The Boy Next Door.

I stretched out in my bed, having woken up naturally and feeling very awake and alive. I rolled out of bed and smiled around at my clean room. What? I had to spend my Friday nights somehow. I shuffled around and over to my wardrobe, changed into a bikini and flung on a yellow summer dress that stopped above my knees and slipped on a pair of yellow thongs.

I walked back to my bed and picked up my turned off iPhone and turned it back on. I was surprised to see two txt messages from Joe. It was still only 7 am and it WAS a Saturday. I opened them up as I sat down on my bed.
Anne! Nick just got in.
It’s like 11:30.
Mum went off the wall at him and told him that
Just because he was a rock star didn’t mean he didn’t
have a curfew.
Love J.
The simple ‘Love’ made my heart flutter and I smiled at the message. The idea of Denise flying off at one of her sons was alien to my mind. I just couldn’t picture it. I pushed the up button to open the newer one.”

Come over when you wake up.
Dw about the time.
Love J.

I grinned and shoved the phone into my clutch purse and skipped out of the room. I was greeted at the bottom of the stairs by my mother finishing off her morning coffee before work.

She eyed me and my beaming face up and down a few times, “Let me guess, Jonas?” I nodded and she grinned.

“Ooh! How I adore my daughter dating a hunk like Joe Jonas.” I rolled my eyes at her and continued towards the door, “Why don’t you take them out to the city tonight?” She called from behind me as I opened the door and stepped outside.

“Sometimes you are a genius mother.” I grinned at her as I shut the door and walked down the gravel path and out the gate. I then walked along the footpath and into their driveway and then to the front door where I stopped and knocked on the dark wooden door.

It swung open to a grinning Kevin Jonas within seconds, “Oh hey Anne.” He stepped back to let me in giving me a one armed hug as he did. “JOE!” he bellowed out into the house that was buzzing with activity.

“Hey Kev, have you been into the city yet?” I might as well get the whole Jonas clan to come if I could.
“Nope, why you inviting?” I nodded and he grinned at me. The conversation probably would have gone on but the sound of Joe and Frankie surfing down the stairs in board shorts caught our attention, “Guys... mum is trying to have a relaxing day and you two decide stair surfing is appropriate.” Kevin walked off shaking his head and went out to the balcony.
Joe pulled to surfboard off of the stairs and frowned at it before resting it up against the railing. He turned to me and pulled me into his bare chest for a crushing hug, “What took you so long?” he pouted as he let me go.

“I decided to sleep in?” I grabbed his face and pulled it to mine, planting a semi-passionate kiss on his lips. He quickly reacted to my sudden manoeuvre by wrapping his arms around me and teasing me with his tongue. He pulled away after a minute and looked at me slightly confused.

“What was that all about?” He asked as he wrapped an arm around me and led me outside onto the balcony.

“Your brother just hugged me so I wanted something to differ the two of you.” I shrugged and he just laughed as we rounded the corner and found a large pool with the rest of the Jonas family, save Nick in it.

“I guess I can live with that. So you wouldn’t happen to have swimmers on under that?” I just smiled at him and ran back into the house and unzipped the dress. I folded it up and placed it in a pile on the floor on top of my thongs. I ran back outside and saw that Joe hadn’t moved. He looked me up and down and then blushed as he walked up to me.

“You’re just like wonder woman aren’t you.” He whispered into my ear as he led me towards the pool side. I crimpled my nose at my less than favourite heroine and Joe chuckled noticing my reaction.

“So you don’t like Wonder Woman... well that is just shameful.” He walked away from me and got onto the spring board and dived in the pool. I just stood firm, not quite feeling like getting in yet, “Oh come on Anne!” Joe called from the middle of the pool with Frankie already on his shoulders... sure I’d like to do that.

I started to walk towards the spring board when I heard a pair of stampeding wet feet coming my way; I doubted Nick would jump me just yet so I turned, slightly afraid of my attacker. There was a grinning Marina racing towards me, I turned to run away from her grasp but I was a second too late and she pushed me into the water with a Tarzan like yell. We both cannon balled and came up in a fit of giggles and I started to splash her in revenge.

