A Simple Love Story. Not!

After the movie was finished, we were stuck with a sleeping Duckie and Liz, who was trapping Kevin on the loveseat who was slowly making his way out from behind her and while saying that we should let them sleep, so we went into the kitchen to talk about the movie.

"So, did you guys like it or not?" I couldn't help but ask as we all took seats around our kitchen island.

Any movie with Mark Wahlberg made me all excited.

After hearing a "Yeah", "Its was awesome!" and a "It was pretty good." we all fell silent until Joe started laughing to himself, making us all look at him like he was crazy before Kevin finally asked him what was so funny.

"Their really weird girls." Joe exclaimed while pointing at Ally and I who's mouths were hanging open after his statement.

"Joe, you can't just call a girl weird without having a reason." Kevin scolded under his breath while Ally asked what he meant by that.

"Well..." he trailed off. "Not a lot of girls like watching action movies. They either want to watch some romance stuff or a comedy when they are going to watch a movie with a guy that they like."

"Who said we liked you?" I asked back and it was almost inbearable to keep myself straight faced from watching Joe's facial reactions to my words.

"Well...I....you....." Joe stuttered out, making it even harder for me to hold my laughter in.

"Oh my gosh he's speechless for once!" Kevin said with a smile on his face, only to cause Joe to yell at "Shut up!" back at him.

Nick, Ally and I just laughed until finally Joe rolled his eyes and let out a huff while saying, "You know what I mean."

"No, actually. I don't. Enlighten us please!" I said back to him while leaning towards him, my head resting in my hand that was resting on the island.

This was going to be good.

After a few seconds of Joe opening and closing his mouth like a fish, he finally said what was on his mind.

"Ok, maybe I shouldn't have said those words but still. Most girls dont like watching action movies when they're with guys. They want to watch a romance or something cuz they want whatever that happens to the girl in the movie to happen to them."

"Wow, that was really smart Joe!" I said back to him with a sarcastic tone to it, even though it did make a lot of sense and was probably true for about 90% of the female population, even though a girl will never admit it.

I got up from my seat at the island to dump the rest of my soda out when I noticed him mock glaring at me and I couldn't let out a small laugh while giving him a quick hug around the shoulders while saying, "I'm just kidding, that really does make sense." earning a small smile from him and a quick squeeze before I let go.

"So!" Joe exclaimed once it fell silent between us again and I couldn't help but ask now after witnessing how cute the two were during the movie.

"Kevin, what's the deal with you and Liz? Are you guys secretly dating all of a sudden or what?"

That seemed to the most common thought on everyone's mind since they all turned their heads towards Kevin to see what the heck his answer was going to be.

"I really like her but nothing as of right now. It would just be too hard with us on tour and I don't want her to worry about me on the road all the time. So, maybe in the future there may be something there but as of right now, nothing. Just sparks." He said with a cute little smile on his face.

"Aww. Thats so cute!" Ally cooed while putting her hands over her smile from how adorable Kevin's answer was, only causing him to blush a deep crimson red while Joe said, "Yes, Kev, thats precious." while grabbing his chest by his heart.

I slapped him playfully in the arm while telling him to shut up and that he only wishes he had a girl to care about and it shocked everyone, I think his brothers the most when Joe shot back with, "Who says I don't?!"

Was that a wink he just gave me?

I quickly shook my head to get rid of my absurd thoughts that the guy that I had been having a small crush on the last 2 months was actually Joe Jonas, and said, "I don't know. You just seem like the kind of guy who likes to be single thats all."

"Well, I do, but sometimes I can be sentimental and want-" he said but was cut off by Nick and Kevin laughing. Hard!

"Yeah right!" the two of them said in between their fits of laughter.

"I do!" Joe said defensively. "If I wanted, I could have a girl and really care about her like you guys!" Joe said while pointing his finger back and forth between Nick and Kevin.

"Yeah, ok!" Nick said in an unbelieving tone.

"Whatever guys. I'll show you. I already have a girl in mind."

Once he said that, Nick and Kevin stopped laughing almost instantly and looked at him.

"Seriously?" Nick questioned with wide eyes.

