With Every Strike Of Lightning.

“Here they are! Happy Birthday Claire. Did you enjoy your surprise?” Jordan said well tackling me into a hug.

“It was fine.” I said shortly before walking up the stairs, I didn’t mean to be rude but I was in a weird mood.

The car ride home was silent, I was confused. Just a few weeks ago, Joe and I agreed we were better off friends so why did he do all this for me?

I walked up the stairs and straight into Lauren’s room, she was sound asleep her make up smudged a little.

“Laur, Lauren.” I shook her awake gently.

“Hello Claire, have you come to kill me, if you have please but me out of my misery.” Her lip started trembling and a tear rolled down her face.

“What’s wrong, what happened? Is it Alex?” I asked pulling her into a hug.

She shook her head. “Is something wrong at home?” Lauren shook her head again before sobbing louder.

“What’s wrong tell me.” I said rocking her back and forth.

“Ke-Kevin told me he was still in love with Danielle.” She managed to explain before burrowing her face into my shoulder.

“Don’t cry, if he is going to let you slip through his fingers a second time he is clearly not worth it. Anyway right now I should be killing you.” I tried to cheer her up. It seemed to work, she rubbed her eyes and smiled.

“Did Joe like it?” Lauren giggled.

“I don’t know I’m so confused.” I whined, Lauren gave me a questioning look before I told her everything that happened. The picnic, the beach, the song, the sunrise and the kiss.

“He drives you to Ohio, a place you have always wanted to go. He arranges a picnic and plans the time perfectly so you can see the sunrise then he kisses you, and you demand him to take you home. You are more of a diva than I thought.” Lauren joked.

“I know, I must seem like a real bitch at the moment. It was a shock, I thought we were going to give this friends thing a go. Oh no I hope he is still downstairs.” I said racing out the room, Lauren following slowly behind me.

I got to the bottom stair just as Joe and Kevin were heading out the door. “Joe wait.” I called, he turned around looking surprised.

I walked over to him, and wrapped my arms around his waist. “I’m sorry for being a bitch, after you gave me the best birthday present ever. Thank you, I was just sho-“ I started once Joe had wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Claire, it was completely my fault. I got caught up in the moment, it was a mistake. I blame it on Lauren forgetting your leggings.” Joe joked causing me to playfully smack him. “Are we still friends?” Joe asked after Lauren had rolled her eyes.

“Uh- yeah of course. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” I sighed, why does this always happen. When I go to tell Joe my feelings for him, he apologizes and says it was a mistake and we are just friends.

“I’m not trying to.” Joe squeezed me before realizing me and hugging Lauren.

“Come on Joe lets go, Happy Birthday Claire.” Kevin said while texting someone on his phone.

“Thanks Kev.” I was slightly annoyed with him, but decided to leave it for now. Lauren will probably be his friend again next week.

Once they had left, I realized I had left my phone at home this morning. Racing upstairs I grabbed it. There were a lot of miss calls and messages from my family I decided to call them all back.

“Nick’s going back into the studio soon to record their fifth album so I will have time to go dress shopping with you and Claire.” I heard Jordan say as I walked down the stairs after talking to all my family.

“Finally we can have some much needed girly time.” I said butting into their conversation.

“Yeah, but we have to take Jordan dress shopping. Remember when we had to go dress shopping with her for her Auntie’s wedding that was a nightmare!” Lauren reminded me.

“But this time I promise I’ll be good. I won’t be one of them demanding bride.” Jordan reassured us.

“I can’t believe you are getting married!” I said causing Lauren and Jordan to squeal, to others it probably seemed like we were making a big deal out of this. We were, it’s not everyday one of your best friends gets engaged.

After we had calmed down we rehearsed our lines for the advert which we were filming the next day. Even though the lines where cheesy, we felt we could really relate to them so we had no problem putting “emotion” into the lines as Simon urged us to.

“One question we get asked in interviews all the time is if we are really best friends.” Lauren said her rehearsed line into the camera.

“Every time we say we are, but that was when we decided to wear something that let’s people know how close we are.” Jordan smiled.

“These bracelets were perfect, they aren’t to big so you can wear them to school!” I said my line with added enthusiasm.

“They are not highly priced either at only $2.50 a pack, there are three in each pack.” Lauren said reading from the screen.

“Not to mention they are stylish!” Lauren smiled.

“So, make a statement today with us Forever True.”

“Friendship makes the world go round so give your best friend a BFF bracelet today and do your bit to help the world.” Jordan finished the line just as our song Revolution started playing.

“And that’s a wrap. Thank you girls you three were brilliant.” The directed smiled at us after we finished watching it back.

We were led into a small room with four chairs, we had to do an interview for BOP.

“How’s life been while you have been back in LA?”The interviewer called Carol asked.

“We have been pretty busy, what with organizing the wedding and Claire just celebrated her twenty second birthday.” Lauren answered.

“Congratulations by the way Jordan. Was it a shock when Nick proposed?”

“It was I had no idea he was at the show, he told me he had a meeting to attend! Then when I saw him on the stage, I knew something big was going to happen. Claire and Lauren actually found out a few weeks before but they kept it from me.” Jordan pouted.

“We had to promise not to tell her.” I explained.

“So do you keep secrets from each other often?” The interview asked thinking she had found a crack in our friendship.

“No, only when it’s a nice surprise. We never keep secrets from each other about our personal lives; we wouldn’t be best friends if we couldn’t tell each other our secrets in confidence.” Lauren answered professionally.

“What was the last secret you kept from each other? Was it the proposal?” She asked.

“No actually we had to keep a secret from Claire until yesterday. It was her birthday yesterday and a friend of ours wanted to surprise her by taking her to Ohio.” Jordan answered, while I blushed a bit.

“We seen the pictures of you and Joe from the Jonas Brothers taken yesterday I presume on the beach in Ohio. It looked pretty cozy, what’s going on between you two?” The question I was dreading.

“Joe actually surprised me and drove all the way to Ohio at two in the morning just so I could go to Ohio a place I have wanted to go for years and get back to spend my birthday with my friends. It was a sweet gesture. He has become one of my best friends recently; we have put our differences aside.” I answered carefully.

“Speaking of putting differences aside, Lauren there were also pictures of you and Kevin house hunting is there something we need to know?”

“I’m happy were I am, I love living with my best friends. Kevin was looking for an apartment, and he didn’t want to go alone so I thought I’d go help a friend out.” Lauren answered.

“Jordan there are rumors that you and Nick have brought a house on the outskirts of LA is this true?”

“It is, we fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, but we went home and discussed it because we both wanted to stay close to our family and friends, this house is a half an hour drive to where we are now. But in the end after much thought we decided to go for it.” Jordan wrapped the interview up.