She felt so stupid for thinking it was actually Nick; her ring tone rang throughout her room once more and without another thought in mind, she pressed the ignore button and set it back on the table before continuing on with her earlier actions, "I need some booze…" She said quietly to herself.
She walked over to her closet and wiggled out of the oversized clothing, kicking them into a pile in the corner. She pulled out a pair of short flannel shorts and a tight fitting t-shirt, but as soon as she slipped both articles of clothing on, she noticed they were so tight fitting anymore. She sighed before pulling a pair of socks onto her icy cold feet. She slipped on her tennis shoes and jogged out of her room and down the stairs.
"Mile," Billy Ray stood up from his seat, "let me go get your plate out of the microwave—"
Food sounded disgusting to Miley at that moment. "I think I'm going tog o on a quick jog first…"
"Do you honestly think you need to exercise? You're already a twig, Miles." Billy Ray's forehead crinkled in worry.
"It helps me think better and clear my mind." Miley tried again.
"Alright," Billy Ray responded, defeated. "Don't stay out too late though."
--
Nick sighed, running a hand through his already messy and tangled curls. Of course she'd ignore his call, she sounded so upset with him yesterday, why wouldn't she have? He threw his phone against the carpeted floor as hard as he could, feeling all the pent of frustration release into that one throw. His phone bounced back against the carpet and rolled underneath his bed. Groaning in annoyance, he kneeled down on his knees and peered underneath his bed.
The first he spotted wasn't his phone, but an old knick-knack that Miley had given to him as a joke on his 17th birthday. Forgetting about his phone, he grasped his fingers around the knick-knack and stood up, admiring the small details of the little toy.
"Man, I haven't sent this in so long…" He said quietly to himself. He threw the toy up in the air a few times, catching it in his palm a few seconds later. "I wonder what else is still under there…" He threw the old stuffed Yankees toy onto his bed before kneeling back onto the ground again.
Fifteen minutes later of exploring the underside of his bed, he had managed to discover some embarrassing photos of himself from when he was a child, old movie stubs from the times he and Miley would sneak out every Friday to see the most recent flick that was released. He shook his head a little while thinking back at the memories of how he and Miley used to act when they were younger. Upon finding some old, dirty gym socks, he was also able to recover an old kindergarten photo album of the day he and Miley had first met.
After moving everything else aside, he sat himself on his bed, the tattered old book in hand. He began slowly flipping through the pages of the book, laughing at how horrible his handwriting was as a kid and smiling at all the pictures he and Miley had taken together. It was funny to him how all along she was the one that he wanted to marry and she had been right by his side this whole time.
"I love you, Miley Ray." He traced the outline of her photograph with his fingertips, "I just wished you would've let me show you just how much." He traced over her toothy grin, a sad smile appearing on his lips.
The clashing of pots and pans from downstairs awoke Nick up from his unfamiliar slumber. He rolled over on his bed slightly, feeling the pain of his back ache from the uncomfortable position he was laying. He felt like he hadn't slept a wink at all last night; He sat up, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hands; he noticed he had fallen asleep with the photo album still placed in his lap. He folded it back to the front and set it off somewhere to the side and leaned back. He kicked the covers off of his body and stared right at the ceiling, placing his hands behind his head as he tried to erase the look of disappointment that he saw on his father's face when he had walked through the door last night.
He grabbed his phone, flipping it around in his hands a few times before finally opening up his contacts list. The pad of his thumb scrolled the screen down to her name and he hesitated for a minute before pressing the call button. The call went straight to voicemail and he drew in a deep breath.
"Hey, Mi—I mean Miley, this is Nick if you haven't noticed… I, uh… I just wanted to see if you were okay and I was hoping that uhm that we could meet sometime soon and talk because I think we should really sort this out. Call me back. Bye." He hung the phone up and closed his eyes, sighing in frustration.
What was going to happen to the two of them now? He couldn't help, but frown at the thought a little.
He lounged around in his room for another hour before finally pushing up enough strength to get out of bed and get ready for the day. He put a navy blue sweater over his muscle shirt and walked down the stairs.
"Hey dad," Nick greeted.
"Morning son," Paul set his coffee mug down onto the table. "How was your night?"
"Good," Nick replied with a slight nod, "yours?"
"It was good," Paul nodded as well. "I was watching the game last night."
"Well, that sure sounds good." Nick said, dragging the conversation out a little.
"Cut the chit chat son, I want to know what really happened for Miley to have said no." Paul set the newspaper down and stared his son right in the eye.
"There's not much to tell you dad. I asked her and she said no, what else is there to say?" Nick asked, looking down at his hands.
"Was there some sort of hesitation in her voice?"
