I MAKE HER SAY.

"truth is, everyone's gonna hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." – Bob Marley

I opened my eyes slowly, lifting my head up & groaning. Hungover again. I looked around and groaned again. Major headache. I sighed & grabbed onto the chair on the side of me tightly, using it to help me stand up. I kept looking around. Beer cans were just about everywhere. & I mean everywhere. In the kitchen sink, in the bathroom, in my bedroom, and even in our pool in the backyard. I sighed and stumbled to the kitchen and popped 2 Aspirins in my mouth, quickly swallowing them. People were sleeping on the floor, beer cans cradled in their hands. It was like the high school scene you see in all the Hollywood movies. Kids, some with a bright future ahead of them just heading for disaster. I was one of those kids. I was a high school junior. In all AP classes, high GPA, and yet, I was the cover boy for high school bad boy. I did drugs. All kinds. I drank beer, vodka, you name it. And I had countless sex...meaningless sex. I was the cover boy from what a bright future, could kill you. Destroy you. Take away everything you loved...and everything you thought you loved. Name it. I was headed down that path.

XxX

I walked into my school. North Shore High School. It's in Illinois. I walked down the hallway to my locker as guys high fived me, and girls stared at me. What a good life. I winked at some of the hottest girls and walked to my locker, putting in my combination, and then opening it. I could feel the eyes of girls swooning over me even though my back was to the world. I took out my AP Math book and then closed my locker. I walked to my group of friends & high fived them with my free hand. The cheerleaders in our little group just fell over me. Including Nicole, the head one.

She's had a crush on me since we met, way back in kindergarten. I had a crush on her in 5th grade, and since she found out, she still thinks I like her to this day. Years later.

"Hi Nick!", Nicole said, jumping forward & smiling hugely at me. "Uh hi...," I said, with a fake smile. Really fake. She smiled back & giggled. I fake chuckled. The way you see in all those tv shows when they're around someone they don't like but they don't wanna hurt their feelings.

"So, Homecoming's in 3 weeks..", Nicole said as the group began following me as I walked, her by my side. I shrugged.

"Yeah..."

She smiled sweetly at me and kept looking at me as we walked side by side. "Who are you taking?"

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Either i've already slept with all the girls in this school, or I hate every single one of them."

She giggled, "do you hate me?"

My eyed widened. I put together the most happiest fake smile I could, "No I don't," I said through clenched teeth. She squealed and hugged me tightly. I weakly hugged back, and flinched when she gave my cheeks a peck. Thank god the bell rang.

I ran inside my AP math class, heading straight for my desk. but then, I tripped.

Soon enough, everyone started laughing at me while I was left to lay there in embarrassment & pain, while everyone dived in & made my self-esteem sink lower than it already was. I groaned and looked up. My eyes caught the eyes of a brunette who was sitting in her seat, not laughing, but staring at me as if she cared if I was okay or not. Once she saw me lift up my head, she smiled a little, and watched as I stood up & sat down in my seat diagonal from her.

"Okay, class, stop laughing at Nick!," Mrs. Johnson bellowed, slamming her meter stick down on Joe's desk, my 'best friend' who was also laughing at me.

Then everyone shut up.

"Okay. Now on to classtime!"

I chuckled a little and opened my notebook open to a clean page, and then started doing the work that were on the board. It was all silent expect for some coughs and sneezes, but other than that, it was dead silent. I looked up at Mrs. Johnson, and saw her feet up on her desk, and her cold, green eyes glued to the People magazine she was reading. It was disgusting. I made a face and then went back to working on my work. 3 minutes later, the girl who stared at me when I looked up stood up. She was wearing Daisy Dukes, which showed off her long tan legs, black converse, and a loose white V-neck.

Long story short, she. Looked. Hot. Not hot actually…more like gorgeous. Strikingly gorgeous. Beautiful. Pretty. You name every word to describe a pretty girl, she was it. I bit my lip & gulped as my eyes trailed from her shoes, her long tan legs, her curvy, round waist, her hips, her hair, and her face when she turned around. When she turned around, I looked back down at my paper, trying not to make my staring obvious. I guess she knew I was staring at her, because when I slightly looked up again, she was smirking at me. I chuckled a little and ripped my paper out of my notebook, standing up and walking to Mrs. Johnson's desk. When I started my walk back, I noticed that the girl was staring at me. I watched her & her eyes trailed down from my face, to my muscles, to my chest(which was slightly see through because I was wearing a white V-neck), to my legs & shoes, then up my thighs. Finally her eyes landed & stayed put on my crotch. I smirked. I smirked, smirked, and smirked. I sat back down and kept smirking when her eyes stayed glued to my crotch. And then the bell rang, signaling that first period was over.

I stood up and grabbed my books. I started walking toward the door, and I walked straight to my locker down the hall from the classroom. I opened my locker hearing my name being screaming. Oh. Shit. I looked up & my eyes widened. I saw that brunette girl mouthing something that looked like "that's him.." and then Nicoles face popped up in front of mine.