"Yeah, I do. She's really cool. I think I'm starting to really like her." He reported back to them and I took that as my cue to lighten this break through of a moment for Joe.

"Aww, that's precious!" I said while imitating his grabbing of his heart from when Kevin was talking about Liz.

Joe just rolled his eyes and scoffed a whatever under his breath when my phone went off, indicating I had a new text message.

I opened my phone while the boys continued to talk about Joe's mystery woman and read my text from my friend Chad.

What's up Steffers?

I hated the nickname, but when the kid that you've been friends with since you were 10 keeps calling you that despite how much you hated it, its pretty much pointless to waste the breath to tell him to stop calling me that.

Not much, just hanging out with my sister and some friends right now. Why? Whats up?

I put my phone down on the island, getting ready to clean up the mess we made in the living room, only to have Joe ask me what I was doing.

"I'm cleaning up silly goose." I stated to him with a smile before walking into the living room quietly, not to wake up Liz or Duckie while Joe asked me if I needed any help.

"Wow Steph. You must be working some type of magic on Joe because Joe doesn't clean." Kevin stated with a laugh while Nick nodded his head to agree with his statement.

I just chuckled and shook my head while handing a bowl of half eaten popcorn to Joe when he asked me who text me.

"Oh, it was just my friend Chad." I said back to him, only to hear my phone going off from teh kitchen again.

Just wanted to see what you were doing tonight cuz the guys wanted to do something. Theres gonna be a fiesta at Joes tonight. Did you want to come?

Nah. My friends are only in town for one more night and I really wanted to hang out with them. Unless they want to go then sure, we'll come by for a little bit.

Right as I turned around after hitting send, Joe practically screamed out a YEAH, making everyone jump from his randomness.

"Yeah what?" Nick asked while eyeing Joe up carefully.

"I want to go to that party that your friend is telling you about. Can we go? Please, please please?!"

"You really want to go to this party tonight?" I asked him skeptically, a little taken back at how enthusiastic he was about it.

"Yeah, it sounds like fun. I want to be a normal teenager for another night. And if that's what normal teenagers do, then I want to do it!" He exclaimed.

I chuckled a little at his answer when I noticed a sleepy looking Liz with Kevin arm wrapped around her shoulders.

She must have woken up when Joe screamed Yeah!

"Joe Wellingtons party?" she simply asked, only receiving a dumfounded head nod from me for how she knew who's party I was talking about.

"I so want to go! I haven't seen his older sister Jill in forever!!!" she said with a big smile on her face. "Her and I go way back. Ever since we graduated 2 years ago, we lost touch though." She said turning to Kevin who had a questioning face.

"What about you guys?" I asked, turning towards Duckie, Ally and Nick.

"Ummm. I don't think so. I would feel so out of place being there. They're all yours and Liz's friends. We'll find something fun to do tonight. Unless you want to go." Ally said while turning to Nick with the last sentence.

"No, I don't really want to go. I'd rather just do something relaxing with you two, if you wanted." He said while smiling shyly at Ally.

"I think I'm going to go home and do some homework cuz I have a huge project due on Monday that I didnt even start yet." Duckie stated with a yawn and stretch before making her way towards the door.

Yeah, they want to come. We're gonna stop by for a little bit depending on whos all there. What time does it start?

About 2 minutes later, after deciding that I was taking Duckie home since Liz wanted to stay longer, my phone went off again stating that all the normal crew would be there and that it starts around 9 or so.

Ok. Do you know if He is going to be there?

"Whos he?" Joe asked softly from behind me and I quickly jumped from being scared to see his questioning face.

"Umm, I'll talk to you about it later. I'm gonna take Duckie home real quick. Did any of you want to come with or no?" I asked while walking towards the door to put your shoes and jacket on since she was already waiting for me ready to go.

My phone went off again once I put my jacket on and I quickly read through the text, causing a big lump in my throat to make itself permanant while I felt my stomach get a little queasy.

Yeah, I think he will be there and I think he's bringing a girl with him too. But don't let that stop you from coming!!! If anything happens, you know I'll be right there! I'm going to go over there around 9:30 or so, so come around then if you want.

