A Simple Love Story. Not!

With school starting a week after the boys left, everything seemed to get kicked into hyper drive. School was actually fun since this semester I got to work with kids since I was going for Children Education. And when I wasn't at school, I was working and that definantly moved the days and weeks along as well. I was so busy for the last month, that I didn't even notice that it was Valentines Day. But I did notice how....awkward, it was with Joe now.

So maybe it wasn't actually awkward, it was just more....strained. Like we really had to work at talking without getting weird silences over the phone and I couldn't help but blame myself. I mean, I still had yet to tell him that I loved him, and I wasn't really planning on telling him that over the phone so I kinda had to wait until I got to see him again. And who knew when that was going to be since I had school and work and he had to do a movie called, "Camp Rock" and him and his brothers were working on their new CD. It was hard enough trying to get him on the phone as it was. There would be days that we wouldn't talk to each other and when we did have the time, it would only be for 10 minutes and it would be pure silence for half of it.

I didn't really understand why it got silent between us in the first place. You would think that with everything going on, that we would have stuff to talk about, but nope. The flirting that we had going on with each other slowly diminished to barely any flirting whatsoever and the awkward silences that were never there to begin with, seemed to replace the flirting. It felt like he was hiding something from me. Then again, who am I to talk when I'm hiding the little fact that I love him?

Ally told me to tell him today, Valentines' Day, but come on?! How chessy and cliche is that? Valentines day, the cutest and most romanctic day of the year, and that's the day you tell someone you love them for the first time? No. I don't think so. Sorry, but I'm not a hopeless romantic like 90% of the female population is.

Ok, that's a lie. I am a hopeless romantic. But I'm a closet hopeless romantic. I don't expect all the cute little things, but if they were to happen, I wouldn't roll my eyes.

Like when Ally got a giant Teddy Bear in the mail today with a dozen roses and video tape sent to her from Nick, I didn't roll my eyes. I thought it was damn near adorable. And before you ask, no. They aren't dating. Their just....really close. And when Liz called to gush about how Kevin sent her chocolates, a dozen roses and a tape as well, I didn't roll my eyes either.

After watching Ally's tape, I assumed that Kevin's to Liz was the same, which consisted of the boys stating how much they missed them and how they wished that they could spend Valentines day with them.

And what did I get this year on Valentine's day?

A whole lot of nothing!

That's right. Nothing. Sure, the yearly Valentine from my friend Scott who has been 'in love' with me since the day he met me, but still, that's about it. No phone call or anything from Joe. Not that I really expected anything from him. We weren't dating. We were just best friends. That's it. Nothing less and nothing more.

Maybe I should call him!

I sat and pondered that thought for about 10 minutes with my phone in hand before I actually sucked it up and called him. Only, to my disappointment, have a tone make itself present at the end of every ring. Indicating that he was on the other line with someone else.

I let out a deep sigh, slightly feeling my heart breaking that he actually had time and yet it wasn't used to talk to me, before I turned up my music and decided to start putting my laundry away.

While rocking out to Linkin Parks "Meteora" CD, Nicklebacks, "Far Away" sang from my phone and I turned my music off.

It was Joe. The song was so appropriate for him once I figured out that I loved him. Did he know about it? No. He still thought his ring tone was when he sang to my phone, "Little Bunny Fru Fru."

"Hey, what's up Stephy?" he said to me when I answered and I cringed at the nickname. I hated it when people called me "Stephy". It made me feel like I was a 4 year old or something.

"Not much. How about you Joe?" I asked back, folding my shirt quickly before laying it on my bed and I took a seat next to it.

"Ugh...not much either." he groaned. "Just kinda bored right now. Stupid Valentine's Day...Mom and Dad are out having a 'romantic' dinner together so we're all stuck at the house." he explained and then his tone got a little bit excited as he said, "Oh! Which reminds me!"

Maybe he's gonna say it...or should I just say it...I'll just wait and then say it back.

"Did the girls get the tapes in the mail? The boys sent them out 3 days ago and they were hoping that the girls would get it today."

I let out my slightly excited breath from possibly hearing the words, "Happy Valentines Day" come out of his mouth, while simultaneously rolling my eyes.

