Promises, Promises, Promises.

It took us three whole days to finish ‘Fly With Me’, and by the time we had declared our finishing, I had taken a break, sitting next to Joe on the sofa next to the TV, while Nick started with a new song.

“He never stops, does he?” I said to Joe, making sure Nick didn’t hear from the other room.

“It’s hard to stop him once you get him started.” He says, flicking channels. “How did finishing things off go?” He asked.

“It went okay, Nick told me you guys are going to the studio in a couple of weeks to check in with the producers,” I say, half-listening to what was on Nickelodeon. “How many songs have you guys written so far?”

“We’ve started a couple, haven’t finished them though, but we still have to write a couple more. We’re planning about 12 tracks including some bonuses, Miley’s in one song that we’re doing, but we sorta wrote that a long time ago, that’s the only one we’ve finished apart from ‘Fly With Me’ “

“Oh, that’s nice.” I told him, glancing at Nick every other second, flicking my eyes to him and the television.

“So what have you been up to since we last saw each other?” Joe asks after a couple of minutes of watching TV.

“New York’s New York. There’s nothing much to do once you’ve lived there for such a long time.” I say, “Mom’s always out in France working on some huge fashion project and dad’s always out halfway across the world” I continue, remembering after a while the situation my family was really in. I haven’t talked to dad for a couple of days, so I really didn’t know what they were up to.

“How’s your dad doing? Getting those letters must be pretty hard for him." Joe says, hesitant about asking, but really wanting to know.

“Mom says we have no idea what he’s going through, she says it’s been really hard for him right now, I’ve only talked to mom in the past couple of days but she says he’s just glad that we’re all away from New York.” I say, smiling but really hurting inside.

“I wouldn’t know how to cope if one of my family members received a death threat. It must be really hard for you.” He says, comforting me.

“It’s hard having to worry about dad all the time, but knowing we’re all okay now is good enough for the meantime.” I say, truly meaning it.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about anything, we’ll keep you safe, and we have Big Rob for double protection. But don’t waste your summer worrying about your dad all the time, enjoy it and have some fun.” Joe says, starting to sound like my older brother, Matt. “Okay?”

I nodded, “Okay. Thanks Joe.” I say, smiling again.

“For you, Ella? Anytime.”

From: Matt
Having a great time here, worrying about you, dad and mom. Hanging in alright there little sis? I might come and visit if we’re lucky. Don’t forget to pray before bed. Sorry I’m not here to talk to you all the time.
Love, Matt.

I smiled, sinking into the living room couch in my silk PJ shorts ad tank-top.

To: Matt
Finished writing a song with Nick, It’s called ‘Fly With Me’. I think you’ll like it when it’s finally done and recorded. Come visit please? You’ll love it here, guaranteed! Don’t you forget to pray before bed. If you ever see dad, tell him I miss him and love him. Oh, and I love you too. Ellie.

I sent the message as Nick and Elvis came in the door. I smiled. He smiled. Elvis ran up to me and jumped on the couch, sitting on my legs.

Nick went wide-eyed, knowing his mom would kill him, and Elvis if she knew the dog was on the couch. “Elvis! No! Off the couch, come on!” He whisper-shouts, clapping his hands for him to come over.

Elvis wouldn’t budge, “Elvis, go to daddy and he’ll give you a treat!” I say, pointing over to Nick. His head jerked at the word ‘treat’, he jumped off the couch and ran to Nick to claim his prize.

Nick sighed thankfully and walked to the kitchen. I heard a jar open, and a cookie crunch. “Now get to bed.” Nick said, as Elvis walked back into the living room, sat on his own little couch and munched happily on his treat.

Nick sat down and looked at me, “Thanks.” He says, ruffling his dark brown hair.

“No problem,” I say, turning back to my blackberry to see if I had any messages.

“Hey do you… want to watch a movie?” He says, getting up and putting his phone in his pocket.

“Sure,” I say interested, unsure if we were watching a movie in the living room.

“Well, come on then,” He smiles, turning the corner and heading downstairs, “I don’t think you’ve been down here before, have you?”

I shook my head and followed him downstairs.

“Well, this is the ‘chill-out’ area,” he says, air-quoting his words and gesturing to the large room complete with pool table, aquarium, dartboard, complete library, another piano, racks of guitars, a keyboard and flat screen complete with at least 3 different game consoles. “and this is,” he says, walking up to another door, “the theatre,” Opening the door to reveal the home theatre of all home theatres, complete with a DVD library that took up the whole back wall, “And surround sound,” He says, as if he were reading my mind. I scan my eyes to the two-seater couches lined up like a mini-theatre to the large projector screen. This room could at least fit twenty people.

“Wow,” I managed to stutter, “You guys must be in here all the time.”

“Only if we have free time,” Nick says, closing the door behind him and walking over to the DVD collection. “Why don’t you pick?” He says.

My lips curved into a shy smile as I walked over to him, “Do you have… Finding Neverland?” I ask, wanting to watch the movie that inspired us with our song. I love Peter Pan now – and It was all because of Nick.

His hand reached out to the shelf in front of me and he pulled out the DVD we wanted, I saw a tag on the shelf under this set of DVDs, separated from the others, ‘Nick’s favourites’ the sticker read. “I love this movie.” He whispers before taking it out and putting it into the DVD player.

NICK’s POV

It was an hour into the movie, she was slightly leaning on me while the projector screen filtered pictures onto the screen.

“Nick, why are you staring at me like that?” She asked. I didn’t realize I was staring.

“I- I wanted to see if you were enjoying the movie,” I said, more as a question than anything else. Fantastic job, Nicholas.

She smiled, “Of course I’m enjoying the movie.”

I kissed her cheek, “Good.” As I pulled away, I swear I saw the glint of worry in her eyes. I wasn’t 100% sure if it was worry, or confusion… But it was definitely something.