A/n: I just love you guys. :D Almost as much as Miley loves Nick and Nick loves Mi-…. Oh wait, we haven't gotten to that part yet… ;D

Haha, anyways…. With this chapter we are back on track with following Can't Buy Me Love… xD

P.S. You don't know who Cheyenne is… but you're all gonna hate her. :D

Vamoosing Hearts

Chapter 13

After our date I had kind of just curled up into a ball and cried. And when I say cried, I mean, like, full on can't breathe, can't see, retching and choking type of sobbing. It was a little much, even by my standards. And there was even a moment when I was wailing into my pillow that I thought maybe I'd finally snapped and lost my mind.

That weird moment where you know that you've lost all of your senses and can't stop what's happening to your body? That one.

Like I could see it from above; an out of body experience.

And what I saw was pathetic: A shaking., sniveling mess. A shell of a person that I couldn't even recognize. I'd allowed it to happen and this was my penance.

At some point I had finally stopped crying and was just lying on my back staring at the ceiling, breathing in those God awful snivel-sobs that make your whole body shake and end with a weird sound in your chest. You know those? They suck.

Eventually I ran out of steam and I slept for hours upon hours. My dad came to check on me a couple of times, and I must have looked enough like Death Warmed Over for them to take my excuse of feeling sick.

But then I ended up really getting sick. Stupid flu. Marissa attempted multiple times to shove some broth down my throat, but I was feeling terrible from the dehydration and lack of food in my stomach, so the thought of eating made me gag and then she left because she pukes when I puke and no one wants to see that awesome bit of Cyrus family time.

Later on Saturday evening, when I was starting to feel better, I had realized that my phone was dead and when I plugged it in and checked it, there were a ton of messages from Nick asking if I was still sick. My reaction was that he really wanted to come over and talk about ending the agreement and I couldn't face him looking and feeling as bad as I did.

And then, as I was sleeping in the early morning hours, I began to get picture messages from Demi from some party she was at with Joe. After the third picture, I started to get annoyed…and then a picture came through of Demi crawling on Joe's back. He was bent over and she was smiling like a fool…but behind her was Nick with some redhead who was pressed against his face…and I lost it all over again.

Except, it wasn't crying this time. It was pissed off anger that I could feel boiling in my veins. I wanted to throw shit. I wanted to break every damn thing in my room. I wanted to set fire to my house and watch my entire existence go up in flames.

I wanted out of this deal.

There was no sleep that night while I tried to form my plan. I loved Nick, I really did. But he had already moved on and if that was the case then I needed to get a head start on things, too. I needed to man up and not take this lying down.

We'd had an agreement and nothing more.

Whatever I had thought he was feeling for me was all for show.

It needed to be the same for me.

So, I'd taken Liam's call on Sunday afternoon and we'd met up to take a walk around the park. He was easy to talk to, and really attractive, so it wasn't all that hard to play my part. I didn't do anything that I shouldn't have: no hand holding, no kissing, nothing that would make me look like a whore when the walls tumbled down.

But what I did do was call Demi over that night to pick out some clothes for the coming week. She'd been more sluggish than normal while she dug through my closet and told me stories about the party. I mentioned that she had sent me some pictures and she'd stopped what she was doing to give me a quizzical look…which was when I'd confiscated her phone and shown her the pictures that she'd sent my way.

And in the background of several of her pictures, there were Nick and Demi's cousin; with their faces pressed together, or his tongue peeking out towards her, or her leaning in to kiss him. I'd waved the evidence in Demi's face and broken down in more hysterics. She'd assured me that it must have been a mistake, but then I'd asked her the most important question: Where had Nick slept that night.

When she didn't answer, I knew.

I shouldn't have been upset, but I was. I shouldn't have cared, but I did. I shouldn't have been affected…but it happened.

Call Me.

The text came in just a few minutes after Demi and I talked.

Meet me in the commons before class.

I replied simply.

Let's talk tonight.

I didn't want to talk.

I have company.

I know Demi wouldn't care if I called him, but it was an excuse. So I used it.

I need to see you.

Give it up.

Good night.

I took a deep breath. This was my out. I was looking for it. And he gave me what I needed in the long run.

I asked Demi to stay with me for the night and not to tell anyone what had happened. I knew that I was supposed to talk with Nick about our 'breakup' but figured that if I just took it into my own hands then I would be in control. He couldn't say words to break my heart if I didn't let him. And Demi had been able to keep her mouth shut until the morning and then I had to rehash the entire scenario to Selena, which hurt just as bad the second time I had to explain it. Then, when we'd gotten to school a bunch of people were standing around outside talking about how the Spring Fling dance had been approved for the following weekend…and there was Liam, waiting to ask me if I wanted to go…and everything happened so fast that I just said yes and then went to find Nick…and my lack of sleep and anger and sadness and my feelings of rejection combusted when I smacked him and the words just flew out of my mouth until I was screaming and causing a scene.