Rule #1 with Joe : Never get your hopes up.

"Yeah, they got them and they love them. They thought it was really cute." I said as non-chalantly as possible while all he answered with was a "That's cool."

And then que the awkward and weird silence between us.

Just say it and get it over with!

After about 5 minutes of yelling at myself to just say it to him, I finally blurted it out.

"Happy Valentines Day Joe."

"Thanks. Happy Valentines Day to you too." he replied back with what sounded like maybe a small smile was on his face. "Although it would be better if I had a Valentine to spend it with." he finished and I could hear the eye rolling on his end through his voice, only making my anger start to bubble over.

"Yeah. Me too." I said in an aggravated tone. "But ya know, you're brothers have Valentines, they just can't see them. Did you even ask anyone to be your Valentine?"

"Well...not exactly. But I don't care. Valentines Day is too mushy for me anyways." he answered and I couldn't help but scoff slighly before saying, "Joe, you love Valentines Day. At least that's what you told me."

The only response I got from him was a slight laugh before it went back into our awkward silence that only ripped my heart apart even more.

I seriously was considering of just having the words, "I love you!" burst out of my mouth with no will to hold themselves back, and then hang up. But, that didn't seem like the best way to tell someone you love them.

"Well, I got to go. I have to call a friend back." he said after a few finutes of pure silence.

I rolled my eyes and head, feeling my heart break slightly from the fact that this was so difficult for us to even talk to each other and said a rather short, "Ok. Bye." to him.

"Is there something wrong?" he instantly asked after I answered him and my heart beat faster in my chest from my thoughts.

Here's your chance, lay it all out on the line and tell him. Well, maybe not tell him that I love him, but at least ask him what's going on with the two of us. Just say anything to make him stay on the phone!

I sucked in a deep breath to calm my nerves, getting ready to say it, and then, I lost it and said a very unconvincing "No."

"You're lying." he instantly said and I cringed from hearing him say that to me. "Talk to me." he quickly said and for some reason, through the begging, I could a slight perkiness in his voice from his "Talk to me." statement.

"Why-" I cut myself off and swallowed rather loudly. For some odd reason my mouth started to go dry on me. "Why would you think that I'm lying to you?"

"Because you said a flat out 'No' and you're lying when you say that. You always say 'no' and then give a reason." he stated in a matter of fact tone and I silently cursed at him for always having remember every little thing about me.

Sitting there for a few seconds and deliberating on how much longer before he either gets so fed up with me that he starts yelling, or he hangs up, I finally decided to give it a go.

"Well...it's just...well." I stammered, trying to find the best way to actually say this to him. I didnt' want him to feel like I was attacking him or anything.

"Just tell me Steph." he said in a slightly begging tone. It was probably killing him knowing that this was so hard for me to talk to him about and that alone made me feel more guilty than ever in my life.

I sighed and rolled my eyes from how lovesick I was for this boy before I finally said it.

"I don't know." I confessed and laid down onto my bed. "I just feel like things between us...are...different. And I know that we are both busy, but it never was this weird talking to each other. The conversation always flowed between us, and now it.s like pulling teeth for us to talk and when we do it's just...different." I finished, squeezing my eyes shut in fear that he would yell at me or hang up.

But I got neither of those responses. I actually got something worse that left me wondering what he was doing or thinking at the moment.

I got silence.

And then a little bit more silence.

And going onto 5 minutes of silence, I finally couldn't take it anymore and cleared my throat, hopefully getting him to say something. Even yelling would be good right now.

"I know." he finally stated, and he sounded like he was on the brink of tears before he said, "I've noticed it to. I don't know why, but I kinda get the feeling you're hiding something from me."

Damn

I started to laugh nervously, because that's what I do when I get into a sticky situation. I either laugh or smile at the most inappropriate times. At least it's better than crying over any little thing.

"That's funny." I stated, mocking fake amusement. "I thought you were hiding something from me too."

"How is that-" he paused and his pause caught my attention to how shaky his voice was while he was saying that. "How is that funny?" he finally finished and I could hear the nervousness clearly in his voice that time.

