hey everyone! i'm wicked wicked sorry that it has taken me so long to add a new chapter. the real nicole spent the week at my house leaving me no time whatsoever to write up a new chapter and lately i just haven't been in the mood to write. but here it is finally, hopefully the excitement for the upcoming jonas brothers concert will inspire me to write more. hope you like it!
♥tory
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

“So, when are you leaving?” I asked Nick. We were sitting on the porch steps in the front of the house. I held my head up with my fist, my arm resting on my knees.
He sighed. “Tonight. We need to be back in time to rehearse for the show Monday night. But before we did, I just had to come back and make things right.”
I smiled weakly, but still focusing on the ant that was walking across the front path.

“Well, do you wanna come in for a bit? Or do you have to leave right now?”
“Well, I suppose I could come in for a couple minutes...” he said, looking in my eyes and smiling. I laughed and stood up and opened the door, walking inside with him behind me.

“Nick! You're back! We thought you died!” Abby said, running out into the front hallway and throwing her arms around Nick. Nick laughed and hugged her back.
“Don't worry, I'm alive,” he chuckled.

“So, are you leaving like, today?” Nicole asked, sitting down in the chair in the living room. Nick nodded his head while taking a seat on the love seat.
“Where is everyone else?” Abby asked, taking a sip from the Poland Springs water bottle she was holding.
“At home I believe,” Nick answered. “You want to come over and say goodbye again?” Nick asked her after a couple seconds of silence.
She looked up at Nick and smiled, nodding her head rapidly. We laughed and stood up, shutting the movie off and grabbing our phones before walking back outside.
“Whoa, it's hot out,” Nicole said, stepping onto the front porch and squinting her eyes from the glare of the sun.
Nick stopped. “Why don't you grab your bathing suits or something. Maybe we can go in for a bit,” he said, looking back at us. We ran upstairs to get our bathing suits from my room and ran back downstairs and outside.


“So, did you guys even leave Massachusetts?” Nicole asked Nick as we crossed the street.
“Yeah, we actually made it to Nebraska,” Nick said, letting out a laugh. I stopped dead in my tracks.
“You were in Nebraska and turned around just to come back because I'm an idiot?!” I said, standing there with my mouth open in disbelief.
“Mace, you're not an idiot,” Nick said shaking his head and waiting a couple feet ahead of me. I started to walk towards the three of them.
“Nick, seriously, the way I treated you...if I were you, I wouldn't have turned around in Nebraska just to go back to Massachusetts to apologize someone who was a complete...” I started before hesitating. “...witch to you.” I stopped again, staring at the ground below me, shaking my head. “But you're not like that...”
“Forgive and forget, Mace. It's all in the past. Let's just pretend it never happened and we can just move on?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders. I smiled.
“I was kinda hoping you'd say that,” I smiled back as we continued to walk a few more feet before reaching their street.

We finished our walk down the street with not too much to talk about. We finally reached the large white colonial house with black shutters at the end of the cul-de-sac, where Frankie was riding his Razer scooter.
“Hey Frankie!” Abby waved to him. He stopped near where we were walking, waving back.
“Hey, Frankie. Where is everyone?” Nick asked, stopping in front of Frankie and looking down to make eye contact.
“Um, inside I think,” he replied. He was wearing his bathing suit and looked as if he had just gotten out of the pool. He put his foot back on his scooter and started kicking away. We made our way into the cool, air-conditioned house.

“Hey, Dad,” Nick said, poking his head into the living room where Mr. Jonas was reading the paper.
“Hey, guys!” he said, folding it over and turning his head to face us. “What are you up to?” he asked.
“Nothing, where are Joe and Kevin?” he asked, looking around for them.
“Uh...I think they might be out back in the pool. Are you guys gonna go in for a bit?”
“yeah,” Nick answered, nodding his head.
“Alright, have fun!” Mr. Jonas said, picking up another piece of the newspaper and began reading it.

Abby was first in the bathroom to change, then Nicole. Nick came downstairs with a few towels, all set to go and I headed to the bathroom to get changed, letting them know that I would meet them out there.

