We Can Change the World

"Night," I whispered. I kissed Dani and lightly pushed her back onto the bed. I grinned as I felt her shiver. We'd been together for one month and I still had the same effect on her. Not that she didn't have a similar effect on me. Kissing her was the best feeling I had ever had. Yet I wanted her so much more. I wanted all of her. But I couldn't, because of the vow we took. But then I realized that I had never officially made her mine. First thing tomorrow, I would have to ask Kevin how to ask Dani to officially be my girlfriend.

Almost subconsciously, I wrapped my arm over her waist and pulled her to me. Man, I was not tired at all. I couldn't believe that everyone had made me go to sleep. It was so unfair. I felt my eyes close. Hmm – maybe I could think with them closed too.

I rolled onto my stomach, and noticed that Dani's familiar body wasn't next to mine. I woke up and found that she wasn't there at all. "Psst Nick," I whispered. "Where's Dani?" There was no answer. "Nick?" I got out of bed and walked over to his. He wasn't there either. Where did they go?

Quickly, I called Dani. "Hello," her voice said.

"Dani, where'd you and Nick go," I asked.

She was silent for a moment before she started laughing. "We're in Kevin's room. Apparently, Frankie slipped laxatives into Kevin's nightly snack, trying to recreate our trick from before. And now Kevin's stuck in the bathroom."

"So why'd you both have to go for that," I asked. Something seemed shady. "In fact, why would either of you want to be anywhere near that bathroom?"

"To watch Frankie," she answered. "Kevin called Nick. I was still awake, so he asked if I'd come to keep him company. We would have asked you too, but you were asleep, though I'm not sure how you slept through us leaving. Nick fell over a bag. It was pretty funny." She laughed again. "Anyways, since you're up, why don’t you head over too? Frankie gave him like 7 pieces, so we're going to be stuck here for a while."

I smirked. "My man. Okay, I'll be there in a bit."

♫♫♫♫

"Oh shit," I yelled as I hung up. "Joe's on his way." I threw my purse open and threw a pack of laxatives at Kevin. "Hurry up and take some of those and get in the bathroom before he comes."

They both stared at me, astonished. "Why do you carry laxatives in your purse," Nick asked, genuinely curious. Kevin looked downright appalled, but that may have been because he had to be the one to take them.

I shrugged. "Every so often, Joe and I like to put some in Kevin's food when he isn't looking."

"That's you guys," he looked even more appalled now.

Nick laughed. "Nice."

"Hurry, before he comes."

"Can't I just pretend I took some," he asked. "Or better yet, why doesn't Nick take them, and we'll tell him you mixed us up. We both have curly hair, after all."

Nick and I rolled our eyes. "First off, why would we need to be here if Nick took some. And secondly, it's more fun if you actually take them rather than pretend."

"Well fun for us," Nick smirked.

Joe knocked on the door. "Shit," I whispered. "Hurry Kevin."

"Here goes nothing," he whispered back as he ate 2 pieces of the 'chocolate'. "You guys owe me." He ran into the bathroom.

I opened the door. "Hey Joe," I kissed him.

"So where's Kevin," he asked, as if he knew we were making all of this up as we went on.

"In the hotel pool," Nick rolled his eyes. "He's obviously in the bathroom." And as if right on cue, we heard Kevin groan in the bathroom.

"Thank God you're here," I said, changing the subject quickly. "Nick won't tell me anything about his 'friend'. I say we grab his phone and call her ourselves."

Joe smirked as Nick looked between us, scared. "You wouldn't," he said.

"Wouldn't we," Joe cackled. We exchanged a look and I dove for Nick. He jumped past me, but unfortunately, forgot Joe was standing right there. Joe jumped on him, and sat on him. He grabbed the phone and threw it to me as Nick tried to push Joe off of him. "And you said my working out would never pay off."

I looked through his last dialed calls, and saw one name that was listed frequently: Jen. I looked at the number. The area code was from around here, so I knew it was a long shot that she'd be awake, but I could always leave a message.

"Hey," a girl answered on the other line. I looked at the clock. 3:49. Wow, she must really like Nick if she was still up.

"Hi," I said as Nick stopped fighting Joe and glared at me. "I'm Dani. Is this Jen?"

"Oh my gosh," the girl squealed. "I love you! I've been a fan of yours since forever! Nick's told me all about you."

