fic: it always comes around (disney rpf, nick/miley, 3/4)
Title: It Always Comes Around
Author: empressearwig
Pairing: Nick/Miley
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8,800 for this part
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is all for fun. This didn’t happen. Etc.
Summary: Two weeks in June.
Author’s Notes: I was going to finish this before I started posting, but then I realized just how long it was going to be and said screw it. Thanks to various people who read this against their will.
[Part 1] [Part 2]
Miley spends her first full day in Savannah without Nick trying not to think about Nick.
It doesn’t really work.
Everything reminds her of him. Every song she listens to makes her think about him, them. A Brooke Fraser song that she downloaded because Demi told her she had to, all of the Elvis Costello songs he must have snuck onto her ipod when she wasn’t paying attention, and all of the Jonas Brothers songs that she’d never been able to delete no matter how much they hurt to listen to.
But now she can listen to them for what they are, Nick’s declarations of love, without any fear that he doesn’t mean them anymore. Because he does mean them, and she wants him to mean them forever.
So even though she knows she shouldn’t, that she’s probably being too obvious, she can’t help but tweet the lyrics to one of her favorites:
We're miles and miles apart but I'm still holding on to your heart.
Even if he doesn’t see it, she hopes that he knows that she’s always going to be doing just that.
*
Things aren’t getting any easier with Justin.
They text for a little while that afternoon, and she finally confesses that Nick came to visit and Justin doesn’t react well. At all. She’d known that finding out was going to hurt him, but she didn’t expect him to take it that badly.
And okay, he probably has a right to be upset. But she never meant for this to happen with Nick, really she didn’t. It’s just… it’s Nick. Justin has always known how she felt about Nick.
By the end of their conversation she’s frowning and has the start of a headache, and she’s pretty sure that there’s no way that they’ll be able to be friends, at least not any time soon. And maybe, that’s what is supposed to happen after breakups, but it still sucks.
She’d gladly give up this part of growing up.
But then Nick texts her, miss you. make sure you watch letterman tonight. love you., and she can’t help but grin and wonder exactly why she has to watch.
She can’t be that sad about Justin, not when Nick’s making her this happy.
She just can’t.
*
Her mom insists that they have dinner together.
Which, it’s not that she doesn’t want to, exactly. It’s just that she’s worried about what her mom is going to ask and what she’s going to say. There’s not a simple answer to what’s going on with her and Nick; he’s not her boyfriend, but they’re not exactly just friends. And Miley can’t imagine telling her mom that she and Nick are friends with benefits or something, which they totally aren’t anyway.
God, she can’t imagine ever using that phrase to describe her and Nick.
They go to this outdoor café on a lake and it’s the first time in forever that she can remember going out to eat and not having to worry about the paparazzi. If the entire summer is like this, she may never want to leave Savannah.
A waiter takes their drink order and then her mom sits back in her chair and says, “So,” and Miley knows that the clock just ran out.
“So what?” she asks as innocently as she can, grabbing the glass of water and sucking desperately through the straw.
Her mom raises her eyebrows at her and Miley curses in her head. She knows that look and it doesn’t mean anything good for her.
Miley sighs and sets the glass back down on the table, twirling the straw around. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“You could start by telling me how your visit was,” her mom suggests, taking a sip of her own water.
Miley can’t help but smile at that, because the visit was amazing. Perfect. The only bad thing about it was that it ended. “It was great,” she says, looking across the table at her mom. “Thank you for letting him come.”
Her mom smiles at her. “I think Nick is great, you know that, Miles.”
Miley nods, because yeah, she does, even if her mom has nothing on her daddy. Miley still isn’t sure who was happiest about her and Nick being friends again, her or her daddy, because daddy was over the moon the first time she hung out with Nick again all those months ago. Sometimes she wonders if her daddy hasn’t already made wedding plans for her and Nick, that’s how much he seems to like and trust the boy, which is just weird, because what normal father does that?
But then she supposes that Billy Ray Cyrus isn’t anyone’s idea of a normal father.
Her mom is looking at her expectantly and Miley tries to figure out what to say next. “Nick invited me to Dallas next weekend to perform with him,” she blurts out, thankful she’s thought of something else safe to talk about. “Can I go?”
“I think we can arrange that.”
The waiter comes back with their drinks and they order dinner and Miley’s grateful for the reprieve, however small it is.
Her mom just looks at her again and says, “Come on, Miley. What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure,” she mumbles, holding up her hand to ward off the comments she’s sure is coming. “Honestly, I’m not.”
“Something is going on,” her mom says pointedly. “Or are you going to pretend that I wasn’t interrupting you and Nick on the dock that night?”
Miley can feel herself turning bright red even through her sunburn and she hisses, “Mom!”
Her mom laughs. “Miley.”
“Okay, okay,” Miley grumbles. “There’s something going on, okay? We just - we’re trying to take things slow, so we haven’t really defined it, exactly.”
Her mom raises an eyebrow again. “Slow? You and Nick?”
Miley frowns and crosses her arms over her chest. Why does everyone think that’s impossible? “Yes, me and Nick.”
Her mom looks skeptical, but nods. “What does that mean?”
Okay, now Miley’s annoyed. Nick was only here for two days. Why does she have to have all the answers? “I told you I wasn’t sure what was going on. He’s not my boyfriend or anything if that’s what you mean.”
“Good,” her mom says, and Miley blinks at her in surprise. What did she just say?
“What?” Miley asks incredulously. “What?”
“Miley, you just broke up with Justin. You shouldn’t jump into a new relationship so quickly.”
Which is a fair point, Miley has to admit, but from her mom? She thought her mom was a founding member of the “We Love Nick Jonas Fan Club.”
“I know,” Miley says, still looking at her mom like she’s grown two heads. “That’s what I told him.”
"How are things with Justin?"
Miley squirms uncomfortably in her chair. If she didn't want to talk about Nick, she really doesn't want to talk about Justin. "They're... they're not good. He's mad at me."
Her mom just raises an eyebrow at her and Miley can't help but get defensive. "It wasn't going to work! No matter what. That's not my fault."
"No," her mom says. "It's not. Does Justin know about Nick?"
"That Nick and I are friends?" Miley asks, stressing the last word. Because that's all that they for sure are, no matter what the rest of the world thinks. Or that they spent a not inconsiderable part of the last few days making out.
Her mom looks amused. "Sure."
"Yes, Justin knows," Miley sniffs. She loves her mom, she does, but she would give just about anything for this conversation to be over. "Why do you think he's mad at me?"
Before her mom can say anything else, the waiter materializes with their food and Miley digs in.
A burger and fries has never looked so good to her.
*
Miley demands that they stay for dessert.
She's earned ice cream, damn it. That conversation definitely is one of the top five most awkward ones she's ever had with her mom and she deserves a reward for making it through without running away to hide.
She doesn't know why this is so hard to talk about. She can talk for hours and hours about everything and anything and to anyone, her parents included. She tells her mom and dad almost everything, way more than most of her friends tell their parents. But she can't find the words to describe what's going on with her, with her and Nick, with her and Justin. Maybe it matters too much, maybe she's too confused, maybe it's something else entirely.
She's just not used to not being able to talk.
She looks out over the lake and sees a flash of lightning strike.
*
Watching the basketball game alone isn't any fun.
It's no fun without someone there to mock when the Lakers are losing. It's no fun without someone to shout at the refs with when they make horrible calls. It's no fun without someone to trash talk.
It's no fun without Nick.
She wants to talk to him, she'd settle for watching the game with him over the phone. But she knows he's at that free show they're playing tonight, so it's not even like she can call him.
So instead, she pulls out her laptop and starts a new playlist.
Sometimes they do their best talking through music anyway.
*
Nick calls her while she's watching Letterman.
"Are you watching?" he asks immediately, not even bothering to say hello. She can hear Joe and Kevin in the background and it makes her miss when they were all on tour together.
"Hello to you, too," she laughs, stretching out on her stomach on her bed. "And yes, I am."
"Good."
"So why am I watching exactly," she asks curiously. He'd told her before he left that they were singing Paranoid and she's seen them sing that before so it's not exactly out of the ordinary.
"You'll see," he says mysteriously, and she grins like an idiot. He's so cute when he's like this. "How was your day?"
"Eh," she says. Her day kind of sucked, to be honest, and she doesn't want to talk about it. Not when he's on the phone and she feels the happiest she has all day.
"That good, huh?"
"It's better now," she says with feeling, hoping he'll understand what she's not saying.
"Yeah," he breathes, in a voice she knows is just for her. "Me too."
She can hear Joe's voice getting louder in the background and she hears Nick saying something to him, but she can't make it out, and then suddenly Joe's the one talking into the phone.
"Hey Miles," he says. "I hear you're coming to Dallas next week."
"Hi Joe," she says back, and god, she really wishes she were there. "I hope you've been practicing, because I'm going to kick your ass."
"You wish," he scoffs. "When are you going to admit you suck?"
"Never."
There's more noise in the background and Joe says really fast, "Nick says he's going to beat me up if I don't give the phone back, and I'd hate to embarrass him in front of you, so I gotta go. See you soon, Miles."
"Bye Joe," she laughs. She missed all of the boys last year, even Frankie, but Joe's the one she missed most other than Nick. Having Joe in her life was like having an extra big brother, only this one would talk about hair straighteners and what flavor jello was the best or what kind of superpowers they would want, unlike her real older brother who always wanted to prove how hard core he was. Having them all back in her life is the best thing in the world, she swears.
"Sorry 'bout that," Nick says, clearly having wrestled the phone away from his brother.
She just shrugs. "It's Joe."
"Yeah," he says.
She looks over at the television when she hears Dave saying "and next, the Jonas Brothers."
"I think you're on soon."
"What? Okay, then I'm going to go." Now he sounds a little bit embarrassed and she's basically dying of curiosity at this point. Just what is so special about this performance?
"You're not going to watch with me?" she pouts.
"No, no, no," he says and she can practically hear him shaking his head.
"That's a no then?" she laughs. She looks back over at the television. "Well, you'd better hang up then, you're on in about a minute."
"Bye, Miles," he says instantly. His voice drops really low, like he's trying not to be overheard. "Love ya."
