Hey guys! The regular thread is frozen and I JUST put an update up yesterday, so Natali and I decided we should make a temporary thread. So here it is. :]
This is the latest chapter, the one I posted yesterday. If you missed one of the previous ones, let us know and we can PM it to you or something. Enjoy!
[CHAPTER 008]
“Selfish, hateful girl.”
Sara was absolutely fuming as she muttered to no one in particular. Never before had she been so angry at a person. Alexa had brought her to her boiling point, and Sara was on the verge of unleashing a round of unkind words at the person nearest to her. That person happened to be Joe, who had stayed with Sara after Kevin had done an about-face and chased after the spoiled princess.
“It’s okay,” Joe said, resting his hands on Sara’s shoulders. “Don’t let her get to you.”
Sara backed away from Joe’s hands. “It’s not okay, Joe,” she spat, her anger gradually giving way to sadness and frustration. “Things are far from okay.” Tears filled her eyes, threatening to overflow. She spun away from Joe, desperate to keep him from seeing the emotion and vulnerability that she knew was written all over her face.
Still grasping the hammer, Sara walked over to the frame of her future house, determined to make good use of her frustration. She grabbed a nail out of the tool belt that hung around her waist, and raised it up to the wooden frame.
“Stupid, stupid girl,” she muttered as each swing of her hammer became more forceful. She put all of her energy into striking the heads of the nails, taking twisted pleasure in picturing whining Alexa as her target instead of the small pieces of metal.
“Stupid freaking rich bit---” Sara cut her sentence short as her hammer missed its intended target and instead hit her finger, causing her to wail in pain.
“Owwwww!” she cried, dropping the hammer and grabbing her thumb. “Ow, ow, ow!” Joe’s eyes widened as he watched the injury occur, and he rushed over to Sara. He gently looped an arm around her waist and steered her over to a folding lawn chair.
“Sit,” he instructed, and Sara did as told. “I’ll be right back,” Joe told her.
As Joe jogged off, Sara shook her hand violently, trying to rid her limb of the pain. Realizing that didn’t help, she instead just grasped her thumb and silently willed the pain to go away. The leftover tears from her argument with Alexa spilled out, mixing with the sweat and dirt that covered her face.
Seconds later, Sara heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see Joe jogging toward her, a plastic grocery bag in hand. He stopped at Sara’s side and handed the bag, which turned out to be filled with ice, over to her.
“Thanks,” Sara said meekly, now embarrassed by her previous outburst. “I’m sorry for yelling at you, and I’m also sorry that you had to witness the drama between Alexa and I.”
“It’s okay,” Joe assured her. He pulled up a second lawn chair and sat in front of Sara. “Between you and me, she pretty much had it coming.”
Sara tore her attention away from her throbbing thumb and looked at Joe, her eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?” she asked. “I thought you and Alexa were getting … chummy.”
Joe snorted. “If by chummy you mean she hangs all over me while I try to ignore her, then yes, we’re chummy.” Joe’s smile suddenly turned into a frown. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”
“It’s okay,” Sara replied. “I just thought … I mean, Alexa is so beautiful and her flirting was pretty obvious …” She trailed off and tilted her head sideways, not wanting to say her thoughts out loud. Joe shook his head, knowing what Sara was implying.
“Alexa is gorgeous,” Joe said. “But beauty is really only skin deep. She’s a nice enough girl when she wants to be, but I just don’t like her like that.”
Sara laughed lightly. “Wow. Joe Jonas is human, after all.”
“I know, who’da thunk?” Joe teased, joining in on the laughter. After several moments, Sara turned solemn as a realization hit her. If Joe isn’t even attracted to Alexa, she thought, then I really don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with him. She also realized that the dried tears and dirt that were caked on her face weren’t helping, and she rubbed at her cheeks with her uninjured hand.
Noticing what Sara was trying to do, Joe grabbed a rag and tossed it to her. “You look fine,” he said, smiling. “Personally, I think the dirt is a nice touch.” Sara half-smiled and scrubbed at her face with the rag. “If you don’t mind me asking,” Joe continued, “what exactly happened between you and Alexa today?”
Sara stopped rubbing and looked at Joe, studying him. She took in his old Ed Hardy shirt and tattered jeans that were covered in fresh dirt from the day’s work. His normally perfect, sculpted hair was a mess of waves, and a small smudge of dirt adorned his left cheek.