I smiled. She definitely wasn't shy, which was good since Nick was shy when it came to girls. "Thanks," I said. "Good things, I hope."

"Definitely," she said.

"Awesome," I said. "So Nickiepooh here is a little shy to ask you this himself, but he wanted to know if you'd like to come to our concert tomorrow night." Nick glared at me, as he threw Joe, who was laughing so hard, off.

She laughed. "That's so like Nick to be shy. I'd love to come." I raised an eyebrow at Nick. Apparently, she knew him pretty well. Nick groaned and ran at me. I ran away.

"Great," I said. "So we'll leave your name with the security guard. See you then. I'll give it to Nick now, because he's about to kill me." I handed him the phone.

"I hate you guys," he groaned. "Hey Jen. No I wasn't shy. They stole my phone." He turned to us. "I'm leaving. Have fun with Kevin." He smirked at us before leaving too.

Joe and I started cracking up. We lay down on the bed. "We're going to be stuck here for a while," I groaned.

Joe nodded, then put his lips to my neck. A wave of chills went through my body. "Joe," I choked out, fully conscious of a sleeping Frankie in the bed next to us, and Kevin in the bathroom.

"What," he groaned in my ear before he started working on my earlobe. God, his voice was so sexy.

"We – can't," I managed to choke out. It was hard to concentrate, let alone form sentences, as Joe's hands trailed down my arm onto my waist.

"The vow, I know Dani," he whispered against my skin, sending more chills down my body. Did his tone sound resentful of that? "We don't have to go that far," he said, his lips against mine. "You know I love you, right?"

"I know. I love you too," I whispered as he pressed his lips hard against mine.

♫♫♫♫

"Hey Kevin," I said as I went into his room after my morning workout. I had ended it early to talk to Kevin without Dani knowing.

"What's up Joe," he asked.

"I need your advice," I jumped onto his bed.

"No, those pants don't go with that shirt," he smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes they do, but that's not it."

"What is it," he asked, putting down the guitar he had been playing with to give me his full attention.

"I – I haven't asked Dani to be my girlfriend yet," I stammered out.

He laughed. "I think it's pretty obvious you guys are together."

I rolled my eyes, resisting the urge to throw something at him. "Yeah, but it's not official. How do I make it official?"

He sighed then smiled at me. "Okay, here's what you do. You take her on a date -- something you'd both enjoy a lot – something you guys would remember. Like an amusement park, or --"

"Wait, let me write all this down," I said, scrambling around for a pen and paper. "Okay, go ahead, an amusement park or…"

"Or the boardwalk or something. You could do a restaurant or a movie too, but I think Dani's the kind of girl that would like you to ask her somewhere different."

I nodded, writing all that down. "We're going to be in North Carolina tomorrow, and we don't have a show all tomorrow. I could take her to The Outer Banks Boardwalk."

"That's good," Kevin amended. "So you guys hang out, play some games, go on some rides, buy some stuff, get your caricature painted together, or whatever you want, then –"

"What's a caricature," I asked. Why did Kevin know such big words?

"Those funny drawings of people with their heads huge," he answered. "Anyways, then you guys watch the fireworks, or whatever. And you ask her."

"What do I say though," I asked.

"Want to be my girlfriend usually works," he smirked at me.

"Kevin, this is serious," I shouted. "It has to be perfect!"

He sobered up and stared at me, astonished. "Wow, you really are serious. This is a first."

"Just help me, please," I begged.

He sighed. "Sorry Joseph, but what you ask her has to come from you. That's the only way it'll mean something."

"But you're the romantic one," I groaned. "Not me."

"Joe, I've never seen you the way you've been since you and Dani got together," he said. "I know that you'll think of something, and it'll be amazing. Think of how you feel about Dani. It'll inspire you. And if that doesn't work, stick to what you know. Try to think of it as if you were writing her a song."

I nodded, hoping something would come to me. "Thanks Kevin."

I went back to my hotel room, and saw that Dani was sitting on the couch, writing something. Nick wasn't anywhere to be seen. So I went up to her and sat next to her. She looked up and smiled at me. "What are you doing," I asked.