Let me play it out for you:

I channeled my inner drama queen as soon as I spotted Nick and slapped him clear across the face. He looked at me alarmed, processing and staring down at the strange expression on my face.

"How could you?" I shrieked as my heart was pounding. "I trusted you…and you…you…I hate you!"

He was rubbing the burning spot on his cheek, trying to form words to get me to lower my voice, but I could tell it just occurred to him that the entire school was watching us. His eyes flicked around nervously. "Don't do this," he whispered, leaning down to look into my eyes.

"Don't do this? Do what? You're the one who hooked up with that slut!" My chin trembled; I could feel the real tears coming on. I needed to get out of there. Furiously, I yanked on the pendant around my neck, breaking the clasp and holding the necklace tightly in my fist. "Here," I shoved the jewelry at him. "Give this to your whore."

He was speechless and frozen. I swallowed hard and bit my tongue, blinking back tears. I shook my head at him once and avoided eye contact. I couldn't look into his eyes. I didn't want to. So I turned and took three steps before hearing my name.

"Mi…" he called after me.

I stopped all of a sudden, forced back the tears that were brimming my eyes and turned back to glare hatefully. "My name is Miley." With a flip of my hair, I headed out of the building, my two best friends by my side and Liam with his arm around my shoulders, which I gently pushed off once we exited.

The bell rang for first block and I walked by the classroom once to see if Nick was there. He wasn't, so I headed towards his locker as the hallways emptied.

Sure enough he was there, just staring into his locker. I walked up to him slyly and snaked my hand onto his waist. He turned around cautiously.

I bit my lip and put on a fake smile.

"That went better than I expected!" I bounced a little on my toes and sighed.

"Yeah. We put on a good show," he agreed and reached into his locker to get his books. He closed his locker door with a sigh and turned to face me again.

I looked at him, puzzled by his flat tone.

"You okay?" I cocked my head to the side and frowned, yanking on the end of a strand of my hair, waiting for an answer from him.

He gave a half ass smile and shrugged both shoulders in what came off just a little too nonchalant. "Why wouldn't I be okay? This has been the plan all along, right?"

I nodded once and looked down at my shoes. I cleared my throat and shifted my face to give him a genuine smile. "Well, thank you. For everything."

"Like I said, part of the deal." And with that he turned and walked away, sealing the arrangement and making it final.

Because he's Nicholas Jerry Jonas. And everything is easy for him. Even pretending not to care.

Chemistry was, in a word: awkward.

Nick wouldn't even acknowledge my presence when I sat down next to him, so I stared straight ahead for the beginning of class until the teacher finished telling us how to conduct our experiments and then I was left to face Nick while we did our assignment together.

"Are you not talking to me?" I asked him quietly, not making eye contact as I set up our microscope.

"Should I be?" He retorted sharply.

My face lifted to see his and he was scowling, angry lines rippling into his perfect forehead. His fingers moved meticulously over the slides as he continued to not make eye contact.

"So, we can't be friends now?" I was honestly surprised by his behavior.

He sighed in agitation and turned towards me, lowering his voice so that no one else could hear. "You did that publicly…get it? You made the whole school believe that I stuck my dick in someone else. What part of this scenario makes you think we're supposed to be able to maintain a friendship?" His eyes were unwavering and filled with rage as he waited for my answer.

"We can just say that we want to be friends…" I started lamely.

He shook his head and looked away again quickly. "Appearances, remember? We are, from here on out, exes. So act that way." I blinked and stared at him for a moment before he spoke again. "Have fun with Liam at Spring Fling." And with that, he pushes the finished slides towards me and walked away, asking the teacher for a hall pass.

The day went by like I was in some strange sort of time warp. It was like the first part of the day before my confrontation with Nick was creeping at half time, but once he walked away from me the hours flew by in a rush and before I know it I was at lunch and Nick was…not.

I tried to engage in the conversations around me, thanking people for their sympathetic words and pats on the back.

But the truth is that Nick looked genuinely hurt by the act.

But, he had played along and allowed me to walk away. So, I knew it was what he had wanted all along. I'd allowed him to wash his hands of me and had watched him walk away from his locker like we never…were.