"Love you, too," she whispers back and she hears him hang up the phone. She turns toward the tv and turns the volume up.
This ought to be good.
*
Doing press isn't her favorite thing in the world.
She accepts it as something that she just has to do, and it can be fun at times, especially when she can play games with reporters, but she'd usually rather be doing just about anything else. So being reminded that she's going to be spending her morning doing press calls to promote the tour isn't exactly the highlight of her day.
But it's going pretty well, she's settled into a groove of sorts, or as much of one as you can when you're only allotted five minutes per station. She's talked to a lot of these people before, and most of them don't exactly ask hard hitting questions or keep pressing the way that Seacrest always does. She kind of secretly likes his interviews best, though, because it's fun to see just how much she can get away with saying or not saying. No one digs for dirt better than him, and Miley respects that, just not so much when he's digging into her life.
When she's asked about Nick for the first time, she's a little bit surprised, because she knows that wasn't on the list of approved questions. But she's talking to a Nashville station, and the question is pretty innocuous, so she doesn't see the harm in answering.
She talks about how good it feels to be friends with Nick again, how happy their families are that they're friends, how they're just kind of chilling and having a good time.
As she's talking, she realizes that she's basically quoting Nick from that interview he had with Barbara Walters months ago, the one that she watched in secret, when no one else was home, because she didn't want anyone to find out. She remembers that her heart fluttered a little bit when she watched, because she swore she saw something in his eyes when he talked about their friendship and whatever might happen in the future.
They've reconnected.
It's amazing how one word can mean so much.
*
If Miley had ever had any doubts about how much her daddy loves Nick, watching his interview with Larry King makes them all go away.
Seriously, "he's a great little human being" may be her new favorite quote in the world. And she's most definitely going to be calling Nick that on a regular basis, whether he likes it or not. If she can get Joe in on the act it will be all the better.
Nick doesn't stand a chance against the two of them, he never has.
She's pretty sure it's the middle of the night in Madrid, but she texts him anyway: watch my daddy on lkl when u get home. he loooooves u. but not as much as me. xxoo.
He's a great little human being.
Truer words have never been spoken.
*
She can't sleep.
She and Justin had another fight and there's nothing she can do to make him understand that every time she told him she loved him she meant it. She did love Justin, does love Justin, and she never meant to hurt him. But she did and it doesn't matter how sorry she is, he's apparently not going to forgive her.
So she needs to move on. Focus on the present, on what's making her happy right this minute, not regrets about things that she can't and wouldn't change even if she could. Because she's not going to regret loving Nick, or taking another chance on him, no matter how badly anyone else wants her to.
And any minute now Nick is supposed to call.
Time zones are hard, especially when you're dealing with being on different continents. It's just lucky that she likes to stay up late, otherwise they'd be impossible.
She does her best to occupy herself, to not will the phone to ring, but it's so hard. She replies to fans on twitter and decides she can't keep seeing Justin's tweets about how horrible she is and purges the people she's following. This is a new Miley, and this Miley is going to be happy no matter what anyone else says.
Which is why when her phone rings she dives for it like the world will end if she doesn't answer it immediately.
"Hey," she says breathlessly, pressing the phone against her ear and curling up against her pillows.
"Hi," Nick says, and there's a ton of noise in the background. They must be getting ready at the venue, she guesses. "So why do I have to watch your dad?"
She laughs. "I'll never tell."
"Come on, not even a hint?"
She laughs again and holds the phone closer to her ear. "Did you give me a hint as to why I had to watch you on Letterman, mister?"
"No," he grumbles. "But come on, I'm in another country."
"That has working internet."
"Fine," he sighs dramatically. "What are you doing today?"
She shrugs and says, "Not sure yet. Probably jet skiing. I think I have school. Speaking of, have I told you how much I hate you because you're done yet today?"
Nick laughs. "No. Have you been jet skiing every day you've been there?"
She wrinkles her nose as she tries to think back. "Maybe?"
"You need a new hobby, Miles," he says, and she swears she can practically see him shaking his head in amusement at her.
"Shut up," she sniffs. "You had fun, and you know it."
"Yeah," he says, and now she can actually hear him laughing. "I especially liked the part where you fell off because you couldn't keep your hands off me."
"Nicholas!" she hisses. Does he want the whole world to hear about them? It's backstage and it should be people that won't go tell Perez or whoever, but still.
"Fine," he laughs. "Hey, you want to say hi to everyone?"
"Sure."
She expects him to pass the phone off, but instead she suddenly hears a chorus of, "Hi Miley," and she thinks she can hear Demi, Joe, Kevin, and even Papa Jonas, and she really wishes she were there with them.
"Hi guys," she says. "I miss y'all!"
Just Nick's voice is on the line again, and he says, "They miss you too." His voice drops to a whisper, "Me too."
"Me too," she whispers back and she hugs her pillow, wishing it was him.
"I've got to go," he says with regret. "Things are starting soon."
She nods. "Be a rock star, Nicky."
"I'll call you later," he promises. "Maybe when we get into Paris in the morning?"
"Whenever," she says, because night or day, she's going to want to talk to him. That's pretty much just a fact of life.
"Okay. Love you, Miles."
"Love you, too."
She hears him click off, and hugs her pillow tighter, a wide smile on her face.
Being this happy is a good way to start the day.
*
She does go jet skiing.
She lets the water and the waves and the breeze in her hair clear her head of the lingering regrets she has about Justin, the worries she has about whether she's crazy for putting her heart on the line for Nick again, the homesickness she's starting to feel for L.A. She's got so many emotions running around inside her and they overwhelm her sometimes, so she needs outlets like this, things that can center her and make her feel like she's not a potential candidate for the funny farm.
At home, after she's showered and changed, she's playing around with itunes when she gets a text from Nick.
want to make a phone date for tonight? i'll call you at 1 am your time? say yes.
She grins as hard as she can. He's such a dork sometimes. As if she's going to say no to that.
The text she sends him back only has one word: YES!
*
She invites some of her new cast mates over to hang out.
She needs the distraction from waiting for Nick to call and she needs to get to know these people that she's going to be spending her summer with. She's so far away from home and all the people she loves best, her family, Mandy, Demi... Nick. She needs to find new people that she can count on the way that she can count on all of them. Otherwise she's not sure how she's going to make it through.
But when she overhears someone, she's not even sure who, say that she's a crappy singer and that only a tone deaf idiot would like her music, she wants to curl up in a ball and cry and beg her mom to let her go home.
She feels like she's in middle school and being bullied by the mean girls all over again and she needs Demi in the worst way, because Demi gets it and has never made Miley feel like what happened back then was her fault.
But Demi's in Europe with Nick and Miley's alone in Georgia.
She would give anything to be there with them right now.
*
Waiting has never been something Miley's particularly good at.
And waiting when she's so tired that she can't see straight and her heart is still hurting from what she heard earlier is even harder. All she wants to do is pull the covers over her head and pretend that today didn't happen, but she wants - no, she needs - to talk to Nick, to have him make things better for her. She knows that she shouldn't need anyone to do that for her, but sometimes she's just not that strong.
Sometimes she needs someone to carry her, and this is one of those times.
Her eyes are heavy with sleep when Nick calls, and she can't quite smother her yawn as she answers. "'ello," she says.
"You sound beat," Nick says, and she is, but just the sound of his voice is enough to keep her going. "Do you want to go to sleep?"
"No," she denies, forcing herself into a sitting position so that she can keep her eyes open. "Want to talk to you. Tell me about your show."
"It was awesome," Nick says, and she swears he sounds like a kid on Christmas morning when he talks about this kind of stuff. "The fans were amazing and playing to that many of them at once... it was just incredible."
"Yeah." She knows exactly what he means. She can't wait for this fall when she gets to feel that kind of rush again. "I'm jealous."
"You get to do it soon," he reminds her. "Next week, right?"
"That's just one night," she pouts. "I miss touring with you."
"God," he says. "That seems like a million years ago."
It does, but it also feels like it was yesterday. That tour was maybe the best and worst experience of her life. She got to do the thing she loves in front of thousands of fans every night with the boy she loved by her side, but the tour made things so hard, they fought so much, it was all just too much, and they lost each other to it.
"You still there, Miles?" Nick asks anxiously, and she blinks, bringing her room back into focus.
"Sorry," she says, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them. "I was just remembering."
"It was good," he says.
She laughs. "God, do you remember what your hair looked like back then, Nick?"
"Hey!" he exclaims, and she can practically hear the pout in his voice. "I thought you liked my 'fro."
"I did," she says, nodding her head. "But I think I like it better now."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
They lapse into silence, and Miley just listens to his quiet, even breathing on the other end of the line. She tries to match hers to it, like that will connect them even though they're so many miles apart.
"Hey," Nick says from nowhere. "You didn't tell me about your day."
She lets out a heavy sigh.
"What happened?" he asks, concern creeping into his voice. "Did something happen with Justin or -"
She shakes her head like he can see her. "No, it's not him. Though, you'll be happy to know that the whole being friends with him thing isn't going to work out."
"Hey," he says. "You know that -"
"Yeah," she cuts him off. He didn’t deserve that. God, why is she such a mess? "I'm sorry."
"Miles, what happened?"
She can feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "I invited some people over to hang out and overheard some of them talking shit about me. It just hurt. I have to spend the next two months with these people, and they think about me like that? I can't deal with that."
"Miley," he says, and just hearing her name in his voice makes her feel better. "I'm sorry, they're assholes. Want me to beat them up?"
"Would you?" she sniffs. "Well, I'd probably need to know who they are first."
"Probably."
"Telling you helped," she whispers.
"What else can I do?" he asks. "I can't do anything here, and I would if I could, you know that, right?"
She nods. "Yeah. Tell Demi to call me? I want to talk to her."
"Done," he says with relief. "She went to catch some more sleep or I'd give her the phone now." He pauses. "I wish I was there."
"I wish that too," she whispers. She sniffles and wipes away the stray tears that are dampening her cheeks and tries to think of something else to talk about. “Oh, hey, guess what I got asked about yesterday?”
“What?” he asks cautiously, and he might get mad at her for this, but she basically used his words, so whatever.