"I just got an idea for a song," she answered. "And I wanted to write it before I forgot. Want to hear it? It's a duo for us. I'm thinking we can add more to the show besides Missing You." I nodded. "Okay, so don't laugh, but you know how people are always saying we act differently when we're together?" I nodded again. "Well, Nick just said something like that to me before he left to call Jen." She stopped to smirk. "And I got this idea. I don't know if it's good, or –"

I put my hand on her mouth. "Play it for me."

She smiled and grabbed her guitar from next to her. "Help me," she asked, holding the paper to me. "It is a duo." I nodded and she put the paper between us, and started playing. "You go first."

"Tonight in this light," I sang off the paper. "You look like an angel. We will never be strangers again."

"Love plays hide and seek," she began. "Your love makes me weak. But I don't want this feeling to end."

We sang together next. "The way we are together is so much better than we are apart. You have my heart forever cause that's just the way we are."

We got to the end of what she had written so far. "Wow, that's beautiful," I said.

She kissed me. "Thanks. But I'm at a standstill now. I don't really know what to write next."

"Hmm --," I thought about it. "What about – Even if the future finds us far apart. The feelings that we share will always stay the same."

She nodded and quickly jotted that down. "Cause I don't want this feeling to end."

♫♫♫♫

"Ha, I beat you," I yelled as my little teddy bear started coming back down. Joe's was still on its way up. We were at the Boardwalk in Outer Banks, North Carolina. It was just Joe and I.

"You cheated," he mumbled as the booth guy handed me a small teddy bear.

"Right," I laughed. "So what next?"

"Um – want to get a caricature?"

"What's a caricature?"

"Those funny drawings with the big heads," he said matter of factly.

"Okay," I grinned. He grabbed my hand and led me to a stand where we could apparently get a 'caricature'.

We made funny faces at the guy as he drew us. Not such a great idea, since we had to stay like that until he was done. The guys asked if he could draw another one too, to put on his example board. We decided to have regular faces this time. Well kind of. . . Joe kissed my cheek so we had to stay like that until the guy was done. I think he deliberately went slow though, because this one took about 5 minutes longer, not that I minded of course. It was just that Joe's lips on my skin made it hard to concentrate on anything else. Suddenly though, I realized something. This was a date. An official date.

After the caricature, Joe suggested we go watch the fireworks because it was getting dark. He wanted to get a good spot before they started. Something in the way he said it made me think he was working down a list. I smiled to myself, thinking about how cute it was that he had put that much effort into this. But then I felt bad for not knowing it was a date until 5 minutes ago.

We sat down on the edge of the boardwalk, our feet dangling over the beach. Joe sighed and turned to me. "Dani," he said. "I have to ask you something. And Kevin told me I had to look at the way I feel about you for inspiration. And I was thinking what should I say? And then I realized that I'm not good at all that sappy stuff like Kevin. So I came up with something else." I remained quiet as he took a deep breath. I was so curious on what he was going to say. "I wrote this song for you."

Every time I think I'm closer to the heart
What it means to know just who I am
I think I finally found a better place to start
No one ever seems to understand
I need to try to get to where you are
Could it be you're not that far?
You're the voice I hear inside my head
The reason that im singing
I need to find you
Gotta find you
You're the missing piece I need
The song inside of me
I need to find you
I gotta find you
Oh yeah
Yeah
You're the remedy im searching hard to find
To fix the puzzle that I see inside
Painting all my dreams the color of your smile
When I find you it will be alright
I need to try to get to where you are
Could it be you're not that far?
You're the voice I hear inside my head
The reason that I'm singing
I need to find you
Gotta find you
You're the missing piece I need
The song inside of me
I need to find you
Gotta find you
Been feeling lost
Can't find the words to say
Spending all my time stuck in yesterday
Where you are is where I wanna be
Next to you, you next to me
Oh
I need to find you
Yeah
You're the voice I hear inside my head
The reason that I'm singing
I need to find you (need to find you)
Gotta find you (yeah)
You're the missing piece I need
The song inside of me
I need to find you
Gotta find you
You're the voice I hear inside my head
The reason that I'm singing
I need to find you (need to find you)
Gotta find you (gotta find you)
You're the missing piece I need
The song inside of me
I need to find you
Gotta find you
Yeah
Gotta find you.

"Joe –" I was speechless. I kissed him. "That was so beautiful. Thank you."

"Dani, will you be my girlfriend?"

I smiled and kissed him again. "Definitely."