A Simple Love Story. Not!

“Guess what kids!” My mom called to us from the check in desk.

We had pulled into Animal Kingdom about 10 minutes ago and after we were done gawking at the African Tribal theme of the hotel, the parents all went to figure out our room situation.

“What mom?” I asked while trying my hardest to seem like I was excited when the truth of the matter was, was that I was extremely nervous and sick to my stomach. Even though Joe already knew about my feelings for him, it felt as nerve wracking to tell him how he made me feel now. I knew I had to tell him and the easiest way was probably to just get over with, but I couldn’t. The way he smiled at me when I looked at him, made my heart beat faster and I couldn’t open my mouth to tell him that I wished he’d stop doing that. Because, the fact of the matter, was that I really didn’t want him to stop. It hurt, but at the same time it gave me the funny feelings inside that I loved. Like the butterflies and the racing heart and my legs felt like they were melting. And that was all from a smile.

God I had it bad for that boy.

I was in Catch 22. I wanted him to do all this stuff to me, but I wanted him to know what it did to me. I wanted him to feel the same thing I felt too when I smiled at him. But I knew that wouldn’t happen, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop it either.

Fuck my life.

“All of our rooms are right across the hall from each other!” she said enthusiastically while John handed all of us girls our room keys while Mr. Jonas handed all the boys their room keys as my mother continued. “Well, not really all of us….but yet…whatever. Your room-” she stated while pointing to us girls. “Is connected to ours but across the hall from the boys while their room is connected to the parents room who is across from us.” And then with that, she picked up her suitcase to indicate we should go get settled in our rooms while everyone basically gave each other a celebratory hug.

Now normally, I would be all for that…being close to Joe and whatnot and having an opportunity to smell him, but as of right now…it just made me tense up when he wrapped his arms around me. Again, I liked the butterflies and the un-stopping smile that made itself present on my face when I was wrapped up in him, but as soon as it stopped the longing feeling of not having him near me settled in my stomach and it made me want to cry out right there in the hotel lobby.

“So what room are we then?” I asked after everyone was done hugging each other and I grabbed my suitcase to get away from Joe as quickly as possible. Maybe if I put distance between us it wouldn’t be as bad. Funny how I think of distance as a good thing now that I have him for a week straight. God, I just love irony.

Sense the sarcasm.

“You girls are 392 while we are 394.” my mom replied and for once, I was extremely happy that she was the one talking. Normally, my mom and I butt heads a lot, but at the moment, she was keeping my mind pre-occupied on the room assignments instead of on Joe. “While the boys are 393 and Mr. and Mrs. Jonas are 395.”

“Coolio! Let’s go!” and with that, Joe grabbed my arm and dragged me behind him towards the stairs.

Ok…so maybe I could get a hold on this whole thing because I didn’t get that strange longing feeling in my stomach when he let go of my arm. I got more excited about seeing our rooms like he was and I didn’t know if that was because I was going into ‘Best Friend’ mode or what…but either way, I wanted to stay in that place. It made life easier when I was around Joe and I liked things easy for the time being. It seemed like mine and Joe’s relationship has been nothing but difficult from the day I met him face to face and I wanted it to be easy again.

Once I actually let Joe’s voice break through my thoughts, him listing off numbers on the wall with 3 in front of the other two, my heart started pounding even more since we were getting so close to the rooms.

“We’re almost there!” Joe gushed while jumping up and down next to me after reading the number 385 out loud.

I let out a small laugh and in turn, started jumping up and down too until we reached both of our rooms, our backs facing each others in order to enter them.

I pulled my key card out of my pocket and went to insert it but Joe bumped his butt with mine which made me look over at him after settling back on my feet.

“On 3, let’s open the doors together.” he stated and before I could even agree with him, he started his counting.

As promised, silently anyways, we both swiped our key cards on 3 and at the simultaneously, Joe yelled, “Holy Cow! This is awesome!” while I let in a loud gasp from my surprise of the room.

Now don’t get me wrong, but I know what a hotel room looks like and everything, but this was absolutely amazing. We never stayed in the ‘best of the best’ rooms whenever we went on vacation because we could barely afford 2 nights, let alone a whole week, so you can only imagine my surprise to see a very orange-y colored room with two Queen sized beds that had white mesh hanging from the ceiling to form a canopy around them. We even had a balcony, I think. I was just about to investigate when I heard the rest of the girls intake of breaths from behind me.