And this hole in my chest opened even wider than it had been over the weekend. Like he'd taken his beautiful hand and balled it into a fist, then punched an opening in my sternum, ripping my heart out and taking it with him. Which made me stop feeling altogether.

If I didn't feel anymore then it didn't hurt.

So, I pretended to care that we were going to Spring Fling.

We were all free to dance now.

To celebrate.

To live this beautiful existence…

This beautiful, fake, plastic existence that we made ourselves believe was real.

And because of that, I could smile a little at Liam. I could talk about dresses with Selena and Demi. I could pretend that I hadn't just died a small death. I was the walking dead because I had no soul. I'd given it to Nick Jonas and I'd let him take it when he walked away from me.

He barely spoke to me for the rest of the week.

At lunch he would purposely speak to only David and Joe, cutting off all communication with any of the girls at our table. He wouldn't look at me. Speak to me. Take my phone calls or answer my texts.

It was as if I were dead. Like I didn't exist. And though I existed to everyone else in the school…now that people knew my name and talked to me in class, invited me to the mall after school or offered me rides…I felt more alone than I ever had. Even when I was by myself and watching Nick from the sidelines, I still knew who I was.

Now I didn't.

I just knew that I missed him. I knew that I was alone without him. And I knew that, even in a crowded room full of people, I was alone.

So, what were my options?

Walk away from it all? All of that time spent getting there just to walk away?

Or enjoy the time I had left here with people that didn't care about me?

At least if I was going to be lonely, I would have people around. Appearances are everything, after all.

What the hell? My logic was so out of whack. But there was one thing I knew for sure…it was better to feel nothing at all than to lose your best friend, and the person you were in love with, all in one day.

Because the honest truth is that I didn't know it would hurt so damn much.

Spring Fling was lame. It should have been called Grind-fest. I've never witnessed teenagers act so… racy. I think I even saw a bra being thrown around… and a thong. Maybe some drunk and stoned kids. Nah, that's not a maybe, that's a for sure. I didn't even see Nick.

But of course that event led to a huge after party…. You guys should know by now that I do not mesh well with parties.

And then everything happened at once. I don't know what the trigger was that brought a thousand people into the kitchen at the exact moment that I needed to be alone with Nick, but kids come rushing into the room in droves, shoving past Nick and crowding around me and the 'bar'. Demi was in my face and Selena was chatting away nonsensically and then there was Liam and he had his arm around my waist and he was talking in my ear, refilling my cup and holding me so close that I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't breathe.

"Breathe, Miley…"

My eyes closed as I conjured up the sound of Nick's voice soothing me when I have panicked in the past.

My mouth wouldn't work and my feet were planted on the ground like they were made of lead. My eyes were frantically searching the crowd for Nick but he was gone and Selena was shoving shots in my face, but I couldn't think clearly and Demi was talking and Liam was breathing and Joe was laughing…I gasped while Liam pulled my face backwards and Justin or Jake or…I don't know anymore…it was too frantic. There were too many people and too many hands on me…and my mouth was open and they were feeding me shots and I didn't know how much time had passed but the room was spinning and I couldn't focus.

I was trying to tell them to step away or to let me move, but it was way too loud and we were all pressed against each other and everyone was talking.

Talking.

Talking.

Screaming.

Maybe those were just the sounds in my head?

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, feeling my heart beating so rapidly and so hard inside of my chest that I was sure someone could see it trying to claw its way out of my shirt.

But no one sees.

No one sees me.

I was right there and they were touching me and talking to me and no one actually sees me.

Only Nick ever saw me.

My eyelids were heavy and I was pleading quietly with Liam to get me out of the mayhem…and though he didn't actually hear me he could kind of sense from the look on my face that I needed to get some fresh air, so he maneuvered me away from the kitchen and through the even more crowded hallway that was filling up with more and more people. I scanned the heads and saw nothing that resembled Nick. I couldn't even see if he was in the living room. And I was only lucid enough to know that I needed to talk to him.

"Where…wherrre's Nick?" I asked as Liam helped me up the stairs to a closed door.

"What?" He chuckled. "It's loud out here. Come on, you need to lie down."

I nodded and felt the blood rushing to my face because my head was just kind of slumping forward instead of moving back. "Why is mah head so heavy?" I asked and Liam laughed again.

"Too many shots, too fast," he whispered into my ear. And I could hear the slur of his voice and smell his cologne and then…I could feel him pressed against me as he laid me down onto the bed that was in the room. The lights were off and I could only see a small sliver of moonlight through a crack in the shades, my eyes closing a bit as they got heavier.

