This is a new fan fiction I started....here are the first 3 chapters hope you all enjoy!
Riley Courtwright sat in the backseat of her parents’ Nissan Milan, staring at the passing cars and never ending sea of red lights. In the front of the car, her parents were arguing about the traffic and why they should have left sooner rather then later.
“I told you there was going to be unbelievable traffic. But did you listen to me? No! Of course not,” Riley’s Mom, Vivian, said. Her father didn’t respond but rolled his eyes into the rear view mirror at his youngest daughter.
“We’re never going to be able to make dinner with Denise and Kevin on time.”
“Mom, seriously, chill. It will be fine,” Riley finally spoke to break the nonsense fight. Her mother turned around and glared at her. Riley was a petite ‘voting member of society’, who had pin straight dark brown hair with sparkling blue eyes. Her parents always joked around saying that she must have been the milk man’s baby; because both her parents had light brown hair and brown eyes and Riley’s older siblings had blonde hair and brown eyes.
“Just call and tell them we’re stuck in traffic, but we will be there in twenty minutes,” Derek finally spoke, bringing his wife forth front again.
“You know I love seeing Aunt Denise and Uncle Kevin, but why do I have to be present at this dinner?,” she began ranting as her mother dialed the familiar cell number of Denise, “I mean come on I can stay home by myself for one night, I’m a big girl now, remember my last birthday? Turned eighteen, became an ADULT. Plus Alexis and Dean didn’t have to come.”
“Riley Lynn Courtwright you are going to this dinner and have a very pleasant time do you hear me….Oh hey Denise! Yeah, the traffic is horrible, but Derek said we should be there soon. Okay, see you in a few. Bye.” Riley rolled her eyes and pressed her head against the rain drop stricken car windows. The last time she had gone out with her parents and her aunt and uncle by proxy, she ended up having spaghetti in her hair and grape juice spilt all over her white blouse.
The car came to a stop outside some fancy looking Italian restaurant and Riley got out of the car, dreading the next few hours of her life. She could make an escape now and have her best friend Aislynn pick her up, but as if her father was reading her mind, he grabbed her hand and guided her into the restaurant.
“Vivian, oh my God! It’s so good to see you, you look wonderful,” the very familiar woman with dark curly hair said hugging Vivian tightly.
“Thank you, Denise. It’s really been too long.” Riley watched the adults from behind her dad’s back not trying to be noticed, but apparently luck was not in her favor at the moment.
“Riley Lynn? Look how you have grown up, “her uncle Kevin said, taking her arm and spinning her around for the rest of the clan to take her in. She gave a weak smile and a quick polite nod. It had been years since she had seen her parents’ best friends and if she could remember her appearance pre-spaghetti-in-the-hair, she still had braces and glasses. But since then she had gotten the braces removed, started wearing contacts and blossomed into a young women quite nicely.
“Boys! Come see who is here,” Denise yelled to the rest of the gang she had brought along. One by one Denise and Kevin’s kids filed out of the private room they were going to be having dinner in.
“Riley?!” Riley’s head snapped up at the sound of a very familiar and comfortable voice of her best friend.
“Joseph!” She ran to him and jumped into his arms, getting spun around in the air. The excited chatter sounded off between the two friends as they caught up on their ever changing, fast paced lives. Riley and Joe were the type of best friends that barely saw or spoke to each other for months on end, but the minute they reconnected, it was like they had never been apart.
“I missed you so much and apparently missed you growing up,” he said eyeing her up and down. She laughed his comment off and gave him another hug. Over his shoulder she saw Joe’s brothers watching intently but one in particular wouldn’t stop looking at her. She gave a quick wave before returning to the story Joe had begun to tell their parents about when they became best friends.
“She’s sitting outside the sandbox, crying because Kevin’s friend from school threw sand in her hair. So I made her stand up and grabbed a fist full of sand and we marched over to that greasy haired kid and I shoved the sand down his pants.”
“That’s when I looked up at him and we’ve been best friends ever since! My big brother! Well my better big brother,” Riley said nudging Joe into the rib cage.
The two families sat around a huge table as they talked about memories from when they all lived in New Jersey and all about the boys’ tours and the whirlwind they called life. Riley excused herself from the table to make a quick phone call only to return to an empty table.
“What the hell,” she mumbled, “they freaking left without me!”
“Not quite, they’re all outside on the terrace,” a voice from behind told her. She spun around to see Nick giving her a smile.
“Oh well then forget that I ever said that, okay?” Riley started to walk past him, very aware that Nick’s eyes never left. He had grown up a lot too since the last time she saw him. They were both the same age growing up, but never really made any connection, not like Riley and Joe did.
