I'm Forever Yours, Faithfully

“I can’t believe you knew that Nick and Joe lived in your neighborhood, right down the street from you no less, and you didn’t tell me!” Natalie hissed quietly to Andrea as they stood on the front door of the Jonas’ house, dressed for their date. “That’s the kind of information you should tell a person!”

“Oh, you mean like making a date for me with a guy I barely know through his brother and then guilting me into going?” Andrea countered. Natalie winced, and Andrea snickered. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. And I didn’t tell you because how was I supposed to know that we were going to be coming to their house for the date?”

“We’re just meeting them here, the date isn’t happening here,” Natalie said. “At least, I don’t think it is…”

The closed door in front of them suddenly opened, and Andrea and Natalie saw a little girl standing in front of them. She couldn’t have been any older than three or four. She had curly brown hair that was held back with a big white bow on the top of her head and was wearing a white dress that fell mid-calf. Cute little white sandals completed her outfit.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” Andrea said back, squatting down to be at the girl’s direct eye line. “What’s your name?”

“Emiwy Wose Jonas,” she answered.

“What a pretty name. I’m Andrea, and this is Natalie.” The two of them looked up at Natalie, who waved down to the small girl. “How old are you, Emily?”

“I’m fwee,” Emily answered, a large grin on her face, holding up three fingers. “You boff wook wike pwincesses.”

“Why thank you,” Natalie said.

“Emily, are Nick and Joe here?” She nodded excitedly. “Can you tell them that we’re here please?”

“Yep!” Emily exclaimed. She spun around fast on her toe and ran back into the house. “Uncle Jo-wey! Uncle Nick! You have company!” A woman who looked to be in her late forties appeared in the hallway, wiping her hands on an apron. She looked a lot like Emily, with brown curly hair and olive skin. She was obviously Nick and Joe’s mother. Emily tried to run past her, but the woman stopped her. “Nana, wet me go! I gotta tell Uncle Jo-wey and Uncle Nick that their pwincesses are hewe!”

“Is that so?” the woman laughed.

“Yes! See? They’re at the door!” Emily turned and pointed, and the woman’s gaze found Andrea and Natalie’s.

“Well, would you look at that? Alright, go ahead. They’re upstairs in their rooms.” She put the child down, who immediately ran up a flight of carpeted stairs, screaming Joe and Nick’s names. The woman walked towards Andrea and Natalie with a friendly smile. “You two girls can come on in. Nick and Joe should be down in a minute.”

“Thank you,” Andrea said. “You have a lovely home, Mrs. Jonas.”

“Please, call me Denise. You must be Andrea and Natalie.”

“Yes ma’am,” Natalie said. “Emily is adorable.”

“She a spitting image of her mother,” Denise said, “but she’s got the personality of her father. I only wish they would have lived to see her at this age.”

“I’m sorry?” Andrea said, wondering if she had heard what Denise had said correctly. “Her parents are…”

“Almost eighteen months ago, a train crash,” Denise said. “They were on their way home from one of my son Kevin’s annual trips to Ontario for work. Danielle always went with him. My husband and I kept Emily and her baby brother Joshua for them while they were gone. Now we have full guardianship of them.” A loud cry pierced through the quiet home, and Denise laughed. “That would be Joshua now. He must be hungry. If you’ll excuse me.” Andrea and Natalie nodded. “Please, make yourselves at home. I’m sure the boys will be down any minute.”

Denise disappeared up the same stairs Emily had taken only minutes before. Andrea and Natalie made their way into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Both sat in silence for a few moments, soaking in the information they had just been given.

“That’s just so sad,” Natalie finally murmured. Andrea just nodded her head in agreement, making a small noise so Natalie would know she had responded. “I can’t imagine losing anyone in my family. They might be a pain in my ass sometimes, but I don’t want them to die or anything…”

“We probably shouldn’t mention it to Joe and Nick,” Andrea said. “You know, that we know about their brother? I mean, it just doesn’t seem like something that they’d want us to know about.”

