A Messed-Up Heart

With nothing much to do, Kevin and I just sat around talking, at least until Nick, Karleigh, Garbo, and Betsy came over. “It worked!” Nick exclaimed. He high-fived Betsy. “You did it, Beth. You got Allison out of our lives and Manda back in.” He then turned to Garbo. “Thanks for getting Betsy into the wedding. You have no idea as to how much I despised having Allison around and dating my older brother. It was absolute torture.

“No problem,” Garbo said.

Kevin looked over at his younger brother. “You hated Allison? Why didn’t you ever mention any of this to me? It could have stopped the wedding from ever occurring. Mandolin and Queeny never would have had to pull this stunt if you had spoken up,” he said.

“I tried!” Nick objected. “You refused to listen to me though. In fact, you refused to listen to anyone whose opinion differed from your own. And so, the wedding plans proceeded, despite everyone’s objections to such a union. Even with all of our objections, no one could bring themselves to say anything, not until Beth and Manda. Only they were brazen enough to say anything. Neither one was invited to the wedding though, so we asked Garbo to help Beth get into the wedding while Manda was at her interview. Despite the fact that we knew about her being at the wedding, Karleigh and I knew absolutely nothing about the plan that they were concocting; only Dad and Garbo knew about any of that.”

“Dad knew that Queeny was going to play that message?” Kevin asked in absolute surprise. He groaned. “Did anyone in this family approve of my getting married to Allison, or did you all happen to be on the girls’ side of the situation of this particular argument?”

“The girls,” they replied.

“What about Joe?” Kevin asked.

Betsy bit her lip. “Joe is a special case. Like you were, Joe was hypnotized into forgetting his ex-girlfriend, namely me. All Joe seems to care about these days is Zora. Not even music. Nick can attest to that. And, if you care, you were the same way with Allison. No one, by the way, liked you like that, particularly not Amanda; she was so in love with you that she wasn’t even willing to come back to California and break her promise to you so that she could see me. Amanda gave up spending time with me for you,” she explained. “And as for Joe? Well, in the process of forgetting about me the way that Zora wanted him to, he also stopped caring about anything that was going on with you or Nick. All that seemed to matter to Joe was his relationship with Zora. Nothing else mattered to Joe. The hypnosis that was placed on him had caused his whole life to be based around the girl who took my place as his girlfriend. No one likes her either. Not me. Not Amanda. Not Nick. Not Frankie. Not your parents. Not your friends. No one. The same was true with Allison, but you refused to listen. And Joe is the same way as you were.”

“Is that true?” Kevin asked his brother.

Nick nodded. “Of course it’s the truth. Joe hasn’t been the same since breaking up with Beth. Zora is part of the reason that Beth was staying with Demi for the past two months; Zora and Allison didn’t want the Weimar sisters to be around us anymore. We found a way around that though by having Beth stay with Demi for the duration of all this.”

I sighed. “See, this is exactly why we need you to help us get Jetsy back together. The fact of the matter is that you might be the only person in the world who can convince Joe that he’s doing the wrong thing by dating Zora. He needs to go back to Betsy, because the relationship that he has with Zora is putting him on a very destructive path. Dating Zora will only get him into trouble. And besides, Betsy is still in love with him. Much like I was still in love with you, Kevin, so is Betsy still in love with Joe,” I explained.

At this point, Nick turned to Betsy. “Yeah, Beth, how long did your relationship with Sterling last? You might want to tell your sister about that. Demi and I are the only ones to know about that.”

“What is it?” I asked my sister.

“Oh, well, that relationship with Sterling lasted until late last month, just before I joined the tour,” Betsy explained. “Like what happened with you and David; well, the same thing happened with me and Sterling. A part of me is still in love with Joe, and Sterling knew that. It was the reason that Karleigh even insisted that I come on this tour; everyone is trying to get me and Joe back together. Joe needs to forgive me for what happened last year with my hot guy list. He needs to know that it’s gone. Only one shred of proof that that list existed remains: the top of the list where Joe’s name was. He’s the only one on there now, and Joe needs to know that; he needs to know that he’s the only one I truly love.”

“So, you want Joe back, right?” I asked. “Well, I have a way for us to do that. But, it’s only going to work if we all do our part. Now, Betsy, that means no more flying back to California; it’s not an option anymore. You need to go to Canada with the boys while they get ready to film Camp Rock 2; that is the only way in which my plan is ever going to work.”