Keep Me Young

I used to be love drunk, but now I'm hungover. I'll love you forever, forever is over. We used to kiss all night, now it's just a bar fight, so don't call me crying...say hello to goodbye. 'Cause just one sip, would make me sick. I used to be love drunk but now I'm hungover, I'll love you forever, forever is over...

Annie's phone rang a million times but she wouldn't bother answering it at all. She was way too tired to even move a muscle in order to answer her phone. As it began to ring once more, she reached for it and just turned it off, not bothering to check who it was.

“She won't answer her phone!” Nick exclaimed as he dialed over and over again Annie's number, but now all he got was her voice mail. “She promised me that she would be there today at the recording studio!”

“Nick, she is tired you know,” Kevin tried to knock some sense into Nick. “She actually works her butt off to get her money. Cut her some slack.”

“I offered her a job with us, and she didn't want to take it,” he mentioned to Kevin as he finished getting ready to head out to the studio downtown.

“You know she would never take a job with us even if you offered her everything she ever needed,” Kevin smiled to Nick who was sitting on his bed staring completely at his blackberry's screen. “Why are you even doing this?”

“Now I know that, but the only reason I'm doing this is because,” he paused and wondered if he should actually tell his brother.

“Nick...don't tell me you like her, too?” Kevin questioned in sort of a shock. He never quite thought of his younger brother Nick liking Annie, and if he did, there was going to be a huge problem. Especially since he knew that his other younger brother Joe, liked Annie ever since they first met but would never admit to anyone or himself.

“Are you crazy? I only like her as a friend, and that's it,” he cleared Kevin's mind of all negative thoughts and continued explaining. “The only reason why I'm doing this is to help my brother Joe. I know how much he likes her, that's why. He deserves to be with someone like Annie, for once.”

“Clever,” Kevin laughed now taking a seat next to his brother and put on his shoes. “How come you never told me of any of this, I could've helped.”

“Because I thought you were to busy with the whole Danielle situation and what not,” Nick mentioned.

“You know I'm never to busy for my brothers,” Kevin disagreed and finished tying his shoe. “Hand over the phone.” Nick did as he was told and handed his phone over to his brother. He knew Annie would get tired of hearing her phone ringing and would just turn it off. Then again, he knew her mom was home and would answer the house phone and do him a favor. “Good morning Mrs. Cruces, is Annie home?...alright, could you please wake her up and tell her that Nick, Joe and I will be there in 10 minutes...thank you, you too.” With that said, he hung up the phone and looked at Nick. “Now finish getting ready, we're picking Annie up in 10 minutes.”

“How come she listens to you, but never to me,” Nick groaned getting all his things ready to head to the studio.

“It's you, Nick,” Kevin laughed walking out of the room.

Over at Annie's house, her mom had opened the windows to let the light of the day in. Doing so woke Annie up and turned the other way pulling the sheets up over her head.

“Mom, I'm tired,” she groaned from her bed. Annie's mom shook her head and yanked the covers from off of her. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure you get up, Kevin called and asked me to wake you up since they are picking you up to go to the studio in 10 minutes,” she informed her daughter.

“Oh man, I forgot I had promised Nick to be there today no matter how tired I was,” she scrunched her nose and looked at her phone, “Yeah, he's the one that was calling me non-stop this morning.”

“Well hurry up, they'll be here any minute,” she reminded. Annie quickly got out of bed and ran to her closet and chose a simple outfit to wear to the recording studio with the boys. Since her hair was wavy, she decided to just pull it up in a loose bun. She had removed her make up last night and so she decided to leave it like that. Once she was ready, she grabbed her purse and went into the kitchen where her mom had made her a cup of coffee and some toast like she did every morning. “You look nice.”

“Thanks mom,” Annie smiled taking a seat and taking a sip of the warm coffee. “I didn't feel like doing anything to my hair or face,” she laughed softly.

“Like I've always told you, you've always looked prettier without make-up,” she smiled going back to washing some of the dirty dishes that were left over from last night's dinner.

“Mom's are always supposed to tell their daughters that,” she sighed as she played around with the piece of toast she had in hand.

“They are, but I really do mean it,” she mentioned not turning around from her place by the sink. Both of them just talked about what she was going to do the rest of the day, and if she was really going just because she wanted to hear their songs or because she wanted to see Joe.

“Well it's a combination of wanting to hear Joe sing that song Nick was talking about, and Nick forcing me to go,” Annie laughed handing the empty mug to her mom along with the plate that had the toast on them earlier. Her mom smiled and then saw the black Tahoe that belonged to the Jonas boys and told Annie that her ride was here. No more that two minutes and there was a knock on the door. “I'll get it.”

“Annie, why didn't you answer your phone! You had me worried,” Nick exclaimed standing in the doorway by himself. “We have to go, Kevin and Joe are waiting in the car, so let's go.”