“And if they bring it up?”

“Then we just go with it,” she replied. “But I mean, unless their mom told them that she told us about Kevin, they probably won’t. If you were going out with someone you just met, would you divulge information like that to them?”

“No, I guess you’re right.”

“Hi ladies!” Andrea and Natalie jumped a little when they heard Nick’s voice greeting them. Both of the guys were walking in the kitchen, and Andrea’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Joe. Cut it out, she screamed at the organ that gave her life, but it didn’t listen. “Andrea, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Nick.”

She reached out and shook his hand, which was extended to her. “Likewise,” she answered. She looked over at Joe and smiled at him. “Nice to see you again, too.”

“Definitely,” he said. He didn’t look half as nervous as Andrea felt. He was dressed nice, with dark jeans, a crisp white shirt, loose black tie and black shoes. Nick’s outfit was similar to his brothers, but he was wearing a dark green polo and Converse sneakers. “So are you ladies hungry?”

“Starving,” Natalie said. “Where are we going?”

“I made reservations at Huske Hardware House,” Joe said. “I’ve heard they’ve got some of the best bar food in town.”

“You heard right,” Andrea said. She liked that restaurant, especially on a night where there was a big sports event. She and her dad used to go there all the time to watch his favorite team, the Duke Blue Devils, beat up on the Wolfpack of NC State or the Tarheels of UNC every chance they could. But she hadn’t been back since he died, and part of her wondered if she would be able to make it through the evening.

Lucky for them, there wasn’t a big game being played, so the restaurant was somewhat quiet. They were seated right away, even though it seemed like the reservation Joe had made wasn’t necessary. The conversation moved easily, with Nick and Joe telling the girls about their lives in Texas, Andrea talking about being an Army brat, and Natalie talking about her overprotective parents and large family. The food was delicious, just as Andrea remembered, but she didn’t really care. The food could have been terrible, but as long as she got the chance to hang out with Joe, everything else seemed obsolete.

“Shit,” she heard Natalie suddenly curse under her breath as her eyes caught attention with something at the front door. Joe and Nick were arguing over the payment of the bill and Andrea was checking her phone for any messages from her mom.

“What is it?” Nick asked her, lifting his head.

“Andrea…it’s Elizabeth…” She threw her head around and saw Elizabeth Marshall standing at the hostess table with her cheerleading posse. She groaned loudly and sank down in the booth seat.

“That’s Elizabeth Marshall, right?” Joe said. “She is in my Vietnam history class. She doesn’t seem like a very nice person.”

“She’s not,” Natalie growled. “She and Andrea used to be best friends.”

“Used to be? Did something happen?” Nick asked Andrea.

She took a deep breath before answering. “That is a question with many possible answers, but the easiest version is that Elizabeth’s mom and my mom grew up together and when they discovered their husbands were on the same base they immediately threw the two of us together in a friendship, doing everything from piano lessons to ballet to cheerleading together. It worked really well through middle school, and we were really close. Sophomore year, though, something changed.”

“Horrible, stuck up bitch…” Natalie hissed.

“We were at a party the weekend before school started. Elizabeth was really drunk, as were a lot of the people there, but I wasn’t. I never have liked it that much. Anyways, I went upstairs to use the bathroom and, as I was coming out, Elizabeth’s boyfriend Greg attacked me, pushing me back inside and shutting the door. He started kissing me and running his hands up my legs. I tried to push him away, but he was too strong. Right as he was sliding one of his hands under my skirt, Elizabeth came bursting through the door. She thought I was sleeping with him behind her back. She and I have been estranged ever since.”

“Oh my God…” Joe muttered.

“For two years, she’s been my worst enemy. I’ve tried to tell her my side of the story, that Greg was forcing himself on me and I was trying to get away, but she won’t hear it. Greg told her that I had come on to him at the party, and she’s choosing to believe him.”

“Seems like a pretty bitchy thing to do, if you ask me,” Nick said. “You’re better off without her.”

