It's A Roller Coaster Ride We're On

Two a.m. and I was sitting cross legged on my bed, my table lamp on and my door cracked open a bit. I was talking with Joe via webcam and I hope I don’t wake Lauren up. She’ll be pissed.

“Hey, only one more week,” he said smiling.

“I know!” I squealed quietly. “I can’t wait.”

“I can’t wait more.” He retaliated.

“I doubt it.” I said, sticking my tongue out at him. I heard footsteps and looked up. “Oops,”

“What?” Joe asked.

“What. The. Hell?” Lauren asked, standing in my doorway, her hair a mess and bags under her eyes.

“Hey, Laur,” I said quietly.

“Uh-oh.” Joe said.

“Mel, do you have any idea what time it is?” she asked groggily.

“Uh, 2:10.” I said.

“In the morning.” She said. “What the hell could you possibly be doing at 2:10 in the morning?”

“I’m talking to Joe,” I said pouting. “I miss him.”

“What? You’re talking to Joe and didn’t tell me!” she exclaimed, her eyes opening wider. “Is Kevin there?” she asked jumping onto the bed next to me.

“Uh, yeah,” Joe said. “Hold on,” he said, getting up to go find Kevin.

“Oh come on Laur. I wanted to talk to Joe alone.”

“But I want to talk to Kevin.” She said, pouting. “You know they only have one computer with a webcam so going on my laptop would be completely pointless.”

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“We’re back,” Joe said, sitting in my view again.

“Hey Laur,” Kevin said smiling, “Mel,” he said turning to me.

“Hi!” Lauren exclaimed.

“Hey, Kev” I said, looking at Joe and pouting. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

The four of us talked for a good two hours. Good thing Lauren and I didn’t have to go into work tomorrow… uh, today actually. But it was about 10 pm in Australia now and they had to get to bed. They had an early day coming up. We said goodnight and I shut off my laptop and turned to Lauren.

“So, sleep?” I asked.

“Screw it. It’s 4am there’s no point in going back to sleep.” She said. “Let’s have a movie marathon.”

****

Joe’s POV

I closed the laptop and turned in my chair to standup. I was about to go to my closet and grab pajamas when I heard Kevin sigh and put his head on his arms. I turned and laughed at his pathetic figure and rolled my eyes.

“When are you going to ask her?” I asked, sitting back down next to him. He turned his head to look at me, his eyes open wide.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said, rolling my eyes again and standing up.

“What about you?” he asked suddenly.

“What?!” I exclaimed, whipping around to look at him. He was sitting up now and smirking at me. His arms crossed over his chest.

“When are you going to ask Mel?”

“I’m not sure if…”

“Oh please Joe,” he said scoffing. “We all know you want to. I can see it in your eyes.” he said, standing up and walking into the bathroom.

No… no, he’s only kidding. He can’t be right… can he? I thought. I grabbed some pajamas, not even looking to see what they were and changed in a daze while Kevin was in the bathroom. Many thoughts running through my mind…

****

“What time is it?” I asked Lauren, bouncing my legs impatiently.

“Honey, their plane doesn’t land for another half an hour. And you’re restless as can be, we should do something before you cause an earthquake with all that shaking.” She said, putting her hand on my knee.

“Fine, let’s… shop for the boys. Buy them some souvenirs.”

“Buy souvenirs?”

“Yeah,” I said, grinning at her.

“You want to walk around LAX and buy our boyfriends souvenirs from LA… where they live… and they have so much money that they could buy stuff 10,000 times better?”

“They’ll think it’s funny. And cute.” I said.

“Good point,” she said, tapping her chin with her finger. “Let’s go!”

We raced over to one of the shops and started going crazy.

“Let’s buy Nick and Frankie some stuff too so they don’t feel left out.” I said.

“I’m already on it,” she said, holding up a kid sized t-shirt.

Forty five minutes later Lauren and I were waiting near security for our boys to finally be home. Their plane had already landed which was good and now they just had to come through security and then we could reunite! And then claim their baggage and finally go home.

“I see them!” Lauren exclaimed, standing up from her seat almost knocking over one of our many bags of souvenirs. I looked where she was and saw all the Jonas’ waving at us. Joe had a huge smile on his face and was rocking back and forth. Finally they all got through security and started walking towards us, Joe and Kevin faster than the others.

“Hey, Jonas!” I shouted.

“Lyss!” he exclaimed, running to me and wrapping me in his arms. He spun me around and we fell down in the process.

“Luckily there are video cameras everywhere that caught that very graceful moment on tape.” I said, laughing.

“I’m so glad to see you.” He said, kissing me.

“I’m glad to see you.” I smiled.

“I’m never leaving you again.” He said, holding me tight.

“Aw, that’s my emotionally-stunted boyfriend.” I said, pulling away from the hug. “We got you gifts.”