“Hey Riles?” She met his eyes and starred into his brown eyes. Riles was something she hadn’t heard anyone use in years. It was something Nick only used to call her. No one ever picked up on it like he did.
“Uh, yeah?”
“Will you take a walk with me? I kind of need to get away from all of this.” She studied his posture as if he was nervous to be around her, with his hands deep in his pockets and the curls falling slightly in his eyes.
“Sure, that sounds like a fantastic idea. This is all very overwhelming isn’t it?” He nodded in response and leaded the way out of restaurant.
The warm summer air had since been chilled by the rain storm that had swept through the state previously that night. Now instead of threatening grey clouds, the sky was bright and full of stars. Riley crossed her arms across her chest, trying to hold in whatever heat she could. She felt a slight breeze sweep past them before a warm jacket was placed over her shoulders.
“Thanks,” she said smiling at him for his charming gesture. A simple ‘no problem’ was his answer as they continued walking along the street, wandering aimlessly in silence. If there was one thing that made Riley Courtwright nervous, it was silence and the void it seemed to always leave lurking.
“So….,” she said looking over at him to see if she could study any sort of emotion or look on his face.
“So mom says you aren’t going to college right away, what’s up with that? She said you got into your first choice.” It was his turn to eyeball her now as she searched her mind for a reason to tell him.
“I just don’t feel like it’s where I want to be right now in my life.” It was simple as that, or so she thought.
“And where is it that you see yourself being.” Again he looked over at her, she was really thinking hard on this one, as if she was soul searching. She looked pretty with her brow crinkled in thought.
“Ha. Good question. I guess when I figure it out I will let you know my answer. I just feel like something is missing, so when I find it and I’m happy, I’ll go to school. Maybe I’ll travel and see the sights outside of New Jersey and the shore for once. That would be cool, but I don’t have the money for that so….I guess Home Sweet Home it is” She laughed a little at the thought, but Nick thought it was a great idea.
“I don’t know if Joe told you, but our assistant quit and we’re going back on tour. Maybe we can pull some strings and you can work for us. That solves your problem of money and traveling. We get to see some pretty amazing places,” he said stopping dead in his tracks in front of her. She stopped only inches away from him, contemplating exactly how such a plan would work. She would be working so that would solve that problem of money and doing something productive while not in school and she would get to spend a lot of time with her best friend. A huge smile spread across her face as she grabbed Nick’s face in her hands and gave him a quick smooch right on the lips. At first Nick was taken back by what had just happened but he quickly had to refrain himself from kissing the girl he grew up with and his brother’s best friend.
“You my dear, “she said,” are a genius. Come on let’s go pitch the idea.” She grabbed his hand and took off running back to the restaurant.
The minute they got back to the restaurant, they pitched the idea of Riley working for the boys while they were promoting their album and touring. Riley’s parents weren’t thrilled with her really not going to school, but at least she would be with people they knew would take care of her.
“Listen,” Kevin said trying to calm down his excited kids and Riley,” I can’t make any promises yet. Let me talk it over with the big wigs and see what I can do. I don’t think there will be a problem but let’s just make sure.” All three boys and Riley looked at each other and started jumping up and down in a huddle in the parking lot of the restaurant.
“Welcome to the Jo Bros team, Riley Lynn Courtwright. Please remember to keep your hands and feet in the ride at all times. Please do not feed the crazy people and as always enjoy the ride,” Kev said patting her on the back.
“Welcome to the roller coaster ride of your life,” Joe whispered in her ear.
Chapter 2
Riley had of course gotten the job working for the Jonas Brothers as their assistant. So far everything was easy and fun, except for the temporary hearing loss from some fans outside their hotel. As she readied herself for another fun filled adventure, she mentally went over the boys schedule in her mind ten times before finally stepping out the door. She walked down the hall to the boys’ room, where the boys were having a family breakfast with their parents and little brother.
“Good morning,” she said cheerfully handing each boy their schedule to go over before leaving.
“Morning, Riley, sit down and have some breakfast,” Denise offered. Riley scrunched her nose in slight disgust.
“Riles doesn’t eat breakfast, Mom,” Joe said shoving a fork of eggs into his mouth.
“Yeah she gets an upset tummy if she eats too early,” Kevin said in baby talk.
“Almost threw up over Nick in the car the other day when Dad forced her to eat,” Frankie chimed in.
“Okay, so I’m going to wait outside in the car. We leave when you all are finished. See ya.” She exited the room and made her quiet, relaxing walk to the awaiting car that was chauffeuring them all around New York City today. She liked to always be early so she didn’t have to bombarded with fans the way the boys did every time they left a building. She was amazed that they handled fame as well as they did.
