Forever.

“Joe,” I breathed, “That was perfect timing you had there.”

The voice that responded wasn’t Joe’s.

“Melodie, it’s Nick.” For a second my heart flipped, wondering why he was calling me, and not Joe.

“Nick?” I voiced my question, “Is everything okay?”

“Well, seeing as Joe looks like he’s about to kill somebody at any given moment, and Kevin’s having a hard time holding him back, no, everything is not okay.”

“So Stacy really did call him, then?” I asked.

“Yeah.” I could hear shouting in the backround that sounded like Joe and Kevin. I winced. “Are you really bulimic again, Mel?”

“No, I’m not, Nick.” I sighed as the shouting continued. “Does Joe believe her?”

“I’m not sure.”

I have to say, that kind of hurt. If Joe was trying to kill Stacy, it could be from knowing she was lying, or from not wanting to believe what she probably thought was the truth.

Or gossiping truth.

“Listen, Nick, I’ve got to go. Tell Joe I love him, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, Mel.”

“Bye,” I whispered, before shutting my phone.

Did I really still love Joe?

**--**--**

Over the course of the following week, there were only two things on my mind: the dance competition, and Joe.

Rehearsals for the competition were taking up so much of my time that the only point of the day that I had to myself was when I got up in the morning. That time was usually spent thinking about Joe, and what my honest feelings were for him.

I was finding that thinking of him didn’t give my stomach butterflies like it used to. Talking to him didn’t make my heart flip over, and it sure didn’t go up into my throat, either. Imagining him home with his arms around me didn’t made me dizzy or feel lightheaded, and I didn’t blush at the sound of his name.

Nothing about Joe made me excited, nervous, or even all that happy.

I was starting to worry that I didn’t love Joe as much as I thought I did. Had I made such an effort to get him away from Stacy for nothing? Or was I just enjoying being on my own and away from him? I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that I couldn’t tell anybody.

And the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was true.

About three days before the competition, I found most of my rehearsal time was being occupied by thoughts of Joe. But I couldn’t help it. Even though I was pretty much decided that I didn’t love him anymore, I was going to analyze everything to my last drop of patience.

What was happening to me?

I didn’t know myself anymore. I wasn’t focused on my dancing anymore; it wasn’t that one time of day that I could escape everything. I wasn’t even paying attention to Stacy and her idiot clique.

If I didn’t need to talk to Alice before, I sure did now.

But wait…

An internal thought reminded me that Alice wouldn’t know anymore than I did. She hadn’t seen me in over month, and according to Joe, she hadn’t seen them since the day they left, either. No; Alice was dropped off at her house somewhere in New York to go on vacation with her parents to England.

Who can I talk to that I can completely trust with this?

Kevin didn’ t seem to be answering his text messages, which was weird, so he was off the list. Emailing Nick was too much of a hazard of Joe reading, so he too, was not someone I could talk to. Cass and Hannah were both too pre-occupied with dance to be able to talk to me, and anyone else I wasn’t that close to.

It was either talk to no one, or talk to Joe himself.

And that sure wasn’t going to happen.