"Who is that?" I asked, leaning over to take my cell phone from Annette, Anne to her friends.

"I don't know…hello? Is someone there?" She shrugged and handed me the phone.

"Fuck." I turned the phone off, hanging up on my younger brother.

"Who was it?" She asked.

"Nick." I probably shouldn't have told her that…I should have lied. I should have said it was someone else…anyone else.

"What'd you hang up on him for?" Anne asked, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. "I thought you and Nick were tight."

"We are…" I sighed. I didn't want to tell her the real reason why I was hanging up on him. That I was skipping his 18th birthday party. That I was scared to see him become a man. "I'm just a little sick of him right now." Wow, great lie Kevin.

"Uh huh…" Anne looked skeptically at me. I must have looked guilty because a second later she pieced things together. "Paul Kevin Jonas the SECOND tell me why the hell you are here with me right now instead of with Nick?" I hated being called by my full name. Paul…the second…so ugly it made me shudder.

"Uh…why would I be with him?" Wow, that was even lamer than the last lame thing you said.

"Because Kevin, he's 18 today." She folded her arms across her chest and glared at me. I deserved that glare, but I wasn't going to that party. I didn't want to see thousands of girls swarming around Nick now that he was "legal" as it were. He wouldn't give it up to any of them, I knew that, but at your 18th birthday party you're bound to go a little wild and I didn't want to be there to see it.

"So? He probably didn't even notice I wasn't there."

"He called you." Fuck. She was right. He was gonna be pissed at me for missing this, but there was no way I could go.

"He probably just wanted me to run out for more ice or some lame thing like that." I shrugged it off. That was all Nick ever seemed to want anymore. A quick word in the hallway or something about a new song was it and other then that it was just straight forwards band stuff. Socially he'd been avoiding me like the bubonic plague.

"You and I both know you're being a dick about this. He's your little brother. If I remember correctly he was there when you turned 22 last year and I'm sure he'll be around when you hit 23 in a couple of months."

"Only because mom and dad made him last year." I knew that wasn't true, but I didn't want to be in trouble with Anne and I REALLY didn't want her to make me go to that party.

"Yeah…sure." She sighed. "Look, if you're gonna stand up your little brother on his 18th birthday, you're doing it alone. I'll see you when you've decided to pull your head from your ass. Get out of my house." She stood up from the couch and attempted to pull me from it as well. I let her. There was no way she was going to let me stay for the rest of the movie now, not a chance. I knew she would use force…and her doorknob to get me out of the house if necessary.

"Night," I said as she pushed me out the door.

"Go be a good brother and call me when you've come too." She slammed the door in my face. She wasn't really angry, she just didn't want me to be putting her above my family. I understood her logic, but she didn't have the full story…not the story that she needed at any rate. I sighed as I walked to my car and got in. I could still make it to Nick's party, but I didn't want to. Again, too many girls with one big excuse to drip all over him. He was going to be angry, just like he was two years ago when I "spaced" on his sweet sixteen. I didn't space, it was the same deal, too many people all singing to his tune. It killed me every time I saw him in a setting like that. He could have anyone he wanted…and I could too, almost. I didn't want any of the "sexy" fangirls, hell, I didn't even want Anne even though everyone thought we would be perfect together. No, whom I wanted I couldn't have and that's what was keeping me away from that party tonight. I was in love with Nick. I had been for four years and it wasn't going to leave any time soon.