I turned around and smiled widely at them while they looked at the room at how I probably looked not even 2 seconds ago and nodded my head while saying, “I know right?” and that made Ally snap out of her daze while running past me and throwing her bag on the bed closest to the balcony while yelling, “This one’s ours!”

Liz and Duckie both just shrugged their shoulders and set their stuff down on the ground in order to further inspect the room. And I was all for it until I heard a voice say, “I get top bunk!” from across the hall.

Top bunk? What the heck….are they crazy?

Slightly confused I made my way over to the boys room across the hall, only to realize that they did indeed have a bunk bed while a queen size bed was underneath it, a king bed pushed off into the corner.

“But I wanted top bunk!” I heard Joe’s ever so whiny voice say from the bathroom before making his exit and sending me a smile to let me know he saw me.

“If you wanted it that bad, you should’ve called it before I got in the room!” Frankie cackled from the ladder as he climbed up it and throwing his stuff up there to claim it before crawling down. Joe just huffed out a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest while glaring at the top bunk that Frankie had called.

“Hey Steph, you like your room? I guess it has a view of the animals or something.” Nick stated to me while making his way over with his bag still on his back. I guess he was still talking to the parents until a few seconds ago.

“Yeah, I think so. I haven’t checked it out yet to be honest. Just came over here to see your room, and watch Joe throw a hissy fit about not getting top bunk.” I laughed out while Nick rolled his eyes at my statement. I got the feeling that Joe did that a lot whenever there was a bunk bed and didn’t get it.

“Well then I guess I share the king bed with Kevin!” Joe called out while picking up his bag he had thrown on the floor upon entering and ready to move it there, but Kevin came around it from being closest to the wall and blocked him. “Oh no mister. You’re a bed hog. I am NOT sharing with you.”

Joe looked at him in disbelief, like he couldn’t believe that Kevin wasn’t going to be his bed buddy. I think he forgot there was still a Queen size bed for the claiming.

“I’m sharing with Nick. Right, Nick?” Kevin asked while further explaining himself to Joe while Joe whipped around to look at Nick and I.

I watched as Nick turned his back slightly, covering it up as to readjust his bag and shot me a sad look before letting a sigh and then looking back towards his brothers with a smile on his face.

“Sure Kev. I’ll share with you while Joe gets the Queen over there.”

Joe seemed to have just remembered that he wouldn’t be bed-less when Nick stated that and his hissy fit seemed to vanish into thin air when he threw his bag down now on his bed and turned to look at me.

“Let’s go see your room now!” he practically yelled in my face before jumping up and down in his spot and then dashed across the hall, me in tow.

“Wow.” Joe stated bluntly. “Ours is so….much better.” he finished with disgust all over his face while my jaw dropped.

“Are you kidding? I didn’t want to say it but, your room sucks. It’s a cream color…wow…that’s fun. Not! Orange is so much better and we have canopies over our beds and a balcony.” I quickly listed off to defend my room.

It was better. Clearly.

“Your room is just too girly for my taste. But you have the balcony…and I must say I wish we did. But we’ll have to suck it up and have fun in your room all the time then.” he said before turning his back to walk back to his room but I grabbed his arm to stop him in the hallway.

“What do you mean, have fun in our room all the time?” I asked.

I didn’t like the sound of the boys always in our room. Actually, I wouldn’t mind Nick, or Kevin or Frankie. Joe would be the one to cause all the mess that would ensue. Him and my sister combined was not a good thing for my borderline OCD with having to have everything clean.

“Well, it has the balcony and a little bit more room than our room. So we’ll have to suck it up and be in your gross girl room for the rest of the week.”

“Umm…no!” I stated quickly. “You’ll stay in your boy-ish ugly room and aren’t allowed in ours. Your going to make a mess in it and if your going to make a mess, do it in your room, not ours.” I said strongly, while he leaned up against his doorway and looked at me.

After a few seconds, my speech over with, a smirk appeared across his face while he brought his arms up and crossed them over his chest.

I really didn’t like the way he was looking at me right now. Aside from the fact that it felt weird to see Joe looking at me like I was amusing, his sultry stare in his eye was making that longing feeling settle in my stomach. I wanted him to look at me like that all the time, not just after I got done yelling at him.

“What’s your deal?” I asked him when his body shook slightly from holding his laughter in.

