One in a Million

He didn’t know what to think of everything she’d told him that night at the hotel. She had her own set of scars and she opened them up to him. He wouldn’t tell her the extent of what she told him out of fear she’d run. Guilt was all she felt for days over what had happened and he didn’t want to make things worse.

He’d offered her one of his guest bedrooms so she wouldn’t have to pay for her hotel anymore, but she’d politely refused, too used to being alone.

“Is your dad still angry?” she asked him over the phone one day.

They had agreed to be friends. Just friends.

“A little, but he’ll get over it.”

She sighed. “I’m so sorry. I feel horrible.”

“For the millionth time, Aalia, it’s okay.”

She sat back against her chaise and pushed up the sunglasses on her face. It was the first time she’d visited the hotel pool.

“I don’t understand why he’s so angry in the first place.”

She heard him take a deep breath.

“He has his reasons.”

“Like what?”

“He’s worried about you.”

She almost laughed. “Me? Why?”

“Look, Aalia, we chose to live this life. My family and I. We’re used to all the crazy things that it comes with.”

“Like the tons of money and fancy cars?” she teased.

“Like the screaming and the stalking and the having your every move published in a stupid magazine. We knew this is what we’d have to live with if we ever made it this far. Even now, we’re not fully used to it. We’re just a little more prepared. But you? Just by knowing me, you’re being pulled into it all.”

She remembered the article about her and how much it had disgusted her.

“That was one of the reasons why I didn’t want you to know who I was. You even said it yourself. This isn’t your life.”

He was right. Just days ago, she was scorning the paparazzi and complaining about how she didn’t fit into the atmosphere. But something inside her was telling her just to try. Try for him.

“It’s not that bad.” He could easily hear the lie in her voice.

“They’re there, aren’t they?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

Her eyes fell towards the fence where she could barely make out a handful of cameras sticking out through the wire holes.

“They can’t come near me,” she tried to convince him and herself at the same time, “I’m a good way away from them.”

He sighed. “Please be careful.”

She rolled her eyes, trying to dismiss it as nothing she needed to be careful about. “They’re just people.”

“No, they’re not just people. They have no manners at all. They’re more than willing to ask you anything and do whatever it takes to get the answers and the pictures they’re being paid to get. Don’t underestimate them like I once did.”

“Alright,” she agreed just to calm him down, “I’ll be careful, okay?”

“Thank you.”

She eyed the cameras from behind the fence and pulled her legs up, hiding behind her knees.

“Do you want to hang out with me tonight?”

She was taken aback by his random change of subject.

“I mean…not like, you know, a date or anything. But just dinner, I guess…As friends?” he began to stutter.

She tried not to smile so big.

“Sure. Where?”

“I’d invite you over, but Joe has the house tonight.”

“What’s he doing?”

“Caroline’s coming over,” he said, “I thought you’d know.”

She shook her head. “Caroline and I haven’t spoken for a while...”

He was silent, unsure of what to say.

“You can come over here,” she quickly suggested before he started feeling sorry for her, “The room service is good. I should know. I’ve had everything twice.” She laughed.

“I’ll worry about the food. You just worry about looking pretty, which comes easy for you anyway.”

She blushed a deep shade of scarlet.

“Nick…”

“Right. Friends. Sorry…”

“Is six okay?”

“Yeah,” he tried to keep from sounding embarrassed, “Six is perfect.”

--------------------------

Every piece of clothing she’d packed in her suitcase was sprawled on the bed and her hair was going in every direction. She couldn’t understand why she was making such a big deal about it. They were just friends hanging out.

She settled on a pair of shorts and a button-up top, hoping he’d be dressed just as casually. She showered, straightened her hair, and applied her makeup, spending extra time on detail as she’d given herself far too much time to get ready.

When she heard her phone ring, she struggled to stuff the remaining clothes back into her luggage and tidy up the small space she had to work with.

“Hello?” she breathed into the phone as she slipped on her sneakers—the ones that matched his.

“I’m in the elevator now. Just wanted to give you a heads-up.”

“Okay.” She smiled before the line went dead.

She took one last look around her room and sighed. It definitely wasn’t what he was used to, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before.

Minutes passed and there was no knock on her door. Fearing he’d forgotten her room number, she peeked outside and spotted him at the end of the hall. He had two pizza boxes balanced on his arm as he wrote on a piece of paper atop them. A pair of teenage girls looked on excitedly as he smiled at them.

“And what’s your name?” he asked the one closest to him.

“Kinsey,” she replied breathlessly.

Aalia watched as he scribbled on the paper and posed for photographs with each of the girls. He waved at them after saying goodbye and walked toward Aalia with a grin. She was about to greet him when he shook his head to silence her, walking past her and into the room.