“Alright, sheesh, take a chill pill dude,” Annie joked saying goodbye to her mom. She grabbed all her things and followed behind Nick to the truck where she met up with Kevin and Joe. “Hey guys, sorry for forgetting.”

“Oh we're fine, Nick over here has been complaining all they way from home,” Kevin mentioned to her as he put his phone in his pocket.

“I kind of figured, you guys should've given him a chill pill, that would've totally worked,” she informed once again causing the two older boys to laugh a little. While Nick just stared at her from the passenger seat. “It's okay Nick, I still love you.”

“That's what they all say,” Nick mumbled now scrolling away on his phone.

“Here comes the ignoring,” the girl sighed one last time before looking out the window. The ride to the studio consisted of Kevin and Joe just talking about some of the songs, while Nick just text messaged away on his phone and Annie looked out the window falling half asleep.

Once they had arrived at the studio, Annie was already leaning on the glass window of the car asleep. “Annie, we're here, wake up.” Joe shook her gently trying to wake her up, which he did. She rubbed her eyes and got out of the car and walked behind the boys into their comfy studio where she took a seat on a couch they had. “You should have just stayed home, I mean, you look really tired. I don't know why Nick forced you to come along.”

“It's okay Joe, it's my fault for promising I would come today, and you know how I hate to break a promise,” Annie smiled up at Joe who stood right in front of her. “Now go record your next big hit!”

“Ha-ha, thanks,” Joe laughed and kept the smile on his face as he turned around and walked into the recording booth with Nick as well. Kevin stayed outside and just took charge of the music. “Kevin, let's start with keep it real.”

The music began to play and the boys began to sing. Of course they didn't get it perfect the first few times, but they did it over and over again until they both got them right. Half into the recording, Annie had fallen asleep on the couch. Of course no one noticed, not even Nick since they were all busy with the song. Mr. Jonas noticed that she was curled up into a little ball, and figured she was cold, so he threw blanket over her and just went back to helping his boys out.

“Alright guys, that's a wrap for today!” Mr. Jonas announced after almost three hours of recording. “We'll be back tomorrow to finish up World War III and Much Better.”

“Alright dad, well we're going to go get something to eat first, and then we'll head home,” Joe talked to his dad as he pulled on his jacket and zipped it up.

“Okay, just make sure you call us if something goes wrong,” he simply agreed and continued to walk to his vehicle and getting in. Joe watched as his brothers walked out of the studio, but he felt something was missing. He looked around and noticed that Nick and Kevin had forgotten to get Annie and tell her that they were heading home. After Nick bugged Annie non-stop, he ends up leaving her there. He walked over to her and just put his hand on her shoulder which startled her and made her wake up.

“Wake up sleepy head,” he smiled softly looking down at her. “We're heading out to eat and then going home.”

“How long was I out?” she laughed getting up from the couch and leaving the blanket lying there.

“A pretty good while I guess, we were only here about three hours. Didn't finish all the tracks but recorded some good ones,” he admitted as he walked along with her out the door and over to the black Tahoe letting her climb in first then him.

“So where do you guys want to go now?” Big rob questioned as he took the steering wheel and drove out of the studio's parking lot.

“Actually Big Rob, you can just take me home right now, I'm really tired,” Annie suggested as she looked at her phone. She loved being with the boys all the time, but today was just not the day for her. She'd been working super hard and not getting enough sleep, and the one day she got off, she needed it more than anything.

“Alright, heading to Annie's house,” he announced as he waited at a red light. Surprisingly none of the boys complained about not letting her go back home like they usually would. Though, they understood her exhaustion because they had been through it many times before, just in different ways than her. No later than twenty minutes, Big Rob was parked in Annie's drive way and she waited for Joe to climb out so that she could too.

“Thanks Big Rob,” she smiled as she walked around Joe and towards her house. “Bye you guys.”

“No problem, Annie,” he replied. Kevin and Nick waved goodbye as Joe just stood there with the door open. “Joe, what are you waiting for?”

“Big Rob, tell my dad that I'll be home late, that I'll be at Annie's house if he needs anything,” he informed him and shut the door trying to catch up to Annie. “Annie, wait, I um, is it okay if I stay a while?”

“Uh, yeah...” she laughed softly at his expression. “I just need to take a nap and then if you want we can go to the mall.”

“Oh no it's fine, I just want to hang out with your little brother,” he smiled opening the door for her and letting her into her house first.

“Oh, okay,” she barely smiled as she had hoped for Joe to say that he wanted to stay a while at her house to be with her, but instead, she got another answer. “He should be in the back yard with the dog.”

“Alright, well you go to bed and I'll be outside with your little brother,” he smiled and motioned her to her room. She shook her head and went into her bedroom. As he watched her, he could feel himself smile, but didn't really know why. He questioned himself so many things that it made him think for several minutes until Annie's little brother came in and scared Joe.

