Inclined to Recline

Nick says:
I’m working on a new song. Hoping to get the new album started soon.

emma-marie says:
Cool :D. About anything in particular?

Nick says:
Hmm...it’s a surprise ;). You can probably guess.

I smirked, and then groaned as I heard my Mom yelling at me from the bottom of the stairs. “I’m coming!” I yelled back, and then turned back to my laptop.

emma-marie says:
Hahaha...you can play it for me when I call you later :D. I gotta go now; bye. Looooooooove you xxx

Nick says:
:( Love you too xxx

Grinning to myself, I turned my laptop off and placed it on the bedside table neatly, before pulling myself up off of the bed. My Mom was standing at the bottom of the stairs, her hands on her hips and a stern expression tight on her face.

“Three times I shouted you,” She snapped, and then relaxed, “We are going out for dinner. Where is Julia?”

I shrugged as I slowly made my way down the stairs, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her.”

My Mom sighed, “Can you call her please? And dress nice; Chris is taking us somewhere expensive,” she winked, and then disappeared. I shook my head, and then turned and headed straight back up the stairs and into my bedroom.

**

I could hear conversations, but wasn’t really taking them in as I twirled my spoon around my soup starter. Suddenly the conversations stopped, and my Mom sighed. “Emma!” I glanced up and she shot me a disapproving look, “The two of you are ridiculous.” She frowned, glancing to my right.

I followed her gaze and Julia and I giggled after realising we were both doing this same thing.

“Julia; how is the restaurant these days?” Chris asked, attempting to lighten the mood.

She shrugged, “It’s going okay, I guess. I’m getting pretty tired of it. It’s not exactly something I’ve always wanted to do with my life...I’m happy to help my Dad but at the same time I want to go out and do my own thing,”

He nodded, “You need to live your life for you; it’s something I’m just beginning to learn,” He smiled at my Mom who flushed and gave him a small smile back, “How about you Emma, what do you want to do?” I just shrugged in response and he frowned, “Aw, come on, there must be something,”

I shrugged again, and my Mom cut in, sighing, “She wants to be a music journalist,” She said, and then glared at me, “But she messed that up when she decided to follow Nicholas around the country instead of going to college,”

“There’s plenty of jobs I can do that don’t require a college education, Mother,” I rolled my eyes, although I didn’t really believe that myself. I wasn’t the kind to be working in a shop for the rest of my life. I’d always been a dreamer; always wanting to go places, do things, see the world. My Mom was right; I had thrown all of that away.

“Like what?” She asked, and I returned to stirring my soup. She sighed again, “All I’m saying is that these boys better be worth it. For both of you. They better be worth all of your wasted dreams, and all of your tears, and all of the time I’ve missed out on with you whilst you’ve been off being their groupies or whatever,” I giggled at that, knowing that she had no idea what a groupie really was. As she was talking I noticed Chris pull something out of his pockets and my interest grew. He tried to keep them hidden as my Mom continued talking.

“They are worth it,” Julia said, and I nodded in agreement, keeping my eyes on whatever Chris was trying to hide behind his back.

“I hope so, otherwise we’ve just wasted a fair bit of money on these,” My Mom grinned, nodding to Chris who pulled his hand out from behind his back and handed us two small pieces of card. We took them and gasped; flight tickets.

Julia spoke first, “Wow, thank you so much, I’ll pay you back!”

Chris waved his hand and smiled, “Don’t worry about it. It’s a gift. We were sick of seeing you both so down so this was our solution, but there’s one condition.”

We nodded and my Mom started speaking, “You both need to start thinking about yourselves again. Julia, you have the restaurant, but Emma you have nothing. You need to live your lives for you, and if Joe and Nick love you as much as you love them then they will support you, and be happy for you. I don’t want you to waste your life living in their shadows, okay?”

“Okay, Mom.” I grinned, jumping up and running around the table to hug her. Julia did the same with Chris, and then we switched over. I checked the ticket again and grinned; we flew out in two days.

“Oh and one more thing,” my Mom smiled, “Chris and I both need to wrap up some things at work, but we have the week off next week so we will be following you down there.” The twinkle in her eye made me suspicious, and so I waited for her to continue. She did after a long dramatic pause, “We’re looking at houses,”

“Shut up!” Julia gasped, and my eyes widened as I glanced at them, and then at my Grandparents who were quietly chuckling at one end of the table.

“Are you for real?!” I asked and they nodded, “Oh my god!”

My Mom smiled, “It’s been fun living here in New York, but I’ve realised that I belong in Texas, and Chris would like to try somewhere new.” She continued, “Julia, you’re Dad is in Texas but you are more than welcome to keep living with us. The decision is entirely yours,”

“But what about Nan and Grandad?” I asked, glancing at my Grandparents. “We can’t just leave them,”

Grandad cut in then, “We’ve enjoyed our time here, but really we’re getting too old for the hustle and bustle of this city. Texas is nice and quiet, and we get to live out the rest of our days with our family around us. So I guess we’re coming with you!”

My Mom went onto explain the arrangements; my Grandparents were staying here whilst we were down in Texas for the next two weeks. When they found a house they liked, my Grandparents were going to fly down and decide if they liked it. If they did, my Mom and Chris would make an offer, and my Grandparents would put their house up for sale and use the money to pay off the rest of the new house.

As soon as we got home, Julia and I dug out our suitcases and got to packing straight away. We’d agreed not to tell the boys so that we could surprise them, but that proved difficult when I called Nick that night.

“Why are you so happy?” He chuckled as I finished telling a story.

“I’m not so happy,” I giggled, “I’m just happy,”

“No, you’re very happy. You’re talking really fast and about ten octaves higher than normal.”
I grinned, “Maybe I’m just happy to be talking to my boyfriend; did you ever consider that?”

