A Second Reality.

“I’m so happy you’re back. I missed you,” I said pulling the towel around me and looking up at Joe smiling.

“I missed you too!” Joe replied picking me up. I screamed with laughter as he spun me around.

“Joe put me down now!” I yelled hitting his shoulder.

“And why would I want to do that?” he chuckled nuzzling his nose against mine.

“I don’t know…I’ll hurt you!” I joked. Joe smiled and planted me safely on the ground.

“You hit hard,” Was his only comment.

“Cause you make me want to,” I giggled.

“Okay you two, stop it and get dry. We are going back to our house for a sleepover!” Kevin said sticking his head around the corner.

“Alrighty Kev!” I responded with a smile.

“Sleepover!” Joe yelled with excitement.

“Are you going to get out and let me change?” I asked raising my eyebrows.

“No, why are you going to change here when you can change at my house?” he asked with a confused look.

“Because I’m wet?” I said unsure scrunching my eyebrows.

“I don’t think there is a point. Just put some shorts on and your shoes and let’s walk to my house,” Joe said tossing me my pair of shorts.

“Emelia! Don’t listen to him! He just wants to see you shirtless longer.” I heard Nick’s voice yell from the room over, followed by a fit of giggles that I couldn’t tell if it was Olivia or Allison.

“Thanks Chip!” I yelled back while giving Joe a look.

“I can’t deny it,” Joe smirked winking at me and left the room.

*****

I am best friends with the Jonas Brothers. I have been for almost a year. It will be a year in October. My birthday to be exact: October 23. I also have other famous best friends. Which is a completely different story, they are the reason why I am best friends with the Jonas Brothers.

When I turned 14 last October, my best friends Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson put on a birthday party for me. How I became best friends with them is something that I still can’t believe to this day. For 3 months Dan lived in my house with my family. We quickly became friends and I have never had a closer one…maybe until now. But it was all thanks to him.

If you have read my I Have Sunk you might be able to understand better. That is the link to everything…literally in this case. It is the link to my life now and how it will continue forever. It is all thanks to Dan though. He saved me.

Dan introduced me to people I never thought I would meet. He gave me hope that life will and can go on. I will forever be in his debt. But I guess I show my thanks by just being his friend as well. Everyone needs a good friend. Even if you have some that are better than others. You still care about those people. I went from 2 friends, to over 30 in about a month because of Dan. He re-opened me and helped me come out from my hiding. I am now that same free fun person I used to be before and it is the best feeling in the world.

But there is still one thing missing from my life. Somebody to love. It was the one thing Dan could not give me. He gave me life, but he could not give me love. It broke both of our hearts. We wanted to love each other but there was no way it could have ever worked for us. Because in our hearts we both wanted more, we both wanted that undying feeling of a person we can be connected to for the rest of our lives. But I think now, I might have found that person.

*****

“Allison aren’t you going to spend the night?” Joe asked running up to her as she was reaching the front door.

“My daddy doesn’t allow me to have sleepovers with boys Joseph,” Allison said and Joe put on his biggest puppy dog pout.

“Why?” he dragged whining.

“Because he is afraid of something “bad” could happen,” she said trying to get her point a crossed. I giggled when Joe just got confused.

“Bad? What is something “bad” that could happen?” Joe asked with his large eyebrows scrunched together cocking his head. My heart skipped a beat.

“Joe, seriously?” Nick asked walking in from the open living room. “Bad as in, I have my girlfriend here, and you have your almost girlfriend. Things can be easily assumed by parents that don’t trust us…”

“What almost girlfriend do I have?” Joe asked looking shocked at Nick. My body slightly drooped. I felt the smile fade slightly from my face and the light in my eyes burn out slightly.

“Joe you are so stupid,” Nick said leaning over to hug Allison goodbye. “I’ll see you soon! It was so great to finally meet you.”

As Nick hugged Allison, it seemed like time had stopped. Once their bodies hit it was like magnetism keeping them together. The awkward moment lingered and Joe and I exchanged a look. I blushed and quickly looked away.

“Bye Allisony, I’ll see you soon!” I said pulling Nick off of her so I could give her a hug. I smirked at her and she rolled her eyes like she was going to slap me.

“See you later,” she smiled.

“Bye bye Allison!” Joe yelled giving her a big hug. From upstairs we heard a mixture of yells from Kevin, Frankie, and Mr. and Mrs. Jonas with their goodbyes.

“Bye everybody! Thank you for having me!” Allison yelled throughout the large million dollar house.