I smiled slightly from how protective Chad had gotten over me after the incident with him.[p/u] and although it may seem slightly pathetic and completely wrong, I was actually a little bit glad that Joe wanted to go so bad. At least I would be bringing a guy with me to show him up.

"I'll come!" Joe's voice sounded from the kitchen, bringing me out of my thoughts but unfortunatly I must've not been all the way back to normal since he lowered his voice and leaned towards me a little, covering it up as trying to get his shoe on, and asked me what was wrong. I just have a him a look, indicating that I didn't really want to talk about it at the moment and he simply nodded his head while sending me an over the top smile while Duckie went and gave goodbye hugs to everyone.

After 10 minutes, since Duckie didn't live to far away, of talking about movies and random restuarants we arrived at her house.

"Bye Duckie!" I said to her, reaching back to give her a quick hug while Joe got out of the car from the back seat to get in the front. Being the gentleman that he was, he let her sit in front to her house.

She said a quick bye before exiting the car while Joe followed her up to her house.

I couldn't help but think about him showing up with a girl on his arm tonight and before I knew it, Joe was back in the car, slamming my passenger side door shut on my dumpy little cavalier.

"What are you doing?!?! You just ran that stoplight!" he screamed at me, bringing me out of my thoughts of seeing him tonight at the party. I didn't even know I was driving until I looked over at him and asked him what he was talking about.

"You just ran that stoplight back there!" he said in a little bit quieter tone, his panic clearly going away.

"Oh My Gosh!!" I screamed while pulling over to the side of the road.

Talk about delayed reaction!

"I'm so sorry, I guess I just zoned out." I said while looking down at my lap, letting my thumbs encircle themselves in a small circular pattern and that's when Joe leaned over and grabbed the keys from the ignition and put them next to him in his seat.

"Steph, whats wrong with you? Does 'He' have something to do with it?" he asked as he used air quotes around the 'He' part.

My throat cracked slightly from saying yes, still looking down at my lap and I could feel the tears starting to well up in my eyes from how hurt I was feeling. I closed them, just to try and prevent them from being seen by Joe, but one must've leaked out when his hand lightly touched my cheek and in a quick swoop it was gone.

I opned my eyes again, but still refused to look up at him when he asked, "Is He" he must have used his fingers again because his hand vanished for a few seconds before coming back down on his seat. "your ex? That Adam guy?"

"Yeah, and it's Andy."

"Oh, well why are you so sad? What happened between you guys anyway? You never really told me fully."

I sat there for a few seconds, more tears falling from my eyes but this time I didn't give him the chance to wipe them away. I quickly wiped them away ferociously before looking back up at him, but seeing the clear saddness in his eyes, I looked back down at my lap before speaking.

"We dated for about 2 and half years. We started dating our sophomore year of high school all the way up to about halfway through summer before our 1st semester of college." I said as a few more tears fell, me wiping them away again hoping Joe wouldn't see.

This is the second time I've cried in front of him and it's barely been a day!

It's not that I didn't feel comfortable crying in front of him, I just didn't want him to see me so broken since to him I've always been laughing and carefree and always having fun. Not this crying and sad little girl.

"He was my first love needless to say and then things just started going bad between us. He always talked about how we were going to have 2 kids and live in a log cabin by a lake and he pretty much had everything figured out for us and that kinda scared me a little bit. I don't want my whole life planned out for me. I want to be able to have breathing room and do spontaneous stuff. But anyways, him and I started fighting almost everyday about really dumb stuff and then soon neither of us could take it anymore and out of anger he said we were done and walked out. Ever since then I haven't talked to him. I don't know, we both wanted it to end, but at the same time we didn't. I still don't know what to make of it. But I guess he's bringing a girl to the party tonight." I said, and that's when I really lost it.

I didn't care that Joe saw me crying my heart out at the moment. It hurt so bad to still be in love with a guy who clearly didn't care about me at all to end something that long and not have anything to say to me after it was already finished. He had been apart of me and my family for 2 and a half years and then to not have it anymore, killed. It felt like a part of me was missing.

"How long has it been since that happened?" Joe asked really quietly, barely just above a whisper.