Cocking my head to the side, even though I knew he couldn't see me, and furrowing my eyebrows together, I simply asked, "What's up Joe?"

"Well, I uh-Well, I kinda have been hiding something from you." he stammereed after a couple seconds and my heart was back to beating furociously fast and my throat felt like it was closing up on me, but I still managed to choke out a, "What?"

"Well...I...I met this girl." he stated and my heart plummeted just from that sentance. "When we were shooting Camp Rock." he explained, my heart beating faster from how nervous I was to hear if he was already dating her, and yet it was breaking at the same time from hearing that he met someone. "And her and I really hit it off and I don't know why I was so nervous to tell you, but I kinda like her a little bit." he finished, chuckling lightly at the end of his statement.

I bit my lip and nodded my head once before a quiet, "Oh." and took in a deep breath. "What's her name?" I simply asked, my heart feeling like it was shattering and I could already feel my eyes start to tear up from how torn I was from hearing that he liked someone.

"Ummm...her name is Demi. She is actually the one I was supposed to call later on tonight." he explained and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I just wanted to get off the phone with him because I knew my tears were about to get present in my voice fairly quickly.

"Oh...well then don't let me stand in the way of you talking to her." I snapped back. It's not that I wanted to snap at him, but it hurt so bad to find out that I loved him and then a month later, to find out he kinda sorta likes another girl. It just hurt so bad.

"Steph?" he asked and just from hearing him say my name gave my heart a little jump. "Is there something wrong? You sound really upset or something." He said to me and I so badly wanted to tell him everything.

No wait, I didn't want to tell him. I wanted to yell at him. Have it register in his mind that I loved him and remind him that what? 2 months ago that we were giong to stay really close and see where that took us after he was done with tour? Right after we kissed!

"Nope. I'm good, but I got to go. My mom is calling me to help her with...ummm....to help her with some stuff." my voice wavering slightly and I quickly rubbed at my cheeks, a few tears running down them already and I knew I was running out of time until I broke down completely.

"Steph, you know that you can tell me anything, right? And if you don't like me talking to her, I won't." he said, a sympathetic tone taking to his voice and proving to me that no matter how hard I tried, he still knew something was wrong.

"No. Don't be ridiculous." I said, batting the air next to my head as if he coudl see me. "If you want to, talk to her. I'm not going to tell you who you can and can not talk to." I quickly pulled the phone away from my ear for a second and covered up the receiving end to let out a heart wrenching sob that was aching my chest from having to hold it in. "Hold on a sec." I managed to say to him quickly before I put him on mute and cried slightly, letting out all the pent up air in my chest that I had been trying to force itself down.

"Why would you stop talking to her?" I simply asked him back after I got some control over my emotions.

"Well, I'm not going to date a girl that my best friend doesn't like...well you and my brothers." he said as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Now he was thinking about dating this girl!?! I just found out that he was talking to someone and now he wants to date her?!

My heart couldn't take this attack anymore so I quickly said, "I really have to go Joe. My mom is calling me and now she is getting mad."

I heard him let out a dejected sigh before saying an, "Ok."

I quickly rubbed at my cheeks, getting ready to say goodbye to him but then he said in the softest tone, "And Steph?"

"Hmm?" I simply asked, afraid that if I opened my mouth I cry out instead of say something and then I would be forced to tell him what I was crying about.

"You can call me later if you want. We should really talk about the rest of this." he said over the phone with a rather stern voice and I quickly sucked it up to say something back to him.

"Oh...no. It's going to be late by the time I'm done helping her with stuff. I'll just talk to you some other time. You have fun talking to Demi and I'll talk to you whenever." I tried to say as casually as possible, but I knew that it sounded forced. Luckily, he either thought my mom was really getting mad or he could tell that I really didn't want to talk about it right now and said, "Fine. But when we talk again, we're gonna finish talking about this. Good night and again, Happy Valentines Day."

I scoffed slightly over my tears that were coming down from my eyes and leaving trails on face when I heard those words leave his mouth. My anger was starting to get the best of me and although it seemed like it was at Joe at the moment, it wasn't. It was at myself. I was so upset that I never told him right when I found out.

