Crawling Back To You

Kevin’s POV

My eyes were shut, but sleep wasn’t coming easy for me. A comfortable position was impossible for me to find as I tossed and turned uncontrollably. Finally giving up, I let one eye open to glance at the clock—8:37 am. Groaning loudly, fueled with frustration, I unwillingly threw my legs over the side of the bed until I felt the floor beneath me. Stumbling over to my desk, I collapsed into the chair while rubbing my eyes.

As my computer started up, I thought about the previous night and how it may be the reason I lacked sleep last night. I’ll admit it—I was jealous the whole night, before I even heard the news about Dina. The permanent look of pure joy and admiration on Megan’s face is the look I want to see on my girlfriend’s face. The permanent look of affection and contentment on Nick’s face is the look I want on my face. I love my brother and I love his girlfriend, but their relationship is disgustingly perfect, yet the kind of relationship I strive for.

My curiosity got the best of me as I pulled up Google. My first search, Actor Damien, came up short. There were too many results. I involuntarily reached my finger until it rested on the backspace key. It was at that point that I looked at what I was doing. Am I really sinking to this level?

Yes.

I narrowed the search, typing in Damien at New York City Movie Premiere. The first article that came up was from Entertainment Tonight. Figuring it was a promising source, I clicked the link and watched the webpage load right before my eyes. When I saw the name in the headline, my stomach dropped.

Dina is with Damien Keller—the infamous Damien Keller. I’ve heard things about this guy, things that he shouldn’t necessarily brag about. Going back to Google, I typed in Damien Keller. Every headline was more shocking than the one before it.

“Damien Keller Snags Dramatic Movie Role!”
“Drunken Fight at Bar Started by Damien Keller!”
“Different Girls Every Night for Damien Keller?”
“Damien Keller Cheats on Girlfriend With Co-Star!”

My eyes unwillingly continued down the list of headlines. It was the most recent, with the catchy headline of, “Damien Keller: New Girl?” that caught my eye. The picture that accompanied this particular headline hit extremely close to home. I studied every detail of the picture, trying to figure out as much as I could. Dina was sitting on Damien’s lap, his mouth close to her ear. He was obviously whispering something to her. The happy expression on her face made that one fact quite clear.

“Damien Keller, Hollywood’s rising star with a strong bad boy image, was seen getting close with a beautiful brunette after his movie premiere in New York City. To make things a little more interesting, the girl seen here with Keller is Dina Cordon, an old flame of the Jonas Brothers’ oldest member, Kevin. Keller and Jonas have reputations on the opposite extremes of the spectrum. A change such as this one must be quite drastic for Cordon. But are Cordon and Keller dating, or is Cordon just the next girl on Keller’s list? With his track record, the world wouldn’t be surprised if Keller had a new girl next week.”

Jesse was right—there was something there. When he told me last night, I had so many unanswered questions in my head. This picture didn’t help at all. Instead of answers, I only have more questions. I didn’t know what exactly was going on, but I intended to find out.

I was finally able to tear my eyes off the picture, focusing my attention on my ringing phone. Megan.

“Hey Meg.”

“Woah, Kevin? I didn’t expect you be awake! I thought I’d have to call at least four times before you’d actually pick up. What’s up?”

“Nothing really. I don’t know why I’m up. I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep. How was the sleepover?”

“Good! I thoroughly enjoyed watching Nick and Tara develop a friendship. It meant a lot to me, in a super tacky way.” Megan began laughing at herself, along with two other voices in the background. “Anyway, it your turn and Joe’s turn today. She wants to get to know you and Joe because she knows how important you guys are to me.”

“That’s awesome. I’m totally up for that.”

“Perfect. Since we have a Jersey girl here during winter, we have to take advantage of the weather, which is why we’re all heading to the Malibu house! So get your butt up and ready, and as hard of a task as it may be, get Joe up!”

“Megan, you know that’s next to impossible.”

“Use water, jump on him, plug his nose—do whatever it takes. You can blame it all on me. Nick’s going to come home. He’ll provide reinforcement if need be. Then you guys are going to meet us at the house.”

“Sounds excellent. I’ll start to get ready. See you in a little bit!”

Taking one last look at the picture, I quickly closed out of the window. I extended my arms over my head as I rose up from the seat. Heading over to my dresser, I grabbed a bathing suit from the bottom drawer and smiled to myself. A day at the beach is exactly what I need.

Megan’s POV

“This…this is your beach house?” Tara asked, shutting the car door behind her.

“This is it! Do you like it?”

“Like it? This house is incredible! It was that guy’s, right?”

“That was really descriptive. You’re lucky I’m your best friend and I know exactly what you’re trying to say,” I laughed. “Yeah. My dad’s best friend owned this house but they don’t use it much anymore so we bought it from them.”

“That’s awesome, but enough chatter. It’s winter, I’m from the East Coast, and I see a beach and an ocean!” Tara grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the house.

Twenty minutes later, we were situated on the little section of the beach that we owned with the house. The sky was blue with not a cloud in sight. The sun was the perfect temperature, beating down on the sand with significant force. The waves were crashing onto land at a perfect rhythm.