“You.”
She bites her lip waiting for his reply.
It’s not what she was expecting. “You said nice things about me, I hope.”
She blinks. “What?” Nick hates when she talks about him in the press. Hates. What the hell is this?
He laughs, low and deep. “It’s fine, Miley. Have you ever stopped being asked about me?”
“Well, no,” she admits. Which always really bothered Justin. “But you’re not mad that I answered?”
“Did you say something I should be mad about?”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course not.” Does he think she’s new at this or something? Like she’s totally going to risk screwing up their new whatever the hell it is for the press? Hell no.
“Then no.” He pauses. “But maybe you should tell me. We should get our stories straight.”
She laughs. “Haha, very funny.” There’s silence on the other end of the line. “Wait, you’re serious? You want to plan our press strategy? Okay, who are you and what have you done with Nick?”
He snorts. “Clearly, I paid more attention in my media training classes at disney high than you did, Miles.”
“Duh, I failed that class and eventually they stopped making me retake it.” Her legs are cramping from being in one position for so long, so she stretches out on her stomach instead. “So you really want to know what I said?”
“Yeah.”
She rolls her eyes at the absurdity of this conversation and runs a hand through her hair. “Ah, mostly I think I just talked about how happy I was that we were friends again. How happy our families are. That kind of thing. Oh, and I know I said we reconnected. Happy?”
“Reconnected,” he says slowly. “I like that.”
“So what are you going to say about me when you get asked?” she demands. “Because you know you’re going to get asked.”
“I like what you said. I think I’ll go with that.”
“Nick,” she groans. “You can’t say that, it will sound like we planned it and that’ll just make things worse.”
“Miley,” he says in that patient, condescending voice that he has that she hates. “The album drops next week. I don’t really think that us using the same word is going to be what makes things worse.”
She bites her lip. “You - you don’t regret it, do you?”
“Regret what?” he asks, and she can hear the confusion in his voice.
“Before the Storm.” She doesn’t know what she’ll do if he regrets it.
“No,” he says firmly. “No, never.”
She lets out a shuddering breath. “Okay.”
“I think you should go to bed,” Nick says, and she knows he’s right, she’s overtired and that’s probably at least half of why she’s so emotional, but she doesn’t want to hang up the phone. She doesn’t want to say goodbye again, even if it’s only for a little while.
“I don’t wanna,” she whines, dropping her head to the mattress.
“Miley,” he says, and she can hear him trying not to laugh at her. Which is fair, because she sounds like a whiny toddler right now, she knows that.
“Fine,” she sighs. “Miss you, Nicky.”
“Miss you, too.”
“You’ll call me later?” Her eyes are drooping shut, and she tries to smother a yawn.
“I promise.”
“Okay. Love you. G’night.”
“Love you, too. Sweet dreams.”
She falls asleep with a smile on her face.
*
The sound of Justin's ringtone wakes Miley up in the morning.
She lunges for it automatically and answers before she's even really awake enough to realize what's going on. "Hello?"
"Miley, what is wrong with you?"
She blinks and sits straight up in bed. "Justin?"
"Yeah," he sneers and she winces at the sound of his voice. She doesn't think he's ever talked to her like that. "Did you think it was your new boyfriend?"
"I don't have a new boyfriend," she says automatically. "Justin, what's wrong?" She's still trying to blink sleep out of her eyes and she can't think when she's just woken up.
"You know he's using you, right?"
"What?" is all she manages to get out before he's barreling ahead with more accusations.
"All he wants is the publicity you can get him and you just roll over and take it because you think he's your prince fucking charming and it's disgusting, Miley. You're just a dirty little doormat to him, and you don't even realize it."
She's crying now, because how can Justin say these things? How can someone that says that they love her say them and hurt her so badly? "Justin -"
"No," he says. "I just wanted to let you know that we're done, Miley. Done."
He hangs up the phone and she just sits there and sobs.
She doesn't understand what just happened. In a million years, she never would have guessed Justin could say those things to her, could talk to her in that voice. She didn't even know he had that voice. He made her sound so ugly, so pathetic, he made it sound like what she has with Nick isn't real, that it doesn't matter, and she just wants to curl up in a ball and die right now.
The phone rings again and this time it's Demi's ringtone and she answers, tears still streaming down her face. "Demi."
"Miley, what's wrong?" Demi asks instantly, voice laced with concern and god, Miley wants to be with her friend in the worst way.
Miley tries to explain, but she's talking through ragged breaths and she's not even sure she's making any sense. "Justin - he called and said things - and god, Demi, I didn't mean to hurt him - and how could he call me that." She breaks down into another round of tears and can't speak anymore.
"Miley, do you want me to find Nick?" Demi asks worriedly.
"No," Miley manages to get out. "No." She doesn't want Nick to hear her like this, she just feels so small and ugly right now and no. He can't hear her like this.
"What did Justin say?" Demi asks, and Miley can hear the panic in her voice, so she must really be freaking Demi out.
Miley tries to pull herself together, wiping at her eyes and nose, and says, "He said that Nick was just using me and that I was a dirty little doormat."
"He said what?" Demi asks and now she sounds pissed. "Miley, you know that's not true. None of that is true."
Miley shakes her head, drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arm around them. "I don't know anything anymore. If Justin could say those things, I don't know anything."
"Are you sure that you don't want me to find Nick?" Demi asks. "You know he's not using you, Miles. Nick couldn't, he wouldn't. He loves you."
"Yeah," Miley sniffles. "But -"
"No buts," Demi says forcefully. "It's not possible. And you're not a dirty little doormat. God, I could kill him. What gives him the right to say those things to you?"
"I hurt him."
"No," Demi says. "That does not give him the right to talk to you like that. Nothing gives him the right. Don't talk to him anymore."
Miley laughs weakly. "I don't think that will be a problem." She can't imagine ever wanting to talk to Justin again right now. At least not that Justin.
"Good." Demi pauses. "I still wish you'd let me go get Nick. And hey, I haven't told you how happy I am for you guys."
"What exactly did Nick tell you?" Miley asks curiously, because she didn't think he'd talk to anyone about them except maybe Joe.
"Not a lot," Demi says with a laugh. "I was expecting to get the details from you. Or from Joe."
Miley laughs again, a real laugh this time. "Those two gossip worse than us sometimes."
"I know, right?" Miley hears someone talking to Demi in the background and then Demi says regretfully, "Miles, I gotta go. Some reporter or something that I have to talk to right this minute or my career will end. You know."
"Go," Miley says. "Thanks, Dem."
"Thank me after I kick Justin's ass for you, because believe me, I will. And I'll have plenty of help. Love ya, Dragon."
"Back at ya, Nighthawk."
Demi hangs up and Miley crawls back under her covers. She wants to shut the whole world out for a little while and pretend that none of this happened, that Justin's still the guy that she loved for the past nine months, that he'd never say such horrible things to her, that she's not going to have to tell Nick about this, because that is not a conversation she ever wants to have.
She closes her eyes and tries to start her day over.
*
Starting the day over isn’t possible, so Miley settles for the next best thing. She tries to forget.
She goes jet skiing with her cast mates, and it’s fun, not weird like she was afraid it would be. She tries to put the fact that one of the people she’s having so much fun with today might have been saying horrible things about her the night before, and it mostly works. And maybe it wasn’t any of the people she’s having such a good time with, maybe it was someone else, maybe she’ll end up loving these people as much as she loves her friends back home. She hopes she’ll end up loving them as much as her friends back home. Spending the summer with people that she doesn’t like and that don’t like her would suck.
And it’s good, this feeling of starting to settle in, but the best part of her day is when Nick calls from London.
She’s stretched out on her bed with her laptop listening to music when his ringtone suddenly fills the room and she snatches her phone up and answers happily, “Hey.”
“Hey,” he says back. “How’s it going?”
She shrugs and turns the volume on her computer down. “It’s going better now.” She’s not ready to tell him about what happened with Justin, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be ready to tell him about that.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, and she smiles at the concern in his voice.
“Nothing that seeing you wouldn’t fix,” she says, and it’s true. There’s almost nothing that being able to see Nick wouldn’t fix for her. That’s probably pathetic and she wouldn’t admit it to anyone but him, but it doesn’t make it less true.
He sighs, and she hopes that means that he wants to see her as much as she wants to see him. “Soon.”
“How was Paris?” she asks, and she fiddles with the camera on her laptop. She might not be able to see him, but that doesn’t mean he can’t see how happy he makes her.
“Crazy. I can’t believe how fast all of this is happening.”
She snaps a picture and then another. “But you’re used to that, get in, get out.” She looks at the pictures and almost doesn’t recognize herself. Her eyes are sparkling and her smile seems more real and god, if he can make her look like this from a phone call there’s no way that they’ll be able to hide things if people actually see them together.
“Yeah,” he says. “I don’t know, it just seems different this time.”
“Bigger audiences,” she offers, fingers flying over the keyboard as she tweets one of the pictures.
“Probably.” He pauses. “Miley, what are you doing?”
“Um,” she says, stalling for time. “Nothing?”
He laughs. “You’re a terrible liar, what is it?”
“Don’t you know a girl likes to have a little mystery, Nicholas?” she pouts, trying to deflect him. And it’s true, it would be nice to be able to surprise him, but there’s something so right about how well they know each other. It makes everything seem so much more real.
He laughs again. “I think we’ve known each other too long for that, Destiny Hope. Just spill already.”
“Fine,” she says with a heavy, exaggerated sigh. “You should look at my twitter.” At the bottom of her screen a chat request blinks. “Oh hey, Nick? Brandi’s online and wants to talk. Do you mind?”
“No, go,” he says through a muffled yawn. “I need to go to bed anyway; Joe’s going to throw something at me soon.”
She laughs. “Well, throw something back at him for me. Miss you, Nicky. Bye.”
“Miss you, too. Bye.”
She hangs up, grinning like an idiot. She clicks on Brandi’s chat request and fires up her webcam.
For a day that started so horribly, it’s not turning out so bad.
*
She spends her first day shooting making out with Liam.
Sometimes her life is so strange that she can’t even believe she’s living it.
