What About Us?

I stood, staring at Joe. I remembered all those years ago when I told him nothing was going to happen. And then I fell in love with him. Joe sighed, dragging his hands through his hair. I stood up and stared to pace around the room.

"It's history." I whispered, hoping Joe couldn't hear me and I would believe what I was saying. "Joe, you're getting married soon."

"I know, Allie. Remember? I was the one who proposed to her." I stopped in front of Joe, looking into his brown eyes. The tone of his voice was hurtful and we both knew that he didn't mean it. We stared at each other, our eyes locked together. Neither of us wanted to break it.

"Yeah, I remember." I said, my voice turning a bit croaky. "That's why I got a plane all the way here." I turned from Joe, our eye contact breaking. "Why?" He knew exactly what I was asking him, I didn't need to come out with the whole question.

"Because Allie-" And just as I was about to find out, Nick ran into the room. He seemed slightly out of breath, but he smiled at us. As much as I loved him, I wanted to kill him at that precise second. I folded my arms across my chest, clearing my throat.

"Mum says we are ready to go. Are you?" He asked, looking like he had interrupted something. Which he did. I nodded my head, making my way over to my bag that I was taking to the beach with me. Joe stormed out of the room, making huffy noises as he went. I turned to look at Nick, whose eyebrows were knitted together. "What crawled up his arse and died?" I burst into laughter.

"Real nice Nick." I said, smiling at him. As I went to place my bag onto my shoulder, Nick took it off me. I rolled my eyes, but linked my arm with his. "He just got angry at me." I informed him as we both walked down the stairs very carefully. We both could hear the family in the lounge, so we stopped so no one else could hear our conversation. "We were talking and I mentioned Rose, which was fine. And then he got all pissy just before you walked in." I spared Nick the details of the actual story.

"It's Joe, so who knows?" I sent him a soft smile, before the both of us walked into the lounge. Everyone was stood around, looking very ready for the beach. I grinned at them, but avoided Joe at all costs.

"Nick." Denise said, getting all of our attention. "Could you take Allie with you? It's a bit squashed in our car." He nodded, throwing his arm that wasn't holding my bag, around my shoulder.

"I would love too. Ready m'lady?" I could feel the corners of my mouth twitching. I burst into giggles, smacking Nick on the chest.

"I'll come with you." Suddenly my laughter stopped at the sound of Joe's voice. He stood, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes blazing at me and Nick.

"I thought you were going to take your car Joseph." Paul said, where he stood next to Frankie, who seemed to be attempting to get going.

"There's no point in taking 3 cars if we can take 2 is there? And i'm coming back here anyway, so I can leave my car here." Joe turned to his dad, with what I can only describe as a sinister smile. I internally sighed, resting my head against Nick's shoulder. He patted my arm, then spoke.

"If you really have to." Everyone started to move around the room, picking things up and passing things around. Me and Nick made a mad dash out of the house, before we were given things. We walked over to the car and as I went to open the back door, Nick stopped me. "Joe's sitting in the back."

"Am I?" Joe asked, walking over. Nick gave him a look, I don't know what it meant, or suggested, but it worked. "Okay." He mumbled, moving towards me. I slipped in front of him, trying to get to the front seat. I opened the door and slid in. Nick handed me my bag and I gave him a face that suggested that I was going to hurt him. He winked at me, before we started to move. It was awkwardly quiet between the three of us so I stared out the window, acting as if I wasn't interested.

"Nick." Joe's voice sounded loud as it broke through the silence of the car. "We got some tickets for that new club." Nick made a sound to tell Joe he was listening. "Maybe the 5 of us could go? It looks like a laugh."

"By the 5 of us, do you mean Allie?"

"Yeah, if she wants to." I bit my lip. I didn't want to be seen with the Jonas's while I was here and Rose wasn't. But I wasn't going to miss anything with this family.

"Sure." I replied, turning to Nick to send him a cheeky grin. "Sounds great." Nick sent me a smile back, before I turned and stared out of the window again.

***

Once we pulled up at the beach, I jumped out of the car as fast as I could. After the conversation about the club, it fell silent again. But it wasn't a comfortable one, it was one where you felt like you needed to say something but nothing came to mind. As I walked over to Denise and Danielle, who were talking, I looked behind me to see Nick and Joe talking. I shrugged my shoulders, smiling at the two females. Suddenly, Danielle laughed, making me look at her. She pointed to the two Jonas's who looked as grumpy as the other.

