018: Drunk Twister and Stolen Moments
Title: Drunk Twister and Stolen Moments
Pairing: Joe/Demi, Nick/Selena, David/Selena, Zac/Vanessa: AKA DISNEY ON CRACK
Rating: PG-13
Word Count:3,668.
Warnings: Drunkeness?
Summary: David's having a housewarming party and everyone's invited. Leave your jackets at the door and grab a beer!
Told from the POVs of Joe, Demi, Nick, Selena, and Zac Efron.
Author's Notes: This was brought on by the lovely David Henrie's twittering (see cut) about an 'epic' housewarming party that would ensue upon his arrival home from Puerto Rico. I'm not really sure how that one twitter brought on 4,000 words and this fic will probably never happen anywhere but in my head, but a girl can dream right?
David's having an 'epic housewarming party,' according to his Twitter and that corny e-invite he sent out. Kevin found out and gave Joe that "I'm-our-father's-clone-and-disapprove-of-all-fun-activities" look, so Joe didn't bother offering him a ride. Nick, despite his now regular role as Joe's right hand man, can't hold his liquor and Joe can't bear to witness the guaranteed awkward moments. Nick's a loose talker with alcohol, and David and Selena's relationship was a little too fresh for the night to go smoothly with his presence. Joe considered bringing Camilla to this, but she's "hanging out" with Rob tonight, and Joe finds himself too apathetic about their relationship to get pissed about it. Plus, he'd feel kind of stupid dancing to Lil Wayne and playing Twister when she could be like, drinking red wine or something somewhere.
He shows up around 9 and the party is already packed. David's just bought a new apartment with Matt Prokop, that crazy new guy from HSM, and this combined housewarming/Puerto Rican homecoming party was obviously the best way to break in the new place. Joe's not used to coming to parties alone though; he usually has Nick or Demi at his side, but ever since Dem's got her new show and had began semi-dating her co-star, he'd feel kind of weird asking.
Sterling Knight is her new guy, apparently. Joe thinks that might just be the stupidest name he'd ever heard, until she mentions the name of the character he plays. Chad Dylan Cooper? Because really, that name's practically longer than the alphabet. Joe doesn't think too much of it when she mentions that he was cool, but then texts like "dinner with Sterling" and "me and Sterling are working" started to overrule their mall time and movie Fridays. Joe knows that a few kisses in Canada were hardly enough to stake claims on her, but they were good kisses and he was hoping that maybe there'd be a few more when they got out of the wilderness. And there were, for a while, and things were good until Joe had to go and fuck things up by dating Taylor and Camilla.
Nick jokes that Joe's this one-man version of Survivor and makes things as hard as possible on himself. And maybe it's true because when it came to Demi, things are too good and too easy, and Joe isn't used to that. But anyways, after 27-second phone calls and twin sister girlfriends, he and Demi aren't exactly on ideal terms at the moment. He plans on changing that tonight though, because what better place to do so than a party full of strangers and booze?
And on that note, Joe heads into the living room, where one huge Disney dance orgy is taking place. He kind of smiles because seriously, if the paps could see this, there'd probably be at least two heart attacks and three strokes. Joe spots Selena dancing near the center and when he sees a flash of the ring that Demi always wears (it's got a ruby stone and red's Joe's favorite color) he starts walking in that direction.
Joe's never been good with letting out his feelings, choosing to blow them off with wrestling with Frankie or hamming it up for cameras. He just figures that when your life's out there for everyone to see, it's better not to be vulnerable. Nick can read him pretty well though. It's usually on random tour dates that Joe finds it kind of hard to let his frustrations out through a headlock and it all comes pouring out. It's in the dark of hotel rooms that Nick listens to Joe vent about that ridiculous question the interviewer forced on them or how Taylor is yet to stop texting him or didn't Demi look cute in that bee costume for Sonny? But really, since its in the dark, Joe's pretty sure it doesn't count as opening up and the next morning, he's hopped out of bed and is back to pretending that he doesn't have a care in the world.
With Camp Rock though, Joe had to open up to Demi, because Nick just wasn't around as much. And surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. She didn't sugarcoat and she listened and she could hold his hand in a way that Nick couldn't (and wouldn't.) So fuck it, Joe decided. The least he could do is tell the girl the truth; she deserved at least that much.
He finally enters the circle, ready to pull Demi aside and tell her what was up, when he got to really see who was there. Selena is storming off with a curly mop that looked suspiciously like Nick, but Joe can't really worry about that at the moment because there is something much more preoccupying going on.
