A Simple Love Story. Not!

Upon reaching the last step of the stairs, Joe laughing at my will to kiss his ass, we noticed that almost all of the party guests were gone. The only ones left were my sister’s closest group of friends, which consisted of Sarah, Becky and Duckie, and of course the Jonas’. Frankie was laying on the loveseat, completely passed out, while Nick sat on the couch next to Kevin and Liz, his right leg bouncing uncontrollably, while Demi was trying to get him to calm down.

He was nervous. It was so cute.

Right as I was about to go walk over to him to help calm him down, Mrs. Jonas made her way towards the sleeping Frankie and picked him up.

“Are you guys leaving already?” I asked in a somewhat whiny voice. Sure, I didn’t want her to go, she was awesome, and so was little Frankie, who was currently curled up into his mothers side as she held him, but that also meant that Joe would have to leave, and I really didn’t want him to go. We just fixed things, I wanted to have a little more time with him now that we could actually be our goofy and stupid selves together. Who knew how long they were going to be here in town.

She nodded her head and turned away from Frankie’s ear and whispered to me, “I’m afraid so. But don’t worry, we’ll see you a little bit tomorrow.”

I smiled graciously at her and lead her towards the door to help her get hers and Frankie’s jacket out of the closet, but Mr. Jonas was already there, holding out the jackets.

As Mr. Jonas put his jacket on, I helped Mrs. Jonas get Frankie’s jacket on and then took him from her so she could put her jacket on. Mr. Jonas vanished after putting his jacket on to go talk to the boys and Demi.

“Thank you Sweetie. We’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good night.” Mrs. Jonas said to me, giving me a one armed hug as we transferred Frankie back to her ; me placing a quick kiss on the little guys cheek. Mr. Jonas said, “Goodnight” and then both of them left quietly, not wanting to wake Frankie up.

I waved at them from my front door, but when they didn’t pull out of the driveway, I got a little confused and saw Mrs. Jonas laugh and then point behind me, making me turn around and almost run right into Demi.

“Hi!” she laughed out with a slightly amused tone, watching me try to regain my balance.

“Hi.” I laughed out back at her once I got my footing. “Are you leaving too?” I asked dumbly after seeing her grab her coat.

She nodded her head and let out a tired sigh. “Yeah. My parents want me back to the hotel before 9 because they’ve never met you and stuff, so…yay for me. But I have homework to do anyways, and I’m watching Frankie while Mr. and Mrs. Jonas go out for dinner so I guess there’s nothing wrong with that.” she finished with a shrug.

“Oh…” I trailed off, looking down at the ground. I really did want to get to know her, and since everything with Joe and I was fine, I thought all three of us could hang out.
“Well, how about….if it’s ok with Mrs. Jonas, Frankie could just sleep in my bed and then you could stay here. That way you’re not all alone.” I suggested, sending her a small smile.

“Oh don’t be ridiculous!” she said, waving her hand to wave off my suggestion. “You and Joe need to hang out and spend some time together to make up for the last couple of months. And I’ll see you tomorrow anyways. I’m going back with them when they leave so we’ll be able to talk sometime soon.”

I smiled widely at her and nodded my head to confirm that we will talk tomorrow for sure and with that, she said a quick, “Bye” over her shoulder to everyone else and did a small hand wave and was gone.

I sighed, slightly content that my jealous issue was over with her and that things with Duckie, Joe and Kevin were all worked out, and turned around to go help clean up some of the food. As soon as I entered the kitchen, I stopped, seeing as how Joe and Kevin were doing fake screaming and yelling with some baby carrots with their backs to me.

I stood there for a good couple of minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore, and let out a laugh when Joe threw a few carrots into the air and yelled, “Grenade!”

They both jumped, due to my sudden laughter, and turned around, both of their faces turning a pink color, embarrassed smiles on their faces as well.

“What the heck were you two doing?” I asked, making my way past them to start cleaning up the subs.