When I was all set, I opened the first floor bathroom door, stepping out into the hallway, eventually ending up in the kitchen. Mrs. Jonas was sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine. She looked up at the sound of my footsteps. She smiled warmly.

“Hi, Macy! How are you?” she asked before I reached the door.
“I'm good Mrs. Jonas, how are you?” I asked back.
“I'm good, thanks. What are you guys up to?”
“Um, we're just going swimming for a bit,” I replied.
She nodded her head. “Well, have fun!” she said, going back to her magazine.
“Thanks,” I said, reaching the door, but hesitating to open it. I took a deep breath and turned around again to the table to the left. “Mrs. Jonas...” I started, looking at her before quickly looking away. She looked up.
“What is it, hunny?” she asked. I bit my lip before sitting down in one of the chairs. I studied the gorgeous sunflowers in the center of the table.
“I feel bad. Really really bad,” I said, looking back up at her, making eye contact. She tilted her head.
“About what?” she asked.
“About the way I treated Nick. The things I said, I haven't quite figured out why I said them. And your family is so close that...when I hurt him, I probably hurt you too,” I said, leaning back in the chair, my hands on the table. “I don't really know who I've been the past couple weeks. I hated who I had been, what I had become. I hated what I said and what I had done. But what I hated most was the feeling that I lost people who were important to me. And it was more than just three people,” I sighed. “I can get really jealous and selfish and I tend to overreact, and I know it wasn't fair to everyone else, especially Nick. He's nothing but a sweet boy who has amazing talent and is nothing but nice. He's a true gentlemen and I've already apologized to him, but I feel like I should apologize to you too,” I told her. Finally I felt like the last one thousand pounds had just been lifted from my shoulders.

I looked down at my hands on the table. I was twisting my fingers and I could feel my stomach being sucked in, the two major signs I was nervous. I looked back up at Denise and nodded my head.
“I'm sorry,” I spoke quietly before looking back at my fingers as I twisted them. I sat there for a couple seconds until Mrs. Jonas started to speak. I looked back up to her as a smile started to form on her face.

“Macy,” she began, nodding her head. “Thank you.” I bit my lip again. “That was a really strong and mature thing you did and I wouldn't expect someone your age to do so. That means a lot that you did though,” she said. I nodded my head and smiled. “But you go out there and have some fun now,” she smiled, turning back to her magazine. I stood up from the seat, pushing it back into the table and walking to the slider, grabbing the handle.
“Oh, I also feel really bad that you guys made it to Nebraska and turned back around,” I told her. “Sorry.”
“oh, don't worry about it, sweetie,” she told me, waving her hand like it was no big deal. “Nick really likes you,” she told me softly. I turned back to the slider and looked outside at the five of them out there.
“I really like him too,” I smiled, not taking my eyes off of him out there. I opened the slider and stepped out onto the patio, weaving my way through the furniture and making my way over to the gate. I opened it letting myself into the pool area to join everyone else.
“Hey, Mace!” I heard Kevin call over from the opposite side of the pool.
“Hey Kevin!” I waved over to him as he ran to the deep end and doing a cannonball, creating a huge splash.
“Heeey, Macy,” Joe said, coming up from behind me and wrapping his arms around me quickly before letting go.
“Hi, Joe,” I said, trying to hold back laughter while wiping the water off my arms. I walked over to the stairs in the shallow end, walking right in. “It's like bathwater,” I said, making my way to the slope in the pool.

“Macy, you're so white,” Abby said, loud so everyone could hear as she held her arm up to me.
“Stop it,” I whined, laughing a little. I was Irish and fair skinned making it pretty complicated to tan.
“Wow,” Joe said, swimming over and holding his arm up to mine. I pulled them away, holding them back behind me.
“It's not my fault I have a difficult time getting a tan!” I told them, swimming into the deep end. Nick was standing on the diving board laughing. “my brother says I look albino” I told them. I couldn't help but laugh. Kevin burst out into laughter. He was floating around in the deep end on one of the rafts. Kevin's laugh always made me laugh ten times harder, so everyone else started laughing hysterically.