Liam’s great, super nice and super respectful, and even though kissing scenes are basically the most awkward thing ever, they have fun and she’s so glad he’s her co-star for this movie. They splash each other like little kids between takes and huddle together for warmth when they get to be too cold, because the Atlantic Ocean is nothing like the Pacific, Miley discovers.
And it’s nice to have something filling her head that’s not Justin or Nick. She’s more than just the boys in her life, and this reminds her of that, reminds her that no matter what else happens, she will always have this and that she can’t ever take it for granted.
Filming is long, hard work and when she gets home, all she wants to do is collapse into a ball and go to sleep, but like so many nights before sleep is impossible.
Nick’s on a plane back to the states, so there will be no late night phone call from him tonight. It’s a good test, she thinks, to see if she can go without him. She’s going to have to be without him for a long time and she has to start figuring out a way to deal with that.
But alone in the dark, she can’t help but think about Justin.
She half thinks that she dreamed that phone call yesterday, because nothing Justin had ever said to her before would have made her thought he could say things like that. And even though she knows it wasn’t a dream, that he really did try to hurt her that badly, she misses him. Misses the boy that she thought she knew, the one that always told her how pretty she was and that she didn’t need any make up, the one that sang her to sleep when she couldn’t. She misses that boy, not the one that was on the phone yesterday.
She hopes someday that she’ll meet that boy again.
*
Day by day, Miley settles into a routine. Filming fills her days and Nick fills her nights. She knows that once the tour kicks off that they’ll have to find other ways to make things work, to grab moments to talk where they can, but for now this feels right.
The day his album is released, she sneaks off to the closest Wal-Mart and buys a copy, listening to it in private in her trailer. She needs to hear it, to absorb it, to parse each and every word and figure out which ones are for her. She holds her breath when she listens to Before the Storm, her heart clenching each time they sing about not wanting to let the other go. She’d never wanted to let Nick go, and now she’s never going to.
After she listens, she sends him a two word text: thank you.
She’s pretty sure he’ll understand.
*
When Miley sits down to watch Nick on Larry King Live, she’s expecting to see the same interview that she’s seen the boys give a thousand times before. In fact, she’s barely listening, just keeping one eye on the television, because lame as it is, she just misses seeing Nick’s face.
But then Nick gets asked about her and when he starts talking about their reconnection, she laughs, because clearly he wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to use what she said. And she really laughs when he talks about how her daddy said very nice things about him, because duh.
Her daddy had always been their biggest fan.
She tunes back out after that, texting Mandy and Demi and Trace, but suddenly Larry’s asking Joe if he has a girlfriend and she can’t quite believe her ears when she hears Joe admit that yes, he does.
Miley’s jaw drops. No way did that just happen. Hell hasn’t frozen over, she’s almost certain of it, and did that actually just happen?
And oh my god, is Joe really being asked if Camilla is as famous as she is?
She hears Joe answer, “I don’t think anyone is as famous as Miley Cyrus,” but her eyes are glued to Nick, who looks like he’s going to kill Joe when they get out of range of the cameras, and she worries her bottom lip between her teeth, hoping that it’s because they agreed that they weren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend, and not because he’s ashamed of the possibility of people knowing about them.
It has to be that, she assures herself. And she’s not even mad at Joe for what he said, it’s kind of funny really.
But Nick doesn’t always share her and Joe’s sense of humor.
She grabs her phone and texts him immediately, so is joe still breathing? call me., and she’s practically vibrating with nervous energy as she waits for him to get back to her.
It’s not a big deal, she tells herself. It’s fine. People are always going to ask about them, that’s just the way it is. And if, when, they are together for real, she would be proud to have people know that Nick’s her boyfriend, she wants people to know that.
Her phone rings and she answers it immediately, "Nick?"
He doesn't say anything, and all she can hear is the sound of his breathing at the other end of the line. God, he must be pissed.
So she tries again. "Nick?"
He finally sighs and she's relieved. "Yeah."
"Is Joe still alive?" she asks, because fratricide is not out of the question here, no matter how much Nick loves his brother.
Nick snorts. "Yes." He raises his voice just slightly, and she guesses Joe's sitting right there. "But he's going to wish he weren't."
She hears a scuffle and suddenly Joe's voice is the one in her ear instead. "Miles?"
"Joseph," she says.
"Tell your boyfriend, not-boyfriend, or whatever you two are, that it's not a big deal, okay?" he asks, and she can practically see the glares they're probably giving each other. "He's being totally uptight about things again."
"Well, you did kind of out something that was supposed to be a secret on national television," she points out, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice.
"Whatever, you know you don't care," he says. "Admit it, you thought it was funny."
"That no one is as famous as me? I admit, I did. I bet your girlfriend didn't think it was as funny, though." Because yeah. Even if it's true, no one wants to hear that.
"I'm more concerned with not being smothered to death in my sleep or something right now," Joe says, and that's the last thing that he gets out before Nick steals the phone back and says, "Ignore Joe."
She laughs. "Man, I'm glad I'm not him tonight."
"He'll pay," Nick promises darkly.
"Nick," she says cautiously. She doesn't want to make him more angry, but he needs to know that she's not mad or anything. "It's not a big deal."
"What?" he splutters. "Of course, it's a -"
She shakes her head. "No, it's not. I mean, it's not like he actually said 'My brother Nick is dating Miley Cyrus.'"
"He did everything but say that."
"But he didn't. People are going to assume, but they were going to do that anyway. I mean, did you think me showing up at the concert wasn't going to start rumors?"
"Not ones like that," he grumbles, but she can tell that he's thawing a little.
She can't help but laugh. "No, they'll probably be worse. Nick, it's fine, really it is." She adds a teasing tone to her voice and says, "Besides, you know you'd regret killing Joe right after you did it."
"Maybe."
"Definitely."
There's a long pause and he finally asks, "You're really not mad?"
"No," she says firmly. "I mean, hey. No one's as famous as me, right? How awesome is that?"
Nick groans. "You're going to be reminding us all of that pretty often aren't you?"
She grins. Now he's getting into the spirit. "You betcha, you great little human being, you."
"Miley."
She bursts out laughing. "Just think, in two days, you'll be getting tag teamed by Joe and me in person. Aren't you excited?"
"Oh, of course," he says, and the sarcasm is just dripping off every word, so she knows he's back to normal. Well, as normal as Nick is capable of being.
"You can't wait to see me and you know it."
"No, I can't," he says, and his voice has dropped and she shivers a little, because wow did the mood of this phone call just change. "I need to see you."
"Me too," she whispers back. And she does, she needs to see him more than she needs to take her next breath. "I miss you."
"Same here," he says, and then she hears a loud conversation going on in the background, but she can't quite make it out. Nick comes back to the phone and says, "Sorry about that. I've gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow?"
"You'd better," she orders, trying to keep the sadness out of her voice. She doesn't want to hang up the phone, not at all. "Love you, Nicky."
"Love you too, Miles. Bye."
He hangs up and she curls up against her pillows still holding her phone.
"Dear, I thought I'd drop a line. The weather's cool. The folks are fine. I'm in bed each night at nine. P.S. I love you." <3 It's true.
*
The next day is pretty much the longest day in history, Miley's sure of that.
She just wants it to be tomorrow, to be in Dallas with Nick and the rest of the Jonas's, because she misses all of them too. In so many ways they're her second family, and it feels like forever since she's seen them, even if it hasn't been.
But she tries to concentrate on her work, and she invites Liam over that night to hang out, because she knows that she's not going to be able to sleep, not when she's that excited. And they're just chilling, listening to music and having a good time when Nick's ringtone echoes through the room and her face must light up like a kid's on Christmas morning, because Liam laughs and excuses himself and she dives for the phone.
"Hey," she says happily. "I was starting to think you weren't going to call."
"Sorry," he says, and he sounds harried. "Last minute stuff for tour, you know."
"No big deal," she says, shrugging her shoulders and turning the volume down on her computer. "I was just chillin' with Liam."
"Oh yeah?" Nick asks, and is that jealousy she hears in his voice? "That's nice."
"Nicholas Jonas," she says incredulously. "Are you jealous?"
"What? No," he denies, but just with the way he says it, she can tell that he's lying through his teeth. "Why would I be jealous?"
She's a terrible person for finding this hilarious, she knows she is. "I don't know," she drawls. "He's pretty cute."
"Miley," he says warningly.
She can't help it, she has to laugh. "Nick."
"I'm not jealous," he says defensively. "And if I were going to be jealous, it wouldn't be of a blonde Australian dude that you've been making out with all week."
"Did you look at pictures online or something?” she asks, trying not to laugh again. "Wait until you film your first on screen kiss, mister, you'll see how much fun it is."
"I don't care," he says, and god, he sounds like such a little boy right now. She doesn't know what it says about her that she finds it incredibly endearing.
But he sounds like he's had about enough, so she'll let him off the hook. "You know that you're the only one I want to be kissing, right?"
He doesn't answer.
"Right?" she repeats more forcefully.
"I think I'm going to need a demonstration of that," he says finally, and she bursts out laughing.
"Wait twelve hours or so and you're on," she says between giggles. "God, Nick."
He finally laughs, and it's music to her ears. "Fine," he grumbles. "I may have been the smallest bit jealous."
She raises an eyebrow. Nick Jonas, master of the understatement. "Ya think?"
"You're enjoying this way too much," he accuses, and she can almost hear him narrowing his eyes at her. "It's not very nice of you."
"I'm sorry," she says as contritely as she can, which isn't all that much because she's totally not sorry. "I'll make it up to you."
"I'm going to hold you to that," he says, his voice dropping about an octave, and okay, they've clearly reached the flirting part of this phone call.
"If you feel you have to," she says solemnly.
"I really do."
"Well, okay then." Liam sticks his head back into the room and Miley waves him in. "But I think I should go before this conversation goes any further."
"Coward," Nick accuses.
She laughs. He'll regret that. "We'll see about that. G'night, Nicholas. I'll see you tomorrow."
He lets out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Night, Miles. I can't wait to see you."
"Me too," she whispers back. "Bye."
"Bye."
She hangs up the phone and turns to Liam, wide smile on her face. "So. Whatcha want to do now?"
Twelve hours to go.