Before she closed the door, she got a glimpse of the glares being sent her way by the two girls and strange shivers went down her spine as they snapped pictures of her as well.

“Sorry about that,” he sighed once they were finally alone, “The elevator opened and there they were.”

She nodded, still recovering from the looks of pure horror she’d just seen.

“I got extra cheese and mushrooms.” He motioned towards the boxes in his hands. “Your favorite.”

He grinned and she couldn’t resist that charm of his.

“Thanks,” she laughed.

They positioned themselves on the floor against the far wall and began eating, using napkins as plates. She felt self-conscious. Such a tiny, boring hotel room was poor compared to the life he was used to living.

“So,” he said as he dug through one of the pizza boxes in search of his third slice, “How has your day been?”

She shrugged. “Alright, I guess.”

“Is it better now?”

She looked over to find him smirking.

“No, it sucks now.”

He threw a napkin at her and it pitifully landed on the floor just inches from her leg.

“You missed,” she teased, “I thought you played baseball.”

“I do play baseball. I’m just, you know, resting my arm.”

She laughed loudly and he joined in soon after. She would never tire of hearing their voices mixed together, and neither could he, whether it was in a song or with their laughs.

“I like this,” he said after some time.

“Like what?”

He motioned around him.

“My room?” she asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah, and just sitting here eating pizza and talking and doing nothing. And you.”

She tried to ignore that last part.

“I don’t even have silverware,” she laughed.

“I like that. Everywhere I go, it’s always fancy and there are always three different kinds of forks and boring tablecloths.”

She tried not to giggle. “Boring tablecloths?”

“Yeah, I’m serious! In every hotel and every restaurant and ugh, it gets so repetitive. I like this.”

“You get gourmet food everywhere you go and yet you’d rather eat greasy pizza on the floor.”

He nodded. “That doesn’t make sense, does it?”

“Actually, it does.”

He looked into her eyes and saw that thing again. That beautiful, irresistible spark. He couldn’t look away.

“You always get me,” he said softly.

A tiny smile was creeping up on her lips when she remembered what they were and how they were supposed to act.

Just friends.

“Last slice,” she said quickly.

He snapped out of it and finally looked away from her eyes.

“You have it,” she told him.

“Thanks.”

-----------------------

She rested her head against the wooden headboard and tried not to think. She hadn’t yet completely wrapped her head around her current life. Everything was starting to become real and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that.

After all, she had Nick Jonas lying beside her on her bed.

They’d kicked off their shoes and sprawled atop the covers, and something about the way they sat reminded her of all the sleepovers she’d had with Caroline in the past.

Maybe the “friends” thing was actually working.

He was on his stomach, reading a magazine with his head propped up on one of his hands. He let out a quiet chuckle and turned a page before letting out an even louder laugh.

“What are you reading?”

He hid his face in the crook of his elbow as more laughing took over. She couldn’t help but smile, puzzled.

“What the hell? What’s so funny?”

She reached for the magazine, but he was quick to grab it and his grip was too strong for her to match without ripping the pages.

“Nothing,” he assured her, trying and failing to hide his smile.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Alright, alright…” He gave up and showed her the photograph.

Her eyes widened. “Oh my, God! What the—"

“What were you doing?” His face was turning red with laughter.

Aalia stared in disbelief at the photo of her at the grocery store. She appeared to be mid-dance move, holding a box of tampons in her hand.

“Oh my, God…That’s so embarrassing! Shit!”

“Were you dancing or something?”

“The radio was playing in the aisle!”

“So you started dancing?” He burst out in more giggles and she hit him with the magazine.

“It’s not funny!”

He emerged from his hiding spot from within his arm and wiped the tears that built up in his eyes.

“Right, not funny. How dare they. Outrageous.”

He tried to look serious, but again he failed.

“You’re a little shit,” she said with a punch to his shoulder that hurt her more than it hurt him.

While he rolled over in another laughing fit, she turned away from him to continue looking through the magazine. She felt self-conscious that even one photograph of her was in there; she was afraid to find even more.

“It’s okay, Aalia,” she heard Nick begin to talk after a few moments, “Really. They have plenty of pictures of me yawning and stuff.”

She skimmed over articles about new diets and A-list celebrities, feeling awkward that her picture was amidst theirs, even if it was only a tiny one in the corner.

“Once, they caught Kevin with his zipper down,” Nick laughed, “We didn’t let him live it down for a week.”

And that’s when she saw it. The whole page. The title in big, bold font. Just them.

“Nick?” His name fell from her lips darkly.

