A Messed-Up Heart

Seeing Kevin here in the studio had definitely surprised the hell out of me. I never expected to see Kevin show up here. It didn’t seemed to make any sense to see Kevin here when he had absolutely no way of knowing that I was even going to be here. Allison had done everything in her power so as to prevent Kevin from becoming aware of where I was going to be for each of my interview. It was part of her plan to keep me and Kevin apart. Yet, Kevin was still here. Somehow, he knew where I was going to be and came to see me for the first time in eight months. “Kevin,” I asked, “how in the world were you able to figure out that I was here? Everyone knows that Allison kept that information from you so as to keep me away from you in order to let her marry you. So, if that was the case, how were you able to figure out what was going on?” I asked him with a heavy sigh.

“Your sister told me,” Kevin replied.

I smirked when I heard Kevin say that. From what I could surmise based solely upon what he told me, Betsy had done much more than I had ever asked her to. All I had ever asked for my younger sister to do was to stop the wedding from occurring. Everyone was against it, but only Betsy and I were brazen enough to do something about it. Following that, Betsy took the initiative and sent Kevin out to my latest interview. Thank you, Betsy. Now, if only we can get Joe and Betsy back together. Then, everything would be perfect. I sighed and looked over at Kevin. “And, what happened with the wedding?” I asked him. “You’re here in a tux, after all. There must be a reason for that. So, what happened with the wedding? I mean, did you actually decide to marry Allison like she wanted?”

“No, I called it off,” Kevin said.

“How come?” I asked.

“Because of you,” he replied.

“Because of me?” I asked, hoping that Kevanda might be able to come back into existence since Kevin had jilted Allison on their wedding day. The chance was slim, but it was possible for such a thing to occur. If it did, I was then going to do everything in my power so as to get Jetsy back together as well; Joe couldn’t marry Zora the way that Kevin nearly married Allison. It was not to be allowed. “Kevin, what could you possibly mean by that?”

“We’ll talk after the interview,” Kevin said.

I nodded and went back to continue the interview, glancing over at Kevin for the duration. Now that I had gotten him back, there was absolutely no way in hell that I was about to let him go. The minute the interview ended, I ran down to where Kevin was. “Okay, Kevin, what did you mean by you called off the wedding because of me?” I asked Kevin as we left the studio and headed to the concert venue so that we could talk about all of this.

“Actually, it was all because of your sister, Her Majesty, that the wedding was called off,” Kevin said. “Just before my father began the ceremony, he asked if there were any objections to the wedding. It was never removed from the ceremony since Allison obviously never suspected that you or your sister was going to show up, so she felt no need to remove it from the ceremony. As it turned out, this was the wrong thing to do, at least in her eyes. It provided your sister with the opportunity to get me out of the wedding. Queeny ultimately stopped me from making the biggest mistake of my life. And, for that, I must thank her.”

“How come?” I asked.

Kevin eyed me, like I was supposed to know about what was going on, and ran his fingers over the locket he gave me. “You were able to open the locket, weren’t you?” he asked. “Mandolin, the only way that it could be opened was if you were about to lose me. After your sister told me about you leaving California because I was dating Allison, I had this locket made for you as a way of saying that I was always going to care about you, no matter who I was dating. I intended on giving it to you when I found you in New York. That never occurred though since you had a seizure before I could get it to you. Not only that that, but Her Majesty got pissed off with me for you having told me about your seizures; she never let me near you while you were in your coma. So, I never got the chance to give you what you were supposed to be your Christmas and birthday present from me.

“Ultimately, the only good thing that came out of your sister not giving me permission to go into your hospital room and spend time we with you was the fact that it gave me some time to alter the locket. So, while you were stuck in your coma world, I had the locket sent out so that it could be embossed with the medic alert symbol and engraved with the medical conditions you had. While that was going on, I had Nick help me record a special version of Please Be Mine, a version that only you were meant to hear. That was added to the locket once I got it back, which, after convincing your younger sister to give me the chance to spend some time with you, I put around your neck.”

“Yeah,” I laughed, “then, once the others came in That’s Just the Way We Roll and Still in Love with You, which I awoke to hear you singing to me. Since I’m pretty sure of the fact that you were going to say that to me before I fell unconscious, I was rather glad to have the first thing I heard when I awoke from my coma being your voice, particularly when you were singing to me, something you rarely do. The fact of the matter was that your voice was the only one I wanted to hear spending an entire week in a coma.”

Kevin eyed me suspiciously, like what I said bothered him slightly. “And how did you know that I was saying that to you when I caught you in my arms that night?” he asked.

“I just do,” I said. “I just know.”

“Are you psychic like Allison was?” he asked.

“I like to think so, but no,” I replied.

“Oh. So, what was with the involuntary smile that occurred when we were playing That’s Just the Way We Roll?” he asked. “Joe wanted to know, but Queeny never mentioned why this was so. It was mostly out of spite that we were never told though; she was pissed about the fact that Joe was ignoring her, so she chose not to tell us about that story.”