Andrea nodded, but she really didn’t know if she believed him or not. Her friendship with Elizabeth had seemed perfect. They were best friends, and although they had originally been forced together by their mothers, they stayed together because they liked each other, because they had a lot in common. Andrea didn’t really have that many friends, especially ones that were there for her when her dad died. Elizabeth had been there, though. She had helped Andrea get through that dark time. And that’s what made the last two years so painful for her.

“She’s coming this way,” Natalie said. “Maybe she won’t see us…”

If only they had been that lucky. One of Elizabeth’s posse members had seen Nick and Natalie and brought it to Elizabeth’s attention, and after the waitress had sat them down at their table (which was only a few away from Andrea), Elizabeth walked over to them. She had a smile on her face that could kill, and Andrea’s heart rate picked up increasingly. She felt something warm wrap around her hand, and when she looked down she noticed that it was Joe’s hand.

“Just breathe,” he mouthed to her.

“Well, well, well, look what the garbage man left behind,” Elizabeth sneered. “I didn’t know this restaurant served to low life bottom feeders like you, Andrea.”

“Back off, Marshall,” Natalie growled. Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, but her eyes zeroed in on something under the table – Joe’s hand wrapped tightly around Andrea’s.

“Well this is quite an interesting turn of events,” Elizabeth laughed. “I wasn’t aware that you had found yourself a boyfriend, Quinn. He’s cute. Maybe too cute…”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Andrea muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” Elizabeth’s voice was almost mocking Andrea now. Andrea could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but fought the urge to let them fall down her face and show any sign of weakness. “Speak up, bitch.”

“Hey! There’s no need for those kinds of words,” Nick said.

“You’re Elizabeth Marshall, right? We have a class together, I think,” Joe added, trying to take her attention away from Andrea.

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember you,” she answered, slightly monotone. “I try not to familiarize myself with people that hang out with theater geeks and library nerds, even the ones that look as good as you.”

“That’s too bad,” Joe said with a smile. “Andrea’s told me a lot about you…”

“Well I’m sure you got quite an earful of bullshit,” Elizabeth said. “If you ever want to hear the real story, sexy, you come and find me.”

And then she did the last thing Andrea thought she would ever do: she leaned down and kissed Joe full on the lips. Andrea felt her face grow bright red, and the pit of her stomach was doing somersaults. Natalie and Nick just watched the scene in front of them, their jaws dropped almost to the table, in so much shock they couldn’t move.

But Andrea could move. She let go of Joe’s hand and launched herself at Elizabeth, who was just pulling away from Joe. She grabbed hold of Elizabeth’s long blonde hair and pulled tight, causing the other girl to lose her balance and fall face first into Joe’s lap. Andrea pulled again, this time bringing Elizabeth up to her. Elizabeth had a pained expression on her face, but Andrea didn’t mind. The adrenaline running through her veins was calling the shots now.

“Look bitch,” she growled. “Don’t you ever think about doing that again. Joe is mine, do you understand? Stay away from him and stay away from me. I’m done hiding and letting you walk all over me like some sort of power hungry whore. I’m fighting back now. You are dead to me. Go to hell.” She let go of Elizabeth, pushing her backwards. Elizabeth lost her balance and fell into a table occupied by an elderly couple. Andrea turned to Joe, Nick, and Natalie. “You guys ready to go?”

The four of them rose from their table and exited the restaurant. They got in the car and drove to their next destination, the movie theater. No one talked, no music was played, but Andrea’s sobs were noise enough. Natalie held her close as Joe drove, trying to calm her friend down. Andrea just cried, amazed and slightly afraid of what she had just done. She wasn’t a violent person, even growing up in a family of Army officers, so she didn’t know what had come over her.

But as she locked red, swollen eyes with the ones of the boy behind the wheel through the rear view mirror, she knew. Elizabeth had done to her what she believed Andrea had done years before, and even though Joe wasn’t her boyfriend, she was connected to him, and she was falling for him. She was falling for him hard.