A Simple Love Story. Not!

"So, are you all packed and ready to go?" Ally asked me from my doorway.

I think she finally learned from last time that she should never enter my room without my persmission. Long story short, she ended up being locked in my closet for an hour.

"Yep. I stated after packing the last of my 'morning necessities' into my suitcase and zipping it up.

So after the boys left one month ago Mom and John came back with huge smiles on their faces from packing with the Jonas's. It turns out that Joe had asked if Ally, Liz, Duckie and I could all go to Florida with them in May since that's when they had off of tour and a little down time. My mom finally told me after I threatened to call Joe and have him ruin the whole 'surprise' since that was what it was at the time.

I was at first completely shocked that he would ask that, considering things weren't good between us when he first suggested it to his parents, but all in all, I was happy he did. My mom agreed to it as long as she was able to go and John just wanted a vacation so he decided he would come with too.

Things have gotten to be almost like they were with Joe and I before Demi came into the picture. And speaking of Demi, her and I talked almost every day now. We became really fast friends and since she's with the boys, she always tells me what Joe says when anything related to me is brought up. But now that it ended a week ago, she's back home in Dallas and won't be coming with us on the trip. But that was ok...at least I got to have my 'Joe time'. At least that's what he calls it ever since he found out for sure that I knew about the trip.

I was finally getting a grip on my feelings for Joe...well, at least I think I was. Talking to him over the phone would be a lot different than talking to him in person. He would be able to do all those little flirty moves when we were in person that he wouldn't be able to do on the phone. But either way, I was ready for it...assuming that he did any flirty moves.

Eric, my mythology partner, was great. He was so sweet and he tried asking me out on a date once, but I turned him down since Joe was going to 'fo sho', his words not mine, call me later on that night. Ok...so ultimately I chose Joe over Eric when I know Joe doesn't have feelings for me, but hey, a girls gotta dream right?

I'm just hoping one day Joe will just wake up and be all in love with me and ask me to be his girlfriend. So until then, I was not going to go out on a date with any guy and ruin that slim chance from happening.

But Eric really was nice a guy, and extremely attractive. So it wouldn't be a total loss if nothing ever happens with Joe. And no, I'm not that conceited into thinking that Eric likes me from just one dinner invite. No, he told me that he really liked me but when I told him I wanted to stay single for a while, he understood. Granted him and I flirt a lot, but nothing more than that. There's nothing wrong with flirting. Plus, it was nice to have someone who was interested in me, flirt back.

"I'm so excited!" Ally yawned out while I picked up my suitcase and lugged it down the stairs towards the car.

It was currently 5 in the morning and I was just as tired, if not more, as Ally was at the moment. But still, I was excited too...underneath all my sleepiness.

For being May, the weather sucked. It was cold and rainy and because it was so cold, it felt more like hail half the time than rain. So naturally, I was excited about this trip to Florida.

1: I got to get away from all the cold crappy weather and spend an entire week in sunny and warm Florida.
2: School was over for me so I had nothing to worry about coming home to unlike Ally and Duckie who still had a little over a month left of school before summer started for them.
3. And the probably the most prominent reason was Joe. I got to spend a whole week in Florida with my best friend. Sure I loved him and everything, but still. A week with my best friend in Florida...imagine the trouble. It was going to be amazing.

"Come on girls! We have to be at the bus station in about a half hour and we still have to pick up Liz and Duckie!" I heard my mom yell from the garage and I rolled my eyes.

2 hours of dealing with my high-strung strung mother was going to be a blast!

"Hey girls! Are you excited?" John asked me in a very chipper voice once Ally and I entered the garage.

Ok, so the guy irritated me most of the time, like right now, but he was an ok guy. I was probably going to have fun with him on vacation even though he wasn't my dad. But my dad..well, that was whole nother story that not even Joe knows.

I wonder if Ally told Nick yet....

"Most definintly." Ally responded with a big cheesy smile, no doubt thinking about a week with Nick.

But I couldn't really blame her, the moment John asked me if I was excited, Joe's face flashed before my eyes.

"Yes." I managed to say before letting out a yawn and crawling into the van and closing the door while Ally got in on the other side and we were off to pick up Liz and Duckie.

Everything went by in a complete blur from then on since I was so tired and I was trying to cram as much sleep as I could get, in before we met up with the Jonas's in Chicago.

The plan was that they would fly from California to Chicago on their private jet, lucky bitches! and then pick us up and we'd all fly to Florida with them in their plane. But we had to wait about an hour or so before we could leave from Chicago. I don't know...my brain was still on 'off' at the moment from being up way too early to remember all the details. All I can really remember is something about flights coming and leaving and we had to get clearance of some sort from some one.