He chuckled again, “I’ll pretend to believe that, but one day I’m going to get suspicious about you having another boy on the go up there that’s making you happier than me.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that for long,” I smirked.

“Mmm, I hope so,” He said, and then Julia appeared at my door, beckoning me out. I nodded and mouthed ‘two minutes’ to her, and she disappeared across the hall to her own room. “I really miss you, you know that right?” I didn’t reply, enjoying listening talk about his feelings. Call me vain or whatever, but I loved the attention, and to be honest I rarely got anything real like this from him, “You’re everything to me, you always have been and it just took me a while to realise it. I wish you were here,”

I smiled, “I wish I was there too. I really miss Texas,” I smirked as he gasped, “And Joe, and Kevin, and Danielle, your Mom, Dad, Frankie...Elvis...”

“I take all of that back, I hate you,” He laughed and I giggled, “Do you think my parents would ever let me buy an apartment in New York?”

I shrugged, before remembering we were on the phone and he couldn’t see me, “I don’t know, maybe. Listen, I’ve got to go, my other boyfriend is coming over soon to take me out on a hot date and I can’t find that pair of sexy silk underwear-”

“HAHAHA you’re so funny,” He replied sarcastically, “Wait...did you say silk?”

I giggled, “Nicholas Jerry! That’s for me to know and you to never ever find out,”

“You’re mean,”

“I know,” I grinned, “Seriously though, Julia needs me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I love you,”

“I love you too,”

**

The day seemed to drag, even more so during our wait at the airport, and then my lonely flight since Julia fell asleep and left me with only my battered Harry Potter book for company.

I could barely contain my excitement when the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign came on and I felt the plane descending. It was unreal how happy I was at the thought of seeing Nick, even though it had only been just over a week since I last saw him. I really was a fool to think I could have ever gotten over him; he was always going to be there in my head, my heart and my life, as cheesy as it sounded.

Once we’d gotten off the plane and retrieved our suitcases, we hailed a cab and gave him the address of Julia’s house first so that we could drop off our suitcases. The relief was evident in both of our faces when the front door was locked, meaning that Julia’s family were out, and we wouldn’t have to waste any time catching up with them.

When we finally reached the Jonas’ street, another wash of relief flooded over me as I saw all of the family cars sitting on or around the drive. Everyone was home; Nick was home! I turned to Julia and grinned, and then linked her arm as we crossed the road to the house.

We stood on the porch, and then she giggled and rang the doorbell. It took a long moment, but eventually the door was pulled open by Frankie who gasped.

We rushed forward, Julia grabbing him as I put my hand over his mouth to stop him yelling anything. “Shh!” Julia whispered, “It’s a surprise! Where are your brothers?” She asked.

He pointed upstairs, and we released him. Julia took off up the stairs but I paused to give Frankie a hug, before following her.

The house hadn’t changed; there was a few new photos hanging on the walls and the carpet a bit dirtier than the last time I was here, but other than that it was the same. Just as I made it to the top of the stairs, I heard Julia yell ‘RAWR!’ and Joe’s bedroom door slam shut. I giggled to myself and made my way to the end of the hall where Nick’s room was; music was blasting from inside so I knew he didn’t hear Julia. I took a deep breath and then pushed the door open, but I didn’t move inside. Instead I stepped away from the door, pressing my back up against the wall to hide from him.

“Hello?” I stifled a giggle as I heard him, and then he sighed. The sounds of the bed creaking told me that he was getting up and I braced myself. His shadow reached the door before he did, but his body soon followed, glancing in the wrong direction first – towards the stairs. I took my chance. I jumped out and onto his back, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. “What the fuck?!” He yelled, and I laughed as he tried to turn to see me, but I moved my head in the same direction each time so he couldn’t.

I burst into laughter and jumped down, and he spun around quickly, his eyes wide with shock. I smiled but before I could do anything he had picked me up off of the ground again. I laughed, this time wrapping my legs around his waist from the front, and my arms around his neck again.

“What are you doing here?!” He demanded.

I smirked, shrugging, “I was in the neighbourhood; figured I would drop in and say hello.”

“You’re crazy!” He managed to say before I covered his mouth with my own. I ran my tongue across his lips and he parted them slightly to allow me entry, allowing our tongues to dance together as I ran my fingers through his hair. We broke apart suddenly though as someone cleared their throat behind us, “Oh, hey Mom.”

She shook her head as I dropped to the floor and turned to smile at her, “Emma, what are you doing here?” She asked as she held out her arms for me. I crossed the landing towards her and hugged her, before explaining about my Mom and Chris buying the tickets and them following us out here next week, “That’s lovely! You will stay for dinner, right? And Julia?”

“Sure, that would be nice, thanks,” I smiled, and then turned back to Nick. He motioned into his bedroom so I walked into their, dropping down onto his bed as he shut the door before coming to join me. I smiled as he draped his arm around me, and I snuggled down into his embrace.

“So why are you really here?” Nick asked, “I mean; why are your Mom and Chris coming as well?” I didn’t reply, I just grinned up at him. He couldn’t help but send me a confused smirk back. “Come on tell me! Either you tell me or I’m going to go all out and tell myself that you’re moving back here, which I know is highly unlikely but-” he paused, glancing at the look on my face, and then gasped, “Oh my god, you’re moving back here?!”

I chuckled, “Hopefully. They’re coming to look at houses and if they find one that they like well then...I guess you’re stuck with me,” He turned and forced me down to a laying position on the bed. With his hands resting either side of my head on the mattress, he hovered his body over mine and then pressed his lips to mine again. I smiled into the kiss, “So I guess that’s a good thing?”

“You shouldn’t even have to ask,”