“Bye Allison! It was nice to see you again!” Olivia said coming in from the living room and waving at her. She then placed her hand within Nick’s open hand as he leaned to open the door for Allison. I felt a small shift in her presence as she looked at Olivia.

“Bye,” Allison smally waved back and she was out the door.

“So Nick what almost girlfriend do I have?” Joe said still obviously so confused. Again I couldn’t help but feel slightly crushed, I knew I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but at the same time I just wanted to scream.

“Seriously Joe? Can we have a talk in the kitchen,” Nick said looking at him and then to me quickly. A thought from his quickly raced through my brain that everything was going to be alright. “Olivia, why don’t you go upstairs with Emelia?”

“Alright, come on Emelia!” Olivia said grabbing my hand and leading me upstairs. I looked back to see Nick giving me a reassuring smile and pushing Joe into the kitchen still looking completely lost.

“I am so confused on what’s going on Livi,” I sighed as we headed up the stairs.

“It’ll be okay, Nick’s taking care of it,” she said giving my hand a squeeze.

“I know but, I don’t know. Obviously Joe doesn’t like me, or else he might understand what’s going on,” I said as we made our way up the second set of staircases to the 3rd floor of the house. It was just a big open living room that had a huge sectional along with a futon, and a large TV with surround sound, which is where we were sleeping for the night. It also was the boys practice room, on the far left side of the room away from the living space are their guitars, microphones, drum set, everything they need to rehearse when they are in Michigan.

They bought a house in my neighborhood about around the time I met them. Their parents and my parents quickly became friends just the same as we did. Even my older sister, Laila, is good friends with the boys. Together we make one big happy family…though it’s obvious our parents want a marriage between the children eventually. And I from what I know and what I feel…I would love to officially be a part of the Jonas family. Why?

I am in love with Joseph Adam Jonas.

I am sure you realized this by now, but I might as well admit it. It isn’t a lie either that my sister and Kevin, who are the same age, have feelings for each other. But my sister has had a long-distance relationship going on with my good friend Rupert Grint for almost a year now.

“Emelia, I know for a fact Joe does like you. Heck I think he is in love with you,” Olivia said as we sat on the couch next to each other.

“Psh, and how do you figure that?” I asked resting my head on her shoulder.

“By the way he looks at you. I sometimes wonder if Nick ever looks at me the way Joe looks at you. There is just something there when he does. And you are the only person he ever looks at that way, it’s like you are the most important thing in the world to him.” Olivia responded rubbing her thumb against the back of my hand. “Joe seriously cares about you.”

“Then why doesn’t he do anything about it?” I replied distinctly.

“He’s scared that he will lose his best friend,” she said confidently. “You are his best friend and I think he is scared to admit his feelings to himself because he thinks you will never like him like that. Which we know is obviously wrong. Nick will help him make up his mind though, you can always trust Nick.”

Nick and I have a special kind of friendship. Some could think we hate each other at times. But for some reason we can be very critical of each other and it’s just a part of our relationship. I think it is because we know it’s only because we care about each other. We have a bond that I have never had with anyone before. We can sometimes read each other’s thoughts and feelings. That’s why we like to say that we are twins separated at birth. It’s nice to know I always have someone there to truly understand what I am going through.

“I know, I know,” I said quietly. I silently hugged Olivia tight. “Thanks for always being there,” I smiled giving her a tight squeeze.

“You know I always will. We’re best friends!” Olivia laughed as we let go, and I joined in. “And thank you for doing the same.”

“No problem!” I laughed. “It’s what best friends are for!”

“Yep! You are really good at keeping track of all of your best friends. It’s kind of funny,” she joked. It’s true, I have a lot of best friends. Some are on different levels from others, some have different names that I don’t like to use best friend for. But some will just always stay the same, best friend.

“Yeah, and they are all so different too! It makes it more fun,” I said with a smile.

“Emelia, why are Joe and Nick having a “private conversation” in the kitchen?” Kevin’s voice came from behind us. We both stuck our heads over the back of the couch.

“They are talking about how Joe really loves Emelia,” Olivia gushed.

“Oh really,” Kevin smirked.

“Oh no!” I said hiding myself in the couch cushion.

“Awe, Emelia, don’t worry, I know Joe loves you too!” Kevin said coming over and kneeling in front of us.

I growled at him. “She isn’t very sure of herself at the moment,” Olivia said.

“You two look a lot alike right now,” Kevin laughed changing the subject. Just like Kevin to observe something like that.