“You are.” he laughed out lightly. “You’re just…you’re so hot when you’re mad.” and with that, he gave me a once over before unlatching his arms and turning around before craning his neck around to look at me and say, “And by the way, we will be in there all the time. Just you wait and see.” He finished with a quick wink and then disappeared into his room while I stood angry and somewhat dumbfounded in my spot before letting out an angry huff and turning around to enter my room, slamming the door shut behind me.

That kid really irked me.

“Damn his charm and amazing good looks!”

“What?” I heard someone laugh out and that’s when I looked up and noticed that Ally, Liz and Duckie were all holding back laughter at my thought.

Damn it! I did it again!

There was nothing I could really do but just keep going with it. It’s not like I could deny it. They heard it perfectly clear and they all knew how I felt. What was the point?

“He just…he irritates me. But he does it such a hot way, that I can’t be mad at him which makes me even more irritated. It’s so complicated!” I vented out while walking over to my bag and started throwing all my stuff into drawers. I would straighten it out later, but for the time being, I was too upset to be meticulous about everything.

“The only reason…” Liz trailed off before going into the bathroom to put her toothbrush and hair stuff in there before coming back out and finishing her sentence. “He irritates you so much is because you love him.”

I noticed her small smile on her face upon saying that, and I really didn’t like that. The smile I mean, and the fact that she was right. I hated that even more I think.

“That’s just what makes it even more complicated!” I wailed while throwing my arms up in the air to show my frustration.

I didn’t realize how frustrated Joe really made me until now. Borderline yelling, throwing my arms around and not being OCD…this was all new for me.

“Yeah, but if it weren’t, you’d be bored with it already and you know it.” Duckie said while putting her stuff into the bathroom now and I let out a disgruntled sigh.

What was with them today?! It was like they were all against me here!

“What is it with you people? You’re all on Joe’s side!” I exclaimed while throwing the last of my stuff in my drawer before shoving it closed.

“Only because it’s your fault that you haven’t told him how he makes you feel whenever he flirts with you. How is he supposed to know what it’s doing to you, if you never told him?” Ally asked me while I rolled my eyes.

Here we go. I get a little speech now.

“Until you tell him how he makes you feel, expect us to be on his side about everything.” she finished after about 5 minutes of lecturing me and when I turned to Liz and Duckie to get them to at least back me up a little bit, they both nodded their heads in agreement to Ally’s last statement.

I rolled my eyes then and grabbed all my stuff that belonged in the bathroom while I left them all. I knew they were right, but that wasn’t helping my situation. I already knew I had to talk to him, that was a no brain-er. But the real problem was how to tell him. And where to tell him. They were telling me this whole time to tell him, but never once offered any advice on what to say and when to say it.

Show’s how much of a help they are!

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“Yo, Mom and John, both your names rhyme. You should get a show on Showtime. You two go together, which really helps the weather, because it‘s warm an-”

“Jo-”

“And he does down like a nerd battling a sumo wrestler!” Kevin said from behind his camera, causing a few of us to laugh while some of us looked at him like he was crazy.

That wasn’t the best analogy in the world, but it was still somewhat funny. Somewhat, is the key word.

After we all were done unpacking, it was a unanimous vote that we explore the hotel in order to get used to it. While were headed down to one of the indoor pools, Joe decided to give us some live entertainment and at the moment, I didn’t know if him rapping or him falling was more entertaining. And what was even more entertaining was that Kevin was already rewinding and watching his fall on his video camera. Kevin decided to be, ‘The Documenter’ of this little trip to Florida and said that it would be a ‘Timeless Memory’ of our first vacation together.

Whatever, as long as I got to rewind and watch Joe fall countless of times, I was ok with that.

“I’m good, I’m good! No need to panic!” Joe said while bouncing up off the floor and holding his arms out wide. I’m assuming he did that since he thought a hoard of people were going to come and cater to him. But the irony of it was that we all just walked right past him while he laid there on the ground.

“I don’t think anyone does anymore.” Nick mumbled under his breath, and Duckie, Ally and I all let out a small laugh at his comment to Joe’s panicking statement.

After a couple more falls and some more laughs on Nick’s comments about Joe falling, we finally made it to the indoor pool and then continued on with our spontaneous hotel tour.