I barely remembered signing in for my luggage to be put on board and eating some McDonalds when we arrived at the airport, before we made our way towards our gate to wait for the boys. It was in the most secluded area of the airport that I honestly didn't even know existed until now, so it wasn't very difficult for me to fall asleep on the floor. Sleeping in the chairs was out of the question.

I awoke with a start though when something landed on my chest what felt only like minutes after I was able to fall asleep and when my eyes adjusted to the light, Joe's handsome face was smiling down at me.

"HI!" he practically yelled in my face as I pushed him off of my chest so I could breath again.

"You're lucky you're cute." I managed to mumble out to him before rolling over onto my stomach to fall back asleep, but the damn cutie kept poking me.

I swear, I was going to kill him if he didn't stop it.

But after 5 minutes of his insessiant poking and from my lack of energy to rip him to shreds, I yelled into my sweatshirt that I had been using as a pillow, "What do you want?"

"I just...I just wanted to say hi that's all." He said, his voice lowering and I could just picture his head lowering with his voice as well

Great, now I felt bad for being mean to him. That ass.

I let out a loud sigh before rolling onto my back and sitting up before saying, "I'm sorry Joe. I"m just really tired and I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. Hi." and then I grabbed him and gave him a hug.

But I was sleepy, and he was warm and he smelled so good that I kinda went into a comatose state meer seconds into the hug.

"Why are you tired?" he laughed while hugging me and attempting to sit me up, even though I was slouching even more onto him.

"To excited." I mumbled into his chest before taking in another deep breath of his scent that clouded my mind.

Yummm.

I vaguely heard him let out a laugh and then say something before I was laying down on him, half of my body on his and his arm wrapped around my back to keep me close. I let my head nestle in the dip where his shoulder and body met and when he kissed the top of my head and then had his fingers grazing against my back in circular patterns, I was out like a light.

"Are you sure you can do that Joe?"

"You're gonna hurt yourself!"

"Yeah! Just wake her up!"

"Shhh...you're gonna wake her up!"

I slowly opened my eyes to see things moving past me slowly and I covered my mouth as I felt a yawn coming.

"What's going on?" I asked while rubbing my eyes after my yawn to see things better.

"Shhh...just go back to sleep." someone whispered into my ear and from the tingles I got from their breath hitting my neck, I instantly knew it was Joe.

"But..what's going on?" I asked again as another yawn ripped through my mouth.

I was so utterly confused right now. How was I moving when I had been sleeping before? And when did Joe get so close to me? And more importantly, why was he was close to me?

I looked up and then looked down to see the tips of his shoes poke out from underneath me and that's when I realized he was carrying me down the terminal.

I grabbed his neck then to brace myself from falling if he dropped me, but he simply let out a small laugh before saying, "Don't move. I'm more likely to drop you."

"Why are you carrying me?" I asked him, having everything finally catch up with my brain and attempting to look at his face, only to see our entire party walking behind us.

I sent Mrs. Jonas a smile and a wave since she was in front of the pack.

She sent me a smile and wave back and when Joe threw me up into the air for a quick second to get a better grip on me, I turned back to look at his face and had the breath knocked right out of me.

He was so unbeiliably handsome. Ugh...why did he have to be so pretty?

The need, wait no...the want to kiss him came back full force and I loathed myself even more for waiting so long to tell him that I was in love with him.

I guess that kissing thing isn't under control.

"You looked so peaceful when you were sleeping and I didn't want to wake you up. So, I thought I would be nice and carry you onto the plane, that way I wouldn't have to." he answered me with a delicious smile coming across his face.

I couldn't help myself.

I let out a small squeal before pulling his neck down towards me and gave him a tight hug while saying, "You're so sweet Joe."

"And to get one of those too!" he laughed out as we reached the doorway to the plane and the flight attendant didn't have a very amused look on her face from Joe carrying me.

"You can put me down now." I whispered into his ear and he slowly let me down, probably in fear that I would fall or something. That would be my luck.

I gave the flight attendant a nervous smile as I made my way past her and when I was able to see the inside of the jet my eyes were wide as saucers. At least, I'm assuming they were.

My mind went to a complete blank as I took in the tan leather seats that had sets of two all througout it and how grand a spacious it was inside. And yet the only thing that could come out of my mouth was to ask what Joe was talking about when he said, "To get one of those!"

"You're hugs. I love them!" he quickly said while running past the woman and wrapped me up in a hug from behind, lifting me up off of the ground.

Suddenly, the plane didn't hold my interest any longer and wasn't the only thing taking my breath away. I loved, and I mean it when I say it, loved from behind hugs. They were probably better than anything else on the planet.

I'm pretty sure I told Joe that once before too.

Either way, I let out squeal of happiness before finally getting my vocal cords working again.

"Aren't you tired of picking me up? You just carried me down that terminal." I stated and he set me back down in front of two seats that were on our left and in the middle of two other sets. AKA, one set of seats was in front of us and one was behind us.

