Keep Me Young

“Got a rep for breaking hearts, now I'm done with superstars,” Joe scribbled down in a journal with his guitar in hand. He'd left Annie's house hours ago and was now trying to figure out a song that he had been thinking of for days now. He didn't want to bother Nick for his help because he would end up teasing him about the song, but then again, he probably wouldn't.

“Joe, sweetie,” Mrs. Jonas knocked on the door and walked into her sons room. “What are you up to?”

“Hey, mom,” Joe smiled moving aside to let his mom take a seat next to him. “I'm just writing down some lyrics that are coming into mind.”

“That's great, it can be your next hit,” she smiled sweetly at her soon and just patted his back. “So how did it go over at Annie's?”

“It went pretty good. I helped her bake a cake and decorate it as well,” he informed her as he set the guitar down next to his dresser and concentrated on the conversation he was having with his mom.

“I'm very glad that you two are talking again,” she admitted. “It hurt me so much to see you two in a fight. If there's one thing I know about Annie, is that she can teach you great lessons in life.”

“So far, she's taught me many, mom,” he smiled nodding his head and looking down at his hands that were resting in his lap. There was a small silence in between them, but Mrs. Jonas knew what she wanted to ask, and she had an answer in mind, but she wanted to hear it from her son.

“That I am happy for,” she smiled at her son, “but there's something that I've been wanting to ask you for a while now.” Joe looked at her curiously, he had no idea of what his mom wanted to ask him. “I know I might be a bit crazy to ask you this, but is there a chance that you might like Annie as more than just a friend?”

Joe went blank as his mom asked him this. Was it obvious that she could read his thoughts, or were they just written across his forehead? He sat there looking at his mom without any expression on his face. He either could tell her that maybe they would only be friends, but that would be lying. “Why do you ask that, mom?”

“Well, it's just that every time I see you two together, you are always someone new,” she stopped to think for a minute, “you're the old Joe from before you went out with all those celebrities.”

“Mom, I'm still the same Joe, except for a couple weeks ago, I admit I was someone different,” he admitted for the first time to his mom, “to tell you the truth, I didn't even know myself.”

“I know sweetie,” she nodded with a smile on her face. “Now back to my question, do you like her more than just a friend?”

He smiled because he knew he couldn't lie to his mom, she knew him better than anyone else. “Yeah, I don't know how it happened, but something just grew inside of me...the feelings towards her.” He informed his mom, but then again he was scared to admit it all. “Though there's something I'm really afraid of.”

“And what is that honey?”

“That if we do take it to the second level and it doesn't work out, what will happen to our friendship, it's going to be really awkward.” He sighed looking down at his hands that were still resting in his lap.

“It'll work out fine. If I know something about the two of you, you both love each other much more than what you love yourselves,” Mrs. Jonas convinced her son. “If you don't ask her, then you'll never know what happens. You never know, it might be something like what Kevin and Danielle have?”

“You're right,” he smiled. “Thanks mom.”

He reached over and gave his mom a very big hug to thank her for talking to him and clearing up his thoughts about what he really felt for Annie. “You're welcome sweetie, you know I'm here for you all the time, no excuse.” He pulled away and thanked his mom once more. “Now I'm going to go to the kitchen and see what I can whip up for dinner.”

“Sounds great,” he smiled at her. She waved him goodbye and walked out of his bedroom closing the door as she walked out. Now it was back to the song he was writing. Thanks to his mom mentioning all his ex-girlfriends, he was more inspired to write the song than before. He grabbed his journal and continued to write to the song.

Got a rep for breaking hearts, now I'm done with superstars and all the tears on her guitar, I'm not bitter. Now I see, everything I'd ever need. It's the girl in front of me, she's much better. He smiled as he continued to write the song. He couldn't think of a chorus to write, so he just moved on to the next stanza. Now I've got some enemies, and they're all friends suddenly. BFF's eternally, I'm not bitter. I believe that the roads that we believe as to find the one you need, you're much better. He finished writing the song in his journal and decided to ask his brother for help on the chorus. So he grabbed his things and went looking for Nick in his room, where it's where he most likely would be.