“Hey Joe! Long time that I haven't seen you,” the little nine year old smiled widely at the older boy. Joe smiled and shuffled the little boys hair with his hand. “Did you come to see me or my sister?”

“I came here to play soccer with the new best player out there. You know who he is?” Joe questioned with a questioning look on his face. “I bet I can beat him.”

“That's me!” he exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air with a big smile on his face. “No one has beat me yet, not even my dad!”

“Oh really?” Joe grinned at James.

“Yes, now let's go play soccer so that I can beat you already,” James laughed as he ran to the back yard with Joe close behind him. As he stepped outside, he saw how much everything had changed. They had so many plants outside and had a brand new lounge outside with a pool that hadn't been there before. He then saw Annie's dog, Mia, which was bigger than he last had seen. The dog came running towards him with tail wagging like crazy, then jumping on him licking his face.

“Down girl, down,” he laughed as the dog got on all her fours again but continued to wag her tail and had her tongue sticking out. “She sure isn't the small dog I last saw before going on tour.”

“I know, she's so much fun!” James smiled widely as he walked over to his dog and placed his arms around the dogs neck. She simply sat down and sniffed the little boys head and watched over him.

“She's really nice, along with the whole back yard you guys have,” he admitted still looking around the backyard. “It looks so different.”

“You were away for almost seven months, Joe. Things change,” even for a nine year old, he was a smart boy.

“I see,” he smiled. “Now let's play.”

“Let the game begin!” James grinned as he walked away from his dog and grabbed the soccer ball. He started off the game and both boys began to play.

After almost an hour of playing, James was winning against Joe. The score was Joe 4 and James 10. Joe stumbled onto the grass as he had tried to get the ball away from the little kid. James rushed past him and kicked the ball into the goal net making his score 11.

“You win!” Joe exclaimed out of breath as he bent over and placed his hands on his knees to support himself. He had this huge smile on his face as he saw James jump up and down doing is victory dance. “Aren’t you tired at all?”

“Me? Tired? You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m a sugar rush 24/7!” the young boy exclaimed as he still ran around the yard as if he had won a major soccer game. “Though, it did make me hungry.”

“I feel you,” Joe breathed in deeply as he stood up straight and walked towards a chair, but before he sat down, he thought of something better to do, “how about we go out for ice cream to celebrate your winning game?”

“Yes! I’m going to order a double scoop of vanilla since chocolate made me sick last time,” he admitted as he slid the sliding door open so that he and Joe could both walk in. He waited on Joe to get in before closing the door with a lock. “What are you going to get?”

“Sounds good,” Joe admitted reaching into his pocket to get the keys. “Let’s not wake your sister up, though, she seemed really tired today. We won’t take long anyways.” With that said, James did what Joe told him to do and both headed out the door and made their way to Joe’s Range Rover. He helped James with the door like he did with his brother and then walked over to his side of the car. As he turned on the ignition he buckled up and pulled out of the driveway. It didn’t take them long to arrive at the ice cream parlor.

“Hello, welcome to Baskin Robins. How may I help you today?” a young girl questioned the two boys. James didn’t wait for Joe to order, he quickly told the girl he wanted a double scoop vanilla cone. Joe smiled down at the boy and then told the girl he wanted a strawberry shortcake ice cream. “Alright, it’ll be $6.37.” Joe took out a fresh ten dollar bill and handed it to the nice girl as she handed back the change.

He was surprised on how he wasn’t getting bombarded by fans like he did every time he went to any public place. After putting the change into his back pocket, he waited to the side for his order number to be called out. Meanwhile, James was getting the spoons for Joe and him.

“A strawberry shortcake sundae and a double scoop of vanilla, ready to go!” a guy in a turquoise shirt called out as he placed the sundae on the counter and waited for Joe to walk over to get them. He thanked them and walked with James to the nearest empty table.

“Thank you for the ice cream, Joe,” James acknowledged as he licked away his favorite ice cream. He smile back at the boy and somehow managed to look over behind James and noticed a young couple who were sitting at a booth and both sharing a banana sundae. He couldn’t help but stare at them and think of a certain someone he could do that with. “Joe, are you okay? You seem to be really weird right now.”

“I don’t know, it’s just that they look so happy together,” his voice trailed off as he scooped his spoon around in his ice cream. Little James turned around in his seat and saw the couple that Joe was talking about and then turned back around.

“You like my sister, don’t you?” he grinned eagerly as Joe’s eyes quickly met his and shook his head.

“No James, Annie and I are only friends, besides…if we did like each other I don’t think we’d work out,” he tried to convince the little boy, but he couldn’t trick him so easily.

