A Friend Like Me

Honesty is such a lonely word
Everyone is so untrue
Honesty - Billy Joel

“Joe!” Demi cried, tackling Joe into a hug. They then both disappeared out of the door, probably on the way to Joe's room.

Ha. See, I knew it would go back to normal. I was right.

Don't get me wrong. I didn't want to be right. For once, I wanted to be wrong, but what did I expect? For Joe to say, “I'm in love with you”?

Mrs. Jonas kept looking from me to Joe, looking like she hadn't slept. “What happened to you two? I was so worried!”

“We hydroplaned,” I explained wearily, for I didn't get enough sleep last night, either (Joe kept wanting to play in the rain), “and there was no reception at all. I'm so sorry for making you guys worry.” I handed her the curtains. “Here's these.”

“You look like you stepped out of Lost,” Nick told me.

“Nicholas!” Mrs. Jonas said. She turned to me. “You're probably hungry and tired. Do you want anything? Where's Joe?”

“I'm not hungry,” I said right as my stomach gave a loud grumble. “As for Joe, I think he went to his room – with Demi.”

“What?” Mr. Jonas said loudly from the other room. “Hey Nick, go to Joe's room, will you? Make sure they don't do anything.”

Nick sighed and grabbed Joe's extra room key from the table. “Okay.”

“Really,” I reassured Mrs. Jonas, “I'm fine. I'll just go home and wash up, eat, and – you know – sleep. I'll see you guys later.”

I was halfway to the elevators when someone yelled, “Ava! Hey, Av! Wait!”

I turned around to see Joe sprinting down the hallway.

“Shouldn't you be making out with Demi right now?” I called back, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

“What's up with you?” Joe asked with a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Nothing.”

“Hey, give me more credit than that. Something's bothering you.”

“I'm fine, Joseph!”

“Are you jealous?”

“No.”

With that, I spun on my heel and stalked off toward the elevators.

Okay, so I am jealous. But I mean, it's never been this bad, where I'm just extremely irate.

Then again, this was the first time Joe's really shown PDA in front of me.

Joe followed me, not getting the hint that I wanted to be alone.

“Come on,” he pestered. “Admit it.”

“If you don't leave me alone,” I threatened, “I'm going to punch you.”

“Whoa, calm down.”

“Joe! Leave. Me. Alone!”

But he didn't. Instead, he followed into the elevator, even when I tried to push him out.

I tapped my foot impatiently, the elevator music only making the tension in the air rise.

“Listen,” Joe burst out, “about last night –”

“Shut up, Joe,” I snapped.

“– what did it mean to you?” Joe finished, as if I hadn't said anything.

“Nothing,” I said automatically, avoiding his eyes.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me it meant nothing to you,” Joe said in a hurt voice.

I turned to him, our eyes connecting. His brown eyes searched mine, silently pushing me over the edge, silently begging me to tell him the truth.

I took a deep breath. “I –”

At that moment, the elevator doors opened, sparing me from telling him the truth.

“– have to go,” I finished.

I turned to leave, but Joe called after me again.

“Ava…”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “What?”

“I really have to talk to you about something.”

“You could've told me on the car ride back home. Bye, Joe.”

“Wait, what do I wear later for the party?”

Huh. I forgot about that stupid socialite party (which turned out it wasn't a gala. She handed me the the wrong invitation).

I looked back at him. “I'll come by later for lunch. And you can talk to me then, okay? ”

{∞∞∞}

A shower, a change of clothes, and a change to glasses later (I was in my contacts, which were literally stuck to my eyeballs, seeing as I hadn't gotten them out last night), I knocked on Joe's hotel room door, which opened the next second.

When he saw it was me, his face broke out in a grin. “Hey, finally. You're late.”

My gaze quickly flitted down to my watch, which read 11:30. I smacked his arm.

“It's 11:30 and frankly, I'm surprised that you're ready.”

But Joe was laughing, saying, “You should've seen your face. Honestly Av, you're the only one I know that really freaks out over stuff like that.” He paused. “And, well, Nick does too.”

“Oh, shut up. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Joe looked out to the hallway, checking to see if we were alone, and pulled me into his room.

It was a while before he said anything else, as if unsure whether or not he should say this or planning how to word his statement or question.

“Anytime now,” I said.

“Av,” he began, “have you ever had feelings for a – a really close friend? Like, a best friend?”

Oh shit.

I felt the heat rush to my face and my pulse quicken. I walked over to his bed, flopping down on it, stalling.

“I – er – why?” I stammered. I rolled over onto my stomach, burying my face in his sheets so I wouldn't have to look into his eyes and blurt out the truth.

It's also so he can't see my eyebrows twitch.

“Just wonderin',” Joe said and I felt a weight sink down next to me, so I assumed that he sat down.

