A Simple Love Story. Not!

After about 10 minutes of Joe having to hold me against him while I freaked out, we were allowed off of the plane and I practically ran off. I think I shoved Frankie to get off the plane, that’s how fast I was going. I would have to remember to apologize later.

They finally caught up with me at baggage claim, although, it wasn’t that hard to figure out where I was. Joe, somehow, kept me in his line of sight the whole time and then called and told everyone where I was headed.

Now that I was away from him and waiting for my luggage, my mind was able to catch up with me on what just happened between Joe and I.

I was pressed up against him…while he kissed my head.

At that thought, I reached up and touched my head and couldn’t help but smile when I felt the same place where a majority of his ‘calming me down’ kisses landed.

But then reality hit again to remind me that I wasn’t with Joe. He wasn’t acting like my boyfriend because he wasn’t my boyfriend. He was comforting me how a best friend does. Although, the kisses might have pushed it…but oh well. He did them and it was….NOT cute.

Ugh…stupid reality, it couldn’t let me have that one thought of Joe being my boyfriend for more than 5 seconds. I hate my life.

The baggage belt started to rotate, indicating that our luggage would be coming out soon and I snapped my attention towards that while everyone else made their way towards the belt as well. I noticed Joe making his way towards me and right when he opened his mouth to say something, I caught sight of my bag.

I’ve never been so happy in my life to not talk to him.

I grabbed it quickly and moved out of the way so everyone else could get their bags. I moved towards one of the exits that was closest to us and laid my bag down on the ground and took a seat on it, having my eyes land on Frankie who was making his way over to me with his bag.

Apology Time!

“Hey Frank…” I started while he too, put his bag down and took a seat on it next to me. “I’m sorry that I pushed you on the way off the p-”

“Don’t worry about it. Joe told me how freaked out you are about landing. It’s ok. You didn’t hurt me. Plus, I fell into Duckie.” he finished with a small smile coming onto his face before he turned and looked at her.

Aww…Frankie’s first crush! Well…at least his first one as far as I know.

“So…” I started again as I saw both Liz and Ally grab theirs bags, Ally having a little trouble with hers and Nick helping her, and make their way over to Frankie and I. “Are you excited?”

“Yeah I am!” he yelled, snapping his head away from Duckie to look at me with a giant smile on his face. “The hotel is so cool! They have real animals and stuff and plus, we’re going to Animal Kingdom too! It’s gonna be awesome!”

I smiled at his enthusiasm. It was so cute to see someone get to excited about animals and seeing Animal Kingdom. Personally, I never understood the idea of Animal Kingdom. It was just like a Zoo, but with a lot more cool buildings and such. But whatever, if Frankie liked it, then so be it.

Liz and Ally meet up with us at that point in time. Well, Liz did, Ally was still struggling to roll her suitcase over to us.

“Let me guess..” I started once she finally made it over to us a few seconds later. “You packed about 5 extra outfits?” I finished with a small laugh while Frankie joined me.

“No.” Ally started, sounding a little bit offended. “I packed 7 extra outfits, you know how I like to have my options.” she finished while taking a seat next to Frankie on her suitcase while Liz took a seat next to myself.

It amazed me sometimes that my sister and I were actually sisters. I was simple, I packed one extra of everything just in case while she packed 7 extra things just to be able to have options. But I had other things to worry about at this point in time. I had Liz alone and since I’m sure Ally and Duckie already had a weird handshake to seal the deal of not telling me what they were talking about on the plane, Liz was my only option to get some information.

“So…what were you girls talking about?” I started casually while looking down at the floor and picking my fingernails. I didn’t want to jump down her throat right away like this was some sort of investigation. Then again…that could be fun.

“When?” she asked me, turning away from Kevin to look at me with a confused face.

“You know when! On the plane, you kept looking at Joe and I and then would talk for like…3 minutes and then look at us again. What’s going on?”

She opened her mouth, and possibly was going to give me some feedback, but Duckie, my mom, John and Mrs. Jonas all came over to us. Mrs. Jonas joking around, saying that she always was waiting for the boys and then cast a quick glance towards them.

I followed her line of sight to see them all standing with their backs to us while waiting for their luggage.

