I Don't Need You To Save Me

“Hayleigh! I’m sorry!”

Kevin stumbled back as I looked up at him in shock. I hadn’t even seen him walking out of his room as I had been crossing the hallway to find where Joe had wondered off to. He had promised to let me borrow his laptop for a little bit, but I think he had wondered off and forgotten. I laughed and pulled my ipod earphones away from my ears.

“No, it was my fault. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.” I laughed again and then ran my hand through my hair to brush it back behind my ear. “Have you seen Joe?” I asked

“Erm, I think he’s in his room. Well he was last time I saw him.” Kevin pointed to Joe’s closed bedroom door and I shook my head. “Why?”

“He was supposed to be letting me borrow his laptop, but I guess he forgot.” I shrugged and then laughed. “I asked him about an hour ago.”

“Just knock his door down and then he’ll remember.” Kevin laughed and then turned to walk down the stairs.

“Oh! Kevin. Wait!” I called after him. “I actually wanted to ask you something.”

Kevin backed up a few steps and turned to face me. “Shoot.” He grinned at me.

I paused before speaking; carefully collecting the right words, so he wouldn’t automatically say no as soon as I had finished speaking.

“Right. Don’t jump down my throat until you’ve heard me out properly.” I started off, thinking this would be the best way to approach the subject without him jumping to conclusions. Unfortunately, this had the opposite affect to the one I had wanted.

“Hayleigh, I know what you’re going to say--”

I cut him off. “Promise you won’t interrupt me?”

“I already know what you’re going to say though.”

I pointed my finger at him. “Promise me? Please? I'm trying to do something nice here.” Kevin sighed but let me continue anyway, whether it was out of politeness or he secretly wanted to know what I had to say.

“Right. Like I said, don’t interrupt me.” I smiled and then tucked some of my hair behind my ear. “Well, I thought that seen as though your all being so nice to me and letting me stay up here and everything. I wanted to do something to help you seen as though you’re helping me.”

I heard Kevin sigh again. He knew where I was going with this.

“Anyway. I thought I’d ask you first, just because I think if I did go ahead with it I couldn’t have it as a complete surprise.” I rambled on. Kevin nodded silently. “But I was thinking I would ask my dad to ask some of his friends that work in the music industry to come and listen to you guys play next week.”

“You don’t have to do anything for us, you know that don’t you Hayleigh.” Kevin explained. I rolled my eyes. “Plus, we’re not going to take advantage of you.”

“What is it with you Jonas boys? It wouldn’t be taking advantage if I offered in the first place.” I shook my head at him and laughed.

“What do you mean?” Kevin asked me.

“I mentioned something about it the other day and Joe pretty much said what you just said.” I clarified. “ It doesn’t matter how much you object, even if I don’t tell somebody about your band now then I will do later.”

“Yes, but I don’t want you to think you have to do this.”

“I know I don’t. But it would be rude not to consider it, when I could give you guys the leg up that you clearly want.” I looked down at the floor. “I’ll do it eventually, whether you like it or not.” I grinned and looked back up.

“So there was no point in even asking me, if your just going to do it anyway?” Kevin asked and I shrugged.

“To give you some warning?” I suggested and shrugged again. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I know I’ve said it once. You really shouldn’t feel like you have to.” Kevin laughed, the curls on the top of his head bounce about as his head moved. “But it sounds like you’ve already made up your mind.”

“You’ll thank me for it when you’re all super famous rock stars.” I grinned. “Just don’t forget about me when your famous.”

“I don’t think anybody could forget you in a hurry Hayleigh. Even if they wanted to.”

And with that Kevin started down the stairs once again. I shook my head in his direction and knocked on Joe’s bedroom door. I heard a distracted “come in” and pushed open the door. I was greeted with the sight of Joe stretched out on his bedroom floor, shirtless, the sunlight steaming in through the dormer windows and covering him in a strip of sunlight. He had been looking up at the screen of his iPod intently, but as soon as he saw me he dropped his iPod and sat up.

“Hayleigh!” He grinned and then turned round and pulled a t-shirt from his bed.

“Embarrassed are we?” I asked him and he gave me a funny look. “As soon as I walk in you want to cover up.” I half giggled and walked over to sit down next to him, enjoying the afternoon sunshine against my cheek.

“Well, if you were enjoying the show...” Joe trailed off and winked at me, throwing his t-shirt back onto his bed. Now he had brought it up, I couldn’t help but let my eyes wander, once his head was turned of course. It was actually a nice view. My eyes flashed back up to his face as soon as his head started to turn once again.

“Oh, shush Joseph.” I smirked at him and then laughed. He laughed along with me. “I actually came looking for you because you said I could use your laptop, like an hour and a half ago?”

Joe stared at me blankly for a few moments before it registered in his brain.