For the first time, Sara realized that Joe wasn’t just some celebrity God whose face had been on a poster on her wall. Take away the magazine photos, the paparazzi, the concert stage, and the fancy clothes, and Joe was really just a normal teenager. And as Sara looked at him, she discovered that it wasn’t when he was dolled up for a photoshoot that he looked his best. It was the messed up hair, the dirty clothes, the imperfections that made him so incredibly sexy. It made him seem more attainable, more … normal.
Sara had never been one to open up to people she didn’t know about events in her personal life. Usually she kept her guard up and her mother was the only person she could talk to. But as Sara looked at Joe, she felt an unfamiliar sense of trust. One look into his emotion-filled eyes told Sara that Joe had troubles of his own, and that he probably needed someone to talk to as well. Although Sara had only met the pop star the day before, she knew that she had already found a friend in him. She knew that she could trust him.
“She just doesn’t know how good she’s got it,” Sara said, looking down at her injured thumb instead of at Joe. “She takes everything for granted, and she’s the most selfish person I’ve ever met. And I only met her yesterday!” A tear trickled down Sara’s cheek as the main reason for their fight reentered her memory. “She talks so much crap about her father, and how he’s this horrible person for sending her here. But at least she still has a father…” Sara trailed off as emotion overwhelmed her. Tear after tear fell from her eyes, and soon her shoulders were heaving as she sobbed.
“I’m sorry,” she managed to say through her tears. Desperately clinging to what dignity she had left after her sudden outburst, she stood up and started to walk away from Joe.
Joe jumped out of his chair and walked over to Sara, lightly grabbing her arm in an attempt to stop her. He gently tugged her around so she was facing him, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest.
“It’s okay,” he said softly as he smoothed her hair. “It’s going to be okay, Sara.”
“No, Joe,” she said when her sobbing had finally subsided. “It’s not going to be okay.” She half-heartedly started to pull away from him, but his tight grip on her body stopped her. She didn’t fight; the feeling of his arms around her comforted Sara.
“He’s gone, Joe,” she said into his chest. “My dad’s gone forever and so is Kylee.” Sara’s lip began to quiver, but no fresh tears spilled out. She’d used them all up; the supply was gone. Joe didn’t want to meddle, but curiosity and concern got the best of him.
“Who’s Kylee?” he asked, lightly rubbing Sara’s back.
“My little sister,” Sara answered, then took a deep breath before continuing. “She and my dad were killed in the storm.”
“Oh, Sara, I’m sorry,” Joe replied, his own eyes glazing over. “I didn’t know.” The Katrina Relief Foundation hadn’t revealed any detailed information about the families’ lives, other than the vague fact that they had somehow been affected by the hurricane.
As he held Sara in his arms, Joe’s heart broke for her. His family was everything to him, and he couldn’t even fathom what it would be like to lose one member, let alone two. He didn’t know what else to say. There were no words he could speak that would assist Sara in the healing process.
For the next several minutes, silence surrounded Sara and Joe. But in no way was it an awkward silence; Sara actually found the wordless embrace more soothing than anything that Joe could have said. She buried her face in his chest, her arms wrapped around his waist. She took a deep breath, the scent of cologne and laundry detergent entering her nose. There was something extremely comforting about being in Joe’s arms, and for a brief moment the thought of her father and sister was pushed to the back of her mind.
Sara’s heart raced as she realized how perfectly she fit in Joe’s embrace. She wished they could stay like this forever, arms around each other. But then Sara remembered that it wasn’t just your average Joe, no pun intended, that held her.
This was Joe Jonas, one-third of the hottest band in the country. Heartthrob extraordinaire. And although on the inside he seemed like a normal teenager, he was really anything but. Because normal teenagers didn’t tour the world and drive millions of girls crazy. He could have virtually anyone in the world; there was no way he would fall for the tear-stained, emotional wreck that he held in his arms, in a comforting, friendly embrace.
Sara sighed into Joe’s chest. At least we’re friends, she thought. I think we are, anyway.
Besides, a girl could dream. After all, the Jonas Brothers had a song that was appropriately titled “Just Friends”. And for the girl in the song, everything turned out just fine.