Kevin was currently closest to us, up on his tip toes to peer over the other side of the rotating belt to see if his luggage was over there while Nick was standing next to him and just looking off towards the left where the luggage would come into his view. Mr. Jonas was standing next to him looking around at random things and Joe, who was at the end of this little Jonas line, was looking..at me?

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before opening them again to see him looking right at me with a giant smile on his face. One of those smiles where they were overly cheesy because their smile is so big you can practically see every tooth in their mouth and you can’t see their eyes because they look like little slits.

I couldn’t help but laugh though because even though he looked like a dork, he was still incredibly cute. But wait, that was bad! I wasn’t supposed to be falling all over him and getting my hopes up that despite how…adorable he was on the plane, he wasn’t my boyfriend and was only doing that because he was my best friend. Not because he wanted to be my boyfriend.

I groaned quietly to myself at that point in time.

This week was going to be difficult with him. If he was already being so flirty with me and that was just for a 2 hour and 45 minute flight, what the heck would he do for the next 7 days?

“This vacation officially sucks now.”

“Why do you say that?” Liz asked me and I looked away from Joe and looked at her with wide eyes.

“Did I really just say that out loud?”

“Yes…you did.” she answered with a small laugh.

“Damn, it I did that twice!” I muttered to myself while slapping my hand to my head before looking up again, my eyes landing on Joe, unfortunately to see him send me a quick wink before Nick smacked him in the stomach and then pointed on the luggage belt at, what I’m assuming, was Joe’s suitcase.

I groaned again when I saw that wink and Liz asked me what was wrong, and when I just answered with one word, “Joe…” she nodded her head in understanding and wrapped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me into her.

That’s what I loved about Liz. You didn’t have to spell stuff out with her. She just…she just knew. I loved that I didn’t have to because honestly, I wouldn’t know what to say.

That spending a week with my best friend was going to be horrible? That wouldn’t make sense to anyone except maybe Ally. But that was only because she knew everything. Ok…and Duckie too, but still. Liz just…understood and she was older than me and I liked having that ‘older sister’ feeling when around her. I was always taking care of Ally, but I never had anyone take care of me and sometimes, I needed that.

“That’s what we were talking about on the plane.” she said and I looked up at her slightly confused.

“What?”

“That’s what Ally, Duckie and I were talking about on the plane. We noticed how…different Joe was acting and we were thinking maybe this week would kinda…seal the deal for you two. But then again, if he doesn’t tell you what he’s thinking, it’s just going to make you go crazy.”

“You got that right.” I mumbled while she let out a small laugh before giving my shoulder a squeeze and letting me go.

“Just…try and make the best of it. If he flirts with you, flirt back. Mix it up. That is, if you can handle the possibility that to Joe, that’s all it really is. I mean, it is Joe. You never know what he’s thinking.” she finished with a small laugh to lighten the mood.

It didn’t sadly.

“As much as I want to flirt back with him, I know it doesn’t mean anything except playful banter on his end and it means so much more to me. It hurts, ya know? To know that he knows how much I feel for him and yet he doesn’t see me like that. I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of days…thinking about what might and might not happen on this vacation, and I’m going with the ‘what might not happen’ thing, and I’ve been thinking that I need to get over him. I know, he knows, and everyone else knows that it’s never going to happen, so I might as well build a platform and hop on another train because the ‘Joe train’ has long left the station without me on it.”

I noticed Liz’s face get a little depressed looking from hearing me wallow in self pity, and as much as I hated doing that, I couldn’t not do it. I knew that there was no point in pursuing Joe and getting him to change his mind because clearly, he liked to mess with me. And that was fine, that was who he was. I just needed to remember that no matter what he says or does, it’s just a game to him. That there isn’t any feelings behind them except friendship and it was just playful banter. ‘Don’t waste your time on someone who’s not willing to spend their time on you.’ Mine and Megan’s high school saying rang throughout my ears.

We would say that to each other all the time in high school as a nice way to say, “Get over this guy, he’s never going to be with you.” and it worked every time. It was true and it got straight to the point without it every sounding bitchy or mean. I just wished it would be easier said this time. Of course, I was in love with Joe…so that didn’t help it hurt any less, but still.

