Hello Beautiful

“NO!!! NICK!!! STOP!!! DON’T DO THIS!!! JOE, NO!!!” I screamed at them. That’s when Kevin and Matt jumped in, pulling the two teenagers away from each other. I started crying.

“Guys, slow it down,” said Matt, as the boys struggled against their captors. “Don’t fight. Let’s just sit down and talk about it.” I could tell that Matt’s words were having no effect whatsoever. I choked back a sob. Joe and Nick both turned their heads to look at me. Nick caught one look at my tearstained face, scared; since I had never seen the guys fight before. The hard look on his face melted to one of concern, I guess for me, and then into a face of disgust, which, at first, I thought was for my tears, until I saw him look at Joe, and then down at Kevin’s hands, holding him back from attacking his own flesh and blood, his best friend, his brother.

Joe looked at Nick’s face and stopped struggling under Matt’s vice-like grip. I walked over to Nick and put my hands on Kevin’s arms and told him quietly to let Nick go. He nodded and released him. I put both of my hands on the sides of his face. He looked miserable with himself.

“It’s ok. Nothing happened. No foul, no blood.”

“I think the term is ‘no blood, no foul'.” He cracked a grin. I hugged him tightly.

“Did you really bite him?” he asked playfully.

“Yes,” I said seriously.

“Did he really stick his hand under your bra?” he asked, trying to be casual. His tone didn’t fool me. I could tell he was pretty angry.

“That reminds me, could you hook it back for me?” I asked, turning my back to him so that I didn’t have to see what his face looked like. He slowly lifted up the back of my shirt, rubbing my back gently with his warm hands. I felt him re-hook the back of my bra and run his fingertips lightly down my spine. I shivered at his touch, remembering our kiss, and he, almost reluctantly, pulled down the back of my shirt. I turned around to face him again.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He sounded pissed off to the extreme.

I took his hand gently and led him towards where Joe and Matt stood. Matt had loosened his grip, but still had one hand on Joe’s arm, just in case. I didn’t think that was necessary, but I didn’t say anything.

This whole thing was my fault, so I figured I had better fix it. But it turns out, I didn’t have to.

Joe was the first one to apologize. “Nick, Laura, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have set you guys up like that. And I promise I’ll delete the video. Laura, I really didn’t mean to embarrass you, I’m sorry. And I’m sorry that I was way too intense during the kissing scene, it’s just that, you’re a gorgeous girl and I’m a guy and I kinda let my hormones get the best of me. I totally deserved that slap in the face. I’m really sorry. Can you guys forgive me?” He had looked really serious up until that point about everything that he had said. Then he ruined it by giving us the puppy dog face.

I couldn’t resist that face. I don’t think anyone could.

“Of course I forgive you. This isn’t even your fault,” I said. “I was kind of plotting to do that to you during the scene, because of your video, so I kind of took advantage of your perverted boy ways and led you on so that I could bite your tongue off. I’m really sorry about that.”

“You guys do know this is all my fault, right?” said Nick.

“WHAT?” said Joe and I at the same time.

“How the heck is this your fault?” Joe asked.

“Well, I offered to rehearse with Laura and if I hadn’t done that then Joe wouldn’t have video taped Laura and I… Ummm…” He stumbled over his words here.

“Rehearsing.” Joe saved both our butts here.

“Right. Rehearsing, and then Laura wouldn’t have been embarrassed and then she wouldn’t have… Uhhh…” He struggled for words again. This time I jumped in:

“Plotted revenge?”

“You didn’t-“

“Oh yes, I did.”

“Anyway, she wouldn’t have ‘plotted revenge’ and then she wouldn’t have led Joe on, and then Joe wouldn’t have let his hormones get the best of him and then Laura wouldn’t have… Ummm…” Gosh, this boy was having issues with words today.

“Bitten her best friend’s tongue off?”

“I’m fine honest, look the bleeding’s stopped. It’s all good.”

“Seriously, guys let me finish.”

“We’ll be here all night.” Kevin teased him. “Get to the point.”

“Well, then we wouldn’t have had a screaming match and then me and Joe wouldn’t have tried to kill each other, and for that, I am truly, truly sorry,” he finished. Wow. He really thought this was all his fault.