[Part 4]
Author: empressearwig
Pairing: Nick/Miley
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8,800 for this part
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is all for fun. This didn’t happen. Etc.
Summary: Two weeks in June.
Author’s Notes: I was going to finish this before I started posting, but then I realized just how long it was going to be and said screw it. Thanks to various people who read this against their will.
[Part 1] [Part 2]
Miley spends her first full day in Savannah without Nick trying not to think about Nick.
It doesn’t really work.
Everything reminds her of him. Every song she listens to makes her think about him, them. A Brooke Fraser song that she downloaded because Demi told her she had to, all of the Elvis Costello songs he must have snuck onto her ipod when she wasn’t paying attention, and all of the Jonas Brothers songs that she’d never been able to delete no matter how much they hurt to listen to.
But now she can listen to them for what they are, Nick’s declarations of love, without any fear that he doesn’t mean them anymore. Because he does mean them, and she wants him to mean them forever.
So even though she knows she shouldn’t, that she’s probably being too obvious, she can’t help but tweet the lyrics to one of her favorites:
We're miles and miles apart but I'm still holding on to your heart.
Even if he doesn’t see it, she hopes that he knows that she’s always going to be doing just that.
*
Things aren’t getting any easier with Justin.
They text for a little while that afternoon, and she finally confesses that Nick came to visit and Justin doesn’t react well. At all. She’d known that finding out was going to hurt him, but she didn’t expect him to take it that badly.
And okay, he probably has a right to be upset. But she never meant for this to happen with Nick, really she didn’t. It’s just… it’s Nick. Justin has always known how she felt about Nick.
By the end of their conversation she’s frowning and has the start of a headache, and she’s pretty sure that there’s no way that they’ll be able to be friends, at least not any time soon. And maybe, that’s what is supposed to happen after breakups, but it still sucks.
She’d gladly give up this part of growing up.
But then Nick texts her, miss you. make sure you watch letterman tonight. love you., and she can’t help but grin and wonder exactly why she has to watch.
She can’t be that sad about Justin, not when Nick’s making her this happy.
She just can’t.
*
Her mom insists that they have dinner together.
Which, it’s not that she doesn’t want to, exactly. It’s just that she’s worried about what her mom is going to ask and what she’s going to say. There’s not a simple answer to what’s going on with her and Nick; he’s not her boyfriend, but they’re not exactly just friends. And Miley can’t imagine telling her mom that she and Nick are friends with benefits or something, which they totally aren’t anyway.
God, she can’t imagine ever using that phrase to describe her and Nick.
They go to this outdoor café on a lake and it’s the first time in forever that she can remember going out to eat and not having to worry about the paparazzi. If the entire summer is like this, she may never want to leave Savannah.
A waiter takes their drink order and then her mom sits back in her chair and says, “So,” and Miley knows that the clock just ran out.
“So what?” she asks as innocently as she can, grabbing the glass of water and sucking desperately through the straw.
Her mom raises her eyebrows at her and Miley curses in her head. She knows that look and it doesn’t mean anything good for her.
Miley sighs and sets the glass back down on the table, twirling the straw around. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“You could start by telling me how your visit was,” her mom suggests, taking a sip of her own water.
Miley can’t help but smile at that, because the visit was amazing. Perfect. The only bad thing about it was that it ended. “It was great,” she says, looking across the table at her mom. “Thank you for letting him come.”
Her mom smiles at her. “I think Nick is great, you know that, Miles.”
Miley nods, because yeah, she does, even if her mom has nothing on her daddy. Miley still isn’t sure who was happiest about her and Nick being friends again, her or her daddy, because daddy was over the moon the first time she hung out with Nick again all those months ago. Sometimes she wonders if her daddy hasn’t already made wedding plans for her and Nick, that’s how much he seems to like and trust the boy, which is just weird, because what normal father does that?
But then she supposes that Billy Ray Cyrus isn’t anyone’s idea of a normal father.
Her mom is looking at her expectantly and Miley tries to figure out what to say next. “Nick invited me to Dallas next weekend to perform with him,” she blurts out, thankful she’s thought of something else safe to talk about. “Can I go?”
“I think we can arrange that.”
The waiter comes back with their drinks and they order dinner and Miley’s grateful for the reprieve, however small it is.
Her mom just looks at her again and says, “Come on, Miley. What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure,” she mumbles, holding up her hand to ward off the comments she’s sure is coming. “Honestly, I’m not.”
“Something is going on,” her mom says pointedly. “Or are you going to pretend that I wasn’t interrupting you and Nick on the dock that night?”
Miley can feel herself turning bright red even through her sunburn and she hisses, “Mom!”
Her mom laughs. “Miley.”
“Okay, okay,” Miley grumbles. “There’s something going on, okay? We just - we’re trying to take things slow, so we haven’t really defined it, exactly.”
Her mom raises an eyebrow again. “Slow? You and Nick?”
Miley frowns and crosses her arms over her chest. Why does everyone think that’s impossible? “Yes, me and Nick.”
Her mom looks skeptical, but nods. “What does that mean?”
Okay, now Miley’s annoyed. Nick was only here for two days. Why does she have to have all the answers? “I told you I wasn’t sure what was going on. He’s not my boyfriend or anything if that’s what you mean.”
“Good,” her mom says, and Miley blinks at her in surprise. What did she just say?
“What?” Miley asks incredulously. “What?”
“Miley, you just broke up with Justin. You shouldn’t jump into a new relationship so quickly.”
Which is a fair point, Miley has to admit, but from her mom? She thought her mom was a founding member of the “We Love Nick Jonas Fan Club.”
“I know,” Miley says, still looking at her mom like she’s grown two heads. “That’s what I told him.”
"How are things with Justin?"
Miley squirms uncomfortably in her chair. If she didn't want to talk about Nick, she really doesn't want to talk about Justin. "They're... they're not good. He's mad at me."
Her mom just raises an eyebrow at her and Miley can't help but get defensive. "It wasn't going to work! No matter what. That's not my fault."
"No," her mom says. "It's not. Does Justin know about Nick?"
"That Nick and I are friends?" Miley asks, stressing the last word. Because that's all that they for sure are, no matter what the rest of the world thinks. Or that they spent a not inconsiderable part of the last few days making out.
Her mom looks amused. "Sure."
"Yes, Justin knows," Miley sniffs. She loves her mom, she does, but she would give just about anything for this conversation to be over. "Why do you think he's mad at me?"
Before her mom can say anything else, the waiter materializes with their food and Miley digs in.
A burger and fries has never looked so good to her.
*
Miley demands that they stay for dessert.
She's earned ice cream, damn it. That conversation definitely is one of the top five most awkward ones she's ever had with her mom and she deserves a reward for making it through without running away to hide.
She doesn't know why this is so hard to talk about. She can talk for hours and hours about everything and anything and to anyone, her parents included. She tells her mom and dad almost everything, way more than most of her friends tell their parents. But she can't find the words to describe what's going on with her, with her and Nick, with her and Justin. Maybe it matters too much, maybe she's too confused, maybe it's something else entirely.
She's just not used to not being able to talk.
She looks out over the lake and sees a flash of lightning strike.
*
Watching the basketball game alone isn't any fun.
It's no fun without someone there to mock when the Lakers are losing. It's no fun without someone to shout at the refs with when they make horrible calls. It's no fun without someone to trash talk.
It's no fun without Nick.
She wants to talk to him, she'd settle for watching the game with him over the phone. But she knows he's at that free show they're playing tonight, so it's not even like she can call him.
So instead, she pulls out her laptop and starts a new playlist.
Sometimes they do their best talking through music anyway.
*
Nick calls her while she's watching Letterman.
"Are you watching?" he asks immediately, not even bothering to say hello. She can hear Joe and Kevin in the background and it makes her miss when they were all on tour together.
"Hello to you, too," she laughs, stretching out on her stomach on her bed. "And yes, I am."
"Good."
"So why am I watching exactly," she asks curiously. He'd told her before he left that they were singing Paranoid and she's seen them sing that before so it's not exactly out of the ordinary.
"You'll see," he says mysteriously, and she grins like an idiot. He's so cute when he's like this. "How was your day?"
"Eh," she says. Her day kind of sucked, to be honest, and she doesn't want to talk about it. Not when he's on the phone and she feels the happiest she has all day.
"That good, huh?"
"It's better now," she says with feeling, hoping he'll understand what she's not saying.
"Yeah," he breathes, in a voice she knows is just for her. "Me too."
She can hear Joe's voice getting louder in the background and she hears Nick saying something to him, but she can't make it out, and then suddenly Joe's the one talking into the phone.
"Hey Miles," he says. "I hear you're coming to Dallas next week."
"Hi Joe," she says back, and god, she really wishes she were there. "I hope you've been practicing, because I'm going to kick your ass."
"You wish," he scoffs. "When are you going to admit you suck?"
"Never."
There's more noise in the background and Joe says really fast, "Nick says he's going to beat me up if I don't give the phone back, and I'd hate to embarrass him in front of you, so I gotta go. See you soon, Miles."
"Bye Joe," she laughs. She missed all of the boys last year, even Frankie, but Joe's the one she missed most other than Nick. Having Joe in her life was like having an extra big brother, only this one would talk about hair straighteners and what flavor jello was the best or what kind of superpowers they would want, unlike her real older brother who always wanted to prove how hard core he was. Having them all back in her life is the best thing in the world, she swears.
"Sorry 'bout that," Nick says, clearly having wrestled the phone away from his brother.
She just shrugs. "It's Joe."
"Yeah," he says.
She looks over at the television when she hears Dave saying "and next, the Jonas Brothers."
"I think you're on soon."
"What? Okay, then I'm going to go." Now he sounds a little bit embarrassed and she's basically dying of curiosity at this point. Just what is so special about this performance?
"You're not going to watch with me?" she pouts.
"No, no, no," he says and she can practically hear him shaking his head.
"That's a no then?" she laughs. She looks back over at the television. "Well, you'd better hang up then, you're on in about a minute."
"Bye, Miles," he says instantly. His voice drops really low, like he's trying not to be overheard. "Love ya."
"Love you, too," she whispers back and she hears him hang up the phone. She turns toward the tv and turns the volume up.