“Hey,” Nick said hoping into the van and shutting the sliding door behind him.
“Hey, where is everyone else?”
“Still eating and finishing getting ready.”
“Figures. Let me guess, Joe is still getting ready?” He laughed and answered yes. An awkward silence fell between the two as they sat in the empty van, waiting for the other to day something first. Riley had taken notice that whenever she came into a room Nick just stopped and watched her, as if she was the only person in the room with him.
“Nick, do you want to say something?” She looked over at him only to realize his face was only inches from hers.
“No not at the moment, I just want to do this.” He took the one side of her face into the palm of his hand, turned her face more towards his and kissed her gently on the lips. She could feel his warm breath on her face as tingles shot through her body. They broke apart, but all the emotion Riley could muffle up was anger.
“What the hell? Are you insane? Nick come on you can’t go around doing that!” He didn’t want to hear that he couldn’t go on kissing her, so he shut her up with his mouth on hers once again. This time only met with a slap that both his older brothers were witness to. Taking notice of the other two Jonas boys, Riley excused herself and said she was taking the day off, before rushing away.
“What did you do, Nick,” Joe asked angrily at his younger brother.
“Nothing.” The last thing Nick wanted to be doing was discussing what had just happened with Riley’s best friend and also his brothers. He was confused as to why she slapped him, when he knew he had felt her kiss back.
“Well you obviously did do something because she just stormed off after slapping you!”
“Just drop it, okay?”
“Just drop it? I don’t think so why is Riley upset,” Joe demanded plopping down right next to Nick.
“He kissed her,” said Frankie appearing in the open door of the van. Kevin’s mouth dropped and Joe’s face turned bright red. Nick glared at Frankie and wondered how in the world he had seen what he had done, no one had been around. Nick buried his head in his hands as Joe turned away to face the window and an awkward silence fell over the very close brothers.
Riley paced back and forth in her hotel room as she rambled on to her best friend what Nick had just sprung on her.
“He KISSED YOU?!”
“Yes! Right on the lips….TWICE! He kissed me once, I asked him what the hell and he kissed me again! I’m so angry I could spit nails.”
“Wow, Riley. I don’t even know what to say to you.” This was probably the only time Riley had heard Aislynn be at a loss of words.
“You’re kidding me right? You don’t have something to say? I need advice here Ace, I’m drowning here!” She watched from her window as the boys’ van had finally moved from the parking lot and sped off to their first radio interview at Z100 in New York City.
“Oh shut up,” Aislynn said tapping her fingers against the phone,” I’m trying to think. Wait I have a question.” Riley’s heart dropped into her stomach as she feared the next thing she knew her best friend was going to ask. ‘Please don’t ask me,’ she thought to herself.
“Uh, yeah…?”
“Do you like him?”
“Excuse me? Would I be mad if the guy I liked kissed me?” There she had come up with a good delay answer.
“Well in high school you got mad at Tristan Loskow when he kissed you. I’m starting to see a recurring theme here, Miss Riley.” Aislynn’s voice had a teasing tone as she finally had backed Riley into a corner.
“I’m hanging up on you now. I’ll talk to you later, “Riley said clicking the end button on her phone. Right as she laid it down to rest on the bed side table, it vibrated to the floor with a thud. She picked it up to see a text message from Joe.
“Great,” she said out loud with a moan. She flipped the phone open to reveal Joe’s straight to the point text. ‘Meet me @ the entrance to the Empire State Building. We need to chat. B there at 12.’ She looked from the phone to the clock ticking on the wall. It was 9:30. She had to occupy herself two and a half hours and thinking about what had happened was not on her to do list at the moment.
Noon seemed to creep up on her faster than she thought it would. She came to the Empire State Building with a few seconds to spare. She searched the fast paced crowd looking for any sign of Joe Jonas. Nothing. She sighed and looked at her cell phone again. It was twelve o’clock on the nose.
“Looking for me?” he asked tapping her on her shoulder, causing her to jump out of her skin.
“Do you normally greet people like that now?”
“What scaring them half to death?”
“Yes.”
“Nah, only to you. It’s a lot more fun. So we need to talk, let’s go grab something to eat.” With that he laced his arm with hers as they mingled into the New York City crowd.
They stopped at this little pizza parlor that seemed to be clearing of the lunch crowd. Joe ordered for the two of them before starting to bring up the conversation at hand.
“So…you slapped Nick this morning.” She nodded sipping her Sprite, not daring to look up at Joe’s face.
“Riley? Look at me,” his voice sounding more stern and brother like,” Now.”
“What?”
