Keep Me Young

“Seven minutes and forty-five seconds,” she sighed to herself sitting on the front steps of her friends house. “Like they say, rock stars are always fashionably late.” She was already used to her friends always being late, so it was nothing new to her. She had waited hours for her friend many times before, but she understood his schedule. She had gotten used to the fact that her best friend was in the band that every young girl and even their mothers would go crazy for. The band who’s name is Jonas Brothers. Those three boys were her best friends, and her life. After meeting them at a close by mall, her life immediately changed.

We’ll start from the oldest one, Kevin. He was the one Annie would go to for any fashion emergency or guitar question. He was very protective of her, since he never had a sister. Then there was Joe, he was her best friend. When she needed to laugh, he was there for her. Not only were they super close, but they consulted each other about everything. We can’t forget Nick. He was there when she had school, friend, or family problems. Always there to give her a helping hand with anything, including voice lessons and piano lessons. Lastly, Frankie, who was like her second little brother.

That’s the family she was beginning to miss, but luckily they were coming back. Not only did she begin to miss them, but also began to have feelings on one of the boys. Afraid of what she felt, she wasn’t prepared. She looked at her watch and it was five ‘till eight. Just as she was about to dial Joe’s number, the family tour bus pulled up. Not knowing of what to expect, she waits for the boys to get down from the bus. Getting up from the cold hard ground, she felt the nerves kicking up inside of her. Anxiously awaiting for the bus to stop going back and forth and for the boys to get off that bus so she could run up to them and give them one big hug.

Finally, after the bus had made it’s last reverse, the doors opened and out first came, Mrs. Jonas. As she saw the young girl standing out on the front steps of the house, she opened up her arms and walked towards her. Annie didn’t walk, she ran towards her second mother and embraced her into a welcoming hug.

“It’s great to see you again, sweetie,” she admitted holding onto the young girl. Annie smiled and said the same thing to her. “I’m going into the kitchen and make my famous Chicken Alfredo, so you must stay!”

“I will, don’t worry Mrs. Jonas,” Annie smiled nodding her head as she saw Mrs. Jonas run on into the house to the kitchen she had missed for so long. Annie turned back around to face the bus and there she saw Mr. Jonas opening the doors to the bottom of the bus. He looked back at her and waved from a distance, she smiled and did the same. Now she just waited for her four favorite boys to get off that bus. They sure were doing their job in torturing her. As she stood on her tip toes, little Frankie walked off the tour bus with many of his toys in hand. Most of the stuffed animals he owned came from his brothers fans that they met. Once Frankie had spotted Annie, he smiled big and ran towards her to greet her.

“Annie!” the young boy ran towards her with arms wide open to receive her. “I missed playing racing games with you! Kevin, Nick and Joe are no fun at all!” the small boy confessed holding on tight to Annie’s leg.

“We’re not that bad Frankster,” Kevin interrupted as he stood next to Frankie and Annie. As the girl looked at Kevin, she shot him a big smile. “Hey there, Annie.”

“Thanks for interrupting our moment, Kevin,” Frankie groaned stomping his way into the house. Both Annie and Kevin couldn’t help but to laugh.

“He was ready to come back home and spend time with you. Ha, he really likes you,” Kevin sighed now facing her. “Let me just tell you, he’s a real heart breaker.” Kevin joked causing her to laugh. Although Frankie was young, he had already learned on how to crush on girls and Annie was one of his first crushes.

“But he’s so cute and adorable!” she pouted.

“He’s a heart breaker,” he echoed again.

Annie laughed and playfully punched Kevin on the arm. “Oh please, you guys break girls heart every day.”

“Ouch, that’ll leave a mark,” he gasped dramatically. Both Kevin and Annie loved to joke around with one another. Even though people would say that Kevin wasn’t funny, Annie knew he really was funny and sensitive, but not clueless like they made him seem on their TV show, JONAS. “Well, I’ll see you later, I have to go make a call.”

“Okay, have fun talking to Danielle!” she exclaimed with a smile on her lips. “Oh, and say hi to her for me.” Kevin smiled and nodded his head. Annie really did know her boys, more than she had expected.

“Annie, my best pal!” she heard a familiar voice say from behind her. As she spun on her heel, there she revealed Joe with a smile on his face. “Oh come here, just give me a hug” He smiled pulling her into a hug. “You sure have changed in seven months.”

