I'd Like To Order A New Heart Please

Once my feet were on solid ground, I was swept up by two lanky arms that didn’t belong to Trace.

“Oh my goodness! You’re the little firecracker I’ve heard about! I promise to love you forever! And I’ll feed you and take you out for walks and-”

“Jack! She’s not a dog! Put her down!” Alex laughed, easily plucking me from “Jack’s” arms and setting me on the ground.

“I’m sorry, this is Jack, he’s the guitarist in my band All Time Low,” Alex explained after he whacked Jack on the head. “You see, after seeing you blow up on Joe like that, we all just had to meet the girl who put Mr. Hot Shot into his place. Plus, from what Trace told us, you sounded like a pretty cool chick.”

The mention of Trace’s name perked my interest, “You guys know Trace?”

“Oh yeah! He went on tour with us! But here’s a tip, never sleep on the same bus as him, his snores could wake the dead,” Jack spoke up, still rubbing his head.

“Jace! Nicole! There you guys are! C’mon they’re telling us the rules for the night!” John exclaimed, tugging Jace and I away from Alex and Jack into the warm lobby of the building.

We all gathered around Gary once again, who was standing on top of a step ladder so he could be seen by the hoard of performers, “Alright everyone, I’m going to tell you what’s going down tonight.” He held up a clipboard, “On this board are the names of the people performing either inside or on the roof. Now I understand that people have floats, so this doesn’t really concern you. BUT! Before you all scatter, I want to let you know that of course you are free to go, but if you choose to stay we ask that you come back inside here. We can’t be sending out security to go save someone who’s getting mauled by a rabid fan! With my disclaimer being said, the people with floats are dismissed!”

I smiled at the thought of spending some time with my new acquired friends from the van ride over and practically skipped over to the rest of the “float committee”.

“Nicole! Wait up!”

It never ceases to amaze me that even though I’m in a crowd of a good hundred people, Joe Jonas can still find me. His ability to surprise me seems to have kicked into high gear.

“We need to talk.” he mumbled as soon as he caught up to me.

We walked in silence till we found a secluded corner before I turned to him, “Joseph, you know that I haven’t changed my mind, right?”

He nodded, his eyes cast to his shoes.

“So do you know who you’re choosing?”

I bit my lip to help keep the tears in when he shrugged his shoulders.

I tugged on my hair in frustration and took a deep breath in to steady myself, “Alright, I’m done with your games Jonas. And since you don’t seem to want to deal with this, I will. I understand that you have your set to do and the interviews afterwards, so let’s meet back right here when the ball drops and then you’re going to tell me you’re answer. And none of this ‘I can’t choose’ crap either, if you don’t choose by then, I’ll take it as you choosing her. Got it?”

He finally picked his head up to meet my eyes and nodded once.

“Do you have anything you want to say?”

Joe’s eyes bore into mine, “You look good in my jacket, Nicole.”

For a moment I lost myself in his eyes, almost forgetting the whole reason why we were having this conversation.

“Joe! There you are!”

Almost being the key word here.

I saw Joe sigh and rub his temples when Mandy approached him before rolling my eyes and walking over to an unexplainably happy John.

I raised my eyebrows, “Hey Bud, what’s with the smile?”

“Oh this smile?” He pointed to his face, “this my naïve friend, is the smile of a very happy lighting technician who doesn’t have to do anything for the rest of the night except for sit in the passenger seat of the truck that is towing the float!”

I smiled at John and gave him a well deserved pat on the back, “Congrats John! That’s every technician’s dream, to sit on his butt and get paid for it!”

John smiled and wrapped me into a headlock, “Now you’re getting it squirt! But I think it’s only fair that I extend the invitation to Jace and you since you ladies helped with the float! Now go snatch Jace from sucking face with Kevin and I’ll meet you two down by the car behind the building, got it?”

Once I was free I saluted him and scurried off to find Jace. Well at least I tried to until someone caught my elbow.

“Nicole……?”

Ah, so Taylor Swift does talk!

“Yes Taylor? Do you need anything?”

She gently tugged at her hair, “I was just wondering how things between you and Joe were…..”

I resisted the urge to raise my eyebrows and swallowed the snow ball that was forming in my throat, “He broke up with me.”

“Oh……well I’ll see you around,” and just like that Taylor disappeared somewhere in the sea of musicians.

“So let me get this straight. Joe basically cheated on you, threw a hissy fit, and then broke up with you?”

I bit my lip before turning to Frank Iero with a weak smile, “We all know who he’s going to choose, it’s impossible to avoid the unavoidable.”