Joe came over to break up the war but chose the wrong moment to do it both me and Marina sent a flying wave of water towards him and he got a mouth full. Infuriated he jumped on me and pushed me under the water. Unfortunate for him, I knew a thing or two about dunking and I swam down and quickly locked my legs around his chest bringing him down under the water and with one quick movement I swung around so that I was using Joe as my own personal raft.

I slipped off his back letting him up for air. He ran a hand down his face to clear his eyes and push the hair away from his eyes, “Remind me never to dunk you again!” He coughed and flicked a single drop of water at me. I swam up to the side of the pool and leaned on the side.

“You better not, or you won’t get off so easy.” I poked my tongue at him as he swam up next to me. I noted that Nick was also swimming over to us along with Marina.

“That was pretty amazing Anne. You will have to teach it to me.” He swam up next to me and Marina stopped in front of me. “What so you can teach it to Marina. Never!” I threw my hands up and laughed at Marina’s disappointed expression, “Poor things never figured out how to do it.” She poked her tongue out at me and slowly swam over to Nick.
“Nope. But it doesn’t bother me now that I have someone else to dunk.” She grinned wickedly and Nick looked at her confused.
“Who?”
She looked at him and slipped closer, “You.” She yelled out as she pounced on him, pushing his curly head down into the water. We laughed as Nick came up spluttering looking quite drowned. “There we go. Now you’re the one that looks like a wet monkey.”

“Monkey?” Joe and I quipped at the same time.
“I think it’s some form of pet name they founded after that incident with the banana skin.” Kevin stated joining our little gathering.

“Ah yes. I don’t think I want any more insight to that thank you.” Joe laughed and Nick rolled his eyes at all of us. I noticed that the gathering of people around me were all around the right age for my mother’s stroke of genius from this morning, “Kevin remember what I was saying about the city?”

“Yip.”
“Well I was just thinking, we could all go tonight.” I looked around at the interested faces and then something hit me... no not literally, “Oh right, Nick are you 18 yet?”

“Um no, not yet.” I groaned and Marina huffed.
“Oh that’s just peachy.” She crossed her arms sulkily over her pink flowery bikini and then her expression changed to the happiest thing, “ANNE! Reece works at the Zoo! He could get us in.”

“So we have ditched clubbing and gone straight to caged animals?” Joe queried from beside me looking at Marina like she was stupid.

“Well Frankie would be happy.” Kevin sighed.

“I guess the zoo is ok.” Nick said still looking at Marina’s euphoric expression.

I and marina looked at each other and cracked up laughing, “Why do you three seem to think that our highest connection is some guy that works at a petting zoo?”

“Because she just said so?” Joe furrowed his eyebrows at me, clearly on the borderline of a brain haemorrhage.

Marina was in a fit of laughter, “You. Guys. Are. Morons.” She managed to sound out between fits.

I suppressed my own giggles, “The Zoo is the best club in Brisbane. We can easily get Nick in with Reece on the inside.”

Joe raised an eyebrow at me, “How?”

“Oh um you know.” I hung my head not really wanting to have to tell him how I get into high stat clubs.

“I don’t think he does.” Marina giggled knowing I would get her back for that later.

I huffed and took a breath, “He has a thing for me. So a small amount of leg and flirting will get us past the door. No sweat.”

Joe cracked up laughing, “Then we are 100% going, I have to see you flirting with this guy. But you know we could just flash the Jonas neon sign?”

“No we can’t Joe.” Marina huffed, “Do you want the press on your nuts before you can help it?”

“Press?” Funny he actually sounded clueless.

“You know people with flashing cameras and vicious rumours.”

“Oh right, but why would they be after us in a place like this?” He motioned around us. I couldn’t believe I was dating a guy that was this clueless about it.

“Um, it’s not that backwards here Joe. The press would go crazy over you guys just like they do in America.” He looked at me and hung his head.

“I guess I just didn’t think about it. I kind of hate those guys always being on your back.”

“We all do. It’s kind of the reason we came out here in the first place.”

“Yep, and we know it isn’t going to last long, but at least we can enjoy it as long as it lasts.” Kevin sighed, “So how will we be getting to the city.”

