A/N: Dedicated to Ginny for being the bestest reader ever.
Chapter Three: August 23rd, 2008.
Nick rubbed his eyes as he yawned. Honestly, he was used to being up this early in the morning. Playing concerts nightly, doing meet and greets, interviews and having countless other responsibilities, this was merely the norm. Of course, just because they often stayed up that late, didn't make it any less exhausting of an experience.
Having just gotten back from one of those long nights, Joe barely could get into the bus. In fact, the only way he managed to get on, was thanks to his dad pushing him through the door. Tripping towards his bunk, Joe immediately flung himself on it. His parents kissed them both on the heads and then exited towards their private part of the bus. "Are you going to bed, Nick?" Joe mumbled, as he seriously debated if it was worth the extra effort to change into pajama's.
"I think I'm going to go on the internet for a bit. Selena said she might wait up for me, tonight, and there was supposed to be a new chapter up tonight, in a non-creepy fan fiction I'm reading." Nick jadedly pulled out the laptop, a smile on his face. Nick glanced over at Joe, seeing his brother was asleep on his bed before Nick finished talking.
Kevin stumble into the bus just as Nick had began explaining what he was doing to Joe. "Oh, that one written by some girl you're lying to?" Even with as tired as he was, Kevin managed to get across a slightly amused, slightly disapproving tone in his voice. To Nick's responding nod Kevin continued. "Joe was telling me about that. Said you're going by your middle names? I suppose if I talk to her I'd go by my first name. Haha. How ironic."
Almost as if she had heard their plot to stay up later, their mother reappeared. "Nicholas, I must insist that you put that laptop away and go to bed."
"I will soon, I promise." Nick automatically responded, even before he was able to identify where the voice was coming from. "Selena stayed up specifically to talk to me for a bit, though. Please? Just thirty minutes?" Nick pled, ignoring Kevin as he plummeted onto the couch incredibly close to him.
"I suppose, just tell her I say hello, and go to bed
soon, alright?" His mother looked him square in the eye as Nick nodded his head. "And make sure Kevin sleeps in his bed tonight, that he doesn't crash on the couch again."
Nick glanced wearily over to Kevin who was pressing his cheek against Nick's arm, leaning on him. "Duly noted." As his mom returned to her part of the bus Kevin continued to lean against Nick, asleep with his mouth slightly open.
A noise from the computer woke Kevin up again, but just slightly so that he moved. Taking that as his cue to turn down the volume, Nick looked once again at the computer. While he saw Selena's screen name on, it appeared idle for the moment. Yet, still, there was a conversation that had popped up.
Perry the freaking Platypus The Jonas Brothers;
A Little Bit Longer;
Shelf; 2:52-2:59.
At Night the Sporks Pick On Me: Um, what?
Perry the freaking Platypus Listen to it, Jerry.
Perry the freaking Platypus Listen to it!
Perry the freaking Platypus It's absolutely magical. The last two seconds are what I'm really referring to, of course. That freaking falsetto that comes out of… Joe? Nick? One of them. Kevin doesn't sing much.
It only took a few seconds to realize what Neveah was actually talking about. However, as Nick wasn't so organized that he could automatically know what second of each song correlated to which musical part of the song, he had to open his iTunes and find what she was talking about. Though he attempted to play the song softly, Kevin moved again, waking up before he had the chance to fast forward it to the specifically mentioned part of the song.
"What are you doing?" Kevin mumbled, hearing the music. Sitting up, he was obviously more awake now. Rubbing his eyes, he looked towards the computer monitor, following Nick's actions.
"Neveah, the author of that fan fiction, or as you know her as 'some girl I'm lying to' is quite randomly on." Nick shrugged. "And greeted me by telling me, rather insistently, to listen to a specific part of Shelf. So, I am."
"Interesting. Is Selena, on?" Kevin asked almost inaudibly as he yawned. Standing up, Kevin looked around the living area, spotting a blanket, he sat back down on the couch, dragging it with him. Lifting his feet off the ground, Kevin put them on the edge of the couch, wrapping his arms around his legs, effectively keeping warmth in.
"Yeah, well she was. A few minutes after I started talking to Neveah she came back from being idle and said that she'd fallen asleep while waiting for me to come on. So, I told her that I'd text her tomorrow, and to go to sleep." Nick explained, as he fast forwarded through "Shelf" to get to what Neveah mentioned.
"How
have you guys been doing, lately?" Kevin asked, fully awake now.
"Well, she understands our busy schedule. I saw her at the release party a few weeks ago, and since she and Demi are best friends she manages to see both of us occasionally, but it's been kind of hard." Nick paused. "I really like her, though, and she is definitely worth the effort."
Perry the freaking Platypus Did you listen to it? I've been listening to those seven seconds over and over again for the past fifteen minutes.
Neveah yawned, and spun in her chair while she waited for Jerry to respond. Jerry hadn't been on in the past few weeks, or simply they'd missed each other. Which ever it was, Neveah was more curious about why, of all the times of day, would it be at three in the morning that they'd be on at the same time.
At Night the Sporks Pick On Me: No sorry, my oldest brother, Paul, is distracting me.
Perry the freaking Platypus How many brothers
do you have, Jerry? Are Paul, Adam and your nameless younger brother it, or are there more of you? And listen already! I promise you, it's amazing.
"Are you sure it's safe to use your middle names and my first name?" Kevin asked. "I mean, if you were to google it, wouldn't the Jonas brothers come up? Fans tend to have an obsession with knowing everything about us."
"Probably." Nick shrugged. "But I honestly don't like lying to her. And why would she think that googling the names of four brothers would come up with anything but random nonsense in the results? Now, shh. I need to figure out what she's talking about."
Pressing play Nick strained to listen to the quiet music seeping out of the speakers on the laptop.
It was him. His voice, his falsetto.
How awkward.
Kevin merely laughed, and perched over Nick's shoulder to see how he'd respond to that.
At Night the Sporks Pick On Me: My younger brother is named Nathaniel, and that's all of us. I finally finished listening to what your talking about. I'm pretty sure it's Nick who sings that part. So I take it you bought the album?
Perry the freaking Platypus Yup. It's still working on growing on me, but I definitely give it my seal of approval. Why are you and your brother up so late, Jerry? It's like three in the morning! And why haven't I talked to you in so long. Have you been busy or…?
At Night the Sporks Pick On Me: Why are
you up so late? Three in the morning? I take it you live in America somewhere, Central Daylight Time?
Perry the freaking Platypus While it's kind of creepy that you looked that up, yes. America. I'll go as far as telling you the Midwest. What about you? Where do you live?
Perry the freaking Platypus Oh, and I'm not up late, I'm up early. I have this slight habit of waking up every single morning at about three. Most of the time I'll just look outside and be memorized by the darkness until I'm tired again, but I had Shelf stuck in my head today so I wanted to replay it. You never answered why you are up, though.
Neveah stood up and walked to her kitchen while she waited for Jerry to respond. She'd always found it really weird that she'd wake up at three in the morning every day. It was exact, almost as an alarm clock went off. Grabbing a diet root beer and a glace of ice, she headed back to the computer to see a response waiting for her.
At Night the Sporks Pick On Me: I'll one up you: Most of the time I live in LA, but my family also has a house in New Jersey. And my brothers and I actually went to a Jonas Brother's concert tonight. We just haven't gone to bed yet.
Perry the freaking Platypus Well, you'll have to tell me about it later. Because I'm going to log off and force you to go to bed. Night!
Neveah quickly logged off. She was tired. She needed more sleep. As interesting as talking to Jerry was, she could always talk to him later.