“Hey Nick,” he called out as he knocked on his brothers door. Nick opened the door and let his brother into his room. “Hey, are you busy?”

“Not that I know of, why?” he questioned.

“I need your help on this song I've been writing to for the past couple of hours, and I'm really stuck on the chorus,” he informed his brother as he took a seat on the empty chair he had in the room.

“Yeah, that's cool, I was actually in the process of writing a song too,” he laughed as he grabbed his journal off of his bed. “What is it that you have?”

“This is it, but I don't know if the words are okay,” Nick took the journal and read over what Joe had written down. He analyzed the song little by little and tried to think of what could be used as a chorus. “So what do you think about it?”

“It's really interesting,” he kept reading the song over and over trying to figure out a chorus. “Who is it about?” Nick grinned as he now looked at his brothers with a 'eh' look. The way he did when he knew he was right.

“Why do you even ask if you already know?” Joe rolled his eyes at his brother, while mentally laughing at his brother.

“I just want to hear it come from you, that way I know it's true,” Nick informed in a 'duh' tone of voice. “It's about your ex girlfriend's and Annie, right?”

“Yeah, but how;d you know it was about my ex's?”

“Got a rep for breaking hearts, now I'm done with superstars and all the tears on my guitar, pretty much says it all,” Nick laughed as he read off the lyrics on the paper. “Okay, so what can you do with Annie and not the other girls?”

“Well, I can pretty much talk to her about anything and be myself without caring what she thinks,” he mentioned as he thought of other things, “we also fight and make it all up in no time.”

“Okay, well how about, You, I want to fight, you. Tear up the sky, with you. You're much better. You, I want to fight with, you. Make up tonight with, you, you're much better.?” Nick sang as he wrote it down in the journal and handed it to Joe so that he could look over it.

As Joe read over the full lyrics, he sang them to make sure they went with the song, and they sure did. “That's awesome, now we just need to get the rest of the instruments in and teach you the chords so you can play the guitar or unless you want to play the drums?”

“I'll play the piano, and Jack can play the drums,” Nick mentioned. “How does the beat go?”

“Here, hand me your guitar since you're closer,” Joe told his brother as Nick gave him a 'are you serious?' look. “What?”

“Joe, if you stretch your arm, you can reach it,” Nick groaned as he got up from the bed and walked behind Joe and grabbed the guitar handing it to him. “Here.”

“Well, I hadn't noticed it was right behind me, so sorry,” Joe answered taking the guitar in hand and positioning it to where he could strum the chords. He tuned the guitar and began to play the tune, which according to Nick, he was liking it.

“It's our next big hit!” Nick announced with a huge grin on his face and high-five-ing his brother.

XXX

Tell me that you love me and it'll be alright. Are you thinking of me? Just come with me tonight. You know I need you, just like you need me. Can't stop, won't stop I must be dreaming.

“Hello?” Annie answered her phone as she struggled to tie her shoes.

“Hey, what are you up to?” a familiar voice questioned as they themselves were putting on their shoes.

“Nothing, just about to go to work, why?” she reminded herself that she was going to have to work more than ten hours at her job. “Let me guess, Nick, you're going to go out with your friends and have a blast with your free time and just calling me now to rub it in?”

“As much as I'd love to do that, I won't be able to,” he chuckled as he got up from his bed and moved the phone to his other ear as he walked over to his closet and look for a different shirt. “Your best friend wants to go to the studio to record a new song he wrote last night. Which by the way, is really good. You should listen to it when he's done recording, or maybe even drop by the studio later.”

“Ten hours Nick, does that not give you a hint that I will be busy the entire day?” she mentioned once again. Once again, she was stuck working from 12 in the afternoon until 11 at night.

“You could always find an excuse to leave early,” he easily hinted as he didn't know that she took her job seriously in order to help out her family with anything they needed.

“Nick, if you payed me, maybe I wouldn't even go to work at all anymore, but that's not happening,” she laughed into the phone as she grabbed her purse from the chair and walked out of the room closing the room door behind her.

