Inclined to Recline

Joe held a tight grip on the door handle as I reversed into a parking spot outside of the Florida Mall. As I cut the engine, I turned to glare at him, and he let go, breathed out deeply, then caught a glance at my expression and grinned cheekily.

“You’re walking back to the hotel,” I snapped as I pulled the key from the ignition and then opened the door. I heard him chuckle as he opened his own door.

He came around the car to follow me towards the entrance to the mall. He chuckled, and called out, “Aw come on Em! It’s not your fault you’re a danger hazard behind the wheel,” He laughed, “I just think your driving instructor must have been blind, deaf and dumb!”

Remember that time I pretty much killed Nick’s car? Well, since then Toby has been giving me driving lessons, and so has Nick during his visits, and my visits to Texas. Once I’d gotten the hang of the basics, my Mom and Grandparents had pulled the money together to get me a proper driving instructor; surprisingly enough it didn’t take that long for me to get my license, but the Jonas’ are constantly making fun of me for being a bad driver.

I pushed open the door and let it close on Joe, who sighed and then grabbed my arm, “Emma, come on, it’s not your fault, I know!” He still had a smirk on his face as I turned to look at him, but his eyes were covered with sunglasses and his head covered with a black baseball cap.

I shot him a glare, “That is hardly the most inconspicuous disguise, Mr Jonas; we are inside, and the sun is outside, idiot,”

“You’re the idiot,”

“Shut up,”

“You shut up,”

“I hate you,”

“I love you too,” He grinned, and then linked my arm, “Now, I need your help. What exactly can I get the love of my life for Christmas?”

As we began weaving through the crowd, I replied; “I don’t know, she’s the love of your life, not mine,”

Joe gasped, “You agreed to help me!”

“That was before you bitched about my driving, dick,” I couldn’t suppress a smile as he gasped and shook his head at me. We continued our argument as we wandered in and out of the many different shops, searching for the perfect Christmas presents.

**

As I was looking at a rack of sunglasses, and trying them on, I felt something pressed down onto my head. As I turned around with raised eyebrows, my eyesight was suddenly blocked by brownish material flopping down over it, and I glanced in the mirror to see myself wearing the white pair of sunglasses I had been trying, now coupled with a large, floppy sunhat.

I giggled and turned to look to my right, “Joseph, what on earth are you doing?” I asked; he was wearing a black cowboy hat and a pair of red sunglasses.

“Be quiet and pose, idiot,” He grinned, holding his iPhone in front of my face and then snapping a photo. He turned it over in his hand to look at the photo, “God, I’m gorgeous,” He noted and I raised my eyebrow, “Kidding! But I do want this hat,”

“Do you want to keep your girlfriend?”

“Yes,”

“Then put the hat down, Joseph,” I smirked and he stuck his tongue out at me, before placing the hat back on the stand. As I was replacing my own hat, I heard screams, and turned to see a group of girls running at Joe. It took only the split second that he spent changing his hats over for them to spot him. He painted a smile on his face as they surrounded him, asking for autographs and photos (which he gave willingly). It still felt beyond weird to watch girls falling over themselves to talk to him, and even weirder when they asked for photos with me.

When we get away, Joe led me towards the food court, and we found a table for two lodged in the corner; in the crowd, it would be impossible to spot us. Once we’d settled with our food, I took a sip of my drink. Whilst the straw was resting between my lips, Joe spoke, “I don’t regret anything, you know,” He said simply.

I knew what he was talking about, but I ate a few fries before I replied, “Neither do I,”

“Except, maybe, not telling Julia,” He sighed, “I never did ask you, what did you say to her that night at her Dad’s club; she wasn’t answering any of my calls or anything, but she spoke to you and everything seemed to be forgotten.”

“Felix Felicis,” I shrugged, smirking as I slowly pushed a fry between my lips.

He grinned, “Granger, if you’re hiding liquid luck somewhere, then I think you should share it out!”

“Oh from where I’m sitting, Joseph, it doesn’t look like you need much more luck!” I grinned, “Mr hot shot rock-star and all that.” He merely shrugged and asked the question again, “Have you heard from your Mom at all since we got to Florida?”