When Kevin told me that my younger sister had not revealed the true nature behind what that song meant to me, I was glad to hear it. Despite the fact that she had implied revealing this fact to the boys, Betsy honored my wishes and kept it quiet; she never told. The fact was that I never wanted the boys to know about this story; it was far too embarrassing for me to ever relive. “I’d rather not tell you what the reason was for that,” I said.

“Would you rather your sister tell us?” Kevin asked.

The thought of Betsy being the one to tell the boy what was going on disturbed me. I knew perfectly well that Betsy revealing a secret like that was probably going to be just as bad as me telling it, possibly even worse since I knew that Betsy would only use it as an opportunity to embarrass me. Ultimately, it might be in my best interest for me to tell Kevin about this myself, before Betsy got the chance to do so. I sighed. “Fine, but I’m telling you in confidence. Unless I give you the okay to do so, Nick and Joe must never find out about this.”

“How come?” Kevin inquired.

“Because,” I explained, “this is way too embarrassing, something I don’t like to think about. This feat seems quite impossible though thanks to That’s Just the Way We Roll. See, when I was about eight, my mother decided that she was going to go back to work for awhile. Because of that, Betsy and I would be staying with a neighbor. During that time, her daughter—who coincidentally happened to be named Amanda—got me listening to Hanson for a time. And, at one point, I happened to have a crush on Zac Hanson. That lasted all of two months, but it is still something that I didn’t want to deal with, that I didn’t want to remember. Unfortunately, that never happened. The first time that I heard That’s Just the Way We Roll was on Christmas 2007 while I was at my grandparents’ house. I was listening to the songs and I realized that it was that song in which held the mention of something I hadn’t heard in ten years, the reason that I became a Jonas Brothers fan at age seventeen, despite the fact that most Jonas Brothers fans are around my sister’s age.

“In an attempt to forget about that song, I deleted it from my mp3 player. But, I could never do that; I could never truly forget about that, particularly when you guys were often compared to Hanson. It got even worse after Betsy and I met you because the involuntary laughter was becoming more frequent. You never noticed it though because Allison was always able to keep you away from me out of jealousy over the fact that I had dated you before her. She wanted me to have absolutely nothing to do with you. Allison didn’t seem to understand the reason that I was still in love with you, despite our break-up. My crush on Zac Hanson twelve years ago was ultimately the reason I fell in love with you, and it was obviously part of the reason that I’m still in love with you. I’m not really sure why Betsy would play that song while I was in my coma though. It makes no sense.”

Kevin shrugged. “Maybe she was trying to help explain all of this to us. But, the smile makes sense now. Since you were in a coma at the time, there was no possible way for you to laugh at that song; a smile was all you could muster. That definitely makes a lot more sense now. Her Majesty’s royal decree to play that song suddenly makes a lot more sense.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “but, like I said, it’s not really something that I like to think about. It’s a part of my past and that’s just how I want it to stay. Betsy didn’t even remember that story until a few months ago. I think that a part of her wanted to tell you guys about this story, about what was going on, but she never did. I’m not really sure why Betsy would keep that to her, not when she was always known for embarrassing me around guys I like, namely you. It’s a mystery to me as to why Betsy wouldn’t reveal that.”

“You don’t know?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Well, maybe she was just so upset with Joe that she couldn’t bring herself to mention it to her ex-boyfriend since he was the one to ask about it,” Kevin suggested to me.

“It’s plausible,” I said. “And, now that I’ve answered your question, I need you to answer mine. What was with the locket? Why was it that you decided to use Please Be Mine as the song to get my attention with? I mean, were you trying to tell me something with that?”

He nodded. “I was actually.”

“What were you trying to tell me?” I asked.

“I was attempting to ask you a question,” Kevin explained, gathering me into a hug. He sighed. “Mandolin, I know we broke up, and I know that I nearly married Allison today, but will you pleaser be mine, again? With a little help from your sister, I was able to realize that I was always going to love you. Mandolin, would you please be my girlfriend again?”

“Under one condition,” I said.

“What’s that?” he asked.

I sighed and explained the situation to Kevin, knowing that this was the one shot I had at trying to get Jetsy back together. If Kevin wanted me back, he was just going to have to help me with all of this. Jora was not allowed to exist and I was going to do everything in my power to get Betsy and Joe back together. “Zora is doing the same thing with Joe that Allison was trying to with you. And, in the same way that I’m better for you than Allison, so is Betsy better for Joe than Zora. Now, Nick and Karleigh are already helping me to try and get them back together, but I’m going to need your help as well. Maybe Joe seeing that you came back to me will help make Joe realize that he needs to forgive Betsy for what happened last Thanksgiving,” I explained to Kevin. “So, will you help me?”

Kevin nodded. “I will.”