Look Me in the Eyes, and Promise Me Friendship

“So, what did you ask for that kind of cast for anyways?” Kevin asked Aubrey as they all stepped into the elevator. He hit the button for the 2nd floor and the doors closed behind them. Her leg was feeling better than it was before because it wasn’t all limp, and it was also numb because of some medication that the doctors injected in her leg. Her cast was removable so she could take showers and also hide it from her dad.

“So I can take normal showers and stuff,” it was part of the reason. What she didn't want to say out loud was that she could hide it from her dad so that he wouldn't hurt her more then she already was. So that she could use them all day, and then leave everything in the clubhouse when she went home. Joe kind of figured, and nodded at her.

She swung on her crutches for fun. Joe laughed at her and very gently ran his fingers through her hair. He pulled her close to him and slung his arm around her neck. He kissed the top of her head in a friendly way, and then the elevator rang. They arrived on the 2nd floor and the elevator doors opened. The guys walked and Aubrey wobbled down the hallway. They finally arrived at their destination. Outside of the door there stood a couple of teenage boys, and a few adults.

“Are you Nick?” a blonde kid asked him, glancing back and forth at a photograph that he held in his hand.

“Yes, I’m Nick. Nick Jonas,” Nick held out his hand and shook both the blonde kid and an Italian kid’s hand.

“I’m Alexander,” the Italian boy greeted himself.

“And I’m Hendrix,” the blonde kid followed.

“Who’s your friends?” he asked Nick, winking at Aubrey. Aubrey just blushed. Joe’s first impression of Hendrix wasn’t so good. He was jealous. He didn’t want his brothers new cast members to be hitting on his best friend; especially after everything that she has been through.

“These are my brothers...” he said.

“And I’m Aubrey,” she replied herself, then she winked back at Hendrix. She thought Hendrix was a cutie. This time he was one that blushed. Joe had enough.

“Let’s go inside. Lets meet the rest of your cast bro,” he spoke up and led the group into the room.

They all stepped inside and saw the room full of inspired actors. A pretty woman walked up to them.

“Hi! I'm Laney, I'm playing Belle.”

Nick introduced himself and the rest of the group.

“Hi Aubrey. I heard a friend of Nick's was going to the hospital. I’m guessing it was you. How’s the leg?” she asked, being extremely nice to her. Joe smiled at her concern. She was going to be a very nice Belle. Aubrey nodded nervously meaning her leg was okay.

The cast got to know each other pretty well through some theater games that they played. Kevin, Joe and Aubrey just sat back and watched. It seemed like it was going to be a very fun show to do. The director explained to them what all was going to be going on, and what it was going to take to make the show a reality.

Mrs. Jonas finally made her way up to the room and was still excited for her son.

They had free time afterwards, so all of the kids got together. The more that Hendrix talked to Aubrey, more and more jealousy ran throughout Joe’s body.

“How long have you and Joe been friends?” he asked curiously. Every second he was inching his way closer and closer towards Aubrey. She was sensing this, and she was getting very uncomfortable.

“f-five years,” she stoddard. The math didn’t seem right, but what do you expect? Hendrix was making Aubrey feel very uncomfortable and very nervous. Joe was now getting mad. He didn’t want any problems, so he just suggested that they leave. He looked at his watch trying to not make anything obvious.

“Man, 9 o’clock already? We should get going. I mean, we have school tomorrow, and we have a big test in Math,” Joe provided them with faulty information. Aubrey didn’t catch on right away. Nick and Kevin did, so they jumped up and straightened their shirts.

“No we don’t,” Aubrey was quick to say, as Joe helped her off the couch. Joe gave her a ‘yes we do!’ look and she finally caught on.

“Oh wait. Now I remember; The Pythagorean Theorem,” she nodded, helping Joe lie.

They all said their goodbyes to everyone.

“Guys, Ill be down in a minute. Just go and wait in the car for me,” Mrs. Jonas told her sons, and they obeyed. In the elevator, they had a pretty interesting conversation.

“Okay Mr. Jealousy McJealous Pants, why were you being so weird up there?” Aubrey asked Joe curiously, and he was silent. “Joe,” she awaited his answer.

“I don’t want any of those guys to hurt you. They don’t know your history,” he made something up, but it was a little bit of the truth. “But why would you flirt with them like that. You just met them,” he asked her, still a little jealousy running through his veins.

“I was just being nice, why should it matter though? Were not going out or anything,” she notified him. She wished that they were but she was right. They weren’t going out. They were friends; best friends. As far as just being ‘nice’, she was kind of stretching the truth there. She thought Hendrix was really cute when she met him, but she was turned off a little bit when she found out that he was younger than her. Nick and Kevin tried to stay out of it.