"Here comes the rays of sunshine." Kevin sang, making the 6 of us giggle. I lent on Danielle, hoping that I would help my laughter, but it increased it even more. They stopped right in front of us. "Are you two going to smile? Or have you forgotten how?" At this point, Nick cracked a smile, showing us his teeth.

"And there is the smile that we all love." I said, skipping over to him. He rolled his eyes, nudging me in the ribs. I grinned at him as we started to walk down to the beach. Hopefully, there would be no press lurking around and we would have a great time.

We left Denise to find a spot, which she did. It wasn't busy and not too far away from the sea. I laid my towel down next to Danielle, before falling face first onto it. She laughed, sitting down on her own one. "Sun, how lovely you are." The both of us laughed. I pulled my shorts and t-shirt off, getting wolf whistled from Danielle. "You're a bitch." I mumbled, which lead to a face full of sand.

"Allie." Frankie whined as he walked towards me. I lent on my elbows to look at him, raising my eyebrows. "Will you come in the sea with me? Joe won't." He pouted a little, making me fall for it. I jumped up and grabbed him by the hand.

"Denise, i'm going to take Frankie for a swim." I informed her.

"Not without sun cream you aren't. Franklin." Denise's voice was stern, making me smile. Nick jumped in front of me, making me jump. I slapped his arm, leaving a red mark.

"I'll come with you. We need to talk." I narrowed my eyebrows at him, confused. Just as I was about to ask him what about, Frankie walked over to us and smiled. I returned the smile and we started to walk towards the sea. We stopped just where the sea met the sand. I gave Frankie and encouraging nudge and he ran straight in. I laughed as he swam more and more.

"No further!" I shouted when he was far enough away. He nodded and started to swim like a fish. I smiled at him and turned to Nick. "Spill."

"I'll tell you as long as you keep quiet." He told me. I sighed before nodding my head. I sat down in the wet sand, letting the water hit my thighs. Nick copied me, before leaning back.

"Once you had sprinted out the car, Joe said he wanted to talk with me. So naturally, I stopped to talk with him. And basically he told me I had no right to be so friendly and forward with you." My mouth dropped open. Even though I had told Joe that nothing will ever happen with me and Nick, he still has to say something. "It's not annoyed me or bothered me because of 3 reasons, one-because I know nothing will ever happen between us because you are like my sister and I'm like your brother. Two-you're ugly" I swung my arm back, punching Nick square in the arm. We both laughed. "And three-you're not quiet over him, are you?"

I opened my mouth to defend my case, but nothing came out. Because I knew Nick was right. Since Joe, I hadn't dated another boy. I'd been on dates but none of them had a sparkle like Joe. I sighed, shaking my head.

"Which then leads to the question, if you knew it would be so hard coming back, why did you?" I knew this question was coming. And it had been asked but in not so many words. And now that Nick asked me flat out, I couldn't lie to him.

"Joe asked me to come. He sent me a letter that said that it was his reassurance but it didn't make any sense. And then he demanded that I got onto a plane and fly here because he needed me." I shrugged after telling the truth. "I don't know why he wanted to see me, and I've been over everything in my head and still nothing makes sense."

"Maybe this will be the last time he'll able to spend some time with you. Maybe he needs this, a release?"

"Why would he need to release? I'm the one stuck, he is engaged and going to get married." I said, sighing. I tried to hold back the tears, but they fell. I wiped them away as fast as they fell. But Nick saw them, and pulled me into an awkward hug.

"Aleah." He whispered. I pressed my face against his shoulder as more tears fell. After a while, we started to get uncomfortable so we pulled away from each other. "You deserve to be happy. With or without Joe."

"Nick!" Frankie yelled. We both looked over at him, his head bopping around. I let out a weak laugh, Nick copying it. "C'mon!" Nick looked over at me and I nodded my head.

"Go on, I'll be fine." I sent him a smile with the sentence, making Nick stand up. He dived in, sort of like a dramatic James Bond and swam over to where Frankie was. I waved at them both before leaning back and absorbing the sun.