“Come on, let’s not play this game. What happened? I know he kissed you two times and he told me you kissed him back both times. So why slap him? Do you like him? Should I be helping pick out the wedding invitations? And seriously, how long has something between you and my brother been going on? I’m kind of hurt you never said anything to me.” Joe seemed to keep going on and seemed more hurt that she supposedly didn’t tell him of her nonexistent relationship with his younger brother. “I mean I will be supportive of your decision to date, but I won’t be able to get in the middle if something happens. Unless he hurts you….then I will kick his butt and tell him what a jerk he is.”
“Joe, shut up.” Joe looked at her confused, “there is nothing going on between Nick and me to my knowledge. I’m just as shocked about this as you are. He sprung that on me this morning, making his feelings very apparent and very out there. I don’t know how to feel except worried to lose my job and angry for him to just kiss me out of the blue like that. I mean COME ON! I just don’t know how I feel.” She threw her arms up in the air in defeat. Joe gave her a sympathetic smile and moved from his side of the booth to hers and wrapped his brotherly arms around her.
“I yelled at him for you.”
“You did?” She looked up at him with her big blue eyes searching his. He nodded and put his nose to her hair. She smelt like sun block on a summer’s day.
“I will say this,” he told her through muffled speech,” If you like him…go for it. I will still be your best friend even if it doesn’t last.”
“Hypothetically speaking here, even if we say that I do have some sort of feelings deep, very deep down inside. I wouldn’t be able to pursue them. My job would be on the line.”
“Well hypothetically speaking here, if you do like him deep, very deep down inside, I will handle the shock waves. Don’t you worry your pretty little head.”
“You know Joseph, I love you.”
“I love ya too, but I’m not in love with you, Riley.” She playfully hit him in the arm as he laughed, trying to block her swing.
Once the boys had made it back to their hotel, Riley was dreading having to face Nick or Kevin or Denise and Kevin Sr. and even Frankie. The Jonas family was close so she knew very feel that this morning’s little incident was probably already discussed and possibly its way to her parents’ ears. Riley shuffled some papers around on her bed trying to do anything to keep her from leaving her room. Somewhere down inside her, she was dying to talk to Nick, but then again her mind was screaming no, no, no! As if reading her thoughts and totally ignoring them, a small knock filled the room with noise. She got off her bed, straightened her shirt out and peeked at who it was. To her much despair it was the curly topped boy she did not want to see, but yet again wanted to see.
“Hey,” he said as she opened the door,” Can I come in?” She opened it wider to allow him passage into her room.
“What can I do for you?” Nick found a spot on the edge of her bed but did not utter a word at first. “Do you need the schedule for tomorrow? It’s printed out already you can have it, if you like.” He shook his head no and she watched the curls on his head bouncing back and forth before falling slightly above his eyes. He was amazingly adorable and she was finding herself starring a lot.
“I just want you to know I’m sorry for what I did today. I should have said something to you, but…,” he picked himself up off the bed and went to the window that was glowing from the city lights below,” when I’m around you, I can’t think straight. You make me tongue tied and twisted. Your face and your smile and your blue eyes are constantly on my mind. I can’t stop thinking about you. I really don’t know why I never saw this before, I mean we grew up together and you were just always Riley. Joe’s best friend, Joe’s other half, the one we thought would end up with Joe, but here I am, Riley, standing in front of a girl who I have known my entire life, telling her that I finally feel something for her after eighteen years. Please don’t lie to me either. You kissed me back today and you felt the tingles inside too. You get goose bumps when I touch you.” By now he was face to face with her holding on to her arms and he was a hundred percent positive that he was indeed giving her the chills.
“Nick…”
“Don’t say a thing yet. I’m not finished. Riley Lynn Courtwright, I am begging you, down on my knees, please tell me you will be with me.” He had her hands in his and she could feel him shaking.
“If you would have let me get a word in edge wise I would have said that I must have been blind my entire life, because you got me falling so fast it isn’t even funny.” A huge smile spread across his face. He squeezed her tightly in his arms, spinning her around in circles, before planting a quick peck on the tip of her nose.
“You get to tell you parents, by the way,” she said when her feet were finally planted firmly on the ground again,” You started this and now you get to be the bearer of the news.”
“That’s fine I’ll go do it now. I’ll even scream it from the roof tops for the entire world to hear if you want me too.”
“Just telling your parents is fine,” she had moved away from him and starred at the window, “But I might lose my job so this may become long distance right off the bat.”
“My parents love you, so they won’t fire you. I’m going to go talk to them right now before bed, I’ll see ya in the morning, okay?” She nodded to him as he shut the hotel door behind him. Tomorrow was going to be judgment day and she was already dreading it.