“Just don’t worry Joe, nothings going to happen between Hendrix and I, or any of the other cast for that Matter,” She let him know and he was quite relieved. The elevator stopped on the 3rd floor and the doors opened but no one was waiting on the other side.

After arriving at home both Joe and Aubrey headed back towards the clubhouse to say their goodbyes to one another till the next day. The rest of the gang just headed inside. Aubrey left everything there like she said she was going to do, and she hopped up to her back door. She turned around and waved to Joe, whom was making sure she at least got home alright without her cast and crutches. She entered and was glad to see that her father was still away.

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Four years had now passed and the four of them were still going strong. Both Joe and Aubrey were 17 and in the 11th grade, Kevin was 19, and Nick was 14. They never did date, but they remained best friends. They were both happy to know that their promise continued, unbroken. Their friendship stayed sturdy throughout the weakest times, and the strongest times. Aubrey still had to sneak around behind her fathers back to meet Joe. Nothing at that point was going to block her from the only person that she really cared about.

There were only 4 things that Aubrey truly loved. One of them, you already know is Joe. The second one would be her inspiration, the one thing that she barely knew, but loved so much. Her mother was second on her list. The object that was always there for her no matter what, still remained where it began was number three. The tree house still held the weight that climbed up into it then and years before. It held some of Aubrey’s deepest secrets, and all of Aubrey’s cherished poems. Her poems were worth more to her than gold. Joe’s family was a part of Aubrey’s through the last few years. They treated her like family, and she returned the favor. They didn’t know about her father because she never mentioned it to them. She didn’t want everyone to be worried about her every night. She thought God had too many problems to fix and she didn’t want him to be bothered by calls from the Jonas’ requesting help for herself. They were glued onto the number four portion of her list.

Nick wasn't doing Broadway shows anymore, but now all three guys were in their own band. The Jonas brothers. They were doing a tour and were already semi-famous. Throughout the year they toured with Kelly Clarkson, Jesse McCartney, Backstreet Boys, The Click 5 and additionally, opening for the Veronicas. They even did soundtracks for Disney. A lot of the times the guys were gone for rehearsals and small tours with friends of theirs but they would always make time to come home.

When he was on the road he had tutors to teach him his school work that he was missing at public school, but whenever he was able to, he attended public school just like a normal person.

Everyone at school respected him. Every once and a while he would bump into a fan, but everyone else at school knew him and treated him exactly the way he wanted to be treated. Like a regular, un-famous person. He was just a normal person, but when you get popular, people tend to look past that.

Joe had actually managed to find someone who he thought liked him for him though. Her name is Raelynn and she was in the grade below Joe and Aubrey. She was perfectly fine with Joe having a best friend who was a girl. She respected that. She was always happy when Joe was able to come back to school. Or so he thought.

“Hey Joey!” Raelynn greeted Joe at his locker and then gave him a small peck on his lips. Joe smiled and pulled her into a hug afterwards. At times like this, Aubrey couldn’t help but get a little jealous. She knew exactly how Joe felt the day that they had both met that boy Hendrix for the first time.

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The more that Hendrix talked to Aubrey, more and more jealousy ran throughout Joe’s body.

“How long have you and Joe been friends?” he asked curiously. Every second he was inching his way closer and closer towards Aubrey. She was sensing this, and she was getting very uncomfortable.

“f-five years,” she stoddard. The math didn’t seem right, but what do you expect? Hendrix was making Aubrey feel very uncomfortable and very nervous. Joe was now getting mad. He didn’t want any problems, so he just suggested that they leave. He looked at his watch trying to not make anything obvious.

“Man, 9 O’clock already? We should get going. I mean, we have school tomorrow, and we have a big test in Math,” Joe provided them with faulty information. Aubrey didn’t catch on right away. Nick and Kevin did, so they jumped up and straightened their shirts.

“No we don’t,” Aubrey was quickly to say, as Joe helped her off the couch. Joe gave her a ‘yes we do!’ look and she finally caught on.

“Oh wait. Now I remember; The Pythagorean Theorem,” she nodded, helping Joe lie.

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Aubrey laughed at what she remembered. They never told the guys that they lied. The bell rang and all you heard down the hall was all of the lockers being slammed shut, and people shuffling their way down the hallway. All three started to walk to class.

“They said that we can go to school for a week, but then we have another small tour that we have to go on,” Joe admitted pulling Raelynn in closer to him as they walked the busy hall.

“Awe, Joe. Do you really have to?” Raelynn whined. She hated when he had to go away. When he was away, she didn’t have the little trophy to drag around and show off to everyone. She was popular, and the only reason why she was popular was because she was dating Joe. Aubrey knew exactly what was going on throughout the little pea brain of hers.