Yeah, it could've been one of those cheesy romance movies where one of them realizes that they love the other and when the other party asks them what's wrong they just blurt it out and then the person says, "I love you too." and they kiss and are together; happily ever after.
But who knew now if I would've had one of those because I didn't tell him right away.

"Yep. You too." I quickly said and then hung up, knowing that if he even thought twice about the way I hung up on him, he'd call me back, but I wasn't planning on answering.

I was planning on wallowing in my stupidity and self pity and cry myself to sleep on this oh so happy Valentine's day.

><><><

2 months had passed. And normally, nothing in April would be getting me excited. I mean, other than the fact that that's when Spring actutally is thrown into full affect but, it's Ally's brithday!

Joe did end up calling me back on Valentines day. Actually, he called me back 3 times that night. And he also called me a couple of times the next few days. But I did not want to talk to him. Not because I was mad at him or anything, I was mad at myself and afraid of what news I would hear of him and that girl that he was telling me about. And whenever he left me a voicemail crying or on the brink of tears, I would call him back and tell him that I couldn't talk long because I had to do homework. Or I had to help my mom with something around the house. I always had a reason to get off the phone with him and he definintely was getting irritated, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Well, actually scratch that, there was something I coudl've done. I could've told him what was going on with me, but come on. That would've been too easy. Hear the sarcasm?

I just couldnt' tell him, and when he slowly stopped calling and his brothers started calling me instead, I knew that I had pushed his boundaries. Joe apparently, was 'really freaking upset' with me. At least, that's what Nick said. Also, Joe and that girl, Demi, apparently were spotted out on lunch dates and stuff like that. But I didn't have to learn that from his brothers, I learned that just by watching TV or being at Target and walking past the magazines.

They were all over the cover and every story question pertaining to them was asking if they were dating or something like that.

But another thing I did learn from the boys, was that they were coming here for Ally's birthday. And Nick was also planning on asking Ally out after the party that mom and I were throwing for her since it was her 17th. He's going to take her to her favorite restuarant, Olive Garden, and when they order desert, he's having the guy who puts all the fancy chocolate sauce on the plate write, "Will you be my girlfriend?" in it around the desert. And right after that cute little moment that Nick told me, Kevin decided to bring me down from my high by telling me that Joe was bringing Demi along because he wanted to two of us to meet, despite the fact that I haven't been speaking to him for the last couple of weeks. Also, apparently, this Demi chick wanted to meet me because, 'Joe talks about you all the time to her'. At least, that's what Demi told Kevin, who told me. And as soon as I heard that little tidbit of information, I was dreading that Ally was turning 17.

I didn't want Joe and I to get into a fight because of our friendship problems at her birthday and I knew that if one little thing was said between us, that we would. Not because of me though, oh no. I can hold my frustration in when it comes to my sister and special events, but Joe....I knew Joe. Joe would blow a lid if anything happened. Especially now that he's already upset with me.

"Steph? Can you please go get the subs before people start to show up?" I heard my mother asking me while I straightened my hair in my bedroom.

She was currently downstairs, bickering with Ally about what decorations to put up, right after they bickered about what snacks to put out.

"Sure." I called down the stairs to her, throwing on a t-shirt and jeans instead of my skirt that I was going to wear for Ally's party. "Is it under your name or mine?" I asked, making my way down the stairs and grabbing the light jacket that was next to the door, followed by the car keys.

"Mine, and take the van so they will fit!" she yelled back at me before bickering with Ally about how something should get hung correctly.

The Jonas', to my luck, again, note the sarcasm, were coming a little earlier than everyone else. Nick wanted to hang out with Ally before she was going to have to play hostess to all her friends, and basically barely see him for the rest of the night until he took her out to dinner, while everyone else was going to help set up for the party.

A half hour later, I pulled into my driveway, subs laying horizontally across the middle seat to have them fit, and noticed the black SUV parked behind my car and my heart started beating rapidly, knowing that everyone arrived while I was gone.

I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves before I got out of the van and made my way into the house to ask my mom to help me bring the subs in and right as I opened the door and started my question, a little person came running at me and buried their head into my stomach while wrapping their arms around my thighs.

