Exit 57

After almost getting trampled by the hundreds of screaming pre-teens outside, the Jonas family and Big Rob piled into the long, black escalade waiting outside the radio studio for them. The three boys had barely buckled themselves into the backseat before Joe started going off on Kevin.

"Save your pity party for yourself and not on the air where thousands of people can hear you. Seriously, Kevin, if you ever pull crap like that again… I don't even know what I'll do. But don't even try it."

Kevin looked past Nick and over at Joe, rolling his eyes. He had no idea what he was going through, and had no room to talk.

"Besides, it's your own fault for being so stubborn about this Nikki thing."

With the mention of Nikki, Kevin could feel goosebumps forming on his arms. "Stubborn? You're calling me stubborn, Joe? Do you even know what that word means? I-"

"You guys, shut up." They both looked over at Nick, surprised he said anything. Usually he kept out of their fights, but not this time. "I'm not going to sit between you two arguing the whole way back."

And with that, both Kevin and Joe were quiet. Although Nick was younger than them, he was able to discipline just about as good as their parents could. Joe or Kevin would never admit it, but they were a bit scared of him when he got mad.

Kevin looked to his left and out the window at the passing cars. He leaned his forehead against the window, which was cool from the somewhat chilly weather outside. He began to count the cars passing by. There were an awful lot of grey. Seventeen, to be exact. That's how far he got before a buzz in his pocket caught his attention.

Kevin slid his phone out of his pocket. He kept it in his jacket pocket usually, because it wouldn't ever fit in his pants pockets.

An envelope popped up as the screen lit up. "New Text Message". He clicked to read it, not surprised by who it was from.

"you need to deal with this nikki situation, fast." He looked over at Joe. If anybody would continue a fight over text messaging, it would be him. He rolled his eyes and typed a reply. He sent it and watched as Joe read his text.

"stay out of it."

Joe quickly hit "reply" and typed a message back. His fingers were fast over the buttons on his iPhone, making no mistakes, even though it was so difficult to type on.

Kevin's phone lit up and buzzed again as Joe's text came through. He opened it, expecting some smart-ass remark.

"i am staying out of it, you know i'm bad with advice. go talk to mom about it."

Kevin closed out of the text message, not bothering to reply. Talk to his mum about it? Yeah, that's JUST what he needed. Another person giving him pointless advice that was no help to him at all. Joe and Nick had already told him to "talk to Nikki". They were such great help. They didn't realize that he couldn't, and wouldn't, talk to her. At least not now, anyways.

Nobody understood what he was going through. Nobody. And they could try to understand, or pretend they did, but they didn't. And they never would.

He was the only person who could understand the situation fully. The problem was, he had no idea how to deal with it. His solution so far had been to avoid any solution. He knew he'd have to deal with this whole thing sometime. He just wasn't sure when he'd be ready.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before. He was going to take Joe's advice and talk to his mom. He made a mental note to remember to thank Joe for his advice- even though it wasn't exactly what Joe had in mind.

Before he knew it, the car had pulled into the commuter parking lot and was traveling slowly over to their chain of buses. As they grew closer, Kevin's heart began to beat a little harder. He had to deal with this Nikki situation. It was now or never.

They stopped slowly near the bus, all of them eager to get out because of the long car ride. As they were climbing out, Kevin decided that now would be a great time to talk to his mom. "Hey mum, can I talk to you for a minute outside the bus?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Kevin saw Joe smirk, obviously feeling cocky because Kevin had taken his advice. He rolled his eyes for what seemed like the millionth time today and stepped out of the car after Nick. He walked with his mom over to the edge of the bus as the rest of his family went inside.

As soon as Joe got on the bus, he hurried to find Nikki. She had fallen asleep in the back lounge. It wasn't surprising, seeing that Frankie was still playing his DS. He woke her up quietly. "Hey, sorry to wake you up," he whispered, "but Kevin's outside talking to mom about this whole…thing. I think he'll be a little less stubborn after talking to her." He smiled at her and walked away.

Nikki sat up. Kevin obviously must have told his brothers this morning about what had happened between them. She was somewhat relieved, because it seemed like he always considered his brothers' opinions. She got up and walked over to the heavily tinted windows, looking for Kevin. She saw him standing to the side with his mom, shuffling his feet a bit. She smiled, hoping for the best. She walked back into the main living area to talk to the others.

Outside, Kevin wasn't sure how to start this conversation. He shuffled his feet a bit, thinking of what to say. He hadn't told either of his parents what had happened with Nikki yet.

"Kevin, sweetie, what is it?"

He looked up, half smiling at his mom. She always knew how to make him feel better, even when she wasn't trying. It was now or never. He took a deep breath, and started what he had brought her to talk about.

"Well… it's about Nikki."

She nodded, letting him know to continue.

"It's just that…" Kevin stopped after his voice cracked. He was extremely uncomfortable talking about this, even with his own mother. "It's just that, she really isn't happy here anymore."

His mother's eyes widened, obviously surprised by this. "Nikki's not happy? I never got that impression from her. Is there something wrong, Kevin?"

"No, mom, nothings wrong. It's just that, you know, touring constantly, the late nights, everything has been piling up on her. She wants to take a break and get away, go back home to New Jersey. She was, uh, she was kinda scared to tell you because she was so grateful that you had let her come on tour with us for so long, and she didn't want to seem unappreciative." He paused for a second, looking at his feet. "I just want her to be happy, mum, and I don't know if she can truly be happy here."

It took a while for Denise to answer, obviously surprised by what Kevin had said. "Well, you know that she can do whatever she wants, she's an adult and she's not my child. If she's not happy, she's free to go, and she'll always have a place here for her to stay if she wants to come back. Let her know that it's no problem and that she doesn't seem ungrateful at all."

"Well mum, that's the thing. I was kind of hoping you would talk to her and tell her, just so she really knows you're okay with it. I mean, I could tell her, but I don't know if she'll actually believe me. She cares a lot about you, and I think it'll mean more coming from you."

"Of course, Kevin. I'll talk to her later this afternoon. You're such a great friend to her, you know that?" She put her hand on his arm, smiling, and started walking towards the bus.

Kevin stood there for a minute, processing what had just happened. A surge of guilt ran through his body. He began to immediately regret his "solution" to the problem. 'You're such a great friend to her, you know that?' These words played over and over in his mind, his guilt growing deeper by the second.

He knew his decision had been the wrong one. He wasn't a liar, and he never, ever lied to his mother. What had gotten into him these past few hours? He was seeing a new side to himself. A side he really, really didn't like.

He hung his head and walked towards the bus, kicking a rock out of the way. Whatever friendship he still had with Nikki had just been damaged more by what he had just done.