A Simple Love Story. Not!

Dinner was a little less short than hysterical. Between Joe and Frankie switching ages on us, Duckie and myself trying everyone’s food and Mr. and Mrs. Jonas constantly having to break up Kevin and Liz due to their side conversations and plenty of lip locking, it was an eventful night. It wasn’t like they were full on making out though. They just liked to throw in little kisses every once in a while since they were actually able to, now that they were together.

Although, after everything was said and done, I was pretty wiped out. And Frankie sure was too.

“I’m tired Mommy.” Frankie yawned out while leaning up against her and closing his eyes.

I liked his train of thought, sleeping on a shoulder, and I realized I was nodding my head to Denise’s response to Frankie.

“Everyone else is too sweetie. Let’s just pay for the bill and we’ll all go to sleep.”

I turned my head to my right to notice that Ally was completely passed out on Nick’s shoulder and he was smiling widely while letting the tips of her hair tangle around his finger.

They looked so happy together and even though I was jealous of my sister for getting her guy in the end, I couldn’t help but beam. He was absolutely amazing to her despite the distance between them. Always calling her and texting her, randomly sending her flowers on days that he somehow knew when she was having a bad day. That actually creeped me out a little bit. I’m about 90% sure that those Jonas boys, mainly Nick and Joe, planted video cameras in our house since they always knew what was going on before we actually told them.

But anyways, back to them being happy.

I honestly could say that I never had seen her so happy before in my life, even though she was asleep at the moment. But I’d like to state the fact that she had a smile on her face, while she was sleeping. Now, I know that sounds probably normal and to deduct that she’s having a good dream and that’s what’s making her smile, but this is my sister. I know her better than anyone else…other than herself. She doesn’t really make faces when she sleeps. Actually, whatever she’s feeling before she falls asleep is what’s usually portrayed on her face. Like, if she’s upset about something, her face is all scrunched up. If she’s confused or puzzled about something, her eyebrows are scrunched together. And if she’s happy, well…that seemed to be the winning look recently. But normally, it’s just…straight-faced. Meaning that she’s not feeling anything and that she’s not thinking about anything either.

I just really hoped that Ally’s happiness would last longer than mine did when I was dating Andy. Our relationship was literally like the story books. Well, at least in front of people. But when it was us two, it was…boring actually. He never really wanted to do anything except work on his car or drive it around. He never really was an open person so talking was pretty much out the window. And the fact that we barely agreed on anything made it a little bit more difficult when it came to listening to music or watching TV.

Ugh…my relationship advice probably isn’t the best since I didn’t even notice how horrible mine was. God, I can’t believe I wasted 2 years with that guy.

I shook my head and sent Nick a small smile when I noticed he was looking at me with a concerned look on his face before directing my attention towards Kevin and Liz.

God, now even though I said Nick was amazing for my sister and what not and how they were perfect together, Kevin and Liz…they were like….they made Ally and Nick’s relationship go to the back burner.

Liz and Kevin, they were front and center baby. Stealing the book on relationships and re-writing it together. They were flawless. She bent, he’d bend even more. She’d give, he’d take while giving back in return a few seconds later. It seemed like every time I looked over at them whenever they were together, it was like they only saw each other. Everything else seemed to melt away.

God, I wanted that.

“Jeez Steph, I know I’m irresistible, but can’t you wait till we’re back in the rooms?” I heard Joe’s voice ask me as I took my head off his shoulder.

I wasn’t even aware that I was leaning on him. Must’ve happened during my swooning session upon watching the most cutest couple in the world, followed by the most perfect couple in the world.

Now…if cutest and most perfect were already taken, what did that leave Joe and I with? Assuming that we got together..but still…most…dysfunctional? Most….funny couple ever? Hmm…I’m gonna have to think about it more.

“Sorry.” I mumbled quietly while leaning towards the table and grabbing my ice water. But Joe grabbed me around the waist and pulled me and my chair closer to him while directing my head towards his shoulder while saying, “Don’t’ worry about it. You can sleep on me all you want. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

I was smiling widely I’m sure throughout this whole statement, but his last sentence caught my attention.