“Really?” Olivia and I both said. I lifted my head and we both looked at each other. Both of our blonde hair was up in a ponytail, still half wet from the lake. We each wore t-shirts, hers was white, mine was yellow. We each had our small friendship bracelets on our left wrists, hers was purple and black, mine was yellow and black. And I’m assuming my eyes were blue at the moment like hers. Yes, my eyes change color. From blue to green to grey, all of the time, but I can never do it on command…trust me I’ve tried. We each had a pair of black sweat shorts on, the pair I was wearing were actually hers. Finally I noticed we each were wearing funky socks on our feet. Hers were striped: green and black and mine where plaid: red and blue.

“I guess we do?” I laughed. People do sometimes think we are related. One time to get us in for free/cheaper at some place I can’t remember, my mom told this lady that we were twins, she so bought it.

“You guys usually do,” Kevin commented.

“Not our fault,” we said at the same time. Oh, Olivia and I, it cracks me up sometimes.

“Kev, I want food, but boys are in the kitchen,” I said with a puppy dog look in my eyes.

“You want me to go all the way downstairs?” he dragged.

“Please,” Olivia joined in.

“We’ll set the room up with blankets and pillows,” I offered.

“You can pick the movie, or game, or whatever we are going to do!” Olivia offered the selling point.

“Deal,” and we shook on it. Three way shakes are always awkward, but we made it work.

*****

I couldn’t sleep.

I even tried counting sheep.

But I’m allergic to sheep.

So that didn’t work out for me.

Joe’s scent swarmed my nose.

I could feel his breath hit the couch.

My body tensed, I couldn’t move.

The tops of our heads were inches apart; I didn’t want to wake him up by crashing heads. So I sat up. There was no way this could happen. I turned on my stomach and I laid back down. I leaned up on my elbows and looked down at him sleeping.

Yes, I know it’s creepy. But I just had to, at least for a few minutes. The way his messy almost jet black hair fell around his face. The peaceful look he gave as his lips were slightly parted and I could see his muscular chest rising and falling. I wanted to touch his face. His sweet peaceful beautiful face that just moved to the left side, my heart began to thump harder and harder.

I reached out my hand. What am I doing? I have no idea. I never really know what I’m doing. That’s why I always try to plan things, because if I don’t, I don’t know what I’m doing at all. This actually happens a lot. I’m usually too lazy to even make the plan. Yeah, I’m smart.

My fingers laced into his dark hair. It was rough and quick to get your fingers through. I couldn’t help but smile. I bit my bottom lip between my teeth and slightly traced his hairline to his thick eyebrows. Yeah, I’m a creep. But I don’t think it would matter if I didn’t do it. I love him.

My fingertips traced his jaw line and his head lightly turned towards my hand. His warm cheek enveloped my hand and my smile grew larger. I let my hand drag to his ear. My fingertips danced around his ear, until I couldn’t cause myself anymore pain. I had to stop, the pain of knowing he wasn’t really mine tore me. I didn’t realize how much it would to just touch his face in that way. I quickly turned back around and hid face in between my pillow and the couch cushion.

I am so stupid.

*****

“Emelia, Emelia, wake up. Breakfast is almost ready,” I heard a soft angelic voice say in my ear. I suddenly felt a warm body sit next to me on the couch. “Em, come on,” a soft hand ran through my short blonde hair.

“Hmm,” I murmured unable to open my eyes.

“Millie, come on, or I’ll pick you up!” his hand now shook my shoulder.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I mumbled.

“That’s what you think Ems,” Joe said and his leaned forward and quickly wrapped his arms around my waist.

“No,” I dragged rubbing my eyes and finally opening them.

“You’re so adorable,” he said so quietly it was almost a whisper. I looked up and saw Joe’s face about a foot from mine.

“Good morning,” I smiled with a yawn. “Am I the last one up?”

“Yeah, I got up about 15 minutes ago,” Joe smiled getting closer to my face.

“You got up before me! That’s not cool,” I pouted.

“Don’t…don’t do that,” his voice shaky and unsure.

“Do what? This?” I pouted again.

“Please, don’t,” he said and he was getting closer.

“Why not?” I asked crossing my arms over my chest.

“Because…just…please?” he said, he leaned close to my face and kissed my cheek.

I turned a heavy shade of pink. “What was that for?”

“For being adorable, now come on. We get pancakes and bacon!” Joe revealed with a giddy expression.

I couldn’t help a giggle.