“I may be little, but I know when a person is lying to me,” James admitted as he tried to get the juice out of Joe over the crush he had on James sister.

“Fine, I do like her, but I don’t know how to tell her or express it,” he sighed leaving the half eaten ice cream in front of him and leaned back in his seat.

“Just tell her, you always tell her what’s on your mind anyways. It won’t be anything new to her.”

“James, it’s grown up stuff, which means that it’s really complicated,” he pointed out as he watched the little boy finish up the last of the waffle cone.

“Grown up things are never as complicated as they seem,” he replied as he put the napkin to the side. “They just like to overcomplicate things.”

“Alright, so what would you do if the girl you like is your best friend and you really want to go out with her, but couldn’t find a way to ask her?” He surprised himself with the way he was being serious about what he was talking about with James. He never really planned to talk about James sister in the first place. All he had planned to do was catch up with the boy.

“That’s easy, I would give her one of my favorite toys and ask her to meet me at the park,” he simply answered. “It isn’t that complicated.”

“That’s not such a bad idea,” Joe agreed as sat straight up in his seat and noticed that the couple he had seen earlier wasn’t there anymore. “I guess we should get going before your sister wakes up and freaks when she doesn’t see you in the back yard.”

“Ha-ha, okay,” he laughed throwing his trash away and walking out of the place and jumping into Joe’s car. Both boys buckled up and headed home. “So are you going to take my advice?”

“Yes, but the problem is, what toy should I leave her?” Joe quizzed the little boy to get a bit more of answeres he needed to complete his plan.

“Leave your Ray-Bans and a note telling her to meet you at the park.” Joe agreed and thanked the boy. No later than ten minutes, they had made their way home safe and sound to find Annie still asleep in her bedroom. James handed Joe a piece of paper and a pen to let him write the note for Annie. As he finished up, he handed the pen back to James and then walked into Annie’s bedroom leaving the note and his Ray-Bans on her pillow. He and James quietly exited the room and walked to the hallway.

“Alright, make sure you make some really loud noise to wake her up in ten minutes, okay?” Joe asked for a last favor and got an agreement from James. “If everything goes great, we’ll go out for more ice cream tomorrow.”

“I will take care of it, don’t worry!” James ran up to Joe and hugged his torso as Joe did the same. He said goodbye and headed to his house to gather up some things before he met Annie at the park.

XXX

Around half an hour later, Joe was already at the park with a guitar in hand and a blanket under him. He looked around to see if he saw the familiar face he wanted to see. Though, he couldn’t seem to spot her, that’s until looked behind him and there he saw her. She’d changed clothes from earlier and she was now wearing something more casual. She noticed him and quickly waver her hand to him, so he did the same.

“I couldn’t find you anywhere!” she smiled widely taking a seat next to her best friend. “I was about head home if I didn’t find you.”

“Sorry,” he laughed softly, “I should’ve called you to tell you where to meet me. Forgot to be specific.”

“Ha-ha, it’s okay though, I’m here now,” she sighed with a smile still on her face. “So what’d you want me to come down here for?”

“Yeah,” he nodded and then looked down at the grass. “Uh, well I wanted to tell you something, that’s for sure.”

“I think that’s the point for me coming here,” she giggled a bit and looked at Joe straight into his eyes for the first time in a while.

“I want to play you this song first, and then I’ll get to my point afterwards,” he admitted as he got Annie’s permission and sat there waiting for him to begin. He got into a comfortable position and began to play the first chords. “If time was still, the sun would never ever find us. We could light up the sky; tonight I will see the world through your eyes. Leave it all behind. If you it’s you and me forever if it’s me and you right now, that’d be alright. It’d be alright. We’re chasing stars to lose our shadows. Peter pan and Wendy turned out fine. So won’t you fly with me?” he paused for a second. “Now the past has come alive and gave it meaning and a reason to give all I can to believe once again. If you it’s you and me forever if it’s me and you right now, that’d be alright. It’d be alright. We’re chasing stars to lose our shadows. Peter pan and Wendy turned out fine. So won’t you fly with me? Maybe you were just afraid, knowing you were miles away from the place of where you needed to be and that’s right here with me…” his voice trailed off as his once closed eyes had opened and met up with Annie’s. She had an ‘aw’ look on her face and the tears that she was trying to once hold back, were making its way down her cheeks. “So Annie, wont you fly with me?”

“Joe, that was wonderful, I never had thought of you doing this…” she smiled wiping her tears away. “And if that fly with me is you asking me out, I say yes.” He couldn’t help but smile as he set his guitar to the side and reached for her to give her the hug he’d been dying to give her. Not to mention the kiss he’d been longing to share with her for weeks now. His lips wandered on hers for quite a while, until they both need to pull apart for air.

“Thank you for taking a shot and flying with me,” he smiled with one arm still wrapped around her shoulders.