“What? I’m the one that left the country. I’m supposed to get you gifts.”

“Well we got here early and there was nothing to do except feed Gummi Bears to the bomb-sniffing dogs which apparently the United States government frowns upon.” I said, shrugging my shoulders and pulling two of the bags towards me while Lauren got the others to give stuff to Kevin, Nick, and Frankie.

“You got in trouble with the government while you were waiting for me?” he asked, laughing.

“Just a little.” I said, holding my thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart.

“How much is a little?” he asked.

“Learn Russian.” I joked. “Okay, here you go.”

“Wow! A Los Angeles, California sweatshirt.” He said, holding it up and smiling.

“Nice, huh?” I said, grinning.

“L.A., California notebook; L.A., California pencil set; L.A., California shot glass…”

“And beer mug!” I exclaimed, laughing at the ridiculosity of it.

“L.A. baguette, L.A. bear, L.A. sunglasses…”

“You like?”

“I love,” he said, putting them on his face, the tag hanging over his nose.

“Alright, let’s get your bags and we’ll hit the road.” I said, standing up. He packed all his gifts back in the bags and stood up.

“Oh, it’s so good to be home!” he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind me and kissing my cheek. He would not let go of me and refused to just hold my hand so we awkwardly walked around the airport with his arms around my waist.

****

A few weeks later, the book was ready to be released. It was the evening of the release party. Mr. Herrmann had rented out the ballroom of one of the nicest hotels in the area and he paid for Lauren, the Jonas’, the band, Rob, Lana and I to stay here for the night. Yeah, Lana flew out from Texas for this special event. She and Nick are an official long-distance couple now. Lana, Lauren and I were in the ballroom, making sure everything was set up while the boys and the band and some other celebrities walked the mini red carpet for this event. Lauren was setting up a table where the boys would sit to sign copies of the book and we would stand behind them, Lana was helping the DJ, and I was talking to the caterers. Soon enough, the Jonas’ entered and the boys looked a little angry.

“What’s wrong?” Lauren and I asked at the same time having noticed their entrance. Joe walked up to me and wrapped me in his arms and Nick and Kevin did the same with Lana and Lauren.

“Seriously, what’s wrong?” Lana asked, putting her hand on Nick’s cheek.

“You look upset.” I observed, resting my hands on Joe’s chest.

“The paparazzi were grilling us out there.” Kevin said with a cold edge to his voice.

“Bad,” Nick said, shaking his head.

“What about?” Lauren asked.

“Our love lives.” Joe said. “What else? It’s all they seem to care about. And they were asking Kevin why he doesn’t drink because he’s 22 and just all this crap. Rob’s on edge, he’s trying to get extra security in here as soon as possible.”

“He thinks the paparazzi will try something?” I asked, gasping in some air.

“Yeah.” Nick said. “Lana, come here…” he said, pulling her away to talk alone.

“You too,” Kevin said, taking Lauren’s hand and leading her over to one of the tables.

“Lyss,” Joe said, rubbing small circles on my lower back. “Be careful tonight. I know somehow, someway, one or two paparazzi will sneak their way in here. Don’t take anything from anyone that’s not me, Kev, Nick, my family, the band, Rob, or the girls. Okay? Even if it’s Demi or something… she wouldn’t do anything I know but you don’t know where she got it from.”

“You think they’d spike drinks or possibly something worse?” I asked alarmed.

“Yeah, possibly. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He said, kissing my forehead.

“Vice versa.” I said, squeezing his torso.

The party kicked off just fine. The first hour was spent standing behind the boys while people got their books signed; then came dinner and the real partying. Joe and I were out on the floor dancing and having fun.

“Joe, I’m thirsty.” I said.

“Come on,” he said, taking me hand and walking towards the bar. “Two Cokes please.”

He watched carefully as the bartender got our drinks. He scrutinized every movement making sure he didn’t put anything in that wasn’t supposed to be there. He took them and thanked the bartender and we went to sit down.

“So far so good, huh?” I asked, setting my Coke down.

“Yeah,” he said, placing his hand on my thigh and glancing around the ballroom and squinting his eyes slightly.

“Joe, look at me,” I said. He turned his head and his face softened at my worried expression. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Lyss, I’m sorry. It’s just… I feel like something weird is going to happen.”

“Hon, nothing has happened yet. Don’t worry. Now come on, let’s go dance some more.” I said, standing up and taking his hand.

He twirled me out onto the dance floor and we danced for a good half an hour straight. We tiredly went back to our table for our drinks. I took a sip of mine and looked at Joe.

“Does it taste funny to you?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered after taking a big gulp. He chugged the rest of it and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. I shrugged and finished my Coke and then we just sat and talked for awhile and watched everyone else dance.

