A/N: Hopefully you're not too hungover to READ! BAHAHAHAHA! BECAUSE I'M TOTALLY POSTING A NEW CHAPTER RIGHT NOW! WOOHOOOOOO!
Chapter Six: September 30th, 2008.
Joe Jonas glanced at his younger brother with a roll of his eyes. They had entered their bus a mere second before, and already Nick had his cell-phone out. After a quick slug to Kevin's shoulder beside him, Joe spoke out loud. "Nick, can we talk to you for a moment- before you call Neveah?"
Hesitating, Nick placed his phone down on the countertop next to him. Over the past few weeks it had become habit for him to call Neveah immediately upon reaching the bus. Then Nick would proceed to talk to her for at least the next hour. Nick leaned against the counter and lifted his thumb, biting his nail, as he waited for one of his brothers to speak.
"Kevin and I were talking about your… friendship with Neveah." Joe chose his words carefully, trying to state his message as Switzerland as possible.
However, despite his brother's best efforts, Nick immediately recognized the ambush for what it was. This same recognition manifested itself in Nick's posture. All the muscles in his body visibly tightened- as if in a defensive mode. His eyebrows raised and his forehead creased. His knuckles, grasping onto the counter, turned white from the pressure with which Nick squeezed the edge. Pushing his chin slightly forward with feigned interest, the change in Nick's body language was entirely subtle, but quite palpable to anyone who knew him as well as his brothers did. Without saying anything, Nick perceptibly beckoned Joe to continue with his words.
"Well, isn't it kind of strange for you to have a girlfriend whom you speak with three times a week if you're lucky?" Joe attempted to explain their perplexion, but was having a lot of difficulty with finding the right words. "But then, there's your
friendNeveah, who you talk to every single night. Kevin and I have never, even once, heard you mention her to Selena in the few conversations you guys do have!"
Nick simply stood there- as Joe fumbled with his point- waiting for the incessant, offending words to stop. All three of the brothers knew that Joe was failing miserably at what he was attempting to do.
While Joe had always been able to speak eloquently- charming the opposite gender with a few words and a chuckle- Joe never had been great at expressing issues that he had harboring inside. When Joe began seeing the habit in Nick's actions, he immediately saw the possible cost for them. Knowing that for Nick, empathy was quite difficult to muster- opposed to the ease with which Joe mustered it- Joe felt that the only right thing to do would be to tell Nick about his concerns. Unfortunately, Joe tended to be volatile in his discussions, his eloquent words fragmented by his need to do what he felt was right. With this temperament, Joe glanced desperately towards Kevin for help in their current exchange.
Kevin hadn't felt this conversation was necessary to have, not yet anyway. Either him or Joe had heard just about every single conversation Nick had with Neveah and he had never tried to make a pass at her. Joe was jumping the gun on this conversation, sure it was a little peculiar Nick hadn't told Selena about her, but not peculiar to the point Nick automatically had done something wrong. Kevin had told Joe that if he wanted to have this argument with Nick, then Joe would have to be the one to talk. Of course, knowing Joe all too well, Kevin knew he would have to end up explaining Joe's butchered thoughts. "Nick, you haven't done anything wrong."
Now that Kevin was talking, Nick visibly relaxed. Kevin had a way of presenting blunt thoughts in a kind manner that stated the truth, but did not make one feel like they needed to defend themselves. Joe always jumped the gun prematurely. However, if Kevin was behind Joe's thoughts to the point that Kevin would at least participate in the discussion, Nick knew that he had to listen to what they were both saying.
"But you have to realize that when you have a girlfriend, any other friendship you have with a girl will seem suspicious to said girlfriend."
Nick was not one for empathy. He had a difficult time putting himself in shoes he had never even seen before. As a result, he looked up to Joe for having such empathy that it was, undeniably, a weakness. At meet and greets, when fans told Nick about their Diabetes' stories, Nick understood what they were talking about because he had lived it. Yet, Joe- who certainly did not share the illness- seemed to understand to an incredible point, what both those same fans and himself had gone through.
Kevin, whose empathy was not his Achilles' heel, had a harder time to grasp what Nick had gone, and currently was going, through. Yet, Kevin understood better how to interact with Nick. Joe lived in the moment, he even went so far to occasionally forget about the chronic illness in Nick, Kevin never forgot. Always considerate for others, Kevin seemed to perceive exactly how one needed to be spoken to and dealt with, even while unable to understand their problems. With this consideration, Kevin continued to speak, "Even if it hasn't gone as far as that, it's not appropriate for you to daily converse with a girl that your girlfriend does not know exists."
"Neveah knows I have a girlfriend! I've talked about 'Lena' many times before. We don't talk about anything that important!" As Nick made the one-way conversation an actual discussion, Joe opened his mouth to cut Nick off with a retort. Kevin flicked Joe's forehead, and Joe shut his mouth. "The reason I talk to her so frequently is because she
doesn't even know my real name. While she knows a lot about me, she knows absolutely no facts. Neveah has no idea what I look like, or this huge part of my life. Heck, she even stands by her belief that I'm an award winning lawn gnome collector."