Demi is in the arms of Sterling, and the way she's pressed into his body is more than friendly. Joe just stands there, frozen as Demi rotates her body to face Sterling's, and what the hell, why was this in slow motion, he thinks, as she lets Sterling kiss her, right on the lips.
It was a quick kiss and Demi pulls away first, but Joe feels like a million pieces inside of him are exploding like shrapnel and all of a sudden every inch of his body hurts. Demi is his to kiss, he thinks, why didn't she get that?
She catches him staring though, because a person standing still in a crowd of dancing maniacs isn't hard to spot. Demi seems to jerk away from Sterling like she was doing something wrong and begins to say Joe's name, but it's too late because by that time, Joe's darted for the kitchen.
Now he remembers why he hates being vulnerable.
-----
Nick mentions something about sleeping over at Mitchell's, and even though Mom hates him having pothead friends, she figures that's better than having none and lets him go. What Nick doesn't mention, however, is the fact that Mitchell makes him want to puke and that nowadays 'sleepovers at Mitchells'' is practically slang for 'David's housewarming party.'
Nick's knows that Joe thinks he's doing him a favor by not bringing him to David's, which is ridiculous. It's not like Nick'll doing anything stupid like try to steal Selena away, because whatever, he could if he wanted to. The thing about him and Sel though, is that he had actually really liked her. She was just so chill and fun, and understood that sometimes phone calls just weren't possible on tour. They'd had some pretty good times too, using all the old J.O.N.A.S spy gear to patrol their sets and attempting to accomplish Operation Joe/Demi, or skateboarding around L.A early enough to see the sunrise. And sure, he was the one who had broken it off so he couldn't whine about it, but Selena was the first girl he had meant the "I really like you but work comes first" line with.
But seriously, it was whatever. Yeah, it makes his stomach hurt when he thinks about her and David doing God knows what, and when he found out about them he maybe went to the studio for three hours to burn off steam, but he kind of lost the right to comment on her life when he cut himself out of it. Nick's thinking that David's party will be closure or whatever. Maybe seeing Sel with David will make it real and he can stop fantasizing about dropping in at the Wizards set, and yelling cut in the middle of a scene and kissing her senseless with David watching and....yeah. Closure.
-----
Zac is usually beer pong champ, but at the moment he's getting owned in the face by Ashley and Brittany Snow. He doesn't like the situation one bit, and it doesn't help that there's a crowd in the kitchen watching this battle go down. It becomes clear that the losing streak is due to Vanessa's ingested jager bombs, which have left her incapable to do little but giggle and lean on Zac like she's about to keel over, let alone throw a good ball. He thinks its cute and all, but really, couldn't she pick a better time for it?
"Van, you are absolutely useless at this," Zac's rolling his eyes at his girlfriend, and tries to throw well enough to override Vanessa's last tosses that have somehow ended up in someone's eye, the sink, and a pot on the stove.
Zac loves Van and her complete drunken sloppiness, but he's not a fan of losing. He hands off the game to some dudes that are next in line, offering a semi-serious line of encouragement about "carrying the torch" then drags Vanessa to sit with him at the kitchen island.
The middle Jonas boy's there and even though there's at least twenty people in the kitchen, he's sitting by himself, an empty can in front of him.
Zac's feeling pretty awkward about this because besides small talk at the Golden Globes, they've never spoken. But the dude looked pretty down and Vanessa wasn't exactly a riveting conversationalist at the moment, so what the hell.
"Whatsup dude? Cool party, huh?"
"Yeah, awesome," the Jonas says. Okay maybe it was the awards scene, but Zac's sure the guy was more hyped up then. Zac's a good dude to talk to, but considering the fact that him and Joe have never even talked before and, oh, they're at a party, he feels really the only thing he can say is:
"Wanna get drunk with me? Vanessa'd probably have more fun chilling with Ashley, anyways."
The Jonas boy smiles for the first time since they've started this conversation.
"Sounds like a plan."
-----
They're in the living room with Matt's ipod speakers blasting Right Round and Selena's dancing like an absolute lunatic with Miley and Demi. The room's packed so they're practically grinding into each other, but she's too busy spinning and shaking to give a damn. David's being a good host and trying to get drinks for everyone, so Sel hasn't seen him that much tonight.
It's nice though, being with David. It probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Puerto Rico and the Spanish breeze and the scenes that were practically straight out of Dirty Dancing 2, but that's alright. Selena loves David in a best friend way and he's ridiculously hot, so being able to make out with him on a regular basis is no loss for her. She kind of needs something like that after Nick Jonas.