“Oh please let me come!” Raelynn begged Joe and pulled down on his arm like a child would have done. Joe made a face that was indescribable and Aubrey laughed a little bit. She knew what the rule was, but she guessed that he never told Raelynn.

“I’m sorry Rae, as much as I would love to take you on tour with me, and for you to meet everyone, I just can’t,” Joe explained and Raelynn was too confused to function fully. As much as Aubrey wished that he was lying to her, he wasn’t. Raelynn started to get a little too dramatic. She thought that he was just trying to make things up so that he didn’t have to see her, but if she knew how he felt, she would feel differently.

“Raelynn, we have this rule that we can’t take girlfriends on the road with us,” they stopped in the hallway and Raelynn stood in the front of Joe with her hands on her hips as he explained.

“We used to be able to, but when the guys in the backup band did, everything turned out to be a disaster. They ruined everything for the rest of us,” Joe finished, and Raelynn was now hanging all over him like a monkey would on a tree branch.

Personally, Aubrey didn’t like Raelynn one bit. She was the cheerleader, Aeropostale wearing, loves shopping, bubbly personality type of girl. She was the kind of girl that the Emo kids and Normal, not so popular people always tended to hate, because of their Exciting/Dramatic all in one type of life styles. For example, they can be all cheerful and peppy one minute and then in the snap of a finger their popular Jock boyfriend breaks up with them, then it’s the end of the world. Bipolar is the word for it.

Raelynn jumped back and giggled as she felt Joe’s pants pocket vibrate. Joe reached into his pocket, grabbed is phone and answered it freely, even though cell phones are not allowed at the school. Joe will normally obey the rules, but this call must have been important.

“Hello,” he said into the receiver of his brand new, Sidekick cell phone. He looked down at his feet fully listening to what the person on the other line said.

“Okay, i'll be out there in a minute,” he replied sounding a little disappointed. He hung up and stuffed it into his right pocket.

“Who was that and what did they say?” Raelynn asked getting a little nosy and also impatient. Oh, and she was the annoying, nosy, type too.

“It was my mom, she said that we are leaving early for our tour, and we will be back at the same time as scheduled,” Joe had something else to say about it, but he wanted Raelynn or Aubrey to ask about it before he told them. The question came up like he thought it would.

“Well, when are you leaving?” Raelynn pouted and put on a fake puppy dog face.

“Right now,” Joe answered her right away, truthfully.

“What?” Aubrey raced Raelynn with their words. She was now a little upset. He just got back and now he has to leave again. He’s the only one that knows and understands Aubrey’s situation and he’s barely able to be there for her anymore.

“I’m sorry Ree. I’ll call you every night,” he pulled Aubrey close and hugged her as he whispered those words into her ear. He bought her a cell phone so that she could call him and contact the police if she needed to. She’s not allowed to use the phone that is at home so it’s really the only contact that she has with anyone. It stays in the tree house so her father won’t find it. Her leg is all better now, so she is able to climb up into it. Her leg took nearly a year to completely heal.

Raelynn stood back and pretended to be okay about Joe and Aubrey hugging each other, but inside she was swinging with jealousy. She was one big female moving statue of jealousy.

“Awe…” she pretended to be happy. She walked up to them and joined into the hug. “I wish I had a friend like your's Joey,” she faked a smiled and kissed Joe on the cheek looking at Aubrey slyly.

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So you’re gone again
And I’m here alone
But I think ill be alright
Ill sit upon my throne
Ill look through your window
Till I’m sure your home
You’re out with your dream
And I’m here and I want to scream
But promise me next time
You will be here for a while
That you won’t go further than a mile
Without me

Two weeks after Joe left again, Aubrey closed shut yet another finished composition notebook of poems. She’s in a depressed state again. She misses the ones she cares about the most, and the ones who care about her. Joe promised that he would call so Aubrey was out in her tree house or throne, as she described it in her latest poem, waiting for him. She had the ringer on really low so that the only person that could hear it was her. She didn’t want her dad to be able to hear it go off and beat her like always. She waited and waited, and waited. She started to ask herself if he would actually be calling her, or if he was just saying that to make her feel better. Suddenly the phone started to ring and a pit formed in Aubrey’s stomach. She hesitated answering it, but she did anyway.

“Hello?” she asked and was surprised when someone she didn’t recognize answered back. She was confused. It wasn’t Joe’s voice.

“Hey sweetie, how are you?” it was Nick. This was quite a surprise to her. She hadn’t talked to or seen him in a while. It was good to be able to talk to him. With the tours and everything, everyone has been really busy.

