Take A Breath

A few weeks later, Marty sat in her bed writing her final paper when her new roommate Kelsey and their friend Victoria walked in. She had moved shortly before that, into a room down the hall from where she was originally placed.

“Hey.” Kelsey smiled at Marty. “What you up to?”

Marty shrugged. She had become really good friends with these girls since she had started at EIU, and she was glad that she had some people to spend time with, especially when she was missing Nick…which was all of the time. “Just working on this stupid paper. Nick was supposed to call me at some point, but he hasn’t yet. I am basically just killing the time until he does.”

Victoria smiled and sat down on Marty’s bed. “Oh, that’s nice. It’s nice that you guys can talk a lot. It has to be hard not to be together and stay married.”

Marty smirked slightly, and nodded. “Yeah…it’s tough. I am just glad we’ve been able to do it for this long. I seriously didn’t think I would make it through the first semester without him, but it seems I am stronger than I thought.”

Kelsey chuckled. “Well it is Friday night. We should order a pizza and watch Christmas movies when you get done with class!”

Marty and Victoria laughed at their friend’s excitement and nodded. “Sounds good to us.”

Just then, a noise sounded on her computer, and Marty smiled. “Speak of the devil.” she clicked a button and laughed. “Well this wasn’t what I was expecting when you said you were going to call me.”

Nick’s face popped up on her computer screen and he chuckled. “I can call you on the phone any time…I missed seeing your face.” he paused. “Nice hair.”

She groaned. “You weren’t supposed to be able to see me! I was writing a paper!”

He laughed again. “Good. You should be keeping up with your studies. Just think…in a week you will be coming home and we will be able to spend our first Christmas as a married couple with our families.”

She smiled. “I know. I wish it would come sooner though! I am dying for a break.”

He sighed. “You will be fine. Just focus on your finals, and before you know it you will be in my arms again, watching the snow fall as Victoria and Haley scream about something and your aunts try to give us awkward advice and your dad and uncles get into a fight about something.”

She chuckled. “You know my family so well.”

“Yeah well after the year we’ve had, virtually nothing surprises me anymore.”

She smiled. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They were silent for a few moments. “I miss you.”

He nodded. “I miss you too. I hate being away from you.”

She sighed. “Nick…”

He shook his head. “No. we’re not going to do this here. I just want to focus on your face and remember that until I can see you again.”

She bit her lip. “Nick I’m sorry, okay? I love you. I just hate being away from you.”

“I know, but this is the choice you made!” he took a deep breath and sighed. “Marty it is hard not having you here and having the paparazzi on my back about it.”

“I told you that we would have to deal with that, Nick. I love that you visit whenever you can but I wish I saw you more. This whole distance thing sucks.”

“Don’t you think I know that!” he shouted.

She shut her eyes. “You don’t have to yell at me.” She sighed. “I have to go to class.” She waved and then shut the computer.

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Nick sighed as he continued to stare at the dark screen. He barely even registered when the door to his hotel room opened and his brother walked in.

“Hey bro, what’s up?” Joe asked, replying to a text.

Kevin saw his brother and sighed. “Did you guys fight again?”

Nick nodded. “Yep. About the distance this time. Why do I do this? Why do I always start something when we talk? She already goes through that with Scott.”

They shrugged. “You guys just need to spend some time together. Things will be better when she gets home for break.”

He sighed. “I have been staring at this screen for like…two hours now. She didn’t even say goodbye. We just ended it. She had class.”

Joe nodded. “Nick, everything will be fine. You guys are just stressed. You haven’t even been married a year and you guys don’t live together. That is bound to get hard a lot of the time. But you love each other. That is what matters.”

He nodded and suddenly his cell phone rang. “Bobbie?” Suddenly the glass he was holding slipped out of his hand, and shattered on the ground.

Immediately Kevin and Joe whipped their gaze to their little brother and saw that he was extremely pale as he hung up.

“Nick.” Kevin went to him as Joe‘s phone rang. “Nick, what’s wrong?”

“That was Bobbie.” His gaze was far away and glassy. “They are on their way to EIU.” he lifted his gaze to look at Kevin and it was filled with fear and sorrow.

Kevin grabbed him into a hug. “What happened, Nick?”

Joe snapped his phone shut and grabbed the tv remote, flipping on the news and then they saw what was wrong.

“We are here at Eastern Illinois University where a student has trapped multiple students in a classroom, with a gun. Witnesses say that he was screaming. We don’t know much yet, but we have heard that one of the students is none other than Nick Jonas’ wife, Marty Jonas…”