Jonas Brothers Love Story... Joe (& Nick) 46

Chapter Forty-Six. Heart-To-Heart.

What-

Just-

-Happened?

Did I just think…

Did Nick just seem…

Did Joe notice??

Ok, you’re overreacting.

I am not.

Girl, you’re having an argument with yourself, get a life.

For your- er, my information, I have a life! I just didn’t expect it to involve so much of…Nick…

Deal with it.

…That’s the best advice I can give myself??

I’m alone, obviously. I mean, why else would I be having a conversation with myself instead of someone else? I’m sitting here on this bench outside the hospital, waiting for everyone to come back from… uhh… wherever they went…

…I really need to start paying attention and remembering these things…

Yeh, you think so?

…

So it’s a bit cold out here, but I’m dealing. I’m just being grateful I’m alone rather than encased inside a shell of a million paparazzi trying to snap photos of me every millisecond. This is actually quite nice.

Until I’m not alone anymore.

“Hey, Shannon,” Joe’s familiar deep voice calls from my right. I see him walking towards me with something in his hand. I just nod, but keep quiet until he gets to my side. “Here,” he says, “I brought you an orange.” I hold my hand out questionably as he drops it on my palm.

“…Why?” I ask.

“Uh, well, I don’t remember you ever finishing your other orange…” he attempts, scratching his scalp.

I giggle. “Neither do I, thanks.” I shift over and he takes a seat next to me. I actually am not very fond of oranges. What possessed me to choose that fruit back at the concert is beyond me. Feeling a bit awkward, I begin peeling the orange, slowly scraping off one layer at a time…

“So are you alright?” he asks out of the blue.

“Um, yeh,” I answer without stopping to look up at him, but he’s persistent.

“Are you sure? You seemed a little out of it while we were leaving Nick’s room, and you didn’t even respond when we asked you if you were feeling well enough to come to dinner with us…”

Dinner? That’s what I was missing out on? I peer down at my lonely orange and suddenly realize how hungry I am.

“Well, I am starving,” I admit, “But what are you doing here?” This time, I look at him.

“Well,” he sighs, “I’m not all that hungry, so I left. I wanted to make sure you were ok.” His eyes held mine, and mine held his. There was no movement between the two of us besides Joe’s lips speaking, and even they were getting more and more subtle, “I checked the hotel but you weren’t there, so I came back here to see…”

His face was getting closer to me, but his eyes didn’t widen. In fact, they thinned, closing just the slightest bit to see my face inching nearer to his. As soon as my vision began to blur in the middle, I stopped, both our mouths open just a little, ready for what was about to come next. The strange thing was, we could discern what was going to happen, and neither of us rejected the fact. We sat there, an inch or two away from each other, waiting for one of us to make a move. I closed my eyes.

“Joe, that was sweet of you,” I said, leaning away. As I began opening my eyes I could faintly catch Joe leaning after me but he soon righted himself again, not quite satisfied. “And… there is something bothering me.”

“What is it?” he asked, suddenly sounding incredibly serious.

“Just… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I could sing-”

“Well I didn’t tell you that Taylor and I were dating, so I guess we’re even,” Joe cut in, chuckling to himself a bit.

Ok then. That ends that conversation…

There was another awkward silence. I started peeling my orange again, this time a little more uneasily.

“Are you sure that’s all that’s bothering you?” Joe asked.

“I never said that was it,” I tersely answer.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

Within myself? Sure. With you? No way.

“Do you want to go back to dinner?” I redirect.

“Not really. I don’t mind sitting here with you.”

I can feel my face heat up. …What’s that supposed to mean?

“Oh…” I hear myself saying, but I’m not sure if I’m loud enough for him to hear. We’re silent for a moment, and to be safe, I continue, “Well… I mean with Ni-”

“Listen, I forgive you.”

…What?

“And I hope you can forgive me, too.”

I look up at him confused. “Forgive me? Forgive you? For what?”

“…For everything,” he shrugs, but not too nonchalantly. “There’s just so much that has happened between us since we met, and I just want our friendship to be solid, you know?” He gazed over at me. “I like you, Shannon. Enough to be friends, so… I just wanna start over.”

I’m staring almost blankly at him. He wants to start over? He wants to be forgiven for everything that’s happened between us?

This definitely calls for more than just friendship.

“You know what,” I begin, smirking. “I have a better idea.”

“Oh, do you?”

“Yes. How about you become my ‘brother’?” I smile.

“…Your brother?”

“Yeh, and I’ll be your little sister. It’s something I do with my closest friends. When we reach a certain point I dub them part of my family. It’s kind of like a…code… I guess…”

He’s quite for a while, just staring at me with the funniest expression. Then he finally says, “Alright. I don’t know if that really made any sense, but sure, I’ll be your older brother.” Then he smiles.

