Lucky I'm In Love With My Best Friend

Megan's POV

I pulled in a small parking lot and put my car into park. I stepped out of my air-conditioned car into the heat of the California sun. Shutting the door, I began walking away from my car, hitting the lock button on my keys until I heard the beep.

As I crossed the parking lot, I saw my target in sight. The guy I was meeting was already sitting at a table at the outdoor café we planned to meet at. His elbows were on the table and he was sending a text message. My eyes stayed fixed on him, waiting for him to look up. When he finally did, and our eyes met, we both smiled. He spoke when I got closer.

“Hey Meg!”

“Hey Mike!” I walked a little faster to him, excited to see my big brother. He embraced me with a ‘big bear hug,’ a family tradition.

“How are you doing?” Mike said, pulling out my chair for me to sit down.

“Good! How about you? How’s school going?”

“Pretty good. School is starting to pick up again so I’ve been fairly busy.”

“Yeah, too busy to call your little sister!” I said, jokingly.

“I’m sorry, Megan. I really am. Between classes, all my activities…”

“And Jennifer,” I added, cutting him off. He smiled.

“Yes, and Jennifer.”

“How is she? I haven’t talked to her in a while.”

“She’s great. Our two year is coming up next month.”

“That’s right! I forgot! Wow, congratulations.”

“Why thank you.”

“Hey, what can I get for you guys today?” the waiter interrupted us.

Mike and I ordered our drinks and our food. The waiter recognized me. Mike said he was star struck, but I didn’t really notice. We got back into our conversation, talking about the family.

“Dude, where is Kristen lately? She’s gone M.I.A., from me at least.”

“She is so busy! It’s insane. She’s busier than you are!”

“Well that says a lot!”

“She called me a few days ago while I was with Nick. Yeah, she basically just said she has so much going on right now and that it’s really overwhelming.”

“Yeah, I’ll call her later. So how is Nick these days?”

“Nick is great. Things are awesome right now.”

“It makes me happy to see my baby sister so happy!” Mike said, purposely cheesy.

“You’re so lame, but I love you anyway.”

“I know you do. Oh, so I was at Starbucks this morning.”

“You were at Starbucks?!”

“Yeah. I was grabbing Jennifer’s favorite to surprise her with when I went over.”

“You’re such a romancer!”

“Okay Megan, focus with me. That is not the point of the story. I saw this girl there. I know she’s on the Disney channel but I can’t remember her name. It’s been annoying me all morning.”

“Well Mike, you’re going to have to give me a little more than that. There are a lot of girls on the Disney channel.”

“Chill back, girl. I’m thinking of how to describe her. Okay, so she has brown hair.”

“Okay…”

“Shorter than you.”

“Alright…”

“OH! Ohhhh! I got it. The girl that was rumored to be dating Nick right after you guys got together!”

“Selena! Selena Gomez.”

“That’s it. I was having one of those moments when you see an actor in a movie and you can’t remember what other movie the actor was in and it drives you crazy.”

“That’s the worst! So is that the end of the story?”

“Well she was in front of me in line. She dropped like two dollars and didn’t notice. So I picked it up and gave it back to her.”

“Aww, how sweet of you. I’ll text her and tell her that the guy that picked up her two dollars in line at Starbucks is my big bro!”

Mike and I finished eating while talking the most random things. My brothers and sister are my ultimate best friends. They show more support for me than I could ever imagined. Mike paid the bill and we said our goodbyes. I walked towards my car as Mike walked towards his. I took my time, but Mike was in a rush to get to class.

When I got home, I went upstairs to my room. I opened the door and threw my purse on my bed. My laptop was on my desk, playing a slideshow of pictures as the screensaver. I smiled as my eyes met a picture of Nick, Joe, Kevin, Frankie, and me.

It was a picture from the Bronx Zoo, just minutes after Nick made our relationship official. I remember the day so vividly. Denise took the picture and the pose was Frankie’s idea. We are standing in front of the tiger cage. The tiger is sitting in the tree look directly at the camera and we are doing our best tiger impressions. Joe clearly won. His “tiger face” is beyond amazing.

I sat down in my desk chair to watch the slideshow some more. The picture changed to a picture of me holding Frankie’s hands as I danced with him. It was at the Disney Christmas party. Joe is standing behind Frankie, and Nick is to his left. Kevin was probably off somewhere doing who-knows-what with Dina. I smiled to myself. I love the people in my life.

When the picture changed, I immediately paused the slideshow. One of my favorite pictures of all time came on the screen. It was from the night of Nick’s seventeenth birthday party. After I gave Nick the digital camera, we set it up together on the floor of his living room. I grabbed the camera and began taking test pictures of us.

Nick is sitting on the floor with his back against the couch. I am sitting in between his legs, leaning against his chest. His arms are wrapped securely around my torso. We did not pose for any of the “test” pictures I took. When I showed Nick the pictures I took, he said he didn’t even notice I took half of them. Nick is leaning over my shoulder, kissing my cheek with his eyes closed. My eyes are looking up at Nick and there is a genuine smile on my face.

Looking at this picture makes me realize how much I cherish our relationship. We may have your downs, but we certainly have more ups, and those ups are what make me smile from day to day. We’ve only been officially dating for five months, but it feels like so much longer. The things our relationship has gone through and survived are proof that we are in this to win this.

“I would give it up, to never let you fall, cause you know, we're inseparable. I would give it all, just to show you I'm in love. Yeah you know, we're inseparable.”

Nick’s voice rang out from my phone. I smiled, knowing exactly who it was calling. Call it cliché, call it lame; it’s not my fault his voice is unbelievable and I want to hear it every time he calls.

“Hey Nicky baby!”

“Hello my love, how are you?”

“Good, how are you?”

“Better now that I’m hearing your voice. Today has been hectic and tiring. We had a meeting with Hollywood.”

“Why was it so rough?”

“They were just pestering us about how we need to be moving faster than we are for the next album.”

“Well that’s annoying. It’s only been five months since the last album.”

“I know, but they want money, so they’re putting the pressure on us.”

“I’m sorry. Things will work out and the next album will be a hit.”

“Thanks for the encouragement, Meg. It means a lot. Your presence would relieve my stress. Are you coming over?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Is that even a question?”

“I thought so. Yeah, I’ll be over in an hour. How does that sound?”

“Perfect. I’ll see you soon. I love you.”

“I love you too, Nick.”