I turned around to look at them since neither of them answered me within a couple of seconds, and saw Joe standing there with a big, toothy smile on his face making my heart race inside my chest.

Now all he has to do is smile at me? Oh jeez!

I quickly turned around, trying to make it unnoticeable that I was trying to get my breathing back to normal as well as my heart, and started on the subs again.

“Well…” Joe’s beautiful voice rang to my ears and I couldn’t help the smile that came across my face. “I asked how they got these carrots so small, and Kevin said he didn’t know….and then…well, somehow we started having a war with them.” he explained while I laughed and turned my head to see Joe grab a baby carrot and take half of it into his mouth.

“And I was winning too until you came in here and scared us.” he added as an after thought with mock anger, shoving Kevin slightly with his shoulder.

“Dude! I was winning! I blew up like 5 of your guys with my grenade!” Kevin shot back, only to have Joe yell something along the lines that he had more tanks than Kevin did.

“Boys…calm down. It’s only carrot people.” I stated, laughing slightly while turning back to look at what I was doing and trying hard not to actually full out laugh at them for getting so competitive about a carrot war.

Upon picking up two subs to put into the container that my mom left out for me to put them in, I felt a whole bunch of carrots hit my back and then drop to the floor after they did it’s purpose of attacking me.

I bit my lip to stifle my laugh and turned around, with every intention of starting a food fight with the subs in my hands, but when I did, both Kevin and Joe dropped to the ground and I bent over in laughter.

“You think that’s funny…” Joe trailed off, getting up and tackling me to the ground with a competitive smirk on his face and I couldn’t stop laughing when I went to actually shove one in his face and he used his strength, pushing it into my cheek instead of his.

“You like that, huh?” He asked from above me, a smile clearly evident in his voice as I laughed a full out belly laugh from him grabbing the other sub and shoving it into my other cheek, getting mayo and whatever else that was on it, on my face while saying, “Have another one!”

“Wow…I haven’t heard that laugh in like….10 years since she was little girl.” My mom’s voice broke up our rough housing on the kitchen floor and I suddenly became aware of how…inappropriate Joe and I were positioned. He was currently straddling me, sitting up straight on my hips while I laid on the ground underneath him.

“Hey…mom….” I said awkwardly while Joe hurriedly got off of me and helped me up, getting me a napkin to wipe off my face. “We were….uh…cleaning.” I stated just as awkwardly while wiping my face off and I secretly wondered where Kevin had run off to.

“Cleaning huh?” My mom asked, quirking an eyebrow and looking at us with a smirk on her face. “This doesn’t look so clean to me.”

“I fell.” Joe randomly blurted out into the 30 seconds of silence that was engulfing us and I bit back my laugh from how blunt he said it.

“Really now?” My mom asked, sending me a look, and I thanked god that she was in a good mood at the moment otherwise who knows what she would’ve done or said seeing Joe and I like that on the kitchen floor. “Well, don’t ‘fall’ on her again.” she said, annunciating ‘fall’ slightly different as if to let us know that she knew he didn’t fall on me. “She might get hurt.”

He nodded his head once, curtly, and then let out a small awkward laugh. “I’ll try.” he simply said while bringing his hand up that was closest to me, and rubbed the back of his neck to show that he was nervous.

It got silent between us for a few minutes, my mom looking at Joe and I with a small sparkle in her eye, Joe standing there rubbing the back of his neck looking up at my mom through his eyelashes and smiling awkwardly while I stood there and watched the two of them as discreetly as possible.

Finally, I just couldn’t take how awkward it was and turned around to start cleaning up again, Joe turning around slowly after me to help.

“Anyways…” My mom started, seeming to get taken out of her little trance that she just had. “I’m going to take the girls home now since their parents asked me if I would, then I’m going out with John for dinner.” she announced.

I nodded my head once to have her know that I heard and acknowledged what she said, and then she quickly said, “I hope this house is going to be clean when I get back.” with a stern voice to let me know her ‘Cool Mom moment’ was over.