"Hi." I opened my eyes to a man who was the colour of cheesy Doritos. I forced myself not to roll my eyes. "I'm Ivan." I smiled, not caring. "And what's your name, hottie?" This time, I did roll my eyes. I stood up so I was facing him.

"None of your business, that's my name." I grinned in a bitchy way, before walking away.

"Oh come on, don't be like that." This Ivan grabbed hold of my wrist. I span towards him, his free hand grabbing my waist. My free hand, however, smacked him in the chest as hard as I could but he didn't seem affected. "I bet we'd be good together."

"I really think we wouldn't." I replied, sarcastically. His face come dangerously close to mine; I could smell cigarettes on his breath. I held back a gag. "Get off me." I said through gritted teeth.

"Or what?"

"Or else." Without feeling the need to turn my head, I knew Joe was standing behind me. And I knew that he would be towering over the both of us. "Just let her go." Joe sounded annoyed. Ivan laughed, pushing me by the hip, rather harshly, into Joe's chest. I felt his hands of my shoulders, making me want to pull away from him.

"Bet she'd be a shit shag anyway." He spat at us as he walked away. I pulled away from Joe, sorting out my bikini into its right position.

"Are you okay?" He asked me, his voice full of concern. I folded my arms across my chest and sighed.

"I could have handled it, Joe." I snapped at him before walking in the opposite direction of Joe.

"A simple thanks will do, Aleah." I realised as fast as I walked, Jie could match my strides easily. "It's not like I just saved you from being attacked." I carried on walking, getting further and further away from civilisation. "Allie." Joe grabbed the top of my arm, forcing me towards his chest.

"Well, if you call that attacking, what does that mean you are doing, Joe?" I asked, looking at the hand on my arm. He automatically dropped it, moving it back to his side. I stopped walking away from him and just stood. "What Joe?"

"What's your problem?" He asked me, his eyebrows covering his scar where they connected. "Yesterday, we were fine. Today you won't even look at me."

"And you're blaming it on me?" I asked, laughing. "C'mon Joe, this isn't about me, is it? Don't you think Nick told me about your chat?"

"Oh." Was Joe's reply. It was so pathetic, I felt a little sorry for him.

"Yesterday, I told you nothing was happening, nothing will ever happen between the both of us. And for a while, I thought you believe me. But even now, you can't trust anything I say?" I knew it was a low blow and it would hurt Joe so much.

"Don't." He spat at me, his anger very present. "Don't even use that against me, Aleah-May. That was harsh and we both know it."

"It's the truth though?" I looked towards him, but not at him. "That's why you were so surprised when I turned up, because you believed that I wouldn't. After everything that happened, it's still too hard to admit that you don't trust me Joe."

The both of us stood in the blazing sun, looking towards each other but not looking at each other. Joe let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his fingers against his head.

"Allie, after all this time, you still haven't figured it out." Joe's voice was calm and soft. "It wasn't that I didn't trust you, in fact I think that I trusted you way too much. And that was the problem. I knew that aapt any point you could end it with me and it would ruin me."

This time, I actually looked at Joe. His eyes were sparkling, but not with the Joe spark, but with tears. I felt so horrible, so mean, but at the same time, so angry.

"So you thought you'd make it easier for yourself? You broke up with me. Don't you think that hurt me, Joe? Don't you think it ruined me?!" At this point, there was only tears and screaming. I was glad that it was only Me and Joe at this point. Tears ran down the both our faces, more mine than his. "You just left me and now you're engaged."

"You know I didn't want to end it like that. All the times we talked about getting married and having kids. But now it's changed. I can watch you find the perfect man, get married and have kids." I took a step towards Joe. It was a slow and hesitant step so he knew what I was doing. I lifted my hand to his stubbly cheek and brushed away a tear.

"Did you ever think back then that maybe I didn't want them things with a perfect man? Maybe I wanted them things with you." I waited for him to reply, not wanting to force him.

Instead, he said nothing but wrapped both arms around my waist. I sighed against his skin, closing my eyes. It felt like forever that I'd been away from Joe. He pulled me in closer, my cheek pressed against his bare chest. I felt the warmth of him on my face and it made me relax.

"And I wanted all those things with you, Allie. But it's changed. Everything has. And now I've got to have them things with Rose. I'm sorry."