She leans over Miley's shoulder and yells something about a girl's night needing to happen and relaxes back into dancing. As nice as Puerto Rico was, it feels so good to be back with her girls and have someone to dance her boy problems out of her system. She glances around the room at the hordes of people with drinks in hand and hips in motion and has the urge to hug every single one of them for being here, but that's probably the alcohol thinking. That feeling goes away in an instant the minute she catches sight of a curly mop of hair, however. A curly mop of hair grinding pretty damn hard with some blonde chick.
Selena's not really sure what provokes her to do this, but suddenly she's wading through the crowd right up to Nick Jonas. She gets that he's allowed to move on too, and that maybe Just Jared wasn't the best way for him to find out about her new relationship, but seriously? Could he not have his hands on that chick's ass right now?
"Nick. Enjoying yourself?" She says, in a voice she hopes that is one of a host's girlfriend, not a completely jealous sixteen year old.
His hands don't move from that girl when he smirks and answers her: "Oh I am. Where's David? Busy lighting up somewhere?"
Oh my God, Selena's ready to reach across his slut and smack him in the face. How dare he? Just because he has a few drinks in him doesn't give him the right to dump her then show up to her boyfriend's party and talk shit like that. Instead of physically attacking him there however, she chooses to grab his wrist and drag him to the wall of the room, where she can murder him properly.
"What the hell Nick? At least David has actual friends besides his brothers and can be mature in relationships. I'm pretty happy without you, anyways so why don't you just get right back to dancefuc---"
Selena doesn't even realize that she has Nick pushed up against the wall and that she's yelling at him literally inches away from his face until he kisses her. He kisses her hard, like he's trying to tell her something, and even though Sel knows she shouldn't, she kisses back. She's missed him so much.
-----
Joe's done at least four shots by now and him and Zac are pretty shitfaced. They've been playing Twister with some backup dancer friends of Matt's and the only thing funner than Twister is drunk Twister. Zac's running the spinner and is shouting out colors that are clearly not on the dial and body parts that aren't family-friendly, which is funny, but how's a game of Drunk Twister going to progress like that? Finally, someone takes over for Zac so that they can actually start playing and Zac says he's going to grab Van to peace out. They do a bro-hug, which is kind of awkward because Joe's got one hand on yellow, but it's cool; Joe's pretty thankful he had Zac to get him out of the kitchen and is sincere when he mentions hanging out sometime.
Joe's in the middle of trying out his concert split for right foot-red left foot-green when Demi walks up to the game. No one else notices and continues using their weird dance flexibility to stretch around each other, but Joe falls flat on his ass when she stands at the edge of the mat.
He sits there and smiles drunkenly at her a little, trying to block out the memory of her and Sterling dancing, hoping that she didn't notice how much it fazed him. But even trying to do that makes him think about It, so the smile comes out a lot more pathetic than he meant it. Damn.
"..um, Joe? You're pretty much blocking the game," Demi laughs, offering a hand to lift him up. She doesn't meet his eyes though, so Joe knows they're going to have to talk about what happened. Double damn.
They walk (well, he stumbles,) over to the couch, and Demi asks the occupying couple to kindly relocate their make out session.
They sit down, which is a good thing because things are kind of spinning at the moment for Joe. He tries to focus though, because Demi's started talking, and the look on her face is serious. She's talking about Canada and Taylor and Sterling and screw ups but he's having a hard time piecing together her words. He gets the jist of it though: that maybe it's a little late to go back to what they were.
He wants to say something to make it all better, so he musters all the sober in his body and slurs:
"Deeemi, I looveshyou so much thoughhh."
Maybe he's more drunk than he thought, and for one horrible second Joe thinks that maybe Demi thought he just complimented her shoes or spoke Chinese or said he loves her, because oh my god does he?
She gets it though and smiles sadly. "I know you do, but that's not good enough anymore." She kisses his cheek and leaves Joe on the couch.
Joe wants to go home now.
-----
People are slapping him on the back, toasting him drunkenly, telling him this is the party of the year. And damn straight it is, David thinks. He's been refilling kegs and shuffling his playlist all night that he barely has time to party himself, and it's almost twelve and he's still pretty sober. Things seemed to have cooled down for a bit though, and he decides that he'll maybe grab a drink and dance with his girl.
It's about five minutes into searching for Selena that David sees them. Selena's got her hands in Nick's hair and they're kissing each other like it's necessary for survival, and it's twisted, but David feels like they're the couple and he's just this outsider watching. Maybe it’s the one too many joints that David's smoked, but he doesn't react right away. He could clobber Nick Jonas in a second, there's no question there, but it's more complicated than that.
