It's Not A Love Song

I sat on my bed with Muffins running around it like the demented kitten he is. I pinched a small treat in between my fingers for him and chuckled as he ate it then licked my fingers as if to say ‘thanks for the treat’. Muffins then jumped onto the dresser at the foot of the bed then tentatively leaped to the floor, letting out a ‘meow’ of pride as he landed it.

My stomach grumbled so I reached for the phone beside my bed and ordered a pizza to my room, one of the many perks of having your room under the name of ‘Jonas’ was getting what you want 24/7.

After watching only half a music video there was a knock at my door, “That was quick.” I mumbled turning off the TV and heading towards the door.

I looked through the peep hole and to my surprise saw Joe standing awkwardly in a grey t-shirt and some red pyjama bottoms with only a pair of black socks on his feet. I opened the hotel door for him and let him inside, he offered me a small smile before he shuffled into my room.

I followed him inside and picked up Muffins from the floor while Joe unusually sat on the desk in the corner of the room. The atmosphere was even more tense as I placed my kitten into his bed that was in a small pen down the side of my bed. I decided to make the first move so I slowly made my way over to him; stopping in front of him I stood with my weight on one foot and my arms folded over my torso.

“Demi called me earlier,” I started, my voice sounded loud in comparison to the silence we’d just been in. “She said that you thought I was cheating on you.” Joe slowly nodded his head, keeping contact with me through his narrow eyes, “Why would you even think that?”

“Numerous reasons.” Joe stated, I glared at him as he hopped off the desk and onto his feet. “The whole of this week you’ve been sneaking around when you’re not on set, you’ve been sneaking around on set with this guy called Tom apparently, I called you over twenty times today and got no answer…” He was counting them off on his fingers while he paced around me. “Need anymore?”

“I introduced you to Tom on set!” I exclaimed throwing my hands in the air.

“No you didn’t.” He argued pointing at me.

“I did! I came over to you and said ‘Joe, this is Tom one of the back up dancers’ you said hi and completely ignored me for the hour after that!” I shouted at him grabbing at my hair.

Joe fake laughed, “Where the hell were you today then? Hm?”

“What? So I can’t go out for a day alone?” I snapped at him.

“But it’s a whole different story if I don’t text you all day isn’t it?” He retorted with a smirk.

“No! It’s not!” I replied feeling slightly exasperated. Why couldn’t he just understand what I was saying? “I didn’t suddenly start accusing you of cheating on me!”

“I went out for a meal with a friend and you did it!”

I gasped and shook my head, “Joe, that’s completely different.”

“Ho—”

Joe was interrupted by the door bell, I stalked away from him and swung the door open. “Room service.” The maid smiled and handed me a pizza box, “Enjoy.”

“Thanks.” I whispered and gave her as close to a smile as I could get.

I carried the box of hot pizza back into the room and tossed it on the bed, I really didn’t want to eat it anymore, so I just sat down on the bed with my knees tucked into my chest. Joe stood looking at me, his arms cross over his chest.

“I think we should take a couple of days to ourselves, we both need to get out of this state of mind before we can sort this out.” Joe said, walking speedily towards the door. “Talk to you later.”

Before I could object Joe was slamming my door. I let out an aggravated scream and thrashed about on my bed. With a groan I flipped open the lid of the pizza box and pulled a slice away, smiling as I saw the cheese stretch until it finally snapped away from the rest of the pizza.

While I sat and ate a full pizza alone I couldn’t help but still be angry. We didn’t even have to argue but it always ended up turning into one. Joe had a bad temper when it came to arguments and sometimes there’s just no reasoning with him, especially when he’s determined he’s right because he’ll stop at nothing to win an argument. I guess you just had to try and calm things down and make him think he’s right.

Time Lapse

The next morning was the last day on set and was the day of the big dance number so everyone was up early and heading to set. Instead of waiting for me Joe and his brothers took off to the set for breakfast without me, I let it slide though.

I wore some grey sweats and a black vest top with some Nike Air dunks on my feet, nice and casual. Once I arrived on set I headed straight to the large white marquee where breakfast was served, everyone was chatting but the majority stopped and said hello when I walked past them towards the buffet of food. I settled on some toast and a cup of tea to set me off for my day then took a seat on the large round table where the cast sat, Demi smiled at me from my right and Meaghan smiled at me from my left.

“Morning.” I said to everyone before I took a bite out of my toast.

I didn’t fail to notice that Joe was the only one not to say ‘good morning’ back to me. He said hunched over eating his eggs with a Yankees hat covering his wild hair, obviously he hadn’t been to hair and make up yet.

Demi had her camera out as we all joked around, “What are you doing, Jools?”

“Eatin’ ma toast, yo.” I answered, trying to sound gangster but failing epically. “I’m ready to dance.”

Demi held the camera out in front of us both, “Me too.” We both looked to each other and broke out into a dance whilst in our seats.

I spotted Joe stand up from out of his seat and begin to walk back to the buffet, “Your shoe laces are undone.” I shouted to him.