I turned my head and smiled and nodded while saying, “It will be Mom. Don’t worry. I love you and have fun tonight.”

She smiled sweetly at me and Joe, before turning on her heel, Joe letting out a sigh of relief that she was gone. But when her voice sounded from behind us saying, “Oh! And Joe…” he sucked in a deep breath and spun around to look at her.

“Try not to fall too much. I really do want this house to be clean by the time I get home.”

And with that, she left. Having Joe let out his breath in relief.

He laughed awkwardly as his cheeks started to get tinged with a pink hue, and that’s when Kevin made himself present again, coming out of the side bathroom and saying, “Aww…Joe’s embarrassed!”

“Am not!” he yelled and then lunged after Kevin, who seemed to be expecting Joe to come after him, and they both took off around my house while laughing and trying to get each other in headlocks.

About 20 minutes later, the food was all cleaned up and Nick and Ally were on their way with Big Rob to the restaurant. Leaving Joe, Kevin, Liz and myself the only occupants of the house, watching TV in the living room.

“So Sweetie, what should we do tonight since we finally get to see each other?” Kevin asked after giving Liz a small peck on the cheek and tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“Ugh!” Joe let out while looking away from them to look at me and asked, “Gag me please?!” and then he got up off of the couch and made his way towards the kitchen while Kevin and Liz completely ignored his statement. I followed him with my eyes, trying to be semi-discreet about it, and when he turned his head to the side, a smirk ever present on his face, he cocked his head towards the kitchen while looking at me.

Just that little movement of his head made my head spin around like it was stuffed with cotton balls and the butterflies in my stomach to come to life. I glanced over at Kevin and Liz who were currently whispering to each other in hushed tones, love sick smiles on their faces, and that’s when I stood up and followed him to the kitchen.

It’s not like they’re going to notice that I’m gone. And even if they did, would they honestly care?

Finding my voice and Joe sitting down at the island, I asked him as naturally as possible, “What’s up?” while taking a seat across from him.

“Nothing.” he sighed out and then looked down at the marble top of the island, letting his finger trace patterns over it. “I just can’t stand to be around them. Their so…gross.” he finished while shaking his body slightly from his gross statement.

I let out a small laugh from his comment and body action before saying, “Give them a break. Their in lust with each other and they finally are able to see each other in what…4 months or something like that? They can’t help it that their in that stage and the distance doesn‘t help it any less.”

I quickly got up from my seat and got us some water bottles from the fridge and slid his across the island to him.

He nodded his head thoughtfully before opening it and taking a sip before asking, “What stage?”

I rolled my eyes and head with a mock angry look on my face before I smiled at him and said, “That puppy love stage where they just think the other’s completely adorable with everything that they do and they just want to see them and spend as much time with them as possible. It’s cute…but nauseating at the same time. But it’s only nauseating when you’re not experiencing it.”

“Do you think Nick and Ally are going to get like that when they start dating?” he asked me a few seconds later when we both heard one of Liz’s giggles from the living room.

I couldn’t help but laugh from the way he said it. He sounded a little scared that Nick could turn into a love sick puppy like his older brother.

“Well if they do, it’ll be payback from Ally for the way I’ve been act-” I stopped myself and realized what I almost spilt to him. Sure, he knew I loved him, but he didn’t know how much I loved him. He didn’t know that whenever I thought about him or saw a picture of him or even just seeing his name on my phone, whether it was for a text or him calling me, that I smiled so wide and got all giggly. He didn’t know that no matter how upset I was about the whole ordeal of me not telling him, that I still couldn’t help but stop and smile and think about how amazing it would be if we were together as a couple and not as friends. All he knew was that I loved him. He didn’t now about all the little details and honestly, he didn’t have to.

He looked at me with wide eyes for a few seconds before looking down at the marble top and started tracing designs on it. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to open my water bottle and start chugging the crap out of it.