I jumped and screamed a little.

"What the hell Nicole? You scared the shit out of me!", I yelled, slamming my locker as I grabbed my gym uniform from my backpack.

She shrugged, "sorry?"

I rolled my eyes and then began walking toward the gym, glaring at the floor. I. was. Pissed.

I normally get pissed off when someone scares me. I saw Paranormal Activity 2 the day before Halloween with my then girlfriend, and got pissed off when a worker scared me, wearing a Jason mask. I wouldn't talk to anyone after that.

I changed into my gym uniform (yellow t-shirt with blue shorts.) and ran out. I followed the group who I came to know who was in my gym class, and smirked when the teacher announced we'd be running the 3 mile trail run starting today.

I'm the fucking boss at running. Running trails that is. We all got ready & I looked around to see my completion. Bunch of kids wearing glasses, some tying their shoes, and then one person caught my eye.

Standing next to me was the girl who I had caught staring at me back in AP math. I smirked.

"so your in my gym class too," I said, running in place a little when the teacher walked away to find her whistle.

She looked up at me, and chuckled, "I guess I am."

I bit my lip and looked around, trying to sound cool.

"So….what's your name?," I said, running in place again and looking at her.

She looked back at me and smiled weakly.

"Miley."

I raised my eyebrows. What the hell. What kind of a name is Miley?

I smiled back at her nonetheless, & put my hand out, "Nick. Nick Jonas."

Only instead she didn't shake my hand. She took off running. What the hell. And then I realized that the whistle had blown and the time to finish the trail started now.

When I realized I was the only one at the starting point left, I took off sprinting. Soon enough, I was running beside Miley at the front of the pack. No one slowed down. They all wanted to be in the front. Like I'll let them. I kept running with Miley as I noticed the trail was almost done and the time was gonna be up soon.

I decided to make an attempt to make conversation with her, "so, where are you from?"

She looked up at me. "California. But I was born in Nashville."

I chuckled. "so your parents move you from a place like California, all the way here to the Midwest, in Illinois, where the winters get so cold and the summers get so hot?"

"My dad got promoted."

"Promoted from where?"

"What is this, 20 questions?"

I chuckled a little and stopped running as we finished the trail and sat on the grass to wait for the others to finish.

"Maybe. Or maybe I wanna get to know you."

She looked at me and shrugged. "You've never paid any attention to me before…your always around your girlfriend…"

I took a drink of my water from my water bottle I set down there and looked at her confused. "Girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend."

She ran a hand through her hair and kept looking at me, "clingy brunette. Green eyes, head cheerleader, not the smartest light bulb ever..ring a bell?"

"Nicole? She's not my girlfriend. In fact, she's not even my friend."

She stood up as the other people began closing in, "then what is she? She's always going on about you two are so in love when half the time your fucking a random girl at a party, or making out with a random girl at a party."

I turned my head and looked at the trees, trying to hide my surprised and shocked face, "how do you know I do all that?"

She crossed her arms and laughed. "It's obvious. Popular guy, football captain, the guy that every girl wants to date, there had to be someone inside just waiting to watch you crumble and lose everything you have…and never regain everything you already lost."

I bit my lip. "What are you talking about?," I mumbled and stood up with her as we began walking back to the schools gymnasium. She kept her arms crossed as we walked side by side.

"You think you have the school wrapped around your finger. None of them know what's hiding behind all that," she mumbled, walking closer to me so no one else would hear our conversation.

"What are you talking about? You don't know what you're saying."

She grabbed my arm and stopped walking, which made me turn toward her.

"Then listen to me and tell me if I'm wrong or not. Both your parents died when you were a little kid. Everyone knows you have 3 brothers. No one knows where they are & no teacher speaks of them," she started. I gulped. "You were in foster care for months until a family finally adopted you. As the years went by, you kept getting in trouble. Getting expelled, suspended, you even had a charge against you for assault for spraying your biology teacher with silly spray and she had a allergic reaction. Finally, your new family moved here. To Evanston. You got high grades, high enough to be put in advanced. You were picked as captain of the football team, every girl wanted you. But because your adoptive parents are out of town a lot, you throw huge parties everyone expect people like me get invited to. Now am I wrong or right."

I bit my lip and looked away, my eyes blinking over and over again. Kind of in shock. "How do you know all that?"

"Unlike half the people in this damn school, I actually pay attention to people."

"How'd you find all that out about me though?"

I watched her as she bit her lip. "Is one of your brother's names Joe?"
I nodded slowly.

"I know all that because I dated him."

I stared at her. "You dated my older brother and didn't tell me about it?"

"You never asked, and as far as I'm concerned, you were never my friend, so don't go off acting like I should tell you stuff when I don't even know you."