“Do you remember On The Line?” I asked. It was a song that I had written and that we had recorded together.

They nodded.

“I don’t want us to end up like that,” I said sadly. “Nick, this isn’t your fault, you just offered to rehearse with me, which was really sweet of you--"

“That’s right. It’s all my fault, for standing Laura up at our planned rehearsal and then waiting for Nick to come along, so that I could video tape you guys and give it to Popstar! Magazine and make it look like you guys were a couple--"

“I knew she was looking for you, I had seen you 15 minutes earlier, by The Tree, talking on your phone. I should have just told her--"

“That I was up a tree, talking to the media, telling them I would email them some juicy footage of Nick Jonas and Laura Sullivan that I should never have taken in the first place--"

“It was my fault, I should have gone looking for you--"

“I told you I would meet you here, I should have kept my word and not set you up--"

“Like I said, I should never have asked you to rehearse with me--"

“And if you hadn’t, I wouldn’t know my part, which wouldn’t have helped us at all and on top of it Matt would have been upset that I didn’t know my lines--"

“Matt is upset,” Matt interrupted us interrupting each other. “I am very disappointed in all of you, especially you, Joe. You’re an adult. Nick is your brother. Laura is your best friend and, like Nick pointed out, she is underage. I don’t know what was going through your head, and I don’t think I want to know either. What I do want is for all of you to shake hands and apologize.”

“I think have a better idea. GROUP HUG!!!” Joe screamed. Me, Nick, and Joe rushed at one another and I ended up in a JoBro sandwich. I giggled, then burst out laughing. Pretty soon we were in a heap on the floor laughing our heads off. I could tell that Matt was trying hard to look peeved, but it really wasn’t working; he was just so happy to see that we weren’t ticked off at each other anymore.

When thought we had finally reigned in our laughter, we took one look at Kevin’s extremely annoyed face and it started all over again. I laughed until I was blue in the face. I had a stitch in my side and I couldn’t breathe. My stomach felt like it was on fire, but I just couldn’t stop. Every time I glanced at Nick or Joe, who, like me, were still cracking up, I started all over again. I was literally rolling on the floor with Joe and Nick standing over me, doubled over, and looking like they were about to fall over on top of me. I thought I was gonna suffocate. That’s the most I’ve ever laughed in my whole life. I found out later from Kevin that we were there almost two hours before we finally calmed down.

After our giggle fit, Matt wanted to do the kissing scene again, this time without me biting Joe’s tongue off. We got into position and stood still, waiting for Matt to call-

“Action!”

Joe looked at me carefully for a moment before pulling me close and kissing me. He kept one hand on my lower back and moved one hand to cradle my face.

“Joe, when I call ‘end kiss’ I want you to pull back, but keep holding onto her and look lovingly into her eyes. Got it? Oh, sorry, you can’t respond, your mouth’s full.” I could hear the smirk in Matt’s voice as he made a perverted joke. I would never be able to look at him the same way again, now that I had that lovely image in my head.

All the time I continued to kiss Joe and we were both getting pretty into it, but in a friendly way, kind of trying to prove who was the better kisser. I had the feeling that it was Joe.

“And… End kiss!” Matt called.

Joe pulled back. We were both breathing heavy. I knew I couldn’t help it, but I didn’t know if he was just playing along or if he was really trying to catch his breath. He did exactly what Matt said; he held me tightly and looked lovingly into my eyes. I knew Matt was gonna call ‘cut’ in a second, so quickly, but not to quickly, I stretched up on my tip-toes and planted a quick, gentle kiss on Joey’s lips and he pulled me into a hug.

“Cut!” I could hear the smile on Matt’s face this time when he said it. I held onto Joe for a half a second after Matt called ‘cut’ then let go and he immediately grabbed me up into a big bear hug again, and, once again, I was gasping for breath while he squeezed the air out of me.

“That was awesome you guys! It’s the only scene that we’ve only needed two takes for! Laura, the ending was inspired.”

“Yea, it was, good job Laura,” Joe praised me.

I could feel my cheeks going scarlet. “Thanks guys. You were great Joe,” I complimented him.

“Hey, thanks for not biting my tongue off.”

“No problem,” I laughed.