To be completely honest, I thought we would’ve been mulled upon exiting the hotel rooms of ours, but apparently not too many people go on vacation in May and the paparazzi didn’t know that the boys were in Florida at this point in time. But we were only stopped 3 times throughout our hour long tour.

“So where should we go next?” Nick asked as we entered the front lobby from a side hallway.

Joe and Frankie, who were our leaders around the hotel stopped walking and ventured back over to us to converse about our next location.

“We could just relax at the outdoor pool for a bit. It’s really nice out right now.” Kevin voiced up, pulling his head away from his video camera as he turned it off.

“That sounds liked a good idea. Relaxation sounds good at this point in time.” Ally said from behind me and I nodded my head with her. The parents seemed to start their own conversation at that point about how they didn’t want to be outside and wanted to relax in their rooms.

“Well, if you kids are going to do that, might as well go back up to the rooms and grab your swimsuits. Us adults are going to just relax in our rooms instead of outside. It’s been a pretty long day for all of us.” Mrs. Jonas said while all of us nodded our heads in understanding.

We then started on our way back towards the room and since Joe nicknamed himself, ‘The Navigator’ he got us lost for a half hour on our way back to the rooms. He insisted on finding another way up to them other than the stairs we took before and the elevators. Who knew that there were two vending machines on the opposite sides of our floor?!

I quickly grabbed my black swimsuit and headed towards the bathroom to change while the girls were all still deciding on which one to wear, pulling a tank top and shorts out of my drawer too to wear over it on our way down to the pool.

I grabbed my drawstring UWM backpack and threw my cell phone, mp3 player and a sweatshirt in, just in case I got cold or something after I was done swimming while waiting for the girls and then went out into the hallway to wait for the boys.

To my complete surprise, Joe was already out there, jumping up and down with his blue floral swimming trunks and white t-shirt on.

I figured he’d be the person we would end up waiting for.

“What’s up Joe?” I asked him while leaning against the wall with my hands behind my back.

Now would be the perfect time to talk to him abou-

“Hey Nick!” I yelled enthusiastically upon seeing his curly hair come into view.

I was off the hook for now.

“I’m excited to go swimming!” Joe said enthusiastically through his jumping up and down while I nodded my head while Nick made his way over to me and leaned up against the wall.

For some odd reason, Joe decided to start skipping down the hallway at that point in time, going about half way down it before skipping back towards Nick and myself, only to turn around and started jogging down it.

“So, did you tell him?” Nick asked me when Joe was down at the middle of the hallway and was starting to make his way back.

“No. You came out when I was planning on talking to him.”

“Sorry.” he mumbled under his breath right before Joe came into ear shot of us and sent me a wink before turning around and jogged the other way.

I let out a groan upon seeing that, although I’m sure I was smiling while doing so.

Right as Joe came back towards us again, Kevin and Frankie both exited their room, Joe almost running into them but then doing a spin around them last minute to avoid a crash, while Liz came out of ours.

“You’re bringing that down to the pool?” I asked in a somewhat whiny voice when I noticed the small black device in Kevin’s hand.

“Yeah…should I not?” he asked, picking up his camera to show what he was asking about while I rolled my eyes.

“How are you going to swim if your video taping us?” Liz asked him while walking over to him and give him a quick hug around the waist and a peck on the cheek.

A huge smile came across Kevin’s face at the simple gesture before answering her question. Saying that he wasn’t going to swim and then turned it on and pointed at him and started his commentary. All the while, Joe was switching it up between jogging and skipping down the hallway and sending me winks whenever I was looking at him. Which was every time he ran past me.

Damn him!

“Today is our first day here at the lovely Animal Kingdom resort and we will be on our way down to the pool to have our first swimming experience.” he stated while I let out a small laugh at his statement.

“What?” Kevin immediately asked while turning the camera onto me while Joe yet again, skipped by us.

“Kev, I‘m pretty sure we‘ve all had our first swimming experience already. Maybe when we were 4 or 5.”

“Ok fine.” he huffed out and then turned the camera back towards himself and said in somewhat of an attitude. “This will be our first swimming experience in Florida together.” and then turned it back to me and asked, “Better?”

I nodded my head once and then said a quick, “Yes, thank you.” into the camera with a smart alek-y way while Duckie and Ally exited our room all ready to go. And just when Joe was walking past us, almost power-walking, he sent me another wink because I again, was looking at him. Except this time, Nick said something about it.