"I-I don't know." Nick sighed, "All I know is that everything went wrong, I had the waiters set up this small dessert and when she got it, she would see the ring and then, I would propose to her, but my nerves got the best of me and I just blurted the damn question out. You should've seen the look on her face, dad. She never looked so serious until she uttered the word 'no.'" Nick shook his head slightly.
"Son…" Paul leaned over and placed a hand on Nick's shoulder.
"Well, it's probably because of what happened the night before…" Nick said more to himself than to his dad.
"What happened?"
Nick's head snapped up, "Uhh… nothing. It was nothing." He said, not wanting to talk to his dad about something like that.
"Have you tried calling her?"
"Goes to voicemail." Nick replied.
"Maybe it's better if you went over to her—"
"No."
"And why not? You can't just sit around here and wait for her, Nick." Paul said.
"I know, but what am I supposed to do, dad? She won't pick up her phone when I call, how am I so sure she'll even come to the door when I go over?"
"Well, you never know if you don't try." Paul huffed before picking the newspaper up again, flapping it loudly, knowing that it would annoy Nick.
Nick rolled his eyes before getting up and pushing his chair in, "I think I'm going to go for a walk." He slammed the door shut as he left.
"That's my boy." Paul licked his fingertip before turning to the next page of the newspaper, a smile appearing on his face.
*
Nick pulled out his phone and dialed her number, waiting for her familiar voice to pick up.
"Nick!" Mikayla said excitedly, "how did everything go?!" She smiled widely.
"Wrong." Nick seethed.
"What? No. What happened, Nick?" Mikayla's voice softened, "are you okay?"
"I'm everything, but okay right now Micki… Everything just went the total opposite of what I had planned. She said no."
"You're kidding me right? Please tell me you are, Nick. Please tell me you're joking around and you're going to bust up laughing and start yelling, 'ha, you believed me!'" Mikayla huffed softly.
"Sadly, I'm not joking this time… She actually said no... When everyone was so sure that she'd answer yes."
Mikayla sighed, "Nick… That's only because we were pretty sure she was going to. Her answer probably shocked everyone…"
"I'm just an idiot." Nick shook his head, "I rushed into things way too quickly and she probably got scared away. I just should have waited longer instead of trying to do this on her birthday. It wasn't the right time…" He ran his hand through his hair for the 50th time that day.
"Nick, stop it…" Mikayla sighed, "stop being so hard on yourself. It's not your fault."
"Stop what, Mikayla? Apparently it wasn't her fault. Of course it was mine." Nick said in frustration.
"Have you tried talking to her?" Mikayla suggested.
"That would've been a good idea if she didn't fucking ignore me! Of course I tried." Nick rolled his eyes.
"You really don't need to take out your frustrations on me right now, Nick. I was just trying to help. Call me when you cool down." Mikayla pressed the end button.
"Stupid stupid stupid." Nick dropped his head into his hands. "Fucking shit." He mumbled, feeling angry with himself, "you always know how to screw up everything."
He pushed himself off of the front steps and began to cross the lawn over to Miley's house. He rang the bell once and waited a few seconds before pressing the button again. He knew someone was home. Both cars were still parked in the driveway.
He began to grow a little impatient and started rocking on the heels of his feet. Suddenly, the door opened and displayed Miley in a really revealing jogging outfit. His eyes expanded a little as he looked over body up and down subconsciously. His eyes went up to meet hers and his mouth quickly dried up.
"Uh, I—"
"I can't really talk; I'm going for a jog." Miley brushed past him and walked onto the driveway.
"Can I jog with you then?" Nick asked as he walked beside her, "you don't really have to say anything, just listen…"
Miley shrugged it off and began with a light jog. Not knowing what to say, she plugged her earphones into her ears and blasted the music.
Not noticing that she had placed earphones into her ear, he began to talk, "I know it seems awkward between us, but that's the last thing that I would have ever wanted to have happened between us, Miles… You're my best friend and I don't want to lose that relationship we had just because I rushed into things and caused you even more confusion…" He paused a little, still watching his feet as he jogged.
His phone began to vibrate in his hand and he looked down at the unfamiliar number, "hello?" He said into the receiver hesitantly.
"I feel bad." Mikayla sighed, "I should be more sympathetic to how you're feeling no matter how much of a jerk you were being."
"It's alright, Miki. No need to apologize."
Miley's head snapped towards Nick when she heard him talk on the phone, "whose Miki?" She questioned.
Nick looked up at Miley, who had stopped jogging and was now standing there, waiting for an answer. "She's a friend of mine back in Boston… She's sorta the one I said was my girlfriend, but then she really wasn't…"
Mikayla frowned on the other line, "yeah…" She answered even though Miley couldn't hear her.
"Oh." Miley replied sheepishly.
"Do you want to talk to her?" Nick asked.
"I-uh, I don't know…" Miley stammered.