Joe smirked at Nick's statement, and told himself that he could laugh later.
"It's the most incredible friendship I've had in a long time. No pressure to act famous, just simply to be myself. And, I mean, Joe, Kevin, both of you have talked to her- several times. I do believe you're all three friends on your instant messengers. You know how unbelievable it is. You know how cool
she is."
"We do get that, Nick!" Kevin reassured him.
"Of the random strangers you could have picked to talk to, she definitely is a pretty cool one." Joe added.
Once Joe finished his comment Kevin continued. "We just think, that perhaps you should tell Selena about your friendship with Neveah. Maybe let them talk- so Selena doesn't feel threatened."
"I suppose you're right. It's not like I'm hiding anything. How about the next time Selena hangs out with us? That's in a few days." Nick shrugged his shoulders and glanced at his phone next to him. According to the time on the phone, it was about a half an hour later than the time Nick had been consistently calling Neveah at, for weeks.
Kevin glanced to Joe. They hoped Nick wasn't merely stalling telling Selena. "We'll hold you to that." Kevin concluded, before sitting down. "Now go call Neveah." He smiled, as Joe sat next to him.
Picking up his phone, he dialed her via speed dial.
After only half a ring she picked up. "So you know the Jonas Brothers?"
Nick couldn't help but smile at his greeting. Neveah always seemed to have something on her mind to immediately talk about. Sometimes, it's the sky. Sometimes, it's an incident that happened at school. Apparently today, it's something to do with the Jonas Brothers. "Nope, never heard of them."
"Never heard of whom?" Joe threw the words at Nick, glancing up from the laptop he was logging on.
"The Jonas Brothers, Adam. I've never heard of the Jonas Brothers." Without any joking tone in his voice, Nick spoke to Joe- as if he was serious.
To Nick's response, Joe threw his arm into his mouth, to prevent the laughter from crescendo to a point that Neveah, on the other side of the phone, could hear it. Clearly, the mood of the bus had changed. "Put it on speaker phone!" Joe mouthed to Nick.
"Haha, very funny, Jerry. Oh, and give Adam my regards, you should really cover the phone better if you don't want me to hear everything you say to your brothers."
Nick pressed the 'speaker-phone' button and after setting it down on the table in front of both Joe and Kevin he encouraged her to continue. "So, tell me about these so-called Jonas Brothers."
"Well, apparently, Nick- the youngest of the three- is where the concentration of talent actually is. Not that the others aren't very gifted, because they
most certainly are!" Truth be told, Nick hated it when Neveah talked about the Jonas Brothers at all. He felt so awkward, and his lies so prominent. It was worse, he discovered now, when Neveah was speaking directly about him. "Anyways- apparently Nick has a self-entitled album from when he was like eight."
Joe and Kevin looked at Nick, and Nick's cheeks suddenly became crimson.
"I found one of his songs on youtube, and after clicking around I found out about the album. I actually found a downloadable version of it. There's this crazy awesome song called, 'Don't Walk Away'. It's insane. Here, I'm at my computer- I'll play it."
Suddenly, a younger version of Nick's voice came through the speakers. In reality, Nick was
extremely proud of this album. It was a time in his life that he looked back on fondly. They discovered that the ultimate father-son bonding activity was in fact composing an entire album together. But, just because it was a fond memory didn't make it any less embarrassing.
"Can you hear it?" Neveah's voice asked.
"Uh-yeah." Nick muttered.
"Oh get ready for the chorus, it's my absolute favorite. It's totally unexpected and crazy!" Neveah announced at about 40 seconds into it. "Here!" She identified a cool-sounding cord progression. She stopped it after a few more seconds. "That wasn't the whole song, but wasn't it amazing? That chord progression is insane…. 'Don't walk away from what you once believed.'" Neveah sang the last bit, obviously a fan of the song. Nick glanced up at Kevin and shrugged his shoulders. Kevin looked at Joe who nodded in return. They all agreed that, from the four seconds of hearing her voice, it was pretty solid.
"Hey, Neveah." Joe suddenly cut her off.
"Adam?" Neveah asked, confused.
"Yeah, Ni-
JERRY! wanted us to hear the song you were playing. So he put you on speaker."
At Joe's explanation, Nick punched him in the arm. Leaning into his ear, Nick whispered, "NiJerry? NiJerry?!?!" Nick leaned back, a menacing look in his eyes.
"Oh okay, then. Hey, Adam, and Paul if you're there too. I suppose Nathaniel is asleep?"
"Hey, Neveah. And yeah, he's asleep."
"I'm sorry, guys, but I think I need to go sleep. It's already four." Neveah stayed on the line, almost waiting for permission.
"Alright, bye, Neveah." The brothers chorused as they turned off the phone.
After Joe put the laptop away, they began walking towards their bunks. "Remember, Nick. When Selena comes." Kevin reminded him of their previous conversation, so he wouldn't forget.
"Yeah. I know."
