I Never Should Have Let You Go

Pulling my white coat over my shoulders, I tucked my green scarf into it, before yanking on my long black boots over my dark jeans.

"Do you want to drive?" I asked Joe. He'd more experience in managing vehicles in this type of weather than I had.

"Just don't crash and kill us!" Maya teased, elbowing Joe's side. He retaliated my swooping his arm over head, ruffling her hair with his fist.

"Yeah, I'll drive." he shrugged, catching the keys easily as I threw them to him.

I climbed in the back seat, while Maya was shotgun. Joe rumbled my car to life and backed down the driveway in one swift movement.

The paparazzi were at my gate, but since the windows were up so I could only see their lips moving, and hear a soft buzz of noise.

Joe started down the icy road slowly, gradually building speed. Macy turned on the radio, tuning into KissFM.

My throat closed up as Nick's voice sounded through the speakers.

"I picked the perfect time to put on music didn't I?" Maya chuckled, forcing a smile.

She reached forward to change the station, but I stopped her.

"No, no, leave it. I want to hear what he says." I said.

Joe looked at me with a spectical expression.

"I promise I won't burst into tears." I sighed, rolling my eyes. Just for the record, I slapped Joe's cheek for taking his concentration off the road.

We stayed silent and let Ryan Secreast's question bounce into our ears.

"So Nick, you've recently had a public breakup with the lovely Cianna Fox. How are coping with that?" Ryan asked.

There was a pause and then Nick replied, "Our relationship was a situation that didn't work out, and, uh, I'm trying my best to, um, not--."

He sighed grumpily, and restarted his sentence. "We are two people that aren't supposed to be, and I'm just trying to get on with life, brushing off any bad memories and things like that."

"Okay." Ryan said. "It's only been a few weeks since the breakup, and you've already been spotted holding hands with your ex Sarah Grey. Don't you think it's a little too early to be moving on?"

"As I said before, Cianna and I were happy, but we weren't compatible. The split was amicable and there's no hard feelings."

j o s e p h

Pffft, no hard feelings, my ass. Nick had been bitching on and on like a insecure little girl about how Cianna broke his heart, and bladdi bladdi blah.

If he thought correctly, he would realise that he was the one who asked her to marry him, putting enormous pressure on that teenager to make a huge decision.

I believe that most eighteen year olds would not like to be married. There's a lot you can do when you're younger, so many oppurtunities.

Even if you are famous and have already travelled and done the things you want to do, a celebrity marriage is hounded by paparazzi and hardly ever works properly for more than a few years.

I didn't want my brother or Cianna to go through that, and I'm sure none of my family wanted it either.

c i a n n a

Nick and Ryan went on to discuss the Administration tour, and life with Kevin and Danielle.

"Wal*Mart. Joe?" Maya quizzed, as we pulled up into the supermarket parking lot.

"Wal*Mart Maya?" he teased playfully.

"What are we going to be doing here?" I asked, reaching to climb out of the car.

"Well I thought we could get some magazines with my brother in it, some textas and crayons, and then, duh duh duh, graffiti on him!" Joe suggested, pumping his fist in the air.

This resulting in him punching the roof. His knuckles cracked and Maya and I burst out laughing.

-

"Ooh, watch out!" Maya laughed, latching onto my arms and jerking me to the left.

My feet slipped out from under me, but I managed to regain by balance before I hit the ground.

"Don't!" I giggled, turning around to slap her.

Before I knew it, Joe had crept up behind me, sweeping my body onto his shoulders.

"Eep!" I squealed, clinging to his short hair.

As I glanced back at the car to make sure the windows were wound up, the flash of a camera caught me off guard, and I leaned back, toppling quickly.

Thankfully, the stack of trolleys was right behind me, and I landed in one.

"Whoa! Wasn't that perfect!" Maya cheered.

I was too busy panicking about the fact that image could cause a lot of people to think I was into Joe, to realise that a Wal*Mart employee was yelling at Maya for carting me into the shop.

Nick would never get back with me again if he believed I was dating his brother!

Shit!

"And she goes left! She's steering that car as if it's a feather! She's going for the finish line! She's going, she's going, Maya Kibbel has won!"

I glanced up from my fingernails to find Joe commentaring Maya on her skills to navigate to the frozen food aisle.

I began to open my mouth, and make Joe swear that he would tell Nick it was all his doing in the piggyback ride, but decided to shut up and discuss it later.

"Mmm, I feel like wedges." Maya mused, grabbing a packet of her choice.

I took this oppurtunity to climb out of the trolley and amble over to the icecreams, carefully casting my gaze over the items.

Mango yoghurt caught my eye, and I snatched up a tub, placing it in the cart.

Joe reappeared from wherever he went with a bundle of various magazines, a box of coloured pencils, permanent marker, and a small tube of glitter.

"There's one giant poster of me, Kevin and Nick in BOP magazine. You can totally destroy him, but leave me and Kev out of it okay?" he smirked.

I nodded, following Maya as she moved along to chocolates.

We spent three quarters of an hour in Wal*Mart, and then made our way to a park.

Maya set out the snacks, while Joe removed the staples from then magazines and folded out some posters on the table.

There was a soft sprinkle of snow, but it wasn't too bad.

I couldn't help at look at the adorableness of Nick's face as he held out a bunch of flowers.

"Go wild!" instructed Joe, handing me a red texta.

I uncapped it and held it just above paper Nick's head, but I just couldn't do it.

"Come on Cianna. Just draw on it!" Maya commanded.

I lost it, bursting into a fit of anger.

"Look Maya! Don't force me to do something I don't want to do! You haven't ever been heartbroken have you?! I can't move on like that! I'm in love with him, alright! Is that what you want to hear? I don't want to move on! And I won't!"

She looked shocked by my outburst, but I wasn't about to apologize. Instead, I grabbed a handful of salt and vinegar potato crisps and shoved them in my mouth.

Sorry for being a bitch, but jeez Maya, when you love someone, you'd never do anything to hurt them, even if it was only a 2D cutout.

"We better get these wedges into the freezer before they defrost." Joe said carefully, standing up and moving away from the picnic bench.

I followed him, leaving Maya to collect the items we purchased back into the plastic shopping bags.

Twirling the keys around my index finger, I aimed the automatic unlocking remote and climbed into the car.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive?" Joe offered.

I nodded, "Entirely positive." I assured softly.

The radio seemed like the perfect remedy to the uncomfortableness, so I switched it on.

Better Today by Coffey Anderson began, and I swallowed heavily.

At Kevin and Danielle's wedding this song had been playing when Nick proposed. Don't ask me why I remember this minute detail. When he had got down on his one knee and asked that question, I had wanted to focus on anything but answering it.

"Jesus Christ! CIANNA!" Joe screamed, grabbing the steering wheel and rotating it to the left quickly.

During my internal sob-fest, my foot had managed to slip off the brake, and the tail of the car was rapidly moving towards the oncoming lane of traffic.

Please, let Maya and Joe survive, but not me.