Me? Sleeping on him? I don’t think so buddy. He always slept on me. Not like I had a problem or anything with that….I just needed to set his facts straight.

“What are you talking about?” I asked with a small laugh and leaning up off of him.

“Well, you know. Like all the times we slept together in your bed…you would sleep on me.” he stated, grabbing his water and chewing on some of the ice from the cup.

“Umm…Joe, you always slept on me.” I corrected him with a laugh. But he simply eyed me up, sexily I might add, and brought his elbow up onto the table and leaned on it towards me, asking, “How so?”

“Joseph!” Denise quickly reprimanded him. He looked towards her and said a quiet, “Sorry” before turning his attention back towards me and asking me the same question again.

Ok…so maybe I was looking too far into it, and shouldn’t have thought it, but I couldn’t help myself. It gave me an odd sense of victory that I caught his attention more than his mother yelling at him in public.

“Well…” I started and leaned into him. I knew I was setting myself up to hurt more so than I already did, but I was going to listen to Liz. I was going to have fun flirting with Joe since he was flirting with me. I just had to re-iterate to myself that it didn’t mean anything to him but flirting. Nothing more and it never would be.

“You always had your arms around me. And your head was always on my shoulder. All I’m saying is you were the one who slept on me, not the other way around.” I stated quietly so his parents didn’t hear that little bit of information. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate mine and Joe’s sleeping situations when they were told he had slept on the couch all the time.

“Like…..” he trailed off and moving his chair slightly before saying, “This?” and then lunged his body at me and wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzling my neck while I giggled from his actions.

Joe and I were the disgustingly cute couple…assuming that we’d get together….

After a few seconds, he let go and my heart hurt a little bit. It sucked knowing that none of this affected him the way it affected me.

From here on out, I’m not flirting with him until I tell him!

“It sure is comfier on a bed.” I heard Joe whisper into my ear and even though I just made that promise with myself, I couldn‘t help but giggle and sigh upon feeling his breath hit my skin. I was so addicted to this boy it was insane.

“Alright kids….lets head back to the rooms and get some sleep.” I heard Mr. Jonas say faintly before everyone started getting up out of their chairs and pushing them in, leading the way towards the rooms.

I snapped out of my little reverie Joe had put me in and moved to get out of my seat, but Joe stopped me and pulled it out for me and then bowed slightly and extended his hand while saying, “My Lady” in an English accent.

I laughed a little bit at his accent and then took his hand while standing up and saying, “Thank you very much kind Sir.” in an English accent as well.

Joe was a lot better at accents than I was.

As I turned to leave the restaurant and followed after everyone, I heard Joe let out a small whimper before asking, “Too good for me to walk you to your room?”

I spun around and looked at him slightly confused. I didn’t know that he wanted to walk me to my room. Otherwise I would’ve waited for him. But before I could even say anything, I saw the puppy dog face come onto his face and I whined, “Not the puppy dog face!” at him.

“Of course the puppy dog face. It’s the only thing that works on you anyways…” he trailed off while continuing to pout out his bottom lip and looking at me with sad eyes.

I simply rolled my eyes at him while turning around and sticking my right arm out for him to loop his arm around and within seconds, he was at my side. Arm looped and everything.

As we headed over to the elevators and coming into view of the parents, Joe all of sudden steered me to the left towards the stairs while everyone started calling out to us.

“We’re taking the stairs.” Joe simply yelled to them while dragging me up them and the elevator doors closing.

“But why?” I whined out. I know, I’m aware I sound like a 5 year old, but I was tired and I really didn’t want to climb up some stairs right now. Even with Joe’s arm looped around mine.

“Because, I had to share you all day and now I want my ‘Stephanie Time’ and if it has to be on the stairs, then so be it.”

My ears perked up and I really hoped that ‘Stephanie Time’ consisted of some Joe and Stephanie lips touching…but if not…that’s ok I guess. At least he was cute when he was upset about having to share me all day. And I like that he wanted alone time with me. I mean, aside from the fact that it gave the perfect opportunity to talk to him about what he did to me, I got to just…hang out with Joe. Even though it would probably be for about 5 minutes. But hey, 5 minutes alone with Joe is better than no time alone with Joe. Although, I did forget that I was incredibly tired at the moment and it seemed as if my body was reminding me of that.

