Your Smile Still Makes My Heart Sing

“Your phone’s ringing, aren’t you going to answer it?” I took my phone out and looked at it, my mom was calling.

“Ugh, don’t say anything. Hello?”

“Hey where are you?”

“Next door, Nick’s having a problem and asked if I could come over,” I replied. I felt bad for lying but I didn’t feel like seeing Joe drooling over his new friend.

“Is he okay? What’s wrong?”

“Umm…”

“Tell her my blood sugars through the roofs and I’m in need of someone,” Nick whispered.

“His blood thing is pretty high today. He’s not himself so he asked if I could come over.”

“Wasn’t he just at our house?”

“He was but left when Joe and I went in the back.”

“Okay, don’t come home too late.”

“Alrighty, goodbye Ma.” I ended the call quickly. “I feel bad for lying.” Nick laughed.

“You’re a good liar. You’re pretty convincing.” I laughed as I tossed my phone away from me.

“Gee, thanks a lot Nick.” I put my head down on Frankie’s pillow and looked at Nick who was strumming his guitar on the floor. “Aren’t you going to change out of those wet clothes?”

“They’re dry now.” I laughed.

“Okay then, don’t get sick on me or I’ll yell at you.”

“You wouldn’t yell at me, you know I’m too cool to be yelled at.” I laughed again.

“Stop sounding like Joe.” My phone beeped and I looked at it. “Ew speaking of that demon child.” Nick laughed.

“What’s it say?”

“Where are you? Sad face.” Nick and I both laughed. “What a loser.”

“See, and you say he likes this other girl.”

“What? He does!” Nick nodded his head as he continued to play his guitar.

“Whatever you say Jas. I’ll just ask him later.” I laughed.

“Okay, you do that.” I sighed loudly. “Dude, I’m bored, pass me those Lego’s behind you.” Nick turned his head.

“It’s too far, you get it.”

“Nick, you’re just like Brian!” Nick laughed as he sighed and put his guitar down on the floor. He turned around and grabbed the container of Lego’s and put the bin near the bottom of Frankie’s bed.

“Aw, thanks Nicky, I knew you loved me.”

“And you call Joe conceited?” I laughed as I dug around the bin for ‘cool’ looking pieces so I could build something. “What are you going to make?”

“I’ll make you and your castle.” Nick laughed as I made the ugliest looking person ever and put him on the floor. Nick picked it up and examined it.

“This is supposed to be me?” I laughed as I tried to make a castle, but failed miserably.

“I’m not a very crafty person.”

“Yeah, I can tell,” Nick said.

“You could have at least lied to me and said ‘Oh, Jasmina, you’re not bad, this looks wonderful!’” Nick laughed as he put down the Lego version of him.

“Yeah, I can’t even lie about that.” I laughed as I finished up the castle and put Nick sticking up from the top.

“Isn’t that supposed to be Harry Potter?” I laughed.

“No, it’s Nick Ponas now.” I laughed out loud. “Ponas! You get it, it’s Potter and Jonas mixed into one, but it sounds like ‘poned.’” Nick shook his head.

“Good one, Joe.”

“Hey, I’m insulted Nicholas.”

“But that was such a Joe comment. I couldn’t help but call you Joe.” I threw a Lego piece at Nick who moved before it hit him. “Okay, I’m sorry, you happy now?”

“If you stopped moving and let me hit you with a Lego piece I’d be fantastic.” Nick laughed. “I’m trying to aim for the fro, but I forgot, it’s barely there anymore.” Nick laughed as he stood still and I ended up hitting him in his chest with the Lego piece.

“You really have bad aim, you know that right?” I laughed sarcastically.

“Very funny Ponas.” Nick laughed again. “Don’t think I’m going to stop calling you that. It’s going to be a permanent thing.”

“Great to hear.” I laughed as I put the castle and the guy back in the container.

“You’re not going to take that apart?” he asked.

“No, that’s your job.” Nick laughed as he dragged the container back towards him and put it back on its shelf.

“So, now what are we going to do?”

“I dunno.”

“Want to watch a movie?” I sat up and crossed my legs.

“What movie do you have in mind?” Nick shrugged. “Finding Nemo!”

“You like that movie?”

“No, I love it! Dory is awesome.” Nick laughed.

“Okay, let’s go then.” Nick stood up from the floor and carefully placed his guitar back up on his bed. We both went into the living room and I sat on the couch next to Frankie who was watching Spongebob.

“Frankieeee!”

“Jasmina!” Frankie lunged over to me and gave me a half hug. I laughed as I hugged him back.

“Hey, you want to watch Finding Nemo with Nick and me?” He nodded his small head.

“But I got to change into my pajamas, wait for me please?”

“Aw, you’re so cute Frankie! Of course we’ll wait, go and change sweetie.” Frankie smiled and ran up to his room. “Hey when’s Kevin coming back?” Nick shrugged as he put the DVD in the DVD player.

“Don’t know and don’t care. Just as long as Kelsey is out of the house, I’m fine.”

“Nicholas, you’re so mean sometimes. Wasn’t that the first time you met her?” He nodded. “Wow, what a jerk.” Nick laughed as he sat on the couch and put his feet up on the table. “Your momma is going to yell at you.”

“I’m her little boy, she won’t yell at me.”

“Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Nick skipped through all the previews and waited for Frankie to come. He finally came running down and sat on the couch. He stretched out on the couch and placed his head on my lap.

“You don’t have to worry about my head being heavy; I don’t use hair products like Joe.” I laughed.

“Okay, Frankie, I trust you.” Nick started the movie and thirty minutes in Frankie was fast asleep on my lap. Mrs. Jonas came down into the living room and looked at Nick. She looked like she was going to yell, until she looked at Frankie.