He simply ignored me and carried on walking. Justice was served six steps later when he tripped over his shoe laces in front of everyone and fell flat on his face. he jumped back up without missing a beat and continued to walk towards the buffet while we all laughed hysterically together over the incident he so ‘smoothly’ ignored.

Once we’d finally finished the filming for the final dance number we broke out into a silly string fight which was fun, but I still had an aching in my gut because Joe and I weren’t talking. It was hard to be around him and know that I couldn’t give him a hug or anything. Occasionally we’d catch each others eyes and dart them away awkwardly, I’d always blush and he’d duck his head downwards and find the floor suddenly interesting for a few seconds before he returned to whatever he was doing before that.

I made sure to take time with my appearance when it came time for the wrap party the next day, I’d been out and picked up the first copy of my first music video so I could show everyone it. Nervous was an understatement. I felt like I had dry swallowed a pill and that it was stuck in my throat.

Nevertheless, I managed to curl and pin back my hair to perfection and do my make up magnificently. I had an all over nude base with no blusher or bronzer, my eyelashes looked larger thanks to my Dior show mascara yet I kept it like that, nice and plain. But my lips were a shocking hot pink to match my Yves Saint Laurent heels, the pink was something to liven up my Balenciaga dress that Joe had bought me a few weeks back. It had a round neck with cap sleeves and a tulip shaped skirt that fell just before my knees, with a pleated waistline my figure was extenuated perfectly.

Overall it took me an extra hour than usual to get myself ready for this party but it was so worth it when all the girls were spitting compliments at me left right and centre in the girl limo. The boys were already there.

My eyes were immediately drawn to him. He stood with Roshon and Frankie with a red cup in his large hands, the disco lights flashing against his perfect complexion. The way he stood had me mesmerised; one hand stuck in his pocket and his now curly hair twisted upwards in the most adorable sense.

I patted my dark hair before I followed all the other girls towards the dance floor. We got straight to dancing together and soon everyone was out on the floor making it even more awkward for Joe and me as we tried to keep away from each other but still be with our shared friends. Though I appeared to be having fun I was nervous the whole time. My palms were sweaty and my heart was racing; especially when my mother came in with the rest of the adults upon my request. I was more scared for her opinion than anyone else’s.

Bang on ten o’clock I pushed my way out of the crowds of people and headed over to the DJ booth, gulping as I watched the projector screen come down from the roof and a blue screen erupt on it. People glanced at it but ignored it and continued to dance as the song came to an end.

“Okay, alright, we have Julia here who has something big to announce and say!” The DJ said into the microphone. I handed him my flip video to record everyone’s reactions then took the black wireless microphone from him.

“Uh, so this week I haven’t been around much and this is why. Last week Jay-Z asked me if I would do vocals on one of his new songs and I said yes, so on Monday I went and did the vocals and two days ago I did the video.” Everyone burst out into excited chatter, Joe just stared up at me. “The song is called ‘Run This Town’ and I helped write my parts but I can’t rap so… um, look at the screen and I hope you like it.”

The lights turned off and I jumped down from the DJ booth and hovered near my mother who had her hand over her mouth. The video began to play on the screen and my heart was almost about to burst out of my chest. When I came on the screen some let out excited screams and my mother began to cry, but she was smiling so I took it as happy screams.

Once I’d finished my verse and Jay was on everyone glanced behind to find me, but I blended in with the darkness. “You look so amazing.” My mom whispered.

The smile was irreplaceable from my face, she liked it. As my final line ran through the speakers and the video came to an end, everyone applauded. Emma ran over to me and tackled me in a hug, “Oh my fucking god!” She screamed.

I chuckled into her hair. “Thanks.”

It took a while to get back into the groove of dancing with everyone, but one person was definitely missing. Joe sat at a table with a drink, his eyes on me all the time. Emma danced closely with Nick to Katy Perry’s song ‘I Kissed A Girl’, their hands all over each other as they were unseen by the watchful eyes of the adults who sat getting drunk around one table.

But then, one of the more rowdy male dancers on set pushed his way to me. I forced a smile at him as he ‘danced’ with me, it was kind of awkward as everyone looked at me as I tried to turn to dance with other people only for him to push his way back to me.

Much to my surprise the last person I thought to interrupt did; Nick had managed to tear himself away from Emma to come to my defense.

“I don’t think she wants to dance with you.” Nick’s voice boomed over the music, Emma stood to the side with her eyes wide as she watched her boyfriend show his strength fully.

The boys laughed, “How would you know?” He crossed his arms over his chest, the size of his muscles in comparisons to Nick’s was shocking. His were quite a bit larger, especially since he was pushing them forward.

“It’s pretty obvious, I suggest you leave now.” Nick glared at him viciously.

“What are you? Her boyfriend?” The boy spat, scoffing at Nick.

I gasped as Joe suddenly stood in front of Nick who slipped off to Emma’s side, the size different was immediately noticeable; Joe was muscles were much, much larger than the disgusting boy’s and Joe was taller than the boy too.

I stared at the suddenly afraid pervert over Joe’s shoulder thanks to my heels and smirked.

Joe cracked his knuckles making the boy cower and he growled out, “No, but I am.”