It was silent between us for a few minutes, me slowly, very slowly, sipping my water but never having it leave my mouth while he looked down at the marble and watching his hand trace patterns over it.

“You were like that?” he asked so quietly, I probably wouldn’t have even heard it if it wasn’t silent in the other room and in the kitchen where we were seated.

I wasn’t planning on answering him. I wasn’t planning on even acknowledging him or his question, but when he looked up at me and stopped his design tracing, I took the water bottle away from my mouth and looked down at the marble. It was my turn to draw little patterns on it before saying, “Yes.” quietly.

I took in a deep breath, not really knowing what else to say to that and he didn’t either and, for some reason, that really bugged me. This was why, other than him liking Demi, I didn’t want to tell him. I didn’t want things to be awkward between us.

I got bored with tracing nonsense patterns, so I stopped and took another long sip from my water bottle, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye to see him start up his tracing again and I unknowingly let out a small sigh after taking the water bottle away from my mouth. He looked up at me then, and asked me with his eyes what was wrong.

“This is why I didn’t want to tell you. Other than the whole Demi thing, I didn’t want things to be awkward between us. Can’t we just go back to the constant flirting and little innuendos we would say to each other and always giving each other side glances and smirks that made the other one want to be a mind reader?” I asked somewhat forcefully. I didn’t even realize what I was saying until I looked up at him and saw a small smile on his lips.

“You mean like how it used to be between us?”

I nodded my head and he let out a small laugh before nodding his head as well, taking another drink from his water bottle and then looked at me intently.

Ok…so….a part of me knew, and it was expected, that things would be a little awkward between us. I mean, how can it not be when you end up falling in love with your best friend? But that’s besides the point. I also knew, that now he knew about the way I felt, I didn’t have to act all weird around him. Or at least, any more weird than I usually was around him. There wasn’t anything that could slip out and become embarrassing for me anymore when it came to him. But that didn’t mean it was still difficult to look at him and not want to grab him and kiss him, and having the scene that my mind was making up in my head become a reality.

We sat there and stared at each other, and normally, I would be freaking out and asking the person that was staring at me what their problem was or if there was something on my face. But not this time. This time, my heart was elated that he was taking the time to notice me. To take me in and look at me slightly different because even though he didn’t have the same feelings for me, he still looked at me differently than his best friend now. Now I was his best friend that had more than best friend feelings for him and he knew that.

I smiled, a very small one when I saw that sparkle in his eye again, but it wasn’t mixed with his mischievous look. This time, it seemed like it was mixed with confusion of some sort. And then a small smile broke out onto his face and I bit the inside of my bottom lip from wanting to yell at him to jump across the island and kiss me.

And he would, because he would realize how much he loved me from my statement and we could be together and happy like Kevin and Liz were at the moment.

I snapped out of my trance of what my mind pictured to be yet another kissing scenario between Joe and I, but I was quickly sent back into it when I saw that his smile was replaced with a smirk.

Uh. The things I would do to you…

I then knew, that at his birthday and my own, that I would wish for super powers so I could read his mind and know why he was, at first, smiling. And then why it changed into a smirk. And what he was currently looking at on me at the moment. And why he kept looking away from me whenever I caught him looking at me during clean up time.
And right as he opened his mouth to share something with me, Kevin and Liz appeared in the doorway, arms around each other and the same smiles plastered on their faces.

“We’re going to go out to dinner and then bowling. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Kevin said while making his way towards me and giving me a hug while Liz went to Joe and then came over to me.

“Have fun you two!” I yelled to them when I heard the front door open.

“You have fun too!” Kevin yelled back and for some reason, there was a little hint of a small smile and innuendo in the way he said it that sent my head to be reeling with thoughts and scenarios of what Joe and I could possibly do for the next 2 hours until my mother and Ally and Nick came home.

“So ummm….what do you want to do?” I asked him, hoping that our little awkward and yet amazing stare moment was over with, and got up from my seat and lead the way into the living room.