I let out a yawn as he started taking the stairs 2 at a time, dragging me behind him since I was not going to be doing that. Where was the rush? I thought he wanted alone time.

“Well, you better take advantage of the time it takes to get to our room because I’m going to bed as soon as we get up there.”

“Are you serious?!” Joe freaked once I made my comment, his hold tightening on my arm since that’s where he was gripping me during his 2 stair stretch. “It’s like…8:15” he continued, looking at his wrist where there wasn’t even a watch present.

That caused a small laugh out of me before reaching into my pocket and grabbing my phone to tell him the real time. Even though he was only a couple of minutes off.

“It’s 8:19 for your information, and yes I’m serious. I’m extremely tired since I got about 2 hours of sleep and I basically did nothing except sit all day. But tomorrow, I’ll be all bouncy and normal for you. Promise.”

“Yeah.” he shot at me sarcastically. “That nap you took down by the pool looked excruciating.”

“Hey now!” I said while letting out a small laugh and shoving him a little bit, which caused him to emit a small laugh. “It was a great nap until someone threw cold water at me.” I stated shoving him a little bit again while he laughed a little and some of his hair fell onto his face.

I smiled widely upon seeing him move it back into place and was thrown into a vision of what it would be like to touch it myself, but Joe’s sudden conversation topic of how he liked the moon, brought me right out of it.

“What?” I managed to laugh out while we turned off of the stairs since we finally made it to our landing that our rooms were in.

“I like the moon. What’s so confusing about that?” he asked me while looking at me confused. Like I was the one who changed the subject completely. And instead of trying to explain to him why I was confused, I just simply shook my head, let out a laugh and then said, “I like the moon too.”

“Well then, make sure you have your phone on you tonight.” He said to me while giving me a hug.

“What?”

“You heard me.” he simply responded back to my question, while he opened his door.

“I know I heard you, but I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“I’ll see you later. Goodnight Steph.” Joe stated while disappearing with smirk on his face behind his door, and sending me An Air Kiss?! Are you kidding me?! Air kiss?!

I whipped around so fast, butterflies in my stomach and the hallway spinning, and managed to unlock my door, the girls finishing getting ready for bed and hiding the smile that wanted to come across my face.

Ok…so maybe it would be a little bit more difficult to get over Joe than I thought, but I was going to do it. First, I was going to tell him what he did to me, making him not want to be my friend because we would get into a huge fight about it. Then, I would have to get over him because he wouldn’t want to be around me anymore and therefore, in order to at least get over him, I’d hang out with Eric. He was cute, he was nice and he was smart. Plus, he didn’t remind me of Joe at all so that would be good.

I shook my head though, getting my steps out of my mind and decided to get ready for bed with the girls and falling asleep to uphold my promise to Joe about being my normal crazy self with him tomorrow.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1:27 in the morning? Who the heck in their right mind would be texting me this early?

I groaned as I rolled over and picked my phone up off of the nightstand that was next to my side of the bed and opened it up. Wincing from the light that it emitted and hiding it underneath the comforter to not wake anyone else up from the light.

After I rubbed my eyes a little bit and tried to get it accustomed to the bright light, I was finally able to read who sent it to me.

Joe.

I let out a frustrated sigh and hit the open button to read it, let out another angry sigh before getting out of bed and quickly grabbing my sweatshirt and flip flops before exiting the room as quietly as possible.

“This had better be good.” I mumbled to myself upon closing the door and turning around to see no Joe in sight.

I was in no mood right now to see what he wanted, so after a few seconds I reasoned that after one more minute I’d go back to bed. I wasn’t a morning person in the first place, but this wasn’t even considered morning. It was 1:27 at night…so it was still night time to me.

But of course, right when I was about to go back into the room, Joe slowly emerged from his room, slowly shutting the door behind him.

“I thought I told you in 5 minutes. Not right away.” he whispered to me while his door clicked shut.

