It'd been two long weeks since Miley and Nick had spoken. For Miley, that meant two weeks since she hadn't gotten out of bed, unless she had to pee, and two weeks that she hadn't eaten. She didn't see the point. For Nick, that meant fourteen nights of dirty, drunken sex with his friends with benefits, or girls he'd picked up at bars, and nights where he was so high, he couldn't remember a thing. It also meant that his time with the N42, more drug deals, more gambles, more everything. For Demi, the two weeks had been 336 hours of constant worry. She worried about her and Joe's friendship, and her two best friends that had been acting so completely different that she could barely recognize them. Miley had started to look skinnier and skinnier, making Demi feel helpless and jealous of her slimness, while Nick had made her feel scared and unwanted. The last two weeks for Joe, had been filled with love, lust, and worry. He worried about his brother and the N42, and he worried about Miley and her depression. Love and lust, the two things that Emily had brought to him, even though Demi still lurked in the back of his mind. He'd changed, he wasn't as much of the dork he used to be, thanks to Miley.

Demi walked into her and Miley's apartment, carrying two boxes of chinese take out, one for Miley, one for herself. Knocking on Miley's door, she heard a grunt and sighed, "hey, Miles, I have some Chinese take out, your favorite! Want some?"

"I ate a big lunch," Miley lied, burying herself under her blanket.

Her best friend cringed at the lie before sighing again, "okay, well, it'll be in front of your door if you want some...h-hey Miles?"

When she didn't get a reply, Demi put her head down and set the food on the floor, "don't forget about school, okay? Just because you're depressed, doesn't mean you should throw away your entire education, you've worked too hard for it."

Going to the dining room, she sat down and started to eat her dinner while taking out her textbook to work on a paper that was due in a few weeks. In high school, she was a huge procrastinator, but Joe had taught her that it was better to get a project done earlier rather than later, that way, if there was a problem, she could have time to fix it. She shook her head and mentally kicked herself, he'd been glued to her mind since he'd gotten his makeover, even though she knew how incredibly shallow that was. Here Joe was, this amazingly smart, funny guy, he'd always been like that, he'd had a quirky personality ever since she'd met him, even if he was socially awkward. So he was a great person who had a thing for her and she wasn't attracted to him until he'd gotten his make over, or had she been attracted to him before then? She wanted to think so, but knew that it wasn't the case. Now, she just missed him. She wished he could be next to her, studying along with her like they'd done so many times before.

Demi sighed and picked her phone up, she went through her contacts until she got to his and thought. She wanted to call him, to text him, but she'd done that already, more than once, and he hadn't returned her calls or texted her back, he'd just ignored her. Her heart longed for him, her arms ached to be wrapped around him in one of his giant bear hugs, she wanted to hear his laugh, she wanted to hear his long vocabulary words come out of his mouth, even if she didn't always know exactly what he was talking about- she missed his voice, she missed him.

Joe collapsed onto the bed and wrapped his arms around Emily's bare body as he attempted to catch his breath. The blonde wrapped her arms around his bare torso and rested her head onto his naked chest. He stroked her arm as a smile crept to his lips. She looked up at him and giggled, leaning up, she pecked his lips and then pulled the blanket over them. His eyes were heavy with tiredness, but he didn't want to go to sleep. Actually, to be quite honest, he couldn't go to sleep, the face of a Latina was haunting him, even though she wasn't the woman he'd just made love to. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head while he watched her eyes close as she entered a dream state. Reaching over, he grabbed his phone and went through his phonebook, finding Demi's number, he contemplated. He shook his head, feeling disgusted with himself and put his phone back, there was this amazing woman who was lying next to him, but she wasn't enough, he had always told himself that, but never did anything about it. The woman that he wanted, didn't want him. The woman that he wanted, just wanted to be in the friend zone. He wanted to respect her wishes, but he couldn't, he couldn't be around her without wanting to hold her, like he was holding Emily. He missed her though, and it made his heart heavy.

His mind then switched gears and thought of Nick. He felt bad for his brother, he'd lost the girl of his dreams, and then, he felt guilty, why did his little brother loose the girl of his dreams? Because of him, and he couldn't do anything to take it back. His brother had taken the wrath of something that he'd done. No, of something that he'd seen. The gruesome scene that he'd witnessed. Nick had saved his life.

~Flashback~

As Joe walked home from a chess meet in the dark of night, he clutched his textbooks and walked as fast as he could. His father had promised him he'd pick him up so he didn't have to walk, but he'd forgotten or gotten caught up at work, but what else was new. Chess had been something that Paul had done, meaning that Joe thought he should do it too because that way, his father might pay attention to him more, approve of him more, but nothing changed, he was still just the middle child, the nobody, though it wasn't like Paul had really paid much attention to any of his children. Work was his main priority.

The seventeen year old boy walked as quickly as he could without slipping on the icy pavement. His hands ached from the freezing winter temperatures. Passing a building, he heard yelling and kept walking, darting, to be exact, Chicago at night. Not the safest place in the world. He heard footsteps behind him and a man ran passed him, accidentally knocking him over as he went. Three other men chased after him. One pulled out a gun and aimed it at the first one who was still running. Pulling the trigger, the bullet went flying through the air and Joe quietly crawled to a back alley to try and hide. A loud yell errupted through the air as the bullet pierced through the man's body, shredding through his skin. The once loud footsteps of the running man had stopped, the only sound heard was the sound of a limp body falling to the ground, along with the words of the three other men.

"SHIT," one exclaimed, "did you see the kid?"

