Forever.

I couldn’t bring myself to leave the bench I was currently sitting on. Whether it was the fact that I was living on my wish of him coming back, or when I didn’t know the next time I would be here, I would never know. All I knew was that I never wanted to leave.

Sitting here, in front of my father’s section of the wall in the mortuary, was somehow peaceful. It was quiet, and it was a place that I knew I could think in my own head without being disturbed.

But what did disturb me was the fact that I hadn’t been here since the actual funeral. It’s funny how when you don’t want to forget something, you actually do, and when you do want to forget something you don’t.

Well, I didn’t want to forget. But somehow, I had.

I hated myself for letting that happen. I didn’t hate myself enough to go bulimic again, but I hated myself enough that it seemed to be burning my throat.

“You need to relax,” I heard someone say in a low voice. I reconized that voice.

I snapped my eyes open, just now realizing that they had been closed, when I heard his voice. It was like music to my ears. It made the cold feeling that had been growing over me melt, and turn into a small flame. It gave me butterflies in my stomach, the way his voice was drowning in gentleness and love.

“Joe,” I breathed, smiling probably so widely at the sight of him my cheeks would hurt later. But I didn’t care. My Joe was here.

“Mel,” he responded in a kind of voice that sounded like he was genuinley happy, but couldn’t help but put his famous smirk in. I smiled wider at the sound of it, if that was even possible.

The next thing I knew, he had pulled me up off of the bench and was kissing me. Not rough and needy; he was very gentle. It was like he knew I was slowly breaking apart inside.

“What are you doing here?” he asked once he pulled away. My lips were still tingling, but I tried to focus on an answer instead of wanting to kiss him more.

“I havn’t been here in forever,” I confessed. “And I needed to think some things through. So I came here.”

He nodded reassuringly, and smiled again. “Want to tell me what’s on your mind?”

I thought for a moment. I couldn’t tell him that I had been afraid I wasn’t in love with him anymore. But if the last three minutes had been any sign, this last assumption had been false.

But I could tell him about graduation.

“There’s a couple things I want to keep to myself for know,” I explained, “but I do have something to tell you that I think you’ll be pretty happy about.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

I paused for a second and bit my lip, letting my eyes trail from his and down to our feet.

He gently took my chin in his hand and brought it up so that I was looking directly into his face. “Come on, tell me then,” he said. He was speaking the softest I had ever heard him speak in my entire life.

I smiled once more before bursting. “I’m graduating early!”

It seemed to take a moment for it to fully process in his mind, but Joe quickly caught on and picked me up and spun me in his arms. I felt so blissfully happy there. It was my favorite place.

“Really?!” The old Joe was back, but I wasn’t complaining. It was the loud, hyper Joe that I fell in love with.

“Really,” I confirmed.

He jumped up and down a few times clapping his hands, until he finally calmed down. “When’d you find out?” he asked.

“Two days ago, like, right after the competition. Which we won by the way!”

He nodded. “I know. Did you see Frankie and my parents there?”

“Yeah.”

“I made them go and secretly tape it so I could watch. I knew how much this meant to you.”

My heart warmed even farther at this piece of information. “You’re the best, Joe.”

“I know.” I smiled at his cockiness, but rolled my eyes all the same.

“I love you,” I said, just in case he didn’t know that already.

“I love you, too.”

**--**--**

I ran through the Jonas household, completely ignoring every door that stood in my way; including the front door. I was racing around the entire house, looking for a Jonas besides Joe to crush in a hug.

Finally, after about five minutes running around aimlessly, I spotted Kevin holding his arms out knowingly. I literally jumped into his arms and gave him a great big bear hug.

“Kev! My gosh, I missed you.”

“We were only gone two months, Mel,” he chuckled, setting me down on my feet. “So I’m assuming you can’t come on tour with us afterall now that you’ve made Nationals?”

“Righto,” I said, putting on a pout. “And I guess I’m not getting an invitation to tours next year either, even though I’m graduting this year…”

“You’re graduating early?!”

“Yes, sir,” I said, letting the fake pout slid off my face in an instant. He picked me back up in another hug, nearly crushing me in the process.

“I can’t believe it,” he said, finally letting me go. “How’d you manage that?”

“Way to have faith in me Kevin,” I joked. “But apparently my AP grades are so high that I’ve gotten enough credits to let me graduate, and my real senior year would be pretty pointless. So I get to put the cap and gown on this year.”

“That’s awesome,” he said, smiling at me. I smiled back, but my smile only got wider when I felt of arms wrap around my waist from behind.

“Hola,” Joe said into my ear.

“Hola,” I said back.

He flipped me around and gave me a peck on the lips. “Ready to head out to lunch?”

“Ready to head out to lunch,” I confirmed.

Way to let Joe help me forget again something I didn’t want to forget.