“I don’t care. What am I doing being up at 1:30 in the morning?” I snapped at him, but of course, he seemed oblivious to my obvious anger with him at the moment by asking me, “You said you like the moon right?” and then grabbed my hand and led me away from our rooms towards the elevators.

I let out a small whimper of protest being pulled away further from my bed.

“So what if I like the moon? Joe, I want to go back to sleep.”

“No you don’t.” he said quickly, pushing the button of the elevator and then letting go of my hand while we waited.

“Joe, this better be good!” I hissed at him, too tired to even ask him about what he meant by his “No you don’t.” comment.

“Yeah, yeah. And you know how I said I wanted ‘Stephanie Time’ right?”

I couldn’t help the smile come across my face from hearing him say that. It made my heart flutter and my head get all cotton-bally. He was just too damn adorable.

“Joe…” I sighed out, breaking out of my lovesick spell he put me under. “What are we doing?” I asked as the doors opened up and we both went into the elevator, him hitting the Lobby floor button.

“It’s a surprise.” he sang. “But you’re gonna love it because…I love it.” he said enthusiastically while we rode the elevator down and I rolled my eyes.

Sometimes, I loved him and sometimes, I couldn’t stand him. This being a time I couldn’t stand him. I was half asleep, slowly becoming more awake, much to my distaste, and didn’t even know why I was awake. This wasn’t looking good for him right now.

It seemed that as soon as the doors opened again and we were now in the lobby, that another ball of energy ripped through his body because he grabbed my arm and started jogging towards one of the side doors of the lobby. Making me send an apologetic smile to the lobbyist while Joe pulled me along.

We exited the lobby, entering the cool night air and having it be a beautiful navy blue since there were lights around us off the side of the building. But I didn’t have too much time to take in the scenery since Joe was pulling me towards what looked like a playground.

“Are you sure we’re allowed out here?” I asked as we got closer and I could see the sand surrounding it.

“Of course I’m sure. This is open 24/7. Now, what do you want to go on first? The swings or the round spinning metal thing?”

“The merry-go-round?” I asked him with a laugh at his naming of the item.

“Yeah, so what do you want to go on first?” he asked me, letting go of my hand once we reached where the grass ended and the sand started, standing right in the middle between the jungle gym and swings and the merry-go-round.

“How about…” I drug out, slowly making my way closer to the swings. “The swings!” I yelled once I was a little bit past Joe and shoving him to get some leverage to get in front of him. But of course, he beat me to them and started swinging on them right away with a little laugh.

It was silent between us, Joe slowing down on his swinging to where he was just pushing his feet back and forth on the sand like I was, our feet staying in contact with the sand the whole time.

“Ya know…” I stated after a few seconds went by between us and looking up at the stars. “Since we’re so close to the equator, you can see almost every constellation.”

I wanted to add, ‘I learned that from Astronomy class thank you very much’, but I wanted him to think that I knew that all on my own so I left that out.

“Really? What’s that one then?” he asked while pointing up to a pinkish looking star.

I quickly looked around us and then mentally measured the angle from where it was located before saying that it was probably Mercury.

“Like the planet?”

“Are you serious?” I asked him, my mouth hung open and looking at him like he was insane and trying my hardest to refrain from laughing at him.

“No…” he drug out, his voice cracking slightly. “I’m just testing you.”

I let out a laugh then and nodded my head before looking back up at the stars. But of course, I was with Joe and I got that weird feeling that he was watching me after a few minutes went between us silently.

“What?” I asked him slightly irritated. It was hard to find constellations when you have someone staring at you.

“How did you know I was looking at you?” he asked me and I could hear the smile on his face.

“Because I know you. Now…what do you want?” I asked him, finally turning to look at him.

He looked away at that point, letting out a loud sigh before looking back up at me and asking, “Are you having fun yet?”

“Well, I guess. I mean, it’s our first day and stuff and we haven’t really done anything, but sure. I’m having fun. What about you?”

I had to admit, Joe was random and it cracked me up most of the time, but his question completely threw me off guard. I always had fun with him, even when it was against my will in the beginning, like right now, but I got to be with him and that’s all that mattered. Being in love with him or not, we always had fun when we were together.

“Yeah.” he replied after nodding his head a few times. “Especially right now though. We never really get to talk anymore since we’ve been with everyone.”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh at his answer.