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?” he asked as he followed me and then threw himself down onto the couch while I made my way towards the corner and took a seat in the oversized chair.

“Umm…How about you lay there on that couch, I lay on top of you and we make out for the next two hours? Movie?” I asked, my voice cracking slightly from coming out of my scenario of what it would be like to make out with Joe in the middle of my living room.

“Sure.” he said with a shrug. “Which one?”

“Nuh uh!” I said while shaking my head and finger at him. “I chose we watch a movie, now you pick the movie!”

He rolled his eyes and let out a submissive sigh before rolling off of the couch and made his way towards the bookshelf next to the TV that had all the movies in it.

He stood there for a few minutes, his eyes skimming over all of them before going back up to the top to make his decision.

“Troy or King Arthur?” he asked while turning his head to look at me.

Normally, I’m down for a war movie. But with seeing as how it was like a war zone earlier during the party with everything that went down tonight, I was in no need to watch one.

I shook my head at him while he sighed and turned back towards the movies.

“We could watch ‘Without a Paddle’.” I suggested after a few minutes trying to think of a comedy, but he instantly said, “No.” and continued to rifle through the movies.

5 minutes. That was how long it took for Joe and I decide, actually, that was how long it took Joe to decide we were going to watch ’Just Married’.

He put it in the DVD player and then laid back down on the couch, me flipping the channel for it to play on and getting up to turn off all the lights. Once I sat back down in the chair, I grabbed a blanket, brought my legs up and cuddled up into the blanket so I was like a giant ball, while Joe laid half hazardly on the couch.

No later than about 10 minutes into the movie, I got that weird prickly feeling that you get when someone is watching you, and when I looked out of the corner of my eye towards Joe and, there he was in all of his perfected glory, staring at me.

I let out a nervous laugh before asking him a nervous, “What?” and moved slightly in my seat.

He looked at me for a few more seconds before he got up from his position and leaned against the arm rest of the couch, furthest away from me and said, “You’re so far away. Come here!” and motioned for me to sit next to him.

I got up hesitantly with a smile on my face. Yes, I wanted to be as close to him as possible. But at the same time, it would just rip out my heart being so close to him, and yet having him so far away from me on the emotional level.

I pissed him off slightly when I took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from him, but that only lasted for a few seconds before he laughed and said, “No. Over here!” and pulled on my blanketed arm to get me closer to him.

I literally had no choice but to be pressed right up against his side with his arm draped over my shoulders, my head leaning into his side a little bit.

He smelled amazing. And he felt amazing. And it never ceased to amaze me, and kinda freaked me out slightly, how well I fit perfectly into him any way we were laying or touching each other. Our hands fit together when we were dancing a few months back at Liz’s birthday party. Our bodies fit perfectly together when we let go of our hands and held onto each other. Upstairs in my bedroom, when we were laying down on my bed, my head fit perfectly into his shoulder and the two times that he slept over, our bodies meshed well together and I fit perfectly into his front. And like right now, I fit perfectly into his side as we sat on the couch. Me curled up in a little ball with a blanket being the only barrier between us besides our clothes with his arm over my shoulder and me laying into his side.

I let out a disgruntled sigh upon realizing that this was probably the extent of any sort of touching I would get from him for….forever? Were Joe and I ever going to be together?

I shook my head slightly, him looking at me with a somewhat confused look on his face at my head shake, and when I smiled sweetly at him, he smiled back and gave me a little squeeze around my shoulders.

I couldn’t stop my eye roll after he looked away from me and I suddenly realized that I hated having his hand around my shoulder. It was strategically placed there to do some one armed hugs, and probably some rubbing my shoulder with his hand, and making me feel like crap because he didn’t want me like how I wanted him. It was torture. Pure torture.

And to add to that torture, he looked over at me then and gave me one of his charming smiles, the smiles that only a very select few people got to see. His real, “I’m happy” smiles.