“Dude, is there something wrong with your eye or something? You have like this little...twitch.” he stated while mimicking what Joe must’ve looked like from his point of view and put a halt to Joe’s jogging that he was about to start up again.

“It's called a wink Nicholas!” Joe shot back at him defensively. “And thanks for pointing it out...on camera now!” he whined upon noticing Kevin’s video camera that was now on him.

“Actually, I didn’t get your eye spasm. Can you do it again for me?” Kevin asked while following after Joe who started to walk away from us.

“No!” Joe yelled. “Now let’s all go swimming.” he ordered while gesturing us all to follow and I heard Nick let out a small laugh. That’s when I knew he intentionally meant to call Joe out on his winking. To get him to stop.

“Thank you.” I whispered to him while Ally went to his side and he put his arm around her waist.

“No problem.” he whispered back before giving Ally a quick kiss on the temple and we all started to follow after Joe who was on the brink of sprinting away from Kevin who was walking after him with his camera, asking to do an ‘eye spasm’ from him.

After we all reached the pool area, having an elevator race down to the lobby, myself, Joe, Frankie and Duckie winning, we found a deserted table and a 4 chairs and put all of our stuff down.

Popping my mp3 player ear buds into my ears and laying down on one of the lounge chairs I took in a few rays of sunlight, smiling widely to myself since I already had that tingly feeling you get from sitting out in the sun for a while. I loved that feeling. It made me want to giggle for some unknown reason.

Duckie took up the chair on my left while Ally took the chair on my right, Liz laying down next to her while the boys complained about us being lazy. And after 10 minutes, all three of them gave in and went into the pool, Kevin giving his camera to me since I was the only one not doing anything.

It wasn’t long before Nick, Ally, Joe, Frankie and Duckie started a chicken fight. Duckie being the ref, Joe and Frankie as a team while Nick and Ally were a team. Kevin and Liz were at the other end of the pool talking to themselves quietly and quite close.

Since I was getting somewhat bored with just sitting there watching them through a lens, I decided to at least attempt to have some fun with this.

I turned the camera towards me and sent it a big smile and waved before going into my commentary.

“So, here we are at the lovely Animal Kingdom resort in Orlando, Florida. I’m Stephanie and I’ll be your commentator for the next couple of minutes. Or until I get bored. Now let’s see…” I rolled the camera around me slowly so that I got some of the hotel and animals in some of the shots before shooting the pool, getting some of the chicken war on camera and then turned it towards myself.

“Well look at that. There’s some people I know. Let’s go see what they’re doing.” and with that, I got up from my chair and went to the edge of the pool, casting a glance over at Kevin and Liz to make sure he wasn’t watching me. I’m sure if he saw me standing on the edge with his beloved camera he’d reprimand me or something, which would cause me to fall forward due to his yelling and then I would break his camera. I’d just have to be extra careful now and put my body at ease in case he were to yell at me.

“Let’s see…we have…” I trailed off, saying each person’s name and letting the camera settle on them for a few minutes before going to the next person before commentating again. “And it looks like Duckie is giving this round to Joe and Frankie!” I said enthusiastically, but after about 10 minutes of Frankie and my sister pushing each other while Joe and Nick splashed each other in the face, I got bored and moved on towards Liz and Kevin. It got as close to them as I could get without them noticing before I zoomed in on them.

Liz was currently up against the side of the pool, her elbows behind her, resting on the stones that were grouted around it while Kevin was leaning towards her, his arms on either side of her while they were about 6 inches from each others faces, talking about something and making them both smile like crazy and Liz laugh every once in a while.

It was actually kinda cute, if you got over the fact that they were disgustingly adorable towards one another. It almost made me want to vomit a little bit since I was bitter. I didn’t have anyone to make me giggle and smile like crazy on purpose. I didn’t have anyone give me quick pecks on the check and run their finger down the side of my face like Kevin was doing to her, to make me blush. I didn’t have anyone to hug sporadically and play with their hands underwater.

Ugh. Again, fuck my life.

I rolled my eyes and brought the camera back to me before saying, “Well, I’m bored and kinda tired now and since nothing too exciting is happening, I’m going to go take a nap and hopefully get a little tan. This is your commentator Stephanie, and I’m out. Bye!”

After I turned it off, and laying back down again, I took in the squeals coming from Ally and Duckie from the water war that had started between the 5 of them and before I knew it, I was passed out in my chair under the nice warm and hot rays of sunny Florida.