Joe, being the skinny kid he was, crawled behind a large trash can and stayed there, trying to hold his breath so that when they came searching for him, they wouldn't find him. His heart stopped when he saw his little brother walking down the pathway, he wanted to yell, to scream to run back to the house, but it was too late, the three men grabbed him by the arms and threw him against a brick building. Joe wanted to move, to help his brother, but he was weak and cold and terrified. Nick stood up and looked at them confused.

"Is there an issue here," he asked them, putting on his tough guy fascade. He was the quarterback, he didn't get messed with so when he did, he was prepared to kill.

"We know you saw it," another man hissed.

Nick looked around confused and made eye contact with his brother, the only reason he knew where he was because they'd done everything together, and had hid from some creepers a few times behind the trash bins. He quickly took his eyes away and shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about."

They shook their heads and stuffed him into a car that came screeching around the bend. Four to one, Nick was strong, but he knew he was screwed so he just went with it.

"Oh my God," Joe whispered to himself, tears streaming down his cheeks, "what execrable circumstance have I effectuated? what execrable circumstance have I effectuated," he sobbed pulling his knees to his chest, "my young brother, my fourteen year old brother! He's lamented!"

After pulling himself together within the next hour, he dashed home and went into his little brother's room. He laid on the bed and held the pillow close to him, he'd stayed there, thinking that Nick was dead, but fifteen hours later, Nick came crawling in. Hearing the door open, Joe ran downstairs to explain to his mother that Nick had parished, but seeing his brother before him, he cringed. Blood dripped from his weak body while bruises covered him.

"Help me," Nick pleaded. Tears fell from Joe's brown eyes as he helped him to his room. Lying him on the bed, he went to get the first aid kit and cleaned out his brother's bruises. Turning him over, he gasped as he saw the two new tattoos inked into his skin.

"I'm branded," the younger one explained, "I'm part of a gang now. But I wouldn't change this, unless I could go back and make sure you didn't see what you saw, whatever you saw. I'm in a gang now, it was either that or death, and I can't put mom through that, I can't put you through that, or Kevin, or dad, or Frankie."

~End Of Flashback~

Goosebumps ran up and down Joe's arms while he thought about the things that Nick could've been doing in the gang. His little brother had never shared the details with him, the only thing he knew was that he was part of the gang, and that there was only one out: death. He wondered if Nick had blood on his hands and if he did, how many people he'd killed, he wondered how many packets of white powder Nick had sold, he wondered what kind of drugs Nick had sold, he wondered what kind of drugs Nick had taken. It was all too much for him. He hated himself for walking home that night, when he could've easily taken a taxi home, and then something came to him: Why had Nick been walking out and about so late?

Grabbing his phone, he pressed speed dial 2 and waited for his brother to pick up. It rang, and rang, and rang, and rang, until finally, Nick picked up.

"Hey, Joe," Nick greeted in a somber voice, "what's up, man?"

He bit his lip and sighed, "can we meet up somewhere?"

Nick looked around the club he'd dragged himself to and nodded, deciding that it'd be okay if he was to take a night off of partying, "sure, where?"

"Um...Starbucks?"

A chuckled ran off Nick's lips, "knew you were going to say that. Sure, I'll meet you there in ten." Hanging up, he left the bar and made his way to the coffee shop.

Joe slowly got out of Emily's grasp and quietly got up. He got dressed into a pair of jeans and a hoodie, with a pair of black converse and walked down the stairs and across the street to the shop. Walking in, he saw that Nick had ordered for the both of them and sat down across from him. He took the cup and smiled lightly, "thanks."

"No problem, so, what do you need to talk to me about," he asked taking a sip of his coffee.

The older brother examined his younger one and sighed. He wondered in the back of his mind if Nick was packing heat or not, but drank the thought away with a sip of his black coffee, "do you remember the night you...you entered the gang?"

Nick nodded, "like it was yesterday, why?"

"What were you doing out so late at night?"

Knowing that Joe already felt guitly for putting him in such a compromising position for the rest of his life, Nick debated on weather or not he should lie, but then realized that he shouldn't lie to him. He'd never lied to him before, at least not about the gang, "I was going to find you, to make sure you got home okay."

Joe stared down at the table, tears coming to his eyes, now he knew, it was completely his fault, "I am so contrite about this situation, Nick. I'm so sorry," he felt his heart beat increasing, "you shouldn't have to be in this circumstance."

"It's fine, dude, don't worry, okay? I'm used to this life now. It's not your fault. I went out to make sure you got home okay and you did get home okay. Alright? It's all good."

Joe cringed and shook his head, "but Miley..."

Now, it was Nick's turn to look down, he nodded his head slowly, his heart broke even more just hearing her name, "she deserves someone who can always protect her and isn't involved in the things that I'm involved in. She deserves the best, and that's most certainly not me, but um..." he cleared his throat, "how is she?"

Joe sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "she's awful, Nick. She hasn't left the apartment, she hasn't eaten, she stays in bed most of the time, and she says just about four words to Demi a day and that's it, unless I call or visit, then she says a few words to me. Nick, she needs you."

Nick shook his head, "but she doesn't. At least, she can't. She needs to get over me. What's going on with you and Emily?"

They spent the night catching up and talking about memories and random things, it was good for the both of them to get their minds off of the two girls that had stolen their hearts for a while, even if it was just for a few hours. Back at Demi and Miley's though, the only thing that was on their minds were Joe and Nick. And everyone knew that it was just going to get worse before it got better- if it ever did get better.

A/N: Amazed by how many reviews I've already gotten so I decided to upload this morning! Aw :( This chapter was depressing! But now you guys know how Nick became involved with the N42 and how Joe feels about it, I hope this makes up for last chapter's shortness! Do you guys have any suggestions on where you'd like this story to go or what you'd like to see? All of the main characters' lives suck right now! :/ How do you guys think it'll turn out? Will they end up together? Will they end up hating each other? Review! :)

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