The moon smiled down on the young couple as they lay wrapped in each others’ arms on the hood of his parents’ car. They could see the faint light from behind the blinds inside the house, where the rest of the family talked and laughed, but out here in the driveway, looking up at a midnight sky, there was no one in the world but them, and their love burned brighter than the stars. The September night was just cold enough to make the warmth of another’s body a welcome comfort, and there were never two people happier to be each others’ warmth.
    He kissed the tip of her nose and she giggled, snuggling into his embrace. In her ear, he sang softly, “I will be there forever, you will see that it’s better. All our hopes and our dreams will come true. I will not disappoint you, I will be right there for you, till the end, the end of time, please be mine.”
    She sighed and kissed him softly, sparks bursting almost visibly in the night as their lips met. “Sing more to me.”
    He smiled and looked down, locking gazes with her. “When you look me in the eyes,” he sang, and crooned the whole song to her, gentle hands cupping her face. “When I hold you in my arms, I know that it’s forever. I just want to let you know, I’m never gonna let you go.” When he finished, he cradled her close, brushing his warm, soft mouth across her cheek. “I love you, Erica.”
    “I love you, too, Nick.”


Erica tackled Nick in an enthusiastic hug as he came offstage. “Hey, baby!” She kissed him quickly, squeezing his hand. “The show was great, as usual.”
    His face was sober. “Erica, we need to talk.” His hand slipped from hers and he held her wrist instead as she tried to reach for him. “No. Listen, I don’t think this is working.”
    Her face froze in disbelief. “What?”
    “We’re over, Erica. I can’t do this anymore. I’m bored with these games.”
    She flinched at the song reference, one she had just heard him perform. “Games? What do you mean?”
    “Oh, come on. We’ve been pretending everything’s OK for so--”
    “Pretending? I haven’t! I love you!” Her breath caught and her expression registered horror. “Have you been pretending with me?”
    His gaze slid from hers and his voice lowered. “Don’t be that way. I’m sorry, I just can’t.”
    “You swore, Nick! Two years ago, you swore you would be there forever!” Her mind flashed back to the night on the hood of his parents’ car: his voice, his kisses, his love. She remembered his singing, his care and commitment, and how she had responded with everything in her heart. Weak-voiced, she pleaded, “Nick, don’t… don’t… You promised me.”
    He released her arm and stepped back from her, face set. “People change and promises are broken.”
    Something in her--maybe her heart--snapped at that moment. “Don’t you dare quote your songs at me! You think it’s clever, or makes it easier? Why don’t you just sing ‘Move On’ now, superstar?” Disgusted, her heart cracking and breaking in two, she spat, “Two and a half years, and you can’t come up with anything more original to end it than a bunch of prewritten rhymes. I’m glad I meant so much to you.” Her voice shook and her slender body shuddered with a sob. “And I thought you were so romantic with all your sweet singing. It was just because you couldn’t come up with anything new.”
    He stared in shock. “No, Erica! I didn’t--I loved you. I just--things change, but I swear--”
    “Save it, Nick. I’ve had enough of your swearing. Save it for the next girl who falls for your prerecorded romance.” She whirled, tears streaming down her cheeks, and ran out of the concert hall. Moments later, Joe walked around a corner and saw Nick standing, stunned, hands limp at his sides.
    “Nick, man, what--where’s Erica?”
    Nick looked at him. “What did I do?”
    Joe stared, then said slowly, carefully, “I don’t know, dude. What did you do? And where is your girlfriend?”
    “I--I broke up with her. And she--she freaked and--”
    Joe’s eyes widened. “You broke up with her?”
    Nick’s forehead wrinkled. “Yeah, I told you I had been thinking and--”
    “No, no, man, that was supposed to be, ‘I’m thinking, I’m rethinking, I’m getting over it and staying with my dream girl’. Not--oh, man. Why did you break up with her?”
    Nick shrugged, his face emotionless. “I didn’t think… I didn’t think she’d take it that bad…”
    “That’s not what I asked you. Why?”
    Nick glared at his brother. “Just--forget it, OK? Not your problem!”
    Joe, worried by his brother’s sudden switch to anger, stammered, “Whoa, man, I’m just trying to help.”
    “No, you’re not! Helping would be letting me make my own decisions and leaving me alone about it!” He brushed past his brother on the way to the tour bus. Joe followed him, but Kevin stopped him at the door.
    “He’s inside. Talk to me. What happened?”
    Joe shook his head. “I think he just made the worst mistake of his life.”