“What?”

“That night when you brought me home from Jamie’s party…”

She paused, unsure of how to feel about what his answer might be.

“Did you kiss me?”

His ears felt hot, but he shook his head. “No, why?”

She looked up at him in horror and showed him the magazine. He stared for what felt like forever. His eyes glazed over how he stood outside the passenger seat where she sat in the car. He was bending down with his arm around her waist, and it looked as if he was, in fact, kissing her. The big, bold headline read “Nick’s New Love,” and he didn’t even want to read the actual article underneath it.

He looked into Aalia’s confused eyes.

“I didn’t kiss you,” he assured her, “It just looks like I am. I was just reaching down to unbuckle your seatbelt and help you out of the car. But…the angle and the—Shit, it really looks like I am.”

He shook his head and closed the magazine roughly.

“It’s okay. It’s no big deal.”

“What do we do?” Her voice dripped with panic.

“Aalia, they do this all the time. They manipulate everything. They just want a story they can sell, don’t you see?”

“But your dad…”

“My dad doesn’t care about this.” He motioned to the magazine in disgust. “He believes our word, not theirs.”

“They think we’re dating.”

He laughed. “If I go walk down the street with another girl tomorrow, they’ll say we’re dating too.”

She fell backwards against the pillows.

“Why can’t they just mind their own business?”

“They never will. They’re always going to do this, but we just need to ignore it.”

She groaned loudly. He joined her against the pillows and they stared at the ceiling together, their minds racing with their very different worries. She didn’t want to admit to him that she was still afraid, that she wasn’t ready to open her life up to the entire world. But deep down, he knew that’s how she felt, and it frustrated him that he couldn’t do anything to help her, that the shock of her new lifestyle might be enough to chase her away from him forever. And he couldn’t let that happen. He had to get her used to it.

“I’m taking you out tomorrow,” he said as his eyes never left the ceiling. He had to fight to keep her in his life.

She turned to look at the side of his face and her eyes fell on one of his freckles.

“You like to change the subject a lot.”

“You let me have a normal dinner tonight, so it’s my turn to show you what a not-so-normal dinner’s like.”

“With boring tablecloths?”

He laughed that genuine laugh she so loved to see.

“Yes, with boring tablecloths.”

--------------------

If she were back in Arizona, back with her normal life, back when nobody cared who she hung out with or whether she danced in the grocery store or not, she’d be driving that night with the windows rolled down and the music blaring without a care in the world.

But this was Los Angeles. And this was Nick Jonas.

She felt beyond uncomfortable sitting in the passenger seat of his car. It was a different one from the night he’d saved her at Jamie’s; she liked the other one better.

“Was this car really necessary?” she teased as she marveled over the leather interior.

He smiled. “It’s Joe’s. I’ve wanted to give it a test-run for a while, so he finally let me.”

“It must be worth like a million dollars.”

He shrugged as he turned a corner. Even through the tinted windows, she could see people stopping to take photos of the car.

“It’s called a Fisker Supercar,” he said nonchalantly.

“Oh, great. It’s not just a car. It’s a supercar.”

He laughed. “I’ll bring the Range Rover next time, okay?”

“Thank you.”

But she had to admit he looked especially sexy behind the wheel of it, and not just because he’d dressed up for her that night.

To avoid feeling extra awkward, she began looking through the pile of discs in the glove compartment to busy her hands and keep from touching parts of the car she thought she might break. Her eyes fell on one of the discs and she laughed.

“Really? You have your own music in your car?”

“No, no. Joe has our music in his car. He’s weird.”

She inserted the disc into the CD player before he could stop her.

“No, Aalia! If we roll up playing it, everyone will think I’m a douche bag or something.”

She laughed. “Oh, come on. One song.”

She skipped to a random track and a sweet guitar melody began playing. In the corner of her eye, she saw Nick shaking his head in embarrassment.

Hello, beautiful. How’s it going? I hear it’s wonderful in California. I’ve been missin’ you. It’s true.

Her face lit up and she stared at him in the dark, his expression slightly illuminated by the glowing dashboard lights.

“Is this you?”

He slowly nodded.

“Oh my, God,” she laughed, “I’ve never heard this before. You sound so cute.”

He turned down the volume. “That’s a couple years old. My voice has changed a little since then.”

“You have a great voice,” she assured him, “Regardless.”

He smiled at her and she smiled back excitedly.

His goal the entire ride to the restaurant was to relax her so that the paparazzi wouldn’t be as scary when they finally arrived, but perhaps bringing the Supercar wasn’t such a good idea after all.

She turned off the music once he informed her they were there. Her heart began to speed up as he pulled into the parking lot and the flashing cameras went off as if on cue.