As the movie progressed, I got to listen to hear his light laugh at some mildly funny parts, and then his heavy laughing at the actual really funny parts, all the while his arm is firmly wrapped around my shoulders. He brought his other hand up to his face, and started chewing on his thumbnail slightly and I bit my lip from seeing him chewing on his thumb.

What I wouldn’t give to have him chewing on my bottom lip right now instead of that thumb. Snap out of it!

He laughed again, it was in between a light laugh and heavy laugh. Enough of his body moved to have some of his hair fall over his eye, and he quickly brushed it away, only to have it fall back into place a few seconds later and I wished that my fingertips could graze across his cheek, nose and forehead to push it aside before him and I shared an epic kiss together. One that would make him open his eyes and realize his underlying love for me.

I let out a loud sigh then, thankfully having it be a funny part where his laugh covered it up and went back to watch the movie that currently had Joe’s mind transfixed on.

It was unbearable.

I couldn’t take the charming smiles, the little hugs and the two kisses that he had given me on my head. I couldn’t take any of it, and luckily, the movie was almost finished.

Right before the credits started rolling, I quickly got up and made my way to the bathroom to blow off some steam.

I wasn’t….mad, persay. Ok, I was upset, but I wasn’t at him. I was upset about the situation. No. I was upset with him. He was teasing me. Full out teasing me with all of his little smiles and hugs and everything, as if saying, “Haha! I know you love me, but you can’t have me, so I’m going to make it more torturous for you by doing all this stuff and you can’t do anything about it because you know deep down you’re enjoying it no matter how much it kills you at the same time.”

Yep. That’s exactly what he’s saying in the gorgeous head of his.

“Where are you going?” he asked me when I was half way towards the bathroom, and I picked up on the worried tone in his voice. Wait, was it a worried tone, or did I want to be believe he was worried about me? OH MY GOSH! NO! NO! I was not going to analyze every little thing he said to me now. Hell No!

“Bathroom.” I answered with slight irritation from my panic attack in my head. But then when I heard him say, “Oh. Ok.” with a hint of relief, I couldn’t help but smile a little bit. He cared at least.

I quickly made my way into the bathroom, sending him a small smile when I turned around to shut the door and seeing him still watching me and when I turned towards the mirror, I knew why he was looking at me.

I looked like absolute crap! My eyeliner was running slightly, making me have raccoon eyes and my hair was a complete mess.

I quickly grabbed some toilet paper and wiped underneath my eyes to make them look a little less animalistic and then finger combed my hair to have it lay somewhat normal on my head.

Maybe I should flirt with him, just to see where we stand. Just to see if he flirts back at all or if he ignores it…

I stood there, thinking it over for a few seconds before finally getting the nerve to actually do it when there was two sharp wraps on the door, causing me to let out a small scream before Joe’s voice came to my ears.

“Are you ok in there? You’ve been in there for like….5 minutes or something.”

“I’m a, I’m fine. Just…washing my hands.” I said and then turned on the water for added effect. I quickly shut it off after a minute or two and then opened the door and jumped upon seeing Joe standing there next to the door.

I quickly composed myself though, trying to put my newly thought out plan into action and asked, “Did you need something?” and sent him a small smile while I flipped the bathroom light off.

“No.” he said with a slight shrug of his shoulders and a head shake. “I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I was about to come in after you.” he stated while I laughed slightly, even though my insides were melting from that little statement.

“Well thanks Joseph.” I said while squeezing past him and poking him a few times in the stomach. “But I’m a big girl.”

Joseph? What the hell? I never call him that! And the poking…what the hell was that? Flirting? Nice flirting Steph. Good going!

“I’m not saying you aren’t.” he shot back at me with a small smile on his face, poking me back, causing me to turn around and walk backwards towards the living room to stop his fingers attack on my body, only causing me to flip over the back of the couch and land, thankfully, on the cushion.

“Actually, I take that back. You can’t even walk a good 2 feet without falling over something.” he said back to me, clear laughter in his voice.