Inside the tour bus, Nick huddled in his bunk, face wet with tears, clinging to his pillow. He thought this was too much for him, that he couldn’t balance tour, girlfriend, life. He thought it wasn’t fair to her, that never being there just wasn’t right. He thought he could break it to her gently, let her down easy. He thought she would be less devastated. He’d thought and thought and rationalized and convinced himself it was right.
    But now… the look on her face… her heartbreak had smashed his own heart to pieces. Now, now that he had actually done it… everything in him cried out with how wrong it was. Almost without meaning to do it, he snatched his phone from his pocket and hit the speed dial button with her number, the one his fingers found without any thought. It rang--half a ring. Then voicemail. His call had been rejected.
    “Erica… Erica, sweetheart, listen… I don’t--I don’t know what I was thinking. I was wrong, babe, so wrong. Please… I love you.  I meant it, those things I swore back then. I just… please call me. Talk to me. Please.” He hung up and immediately punched redial. It rang no longer than before, and straight back to voicemail. He groaned and hung up, dialing again. It rang all the way through, but no one answered. Voicemail.
    He tried twice more. Voicemail. Finally, the phone buzzed. New text. He opened it, and tears filled his eyes again. It read, Shut up!
    Nick curled into a ball on his bed. What did I do? Moaning, his face crumbled. “I don’t know! Dear God, what did I do?”

Erica sat in her bedroom, staring at the wall, phone held limply in her hands. For the millionth time, it rang, and she didn’t even have to glance at it to know it was Nick. Oh, how she wanted to pick up the phone and talk to him, hear his voice, hear him say he loved her.
    But she knew she wouldn’t hear that. Not after tonight. The last thing she wanted to hear was him try to explain why he didn’t love her anymore. She couldn’t take it. She loved him… but all the words he had said, all the things he had told her, had they meant anything? What kind of guy quoted song lyrics for a breakup?
    When the phone rang again, she punched ignore, then texted furiously, Shut up! She felt like saying more, telling him how hurt she was, all the ways he had gone wrong, all the things she loved about him that he had shattered her faith in that night. She felt like her fragile heart had been flung carelessly to the ground. She loved him and he had been… pretending?
    Sobbing, she flung her phone across the room, where it bounced off the wall and clattered, unbroken, to the floor. The phone was much more resilient than her heart. He had known… he had known how delicate her heart was, how precariously her trust hung in the balance.

“Erica, what happened?”
    She leaned into her best friend’s chest and cried, “He cheated on me, with--with--”
    “It doesn’t matter who with, does it? Just that he did. Oh, Erica.” At just fourteen, he was wise beyond his years, and she was too far into a bad relationship. He rubbed her back and kissed her forehead. “It’ll be OK. Be glad you found out now, before he hurt you more down the road.”
    “I hate him. I--I can’t… my heart hurts, Nick. My heart literally hurts in my chest.” She looked up at him and found tears streaming down his face. “Why are you crying?”
    “Because I hate seeing you hurt, Erica. It hurts me to see you hurting, because I love you so much.” When she just stared at him, absorbing his words, he leaned forward and kissed the corner of her mouth very gently, hesitantly. It wasn’t quite a full kiss, but enough to make his heart clear to her. “I can be so much more to you, Erica. I already love you. Let me love you more. I’ll never do to you what he did. You can trust me.”

    That day she had taken his hand, let him kiss her again, fully this time, and kissed him back. Fourteen years old and desperately, helplessly in love with each other.
    Now, here they were again, seventeen, and she was dying inside, farther away from him than she had been for years. She groaned and buried her face in her pillow, hugging it tightly, wishing it would give her the same warmth Nick did when she fell asleep in his arms. It didn’t. She had never felt colder.
    In the tour bus, rolling down the road farther and farther from her, Nick clutched his pillow to him as well. Neither got a bit of comfort. There was nothing they wanted more than each other, and there was nothing less attainable.

OK, so at least he knows he was wrong. But what now? I meant this to be a oneshot but the plot got away from me and kind of wrote itself. Enjoy, and please comment!

Oh my goodness this is amazing. I can't wait for more!!! :DD

PMS!! <33

ughhhhhhh kat i love you and everything you do.

you make me want to stop writing, but i wont bc i know what happened to niki and id rather stay away from anyone rioting, that is.. assuming i would get the same love niki got.

meanwhile,

im glad my show is over, well not glad, but only because i can say that i have officially joined the

"nick j ped" club, and be even more in love with nick and this story than i could have been.

I LOVE NICK J.

there.

i said it.

KAT!!!!!! THAT WAS SO GOOOOOOOOOOD!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......

u already saw my reaction to the “We’re over, Erica. I can’t do this anymore. I’m bored with these games.” bit....butbutbutttt....GAHH...Nick m'dear...><

that first paragraph was soooooo romantic and cute and sweeet and ...!!!! =D

then the detail and emotion and everything you put in describing their feelings and stuff...WOW.
this 2-shot is SUPREMEEEE so far! absolutely AMAZING!
and so veryveryyy absorbing too!!!

pleaseeeeeeeee post the 2nd bit soon!!!! =D

<3 Adri

KATT!!!. that was AWESOMEEE
butbut, how could/why would nick do that?!!. THATS.. erm.. NOT ALLOWED
the contrast first paragraph was so.. CUTE AND SWEET but then the break-up was..
so.. BAM, emotion shock. yup
i dont know how to explain but

it was AMAZING, =)
2nd part soon.. ?!!
PLEASE
-krissy