You Saved Me

“Do you think we should wake her up?”

“Look, she’s got tear stains. Did you even hear her crying last night?”

“What do you think she was crying about?”

“Girls, just wake her up. I have to get home soon and I have to drop her off.”

“Fine! I’ll do it!”

And with that, Jess leaned forward and started to shake Brittany a little bit, but nothing happened.

Just Brittany’s body moving side to side and that’s it.

“Try again!” Joe whisper ordered from the other side of the room, arms crossed against his chest.

“What’s got your boxers in a twist?! You got all cranky last night during truth or dare. What’s your deal?” Steph asked back while getting up from her bed and making her way carefully across her room to stand next to Joe.

“Nothing.” Joe snapped at her and turned to leave the room, Steph trailing close behind him.

“So what’s really your deal now Joe? I haven’t seen you this upset since…never. What’s wrong?” she asked, grabbing hold of his shoulder to get him to stop.

He turned around and let out a heavy sigh, looking down at the ground.

“Come on Joe. We’ve known each other for 4 years. You can tell me.” she said sadly.

“I know. And I will. I just need to talk to Brittany first before I say anything.” he sighed out, turning his head to look up at her to let her know he was sincere.

“Why do you keep calling her tha-you like Trisha?!” Steph asked excitedly, having the light bulb go off in her head.

She seemed to have said it too loud for Joe’s taste since he pulled her further down the hall by her forearm.

“Could you have been more louder?! Geez woman. And so what if I do like her? It’s not like anything’s going to happen. She’s going to homecoming with Will. There’s a better chance at something happening between them then there is between her and I.”

“Joe, I’m sorry. But you’re frickin’ stupid to think that something would ever happen between her and Will over her and you. Which one of you makes her laugh all the time?” she asked with smug look on her face.

He shook his head slightly while drawing in a big breath and then said, “That’s besides the point.”

“Oh really?! Well then, answer me this, which one of you did she go out on a date with yesterday huh? How about which guy at our school gets to walk her to English class? Which guy-”

“Ok, ok. I see you’re point. I’m that guy. But I’m not THE guy who gets to take her to homecoming.”

“Well you could’ve.” Steph shot back at him, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at him.

“How?! We don’t have homecoming at the school!”

“Joe…you really need to listen to announcements in the morning. The public school and the private
school are having a shared homecoming dance. Like they’ve had every year since we’ve been there.”

“Well excuse me, but I haven’t been around for any of the dances. And you tell me this now when she’s already taken? Some friend you are!” he shot back at her, glaring at her somewhat.

“Hey! How was I supposed to know that you liked her enough to ask her?! I just found out that you really liked her.”

And that’s when they heard a loud thump and all the girls asking if Jess was ok.

The two looked at each other confused and somewhat scared as they made their way back towards Steph’s bedroom, along with Danny, Mark and Jacob coming out of one of the other rooms to see what was going on.

Since no parents were home, and they were all pretty responsible, girls slept in Steph’s room while the boys slept in the spare bedroom.

“I’m so sorry Jess. Are you ok?” Brittany asked, getting herself untangled from the blankets and making her way across the room to where she pushed her.

“Yeah. Just need to take some advil cuz that’s gonna hurt later.” Jess said, attempting to stand up along with the help of Katie and Beth.

“What happened?” Steph asked, seeing Jess finally able to stand up straight and her closet door thrown open.

“She was waking up Trisha and she ended up pushing her into your closet when Jess started hitting her in the arm.” Katie informed everyone, easing everyone’s confused faces somewhat.

“Man, now I know never to hit a girl when she’s sleeping..” Mark commented, laughing somewhat along with Danny and Jacob.

“Really Jess, I am so sorry. Are you sure you’re not too hurt?” Brittany asked, checking Jess’s head for any soon to be bump, but not finding any.

“Girl please. I play volleyball, this was nothing. I’ve had worse. Trust me.”

“Yeah, she’s taken a beating on the court a few times.” Steph agreed, stepping into her room, attempting to clean up some of the things that fell off their shelves from the door hitting the wall next to it so hard.

“I’m hungry! Breakfast run anyone?” Danny asked, trying to break the awkward tension that was slowly building in the bedroom from Brittany feeling so bad for hurting Jess and creating a mess at the same time.

“I have food here ya know…” Steph said, picking up the rest of her items that fell and looking over at the door.

“Like…pancake stuff? Or maybe some waffles?” Danny inquired, raising an eyebrow at her.

Steph let out a laugh.

“Yes. Just decide which one that you want. I can make breakfast for everyone.”

“I can help. I cook all the time for Bobby. It’s the least I can do since I created a mess.” Brittany
offered.

“It’s fine Trisha. And don’t worry about it. I have to clean that out anyways. Maybe I’ll do that later today.” she said, sending a smile towards Brittany to let her know it was no big deal.