“Weather like this makes me dislike the Northeast,” Tara admitted.

“At first I thought that too, but it’s kind of weird. Being outside and sweating on Christmas is possibly one of the weirdest things I’ve experienced.”

“You know, you shouldn’t leave that door open. Any creep could just walk right in,” Joe’s voice came from behind us. Tara and I laughed as we sat up on our towels and turned to face the deck. The three Jonas boys stood very similarly, wearing bathing suits, t-shirts, sunglasses, and holding towels.

“Yeah, you’re proof,” I yelled back. I could see the glare on Joe’s face, even with the distance between us, as Nick and Kevin burst out in laughter.

The guys joined us down on the beach. Quickly pulling off their shirts, they began to set up their spots. It’s amazing how a simple action such as laying down a beach towel can describe a person’s personality. Joe held the towel vertically covering his body and fell, the towel preventing him from making actual contact with the sand—absolutely crazy. Kevin laid his out before sitting on it—relatively nonchalant. Nick laid his out and made sure it was perfectly flat and smoothed out before sitting on it—craving perfection.

“Does it feel weird being on a beach this time of year, Tara?” Joe asked.

“Yeah it does, but I am in no way complaining! I love the Left Coast,” she replied.

“The Left Coast,” Kevin repeated. “I like that.”

“Well,” Joe said, rising to his feet. “I think it’s water time. Anyone care to join?”

A chorus of various forms of yes answered Joe’s question. As I stood up to follow Tara, Joe and Kevin, a hand reached out and grabbed my arm, wrapping tightly around my wrist. I was pulled back and spun around, landing in Nick’s hold. His lips found mine instantly as my hands snaked around his neck, his hands finding a comfortable resting spot on my hips.

“Well hello to you, too,” I said, pulling away slightly. Nick pressed his forehead against mine. The distance between us was small enough for me to still feel his warm breath on my face.

“I just had to do that. You look too beautiful for me to resist.”

“Well you look pretty superb yourself.”

“I don’t think you understand the will power I’m going to have to use to keep my hands off of you all day,” Nick admitted. The struggle in voice meant honesty, which made the ends of my lips turn up.

“Who says you have to restrain?” I asked, semi-seductively.

Nick’s head rolled back as he stared up at the sky. If he didn’t have sunglasses on, the sun would have blinded him. However, under his eye’s protection, I noticed his eyes shut, probably in frustration—the same frustration that let out a groan.

“You don’t know what you do to me. You kill me inside when you say stuff like that to me. And the tone you say it in, ugh. I hate you, Megan Gibson.”

“Oh, you hate me, huh?”

“Do you really think I could ever hate you?”

“I’d like to hope not,” I laughed, still in Nick’s grasp.

“The day I hate you is the day pigs fly.”

I immediately went into a fit of laughter. “And that,” I paused to catch my breath, “is how you know you’ve been hanging out with me too much.”

“What do you mean?” Nick smiled.

“Kevin always says I use ridiculous analogies in conversation and that right there was a ridiculous analogy. I’m rubbing off on you.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Nick said, with an extremely mischievous smirk. Ugh, he’s such a guy.

“Perv!” I exclaimed, punching his rock-hard bicep.

“Am not!” he exclaimed back.

“Race you to the water?” I suggested.

“Now let’s think about this for a second. You are an Olympic athlete. You can run a mile in six minutes.”

“Five minutes,” I corrected him.

“Oh, excuse me. Five minutes. How am I, a musician, supposed to beat—?”

I didn’t care to hear what else Nick had to say, so I took off running. The sound of his laughter and feet hitting the sand trailed behind me. Of course, I reached the water before he did. The day Nick beats me in a foot race is the day pigs can fly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So Megan, I have some news for you. Actually, this is news to you all.”

“What’s up, Kev?” I asked, leaning on my elbows. We were all air-drying, sprawled out on towels and chairs set up in a circular shape.

“Jesse came up to me last night and was like, ‘I was out the other night and this girl was with my boy Damien and she said she knew you and your brothers—you especially.’ Turns out he was talking about Dina.”

“With his boy, Damien?” I turned my head towards Nick, who was already looking at me.

“Wait, do you two know something?” Kevin questioned sternly.

“Well, we knew she was going on a date with him,” Nick started.

“Which I guess was that night? I don’t know. She never said anything to me about being with him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think it was our place. Plus she only told us she was going on a date. You don’t need to know about every date she goes on, Kev,” I truthfully stated.

“And there’s this girl named Lexie who should be occupying your attention and preventing you from getting this worked up about this,” Joe added.

“I knew it was too good to be true,” Tara spoke up.

“What do you mean?” I questioned her.

“Last night seemed too perfect. Prom night isn’t complete without a little bit of drama.”

“While that is true, you are not helping, best friend,” I scolded her. Everyone laughed, lightening the mood slightly.

“How are you handling this, Kev?” Joe asked, refocusing everyone to the topic.

“I don’t want to admit this, but I’m jealous. I’m kind of upset she didn’t tell me, if they are together. I mean, I told her about Lexie. I don’t see why she feels she can’t talk to me about this sort of stuff. She’s the one that wanted to be friends.”

