Luck & Intuition

"WAKE UP." A foot hit the side of the bed causing it to shake. “Wake up!” Another kick was apparent right after. Joe groaned and turned over, hiding his face his fluffy pillow and pulling the covers over his exposed upper body.

“Dude! Wake up!” Joe groaned again and peaked out from a crack of the covers. His one eye stared at Nick who was looking down at him. Behind him stood Storm scrolling through her iPhone looking bored out of her mind.

“Seriously, Joe. It’s important.” Nick’s tone was annoyed as he ripped the covers away from Joe. “Get up and put on a shirt. There’s something you need to see.”

Joe rubbed his eyes and sat up, taking the shirt off the arm of the leather chair in the corner and rolled out of his bed. He followed Nick and storm down towards the kitchen, he was in a dazed. No shit, it was seven in the morning.

What is with these early morning risers?

“One day, I’ll be able to sleep in until noon and that will be the happiest day of my life.” Joe commented, pouring himself some orange juice into a glass and taking a large sip. “How did you even get into my house?”

Nick held up a spare key in his hand. “Mom gave me the spare key.”

“Mom would...” Joe mumbled and sipped his drink again. “Alright, what’s all the commotion about?”

Nick looked at Storm who searched through her bag for something. She pulled out the latest edition of US Magazine. She licked her pointer finger and flipped through the bags, throwing it down on the counter and sliding it towards Joe.

“What’s this?” Joe asked.

“It’s a magazine, dumbass.” Storm replied, slow so that he could understand.

“Oh, thanks tips.” He glared. Storm glared back and flicked her hair over her shoulder, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Joe, don’t start.” Nick demanded with a stern, deep voice. Papa J, Nicholas?

“It’s not my fault that your girlfriend hates me!” Joe shot back, crossing his arms to mock Storm.

“I don’t hate you. I just think you’re a dumbass.” Storm smiled with innocence with a touch of sweetness added at the end. Before Joe could shoot something witty back at her, Nick pointed down at the magazine.

“Read it.”

Joe rolled his eyes and picked up the magazine and scanned through it. “Joe Jonas, 23, running errands in LA Tuesday afternoon...” He quoted and glanced at Nick. “Nick, I’m pretty sure everyone runs errands. It’s just how it is.”

“Keep reading.”

He sighed. “...With a little girl in hand. Is there something that the rockstar is hiding?” He paused. “They are seriously going to book me for watching Ella the other day?”

“Going to? They already did!” Storm exclaimed. “So now the whole world is thinking that you have a child. Honestly, I’m not surprised.”

“You’re not surprised?” Joe lifted an eyebrow, setting down the article. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

“It means they always book you for something. Whether if it’s you going somewhere, or hanging out with someone, or your rep for breaking hearts. No pun intended on the last thing.” Storm explained, hopping up onto the stool and placing her phone on the counter.

“She has a point.” Nick agreed.

“Really Nick?! I didn’t know that.” Joe shook his head. “Alright, I’ll just talk to the press and clear things up. Everything will be as it was before.”

“Well I guess we could go with your idea...” Nick trailed off.

“What was your idea?”

“Oh nothing.” Nick twirled his front curl and shrugged. “Mine was just foolproof.” He said and walked into the living room, gazing out the window.

“Right.” Joe blinked. “Has Autumn seen this?” His attention was focused towards Storm again. She shook her head. “Okay. It’s not a big deal anyway.”

“It is when you have paparazzi lined up outside of your house.” Nick shouted.

“Yes. Except that wouldn't happen to me.”

“But it did.” Storm ran over to the window and stood beside Nick. “Joe, come see this!”

Joe walked over to them and pushed open the curtains with one hand. His eyes widened at the sight of at least over thirty cameras flashing early in the morning. News reporters were getting starting their broadcasting while other shouted for Joe to come outside.

Nick stepped away from the window and placed his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “It’s now or never, bro. Whatever you do, don’t mention Autumn’s name.”

“Dude, it sounds like I’m dying or something. It’s just the press. I’ve dealt with them over a million times.”Joe slid on his flip flops and opened the front door. There were a mixture of screaming fans and the shouting of reporters calling out for Joe.

Joe waved from the top step and walked down towards the gate. A few girls held out some posters. Joe signed them, with a slight hint of reluctance in him telling him not too. Joe smiled for a few pictures then made his way towards the reporters.

“Joe! Is it true what they said in the article? Are you hiding something from your fans?” The reporter was female and looked to be in her mid-thirties. Her hair was an auburn colour and was in curls.

Joe chuckled and shook his head. “Absolutely not. I am not hiding anything from my fans. I was helping out a friend of mine by taking care of her niece for the day. That’s all.”

“Her? A girlfriend?” Another asked.

“A friend that is a girl. Yes.” Joe replied. “That’s all you need to know.”

“So she’s not your girlfriend?” The curly haired lady asked again.

Did I not just answer this fucking question?

“No. Autumn is just a friend.”

Oh shit.

“Autumn?! Autumn who, Joe?”

“No one. Have a nice day!” Joe said quickly and rushed back towards his home.

“Autumn Lowe?!” A familiar female voice called out. Joe stopped in his tracks, which he shouldn’t have done. That will only give away everything. “You were at Teen Vogue a few weeks ago, weren’t you?!”

He turned and saw Arianna standing with a pad of paper and pen in her hand. He was too confused as to what was going on. Joe pushed his feet to move quickly into his house and lock the door behind him. He ran his hand through his short hair and sighed.

That was a close one.

Joe walked back into the living room to see the television on GMA. Low and behold he was the hot topic of the morning with reporters still reporting outside of his home.

“He says that he was watching his friend’s niece for the day.” The reporter replied to headquarters.

“A friend’s niece? Did you get a name of this friend?”

“Another reporter yelled out the name Autumn Lowe, who is the Senior Editor at Teen Vogue. Jonas did not make a comment for this yet.”

Autumn’s name began to flash across the bottom of the screen in big white letters.

“Did he say anything about a relationship between the two?”

“He proclaims that there is only a friendship between the two. But you know Hollywood celebrities these days—"

Joe flicked off the television and sighed loudly.

“Well isn’t this fantastic?” Joe asked, rather rhetorically. He slumped down on the leather couch and leaned his head back to look back up at the stucco ceiling.

“They are going to bombard her with question now.” Storm sat down into the arm chair across from Joe.

“They didn’t bombard you with millions of questions.” Joe commented.

“That’s because she’s dating... Nick Jonas.” Nick’s voice was cool as he popped his collar. Both Storm and Joe blinked and stared at Nick with a blank expression. “Sorry. I’ll stick to sarcastic humour.”

Joe sat there quietly, contemplating on what his next move would be. Maybe he should just leave it and the news will blow over in a few days when they find something more exciting than Joe’s secret which he doesn’t have. Yeah... Maybe that will happen.

It’s Los Angeles, right? Anything can happen.