"It's no big deal Steph. You're so light, I think my suitcase weighs more than you." He stated before shoving me out of the way and taking the window seat.

I just laughed at him and his stupid window seat taking before turning around and saying hello to everyone else.

I was in a good mood now thanks to Joe's wonderful body as my pillow...and his hug from behind. I think anyone could get in a good mood from one his hugs. But I'd have to let go of him first in order to let that happen...which it wasn't going to...so oh well to all those grumpy people out there. They'd have to find their own cure to their grumpiness.

Joe was mine.

I said a quick 'Hi' to Mr. and Mrs. Jonas and gave them hugs while they took the seats behind where I was assuming that Joe and I were sitting before giving a hug to Kevin and Liz. I wasn't too sure if I actually even said hi to here when we picked them up earlier, and they took their seats in front of us. I moved onto Frankie who basically tackled me while talking a mile a minute that he wanted to get a hug from me earlier, but Joe wouldn't let him saying that I was sleeping and not to be disturbed.

I just laughed when I heard that considering Joe's 'oh so nice way' of waking me up was disturbing enough.

I gave a hug then to Nick who came on after Ally and he quickly whispered into my ear that he needed to talk to me as soon as we could get some alone time that wasn't on the plane. When I asked him why not on the plane he simply pointed to Joe and said, "That kid is not going to let you out of his sight. He's been non stop talking about this trip becuase you were going to be with us." And as if on cue, Joe called my name and whined that he wanted to talk to me to make up for the last month.

I just sucked in a breath and told him to hold on since I still had to say hi to Duckie. But she was already talking to Frankie who was sitting next to her and Nick took his seat next to Ally who was behind the two of them while my Mom and John took their seats behind them. So I simply just waved to Duckie when she looked up at my whistle and made my way back towards Joe already had a deck of cards out and ready to play with.

"Why don't you wait until we are up in the air?" I asked him with a laugh as I took my seat next to him. He rolled his eyes and contemplated on it for a few seconds before he stowed his cards away in his upper storage compartment and then turned to me with a giant smile on his face.

My heart had a small heart attack for a few seconds. He was just too gorgeous...and deadly with that smile. He should really stop giving people that smile, he might kill them. I'll be in evidence bag numbero uno!

"So, are you excited?"

"For take off? Heck yes! I love that feeling where you're weightless. It's so cool." I rambled while bouncing up and down in my seat. I really didn't even think about that cool feeling until her brought it to my attention. Well, he didn't actually bring it to my attention, and he was probably asking if I was excited about the trip....crap.

"And I'm excited about Florida too." I added as an after thought while he let out a small chuckle.

"You are by far the weirdest girl I've ever met!" I heard Kevin mumble from upfront and shaking his head while laughing slightly.

"Hey..." I yelled and stuck my head through the seats and with my best Mafia voice I could do, I said, "Are you talk to me?"

Kevin let out another laugh and I heard Joe let out a small one as well before Kevin answered me.

"Umm...no." He stuttered out. "I was talking to Liz." he said quickly and then turned his head to look out the window. I rolled my eyes for about a second but then broke into laughter when Liz playfully smacked his arm and yelled, "Hey!"

"You know I'm kidding and I was talking about Steph." he said while grabbing one of her hands and making it disappear between both of his while I let out an offended, "Hey!"

"Well, it's true!" He exclaimed and then removed one of his hands from Liz's to hold it up and sticking out his pointer finger. "You like the way lift off feels, you aren't afraid of spiders, you like action movies more than romance AND" he stated, popping a finger up with every example he gave. "You like Joe." He finished and turned back around and brought his hand back to Liz. "You're weird." he stated one last time with a shrug of his shoulder while I laughed at his last reason of why I was weird. But I laughed harder when Joe was really offended by that and smacked Kevin upside the head.

After about 20 minutes of us making fun of each other and just catching up, the pilot told us that we would be getting ready for take off and that we needed to buckle up our seat belts.

I heard a chorus of, "Ugh. I hate this part." but it got cut off my excitedness and saying in unison with Joe, "I love this part!" Needless to say, we got glares from every female on the plane and Frankie.

I grabbed both of my armrests to keep my squeal in and squeezed them, but Joe yelled at me, saying that my arm was on his arm rest.

"No. This one is mine. This one..." I stated while lifting my arm and pulling his down that was up, "Is yours."

But before I could put my arm back down on my armrest, Joe took both of them and I huffed while letting my hand fall into my lap and looking away from him.

Jerk stole my arm rest!

But after a few seconds of my sulking Joe let out a sigh and I felt him pick my arm up and lay it over his, interlacing our fingers together and I couldn't look at him, in fear that he'd see my blush from his action.