This ought to be good.
*
Doing press isn't her favorite thing in the world.
She accepts it as something that she just has to do, and it can be fun at times, especially when she can play games with reporters, but she'd usually rather be doing just about anything else. So being reminded that she's going to be spending her morning doing press calls to promote the tour isn't exactly the highlight of her day.
But it's going pretty well, she's settled into a groove of sorts, or as much of one as you can when you're only allotted five minutes per station. She's talked to a lot of these people before, and most of them don't exactly ask hard hitting questions or keep pressing the way that Seacrest always does. She kind of secretly likes his interviews best, though, because it's fun to see just how much she can get away with saying or not saying. No one digs for dirt better than him, and Miley respects that, just not so much when he's digging into her life.
When she's asked about Nick for the first time, she's a little bit surprised, because she knows that wasn't on the list of approved questions. But she's talking to a Nashville station, and the question is pretty innocuous, so she doesn't see the harm in answering.
She talks about how good it feels to be friends with Nick again, how happy their families are that they're friends, how they're just kind of chilling and having a good time.
As she's talking, she realizes that she's basically quoting Nick from that interview he had with Barbara Walters months ago, the one that she watched in secret, when no one else was home, because she didn't want anyone to find out. She remembers that her heart fluttered a little bit when she watched, because she swore she saw something in his eyes when he talked about their friendship and whatever might happen in the future.
They've reconnected.
It's amazing how one word can mean so much.
*
If Miley had ever had any doubts about how much her daddy loves Nick, watching his interview with Larry King makes them all go away.
Seriously, "he's a great little human being" may be her new favorite quote in the world. And she's most definitely going to be calling Nick that on a regular basis, whether he likes it or not. If she can get Joe in on the act it will be all the better.
Nick doesn't stand a chance against the two of them, he never has.
She's pretty sure it's the middle of the night in Madrid, but she texts him anyway: watch my daddy on lkl when u get home. he loooooves u. but not as much as me. xxoo.
He's a great little human being.
Truer words have never been spoken.
*
She can't sleep.
She and Justin had another fight and there's nothing she can do to make him understand that every time she told him she loved him she meant it. She did love Justin, does love Justin, and she never meant to hurt him. But she did and it doesn't matter how sorry she is, he's apparently not going to forgive her.
So she needs to move on. Focus on the present, on what's making her happy right this minute, not regrets about things that she can't and wouldn't change even if she could. Because she's not going to regret loving Nick, or taking another chance on him, no matter how badly anyone else wants her to.
And any minute now Nick is supposed to call.
Time zones are hard, especially when you're dealing with being on different continents. It's just lucky that she likes to stay up late, otherwise they'd be impossible.
She does her best to occupy herself, to not will the phone to ring, but it's so hard. She replies to fans on twitter and decides she can't keep seeing Justin's tweets about how horrible she is and purges the people she's following. This is a new Miley, and this Miley is going to be happy no matter what anyone else says.
Which is why when her phone rings she dives for it like the world will end if she doesn't answer it immediately.
"Hey," she says breathlessly, pressing the phone against her ear and curling up against her pillows.
"Hi," Nick says, and there's a ton of noise in the background. They must be getting ready at the venue, she guesses. "So why do I have to watch your dad?"
She laughs. "I'll never tell."
"Come on, not even a hint?"
She laughs again and holds the phone closer to her ear. "Did you give me a hint as to why I had to watch you on Letterman, mister?"
"No," he grumbles. "But come on, I'm in another country."
"That has working internet."
"Fine," he sighs dramatically. "What are you doing today?"
She shrugs and says, "Not sure yet. Probably jet skiing. I think I have school. Speaking of, have I told you how much I hate you because you're done yet today?"
Nick laughs. "No. Have you been jet skiing every day you've been there?"
She wrinkles her nose as she tries to think back. "Maybe?"
"You need a new hobby, Miles," he says, and she swears she can practically see him shaking his head in amusement at her.
"Shut up," she sniffs. "You had fun, and you know it."
"Yeah," he says, and now she can actually hear him laughing. "I especially liked the part where you fell off because you couldn't keep your hands off me."
"Nicholas!" she hisses. Does he want the whole world to hear about them? It's backstage and it should be people that won't go tell Perez or whoever, but still.
"Fine," he laughs. "Hey, you want to say hi to everyone?"
"Sure."
She expects him to pass the phone off, but instead she suddenly hears a chorus of, "Hi Miley," and she thinks she can hear Demi, Joe, Kevin, and even Papa Jonas, and she really wishes she were there with them.
"Hi guys," she says. "I miss y'all!"
Just Nick's voice is on the line again, and he says, "They miss you too." His voice drops to a whisper, "Me too."
"Me too," she whispers back and she hugs her pillow, wishing it was him.
"I've got to go," he says with regret. "Things are starting soon."
She nods. "Be a rock star, Nicky."
"I'll call you later," he promises. "Maybe when we get into Paris in the morning?"
"Whenever," she says, because night or day, she's going to want to talk to him. That's pretty much just a fact of life.
"Okay. Love you, Miles."
"Love you, too."
She hears him click off, and hugs her pillow tighter, a wide smile on her face.
Being this happy is a good way to start the day.
*
She does go jet skiing.
She lets the water and the waves and the breeze in her hair clear her head of the lingering regrets she has about Justin, the worries she has about whether she's crazy for putting her heart on the line for Nick again, the homesickness she's starting to feel for L.A. She's got so many emotions running around inside her and they overwhelm her sometimes, so she needs outlets like this, things that can center her and make her feel like she's not a potential candidate for the funny farm.
At home, after she's showered and changed, she's playing around with itunes when she gets a text from Nick.
want to make a phone date for tonight? i'll call you at 1 am your time? say yes.
She grins as hard as she can. He's such a dork sometimes. As if she's going to say no to that.
The text she sends him back only has one word: YES!
*
She invites some of her new cast mates over to hang out.
She needs the distraction from waiting for Nick to call and she needs to get to know these people that she's going to be spending her summer with. She's so far away from home and all the people she loves best, her family, Mandy, Demi... Nick. She needs to find new people that she can count on the way that she can count on all of them. Otherwise she's not sure how she's going to make it through.
But when she overhears someone, she's not even sure who, say that she's a crappy singer and that only a tone deaf idiot would like her music, she wants to curl up in a ball and cry and beg her mom to let her go home.
She feels like she's in middle school and being bullied by the mean girls all over again and she needs Demi in the worst way, because Demi gets it and has never made Miley feel like what happened back then was her fault.
But Demi's in Europe with Nick and Miley's alone in Georgia.
She would give anything to be there with them right now.
*
Waiting has never been something Miley's particularly good at.
And waiting when she's so tired that she can't see straight and her heart is still hurting from what she heard earlier is even harder. All she wants to do is pull the covers over her head and pretend that today didn't happen, but she wants - no, she needs - to talk to Nick, to have him make things better for her. She knows that she shouldn't need anyone to do that for her, but sometimes she's just not that strong.
Sometimes she needs someone to carry her, and this is one of those times.
Her eyes are heavy with sleep when Nick calls, and she can't quite smother her yawn as she answers. "'ello," she says.
"You sound beat," Nick says, and she is, but just the sound of his voice is enough to keep her going. "Do you want to go to sleep?"
"No," she denies, forcing herself into a sitting position so that she can keep her eyes open. "Want to talk to you. Tell me about your show."
"It was awesome," Nick says, and she swears he sounds like a kid on Christmas morning when he talks about this kind of stuff. "The fans were amazing and playing to that many of them at once... it was just incredible."
"Yeah." She knows exactly what he means. She can't wait for this fall when she gets to feel that kind of rush again. "I'm jealous."
"You get to do it soon," he reminds her. "Next week, right?"
"That's just one night," she pouts. "I miss touring with you."
"God," he says. "That seems like a million years ago."
It does, but it also feels like it was yesterday. That tour was maybe the best and worst experience of her life. She got to do the thing she loves in front of thousands of fans every night with the boy she loved by her side, but the tour made things so hard, they fought so much, it was all just too much, and they lost each other to it.
"You still there, Miles?" Nick asks anxiously, and she blinks, bringing her room back into focus.
"Sorry," she says, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them. "I was just remembering."
"It was good," he says.
She laughs. "God, do you remember what your hair looked like back then, Nick?"
"Hey!" he exclaims, and she can practically hear the pout in his voice. "I thought you liked my 'fro."
"I did," she says, nodding her head. "But I think I like it better now."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
They lapse into silence, and Miley just listens to his quiet, even breathing on the other end of the line. She tries to match hers to it, like that will connect them even though they're so many miles apart.
"Hey," Nick says from nowhere. "You didn't tell me about your day."
She lets out a heavy sigh.
"What happened?" he asks, concern creeping into his voice. "Did something happen with Justin or -"
She shakes her head like he can see her. "No, it's not him. Though, you'll be happy to know that the whole being friends with him thing isn't going to work out."
"Hey," he says. "You know that -"
"Yeah," she cuts him off. He didn’t deserve that. God, why is she such a mess? "I'm sorry."
"Miles, what happened?"
She can feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. "I invited some people over to hang out and overheard some of them talking shit about me. It just hurt. I have to spend the next two months with these people, and they think about me like that? I can't deal with that."
"Miley," he says, and just hearing her name in his voice makes her feel better. "I'm sorry, they're assholes. Want me to beat them up?"
"Would you?" she sniffs. "Well, I'd probably need to know who they are first."
"Probably."
"Telling you helped," she whispers.
"What else can I do?" he asks. "I can't do anything here, and I would if I could, you know that, right?"
She nods. "Yeah. Tell Demi to call me? I want to talk to her."
"Done," he says with relief. "She went to catch some more sleep or I'd give her the phone now." He pauses. "I wish I was there."
"I wish that too," she whispers. She sniffles and wipes away the stray tears that are dampening her cheeks and tries to think of something else to talk about. “Oh, hey, guess what I got asked about yesterday?”
“What?” he asks cautiously, and he might get mad at her for this, but she basically used his words, so whatever.
“You.”
She bites her lip waiting for his reply.