And I just melt.

Joe’s my brother.

Joe’s my brother!

It’s been at least three months and we’re already this close! I can’t believe it!

“Official hug!” I cry, throw my orange down, and throw myself into the biggest hug I’ve ever gotten from him. When Joe attempts to pull away though, I don’t let go.

Something has just hit me.

“Shannon, are you ok?” he asks, his voice muffled by our clothes.

“…Just cold,” I chuckle and I feel him smile, accepting it.

If only I was telling the truth.

Joe’s now ‘part of my “family of friends”’, which technically means (well, what I promised myself) I won’t like like him.

But I’m already at that stage.

Crap, what am I going to do?

~~~

We finally meet up with everyone again at our hotel. We’re all hanging around the TV in one room just chatting and laughing at strange commercials. The entire time, I’m staring at Kevin.

‘Wat’s up?’ he mouths. I move away from everyone and motion for him to follow. When he walks through the conjoining door into the next room, I tell him, “Kevin, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Alright, what is it?” he asks, standing in front of me.

I’m silent.

“…Does it have to do with Joe?”

My neck snaps up, and I feel heat rise in my cheeks.

“H-how did you know?” I question with a shaky voice. He laughs.

“Well you did spend the last hour or so with him.”

“Oh.”

“So what do you need to talk about?” He’s so considerate. I love Kevin.

“A lot. There’s so much that’s been going on, and Joe wanted to start over and… no, I don’t know, we just forgave each other and he became my ‘brother’ so I can’t like him and-”

“Woah! Slow down!” Kevin grabbed my shoulders and sat me on the bed next to him. “Now, calm down and tell me slowly what’s going on.”

I take a deep breath.

“Joe and I forgave each other for everything that’s ever happened between us in the past, because he said he wanted to be friends. Well, I added onto that by making us as close as ‘brother and sister’. But, you see, I… uhm…” I glance over at the door to make sure no one is there listening. I hear everyone crack up at something Morgan probably said about something somebody said on a commercial. “I really kinda like Joe… so it makes it… well, awkward I guess… just because when I become so close with someone as to call them part of my family, it means to myself that I won’t like them and they won’t like me… as in more than friends. You see?” Kevin nodded, the look on his face listening intently and drinking in every word that was coming from my mouth. “But… the worst part is-”

“KEVIN! SHANNON!”

“YOU LOSERS GET IN HERE!”

Maria and Maura were standing at the open doorway, yelling at us.

“This is hilarious!”

“Sorry girls,” Kevin covered, “We just needed to talk, and we’ll be right in.”

“Well HURRY!”

“YEH! You’re missing out!”

And they were gone just as quickly as they had appeared. Out the corner of my eye I saw Kevin face me. I was staring at the ground.

“Now what was it you were going to say?” he asked.

I’m silent.

“Shannon?”

…Should I tell him? Well, why wouldn’t I? I can trust Kevin right? Of course, why wouldn’t I trust Kevin? He’s like the adult here. But what if he’s freaked out about how Nick said he felt about me? Or what if I’m just being stupid? What if Nick really does feel that way about me… what if I feel that way about him? How will Kevin be able to deal with that?!

“…Shannon? Are you-”

“I’m… fine.”

“You were just going to tell me the-”

“No, I think I’ve figured it out. Thanks for talking with me.” I stand giving him a half-hearted smile. He stands reluctantly.

“Um, ok then, that’s great!” he says and we walk back into the other room.

When I see Joe I feel my heart crack.

~~~

Before the boys leave, I find out that the four of us are all returning home tomorrow, so we’ll hopefully see them around soon. And of course, Joe mentions our whole ‘dating story’ for the press, which leaves me totally caught in my own web of overflowing problems.

I just can’t seem to sort everything out. I always get so worked up about things.

Maybe this time, I’m with the right people.

Maybe this time I can sort things out.

Maybe this time, things will all come together.

…Fat chance.


MESSAGE & RAAAATTTTTEEEEEEEEE
Wow I believe in myself.
So there were unusually a lot of breaks in this chapter. I just want to skip ahead so badly! But we all know I can't. There are still some things I need to push out of the way.
MESSAGE & RAAAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEEEE
Sorry if this sucked, I just totally spit it out telling myself I needed to write a chapter. The next one is nearly finished though! Happy day! 8D
MESSAGE & RAAAAAATTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Tell me what you think is gonna happen! This has been a pleasure to write so far, but Ialways need motivation!
Gah. I MUST watch JB tonight or I will die. Pfffftttsssshhhh...
...I don't know what that was.