"I promise you she isn't that mean, she's just really weird." Nick chuckled.
"I can still hear you!" Mikayla said, "and how rude!"
Nick shook his head and looked at Miley, "so yeah?"
"No, I think I'm good… No offense to Miki…" Miley replied, "I'll just meet you back at the house?"
Before Nick had time to respond back, Miley had started jogging again. She jogged on as quickly as she could, not looking back to check if Nick had ran after her. She stopped and panted, trying to regain her breath. She looked back and noticed that Nick was nowhere to be found. A rush of disappointment ran throughout her body and she dropped down onto the floor. She didn't know if it was from exhaustion or if it was from all the emotions that she was feeling at once.
She couldn't hold them in anymore. Her tears spilled down the sides of her face. Angry tears. Sad tears. Hurt tears. They all came pouring down her face and this time, she didn't bother to wipe any of them away.
-
"Go after her, you doof!" Mikayla ordered.
Nick sighed, "She doesn't want to talk to me, Miki…"
"And that's your reason for giving up?" Mikayla asked.
"What else am I supposed to do when she can't even look at me anymore?"
"You KEEP trying, Nick because eventually she WILL talk to you, I'm sure of it. You better not give up and fly back over here because last sentence.
Nick sighed.
"And I know that you will. I mean hello, you're Nicholas Gray." Mikayla felt her cheeks redden a little and felt grateful that Nick couldn't see her. "If Miley denies you again, that girl doesn't know what kind of guy she's missing out on…"
"Thanks Miki." Nick cracked a small smile, "thanks for everything."
"Yeah, yeah. Now hurry up, the love of your life is waiting for you to catch her already."
Nick smiled wider this time, "I'll call you back and tell you how everything goes."
"Don't forget! Bye." Mikayla hung up and looked down at her phone. Her stomach felt funny. Did she just get butterflies from talking to Nick on the phone? "Of course not…" She told herself before standing up and throwing her phone onto her bed. "Fresh air sounds good…" She grabbed her sweater and walked out of her dorm room.
"Hey Miki." Jake greeted with a bright smile.
"Hey Nick—I mean Jake! Hey Jake." Mikayla quickly fixed her mistake.
"Did you just call me Nick?" Jake questioned with a confused glance.
"What? No! OF course not… I was saying… this school is made of bricks! Yeah bricks… I'll see you later, bye." Mikayla walked away quickly before making a bigger fool of herself in front of her friend.
-
Miley pushed herself off of the hard concrete and began to run again, not caring how tired her legs and feet were. She just wanted to run; run as far away as she could possibly go. Her feet were beginning to grow too tired to go any farther and she stopped, looking up at the hot sun that was beating down on her sweaty body.
"Miley!" Nick called, a few blocks away from where she was standing.
Miley turned to look at him, but turned back and looked down the empty road.
"Miles," Nick panted as he finally stood behind her, "why in the world did you run so far?"
"I wanted to…" Miley began to walk away from him again.
"Don't walk away from me again, Miles…" Nick grabbed her arm, but quickly released it, "you're so skinny now…" He said in a soft whisper.
Miley looked at him, her eyes sad, "I've always been this skinny, Nick." She replied.
"That's bullshit, Miley." Nick walked in front of her, making her stop in her tracks, "you're skinny, but you aren't this skinny. Have you not been eating?" He questioned.
"I don't really need to answer your questions."
"I'm just worried about you…"
"Well, don't be,"
"Too bad because I'm always going to care about you, no matter what you do or say to me." Nick told her as she began to walk away again. "I'm always going to love you with everything in me even if you do reject me and never talk to me again. I'm always going to be your best friend no matter how many times you tell me you hate me—"
"I never said I hated you Nick." Miley turned around to look at him, "I'd never hate you."
"Yeah, I know… I was just saying. You know just in case you might in the future?" Nick down at his scuffed shoes.
Miley brought her hand to his face, making her look down into her eyes, "I said I would never hate you Nick. That means it will never happen."
Nick's breath got caught in his throat as he noticed the familiar gleam reappear into Miley's dull blue eyes, "I know that now…" He breathed out, absentmindedly making Miley shiver.
Miley began to move in closely and soon here lips were a few centimeters away from his.
Nick swooped in and closed the really small gap that was between the two of them. He wrapped his arms around her fragile body, holding it gently as he continued to deepen the kiss more than before.
a/n: God, I'm a horrible FF writer! It takes me SO freaking long just to update something, but I really hope the wait is worth it. =/ School just sucks and it's easier to update yt! D: But I never forgot you guys; I don't think I ever will :3 Review your thoughts please? WEEKS to write, minutes to review xD
So, the NJK awards rolled around again and I could've sworn we just had the other one… xD . vote for me in all the categories I'm nominated in? (: please and thank you 333