It’s not what she was expecting. “You said nice things about me, I hope.”
She blinks. “What?” Nick hates when she talks about him in the press. Hates. What the hell is this?
He laughs, low and deep. “It’s fine, Miley. Have you ever stopped being asked about me?”
“Well, no,” she admits. Which always really bothered Justin. “But you’re not mad that I answered?”
“Did you say something I should be mad about?”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course not.” Does he think she’s new at this or something? Like she’s totally going to risk screwing up their new whatever the hell it is for the press? Hell no.
“Then no.” He pauses. “But maybe you should tell me. We should get our stories straight.”
She laughs. “Haha, very funny.” There’s silence on the other end of the line. “Wait, you’re serious? You want to plan our press strategy? Okay, who are you and what have you done with Nick?”
He snorts. “Clearly, I paid more attention in my media training classes at disney high than you did, Miles.”
“Duh, I failed that class and eventually they stopped making me retake it.” Her legs are cramping from being in one position for so long, so she stretches out on her stomach instead. “So you really want to know what I said?”
“Yeah.”
She rolls her eyes at the absurdity of this conversation and runs a hand through her hair. “Ah, mostly I think I just talked about how happy I was that we were friends again. How happy our families are. That kind of thing. Oh, and I know I said we reconnected. Happy?”
“Reconnected,” he says slowly. “I like that.”
“So what are you going to say about me when you get asked?” she demands. “Because you know you’re going to get asked.”
“I like what you said. I think I’ll go with that.”
“Nick,” she groans. “You can’t say that, it will sound like we planned it and that’ll just make things worse.”
“Miley,” he says in that patient, condescending voice that he has that she hates. “The album drops next week. I don’t really think that us using the same word is going to be what makes things worse.”
She bites her lip. “You - you don’t regret it, do you?”
“Regret what?” he asks, and she can hear the confusion in his voice.
“Before the Storm.” She doesn’t know what she’ll do if he regrets it.
“No,” he says firmly. “No, never.”
She lets out a shuddering breath. “Okay.”
“I think you should go to bed,” Nick says, and she knows he’s right, she’s overtired and that’s probably at least half of why she’s so emotional, but she doesn’t want to hang up the phone. She doesn’t want to say goodbye again, even if it’s only for a little while.
“I don’t wanna,” she whines, dropping her head to the mattress.
“Miley,” he says, and she can hear him trying not to laugh at her. Which is fair, because she sounds like a whiny toddler right now, she knows that.
“Fine,” she sighs. “Miss you, Nicky.”
“Miss you, too.”
“You’ll call me later?” Her eyes are drooping shut, and she tries to smother a yawn.
“I promise.”
“Okay. Love you. G’night.”
“Love you, too. Sweet dreams.”
She falls asleep with a smile on her face.
*
The sound of Justin's ringtone wakes Miley up in the morning.
She lunges for it automatically and answers before she's even really awake enough to realize what's going on. "Hello?"
"Miley, what is wrong with you?"
She blinks and sits straight up in bed. "Justin?"
"Yeah," he sneers and she winces at the sound of his voice. She doesn't think he's ever talked to her like that. "Did you think it was your new boyfriend?"
"I don't have a new boyfriend," she says automatically. "Justin, what's wrong?" She's still trying to blink sleep out of her eyes and she can't think when she's just woken up.
"You know he's using you, right?"
"What?" is all she manages to get out before he's barreling ahead with more accusations.
"All he wants is the publicity you can get him and you just roll over and take it because you think he's your prince fucking charming and it's disgusting, Miley. You're just a dirty little doormat to him, and you don't even realize it."
She's crying now, because how can Justin say these things? How can someone that says that they love her say them and hurt her so badly? "Justin -"
"No," he says. "I just wanted to let you know that we're done, Miley. Done."
He hangs up the phone and she just sits there and sobs.
She doesn't understand what just happened. In a million years, she never would have guessed Justin could say those things to her, could talk to her in that voice. She didn't even know he had that voice. He made her sound so ugly, so pathetic, he made it sound like what she has with Nick isn't real, that it doesn't matter, and she just wants to curl up in a ball and die right now.
The phone rings again and this time it's Demi's ringtone and she answers, tears still streaming down her face. "Demi."
"Miley, what's wrong?" Demi asks instantly, voice laced with concern and god, Miley wants to be with her friend in the worst way.
Miley tries to explain, but she's talking through ragged breaths and she's not even sure she's making any sense. "Justin - he called and said things - and god, Demi, I didn't mean to hurt him - and how could he call me that." She breaks down into another round of tears and can't speak anymore.
"Miley, do you want me to find Nick?" Demi asks worriedly.
"No," Miley manages to get out. "No." She doesn't want Nick to hear her like this, she just feels so small and ugly right now and no. He can't hear her like this.
"What did Justin say?" Demi asks, and Miley can hear the panic in her voice, so she must really be freaking Demi out.
Miley tries to pull herself together, wiping at her eyes and nose, and says, "He said that Nick was just using me and that I was a dirty little doormat."
"He said what?" Demi asks and now she sounds pissed. "Miley, you know that's not true. None of that is true."
Miley shakes her head, drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arm around them. "I don't know anything anymore. If Justin could say those things, I don't know anything."
"Are you sure that you don't want me to find Nick?" Demi asks. "You know he's not using you, Miles. Nick couldn't, he wouldn't. He loves you."
"Yeah," Miley sniffles. "But -"
"No buts," Demi says forcefully. "It's not possible. And you're not a dirty little doormat. God, I could kill him. What gives him the right to say those things to you?"
"I hurt him."
"No," Demi says. "That does not give him the right to talk to you like that. Nothing gives him the right. Don't talk to him anymore."
Miley laughs weakly. "I don't think that will be a problem." She can't imagine ever wanting to talk to Justin again right now. At least not that Justin.
"Good." Demi pauses. "I still wish you'd let me go get Nick. And hey, I haven't told you how happy I am for you guys."
"What exactly did Nick tell you?" Miley asks curiously, because she didn't think he'd talk to anyone about them except maybe Joe.
"Not a lot," Demi says with a laugh. "I was expecting to get the details from you. Or from Joe."
Miley laughs again, a real laugh this time. "Those two gossip worse than us sometimes."
"I know, right?" Miley hears someone talking to Demi in the background and then Demi says regretfully, "Miles, I gotta go. Some reporter or something that I have to talk to right this minute or my career will end. You know."
"Go," Miley says. "Thanks, Dem."
"Thank me after I kick Justin's ass for you, because believe me, I will. And I'll have plenty of help. Love ya, Dragon."
"Back at ya, Nighthawk."
Demi hangs up and Miley crawls back under her covers. She wants to shut the whole world out for a little while and pretend that none of this happened, that Justin's still the guy that she loved for the past nine months, that he'd never say such horrible things to her, that she's not going to have to tell Nick about this, because that is not a conversation she ever wants to have.
She closes her eyes and tries to start her day over.
*
Starting the day over isn’t possible, so Miley settles for the next best thing. She tries to forget.
She goes jet skiing with her cast mates, and it’s fun, not weird like she was afraid it would be. She tries to put the fact that one of the people she’s having so much fun with today might have been saying horrible things about her the night before, and it mostly works. And maybe it wasn’t any of the people she’s having such a good time with, maybe it was someone else, maybe she’ll end up loving these people as much as she loves her friends back home. She hopes she’ll end up loving them as much as her friends back home. Spending the summer with people that she doesn’t like and that don’t like her would suck.
And it’s good, this feeling of starting to settle in, but the best part of her day is when Nick calls from London.
She’s stretched out on her bed with her laptop listening to music when his ringtone suddenly fills the room and she snatches her phone up and answers happily, “Hey.”
“Hey,” he says back. “How’s it going?”
She shrugs and turns the volume on her computer down. “It’s going better now.” She’s not ready to tell him about what happened with Justin, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be ready to tell him about that.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, and she smiles at the concern in his voice.
“Nothing that seeing you wouldn’t fix,” she says, and it’s true. There’s almost nothing that being able to see Nick wouldn’t fix for her. That’s probably pathetic and she wouldn’t admit it to anyone but him, but it doesn’t make it less true.
He sighs, and she hopes that means that he wants to see her as much as she wants to see him. “Soon.”
“How was Paris?” she asks, and she fiddles with the camera on her laptop. She might not be able to see him, but that doesn’t mean he can’t see how happy he makes her.
“Crazy. I can’t believe how fast all of this is happening.”
She snaps a picture and then another. “But you’re used to that, get in, get out.” She looks at the pictures and almost doesn’t recognize herself. Her eyes are sparkling and her smile seems more real and god, if he can make her look like this from a phone call there’s no way that they’ll be able to hide things if people actually see them together.
“Yeah,” he says. “I don’t know, it just seems different this time.”
“Bigger audiences,” she offers, fingers flying over the keyboard as she tweets one of the pictures.
“Probably.” He pauses. “Miley, what are you doing?”
“Um,” she says, stalling for time. “Nothing?”
He laughs. “You’re a terrible liar, what is it?”
“Don’t you know a girl likes to have a little mystery, Nicholas?” she pouts, trying to deflect him. And it’s true, it would be nice to be able to surprise him, but there’s something so right about how well they know each other. It makes everything seem so much more real.
He laughs again. “I think we’ve known each other too long for that, Destiny Hope. Just spill already.”
“Fine,” she says with a heavy, exaggerated sigh. “You should look at my twitter.” At the bottom of her screen a chat request blinks. “Oh hey, Nick? Brandi’s online and wants to talk. Do you mind?”
“No, go,” he says through a muffled yawn. “I need to go to bed anyway; Joe’s going to throw something at me soon.”
She laughs. “Well, throw something back at him for me. Miss you, Nicky. Bye.”
“Miss you, too. Bye.”
She hangs up, grinning like an idiot. She clicks on Brandi’s chat request and fires up her webcam.
For a day that started so horribly, it’s not turning out so bad.
*
She spends her first day shooting making out with Liam.
Sometimes her life is so strange that she can’t even believe she’s living it.
