A/N: Yellow, people! It's soon time for things to get sad, sadly, but never fear, this chapter is almost pure fluff!
Disclaimer: yada, yada, yada. I don't own anybody. Or anything. Except perhaps the plot. And I own "Still In Love With You part 2" and "Going Through The Motions".
HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM
"WHAT?" Joe went nuts. "We have to go get me another pair! Now! Before anybody sees the amazing, gorgeous, and fantastalastic Joe Jonas with a hole in his pants!"
"Oh, god, Joe. Get over yourself. Come on. You forgot your jeans at my house the last time we went swimming and you changed at my place. Come on." I dragged him back home, gave him the black skinny jeans that he left there last time and shoved him into the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, we were back at the park and sitting on the swings and talking about random things. "Hey, Joe, when you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?"
"An astronaut. You?"
"I wanted to own a bookstore. I still do. I have no idea what I'd call it though." I smiled.
"Trusconai Booksellers." He grinned. I gave him an odd look so he elaborated. "Look, the Jonas Brothers aren't going to be popular forever, so we'll need something to keep us afloat, money-wise, so we could all own a bookstore." Joe smiled.
"But why Trusconai?"
"Because it's a cross between Truscott and the plural form of Jonas, Jonai." He kept grinning. I looked at him like he was insane and did, in fact, question his sanity aloud, to which he responded, "I'm perfectly sane. It's the rest of the world who's not." Which made sense, I think.
7 AM
"Hey, Joe, would you mind walking with me to school?" I asked because I noticed that I was going to be late if I didn't start walking now.
"Yeah. Let's go. You don't want to be late after skipping yesterday." Joe grinned. "Race ya to your house." I grinned back and we took off for my house, stopping about a block away because we ran out of breath.
"I guess nobody wins." I said between breaths. Joe just grinned and started running again. "Hey! No fair!" I chased after him and grabbed the back of his shirt to slow him down. "Now, no more cheating, right?"
"All right, fine." Joe sighed dramatically. "Let's grab your bag. We'll take my car to drop you off." I smiled and agreed before dashing inside to get my backpack and iPod.
I came back out and we both climbed into Joe's car. "Hey, Joe… How's Ni-" His name caught in my throat, but I just cleared it and continued. "How's Nick doing? He sounded pretty bad when he was calling me after… it… happened." Joe bit his lip and seemed to be deciding on what to say.
"He hasn't really been himself. He's been lost and almost skipped school yesterday because he 'wasn't feeling well'." He put air quotes around the last part.
"What do you mean?"
"He barely ate anything, said he felt like puking, and he spent every free moment writing some song in his room." Joe elaborated. I nodded.
We pulled up to the school.
"Thanks, Joe. You're awesome, you know that?"
"Heck yeah!" I smacked him.
"That's for being egotistical." He stuck is tongue out at me and I was transported back to that day when Nick and I were playing Guitar Hero and he did the same thing. I felt tears at the corner of my eyes and tried to conceal them, only to fail miserably.
"What's wrong, Lils?" he asked, worry everywhere on his face. I explained quickly and he smile sadly. "It'll be okay. You guys will get through this. And from what Nick's told me, he's really upset about it and really hopes you'll forgive him." I shrugged and climbed out.
"Later, Joe!" I shouted as he drove off. I turned and started walking inside.
HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM
In homeroom
I dropped into my seat in front of Nick seconds before the bell rang. I felt a tap on my shoulder so I turned around to see Nick putting his hand back down.
Joe was right. He did look bad. He had shadows under his eyes like he hadn't slept in weeks. "Lilly," he whispered, so as to not get caught. "Can I talk to you?"
My first thought was to refuse but something inside me told me to listen, so I did. I nodded.
"I'm sorry, first off. Second, it was my stupid fault. She asked if we could talk privately and I knew something was off. And I got uncomfortable which she mistook for nerves and kissed me." He continued, shame-faced. "And I'm ashamed to say that I kissed her back. But I swear, Lilly, I only thought of you! For some reason, my mind told me it was you I was kissing. I'm sorry," he said again.
I sat there while I listened and when he finished, he recoiled, as if expecting a blow, be it verbal or physical.
But I didn't yell. I didn't cry. I didn't smack him.
I smiled.
He stared at me.
"You were honest. That counts for major points in my book." I kept smiling. "I'm sorry for getting so mad about it."
"No, no, no… You're not the one who should be apologizing. It should be me. I kissed her." He looked guilty about it. I didn't stop smiling.
"Nicholas Jerry Jonas," I began, purposefully toning my voice so I sounded mad. He looked scared so I smiled again. "You can be the biggest dork ever, you know that?" He smiled tentatively so I reached over and awkwardly hugged him over the desks.
"Will you come over to my house later? Frankie and Kevin miss you. And Frankie says that if you do come over, you must bring a Webkinz in the form of either a puppy or a dinosaur." I smiled and nodded. "Oh, and you might not want to sit in the library today. Miley's going to get what's coming to her."
"Oh?" He just smiled and told me to be patient.
HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM
Two hours later, at lunch
I sat down at a table in the corner with a tray that had something that was supposedly meatloaf. I think they soaked a brick in water until it was soft enough to shovel down the throats of the 1,200 teenagers that attend Seaview High School.
I looked up from the brick as Nick came to sit with me and puts his tray down on the table. We smiled and evaluated each other's meals. "Hey, Lils. Do you want my sandwich? It's more edible to you than the school lunches." I looked at the sandwich his mom packed and nodded enthusiastically.
As we traded lunches, Miley had come up and stood behind Nick with her arms crossed. "Excuse me, Nicky, but what are you doing with that girl?" I rolled my eyes and put on my iPod to drown her out. I blasted The Academy Is… songs until Nick tapped my shoulder and indicated that I needed to listen to this.
"She's my best friend. And my girlfriend." Nick said calmly while Miley got progressively angrier.
"But I'm your girlfriend!" She whined, pretty pathetically in my opinion.
"No, you're the bi-the evil girl who made my real girlfriend hate me." Nick argued. "I want nothing to do with you, Miley Stewart. Don't talk to me ever again." He turned his back towards her and walked back to our table. I smiled at him.
"That was awesome."
"It felt awesome." Nick smiled again. "So, you still coming over?" I nodded. "Sweet. It's gonna be awesome."
HMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHM
At the Jonai's house after school
I walked in the door and was immediately tackled by four different people.
"ACK! Franklin Nathaniel, Nicholas Jerry, Joseph Adam, and Paul Kevin Jonas the second! GET OFF ME!" I shouted in their ears. They all jumped and immediately climbed off me. "Thank you."
"You know, I find it slightly disturbing that you know our full names when we've never told them to you." Joe pointed out.
"I told you I used to be a fangirl." I grinned and stuck my tongue out at him when Frankie popped up.
"So where is it, huh? Where's my Webkinz?" He started bouncing up and down on the spot. "I want my Webkinz!" I sighed and pulled a brown dog out of my bag.
"Is this sufficient enough?" I asked, waving the Webkinz around. He nodded and snatched the toy out of my hands before dashing off to play. I turned to Kevin with a Starbucks travel mug in my hand. "Chai latte, extra chai, no water, with skim milk, right?" He nodded, grinned, and grabbed the cup before downing half its contents in one gulp.
"Now that you've rewarded my brothers, can we get out of here?" Nick asked.
"But she hasn't given me anything yet!" Joe whined. I sighed and pulled out another travel mug.
"Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino, Venti sized." I smiled and handed it to him.
"Yay!" Joe squealed. "Later, Love-dorks!" Nick and I rolled our eyes simultaneously.
"So, now can we go?" Nick asked. I nodded and we climbed the stairs to Nick's room.
"So… What's up?" I asked after a couple of minutes of silence.
"Well, I wanted you to hear this song I wrote after… you know." Nick explained. I grinned and nodded, so he picked up his guitar and started playing.
"I know you probably hate me,
And I think you have a right to
But please just listen
Because I miss you
And I have something
That I really need to say
I'll wait forever
Just to be with you
Just to hear your voice
Cause even though I tried not to
I'm still in love with you
Now you can walk away
And say the things
That you know I'll hate
But just so you know,
I'll wait forever
Just to be with you
Just to hear your voice
Cause even though I tried not to
I'm still in love with you
And I'm standing here
Waiting for your answer
And you say,
'Just go back to her
Because there's nothing for you here,'
So once again,
I'm asking you to listen
Then I'll let you go
I'll wait forever
Just to be with you
Just to hear your voice
Cause even though I tried not to
I'm still in love with you
And just remember,
I'll wait forever
Just to be with you
Just to hear your voice
Cause even though I tried not to
I'm still in love with you
I'm still in love with you…" Nick sang and I gawked at him. He cared that much?
I was such an idiot.
So I told him that much. He just shook his head. "No, you're not. You a beautiful, intelligent, and funny girl, Lils. I'm the idiot."
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am!"
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am!"
"KIDS!" Joe stepped in. "What are you arguing about now?"
"Whether I'm an idiot for screwing things up with Lilly." Joe shook his head.
"No, you're not. You just made a mistake." Joe pointed out. "And if it helps the argument any, you're both idiots." He grinned the walked away.
"He is such a dork." I stuck my tongue out at Joe's back. "Now, since you played that, I have to play my song." Nick raised an eyebrow. "It's nothing much. Fairly short, too."
I grabbed his guitar and put my fingers in the right place and strummed the intro.
"I keep trying
To find a reason
To keep on going
But no matter
How I try
All I ever want to do
Is break down and cry
And I'm going
Through the motions
A pretending that
Everything's all right
When everything that
I want to do
Is just break down and die
And I'm going
Through the motions
But you can tell
My heart's not in it
And everything that
I want to do
Means I always have to lose…" I sang quietly.
"It's not as long or as good as yours, but it's something." Nick looked incredulous.
"Are you kidding? That was amazing!" Nick smiled. I grinned.
"Thanks, Nick. It's good to have you back. Joe was getting annoying."
"I am not annoying!"