I guess I would take Eric up on that dinner offer.

“Hey you.” Joe’s seductive, sexy, voice rang through my ears and cut of my thoughts.

Man, I could just spread him on a cracker. NO! That’s bad! Commence the ‘getting over Joe’ plan immediately!

I tried to ignore my pounding heart and the fact that I wanted to just jump up and on him from seeing his smirk come onto his face while looking at me. I tried not to think about taking him into one of the co-ed bathrooms and having my way with him, although by trying not to think like that, it made me think about him even more.

This is a lost cause! NO! I can’t give up that easily! I’m gonna need help!

“Hi!” I said as cheerily as possible before shooting up off of my luggage and grabbing it.

Step one was to get away from him as far as possible right now to think of Step two.

I noticed he got a suspicious look on his face and was sending me the ‘What’s wrong?” face right before he opened his mouth to ask me, but luckily, the rest of the Jonas’ were finished and making their way towards us.

“Oh look. Their finished. Let’s go!” I stated, turning around with my suitcase in hand and making my way towards one of the exits that were a few feet away. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far due to my mother calling my name and saying, “The doors are the other way.”

I turned around and looked at everyone’s faces. Ally, Duckie, Frankie, Mr. Jonas, Kevin and John were all on the brink of laughing at me while Joe, my Mom and Mrs. Jonas were looking at me worried while Liz and Nick were looking at me with…sympathy eyes.

Now, I knew why Liz would be looking at me with sympathy eyes and unless Nick had supersonic bat hearing and heard our conversation, I had no idea why he would be giving me sympathy eyes. But I shrugged it off when looking back at my mom to see her worried expression.

“I knew that!” I stated while turning my bag around from behind me to have it ready to go the right away. “I was just testing you, and you mom, you get an A for the day!” I stated while practically running past them all to get to the door that my mom had pointed to.

I let out a huff when I knew I was far enough away from everyone and shook my head while mumbling to myself that I was so stupid when I heard Nick’s voice yell, “Wait up Steph!”

I turned a little at that, wanting to make sure it was Nick and not Joe, before I stopped and saw him give a peck to Ally’s check before running towards me with his luggage behind him.

Once he was close enough to me, I turned around and slowly started to walk away to make sure there was at least 7 feet of distance between me and Joe.

“Hey Nick, what’s up Bro?” I tried to ask as normal as possible but that failed because of a few reasons.

Reason number one being that I never call him, ‘bro.’ Reason number two, was that my voice cracked so he knew I was trying to stay calm and Reason number three, I stuck my fist out for him to fist bump me.

He looked at me for a few seconds with a confused look before looking down at my hand and slowly fist bumped me before looking at me again and asking, “What the heck was that all about?”

I let out a nervous laugh and started my walking back up again since I stopped in order to fist bump him and asked, “What was what? I didn’t do anything.”

He grabbed my arm though, putting a halt to my walking and I flew forward a little bit from my suitcase hitting my leg.

“Oh don’t give me that little missy!” he ordered and I wanted to interject and tell him that I was 3 years older than him, but he kept going. “You know what I’m talking about. Back there, with Joe. What was that?”

I let out a loud sigh after his eyes widened for a few seconds, silently asking me to answer his questions and that’s when I caved.

“Joe…” I started…I didn’t really know how to word it correctly. “How do I put it?” I trailed off while pinching the bridge of my nose for a few seconds before saying anything else. “He just…he makes it difficult. He knows how I feel about him and yet he acts so…he acts like he doesn’t know that I love him. It’s just difficult going back and flirting all the time with each other how we used to when I know that their’s nothing behind it but to torment me and make me go insane with his little gestures he does. Like his winks and the way he was acting on the plane, and when he carried me down the terminal, it’s all so aggravating.”

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, saying all of that and getting it fully off my chest, felt amazing. Granted, it probably would’ve done more good to say it to Joe than his brother, but still, it was a start.

“He can be pretty dumb, we all know that…” Nick started. “But he just wants things to go back to the way they were before anything happens between you two. You know he likes you, you always have.” he stated and when I opened my mouth to say something he brought his hand up and pointed his finger at me to scold me. “And don’t say that you don’t because you know he does!”