I sat up quickly upon feeling something cold hit my body and I yelled, “What the-?” while wiping at myself and realizing that it was water that was thrown at me.

“She’s alive!” I heard Frankie yell from right next to me and I laughed somewhat before asking him what he was talking about.

“Well.” he started while handing me a towel to dry myself off where I had water thrown at me while he explained what was going on. “We were yelling at you to wake up, but when that didn’t work, we started to tickle you, but you still didn’t wake up, so Joe thought that maybe we should throw you in the pool, but Ally said no because you might not wake up and drown, so he threw water at you instead. And it got you to wake up and you’re not dead!” he finished happily, jumping onto me and giving me a giant hug.

I let out a small laugh and hugged him back before he got off of me and I noticed Joe sitting on the edge of the pool, his back towards me, Frankie, and Kevin. I wasn’t too sure where everyone else was at the moment, but all that I really cared about was getting Joe back. Not that he got me soaking wet or anything, but still. That water was cold. And now that the sun was going down and it wasn’t that hot anymore…it was a little chilly.

I put my finger next to my mouth when I heard a small laugh emit from both Kevin and Frankie and snuck up behind Joe and right as I pushed him in, I let out a triumphant yell, but unfortunately, it was cut off due to Joe’s uncanny fast reflexes and he pulled me into the pool with him.

“I totally did not see that backfiring!” I said once I broke the surface of the water and coughing a little bit while Joe did the same.

“Well that’s because I have reflexes like a cat. Meow.” he stated and then pawed at me while I looked at him like he was crazy. Which he was…so, it wasn’t that out of the ordinary.

“Ok then. That’s a little weird for me, so I’ll be getting out now.” and I turned around and swam towards the side to pull myself out. Only to stop halfway through my lift when I heard Joe’s voice sing, “But that’s why you love me.”

I could practically hear the smirk on his face from the way he said it and it tightened my stomach a little bit from hearing those words come out of his mouth. I hated that he knew and used it against me.

That smart ass.

“So where is everyone?” I asked, finishing my lift out of the pool and Kevin helping me to my feet.

“They went upstairs to change for dinner. We’re going to one of the restaurants in the hotel around 6 or so. The parents called us.” Kevin notified me while I nodded my head and dried myself off as best as I could thanks to Joe getting me wet. Again.

“What time is it now?” I asked as Joe got out of the pool and started drying himself off as well. Only, he was intentionally hitting me with the towel every few seconds.

“Almost 5. So we need to head back so Mr. ‘I take an hour to get ready’ will have more time.” Kevin stated, his voice lowering while making fun of Joe. Causing Frankie and I to both laugh and then Kevin join in while Joe glared at us before saying, “Only sometimes I take an hour!”

It wasn’t a very good defensive maneuver if you ask me.

“Oh yeah. I’m sorry. It’s an hour and a half.” Kevin corrected himself, Frankie nodding his head while I laughed at the interaction. It was so easy to piss Joe about how long his ‘getting ready’ process took. I swear, sometimes, he’s a girl.

“Can I…” Frankie started, only to cut himself off with a yawn. “Get a piggy back ride. I’m tired.” he finished while looking at me and rubbing his eyes.

“Sure little guy. Just let me put my shorts back on and you’re gonna have to carry my backpack. Sound good?”

He smiled widely and nodded his head like crazy while I smiled sweetly down at him before pulling my shorts on and bending down for him to hop on.

“Oh! Kev, can I get one too?! I’m kinda tired.” Joe stated almost instantly while faking a yawn. “It’ll be like the good old days.”

“What do you mean good old days?” Kevin shot back at him with a glare while picking up everything and making sure nothing else was left behind. “You jumped on my back a few days ago and it made me fall to the floor. Which that hurt by the way!” he scolded before making his way to the door that led inside the hotel.

“Who ever said you didn’t have a price to pay for having fun?” Joe asked while shrugging his shoulders and looking at me for support. Sadly, I was picturing Joe jumping onto Kevin’s back and him falling to the floor. Man, of all times there wasn’t a camera rolling.

Kevin simply rolled his eyes to that statement and held the door open for myself and shoved Joe through the door since he wasn’t walking through it and was pouting about not getting a piggy back ride.