“Well, my mom’s diet is to blame,” she admitted in a sigh.

“Diet?” he questioned with one arm around her shoulders. “Why a diet?”

“Hm, she thought that it wouldn’t do me any bad in loosing some weight.” She rolled her eyes smiling and looked down at her shoes. Ever since she was young, she had weight issues, but not severe ones. She was 5’7 and had curves, but she had no problem with them. Her friends at school would tell her she looked like Jordin Sparks, and she loved It!

“Some? More like a lot!” he scoffed. “Well, don‘t worry, you look great. Um, I’ll talk to you later, I have to make sure the maids are here.”

“Oh, about that, we have to speak about it later.”

“Why, what happened?” he questioned Annie.

“Um, let’s just say I told them to show up on Monday instead.”

“Oh, that’s fine. No big deal, but talk to you in a min,” he stated walking towards the house.

“Say hi to Jenna for me,” she called out and heard him say yeah. Annie had greeted all the boys except one, Nick. She had a feeling that he was not going to get off the bus any time soon, so she decided to go into the bus herself. As she climbed up the steps of the bus, she noticed Nick sitting at the table with a confused and worried look on his face. She tip toed closer to him until she was close enough. “Girl problems, huh?”

“Lucky guess,” he sighed sliding his phone across the table and letting it fall to the floor. “What am I going to do!” he groaned throwing his head back with his hands on either side of it.

“What happened this time?” she questioned taking a seat next to him. “I mean, maybe I can help?”

“Yes! You can certainly help!” he grinned looking at her seriously. “Will you by my date for the premier of Night At the Museum?”

Annie was shocked at his question. “I was expecting an, ‘I missed you and you’re advice,’ thing, but I mean, okay?” she admitted. Nick smiled and quickly apologized.

“Sorry, it’s nothing serious, I mean I need a girl to accompany me because Kevin is taking Danielle, Joe is taking Jenna and I didn’t have anyone,” he explained. “Miley, Selena and Demi all said they were busy and you’re my only friend left. So what do you say?”

“Sure, when is it?” she questioned him.

“Tomorrow.”

“Oh, that’s why Kevin and Joe were in a hurry to call their girlfriends,” she laughed.

“Yeah, but let’s go inside and we’ll talk more about it.” Annie nodded and both of them walked off of the bus and made their way into the house. Nick politely opened the door for her and let her in first. “So how were the seven months?”

“Good, just really difficult, yours?” she replied as they both walked into the living room they hadn’t seen in a while. Well, at least Nick hadn’t seen it since they had gone off on tour. Both of them took a seat on the comfortable couch and just got comfy.

“They were fun, met a lot of new people,” he nodded staring out the window. “Though it was also tough, since we couldn’t see most of our friends and family.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” she smiled. “That’s why I don’t want to become a superstar.”

“Good choice, it’ll keep you safe from the bad people out there.”

“Bad people? Like who?” she quizzed throwing her feet up on the coffee table.

“The press and paparazzi,” he sighed resting his head back and looking at the ceiling.

“Ou, I should have known that one,” she made a face and crossed her arms. “Don’t forget the fake people that try to be your friend just for the publicity.”

“That, too. It’s hard to know when the people surrounding you are either really there for you, or just wanting to get known,” he sighed counting the bricks on the fireplace. “Though with all this fame and publicity we get, it’s hard to fall in love with someone and keep a steady relationship with them.”

“I can imagine,” she nodded. “Paparazzi following the girlfriend around and asking her questions about what it’s like to be with a Jonas.”

“Exactly,” he agreed.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find the girl who won’t mind any of that,” she smiled patting his shoulder.

“Thanks, I needed that talk,” he laughed looking over at Annie.

“So what are we talking about?” Joe and Kevin walked into the living room with a soda can in hand and a bag of chips in the other.

“We were talking about stuff, you guys were talking about your girlfriends,” Annie smiled crossing her legs as Joe threw himself down next to Annie.

“Oh fine, don’t tell us, it’s not like we wanted to know,” Joe rolled his eyes sarcastically and then began to laugh.

“So Nick, did you find someone to take to the premier tomorrow?” Kevin questioned while staring at the Nutrition Facts on the bag of chips he was eating.