At one point Nick and Lana came and sat with us while we were talking I started getting this obnoxious pounding in my head and Joe had his hand resting on my thigh. I leaned into him and he moved his hand up higher.

“What are you doing?” I hissed… my words mixing together.

“Lyss. I love you,” he mumbled, leaning over and kissing me. Instantly, his tongue was running along my bottom lip and my mouth opened, allowing it to slip in and wrestle with my own. My hands wound their way around his neck and I tangled my fingers in his hair. He pulled away slightly and stood up.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Come on,” he said, holding his hand out to me. “We’ll be back.” He said to Nick and Lana.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Nick said, draping his arm across Lana’s shoulder.

Joe ignored him as he pulled me after him out of the ballroom. I giggled as he led me towards the elevators. Once the doors opened he pulled me inside and backed me up against the wall and pushed the button for our floor before attacking my mouth with his own. His hands were on my waist while mine were entangled in his hair once again. Inch by inch his hands worked their way up towards my breasts where he left them. This seemed so wrong but it felt so right so I ignored the feeling pulling at my gut and kissed him harder.
Finally, the elevator reached our floor and without breaking our kiss, Joe led us out of the elevator and we stumbled down the hall towards our door. I leaned against the wall and giggled as he tried to get the key into the slot. Once he got it in and the light turned green he swung open the door and spun me into his arms and walked backwards inside, closing and dead-bolting the door behind him. He led me to the bed and we stopped when the backs of my knees hit the side.

My hands went to his chest and I started tearing apart the buttons on his shirt. I slid it down his arms and he tried to work blindly on the zipper of my dress. He zipped it down while I pulled off his tie, never breaking our kiss. I stepped out of my dress and we broke apart so he could get his beater off and then my hands went straight to his belt buckle. Neither of us said a word, we just kept moving. He struggled with my bra clasp but finally got it as he stepped out of his pants. He laid me down on the bed and climbed over me and he started kissing down my jaw, my neck, my collarbone. He hesitated over my chest before gently kissing and sliding his hands down to my waist again.

“Joe,” I whispered. He lifted his head to look at me. His face went in and out of focus and I pressed the palm of my hand to my forehead.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” he asked, bringing his hand up and pressing it against my cheek.

“I’m fine… headache. Don’t stop.” I said, shaking my head a little to try to get rid of the pain.
He gave me a sweet kiss before finally removing those last articles of clothing and breaking all barriers.

****

Some may say I need to be afraid… of losing everything…

“Hello?” I asked groggily, answering my phone. How many times it had rung I have no idea. My head was pounding. I looked over at Joe and you could say the same about him. He was cradling his head in his hands.

“Finally! I’ve been calling you for the past hour. Where did you and Joe go?” Lauren asked. “Nick and Lana said they saw you two leave like two hours ago.”

“Oh,” I said, sitting up in the bed. “Uh, I wasn’t feeling well so Joe brought me away from everyone so I could have space and breathe. I may have been overwhelmed or the music was too loud or something. We’ll be back in a little bit.”

“Okay, hurry, Demi, Selena and the others are leaving soon and they want to say good-bye.”

“Yeah, we’ll be there. Bye,” I said, hanging up. I rubbed my temples and lay back on the pillow. I turned my head to face Joe and he had his face scrunched in pain. “Babe, are you okay?” I asked, smoothing his hair back.

“My head is pounding.” He said.

“Mine too.” I said. I surveyed the room, our clothes were everywhere and the bed was a rumpled mess. Then it hit me. “Oh shit Joe!”

“Loud!” he whined covering his ears.

“Joe,” I said, smacking his arm with the back of my hand. “Look around. Do you realize what happened?”

“Uh,” he said, sitting up and looking around. “Oh shit. Did we?”

“Yeah. Did you have?”

“No…” he said, his face draining of all color. “Don’t you take?”

“No, I have no reason to.”

“Shit.” He said again. “What happened?”

“I think we let our guard down when we were dancing.” I said, putting my head in my hands. “I knew my Coke tasted funny.”

“Well… no one’s going to find out.” He said, taking my hand in his and kissing it. “Right?”

“Let’s hope not.” I said. “Come on, we have to get dressed and get back downstairs. They’re worried about us.”

****

“There you are!” Denise exclaimed, rushing over to us. Joe and I both winced at her loud volume. “Are you alright? You both look sick.”

“We’re fine. Just really tired.” I answered.

“Alright, well people are starting to leave. Come say good-bye.” She said, dragging us over to the departing guests.

After saying all of our goodbyes we all went back upstairs. Lauren, Lana, and I went to our room after saying goodnight to the boys. When it was my turn in the bathroom I took two aspirin and chugged some water and stared in the mirror.

“What did they do to us?” I whispered to my reflection.