“Just remember to ignore them,” he told her, “They just want their pictures.”

She nodded, trying to appear as confident as possible.

Parking took longer than necessary as Nick carefully tried to avoid running over cameramen who didn’t move quickly enough. When he did, he unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to her.

“By the way,” he began, eyeing her in a way that suddenly made her feel too hot, “You look beautiful tonight.”

He opened his door and before he closed it behind him, she caught a glimpse of the chaos waiting for her outside. After a few deep breaths, her door was opened and his hand reached out for her. She took it and came to her feet.

The noises were so loud and the cameras were so bright that she could barely hear Nick tell her to walk forward. She felt his hand on the small of her back as he guided her.

“Nick, is this your new girlfriend? What’s her name?”

She could barely even make out the different questions being thrown at them. She tried to do what he’d told her to do: just ignore it. But that was so much easier said than done.

“How did you guys meet? Is that a new car?”

“Hey! Who are you? Do you have an alcohol problem? Care to comment on the picture from People?”

She felt someone hastily tug on her arm, but she tried to shrug it off as nothing happened. She looked to Nick for support, but his expression was unreadable. It looked as if his face had turned to stone in their presence. He stared down at the ground as he walked, so she did the same despite being blinded by the flashes.

When the doormen finally allowed them into the restaurant, Aalia breathed a sigh of relief.

“Just another day in LA,” Nick laughed without humor.

He escorted her to a table and she felt so out of her league. The lavish white booths, the round tables, the fine silverware, the waiters walking around with tiny plates of champagne—it was all too much.

“What are you in the mood for?” Nick asked her apprehensively as she skimmed through the menu. He could already see the discomfort in her eyes.

“I don’t know. Whatever you’re having.” She tried to smile.

He ordered steaks for both of them and winked at the waitress. Handfuls of people passing their table greeted him and he returned the gesture with that signature charm of his. He made small conversation with some of them, but she could tell he felt almost as awkward as she did. It almost surprised her that nobody cared to meet her.

“No boring tablecloths,” she stated when she began feeling ignored.

He turned to her and laughed.

“They must have known you were coming,” he said with a smirk.

They ate slowly, talking most of the time, but she could never loosen up. She felt eyes on her the entire time and she could almost hear the whispered gossip around their table.

“You alright?”

She tried to smile and seem as though she was interested.

“Yeah.”

“Should we get out of here?”

Her nod was far too enthusiastic.

He took care of the bill despite her insisting on covering her share and muttered a few goodbyes to expensive looking people scattered nearby. One person came close to asking who his date was, but Nick was quick to ignore it.

“Almost over,” he whispered in her ear as they approached the door. She smiled.

Outside the restaurant was when things became frenzied. Nick stopped momentarily to take a photo with a little girl near the car and the paparazzi took advantage of the opportunity. Aalia felt her arm being tugged on again, much harder that time, and she whipped around to free herself.

“Ow,” she said a bit too loudly.

“Hey, don’t touch her.”

Nick came to her side just as the cameraman snapped a few more photographs.

“Is she your girlfriend, Nick? How does Melissa feel about this?”

Aalia looked at Nick confusedly, but he dismissed the questions.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?”

“Leave me alone,” Aalia warned.

“Oh, she has a voice!”

“Look, man, she said leave her alone, so do it, okay?” Nick hovered over her protectively. “Let’s go.”

They pushed through the rest of the growing crowd and finally reached the car. Aalia rubbed her arm softly once the doors were closed and she knew she was safe.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry. They’re not supposed to touch. They usually don’t.”

“I’m fine,” she lied.

“I don’t know what it is about you that drives them so crazy,” he said as he inserted his keys into the ignition and began to pull out.

She stared at him and had one of those moments in which her life felt surreal again. She was in a Supercar with Nick Jonas surrounded by paparazzi in LA. None of it made any sense.

“It’s you,” she said, “The fact that I’m being seen with you drives them crazy because they know nothing about me. I’m a nobody.”

He was quiet as he tried to dodge the cameramen outside.

“Maybe if I told them what they wanted to know, they’d leave me alone.”

He laughed. “As long as you know me, they’ll never leave you alone.”

For some reason, his words terrified her.

“I have to do something.”

“There’s nothing, Aalia. Trust me.”

She couldn’t take that for an answer. Stubbornly, she rolled down her window and exposed herself to the eager crowd. The lights flashed nonstop.

“What are you doing?” Nick’s voice became frantic as the reporters and cameramen quickly approached the car and stuffed their equipment in Aalia’s face.

“My name is Aalia! Aalia Hart!”