“Oh yeah?” I asked back before popping my head over the back of the couch to look at him. “At least I didn’t fall at the AMA’s!”

His mouth dropped open in utter shock at my statement and I couldn’t help but laugh slightly while he made his way over to me, a smirk slowly coming onto his face. “Making it personal now huh?” he asked as he reached the back of the couch while I proceeded to laugh slightly at him.

I quickly nodded my head and laughed again, but that laughter soon turned into mercy laughter when he made his way over to the other side of the couch and started tickling me.

I yelled, “Stop!” at him a couple of times but he didn’t stop whatsoever. In fact, I think he made it even worse, if that’s even possible.

I tried flipping over onto my back, panting for air but laughing at the same time while simultaneously trying to get his hands off of my stomach and stop his attack, but he pulled me back towards him and a little bit closer to keep me in check.

“Take it back!” he yelled over my laughing, him laughing as well while I yelled back, “NO!” I kept trying to get out of his grasp and that’s when I felt it.

I was crying. I hadn’t cried from laughing so hard in such a long time.

“I’m crying!” I laughed out while his tickling died down a little bit, for me to at least wipe them away from my eyes. “Take it back and I’ll stop!” he said back to me with mock authority and since his fingers had slowed down to having a small attack on me and letting me think a little bit, I took the opportunity and tried to make a run for it.

I knew I wasn’t going to get far, but I was hoping to at least get out of the living room area, but that thought was put to a halt when Joe tackled me into the arm rest of the arm chair that we had in the corner, and started ticking me from behind.

“Take it back and I’ll stop!” he laughed out again, increasing his tickling on my sides while I tried to pry his hands off of my stomach and sides.

I managed to get one of his hands securely locked with one of my hands, but his other hand was going all over the place on my stomach and side so I held my hand that was currently interlaced with his and my other one up in the air and said, “Ok, ok! I’m sorry. I take it back!” with a small giggle. I heard him smirk slightly before he leaned into me, and that‘s when the weirdest thing happened.

He wrapped me up in a hug from behind, our hands still interlaced together while his other one landed on my hip and he gave me a soft kiss on my neck before slowly pulling me around on the side that our hands weren’t locked together.

My breath hitched in my throat when I felt his breathing get rather shallow while I turned around and he unlocked our hands, only to reconnect them seconds after so they weren’t in an awkward position. I could feel the tension build between us, even though there wasn’t more than 4 inches between our bodies and the knot in my stomach that hadn’t been present at all the whole evening, suddenly started to make itself present. He looked over at our hands that were connected together and squeezed my hand slightly before pulling it towards his face and kissing every one of my knuckles and then looked down at me while I looked up at him through my eyelashes. My heart started to beat faster and my body felt like it was suddenly flooded with heat when our eyes met and I took in a deep breath to try and get air to my lungs.

He didn’t have his smile anymore that was clearly evident in his voice throughout the whole tickling attack that just happened seconds before, and his eyes, oh how they sparkled. They were absolutely amazing and it almost made me want to cry from how beautiful they looked at the moment. He made me want to cry from the way he was looking at me. He’d never looked at me like how he was right now and it made my heart literally soar, because the way he was looking at me, was how I’ve always looked at him since I knew my feelings for him.

The intense eye gazing was getting to me, so I looked down intending to look at the floor to try and get my breathing back to normal, but I got sidetracked on his luscious pink lips that I had been dying to kiss for the last 4 months. He bit on his bottom lip slightly and licked it before he brought his other hand that was on my hip to my chin and lifted it up to look at him. I knew it was coming, the moment I’d been waiting for since I realized I loved him and told him.

The epic kiss.

The kiss that would make it different between the two of us forever. And that thought alone made my legs go to complete jell-o mode and I thanked god that he currently had me pinned between his gorgeous self and the loveseat otherwise I would’ve fallen on my ass and ruined this life changing moment between him and I.