I glanced at Marina and she nodded at me, “One word boys. Train.”

“Excuse me?” Joe raised his eyebrows at me.

“Oh suck it in Jonas, trains aren’t that bad. And besides it takes to right to the Valley... which is the clubbing hot spot.” Joe’s mouth fell into a silent, Oh and Nick looked between me and Mazz before nodding.

Kevin beamed at me, “Hey that sounds great, do you mind if I have a plus 1?” I looked at him slightly confused.

“Um sure, who are you bringing?”

“My girlfriend.” My face must have taken on a confused expression because Joe chuckled next to me and Kevin gave me a grin and pushed himself out of the water. I had to stop myself from checking out his board short clad body as he bent over the side and stood up on the concrete. He then walked over to the diving platform and shot us all a wide grin before jumping up in a tight ball and cannon balling into the water covering us all in a large wave of water. Kevin came back up to the surface taking a big gulp of air and then Frank the Tank jumped on his back and gave a wolf whistle with two fingers jammed in his small mouth. Next thing we heard a bark and Kevin whisper, “Oh crap.” And dive back under that water as a large golden Labrador... or maybe it was a golden retriever I could never tell the difference but all the same it was large and it dived in after the submerged Kevin and landed on top of him.

Everyone was in a fit of hysterics as Kevin surfaced with the dog in his arms, “Frank you know Elvis isn’t allowed to do that.”

“Sorry Kevin but El looked hot.”Frankie smiled innocently and Kevin let the dog go. Frankie and Elvis swam back to the other end of the pool, which was shallower. Kevin shook his head with a smile on his face as he swam back to the rest of us.
“You named your dog, Elvis?” I looked at the three Jonas boys, “Is that like after Elvis Presley?”

“Nope. Elvis Costello.” Nick said expectantly looking for some kind of recognition at the name. I did know the guy but I couldn’t say I was a fan.

“Oh him.” Nicks face turned to silent insult as I turned away from him and pulled myself up on the side of the pool.

“You say that like you don’t like him.” Nick swam up beside me in the water.

“He’s ok. A little bit, well you guys sound like him. But it’s not my style.” I looked around at Joe and Kevin who were looking at me with proud expressions.

“You think we sound like him? Thanks.” Nick gave me a grin and swam back to a giggling Marina. I looked around me, taking in the breath taking view of the sea from the poolside. Meanwhile Joe slipped up underneath my legs and grabbed them pulling my back into the water with him. He continued to pull me underwater with him, keeping a firm grasp on my ankle. I thrashed around but he had me beat so I just stopped moving. I felt him stop almost as soon as I did and he let me go back up to the surface.

I let myself slowly float up so that I was face down in the water. At that point I was very glad I had good breath control. My plan was working and Joe came over to my side and poked my bare side, “Come on Anne, we don’t need a floaty in this pool.”

I kept as still as I could, slowly feeling the burn in my lungs from lack of fresh air. He placed his hand on the small of my back, “Anne come on.” He shook my body with his hand but I still didn’t move. I wanted to get him good and proper but I didn’t know how much longer I could stay under, “Anne. Please you’re scaring me.”

I ginned and flipped around under the water, breaking the surface and gulping in a large amount of air but when i did I instantly felt dizzy. I stood up and placed a hand on my spinning head. Joe came over and gave my shoulder a playful shove and i toppled over making my head spin worse. Joe’s strong arms looped undermine and pulled me out of the water and into his chest, “What’s wrong.” He whispered with a slight crack in his voice while slinging his arm around my back.

I slipped my hands around his neck and buried my face in his wet chest taking a deep breath, “Dizzy.” I managed to choke out. Joe kept is left arm on the small of my back and lent down to the back of my legs, scooping me up bridal style in one motion. I was too dizzy to refuse so I just tightened my grip around his neck as he waded us out of the water and up the stairs to the deck chairs where Denise was laid out and watching us with a smile.

He slowly put me down on the chair, “Close your eyes for a bit.” I did as he commanded for a few seconds but then curiosity got the better of me so I opened them, blinking several times as the bright sun hit my eyes. I got up slowly into a sitting position and looked around to see Joe sprawled out on the chair next to me, giving me the evil eye, “Don’t make me sit on you.” He warned as he got back up.