“Can I throw in my two cents?” I turned my head towards Tara, smiling and nodding in her direction. “Call her. Dina’s her name, right? Tell Dina what happened. Tell her Jesse mentioned meeting her to you and then ask her about Damien. Then you have to tell her you’re really happy for her, even if you’re not. She’ll really appreciate it and she’ll be more likely open up to you more in the future.”

Kevin listened intently to Tara’s words. “You think that’ll work?”

“It has before. It should.”

“I guess I will do that. Thanks a lot, Tara. I like you. You’re a good person.”

“Kevin Jonas just said I’m a good person. I can’t wait to tell everyone at home!”

“My best friend is a loser,” I joked. Her head snapped in my direction, her mouth slightly hanging open. “A loser who I love so dearly.” Her open mouth morphed into a smile.

I looked out at the water, which was behind Kevin from where I was sitting. I saw him pull out his phone to read a text message. Before he formed any words, a long, frustrated groan escaped his lips.

“Are we that boring to you, Kevin?” Joe joked.

“It’s Lexie. I told her I was at the beach and she was like, ‘Wow, thanks for inviting me to join.’”

“Did she really?” Joe asked. “Dude, she’s kind of…”

“Loopy?” Nick finished.

“Well, I was thinking more along the line of nuts, but I guess loopy could work, too.”

“Tell her you and Joe are trying to get to know me and if you and Joe brought your girlfriends, they would have been mega distractions. Plus, I would have been the only single one here and I would have had to watch three Nick and Megan’s.”

While Tara was talking, Nick had turned his body to face mine. He took my hand in his and began playing with my fingers. Smiling, I turned my body to face his. The feelings of love and affection passed between us just from the simple touch of our fingers.

“Don’t hate,” I responded to Tara, surprising her that I was listening.

“I’m hungry!” Joe yelled out.

“Let’s go inside and make some lunch,” I suggested.

Everyone stood up, simultaneously brushing at the sand sticking to our bodies. Tara jumped on Joe’s back, wrapping her arms around his neck as Joe grabbed a hold of her legs, pushing them into his hips. Nick followed suit, walking slowly waiting for me to catch up. Looking over his shoulder, I motioned for him to keep going. Nodding with a smile, Nick headed towards the house just after Tara and Joe.

“Hey Kev?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to talk about it a little bit more?”

“I just…I miss her, Megan. More than I should.”

“I’m going to ask you something and I need you to answer honestly, not just for me, but for yourself. Kevin, are you happy?”

I watched Kevin slightly turn his back towards me, facing the openness of the ocean. Kevin’s eyes studied the waves, as if the ocean was going to provide him with an answer. His arms folded across his chest as the power of my question overtook him.

“Some things in my life make me happier than others.”

“What makes you happy?”

“Music, my family, my friends, my success, my fans.”

“And what makes you unhappy?”

“My relationships.”

“Relationships?” I asked, dragging out the ‘s’ sound.

“You know which ones I’m talking about. They’re just, stressing me out.”

“Keep going, Kevin. Don’t hold it in.”

“I’m jealous, Megan. I’ve never been so jealous in my life. I’m Kevin Jonas and I have more than any one person should have in a lifetime. I shouldn’t be jealous, but I can’t help it.”

“You need to start being true to yourself, Kevin. You love her.”

“Yeah, I know, but I also like Lexie. The feelings for Dina are stronger, but the feelings for Lexie are there.”

“What were you thinking when Joe and Nick were talking about Lex?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t happy they were talking about her like that, in front of me nonetheless. But, it’s true. She is a little out there sometimes, but she’s still my girlfriend and I care about her.”

“Lexie makes you happy.”

“Most of the time,” Kevin stated, a small smile forming on his lips.

“But then there’s Dee.”

“Tara’s right. I need to talk to her.”

“You don’t know this, but Tara was speaking from experience. She was in this situation. I remember it extremely well. The guy she dated before Hunter, I was good friends with him before they started dating, and I stayed friends with him after. Things between Tara and Kenny were awkward post-breakup, that’s for sure. Tara broke up with him. Tara had met Hunter and she started to unwillingly develop feelings for him, so she broke up with Kenny, in all fairness to him. A few months later, Tara and Hunter started to go out more regularly, but Kenny was still in love with Tara.”

“So Kenny told Tara he was happy for her?”

“Yeah, he did. It broke the awkward barrier between the two. Eventually, Kenny found someone new, who he is still with today. And now, Tara and Kenny are good friends.”

“So, you think there’s hope?”

“I know there’s hope, Kevin. I know how you are and I know how she is. You two deserve to be friends. I need you two to be friends. I can’t be a middle man anymore for you two, Kev. You gotta step up, show interest and make the effort.”

“You’re five years younger than me, yet so much smarter. What is that about?”

“Don’t take it too personally. It’s just a gift I was blessed with. So, are you gonna be okay?”

Kevin and I turned around, our backs towards the water. He slung his around my shoulders as I lazily threw my arm around his back. Silence took over as we walked towards the house to join the others.

“Yeah,” Kevin said, finally breaking the silence. “I’m going to be okay.”