“So you're saying that you would work with us? Like a personal assistant or something?” he questioned trying to convince to miss the day and go hang out with them at the studio for her to be able to listen to the song Joe had written especially for her. “You could be like, the head assistant of everything.”

“Don't you have anything better to do? For example, clean out your messy closet?” Annie reminded him as he would always complain that he could never seem to find anything in his closet.

“Did that already, that's why I'm calling you,” Nick replied with a smile on his face as he looked at his organized closet, which took hours to make it look like it did. “Come on, join us at the recording studio.”

“No, I'm way too busy to go play around with you guys,” she reminded again as she headed out the door and locked the front door. “Besides, I can hear the recorded version once you guys review it before releasing the actual tracks for the CD.”

“But it isn't as exciting as you actually seeing us and hearing us recording,” he insisted on getting her to go. “Come on, do it for Joe, since you love him so much!”

“Nick, I'm seriously going to hit you on the back of the head next time I go to your house,” she laughed as she turned on the ignition to her car. “I'm not going, because no one else is going to pay me today, and I need that money.”

“You're fired from your last and hired with us,” he added. “You're now officially working with me and my brothers and the entire Jonas family.”

“What? I am not working with you, besides, I have not signed anything that tells me I have to work with you,” she laughed now pulling out of the driveway and making her way to her job.

“Just come see us for a while,” he begged now in the kitchen raiding the refrigerator.

“Nick, can't it be another day, like tomorrow? I'm free tomorrow,” she groaned. “I know you're good at stalling and rescheduling everything for the next day. You've done it many times before.”

“I don't have anything to stall with today,” he replied to her as he sat at the kitchen table with a vitamin water in hand.

“How about, instead of recording Joe's new song, you guys record Keep It Real? That's one of the new songs that is going on the new album,” she reminded him.

“This is why I like arguing you, you're always fun,” he laughed sitting on the living room couch and searching the room with his eyes for the remote control. “Though, I think I might be able to work that out. But you better promise to be here no matter how tired you are tomorrow. I'm pretty sure you're going to complain when I call you that it's too early and that you're too tired because you worked a twelve hour shift.”

“I complain because I actually work my butt off for my paycheck, unlike you, you're just relaxing at home watching TV and you still get paid,” she scoffed as she stopped at a red light and adjusted her phone to her right ear.

“Well, I did offer you a good paying job, and you do practically nothing and still get paid get good money for what you're doing, but no, little miss-I-love-to-work wont take the job,” Nick reminded her of what he had offered her earlier.

“Nick, I am not going to abuse the fact that you are my friend,” she sighed and stepping on the gas as the light turned green, “that would be taking advantage of you.”

“I'm offering it, besides you know you'd like to be closer to Joe,” he laughed flipping through channels on the television.

“Nick, no,” she mentioned once again.

“Fine, but that offer will always be there whenever you want to take it,” he informed her one last time before changing the topic.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” she said not really paying attention to what he had just said, even though somewhere in her brain it had made room for itself and left that suggestions there. “Hey, well I have to go, I have to work.”

“See, if you worked for us, you coul-” he didn't have a chance to finish his sentence when he heard the sound of the phone beep when Annie hung up. “She hung up on me!”

“Who hung up on you?” Joe questioned coming out of the kitchen with an apple in hand and a cold water bottle in the other.

“Annie,” he groaned setting his phone on the table.

“What did you do to her? She only hangs up on someone when they've gotten on her nerves,” he began, “and knowing you, you're always messing around with her.”

“Did not, I was only offering her a job to work for us as our personal assistant, but she said no because that would be taken advantage of us,” he told Joe what he had said to Annie that might have just annoyed the heck out of her.

“So she says no and you keep insisting,” Joe finished off taking a drink of his water.

“How'd you know?” his younger sibling questions as he messes around with his remote control and tosses it up and down in his hand.

“It's you Nick,” Joe looks over at him and shrugs resuming on eating his apple.