“Joe, we talk all the time.”

“Well, so far on this trip. We haven’t been able to have any ‘us’ time so we haven’t been able to really talk. But…how about…how about we go get something to eat?” he asked while getting up from his swing and extending his hand to me with a giant smile on his face. “Just the two of us. Let’s go.”

“Joe, as sweet as that is, it’s quarter to 2 right now. I don’t think any plane will be open for us to eat.” I let out a small laugh, even though my heart broke a little bit to reject him. He was just too cute right now and the fact that it would just be us two really appealed to me. But there really was no place for us to go at this point in time.

“That’s true.” he said softly while sitting back down on his swing and brining his hand up to his mouth to tap it while he thought for a few seconds. “But we will go out to dinner some time this week. Just the two of us. Deal?” he asked me in….a hopeful tone. At least, it sounded like a hopeful tone. I didn’t want to get my hopes up but it really sounded hopeful. Plus, the look in his eye went along with it. And they always say that the eyes are the window to the soul. And I could see Joe’s soul in that moment. He was asking in a hopeful tone.

Yeah right! A date with you when you obviously think that we're just friends? It'll kill me!

“Sure! Sounds good.” I stated quickly before getting up off of the swing and going over to the Merry-Go-Round and laying between two of the bars that you hold onto when it‘s spinning.

I just made a date with Joe…and he was asking me in hoping that I would say yes...what‘s going on?

Within a matter of seconds, Joe as at my side, laying down in between the bars next to me while I scanned the sky for constellations, and it just so happened that I spotted something else so much better.

“Oh My Gosh!” I practically yelled while sitting up so fast, that if I wasn’t so excited, I would’ve gotten extremely dizzy. “You can see the Andromeda Galaxy! Look!”

I pointed up towards the sky towards the object of my excitement, but Joe’s whining, which I have to say was absolutely adorable on him made me pause for a few minutes to let out a small laugh.

“I don‘t see anything! Show me! Show me! I want to see it!”

I mentally bit down my, “That’s what she said” comment and slid over to the bar that was keeping us apart, but he slipped under it and pressed his cheek against mine, sitting up on his knees and looking up at the sky to follow my finger.

WOW! He smells amazing. And his stubble…to die for. I’m sure he’d shave it off come morning but….it feels…good against my skin. If he didn’t shave it off though he’d look gorgeous…then again, he always look gorgeous- “I still don’t see it!”

So I know it was conventional to want to jump him right there and make out with him under the stars, but come on. He was absolutely adorable and his body heat was inviting as hell, even with my sweatshirt on. But I couldn’t do that….it would go against my promise to myself and screw us over in the end.

I took a few deep breaths before pointing to the star again and moving his head to where mine was previously while saying, “You can’t see the actual galaxy since it’s so far away. But that star…right there?” I asked him, leaning next to him again and looking up at the star to keep myself distracted. “The fuzzy thing next to it…”

“I thought my eyes were going funky on me, but ok…so the fuzzy thing next to it is the galaxy thing?” he asked me, both of us keeping our eyes trained on it as if, if we looked away for a second, it would disappear on us.

“Yep. It’s so fuzzy though because it’s so far away and the fact that human eye can’t capture all the light it’s actually emanating. If we had a telescope, we could probably see the swirls and everything.” I didn’t really notice how…‘trance-y’ I got while talking about until then. It was just that I’d seen so many pictures of what it would look like, but to actually see it with my own two eyes…it would be phenomenal.

“That’s pretty cool.” he said somewhat excited from next to me and I saw him turn to look at me through my peripheral vision. I tried to ignore him, and the fact that my stomach was doing flips from wondering why he was still looking at me, but after a few minutes, I had to ask.

“What?”

“Nothing.” he responded with a small jump, as if I took him out of his own daze. “You just…you amaze me with the things you know. I never would’ve known that fuzzy thing was a galaxy if you weren’t here with me.”

I smiled widely at him when I saw a smile sweep across his face and I swear, we had a ‘moment’. Like where you just look into each other’s eyes for a long period of time and there’s that voice in the back of your head saying, “Now’s the moment. Kiss him. Do it now.” but it was broken when Joe snapped out of it first and then hit my leg softly, breaking the whispering in my head from his talking.