“Please?” Joe whined while we walked the lobby, Kevin somewhat power walking to get away from Joe while Frankie and I walked at a normal pace and laughed at the scene playing out before our very eyes. It was just too funny to see Joe acting like a 5 year old. Then again, he did that most of the time, but still. To see Kevin practically running away from him was even funnier than I imagined while Joe chased after with pleas and begging.

After another long, ‘Please’ on Joe’s end, reaching the elevators and Kevin practically stabbing the button with his finger to go up, he turned towards Joe and said, “Let me think.” pausing for a few seconds before yelling, “NO!”

“Oh come on Kev, please? I’ll give you one any time you want one!” Joe tried to bargain which only made Kevin roll his eyes before saying, “Considering I’m 20 years old and don’t want piggy back rides anymore, I’ll have to say no to that one.”

“Please Kevin?” Joe tried his hardest while whining softly and sticking his bottom lip out.

I had to give credit to Kevin though. I mean, I would’ve caved a few minutes ago, just to get Joe to shut up, and if I didn’t cave for that reason, I would’ve caved when he pulled out the usage of the puppy dog face.

“Oh wait a minute, that only works on Steph.” Joe laughed off while sucking him bottom lip back in while I yelled out a protest of, “Hey!”

Joe simply rolled his head towards me, raising his eyebrows while saying, “Don’t get too defensive. You know it’s true.”

I glared at him for a second before rolling my eyes and saying, “Still, cheap shot.” which got him to let out a small laugh before turning to Kevin and snapping his fingers quickly and jumping up and down slightly in his spot.

“How about…” Joe trailed off and the ding of the elevator went off, indicating that the doors would be opening any second. We all filed in and then Joe continued on with his plea bargain. “How about for a piggyback ride, I’ll get you whatever you want from Starbucks?”

I noticed Kevin’s hand stop right above the number 3 button on the elevator at this idea and he turned to look at Joe curiously before pushing it and then looking back at him again.

“Starbucks huh?” he asked and paused for a moment while the doors closed. “Anything I want?”

“Yeah. Plus, it’s not like you have very far to carry me now. We’re already in the elevator. So come on, just a piggyback ride to the room and I’ll get you whatever you want from Starbucks.”

“So let me get this straight, for this one-” Kevin said while lifting his hand up and extending his index finger towards Joe, “Piggyback ride, you’ll buy me whatever I want while we’re in Florida, from Starbucks?” he asked, just to make sure he had it right.

“Yes, now come on, we’re almost up to the floor!” Joe yelled quickly while jumping up and down to get Kevin to agree.

I laughed a little at his enthusiasm, and the fact that Kevin just tricked Joe by altering the agreement. Joe now had to buy anything Kevin wanted from Starbucks for him whenever they were in Florida. I had to hand it to him, Kevin could be sneaky when he wanted to be.

“Yes, now come on!” Joe whined as the number 3 appeared on the little screen of the elevator.

“Fine!” Kevin said loudly over Joe’s clapping. “But you have to hold my camera and I swear Joe, if you break it, I’m shaving your eyebrows off in your sleep, taking a whole crap load of pictures and then making you buy me a new camera.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Come on!” Joe said while grabbing Kevin’s camera and moving behind him to get on his back while the door opened. I stood in the elevator, holding the ‘door open’ button while they got situated and laughed and cried while watching Kevin try and carry Joe down the hallway to the room, falling into the walls and stumbling over his feet a few times while Joe yelled at him to go faster.

As soon as we both got to the doors, Joe got off of Kevin’s back and handed his camera back while patting him on the head and said, “Good Horse-y.” which caused Kevin to grab his camera back while muttering something under his breath and enter their room, Frankie in tow since he got off of my back.

“I love pissing him off.” Joe said while pointing over his shoulder towards Kevin and letting out a small laugh while I laughed a little too. It was quite entertaining. And it would be even more entertaining for when the time came that Joe would be spending a crap load of money on Starbucks in Florida.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you later for dinner. Gotta go make myself look good.” Joe stated while I rolled my eyes and bit back my comment on how he already looked good.

He gave me a quick hug and then sent me a wink before entering his room, throwing a, “See ya later.” over his shoulder in probably his most sexiest voices he’s ever spoken in before and then shut the door in my face.

“Damn you Jonas!” I mumbled under my breath while turning around and swiping my key card to go get ready for dinner.

I officially hated him for what he could do to me.