“Once,” He responded, “But stop changing the subject! What did you say to Julia?” He demanded, and then watched me intently as I shoved my last remaining fries into my mouth, followed by a bite of my burger. I raised my gaze to look into his eyes.

“I told her that I kissed you first,” I replied, “She didn’t seem as upset about that,”

**

The crowd inside the large mall had seemed to get bigger, a whole lot bigger, during our visit. We got stopped by a few more fans, but somehow Joe’s ‘disguise’ seemed to work for the majority of the day. Finally we headed towards the Macy’s store for a bit of shopping for ourselves (because, you know we clearly weren’t looking for cute little things for ourselves in every store we went in, right? But hey, we’d completed our Christmas shopping, except our gifts for each other, so now it was allowed!)

First, we looked at the Christmas gift ideas that the employees had set up by the door, and then my eye was caught by a sparkly dress in the women’s section, and I skipped towards it.

“Oh my god, Joseph!” I grinned, “This dress is gorgeous!”

“It’s very Taylor Swift,” He commented.

I glared, “You sound just like Julia,” and then I grudgingly made to place it back on the rack. He grabbed my arm to stop me and I looked at him innocently.

“Go and try it on, idiot,” He rolled his eyes and I grinned, and then dragged him off in the direction of the changing rooms. He sat himself down on the chair just outside of the changing rooms, and pulled his baseball cap down to cover his eyes. I slipped behind one of the curtains to undress, and then pulled the sparkly, blue dress over my body.

When it was on correctly, I opened the curtain and stretched my arm up the length of the wooden divide and pouted in a ‘models pose.’ Joe nodded and stood up, “Looks nice,” He responded.

“I’m guessing it’s a nice price too,” I sighed, and then turned to admire myself in the mirror, “I daren’t look at it,”

Joe simply rolled his eyes and chuckled. He stepped into the changing room and gripped my shoulders, spinning me round so that I was facing into my little cubicle. I braced myself as he pulled out the little tag to read it, “I’ll buy you it,”

“How much is it,”

“As a Christmas present,”

“How much is it?” I asked again. He just pushed me forwards and then closed the curtain. I sighed and yanked it back open. Joe had returned to his seat, “JOSEPH!”

“EMMA...eph!” He smirked, “What?”

“How much is it?”

We stared at each other for a good minute or so until he blinked and cursed under his breath, “it’s two hundred dollars, but you like it, so I’m going to buy you it,” He grinned, “Can’t I treat my little sister once in a while?”

I frowned, and then looked in the mirror again. Finally I tore my eyes away, “But Joe, it’s two hundred dollars; I can’t expect you to pay that much,”

“You’re not expecting anything, darling, I’m offering,” He grinned, “And in case you’ve forgotten, I am Joe Jonas, one third of the nation’s favourite band of the moment; I can afford it,” I was still unsure, and he read it in my expression because he smiled and said, “Emma, trust me, I want too. Now go and get changed,” I grinned, ran over and hugged him, and then returned to the changing room to get back into my own clothes.

**

When we finally left the mall, I had bought another dress, many different Christmas presents, a pair of black boots and also a nice pair of blue heels to match my new, blue dress (“If you go to any awards shows, I have to look good when I come with you, Joe!” “Oh, darling, we’d just leave you in the boot anyway!” “I hate you,” “Just buy the shoes and stop trying to justify your reckless spending, okay?”)

As we were heading out into the car park, Joe cursed and I looked around to see what had annoyed him; paparazzi. He grabbed my arm and propelled me forward, but the paparazzi were used to it and caught up soon enough. They formed a barricade around us, blocking us in, but Joe pushed through. He grabbed my hand and held on tight as he pushed forward; he still wasn’t used to it, and I certainly wasn’t.

“Hey Joe, what are you doing here?” One pap called out, “Christmas shopping?”

“Where are your brothers?!” He gripped my hand tightly in his own.

“I thought you had a girlfriend?”

Finally, with the help of the mall security, we managed to get out into the car park. Joe leaned down to my ear and whispered “run,” and then we both darted off in the direction of my car. Once we were in I locked the doors, and quickly reversed out as the paparazzi continued to snap photographs.

It wasn’t until we were out of the car park and on the road back towards the hotel that we looked at each other and cracked up laughing.