“Yeah, why?”

“No, just wondering. I was going to see if Danielle’s cousin would want to go with you,” Kevin still stared at the Nutrition facts. “Wow! One single potato chip has at least 100 calories!”

“No, it contains more, that I can assure you,” Annie pointed out. If there was one thing she had learned from her mom’s nutrition class, was the fact that most Nutrition Fact labels would lie.

“How do you know?” he quizzed still eating the bag of chips.

“Mom makes me go to her nutrition classes every other day,” she sighed. “They talk about all these things every single time I go. So, some of it has to stick to me.”

“Ah, I see. I think we should attend one of these classes some time,” Joe nodded sticking out his bottom lip. “They could teach us a little something about what to eat and what not.”

“As much as I’d love for you to go, I don’t want to kill you boys,” Annie laughed shaking her head.

“Kill us? Why would you kill us?” Kevin questioned.

“Those classes are a pain in the behind. The people that go are teen girls that look like plastic, stupid Barbies. They think they are so perfect when they really aren’t. Oh, and not only that, but they would probably run after you guys.” Annie smiled sympathetically.

“Oh, well we’ll go with you tomorrow,” Joe smiled assuring the arrival to the class.

“Ha, too bad. We have a premiere to attend,” Annie shot back sticking her tongue out at Joe.

“Ha-ha, she is right,” Nick laughed. Joe groaned and continued eating his chips.

“Kids, dinner is ready,” Mrs. Jonas called. Everyone in the living room exited and went into the dining room where everything was set up. It had been a long time since any of them had a proper dinner as a family. Of course, Mrs. Jonas had made her famous Chicken Alfredo, the plate everyone loved to have.

“Alright, well how about Annie says grace today, since we have not seen her in a while,” Mrs. Jonas suggested smiling at the girl. She didn’t say anything but just nod her head.

“Alright, um… well,” she extended her hands out to Frankie and Kevin. “Let’s thank the lord for the food he has provided us with today and the safe arrival of the Jonas family. Amen.” Annie wasn’t used to these kind of things, so she didn’t quite know what to say. She smiled softly and just grabbed her fork to begin eating.

“So, Annie anything new?” Mr. Jonas questioned taking a bite of his bread stick.

“Um, no…not really,” she replied shaking her head.

“Actually dad, she goes to these nutrition classes her mom gives, but she doesn’t want to take us,” Joe added with a smile on his face. Mr. Jonas smiled while listening to what Joe had to say. On the other side of the table, Annie was mentally killing Joe for giving out his comment.

“Really? Why don’t you take them with you, honey?” Mrs. Jonas questioned looking over at Annie. While mentally killing Joe with her glare, she turned around to look at Mrs. Jonas and answer her question.

“Well,” she said taking a drink of her water. “It’s not that I don’t want them to go, it’s just that the people that go there are very stuck up. They think they are perfect, and I’m pretty sure that all the teen girls that go will run after them once they enter through the door.” She explained looking down at her plate. “If they want to go to a nutrition class so bad, why won’t my mom give them a free private class?”

“That’s not such a bad idea, we could all attend the class at your house.” Mrs. Jonas nodded with a smile.

“Mom, but why waste Mrs. Cruces' time when we could just drop by the class that she already gives?” Joe added trying to convince his mom to go to the class that Annie attended.

“We’ll have to see what-,” Annie’s phone interrupted.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to turn it off,” she apologized taking her phone out of her pocket and looking at the caller ID. “I have to take the call, please excuse me.” Annie got up from her chair and left the dining room.

There was an awkward silence. “How come she can answer the phone during dinner, and I can’t?” Joe questioned while crossing his arms.

“Sweetie, she’s a guest and that phone call could be from her parents or it could be some kind of emergency,” Mrs. Jonas explained to Joe.

“I’m sorry, I…uh, I have to go,” Annie informed them. The girl was trying to hold back tears as she looked at the Jonas family eating dinner. She was trying to maintain her calmness so that she didn’t cause them to worry.

“Is everything alright?” Nick questioned as he began to get up from his chair.

“Yeah,” she said sniffing. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” With that said, the girl said goodbye and walked out of the house before Nick could make his way over to her. Mrs. Jonas told her son to take a seat and call her later on. Nick just sighed and took a seat once again.