"Hey Frankie!" I yelled excitedly, not having to put on a fake smile for him and bent down to give him a hug.

"I missed you so much and I really want a piggy back ride! Joe throws me around too much when he does it. It makes me sick!" he said while rubbing his stomach to indicate that he probably threw up once or twice, causing me to laugh slightly before I patted my shoulder and told him to hop on. I lightly ran through the living room, going around in small circles until I reached the kitchen, both of us laughing like crazy, that is, until I spun around and came face to face with Joe, almost smacking him with Frankie's leg.

My heart was beating faster now from the intense stare he was giving me and I could feel myself melting just from his scent surrounding me after all this time.

How I missed that smell. And those eyes looking at me.

"So you must be the infamous Stephanie I have heard so much about!" a random voice said somewhat cheerfully and then a girl appeared from behind Joe.

"Why...umm...yeah." I stammered out, bending down to have Frankie get off my back. "Yep. that's me." I stated with a shrug of my shoulders while she stuck her hand out to shake with me.

"I'm Demi" she said with a huge smile. She was pretty and I tried my hardest to not let my fake smile falter slighlty upon looking at her long dark hair that went past her shoulders and how petite she was. Joe could probably wrap her into him no problem while the cuddled or something. NO! Don't think about that!

Another two voices boomed from somewhere and I had to make myself look away from Joe and this Demi girl, to see Nick and Kevin walking up behind me, arms stretched wide to swallow me up in them to give me a hug.

"We missed you so much!" Kevin said after letting go of me while Nick whispered in my ear, "Are you going to tell him?"

I shot back a quick "No!" and then pulled away, big chessy smile on my face to make it look like nothing was bothering me.

I caught a glare being sent my way from Nick while I turned my attention to my mother who was currently talking to Mr. and Mrs. Jonas. I quickly gave each of them a hug before asking my mom if she would help me with the subs and tell me where to put them.

I cringed when right after that question came out of my mouth, Nick yelled, "I'll help her!" and then made his way towards my side and I knew that wasn't a good thing. I knew he was going to want to talk about the fact that I'm not going to tell Joe how I felt and I really didn't want to be in a grumpy mood for my sister's birthday.

"Thanks Nick." My mother said sweetly to him while turning to look at me. "Just put them on the dining room table." she instructed and then went back to talking to Mr. and Mrs. Jonas while Ally started playing with Frankie and Kevin, Demi and Joe just stood around and munched on a few snacks.

I rolled my eyes slightly before turning to face and Nick and plastered a fake smile on my face and said, "Ok. Come on Nick." in the most sarcastic cheery voice I ever used in my life, only to get a small smirk from Nick as a response. He knew I was upset at the fact that he offered his assistance. And he also knew that I knew, what he wanted to talk about.

"So, why aren't you gonna tell him?" He asked me once we stepped out of the front door and made our way to the van.

I let out a giant hugg before saying, "Because." but of course, that wasn't good enough for Nick and he shot back with a "Because why?"

I shook my head slightly and grabbed one end of the sub and started to pull it out, Nick catching the end of it right after it came off the seat of the van and we started walking back into the house.

"Because he's with Demi." I snapped at him and then quieted my voice slightly as I took a in quick breath. "What's the point? and the other reason-" I fell silent as we walked in through the front door and put the sub on the dining room table, careful not to catch gazes with Joe, even though I could feel his stare burn into the back of my head.

"And the other reason is because I know him and I would probably fight about it. And I don't want that at my sister's party. There's going to be enough drama going on, and I don't need that right now and neither does she." I finished after we exited the house yet again and made our way to get the second sub. I again, grabbed one end while Nick caught the other end right after it fell off the seat and we then proceeded our way back into the house.

"Well, I think you should tell him-" he said and then cut himself off as we made our way into the house and put the second sub down on the table before going back out to grab the last one. "Because he deserves to know why you haven't talked to him for the last 2 months!" I finished when we were outside again.

I took a deep breath and let out it, trying to find a way to say this without it actually sounded like a lie.

"That's not the reason why I stopped talking to him." I said right as I grabbed the last sub and started pull, only to realize that that sentance so much more fake saying it out loud than it did in my head.