Ugh....I hated him...but I loved hating him...if that makes sense.

I took in a couple of discreet deep breaths before looking over at him and sending him a smile, only for him to give my hand a slight squeeze before giving me a smile in return and then sitting up straight in his seat.

I looked at his profile for a few more second, taking in the gorgeous view before turning my head forward and getting ready for take off.

Although I loved him, and he was definintely being flirty with me thus far, I couldn't help but feel excited. Maybe this trip would change our relationship status...maybe we'd become a couple. A girl can only hope, right? But if it didn't, then I'd just have memories of me and my best friend wrecking havoc on the state of Florida, hand in hand.

It felt good to have Joe sitting next to me, fingers laced together. Actually, it felt...natural to have him that way. I just wished he'd see it sooner. But still, I wouldn't want him anywhere else than sitting right next to me, no matter how 'weird' I am for liking him.

Once the pilot turned off the seatbelt light, Joe practically lunged out of his seat to get his cards out and Frankie, Joe and I played a game of Go Fish. Of course. Frankie sat on my lap though since there wasn't any room for him.

I noticed that the girls had switched seats so they were all sitting together on the other side of the plane, throwing glances towards me and then smiling and chatting like crazy. I would have to find out what they were talking about later though.

Nick and Kevin were currently talking about the upcoming tour and the ideas they had for the stage and what not for a few minutes before Kevin decided to be the plane photographer and started taking pictures of everyone.

There were a cute pictures of Joe, Frankie and I playing Go Fish and making faces at Kevin and then there were cute pictures of just Joe and I when Frankie wanted to go talk to Duckie.

My personal favorite was the one where Joe and I were going to 'strike a pose' for Kevin, and we both flung our arms out and hit each other in the head. We both were laughing and reaching over to the other one to rub the spot we hit while laughing.

But after an intense game of 20 questions with Joe, I was starting to get tired again. So put the arm rests up and grabbed a blanket and pillow and made myself as comfortable as possible. But something about sleeping up straight isn't comfortable for me, so I resorted to go back to my makeshift pillow from earlier.

Joe.

He protested at first, saying that he couldn't do any fun stuff with anyone with me laying on his lap, but after I fake snored a few times, he gave up and started playing with my hair, putting me to sleep in a few minutes flat.

I awoke though, what only felt like a few minutes later, when I felt someone pulling me up.

"What's..." I trailed off, opening my eyes and my voice cracking a little bit from sleep. "What's going on?" and then a yawn ripped through my body.

"Nothing...go back to sleep. I was just moving you cuz my legs were falling asleep." Joe stated in a soft voice and I could've melted right there from his words and his voice when the pilot's voice sounded above us and said that we would be landing in a few minutes and that we should put our seatbelts back on.

"Or don't." Joe stated afterwards with a small shrug of his shoulders and sending me a smile while I smiled back at him.

It sounds so girl-ish on my end here, but I just wanted to jump him and give him a huge hug right now and then squeal afterwards. God, I had it bad...yuck!

I sat up a little straighter in my seat and put my seatbelt back on and then stiffened when I felt the plane dip a little bit as it started it's descend. I didn't know that my body stiffening was that noticable, but apparently Joe noticed.

"Hey..." he said softly to get my attention since my eyes were snapped shut.

I didn't even remember doing that!

"You ok?" he asked me while finding my hand and lacing his fingers with mine.

Now, normally, I would melt and tell him anything he wanted to hear because, yuck, I was in love with the kid, but I was terrified of landing...so it didn't have that affect on me. Instead I squeezed his hand even tighter along with my eyes.

"Steph...hey!" Joe said a little lounder and shook my arm while his hand was still laced with mine. Not like he could unlace it, I'm sure I had a death grip on it and was cutting off circulation.

"Steph..." he finally said closer to me and I felt his breath tickle my skin. That didn't ease my nerves, but it did get me to open my eyes and look over at him and ask him what he wanted.

"Why are you so scared? I thought you liked flying?"

"I do." I stated mechanically as I felt the plane drop again and I mentally yelled at the pilot for scaring the crap out of me. "I like take off, when you feel weightless, but something about plummeting towards the earth and having hope that you won't lose control of the wheel and make us hit it instead of land, just something about it freaks me out."

I heard him let out a small chuckle, and I would've glared at him, or yelled, but again, I was too scared right now to even blink, let alone move to look at him again.

"Come here." he said softly and before I knew it, he pulled me close to him and wrapped me up in his arms while tucking my head into his shoulder and kissing my head repeatedly while saying that everything was going to be ok and we were going to be fine.

And for the first time in my life, and since I told Joe that I loved him, I wasn't tortured by being so close to him. Actually, I clutched to his t-shirt to keep him as close as possible so the only thing I could hear or feel was his heartbeat and the warmth of his skin.