“Actually, we have to get going. I told my mom last night I’d be home by 11 and it’s already 10:30.” Joe voiced up.

“Who’s we?” Mark asked confused while tousling his hair a little bit.

“Trisha and I.”

“You two are dating?” Mark, Danny and Jacob all asked at the same time, eyes wide and mouths hanging open.

“No. I just drove her here.” he said, his voice dropping a little bit from the answer he had to give.

“Oh. Cuz I was gonna say, what a dumb move on Will’s part when he as-” Mark started but Steph cut him off by saying, “Yeah. We know. Better get a move on if you don’t want to be late.”

Joe sent her a thank you smile and then turned to Brittany and asked her if she was ready to go.

“Yeah.” she said, sending him a smile and bending down to get her bag that had her clothes from yesterday in it.

“Did you want me to clean this up really quick?” she asked Steph, referring to the blanket that she used last night.

“No, that’s fine. I’ll do it later. Like I said, I have to clean my closet out, might as well clean up the rest of my room while I’m at it.” she said, batting at the air to let Brittany know it was no problem at all.

“Ok. Well, thanks for letting me spend the night. I had a lot of fun.” Brittany said, making her way to Steph to give her a quick hug before giving anyone else hugs goodbye.

“No problem. We’ll have to do it again soon. But just us girls. No boys allowed so we can have girl talk.” she said, letting out a little laugh and sending Joe a quick wink, making a small smile come and go off of his face.

After she distributed hugs to everyone, her and Joe made their way down the driveway towards his car, him opening and closing the door for her before he got in.

She said a quick thank you to him as he got in and he nodded, indicating he heard her as he started to car.

The two sat in awkward silence while Joe drove back towards Brittany’s house.

He couldn’t take it after 5 minutes and leaned forward, turning on the stereo to a local radio station that happened to be playing his and his brothers song, When You Look Me In The Eyes.

He leaned forward to change it, not knowing if she wanted to listen to it, but she stopped him by saying, “No. Leave it on. It’s really pretty.”

And then he remembered, she never really knew about him being famous to begin with and probably never heard any of their songs before.

“You even know who this is?” he asked, trying to justify his thoughts.

“No. But they sound really good. I take it you know though.” she said closing her eyes to listen to the
words better.

“Yeah. It’s me and my brothers.” he said with a slight laugh as Brittany’s eyes snapped open and looked over at him shocked.

“That’s right. I always forget the fact that you’re famous. What’s your band called again? I’m sorry. I should know this by now shouldn’t I?” she asked, ashamed that she didn’t remember from when Steph
told her a month ago.

“The Jonas Brothers. And don’t sweat it. It’s nice being around you. I’m normal to you. It’s refreshing.” he said, sending her a quick smile before looking back out towards the road.

But Brittany couldn’t look away from him now. She studied his profile for a few minutes and then locked in on his lips when he licked them quickly.

My goodness I want to kiss him right now…but he’s driving. That’s dangerous. Really dangerous.

“So…” he said, snapping her out of her thoughts and making her switch her gaze from him to the world outside of the car.

“You have fun last night?” he asked, casting a quick glance her way through the corner of his eye to see her looking out the passenger side window.

“Yep. You?” she asked, not turning her head at all to look at him. Afraid that she might get caught in a trance again.

“Yep. Truth or Dare was interesting.” he said, trying his hardest to seem nonchalant about the information that he wanted.

Why she said yes to Will.

“Yeah. When David had to give himself a wedgie…that was…interesting.” she said, finally getting the courage to look over at to see him leaning further back into his seat as he looked out the windshield, left arm resting on the window sill of the car while his right hand was curled around the steering wheel.

“Yeah. And Will having to run around the house in his underwear. That was…something.” he said, letting his head flop into his left hand.

She nodded her head and looked down at her lap, her fingers started to fiddle around each other from her nervousness of Will’s name getting brought up.

She felt so guilty for saying yes to his question of homecoming, but she honestly didn’t know what those two kisses meant to Joe. She didn’t know if he was looking for anything serious or if it was just an impulse thing to do since she was ranting about never being kissed.

He started to feel a little angry from her lack of communication and thinking back to last night when Will gave her a kiss on the cheek before he left to go home.

“So how’d you sleep last night?” he heard her ask, disintergrating the replaying image of Will’s kiss in his mind.

“Fine. You?” he asked a little to hostile than he meant. But he couldn’t help it. He really liked her and to have her kiss him and then say yes to another guy’s homecoming invitation really got his blood boiling.

“Fine.”

“Why?!” he snapped at her, causing her to jump a little bit in her seat and look at him scared.

“I…I don’t know. I…I guess it’s just cuz I had to sleep on the floor.” she answered him, stuttering out her answer from his weird question.