“But-”

“There are NO Buts!” he cut me off. “Of ‘if’ or ‘ands’! You know he likes you and I’m sure if you were to tell him what he’s doing to you and how you feel about it, he would figure out a way to make sure you aren’t uncomfortable. Talk. To. Him.” He stated. “I’m sure he’d understand. He doesn’t want to hurt you, and you know that. So just talk to him because by you running away like you just did now and not telling him what you’re thinking…well, as much as I hate to say it, it’s like your’e not talking to him all over again. And I don’t want to go through that again with him. He was mess Steph when you stopped talking for however long that was. You’re hurting him and hurting yourself by not telling him how you feel about all this.”

I bit my lip as I looked at him and let all his words sink in, along with the guilt with what he said. I was hurting him….and myself by not being honest with Joe. Ugh, I hated myself all over again. And I hated Nick for being right! That 15 year old smart ass!

He let go of my arm then and I looked back to see everyone making their way closer to us and I had to do something to get Nick to believe me and to get me away from Joe until I knew what to say to him to cover up my peculiar behavior.

I could just take the easy way out and say that, “I’m Weird.” and leave it at that. But then again, that wouldn’t do anything. I’d still be hurt every time Joe flirted and then he would hurt whenever I ran away. Again, I hated Nick for bringing this to the table.

“Fine! But only if it’ll make you feel better!” I stated while turning on my heel and making my way forward again while Nick started walking next to me as well while laughing and saying, “Yeah, it’ll totally make me feel better knowing that you’re finally telling my brother what he does to you. That’s my main concern.”

I wanted to laugh too since the sheer sarcasm was so easy to pick up on, but I couldn’t let him win. He already won in my head, he didn’t need to know that.

“Glad we both understand that you care about me more than you like to let on.” I stated and then we both burst into laughter together.

“Hey Nick!” Frankie’s little voice sounded from behind us and we both stopped laughing to turn and look at him while he ran towards us.

“What’s up Frank?”

“Well….” he trailed off while scuffling his feet and I noticed that he wasn’t carrying his luggage. I looked back and noticed that Joe was carrying it with a smirk on his face and I turned my attention back to Nick and Frankie. Hopefully I’d figure out what that smirk was for. “Joe thought it would be a good idea to play Tag right now, so YOU’RE IT!” and with that, Frankie smacked Nick against his arm and then took off towards the doors we were heading for while Nick quickly started to run after him as best as he could with his suitcase trailing after him.

Not even a full 30 seconds after Nick ran off after Frankie, Joe made his way next to me and I tried my hardest to act normal for the time being. As much as I wanted to take off like Nick and Frankie did a few seconds ago, I knew I couldn’t because 1. I had a suitcase trailing after me and Joe would catch up with me and 2. Joe would follow me until I stopped and there wasn’t really anywhere to go once we got the cars. Unless I ran all the way to the hotel, but I probably wouldn’t make it there. I have a horrible sense of direction. And the fact I don’t know where it is.

“So…you ok? You seemed to like…freak out or something.” he stated while giving me a nervous look out of the corner of his eye.

I knew I had to talk to him, but in the middle of an airport, where we were lucky they hadn’t been spotted yet, didn’t seem like an appropriate time. Plus, I didn’t really want to have that kinda of conversation in such a public place with his parents a few feet away to listen to all of it. No thank you.

I smiled sweetly at him and nodded my head before saying, “Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I just needed a different perspective on something and Nick cleared it up for me. But thanks for caring.”

He smiled widely at me then and then bumped my arm with his while saying, “Well of course, I care. That’s what best friends do.” and then excused himself to go play Tag with Nick and Frankie.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my phone out of my suitcase to text some people. Mainly Demi and Megan. I would need them for this. They both knew what I was going through at this point in time and Megan never failed to have a good idea what it came to boys and Demi…well, she knew Joe just as well as I knew him so I needed her input too.

“Help Me!” was all I text them right as I walked out the doors to see Nick, Frankie and Joe standing in a triangle, Joe and Nick using their luggage as a way to block Frankie’s advances to tag them.