"Really?" Nick asked, feigning surprise. "It has nothing to do with the way you feel for him?" he questioned me, catching the end of the sub and when I didn't say anything the whole walk back to the house, he said, "That's what I thought!" right before we walked through the door.

I just scoffed slightly and rolled my eyes and head before placing the last sub on the table and quickly excused myself, saying that I had to finish getting ready for the party and that I'd be back down in 20 minutes.

As I changed out of my jeans and t-shirt into a nice dressy top and skirt, I couldn't help but have Nick's words replay in my head.

I hated the fact that he was so damn smart and intuitive for a 15 year old. I did stop talking to Joe because of the way I felt for him. And the fact that he was 'dating' Demi just made me want to talk to him less. I let out a disgruntled sigh before I quickly applied some eyelinger and lip gloss and headed downstairs, only to see Ally's usual group of friends already in the living room.

I decided, upon descending down the stairs, that even though I would be trapped with him in my house, I would do everything in my power to avoid him and keep myself busy by staying my mom and helping her with things when needed.

I had succeeded in my plan of 'avoiding Joe and Demi' for at least an hour thanks to the small conversations I had with Mrs. Jonas and my mother and helping out with snacks and cutting the subs up, and right when I was actually braving to go out of the kitchen into the living room and join the actual party with my sister, Demi walked into the kitchen and I realized that my mom and Denise had left it a few minutes prior, making the two of the only occupants.

"You are a hard person to track down, you know that?!" she asked me with a smile on her face. "And we're in a house!" she added at the end with a little bit of a laugh to point out how such a small area we were in, and yet I couldn't be found. At least I knew that my plan succeeded somewhat.

I let out a small fake laugh from how nervous I was about this conversation. I didn't know the girl, at all, I mean, sure, she looked and seemed nice, but it's the nice ones you have to watch out for. And we are in a kitchen, with knives and forks.

"Sorry. I just want my sister to have a great party that's all. Lot's of stuff to do!" I stated and then turned around to check to see if anything need to be moved, or filled to at least get some distance between us since she took up a spot of residence right next to me.

"Not that it's any of my business..." she trailed off and I stiffened. Whatever left her mouth after that statement couldn't be good. "But why have you been avoiding Joe and I all night?"

I busied myself by putzing with the salad and adding more tomatoes and cheese to it slowly while I thought of what to say.

"Well..." I started and actually looked over to see her standing there, attention fully on me and not even a hint of anger or jealousy in her eyes and I knew that she was only just wondering, not accusing. "It's complicated." I finished and then turned and walked over to the punch bowl that was right next to the doorway of the kitchen that led into the living room.

"Why?" she instantly asked, sounded confused and then added quickly in a sweet voice, "If you don't mind me asking."

I scooped some punch into a cup that was next to the punch bowl and carefully chose my next words.

"Well...Joe and I. We've been friends for so long so...and...it's just complicated." I finished while shaking my head and shrugging my shoulder, finishing pouring punch in my cup.

I heard an intake of breath from her and looked over to see a slow smirk come onto her face while she bumped her hip with mine and said, "You like him, don't you?"

My eyes widened from hearing that a complete stranger could read me so well and I yelled, "NO!" back and when her face showed even more amusement I proceeded to try and cover it up. "I mean, yes....but not in that way."

Wow...I couldn't lie even in my life depended on it.

Her smirk slowly turned into a smile and I made my way away from the punch while she moved to where I was to get some for herself.

"He likes you too, you know." she stated while she poured some into a cup and I sipped on mine, trying to have my mouth occupied so I wouldn't have to talk. I completely chocked though on my sip from hearing her say that, and I asked her back a very un-polite, "What?"

"I said he likes you." she stated yet again and then turned to look at me, a warm smile on her face. "He just doesn't want to say anything, not that he can because you stopped talking to him..." She trailed off and took a sip of her punch.

I looked at her confused for a few seconds before I set my cup down and put a hand on my hip, leaning all my weight onto that side of my body, and I asked, "Not to be mean or anything, but how do I know you're not just pulling my leg?"