"I think sumfing's wrong," my words came out slowly and my tongue felt thick.

"Nah, you're fine," Liam assured me as he crawled onto the bed next to me. His face was right next to mine but I was turned towards the window and he had to pull my chin towards him to get me to look at him. "You are so pretty," he whispered as he nuzzles his nose against my cheek.

No.

Not Liam.

No.

"Wait," I mumbled as he moved his face higher and settled himself into my side. But he couldn't hear me because I didn't really exist, so he moved his lips to mine anyway. And I felt his lips that are not Nick's. And I smelt his breath that is not Nick's. And his hands were on my breasts and they aren't Nick's either. And then his tongue was in my mouth and he tasted wrong. Moved wrong. Felt wrong.

We hadn't even had a real date. I hadn't kissed him yet.

Because I didn't want to.

I tried to say something but his tongue was on my mouth and his hands were relentless across and under my dress and I couldn't move because I was pinned and my legs weren't connected to my body anymore. My arms were cooked spaghetti. My legs were trees. My mouth was full of tongue and cotton.

And then he was gone and I could breathe and I tried to sit up but he was back and his face was at my knees and I barely registered that he had his hands on the outsides of my thighs until I felt the little sides of my panties start to roll down.

Panic gripped me and I got a rush unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, my legs flailing and connecting with his head while I scrambled away towards the top of the bed. "Stop," I croaked and then shook my head repeatedly, trying wake up from this horrible dream.

"Damn," he chuckled, rubbing a spot on his jaw. "I think that might actually leave a bruise."

I couldn't see much more than his outline and movements in the darkness, but he didn't sound mad. I mean, I couldn't know that until I saw his eyes…

"Come on," he teased and crawled up to settle in front of me. "I'll be gentle." His voice dropped a little. "Unless you don't want me to be…"

"Oh God," I gasped and pressed my palms into his chest. "I can't do this. I just…can't…" My head was too heavy and my eyes wouldn't focus. I was seconds from passing out.

"Do what?" He breathed seductively, lifting one of my legs in his hand and running his palm across my calf. His lips brushed softly over my knee and I gagged a little, the acid bile and harsh liquor swimming in my throat.

I couldn't do this.

I couldn't pretend that being near him didn't make me physically ill.

I couldn't let him touch me.

"I'm sorry," I managed to get out. "I don't like you like that…"

"You don't have to like me to do this," he said with a stupid grin.

"No," I sobbed, tears flooding my eyes and constricting my throat. "I do. I do need to like you…" My legs flailed again and I kicked him in the stomach where it caused him to fold in half so that I could tumble to the floor, my underwear wrapped around my ankle. I shook them off and tried to get a breath as I crawled towards the door and opened it to get into the hallway.

Oh, God. Liam. I'm so sorry…

I couldn't even look at him as I scrambled out into the hallway and away from him to the landing of the stairs and fight my way through the crowds of people pressed against each other in every available open space.

And it's not until I cleared the stairs that I realized that the party seems to be split wide open like the parting of the Red Sea. I scanned the room to see what the deal was and I could just barely keep myself up when my eyes landed on Nick in some sort of standoff.

With Cheyenne.

Oh, right. You guys don't know about… Cheyenne. I avoided her well didn't I? You guys have absolutely no clue who she is. I left her out for a reason. If you guys knew that Nick was in a "relationship" you would have judged him more. But Cheyenne was a year older. She went away to college and Nick made it pretty clear in the beginning of the year that they were over. Well… if they were even really together… they were non-exclusive. They were who the other went back to when they couldn't get laid by someone else. They were the "couple" that acted like a couple when they felt like it. No one knew if they were together or not because he fucked other girls and she fucked other guys. I guess they liked each other. Not enough to commit though…

They were kinda like Ricky and Adrian in the first season of The Secret Life of the American Teenager… you know what I mean?

I found out later that it was all Nick… Nick was why they were never serious… he just couldn't care for her the way he wanted.

The fact that for six weeks she never came up in conversation was all I needed to know that they were history. He was focused on me. And only me.

"The hell are you doing here?" Nick was seething.

"Is that any way to treat me?" She batted her eyes at him and I could tell that he was trying to hold back from saying something he might regret.

He waved a bottle of liquor above her head and snickered. "What exactly did you expect? That I'd be all excited to see you? It's been almost eight months, Cheyenne. You don't call for that entire time and you think I'm going to be EXCITED to see you?"

Someone is screaming.

Oh. It's Nick.

She rolled her eyes and reached up on her tip toes to pull the whiskey bottle from his hand. Without a thought, she kicked it back and took a mouthful, sputtering a little when she rights it again.

