She Screams in Her Pillow

"Please Val," Nick begged, asking again. "You're my best friend. I want to help you. Please tell me."

I sighed. "Nick, there's nothing wrong. I'm perfectly fine."

He sighed, obviously deciding to pretend to believe me. "And you promise you'll tell me the second everything stops being fine?"

I nodded quickly. "You'll be the first to know."

His eyes were hard on my face, as if he were reading through my lies, looking deep down in me. It was as if he were waiting for my breakdown. But I refused to give in. Finally, he sighed, looking away as he took my hand. "So what do you want to do?"

"Um, want to do our homework," I asked eagerly.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Out of all the things and all the people, you are the only person who would want to do homework." I laughed, but didn't say anything. He finally sighed. "Fine, let's go do it in the kitchen though. I'm hungry."

I laughed again, pulling away. "I'll meet you there. I want to go to the bathroom really quickly." Okay I was lying, but I really just needed a few moments alone. But I couldn't tell Nick that without a hundred more questions erupting, a hundred questions that I couldn't answer truthfully.

Nick nodded cautiously, as if seeing through my lie but deciding to pretend to believe me. I sighed as he went into the kitchen before making my way to their bathroom on the second floor. I froze in my spot as Joe's door opened. I could see Devi exiting and quickly jumped into the bathroom so I wouldn't have to go through part two of Torture Val. My breath caught in my throat as my back pressed against the door, silently praying they would hurry and leave. I could hear Devi laughing faintly.

"Okay, see you later babe," I heard Joe's voice carry into the bathroom.

I listened as she walked down the stairs. The door downstairs could faintly be heard opening and closing. When I heard Joe's door close too, I opened the bathroom door, about to run down the stairs. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the body of mass that had been passing by.

My face turned red as my eyes slowly moved upwards, meeting the eyes of Joseph Jonas. "S-s-s-sorry." I stammered out, silently and quickly preparing myself for his attack back. But nothing happened.

Instead, he his hands were still gripping my elbows as they had when he steadied me after our collision. And he had a weird look on his face. I couldn't help but wish he'd lean over and kiss me. What the hell? I did not want him to touch me, let alone kiss me. Right? All I knew was that I really wanted his lips on my at that moment. "Sorry," he said quietly.

I knew I should have just said it was okay, or even better it was my fault, but I didn't. I was still thinking about his and Devi's attack on me. "Whatever," I said coldly.

For a split second, so fast I'm not even sure it happened, I saw pain flash across his eyes. "Val, I – she—"

"Save it," I said, my voice still cold. I snatched my arms away. "Nick's waiting for me."

He opened his mouth to say something, but my phone cut him off. Slowly, the color drained from my face. Only two people ever called me, Nick and my dad. And if it were Nick, he would have just called up the stairs, seeing as he was pigging out in the kitchen. That could only mean one thing. I was dead meat.