“No. Not why you slept fine. Why did you kiss me and then say yes to Will? Why Brittany? WHY?!” he said, voice getting a little bit louder every time he said why.

She sat there scared in her seat, not being able to move or speak at all from the way he was yelling at her.

“I…I…I don’t know. I didn’t know…I-”

“You didn’t know what?!” he yelled back at her, pulling into her driveway and putting the car into park, still letting it run though.

“I didn’t know what to say to him. And I didn’t know if it meant anything to you at all. You didn’t look at me at all when he asked me. I didn’t know if you were upset or what by him asking me.” she said in a scared voice, not really knowing if she was making this worse for herself or not.

“You really think that that kiss didn’t mean anything to me? Do you think I go around kissing girls for the heck of it? Do you think I walk them to class, and write them notes and take them out on dates if I don’t like them? Is that really what you think?” he yelled at her, turning only his head in her direction.

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve never had a guy like me before and do all those things. You know that! I’ve never had a boyfriend before. How was I supposed to know all of that meant that you liked me?”

“Oh please! You’re so frickin’ niave. No guy does all that if he doesn’t like the girl. No matter how nice of a guy they are.”

“Well if you liked me, why didn’t you make a move? If you liked me so damn much how come you never came out and said it?! Being up front is always better than beating around the bush Joe!” she yelled back at him, angry more than scared now.

“I didn’t know if you liked me! You never said or did anything to make me think you did.”

“Even though I kissed you?! Yeah, that’s a clear cut sign I don’t like you Joe. Considering you were my first kiss and I told you that I wanted it to be with someone I felt comfortable around. But yeah…I don’t like you!” she yelled at him sarcastically while opening up the passenger side door and grabbing her bag that was seated by her feet.

“Where do you think you’re going?! We’re not done yet!” he yelled at her, attempting to grab her bag, and when he missed it he too opened up his door and got out of the car.

“Who do you think you are?! Telling me that I have to stick around and listen to you. You’re not my boyfriend!” she said, slamming her door shut out of frustration and leaning onto the car to yell at him.

“Obviously!” Joe yelled back at leaning onto the car as well. “But that doesn’t give you the right to walk away from me when I’m talking to you!”

“Leave. Right now. Just leave.” she ordered, taking a step away from his car.

“What?!”

“Leave! You have to go. Otherwise you’re parents are going to be upset.”

“They can wait Trisha! This is important. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

It was silent between the two, both of their chests heaving up and down quickly from them being angry with one another.

Brittany let his last couple sentances sink into her head and that’s when she realized he called her Trisha. He never called her Trisha.

“Tell me what you’re thinking. This isn’t going to get fixed if you don’t talk.” he ordered her, still leaning up against his car, keeping it as a barrier between the two of them.

“You called me Trisha. You never call me Trisha.” she said softly, still trying to process if he really did call her that or not.

“I’m that mad. Why would I call you a fake name when we’re fighting. It didn’t seem like a Brittany moment. That’s for when things are good between us and clearly, they aren’t.”

“Trisha! Is everything-Oh! Hi Joe! Thanks for dropping her off.” Bobby said from the front door.

“No problem.” Joe shot towards him, even though his eyes never left Brittany’s.

“Good bye Joe. I’ll see you at school.” she said, giving him one last look and turned around, making her way towards her door but she stopped when she heard his door shut and his footsteps following after her.

“What? I can’t stay for a little bit?” he asked sarcastically enough for her to hear but not for Bobby.

“Of course you can. I’ll fi-”

“No. I have homework to do. I’ll see you at school Joe.” she said again, cutting off Bobby and trying to get him to leave so she could go upstairs and start packing.

It was what she did when things got tough. Plus, it was going on to the 2nd month she’d been there. This was when she’d already have her bags packed, ready to hear her guardian’s tell her that she was going to be going to a better suitable family than them.

Bobby would be no different than the rest.

“That was a little harsh. But school comes first. I’m sure I’ll see you later Joe. After she’s finished.” Bobby said, sending a smile at Joe.

“We’ll see how long it take me to finish. It might take all day and night.” she said, trying her hardest to keep any hostility out of her voice so Bobby wouldn’t catch on to anything.

“Well call me then. Maybe I can help. And if not me, I’m sure Will, would be happy to help you out.” Joe shot back at her, practically stabbing her in the heart with his words and making Bobby face contort into a confused look while he asked softly to himself, “Will? There’s another boy?”

She just shook her head disapprovingly while she made her way past Bobby and up the stairs to her room where she threw herself onto her bed and started to cry.

She only cried because she was so mad at him.

Mad at him for making her cry to begin with. Mad at him for playing stupid games with her instead of telling her that he liked her. Mad at him for using her lack of experience with boys against her. Mad at him for getting so close to her.

But the one thing she was mad at herself for, was that she might have just ruined any chance of her and Joe possibly being anything more than friends.

If we even are friends…