"Why are you being such a drama queen, Nicky? It's been a few weeks. I've been busy." All eyes were on them. It was quite a scene, maybe because everyone thought they were dunzo… I don't even think Nick knew she would come back interested in him.

"Busy? Really? Please, tell me what you've been up to." He gave her a shit eating grin. "Or who you've been under."

She slammed the bottle into his chest and barked out a laugh. "Please, like you've kept your dick in your pants. I'm sure you've been around while I've been gone… not like you didn't keep it in your pants when I was here."

He shook his head at her in disgust. "I'm your guy back home, huh? You think you come home every few weekends, over breaks and the summer and I'm gonna take you back? Why? Why would you even think that?"

Cheyenne made a face and flipped her hair nonchalantly. "Why wouldn't it be that way?"

"Because I'm not your toy," he yelled at her.

She snorted and pat his arm. "Of course you are, sweetie." She looked around the room, smiling with conceit now that the party had grown quiet. All I could hear was the blood rushing through my veins, drowning out all sound in my ears as she scans and takes inventory.

The room was kind of split between the two, people lined behind her and behind him to watch everything go down.

Her eyes traveled over the other party goers and she covered her mouth with a hand as she started laughing hysterically. One of her college friends was standing to her side and Cheyenne reached a hand out to grab onto that girl's arm. She whispered something into her friend's ear and they both stare at… me.

"Why is she here?" Cheyenne laughed hatefully.

Nick's head swiveled towards where her gaze was holding steady and I shrunk back a little, holding onto the wall as I tried to flee. I was wobbling and breathing really hard, my bare feet stumbling a bit as I moved backwards.

"I said: Why are you here, Chief's daughter?" Cheyenne called to me.

I blinked frantically and looked down at my feet.

Cheyenne chuckled and shakes her head. "Please tell me that you chose someone like Samantha to screw, Nick. She's at least pretty." She took a step forward and placed her hand on Nick's shirt. "I'd hate to think that you ended up giving in to someone like her just because you were lonely…"

"SHUT UP!" He screamed and threw the bottle on the floor where it burst into pieces around them. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized why her words hit him so hard.

Cheyenne's mouth settled into a line and she shook her head. "Oh, Nicky. If I had known you would be so desperate…"

He shoved her off of him and took a step back.

"Go to Hell, Cheyenne. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well, did you screw her?" Cheyenne's voice was thick with sarcasm.

His silence told her everything she needed to know. Well, not exactly. He couldn't say no… because everyone thought that we had.

"That is so pathetic! Did you dress her up and take her out to parties like a little Barbie doll? Oh, my god, Nick. What did your mom say when you brought her home?" Cheyenne's voice was getting louder and it was causing a short in my brain.

And I know the exact moment that Nick snapped.

"I never 'brought' her home! Because she bribed me to be her boyfriend. I got a speeding ticket, okay? Because I was pissed at you for all the shit you did to me. So I got shitfaced and then I got pulled over the next morning. The Chief's daughter got me out of my ticket, but said I had to let her hang out with me."

Cheyenne's mouth dropped open and she seemed genuinely shocked by the confession.

But he couldn't stop now. It was out in the open. And everyone knew.

"Yeah, she blackmailed me. And I never thought it would work. I never thought that she could just sit with me and suddenly people would talk to her…but they did. She used me to get to all of you!" He pointed around the room, his glare landing on Selena.

"And you all fell for it. I put her in some expensive clothes and drove her to school… took her to a few parties. And then all of you…so gullible…you don't know anything about her."

Did he know anything about me? Of course he did… he knew more than anyone… he just didn't remember…

My fingers curled and flexed before I gripped hold of my hair and clenched my jaw.

"And then she made up some story about me sleeping with Demi's cousin so that we could 'break up'. And you all believed it. All of it."

"Wait…" Demi stepped forward, looking between me and Nick in confusion.

I opened my mouth to speak but instead of getting words out, I hung my head and began to cry, sobbing hysterically now that my game had ended so publically. I rose my face to look at Liam and he turned, leaving the room…leaving me alone in this room full of people.

I got up quickly and fled from the house.

Embarrassed. Publically humiliated. Just like Nick in the cafeteria.

Q: Ever had something publically blow up in your face?

A/n: Not half bad for posting so quick, eh?

A lot of you want me to do more Nick's POV but I caaaaaan't! because this is Miley's retell!

But there is one more chapter I'm doing in Nick's POV because it's REALLY important :] it shall come later though!

Xoxo love you guys!