She simply shrugged her shoulders at me from my statement while saying, "You don't." and then took another sip before finishing her statement. "But I do know that you two almost had something but decided not to push it because he was on tour. And I also know that..." she stopped what she was saying as a devilish smirk came onto her face, only making me want to know what she knew. "Well..." she started again. "I think you should just talk to Joe about all that." she finished and then took a drink, her eyes gazing over her cup and she nodded her head discreetly towards what she was looking at.

I could feel my anger start to rise with how myserious she was being and yet, I was also angry at myself and at Joe at the same time. I mean, he told another girl about us, he had no right to talk about our 'relationship' with someone else. But then agian, I pushed him away and how else was he supposed to talk about 'us' when I refused to talk to him in the first place.

But then again, she did just say that he liked me. And that's a good thing right? That means that nothing is going on with them, at least, nothing too serious if she knows that he likes me.

I shook my head, from everything going around and around and making me somewhat dizzy and looked at what she nodded her head towards.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw Joe laughing it up with a couple of Ally's friends, Nick standing next to Ally with his arm over her shoulders and her arms were wrapped around his waist while they laughed along with Ally's friends at whatever Joe was saying.

I managed to rip my eyes away from him and how adorable he looked, talking so adamantly with his hands about whatever he was talking about and turned to look at her.

"I don't want to get my hopes up, so I'm going to ask you this question." I stated and she nodded her head obediantly, looking away from Joe as well to look at me, serious face on now to let me know that she was going to answer truthfully. "How do you know he likes me? Did he tell you that or are you just assuming from knowing about our past?"

She chuckled slighlty when I picked up my punch and downed the rest of it like my life depended on it before saying, "No, he didn't tell me." and my heart plummeted slighlty from hearing her say that. "But he didn't need to."

That statement alone caught my curiousity and gave me slight hope again for the possibility of Joe liking me. "I could tell by the way he talks about you." she stated and then went to one of the bar stools that surrounded the island and motioned for me to come sit down next to her, which I did from wanting to hear what she had to say.

"He get's this look in his eye, which by the way, is totally cute, when he's talking about you. He also gets this little, I don't know, like...lovesick smile on his face whenever he talks about you as well. Like, he was telling me about something between you two one time at lunch, like OH! It was the first time he saw in the hospital."

"I looked like crap in the hospital." I quickly shot out there and she laughed slighlty before saying, "Well according to him you didn't. Apparently, him and Kevin went that night after the concert to check on you, but you were sleeping and when he was telling me about how were passed out, a small cute little smile came onto his face, like he could picture it like it was clear as day in his head, and then he got that look in his eye."

I couldn't help but feel myself blush and I didn't even know I got up from my seat next to her and walked toward the doorway and looked out of it to see him until Demi came up next to me and said, "He wanted me to meet you so bad because I guess, now don't take this the wrong way, but he said that I've been his new best friend since you stopped talking to him. But he really wanted me to meet you cuz he talks about you all the time." she said with a somewhat worried look on her face.

I snapped out of my trance from looking at Joe listening to what she just told me about him and talking about me, and I said, "So you two aren't dating?"

"What?" she asked back, leanign back slightly to show how appalled she was by the idea. "Heck No!" she stated after a few seconds. "First of all, I'm 15. Too much of an age difference, and illegal. And second, no way would I date him."

"Why not?" I snapped. "He's perfect. Any girl would be lucky to have him look her way!"

She smirked from how worked up I got about her saying that she would never date him before saying, "I could never date a guy who talks about another girl non-stop whenever we hang out. That's just a little too weird for my taste."

I couldn't help but blush like crazy from hearing her say that and turned to look back at Joe, my eyes never leaving his face, his smile, his eyes and hair. He was absolute perfection. And my heart longed for him, to talk to him, to hold him, to have him hold me since we didn't even actually say 'Hi' to each other yet.

"He's totally hung up on you." I heard her say, breaking my trance that he had unknowingly put me under yet again.

I bit my bottom lip, my smile seeming to be plastered on my face from hearing all these wonderful things she told me about him and said, "I think I'm going to go find out, from him, what you're talking about." and made my way out of the kitchen to meet up with him through the crowd of people.