“Nicholas, feet off!” she whispered. Nick immediately took his feet down on from the table. “Jasmina, want me to take him off to bed?”

“Oh, I don’t really mind, I could do it if you want.” She smiled as she bent down and carefully took Frankie.

“Don’t be silly, enjoy your movie and I’ll take him up to bed.” She took Frankie in her arms and brought him upstairs.

“Hey Nick.” Nick kept on staring at the TV, watching it deeply as if he were a little kid. “Nick, you’ve probably seen this movie twenty times and you can’t even pay attention to something totally important I’m about to tell you?”

“Huh?” He still kept his eyes glued to the TV.

“Never mind.”

“Aw, are you lonely now that you don’t have Frankie laying on you?” I laughed as Nick moved closer and put his arm around me. “Don’t cry now, Nick J is here for you.”

“That wasn’t even close to what I was going to tell you. I was going to say I love your mom.”

“Yeah, I love her too and yours too.” I laughed. “Oh, and your hair smells good.” He brought my head closer to his face and took a deep breath.

“Gosh Nick, creepy much?” He laughed again and kept his arm there. “Are you secretly trying to choke me?”

“Yes, because I hate you so much.” He laughed at his own joke and continued to watch the movie. Almost towards the end of the movie, I heard the front door open and slam shut.

“Why’s it so dark in here?” I heard someone walk in and almost trip but they made their way into the living room. “Ooh, Finding Nemo! Nick you should have told me you were watching this.”

“Shhhh, be quiet Joe, this is the best part,” Nick replied. Joe sat down next to me and it took him three seconds to realize who I was.

“Jas? What are you doing here?” He looked at Nick’s arm and back at me. “Get your arm off my, oh, I mean what’s going on? Why’d you leave? It was no fun without you.”

“Joe, can’t you wait five minutes?”

“Nick, you saw this movie like thirty times. They go home and Nemo goes to school, the end.” Nick huffed. The movie finally ended and Joe rushed to turn on the lights.

“So how was the party or whatever?” Nick asked uninterested.

“It was cool! Nick where’d you go and then you too Jas.”

“We went to throw water balloons at Luis, then back here.”

“Why’d you leave though? Carolina was sad; she wanted to get to know you. I think she likes Luis or something, she said she always wanted to get to know you, Amanda and Luis.”

“Really? She likes Luis? I could have sworn she liked you.”

“Well, like I said, who doesn’t love me?” I rolled my eyes as I put my feet up on the coffee table.

“Yeah Joe, because the whole world loves you.”

“I know they do.”

“Anyways, I should probably head on home.”

“Already? But I just got back.”

“Yeah, well it’s late and I have school tomorrow.”

“That didn’t stop you from ditching today.”

“Joe, do you have something to say besides telling me how I should run my life?”

“Yeah, I thought you were a good student.” I rolled my eyes again.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, Carolina says you get a lot of detentions and half of them you don’t bother showing up to.”

“Oh, so Carolina says? What do you even know about this girl? And why is she telling you about my life? I told you my teachers hate me and only give me detentions because I’m always late.”

“Well, be early once in a while. It won’t hurt you.”

“Take your own advice Joseph!”

“Don’t give me an attitude; I’m trying to help you.” I stood up.

“Help me with what? I’m doing fine thank you very much. Life was so much better when you were in Europe.”

“I know you don’t mean that,” Joe said with a hurt look on his face.

“How would you know? Maybe I do mean it. Good night Nick.” I walked towards the door.

“Jas, wait.”

“No, Joseph.” I opened the front door and closed it. I walked off their front porch and heard the front door opening.

“Jas, wait, please.” I heard Joe run to catch up to me. I kept on walking towards my house until Joe stepped in front of me.

“Move, I want to go inside.”

“I’m not going to move until we talk.”

“We talked enough; now move before I push you out of the way.”

“Why are you being like this?” I crossed my arms and glared at him.

“Being like what? This is me now Joe, like it or leave it.”

“No, this isn’t the same Jasmina I knew.”

“Yeah, well thanks to you I’m a different person now.”

“No, don’t even blame this on me. You know how horrible I felt about what I did.”

“You obviously don’t feel bad if you’re going around flirting with my best friend and now this girl? You didn’t change one bit. Now move out of my way.”

“See, you obviously still care about me if you’re angry at me for doing that.”

“Why are you even doing it in the first place? I’m starting to not even like you anymore if you’re going to keep doing this. Just get out of my way; I don’t even want to look at you right now.”

“You really don’t want anything to do with me anymore?” I stood there pondering the idea of how my life is with Joe and how it was those two months he was out of my life. I let out a big sigh and walked around him.

“Answer me Jasmina, please,” he yelled out. I continued walking towards my house and I looked back and saw Joe standing there.

“Forget I ever existed Joe. It won’t be hard for you though, seeing as you move on pretty fast.”

“That’s not true.” I saw Kevin’s Jeep Commander parking on their driveway and he stepped out of his car.

“Joe, what are you doing standing here? Oh, Jas, hey what’s up?” Joe took a few steps closer to where I was standing and I took a few steps closer towards my house.

“Don’t be like this, please. You know I can’t even function properly without knowing you hate me.” I scoffed.

“You’ll survive Joseph.” I turned my back towards him and walked to my front door. I reached into my pocket and forgot I didn’t take my key. I groaned out loud and walked to the window that was to the left of it.

I hoisted the window up and crawled into it. Once I entered my house I took one last look at Joe. For a split second I wanted to take back everything I said, run into his arms and take him back. Another part of me felt he deserved every word. I closed the window and locked it.

“Goodbye Joseph.”