Liam’s great, super nice and super respectful, and even though kissing scenes are basically the most awkward thing ever, they have fun and she’s so glad he’s her co-star for this movie. They splash each other like little kids between takes and huddle together for warmth when they get to be too cold, because the Atlantic Ocean is nothing like the Pacific, Miley discovers.
And it’s nice to have something filling her head that’s not Justin or Nick. She’s more than just the boys in her life, and this reminds her of that, reminds her that no matter what else happens, she will always have this and that she can’t ever take it for granted.
Filming is long, hard work and when she gets home, all she wants to do is collapse into a ball and go to sleep, but like so many nights before sleep is impossible.
Nick’s on a plane back to the states, so there will be no late night phone call from him tonight. It’s a good test, she thinks, to see if she can go without him. She’s going to have to be without him for a long time and she has to start figuring out a way to deal with that.
But alone in the dark, she can’t help but think about Justin.
She half thinks that she dreamed that phone call yesterday, because nothing Justin had ever said to her before would have made her thought he could say things like that. And even though she knows it wasn’t a dream, that he really did try to hurt her that badly, she misses him. Misses the boy that she thought she knew, the one that always told her how pretty she was and that she didn’t need any make up, the one that sang her to sleep when she couldn’t. She misses that boy, not the one that was on the phone yesterday.
She hopes someday that she’ll meet that boy again.
*
Day by day, Miley settles into a routine. Filming fills her days and Nick fills her nights. She knows that once the tour kicks off that they’ll have to find other ways to make things work, to grab moments to talk where they can, but for now this feels right.
The day his album is released, she sneaks off to the closest Wal-Mart and buys a copy, listening to it in private in her trailer. She needs to hear it, to absorb it, to parse each and every word and figure out which ones are for her. She holds her breath when she listens to Before the Storm, her heart clenching each time they sing about not wanting to let the other go. She’d never wanted to let Nick go, and now she’s never going to.
After she listens, she sends him a two word text: thank you.
She’s pretty sure he’ll understand.
*
When Miley sits down to watch Nick on Larry King Live, she’s expecting to see the same interview that she’s seen the boys give a thousand times before. In fact, she’s barely listening, just keeping one eye on the television, because lame as it is, she just misses seeing Nick’s face.
But then Nick gets asked about her and when he starts talking about their reconnection, she laughs, because clearly he wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to use what she said. And she really laughs when he talks about how her daddy said very nice things about him, because duh.
Her daddy had always been their biggest fan.
She tunes back out after that, texting Mandy and Demi and Trace, but suddenly Larry’s asking Joe if he has a girlfriend and she can’t quite believe her ears when she hears Joe admit that yes, he does.
Miley’s jaw drops. No way did that just happen. Hell hasn’t frozen over, she’s almost certain of it, and did that actually just happen?
And oh my god, is Joe really being asked if Camilla is as famous as she is?
She hears Joe answer, “I don’t think anyone is as famous as Miley Cyrus,” but her eyes are glued to Nick, who looks like he’s going to kill Joe when they get out of range of the cameras, and she worries her bottom lip between her teeth, hoping that it’s because they agreed that they weren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend, and not because he’s ashamed of the possibility of people knowing about them.
It has to be that, she assures herself. And she’s not even mad at Joe for what he said, it’s kind of funny really.
But Nick doesn’t always share her and Joe’s sense of humor.
She grabs her phone and texts him immediately, so is joe still breathing? call me., and she’s practically vibrating with nervous energy as she waits for him to get back to her.
It’s not a big deal, she tells herself. It’s fine. People are always going to ask about them, that’s just the way it is. And if, when, they are together for real, she would be proud to have people know that Nick’s her boyfriend, she wants people to know that.
Her phone rings and she answers it immediately, "Nick?"
He doesn't say anything, and all she can hear is the sound of his breathing at the other end of the line. God, he must be pissed.
So she tries again. "Nick?"
He finally sighs and she's relieved. "Yeah."
"Is Joe still alive?" she asks, because fratricide is not out of the question here, no matter how much Nick loves his brother.
Nick snorts. "Yes." He raises his voice just slightly, and she guesses Joe's sitting right there. "But he's going to wish he weren't."
She hears a scuffle and suddenly Joe's voice is the one in her ear instead. "Miles?"
"Joseph," she says.
"Tell your boyfriend, not-boyfriend, or whatever you two are, that it's not a big deal, okay?" he asks, and she can practically see the glares they're probably giving each other. "He's being totally uptight about things again."
"Well, you did kind of out something that was supposed to be a secret on national television," she points out, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice.
"Whatever, you know you don't care," he says. "Admit it, you thought it was funny."
"That no one is as famous as me? I admit, I did. I bet your girlfriend didn't think it was as funny, though." Because yeah. Even if it's true, no one wants to hear that.
"I'm more concerned with not being smothered to death in my sleep or something right now," Joe says, and that's the last thing that he gets out before Nick steals the phone back and says, "Ignore Joe."
She laughs. "Man, I'm glad I'm not him tonight."
"He'll pay," Nick promises darkly.
"Nick," she says cautiously. She doesn't want to make him more angry, but he needs to know that she's not mad or anything. "It's not a big deal."
"What?" he splutters. "Of course, it's a -"
She shakes her head. "No, it's not. I mean, it's not like he actually said 'My brother Nick is dating Miley Cyrus.'"
"He did everything but say that."
"But he didn't. People are going to assume, but they were going to do that anyway. I mean, did you think me showing up at the concert wasn't going to start rumors?"
"Not ones like that," he grumbles, but she can tell that he's thawing a little.
She can't help but laugh. "No, they'll probably be worse. Nick, it's fine, really it is." She adds a teasing tone to her voice and says, "Besides, you know you'd regret killing Joe right after you did it."
"Maybe."
"Definitely."
There's a long pause and he finally asks, "You're really not mad?"
"No," she says firmly. "I mean, hey. No one's as famous as me, right? How awesome is that?"
Nick groans. "You're going to be reminding us all of that pretty often aren't you?"
She grins. Now he's getting into the spirit. "You betcha, you great little human being, you."
"Miley."
She bursts out laughing. "Just think, in two days, you'll be getting tag teamed by Joe and me in person. Aren't you excited?"
"Oh, of course," he says, and the sarcasm is just dripping off every word, so she knows he's back to normal. Well, as normal as Nick is capable of being.
"You can't wait to see me and you know it."
"No, I can't," he says, and his voice has dropped and she shivers a little, because wow did the mood of this phone call just change. "I need to see you."
"Me too," she whispers back. And she does, she needs to see him more than she needs to take her next breath. "I miss you."
"Same here," he says, and then she hears a loud conversation going on in the background, but she can't quite make it out. Nick comes back to the phone and says, "Sorry about that. I've gotta go. I'll call you tomorrow?"
"You'd better," she orders, trying to keep the sadness out of her voice. She doesn't want to hang up the phone, not at all. "Love you, Nicky."
"Love you too, Miles. Bye."
He hangs up and she curls up against her pillows still holding her phone.
"Dear, I thought I'd drop a line. The weather's cool. The folks are fine. I'm in bed each night at nine. P.S. I love you." <3 It's true.
*
The next day is pretty much the longest day in history, Miley's sure of that.
She just wants it to be tomorrow, to be in Dallas with Nick and the rest of the Jonas's, because she misses all of them too. In so many ways they're her second family, and it feels like forever since she's seen them, even if it hasn't been.
But she tries to concentrate on her work, and she invites Liam over that night to hang out, because she knows that she's not going to be able to sleep, not when she's that excited. And they're just chilling, listening to music and having a good time when Nick's ringtone echoes through the room and her face must light up like a kid's on Christmas morning, because Liam laughs and excuses himself and she dives for the phone.
"Hey," she says happily. "I was starting to think you weren't going to call."
"Sorry," he says, and he sounds harried. "Last minute stuff for tour, you know."
"No big deal," she says, shrugging her shoulders and turning the volume down on her computer. "I was just chillin' with Liam."
"Oh yeah?" Nick asks, and is that jealousy she hears in his voice? "That's nice."
"Nicholas Jonas," she says incredulously. "Are you jealous?"
"What? No," he denies, but just with the way he says it, she can tell that he's lying through his teeth. "Why would I be jealous?"
She's a terrible person for finding this hilarious, she knows she is. "I don't know," she drawls. "He's pretty cute."
"Miley," he says warningly.
She can't help it, she has to laugh. "Nick."
"I'm not jealous," he says defensively. "And if I were going to be jealous, it wouldn't be of a blonde Australian dude that you've been making out with all week."
"Did you look at pictures online or something?” she asks, trying not to laugh again. "Wait until you film your first on screen kiss, mister, you'll see how much fun it is."
"I don't care," he says, and god, he sounds like such a little boy right now. She doesn't know what it says about her that she finds it incredibly endearing.
But he sounds like he's had about enough, so she'll let him off the hook. "You know that you're the only one I want to be kissing, right?"
He doesn't answer.
"Right?" she repeats more forcefully.
"I think I'm going to need a demonstration of that," he says finally, and she bursts out laughing.
"Wait twelve hours or so and you're on," she says between giggles. "God, Nick."
He finally laughs, and it's music to her ears. "Fine," he grumbles. "I may have been the smallest bit jealous."
She raises an eyebrow. Nick Jonas, master of the understatement. "Ya think?"
"You're enjoying this way too much," he accuses, and she can almost hear him narrowing his eyes at her. "It's not very nice of you."
"I'm sorry," she says as contritely as she can, which isn't all that much because she's totally not sorry. "I'll make it up to you."
"I'm going to hold you to that," he says, his voice dropping about an octave, and okay, they've clearly reached the flirting part of this phone call.
"If you feel you have to," she says solemnly.
"I really do."
"Well, okay then." Liam sticks his head back into the room and Miley waves him in. "But I think I should go before this conversation goes any further."
"Coward," Nick accuses.
She laughs. He'll regret that. "We'll see about that. G'night, Nicholas. I'll see you tomorrow."
He lets out a heavy sigh. "Fine. Night, Miles. I can't wait to see you."
"Me too," she whispers back. "Bye."
"Bye."
She hangs up the phone and turns to Liam, wide smile on her face. "So. Whatcha want to do now?"
Twelve hours to go.
[Part 4]