I mock widened my eyes, “You wouldn’t dare Jonas.” He grinned mischievously and got up from the chair and stood in front of my chair, “You wouldn’t be able to keep me down.”

He raised an eyebrow and smirked, “Your right.” He flashed me a look worthy of an evil scientist who just came up with the perfect evil invention. He turned away from me and made and obscure hand gesture towards where Nick, Kevin and Marina were still hanging out. Then he turned back to me and smiled cheekily as he swanned towards my side, “You’re right. I need help. NOW!” before I could make any kind of getaway the bodies of Joe (who was straddled on my stomach), Nick (who was sitting on my feet and laughing), Marina (Who was holding down my arms) and Kevin (who was sitting on my legs with his back against Joe’s) were pinning me down in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Even Denise who was sitting next to the pile up was laughing loudly.

I raised my eyebrows at Joe who was straddled in a slightly suspect way on my waist, “As flattering as having 3 attractive guys on me is, you’re all freaking heavy. Now GET OFF!” I squirmed against Marina’s iron grip and groaned, “If you weren’t all Christians this would be so very suspect.” I said pointedly at Joe who’s eyes widened and his face paled but he showed no signs of moving.

The muscles in my stomach were screaming from the weight and my legs were dead from the two Jonas boys residing on them. They just all sat there looking at me and laughing their heads off, “Marina let me go or I swear to god I will tell Nick every dirty secret.” She laughed in my ear.

“Like?”

I grinned knowing my ammo well, “Fire-twirling guy.” Those three words that forever get me out of stick situations with Marina against me. And sure enough she let me go, growling, “Don’t” in my ear as she did. Nick was leaning around Kevin and Joe to look at Marina with raised eyebrows and an expression that looked both very amused and confused at the same time.

I turned my glare to Joe, who was looking at me timidly, “You’re next.” I seethed out between my teeth; he took the cue and jumped off my stomach which eased from being released of the extreme pressure. Nick jumped off of my feet and sat on the chair next to mine with Joe and Kevin followed suit a second later. I started to sit up and Marina walked around my chair to sit on Nick’s lap, I giggled when Nick’s face flushed with pink and Joe looked over and his brother and chuckled with me. He conspicuously mouthed “Boner.” and I laughed harder, making my squished stomach squirm. I looked at Nick, Marina and Kevin to see if they had seen Joe but from their expressions it seemed that they hadn’t noticed.

I swung my legs around on to the ground, sitting up fully and noting that the sickening spinning had dulled. I patted the space beside me for Joe to sit down. He instantly scooted over to my side of the gathering and the other three thankfully spread out now that there was more space. Joe cautiously draped his arm around my shoulders and I shot him a quick smile, “You feeling ok?”

“Yeah, sort of.” My voice broke away halfway through and Nick, Kevin and Marina shot me worried looks.

“It wasn’t smart staying under that long.” Nick eyed me off, and I nodded in agreement. Marina looked at me seriously, “Have you eaten.”

She was going to kill me; I hung my head and shook it slowly from side to side. I head Joe gasp from my side, “Is that why you’re dizzy?!” I shrugged not looking up at any of them, namely Marina, who got very worked up when I was careless enough to forget to eat or take my medicine.

Joe’s tanned, slander hand worked under my chin lifting it up so that my eyes met his. He looked at me with his dark brown eyes piercing me, strangely showing no exact emotion, “You’re going home and eating NOW!” He stood up, pulling me with him.

I looked back at the other three who were watching me carefully like I was about to drop at any second, especially Nick, “Go on. We will see you later Anna.” Marina piped from Nick’s lap but giving me a stern look at the same time.

I walked away with Joe clutching my wrist and heard Marina whisper, “She is so falling for him.”

“How?” Nick whispered back, his tone thick with interest.

“She let him boss her around about the eating thing. She practically kills me if when I mention it.”

“I would like to see that.” Nick laughed. Joe dragged me around the corner and into the house. Making it impossible to hear what they said next, I would be sure to get every last word of one of them, more so Marina tonight.