“Hey kiddo, are you using Joe’s phone?” she replied and Nick whined, but gave Aubrey an answer.

“Bree, you know I don’t like you calling me that,” he laughed. He said that it made him sound like a child, but he didn’t remember that he told Aubrey that she was the only one that could call him that. “And yes I’m on Joe’s phone. He was going to call you earlier, but his voice lessons are running a little long. He told me to call and talk to you till he was done. He should be out in a little while,” he answered her question.

“Thanks for letting me know. Oh, and just to refresh your memory, you gave me permission to call you kiddo. Remember?” She giggled and she heard Nicholas sigh. She laughed even more. He knew that she was right but he didn’t want to answer her.

He was embarrassed. He thinks Aubrey is beautiful, and wished that he were a little older. He gets a little nervous talking to her.

“So how has eveyfing… la la la eveyfing. Ha-ha. Everything. How has everything been today?” he asked her completely messing up his words. He was really tongue tied because he was talking to Aubrey, his older crush. “I can’t talk today,” he made an excuse. Aubrey laughed, and tried answering him without getting all tongue tied herself.

“Nicky, you’re so cute. Eveyfing was alright today. So far,” she joked around. Nick’s jaw dropped. She said that he was cute and he took it personally. He just about fainted. He got really upset when Joe walked in the room with his hand out for his phone. He frowned and refused to give it up, but then gave in when Joe punched him playfully in the arm.

“Owe. Okay, okay,” he surrendered. This confused Aubrey, so Nick quickly explained. “Joe’s lesson is done and he wants to talk to you now,” he told her and they said their goodbyes.

“Bye Nick Nick,” she joked.

“Bye Bree-Bree,” he played along and copied her. Nick, Kevin and Joe all had different nicknames for her. Joe just called her Ree like she liked, Nick added the B at the beginning and Kevin just called her A, or Aub. Everyone else called her Aubrey, but it didn’t bother her. It made the little nicknames for her special.

“Hey Ree…” he sweetly sang to her. Every time he did that, she got butterflies in her stomach and her cheeks got a little rosy.

“Hey baby,” she replied. She always called him baby, no matter what. Every time she called Joe that he also got butterflies in his stomach. They were both on the same page, but neither of them knew about it.

“Was everything okay today? What did you do? Where did you go?” he bombarded her with questions and she giggled. She tried to answer all of his questions accurately.

“Everything was fine today. I’m just missing you like always. My dad hasn’t been home in about a week and I have no idea where he is, I think I might call the jail to see if he’s there. Hopefully he is. I just went to school today, and then I came here to wait for your call. I wrote another poem and it completed another notebook. I’m kind of depressed, but ill be alright. I would be even better if you were here though,” she whispered slowly to Joe. Joe frowned. Depressed?

“Sweetie, I’m glad that everything was okay today, I’m very excited to hear that you completed another notebook of poems, and I’m very flattered to know that you care so much about me,” he replied, knowing half of it already, but still getting excited. “It’s a good idea to call the station though. And Ree..?” he spoke.

“Yeah?” she said still whispering. She knew exactly what he was going to say.
“Depressed?” he knows that she’s always depressed and he knows what she get's depressed over. He just likes to make believe that it’s not happening or something like that.

“I don't want to sound selfish or anything, but I hate it when you’re away,” she started and Joe scowled. “Your girlfriend hates me. I miss my mother. My dad is a maniac. Do I need to say anything else?” she finished and Joe was even more upset. He never realized what she had to go through each and every day. He began to think about it.

“Aubrey, I know that I have my mother, my dad is the greatest and I have a best friend and a girlfriend and neither of them hate me. I know it sounds like I have a perfect life, but it doesn’t feel it. The only thing that matters is when I’m able to be there with you and help you through everything but i’m not right now. I miss being away,” he tried patching things up. Nothing but breathing on both ends could be heard, then silence.

“Read me your poem,” he broke the silence, wanting to know what she wrote about. Most of the times she didn’t want to let him see or hear what she wrote. A lot of the times her poems were about him.

“No,” she whispered quickly. This one was about him. He really wanted to hear what she wrote. He was really amazed at how incredible she was at writing, and he always wanted to read her poems.

“Please Ree,” he begged with his bottom lip out. She couldn’t see it, but she knew it was there. “Please…” he repeated. By this time, he was the only one in the room on the bus. The other guys were ‘starved’ and they were pigging out on junk food in the kitchen.

“Okay,” she agreed moments later, getting really nervous of what she was about to do. He had never heard one of her poems about him. She was going to read it to him because she missed him. It explains it all. Joe smiled satisfied and awaited Aubrey’s words.