“We should go to a giant….space, star place thing-”

“A planetarium.”

“Yeah, that, and just get a telescope and look at the stars all night long. We can see the galaxy together and just sit in awe while we look at it. How does that sound?”

“That sounds like…a horrible idea. Worst idea you’ve ever had Joe. Not going to happen. a great time. I’d love to do that with you Joe.”

“Cool.” he said with a quick head nod before looking back up at the stars while I turned my head away and mentally slapped myself in the face for my answer.

How am I gonna get over him if he’s taking interest in things I want to do. And he wants to do them with me? Ugh…this is gonna be so much harder than I thought.

I let out a quiet sigh and turned to look over at him and took in his profile.

He was absolutely beautiful. But I hated him even more for looking so beautiful. Men aren’t supposed to be beautiful. Women are…but no. Joe had to break the mold. I hated him. Loathed him. And yet, I loved him for it at the same time. Damn me and my feelings. This officially sucked.

I shook my head one more time before laying back down on the Merry-Go-Round to look at the stars some more and before I knew it, it was 2:45 and I was getting extremely tired between mine and Joe’s small talk. Mostly him asking what constellation was what and what it meant and stuff.

“So tomorrow…” Joe trailed off while we waited for our elevator to come down to us. “We should go swimming.”

“What?” I laughed out to him as our elevator opened up to us and we stepped in, me pushing the number 3 button to go up to our rooms.

“Well, we’re gonna be with everyone again and that’ll be our ‘us’ time. So what do you say? Swimming tomorrow at around….12:30?”

I let out another laugh from hearing his plan, not really thinking anything of it. I’m sure he’d forget all about it since we would have the whole day together, but whatever makes him happy for the time being is fine by me.

“Sure Joe.”

Plus, how could I really say no to a midnight dip with Joseph Adam Jonas. The man that I’m in love with? Wouldn’t that be like…a crime to say no to him or something?

We exited the elevator after it dinged to let us know that it was at our floor while Joe sang, “Great, it’s a midnight date and neither of us can be late!” and then picked me up and lifted me off the floor while twirling me around.

“Put me down!” I laughed out to him, even though I tried whispering as to not wake anyone up. The last thing we needed right now was to get caught for sneaking out of our rooms to go look at stars.

“No. I’m good.” he stated and then buried his head into my stomach which caused me to giggle from the feeling of his stubble against my stomach, due to my sweatshirt coming up from his picking me up.

I kept trying to scold him quietly through my laughter, but he didn’t put me down until we got to our doors, my stomach still having the feeling of his face against it which was still making me giggle and tingle from his touch.

“Well, thanks for tonight Steph. I had a lot of fun. I miss the goofy stuff we used to do.”

“What are you talking about Joe?” I asked him while pulling my key card out of my shorts pocket. “We never did anything like that or goofy stuff.”

“Well, I miss…I miss us. How we always had fun together all the time. I guess…I just don’t know how to word it right but we’ll have plenty of good times this week. It’s like…a guarantee.”

“I’m sure we will Joe.” I stated while pulling him in for a good night hug. Just one more sniff of his scent and I’d be good for the night. That, and the fact that I had it all over my sweatshirt now, for sure. “I had a lot of fun tonight. You’re right. I did like it. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Actually, today.” Joe quickly commented while I turned around to slid my key into the door knob device.

“Huh?”

“Today you’ll see me. It’s about 3 in the morning, so…today.” he stated with a shrug while I nodded my head and sent him a smile.

“Well, I’ll see you later then.”

“Yeah.” he said while looking down to the ground and scoffing his foot against the carpet. “Later.”

I noticed the drastic change in his behavior, but honestly, standing outside my door and just picturing my bed was making me even more sleepy and too tired to ask him what was going on.

I’ll ask him tomorrow.

“Good Night Joe.” I stated with a final smile before sliding my key and opening the door as quiet as I could while hearing a faint, “Night Steph.” behind me before I shut it and made my way towards my awaiting bed.