But it turns out, that I didn’t have to be the one to ruin it. Or him. Nope, it was neither one of our faults that ruined our what would’ve been our ‘best friend breaking kiss’ because once I shut my eyes and puckered up slightly, after seeing him close his eyes, Ally came bursting through the door screaming that Nick asked her out.

Joe took three steps back and let out a sigh, me letting out a disappointed sigh as well before we both turned to look at Ally who was currently coming over to hug me, and then ran over to Joe.

Nick finally made his way back into the house after Ally finished hugging Joe, laughing slightly while shutting the door behind himself and said, “I guess you heard the good news.” He took a seat on the couch and Ally went over to him to sit next to him, but he pulled her down onto his lap and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. He smiled over at Joe and I, still standing awkwardly, and asked what he did while everyone was gone.

I looked over at Joe, actually, I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and saw slight disappointment on his face. It probably matched my own due to my sister coming in a ruining our moment. Sure, I love Ally, and yes, I was incredibly happy for her at the moment, but that still didn’t mean I wanted to kill her for ruining my what would’ve been ‘perfect’ kiss with Joe.

“We watched a movie.” Joe said with a faint smile on his face as he looked towards them, and then took a seat on the couch’s arm rest. I slid down the arm rest I was currently seated on and laid awkwardly with my legs on the arm rest and my back on the loveseat, trying to look un-disappointed at the moment.

“Well, I’m tired. So I think I’m going to head off to bed. It’s been an exciting day.” Ally said after we sat there for what felt like 5 minutes in silence and Nick giving me a knowing glare. I knew that I would get cornered by him sometime soon to talk to him about what happened tonight since Joe and I were acting so weird at the moment.

Ally let out a sigh and then came over to give me a hug but whispered, “Can you and Joe leave so I can say goodbye to Nick?”

I chocked on my laugh, not wanting the boys to question me on it, and nodded my head while she let go of me, a smile coming onto her face before making her way back towards Nick.

I got up from my seat, and made my way towards the stairs, planning on just hanging out in my room for a few minutes so they could say their goodbyes being a new couple and all, and called awkwardly from the stairs, “Hey Joe….I ummm, I want to show you something. Come up here with me.” and then started my way up the stairs again.

He looked a little taken aback by my weirdness of leaving the room, and when I widened my eyes and nodded my head slightly towards the new couple, he got up quickly from his seat. Clearly not wanting to see anything happen between his little brother and my little sister.

“So…ummm…yeah. About that down there?” I asked after deliberating in my head for the last 5 minutes of us two sitting awkwardly quiet on my bed.

“Yeah.” he sighed out and looked up from his hands that were tangling themselves together. “About that…I umm…” he looked up towards me for a second and then back down at the bed and started rubbing the back of his neck. “I umm…I got caught up in the moment I guess.”

He laughed slightly, in hopes of lightening the mood and that nearly broke my heart. It wasn’t that he wanted to kiss me, it was that he was so caught up in the moment that he didn’t think twice about stopping.

And speaking of stopping, I didn’t stop to think about what I said before I said it because I bounced slightly on my bed, and said, “Well you can get caught up with me any time.”

Oh my gosh! Did I actually just say that?!

He looked up at me, a small smirk on his face and in a rather seductive voice he said, “Ok.” and leaned in towards me.

My heart started pounding again, and the butterflies were quickly getting transformed into birds from not having any time to slowly turn into them, and my breath was caught in my throat when I noticed just how close to my face he really was.

And right when I was pretty sure it was safe for me to close my eyes, his smirk turned into a smile and he said, “Let’s go spy on them!” and then popped up off of my bed, put his hands in a gun formation and rolled out of my room and into the hallway, sending me a huge smile once he was out there before he was out of sight.

I laughed at the way that he just got my hopes up and crushed them, but I couldn’t be mad at him. He did it in such a ‘Joe-like’ manner that I couldn’t be. So instead, I got up from my bed, put my hands together in a gun formation and rolled out of my room to follow after him to spy on Nick and Ally.