This two-shot is for the amazing Megan Marie, because she is ... well ... AMAZING. You rock, Megs! :]
Hope you all enjoy. Let me know what you think. I'll post the second part in the next couple of days. Maybe sooner.
RUMOR HAS IT
Megan tapped her foot nervously as she sat on the couch in her apartment, her heart pounding in her chest. This was it; he was finally coming home. A flash of light from her right hand caught her eye, and she glanced down at the emerald and diamond ring on her finger, the one-year anniversary gift that he had given her nearly half a year earlier. Megan frowned as she twisted the ring around on her finger.
Someone once said that distance only makes the heart grow fonder, but Megan knew this wasn’t true. Her boyfriend was coming home from the latest tour around the country with his brothers, and instead of looking forward to his return, Megan was almost wishing that she could somehow postpone his arrival. This was his third tour since he and Megan had become a couple and each time he had been gone, their relationship had suffered. Megan loved him dearly, but she was afraid that the third time was the charm. That his return and two of them attempting to go back to their pre-tour routine would be the breaking point in their relationship.
A knock at the door caused Megan to jump slightly. She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled as she pushed herself off the couch. She slowly padded across the plush carpet to the entryway, walking as if she were going to her own execution. She opened the door, and her pulse accelerated.
There he stood, in all of his rockstar glory, looking as if he had just stepped out of a magazine. A wool coat protected him from the chilly February night, and a plaid scarf was delicately wrapped around his neck. He was obviously tired, and the bags under his eyes made him appear older than his eighteen years. His dark hair fell over one of his brown eyes, but the one that was visible stared back at Megan, dancing with excitement despite his obvious exhaustion. A smile formed on his face as he stepped through the doorway and took Megan in his arms.
“Megs,” he whispered into her hair as he wrapped her in a tight embrace. Megan closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, the familiar scent of soap and cologne invading her nostrils. “Megs, I missed you so much.”
Megan sighed slightly, closing her eyes as she buried her head in his chest. “I missed you, too, Nick.” She pulled back slightly and looked up at him. Mere seconds later, Nick’s lips were on hers. The kiss started out soft and somewhat hesitant, but was soon intensified. Nick kissed Megan with fervor, as if trying to make up for lost time.
After a few moments, Nick pulled away from Megan. “I love you,” he said, his lips just inches from hers.
“I love you, too,” Megan replied truthfully. As soon as the words escaped her mouth, her lips were once again covered by Nick’s. Megan smiled into the kiss, suddenly hopeful.
This was not how things had gone in the past when Nick had come back from being on tour. Usually upon Nick’s return, awkward silence filled the room, and neither one of them knew how to pick things up where they had been left off. Megan’s stomach filled with butterflies as she kissed Nick, an unfamiliar sensation as of late.
Maybe this time will be different, she thought, suddenly optimistic. Please let it be different.
“Caramel macchiato, please,” Megan told the barista as she fished some bills out of her wallet. She tossed the money onto the counter, collected her change, and readjusted the strap of her laptop case that hung heavily on her shoulder. Thankfully her drink appeared on the counter, and she grabbed it with her only free hand. Megan took a sip of the macchiato, hoping the warm coffee would de-ice her chilly bones. She walked over to an empty table by the window at sat down.
A few feet away from Megan sat two blonde, tanorexic teenage girls, each with a gossip magazine in their hands. Megan chuckled at the sight of the two teens, thankful that she herself had not fallen into the cookie-cutter mold that was ever-so-present in today’s society. When Nick had first began to show interest in her, he had said that one of the things he liked most about her was her ability to be herself and not follow the crowd.
Nick. Megan smiled to herself as she reached into the laptop bag to retrieve her computer, the image of her boyfriend popping into her mind. After he had arrived at her doorstep the night before, they had sat down in Megan’s living room and just talked for two hours straight. Nick told her all about his experiences on tour and how his brothers were doing, and Megan told him about her not-so-glamorous life as a college freshman. The night had been absolutely wonderful, and Megan couldn’t stop smiling even after Nick had left her apartment to go spend time with his parents.
As she opened the laptop on the table in front of her, Megan took another sip of her drink, begging her body to wake up before her psychology class in an hour. She ran a hand through her short brown hair and opened her email, sifting through the junk messages.
“Ew, Britney Spears is huge.”
“Well, she’s pregnant again. Give her a break.”
“Um, you can still work out while you’re preggers. She needs to put down the Cheetos and hit the treadmill.”
Megan wrinkled her nose as she looked over at the two blonde girls. God, superficial much? She thought as she tried to ignore the bimbos and turned her attention back to her email. She didn’t understand how people could make such catty remarks, especially when it was about someone they had never met. Being the girlfriend of one of America’s heartthrobs, she knew firsthand how cruel people could be. And how fast rumors could spread. She took another sip of her macchiato and deleted the message on her computer screen.
“Oh, God, did you hear about Nick Jonas and Selena Gomez?”
The coffee in Megan’s mouth nearly ended up all over the keyboard of her laptop as she heard one of the blonde girls mention her boyfriend. A frown formed on her face as she strained to hear the rest of the girls’ conversation.
“Who is Selena Gomez?”
“You know, that cute girl who was in their ‘Burnin’ Up’ video a couple years ago. She was the opening act on their tour last year, then she kind of dropped off the face of the earth.”
“Oh, the girl from that wizard show?”
“Yeah, her. I guess Nick and her are dating now. They spent Valentine’s Day together last week, and there are pictures of them together on TMZ.”
“Wait, doesn’t Nick have a girlfriend? Other than Selena, I mean.”
“Not anymore, apparently.”
Tears formed in Megan’s eyes as she listened to the girls’ gossip. Her hands quickly typed in a few words on her keyboard, and the TMZ home page popped up on the screen. Please just be a rumor, please just be a rumor, Megan silently pleaded as she scrolled down the page. She stopped abruptly and the tears in her eyes began to spill out as her eyes fixated on the bold headline.
“Nick Jonas: Jonesing For Love.”
The article went on to describe their outing while the Jonas Brothers were in Los Angeles for a show the week before, and made a sarcastic comment about how they both wore purity rings. But Megan wasn’t looking at the lengthy article. Her eyes only saw the three photos that went along with it.
Nick and Selena, laughing and holding hands. Nick and Selena, arms wrapped around each other as they strolled the streets of L.A. Nick and Selena … kissing. The third photograph cut Megan like a knife, and she slammed her laptop shut. She’d seen enough. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed, not caring that people were now staring at her.
Megan had thought that Nick’s return had been different this time. In a twisted way, it had been different. Because never before had he crushed Megan like this. The sunlight from outside reflected off the ring on her hand, and she ripped it off her finger in disgust, shoving it into the front pocket of the messenger bag at her feet. She didn’t need to hear Nick's explanation; a picture was worth a thousand words.
And Nick had three pictures.
