Opposites Attract

I’d had enough. No, scratch that. I’d had so much more than enough. If I didn’t find out why Dani and JT weren’t talking to me, and find out fast, there was going to be hell to pay. Absolute hell.

For some reason, I didn’t think that Dani was the one that started the whole “Let’s drive Emma insane” campaign. It seemed to me that she was just going along with it. Nick wasn’t about to get in the middle of it so I decided to take charge of the situation.

After the show, I caught up with Dani on the way back to the buses. She ignored me at first, but my persistence paid off.

“JT’s going to kill me,” she muttered as she turned to face me.

“Nicholas will protect you,” I joked.

Dani smiled but then frowned. “JT told me she heard you and Joe talking after a concert and she thought you were dating. She went kind of nuts and started going on about how you knew she liked him and stuff. She said she wasn’t going to talk you and if I was her friend I wouldn’t either. I should have just asked you about it.”

I started laughing hysterically.

“I don’t think that secretly dating your best friend’s crush is very funny,” Dani stated, hands on her hips.

“I’m not dating Joe. I never was,” I said in between giggles.

“Then why did JT think you were?”

“One day Joe decided to flirt it up but I swear to you I told him it wasn’t going to happen. We had a good laugh about it. I guess JT didn’t hear that part,” I explained.

“So I’ve been ignoring you for a month for no reason?” Dani asked, flabbergasted.

I nodded.

“I’m so sorry Emma! If I knew the truth I never would have …” Dani’s voice trailed off as she noticed JT a few feet away, staring.

Her green eyes were aglow with fury and her fists were clenched tight by her sides. JT glared daggers in mine and Dani’s direction. If looks could kill, we would’ve been thoroughly dead. Slowly she took a step towards us and her lips curled into a small, furious line.

“Bitches,” she hissed as she walked by us, “you’re both bitches.”

“JT!” Dani called after her, but it was too late; she’d already slammed the bus door.

Dani shook her head dejectedly and followed me back to the boys’ bus. Nick looked happy to see her, but shot me a questioning look. I just shrugged. Kevin was already in his bunk with the curtain drawn but I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had the laptop in there with him. Joe was in the kitchenette eating corn pops, no surprise there. I stole a handful as I walked by.

“Hey!” he exclaimed.

“I’m too tired to get my own,” I smiled.

“I’m tired too,” he whined.

I decided to be nice and put his bowl in the sink for him.

“Thanks M and M,” Joe called as he walked to his bunk.

I put on my PJs in the bathroom and crawled into my bunk as well. Nick had given Dani his bunk for the night so she was across from and he was on the couch. I fell asleep rather quickly but it was one of those light sleeps where you keep waking up every 5 minutes. Around 3 AM, I heard a loud crash. I could’ve ignored it but I decided to get up. As soon as my feet hit the floor a searing pain shot up my left leg. I whimpered and Kevin stuck his head out of the curtain, I guess he’s a light sleeper too.

“Hang tight a second,” he whispered as he climbed down and swept shards of glass out of the way. He pulled a picture of himself and a pretty blonde girl out of the wreckage of a picture frame and quickly tossed it onto his bunk while he made his way to me.

“What happened?” Kevin asked softly.

With my lips pursed in pain, I nodded toward my foot. Kevin squinted at it in the darkness. With ease, he wrapped an arm around my waist, slipped the other under my knees and lifted me up. He carried me bridal style to the bathroom where he gently put me down on the edge of the counter. I watched in silence as he fished a first aid kit out from under the sink.

“This is going to hurt, isn’t it?” I asked, mostly rhetorically.

“I could lie and say no,” Kevin smiled weakly as he withdrew a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit.

“I don’t like liars,” I stated defiantly and then gasped and shrank back in pain as he extracted a small piece of glass from the bottom of my foot.

Without saying anything, Kevin found a tube of antibacterial cream and put some on. How thoughtful, he didn’t want me to get an infection.

“The top bunk is not a good place for picture frames, apparently,” I chuckled.

Kevin looked up for a second, “I guess not.”

“So who was the girl in the picture?” I asked.

“My ex. Eva,” he told me and started to wrap my foot in gauze.

“Why’d you keep the picture if you’re not dating anymore?” I continued curiously.

“I broke up with her because she cheated on me. It’s inexcusable and by right I should hate her, but I don’t. She was perfect, you know? She didn’t mind that I was away a lot and she always knew what to say when I was feeling down. I loved her. I think I still sort of do,” he confessed.

Kevin Jonas was talking to me, Emma Perry, about his feelings. I definitely didn’t see that one coming.

With great difficulty, I managed to push a few words out of my mouth. “If you love her, you should get back together with her.” Why was that so hard to say?

“I should do that?” he asked uncertainly.

“Yes,” I answered as he finished taping my foot. I winced again, but not because my foot hurt. I winced because that word hurt.

Kevin smiled and helped me down from the counter. We walked quietly back to the bunks and he swept up the broken glass and threw it away. Dani, Joe, and Nick were still fast asleep. I smiled at that. I crawled into my bunk and started to close the curtain when Kevin called out to me.

“Did we just have a civil conversation?” he asked in disbelief.

“I think we did,” I chuckled.

“Well don’t tell anyone, but I think I kind of liked it.”