November 2007

Their tour started later that year. I remember Nick being delighted that he would get to be with Miley 24/7, and I remember Kevin and Joe being happy that their little brother was happy. I was glad that they were moving on from filming to what they loved doing most – music. Of course I was going to miss spending time with the three boys I had grown closest to over such a short space of time, but I knew that we would still stay in touch.

I went to their show in Los Angeles, and I stood backstage with the boys' parents, watching them on stage together. Looking back, I probably should have realised that Nick's insistence that their relationship stay a secret would be their downfall, but I didn't think about it. All I thought about was how happy they were together when they were alone, and how I genuinely believed that they would stay together forever. At the time, how was I supposed to know that they would fall apart so suddenly?

The boys came off stage, and Nick went directly to his dressing room. Joe stood beside me and sighed.

"What's the matter with Nick?" I asked.

"He had a fight with Miley on her bus earlier. They aren't speaking and now he's in a bad mood yet again."

I looked at the image of Miley on the television screen. She was performing energetically and engaging with her fans, but I could see in her eyes that she was worrying about something, and I knew that it was Nick. It wasn't exactly difficult to work it out, after all - for someone as bright-eyed and cheerful as Miley, anyone could work out when something was wrong.

The concert ended and she came off stage. She walked straight past everybody else and walked straight to Nick's dressing room. Joe quickly dashed after her, calling for her to stop and give Nick some space to think, but she just thumped on the door and walked right through without waiting for Nick to tell her to come in.

"How dare you!" I heard her yell.

"What are you talking about now, Miley?"

"How dare you act like this is my fault! You started this, then you tell me that it's all my fault and ignore me the second that we get on stage together! You're supposed to be supportive, Nick. You aren't meant to just blank me the second things stop going your way!"

We all went silent as they argued in the dressing room. Their voices were raised and echoed down the hallway. There was the odd injection from Joe, trying to get them both to calm down and talk rationally. Perhaps it was because they're both such passionate people, but they ignored him and continued to scream at each other. Neither ever wanted to admit that they were wrong (hell, they're still that way), and they both take their beliefs so seriously that they will argue until they're blue in the face just to defend them.

It was tense among us all as we stood quietly, waiting for the screaming match to finish We all listened as doors slammed and tears were shed, waiting for the situation to cool down before anyone made a move to comfort either one.

"Don't worry about them," his mother said, noticing the look on my face. "They've been like this a lot lately. They'll work through it."

"They fight like this a lot?" I asked, shocked that the perfect couple had been torn to pieces in such a short space of time.

She shrugged. "It's what they do. We've learned to ignore it now. They'll be back to normal by breakfast tomorrow morning. Just you wait, honey."

I listened to her, because that's what I wanted to believe. They had been this power couple for me - this epic lighthouse that dictated exactly how a perfect teen romance should be. I looked at them to show me that not all relationships turned sour; that things could work out for couples as young as they were. At the age we all were, they were so in love that it gave me hope. I wanted to have a relationship exactly like theirs. I wanted somebody to look at me the way Nick looked at Miley. I wanted someone to make me laugh and smile the way he did Miley. I wanted someone to cherish me like Nick cherished Miley, and put me on this enormous pedestal the way he did Miley. To me, they really were like Prince Charming and Cinderella. Even though they both had their flaws and they fought like cats and dogs, they loved each other infinitely and unconditionally. Their relationship was, as cheesy as it sounded, like a firework and a fuse. Without her, he didn't reach his full potential, but when she was around, he exploded and became this magnificent shower of light and colour.

I should have seen the signs at the time. I should have warned them that his fear of going public was tearing them apart. I should have told him that they couldn't keep going the way they were going without crashing and burning. I should have gotten closer to her then and told her that things weren't turning out the way they should have for two people as in love as Nick and Miley.

There were late night phonecalls from Joe after they moved on from Los Angeles, asking for advice on how to help a heartbroken Nick after yet another fight with Miley. Joe filled me in on everything that was happening with them. Their arguments were becoming more frequent and more fiery, and they stopped speaking for longer periods of time. Their passionate personalities were clashing, and it was tearing them apart. Neither was willing to step down and admit that they were wrong, mainly because they were both too stubborn to look at the other person's viewpoint and accept that their opinion wasn't the only one that was right in the situation.

The following month, their final fight came, knocking the relationship with a fatal blow, and everything changed.