The corners of Frank’s mouth turned down before he gathered me in a hug and handed me the blanket that was wrapped around him, “Here, I know we just met, but my mother taught me that sharing my blankie is always a good way to make new friends.”

I smiled and wrapped the blanket around myself, “You’re mother taught you well.”

Frank smiled at me before giving me one last hug and dashing off to his float.

Feeling a bit more confident with Frank’s blanket, which smelt absolutely amazing, I continued on my man hunt for Jace.

I paused for a moment and tried to think like Jace and where I would be at this exact moment.

I snorted out loud, the roof of course.

Tightening my grip on my new acquired blanket, I walked up the stairs and wrinkled my nose slightly when the freezing air blew onto my face.

Dumb Asians and their weird love for roofs.

After running around to find Jace and to keep my body warmth up the only thing I managed to do was receive a whole bag full of nothing.

Great.

“Hey Speedy Gonzalez! What are you doing up here?” Trace asked, jogging to keep up with me.

“Looking for Jace!” I huffed, still running around the roof.

Jace chuckled, “Really now? Because she left a few minutes ago to go find you. She said something about John calling her.”

I skidded to a stop, “You know, maybe using a cell phone would have been for the best.”

Through his chuckles Trace handed me his phone where I dialed Jace’s number.

“Hey Jolly Green Giant! Have you found Nicole yet?”

I smiled and did my best Trace impression, “No not yet, man how irresponsible can she be?!”

“…..this is Nicole isn’t it?”

I pouted even though Jace couldn’t see it, “How’d you know!?!”

“Easy, Trace and I have had this conversation before.”

“So you’re talking behind my back!?”

“Nah, we were talking about this right in front of your face, you just weren’t paying attention.”

“I….but-ugh! You two aren’t allowed to speak to each other anymore!”

“Yeah right, so where are you chica?”

“I’m on the roof looking for you, where are you?”

“I’m in the truck with John. Which by the way is leaving without you.”

As if one cue, a crew member ran past me with his walkie talkie speakers blasting, “Field to base, the Jonas Brothers are rolling!” and the opening riffs to S.O.S. were starting to float into the air.

“Gotta go Nicole, but on the plus side, you can’t really see anything from in here except for the marchers in front of us. Any who! See you in a bit! Bye!”

I sighed and shut Trace’s phone before handing it back to me and pouting slightly, “Trace, they left without me!”

He lazily draped an arm around my shoulders, guiding me to the edge of the roof, “Oh no! Now you only have to sit up here and do nothing with me with a perfect view of the whole parade and the ball! What are we gonna do?!”

I rolled my eyes and shoved Trace before sitting as close as I could to the makeshift railing and leaning on to Trace’s shoulder when he sat next to me.

“I thought you had to perform?” I asked when he wrapped his arms around me again.

“Yeah, I thought you had to perform!” Alex Gaskrath teased as he sat down to my left.

“We go on last on the roof, so bleh!” Trace stuck his tongue out over my head to Alex, who in turn pulled another face that made me roll my eyes at their immaturity.

I sighed and closed my eyes, enjoying the only peaceful moment I was going to get for the rest of the night.

“Nicole! Trace just said a mean word to me!”

Well there goes my moment.

“No he didn’t Alex, I’m leaning against him, I would know!”

“Well he thought it!”

I sighed once more and lifted myself from Trace’s shoulder, “Speaking of which, just because I have an idiot boyfriend who ruined my holidays, doesn’t give me the right to cuddle with the guy he’s touring with.”

Trace sighed and pinched his nose bridge, “Nicole, if you’re so bent on the fact that Joe is going to ‘break up with you’ why don’t you give him a taste of his own medicine?”

My eyebrows furrowed, “Because I don’t sink that low Trace.”

Trace’s eyes hardened, “And you’re saying I do? Besides, he doesn’t deserve a girl like you!”

“Why are you pushing this Trace!?”

“Because he’s managed to fuck up everything between you two and you still won’t give me a second glance!”

I sighed and buried my face in my hands, “Trace, please don’t do this right now. I really can’t handle any more relationship stress…..”

I saw Trace nod out of the corner of my eyes before he mumbled a “I’ll just leave now” and disappeared.

“Well that was highly unexpected,” Alex said, reminding me that he was still sitting next to me.

I brought my hands away from my face and gave him a weak smile, “That’s my life for you. Sorry you had to see that.”

He smiled and gave me a quick side hug, “One day this will all work out for you Nicole.”

I sighed again before returning my gaze back on to the parade, “I hope so.”