"I don't know. Going on about 3 months I think. You probably think I'm pathetic and stuff but I can't help it. I was so emotionally attached to him for too long and then have it taken away from you just like that..." I said as I snapped my fingers. "It's hard to get closure."

Joe leaned over and wrapped me up into a giant bear hug and started stroking my back and kept making shhsshh-ing noises and saying everything will be ok.

I couldn't help but smile at his effort to calm me down and for the first time that Andy and I had broken up, I was truely content in that moment having Joe wrapping me up in his arms.

After a few more minutes after my break down, I managed to gain my composure and continue on the way back to my house, Joe's hand over mine the whole time while he rubbed his thumb over my hand to give me that little bit of comfort that I needed.

And with that small little effort, I felt myself trust him slightly again.

Any other guy would have just left it all back there and turned the other way, or maybe even laughed, but he didn't.

He even offered to not go to the party so that way I wouldnt have to see Andy, but I insisted that the only way to get over something was to confront it, and plus, I knew how bad Joe really wanted to go.

><

"I'm gonna go take a nap." I stated after playing a few rounds of Trivial Pursuit with Nick, Ally, Kevin and Liz.

I was completly beat from the drive home and the crying session I had with Joe. And now that I came around to think about it, I never even said thank you to him for helping me out.

"Hey Joe, can I talk to you for a second."

"Moutain Lions!" he stated, pumped his fist into the air when Liz sighed and told him he was right before following after me up the stairs to my room.

"What's up Steph?" he asked as he looked at me for a few seconds, smiled and then walked past me and into my room.

"I just wanted to say thank you for today. You have no idea how nice that was of you for just being there for me when I needed a shoulder to cry on. And what the heck are you doing?" I asked him, my voice changing completely from soft and innocent to laughing and questioning.

"No problem Steph. That's what best friends are for right?" he asked as he looked away from his current distraction, my pants, and sent me a smile before looking back at my closet before finishing his statement. "I'm picking out something hot for you to wear tonight to make Andy jealous and feel like an idiot that he threw away what he had with you." he stated and I couldn't help but smile at his attempt to make me feel better.

It was defiantly clear that he was trying to help me out and I couldn't deny it, I was really starting to trust him again.

"Thank you Joe. That's really sweet. But the party doesn't start for a little bit. Actually for like 4 more hours." I said while glancing at my alarm clock and then laughing a small bit before a sudden yawn over took my laughing and Joe laughed slightly.

"Take a nap, and I'll go downstairs and hang out and watch TV with everyone." Joe said, as he was making his way towards the door.

"Are you kidding?! They're going to be playing that game. You won't be able to watch TV. Just watch it in my room. I can sleep with the TV on. It's no big deal." I said to him while putting the clothes the clothes that he had put on my bed that consisted of a hunter green cami, with a long sleeve dark red shirt and a pair of very snug jeans on my chair that was by my computer desk before getting into bed and pulling the covers over me.

He said a quick and quiet thanks before taking a seat on the ground while I rolled onto my side and shut my eyes to take a nap, only to have Joe nudging me awake within 5 minutes.

"What time did you want to wake up so you can start getting ready for the party?"

"It's not that big of a deal really. It's just a party. You probably won't like it anyways. Lots of people you dont know and sorry to say, but probably not a lot of single girls and most likely alcohol." I said back to him, trying to get comfy again in my bed, only to have him nudge me again to get my attention.

"Well, I still want to go. I just want to meet all of your friends and be a normal kid again. It's so much fun!" he said with a little smile. "But, what time do you want to get up?"

"Um...let's just say around 8:30-ish?" I asked in a questioning tone while doing the math in my head for how long it would take me to get ready.

After he set the alarm on his phone he got off my bed and went back down to the ground, only causing me to look at him for a few minutes while watching him watch TV.

"Ya know, if you get uncomfortable down there, you can sit on my bed. It's a queen." and then with that I rolled over onto my side, my back facing him and shut my eyes to start my napping process all over again.

I didn't have to tell him twice because in a matter of 2 seconds the bed dipped down, indicating that extra weight was on it and just having him next to me brought a small smile to my face.

I felt him start to rub my back while shifting himself on my bed, making me pass out faster than I thought I would. I wide smile set on my face from his soothing back rubbing.