“Oh! I completely forgot! I’m sorry!” He jumped up and walked over to the desk next to his bed and unplugged the black laptop before returning to where I sat on his bedroom floor. He placed the laptop by my feet and looked at me apologetically.

“Sorry, I forgot all about it.” Joe smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. “I just started listening to music and just forgot about everything.”

“You know, you could have just used some excuse or something.” I pointed out with a small smile. “If I’d have been you I’d have just said it was charging or something.”

“Ha. Ha. You’re funny.” I faked laughter and stuck my tongue out at him. “I won’t be long using it, I promise.”

“Take your time.” Joe drummed his fingertips against the hard plastic casing and sighed.

“That was a pretty big sigh Joe.” I watched him as he watched his fingers beating out a familiar rhythm. “What’s up?” I asked him.

His dark eyes shot back up to my worried gaze. He smiled and shrugged everything off as if it was nothing. I frowned at him; I wasn’t the type of person to be fooled that easily.

“I'm fine. Honestly.”

It seemed as though our roles from the night where I broke down into tears in front of him had been reversed. Instead of being the person whom people were worrying about, I was the person worrying about someone else.

Instead of letting him know I was worried I smiled, more to myself then to him. I would get it out of him if I had to.

“Well, if you say so. But remember I’m here if you ever need to talk.” I continued to smile.

“The same goes for you.” He replied simply and picked up the wires connecting his headphones to his iPod, twisting them round his little finger. I watched him for a few minutes before reaching past him and picking up his iPod from behind him.

“So what is Mr Jonas listening to today then?” I asked and switched the small iPod on. I was trying to lighten the atmosphere a little and change the subject. It was obvious, but I didn’t really care.

“You probably won’t have heard of many of the people on there.” Joe pointed out as I silently scrolled through the collections of artists and albums. The songs were amazingly similar to the ones I had on my own iPod. At least he had taste when it came to music.

“I think you will be surprised to know Joseph that I know pretty much all of the bands on here.” I laughed and then something more interesting caught my eye and cut my laughter short. “What's this?” I asked him, but didn’t wait for a reply. I picked up the headphone that he had been twisting round his finger and plugged it into my ear.

“What are you listening to?” He asked and moved closer to me to look at the iPod screen. I held it away from his reach and shook my head at him.

“If you see you’ll probably take it off me, and I want to listen.” I smirked at him. He reached forward to try and win back his iPod once again but I stopped him by putting my hand against his chest and pushing him back.

“Just tell me what you’re listening to!” Joe demanded and pouted a little. It made me giggle and I put my free hand over my face.

“You look hilarious when you do that you know.” I bit my lip to stop from bursting into another fit of giggles.

“Don’t change the subject.” Joe complained.

I looked down at the floor and continued biting my lip.

“Don’t get mad, but I saw that you’d put some recordings on here and I had to listen to them, just once.” The words all came out at once, they sounded all mashed together like one long word.

“You’re doing what?” Joe asked. He didn’t sound mad, he sounded surprised. “I didn’t even remember those were still on there.” He stared at me shocked. “I can’t believe you’re bothering with them, the quality’s really bad.”

“Joe. Shush.” I pointed my finger at him playfully. “The quality is fine. These sound really good you know.”

“We just recorded them using this special recording microphone this guy I know has a couple of weeks ago. Just for fun.” Joe explained. “I thought I’d deleted them.”

“Don’t delete them.” I ordered him and then looked out of the window as I listened to the songs. All I could see was the sun lighting up the white fluffy clouds that lined the blue sky. “Or at least let me put them onto my iPod before you do.”

“What makes you think I’m going to let you do that?” Joe asked with a sly smile.

“Because I may be helping your little band get somewhere, if you’re nice to me that is.” I grinned and Joe gave me a funny look.

“I thought I said you shouldn’t”

“Joe, you would love it if I helped you guys and you know it.” I sighed. “Please just let me do one thing for you. I know how much you want this band to go somewhere and I don’t know if you know this, but I'm pretty sure your brothers want it to go somewhere as well. Can’t you all just let me do this one tiny thing for you?”

I took a deep breath after my little speech. Joe stared at me for a few minutes.

“Fair enough.” He shrugged.

“Look, I'm not saying I'm going to make you famous by myself. I just want to ask some of my dads friends to come and listen to you guys on Friday night and hope that they see what I see when you guys are performing.”

Joe looked away from me for a couple of minutes and sighed. Then after what felt like an eternity he looked back up at me.

“Fine.” He said with a sly grin. “I have to say that it would be nice to get somewhere after all these years.”

“See, you’re warming to my idea already.” I grinned back and pulled his iPod headphones from my ears and handed them back to him. “And if my dad can’t get anyone to come up here on Friday night, I’m sending those recordings to someone.”

“Well we will see about that one.” Joe laughed and I smiled at him before picking up his laptop and taking it into my bedroom. As I turned the power switch on I picked up my mobile and dialed my dads number, waiting patiently for him to pick up.