Once again, I found myself waiting for an interruption. Anyone to come bursting into the room, a pigeon to run into the window, the air vent to explode, the TV to mysteriously turn on and off, anything that will distract us from the current quagmire.

Really, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader can come hurtling into the room, in the midst of a battle for all I care.

Just as long as Joe's distracted.

“So?” Joe said after a long pause.

Okay. God, I know you're out there somewhere. So. If you'd just kindly pass me an interruption right now and not when I don't need it, that would be great. Thanks, bye.

Still waiting.

Oh, come on. So I don't get interruptions when I need one? What is with that?

“W-well,” I said, my voice muffled by the bed. “Uh – no – that is – the definition matters – wait, that's a no.”

“Av, look me in the eyes and say that.”

Sighing, I flipped over onto my back, only to find Joe's hip right next to my face, him staring down at me. I sat up quickly.

Bad idea.

As soon as I sat up, I looked into his eyes. I felt myself getting lost in his warm brown eyes, unable to lie to him anymore.

“So, Summers, what? Have you had feelings for a best friend before?” Joe repeated.

“I – alright. I – I fell in love with my best friend a long time ago,” I admitted.

Joe beamed widely at my little admission, smiling the kind of smile that I love – you know, the one that reaches his eyes. “Really?”

I couldn't help it. I smiled too. “Yeah. Have you?”

Oh wait, I already know the answer to that. Demi.

Joe was still looking deeply into my eyes. He paused before replying.

“Yeah,” he finally said, “recently. I fell in love recently and – and I don't know. It's just that, I can't get her out of my mind anymore. I keep on thinking about her eyes and smile and just – just how beautiful she is. And her – her laugh became the best sound ever a-and I feel so stupid for not – for not noticing her before.”

I sighed, still wishing he'd talk about me like that. “Yeah.” I forced a laugh. “But, you know, it's stupid. It sounds dumb, falling in love with your best friend. It's too cliché. I'm tired of hearing about it.”

And living it. So. It would be nice if I could stop living my love life and get another one, thanks.

Preferably one with some guy who is pro-environment and supports helping the less developed countries.

Joe's smile disappeared at that moment. Looking down at the ground, he broke the connection. “What?”

“You said so yourself after we watched Made of Honor,” I said, my voice breaking as I remembered how much he used to criticize the whole “best friends falling in love idea”. “The best friends things is really cliché. I mean, in like pretty much all cases, the girl and the guy have had feelings for each other for years, then confess their love – or become drunk or whatever – then they sleep with each other. Then someone leaves, saying it's a mistake, then they reunite later and – bam! They marry.”

Joe laughed, although it sounded forced. “Yeah. Yeah, you're right.” He paused. “It's dumb.”

This feels weird. We're actually agreeing.

“Hey,” I said, “let's go grab lunch now. I'm hungry.”

“Oh – oh yeah,” Joe said. “I'll go call Demi now.”

My mood sank lower. Great, in addition to him rubbing in my face that he loves Demi Lovato, he's going to take her to our little lunch!

“I thought it was just going to be us two,” I said.

A smile was slowly spreading on Joe's face again. “Do you want it to be just us two?”

“No!” I said quickly.

Joe grinned when he saw my eyebrow (probably) twitch.

“What I want to know,” he said, “is why you suddenly have this issue with Demi. You used to be good friends with her before I started dating her.”

“I don't have a problem with her,” I sniffed. “And you know what? Fine. If you want a lunch date with Demi, I'll go now.”

“I was just kidding – hey, where are you going? Av, wait!”

He threw himself in front of the door to stop me from leaving. He put his hands on my shoulders.

“Hey, I was kidding, alright? Now come on, let's go to a pizza place.”

I glared at him. “No. You obviously want to spend time with Demi, so don't let me keep you from doing what you want.”

I ducked away from his arms and opened the door, strolling out of the room.

{∞∞∞}

I pressed the down button for the elevator when the elevator doors opened, revealing Demi Lovato.

“Oh, hi! I was just about to go looking for you,” she said when she saw me. “I need to talk to you about something.”

I blinked. “Okay….”

Demi led me to her hotel room. As soon as we were in, she asked, “Do you have feelings for Joe?”

I stared at her.

“Because,” she continued, “if you do, I'll seriously stop dating him.”

Why is it that when you have to make an important choice, you don't have time to think it through?

Let's see…if I say yes, Demi'll stop dating Joe and I could have him for myself. That is, if it works out well. If it doesn't…well, who knows what will happen?

If I say no…I'll break my own heart. Because that would mean Demi would continue dating Joe, so I would be in the same place I'm in right now. I could watch them fall more in love with one another, and maybe eventually marry.

“No,” I said and for the second time that day, forced a smile. “He's just a friend. You can have him.”