I swam over to the ladder, grabbing on to one of the steps to hold myself up so I didn't drown. I sighed, thinking I probably shouldn't have said anything. Nicole swam over to grab the side of the pool. Her face was beet red from laughing too. I slapped her arm playfully.

“Stop that,” I said, turning myself around but still holding onto the ladder. “It wasn't too long ago we were the same color,” I told her. She rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Whose lovely voice is that?” Joe asked sarcastically. Music was blasting from the iHome that was brought out and set up on a table and Pushin' Me Away had just come on.
“I don't know, but I think the person singing 'Pushin' me away' in the chorus is pretty good!” Nick said, singing the part of the chorus.
“Weird, Nick! You sound just like him!” I said, floating out into the middle of the deep end, going along with it. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders before jumping off the diving board and doing a pencil dive. I rolled my eyes.

“Wait guys...we have to jump in like...with the song and...you know?!” Nicole said, trying to figure out what she was trying to say.
Kevin shook his head. “Not quite, Nicole,” he laughed.
“Like, you know how in Skyway Avenue we always jump in at that part that's like 'cause if you jump...' and we always jump in at that part?” she said.
“oh,” Abby and I said in unison before lifting ourselves out of the pool.
“Like, where we jump at the concert? You mean jump in at that part?” Joe asked, hoisting himself up on the side of the pool as well.
“YES!” Nicole said excitedly as someone else finally understood. Joe nodded his head. “K.”

“push push pushin' me away, push push pushin' me away, push push pushin' me away, push push pushin' me away,” Joe sang over the speakers and on the side off the pool. He smiled, loving hearing his voice. How could you not though?

Abby was on the diving board and had Kevin and Frankie on either side of her since Frankie had recently joined us. Nick and Joe were on the opposite side of the pool from me and Nicole as we got ready to jump in.

“Push push pushin' me away, push push pushin' me away, push push pushin' me away...”
“Now!” Abby yelled. As soon as the drums were hit again, the seven of us jumped into the water.

“That was awesome,” Abby said as she surfaced.
“Agreed,” I replied, wiping the water from my eyes and laughing.

“Boys, we need to get ready for dinner! We're leaving soon!” Mrs. Jonas called out from the sliding door leading onto the patio. She closed it and walked away while we got out of the pool. We grabbed our towels and walked over to the patio where we could dry off. I looked at my phone. It was already five o'clock and they were leaving at six. We walked into the house and the table was already set with food out.

The boys walked us to the door after we said thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Jonas. We said goodbyes rather quickly since we knew it was be somewhat difficult for all of us. I dreaded saying goodbye to Nick again, but before I knew it, it was that time. I took a deep breath as did he.

“bye,” I said with a weak smile, waiting a few seconds until he wrapped his arms around me. My arms were wrapped around him while I took another breath.
“Goodbye, Macy,” he said, rubbing my back. “I'll see in you in a couple weeks,” he said, letting go and smiling weakly. I nodded my head and took a step back.

I turned around wand walked back down the steps where Nicole and Abby were waiting for me as Kevin, Joe, and Nick stood in the doorway.

“Boys!” Mr. Jonas's voice came from the kitchen. Kevin and Joe turned around, walking away as did Abby, Nicole and I.
“Macy,” Nick called softly after me. I turned around and stopped while Abby and Nicole kept walking.

“We may be miles apart, but I'm only a phone call away,” he said with a smile, waving his cell phone in front of him. I smiled.
“Text me too?” I said back.
“Will do,” he said.
“Nicholas!” Mr. Jonas called for his son. I turned around, meeting up with the girls who were waiting for me at the end of the driveway as I heard the door slowly creak shut.

“You okay?” Abby asked as we were halfway down the street. I shrugged, looking back at the Jonas's new house, feeling my eyes well up with tears.
“It might not be as hurtful this time, but it's just as painful.”