The pot may have slowed David's instincts, but it hasn't made him stupid. He got that there's something about Puerto Rican beaches that gets to girls and that him and Selena are together more because of her being a hopeless romantic than being hopelessly in love with him. It sucks but David's acknowledged that he and Sel will never be long term, but after people like Lucy and Nick, maybe this is what they both need. So David decides to watch a little more to decide what to do.
They've stopped kissing, but their faces haven't moved much further apart. Selena looks like she's trying to catch her breath, and after a few seconds she takes a step back, trying to release Nick's grip on her hands. Instead of letting her go, Nick pulls her back in, lightly kisses her forehead, and wraps his arms around her.
David knows that if he was drunker then Nick Jonas would have a black eye around this time. There's something about the way Nick's holding Selena and how Sel's not letting go, though, that keeps him from doing so. Selena's a good girl, he knows, and she'll do the right thing tomorrow, even if that means dumping him for Mr. Serious Musician over there.
David makes his decision, then turns around and heads back into the kitchen. He'll let them have their moment. Besides, beer pong's calling his name and there'll always be time to beat up Nick Jonas in the future.
-----
The thing about LA is that there's more sidewalk than grass, Demi thinks. But David and Matt have scored the corner apartment and it has its own little patch of green, perfect for barbecues or sunbathing. Or lying on one's back and determinedly blocking out Joe-thoughts, as Demi was now doing.
It's just that, with Camp Rock and fans and the media always talking about "Joe and Demi" and "Demi + Joe" or even some ridiculous "Jemi" contraption, Demi kind of started believing it too.
Maybe it was the way Joe couldn't stop himself from kissing her at the end of every take of "This is Me" and it took about three hours of retakes to make a Disney appropriate one. It could also be the way he did things like show up at her house with chicken noodle soup and Miss Congeniality the day after she screwed up the Texas show because of shot vocal chords. So yeah, when Demi was crying on his shoulder more than watching Sandra Bullock kick ass, she might've thought they had something.
Once you get off tour and out of Canada though, things change. There's tall blondes who you thought were your friends and brunettes who should be hanging out with boys her own age.
But at first, she lets it slide, because the thing is, Joe was like a damn puppy dog. A dog that can't help but lick everyone because he just loves so much and eventually wanders home. Demi got tired of waiting for Joe to come back though, and the puppy dog eyes weren't doing the trick anymore.
So Demi says yes to Sterling and yes to a tan and a dye job and when she sees the look of shock on Joe's face at the 3D movie premiere, she knows she should feel liberated or something, but all she wants to do is cry. She doesn't do complicated though, and it seems like that's all Joe does. He's kind of the girl in this relationship, Demi realizes, frustrated. A wishy-washy little kid who can't just put down his toys for a second to grow up.
Then Joe walks out of the flat and Demi's angry enough to scream at the boy, but then he stops in front of her with this face, this horrible broken look that takes the fight out of her. So instead of yelling at him for how he stamped her heart into pieces, she silently pats the ground next to her.
Joe lies down at her side and for a long time they lay there in the grass, counting stars and listening to the strains of disco music vibrating in the house.
After a little bit, Joe speaks, slightly sleepily, "I'm not really sure if that's a star or a plane, Dem. See how it's floating, like right over there..."
Joe's leaning over her and pointing into the sky and Demi can feel his warm breath on her cheek and suddenly it's too much for her to take.
"Joe," she says kind of desperately, "we need to ta--"
"Not now, Dem," he interrupts, smiling sadly, like he knows what she wants to say. "Let's just stay like this for now."
He takes her hand and intertwines their fingers and Demi knows she should let go and head inside. They still need to talk about what they're doing and how she needs Joe to be more than a fair-weather boyfriend and then there's Sterling and Camilla to discuss, and dear God, there's so many reasons to let go.
Demi knows all of this, but instead she relaxes her body and squeezes the boy's hand.
"Okay. For now."
-----
??♥
This was totally out of left field and took forever, so I'd REALLY appreciate feedback on it. ♥ thanks!
Pairing: Joe/Demi, Nick/Selena, David/Selena, Zac/Vanessa: AKA DISNEY ON CRACK
Rating: PG-13
Word Count:3,668.
Warnings: Drunkeness?
Summary: David's having a housewarming party and everyone's invited. Leave your jackets at the door and grab a beer!
Told from the POVs of Joe, Demi, Nick, Selena, and Zac Efron.
Author's Notes: This was brought on by the lovely David Henrie's twittering (see cut) about an 'epic' housewarming party that would ensue upon his arrival home from Puerto Rico. I'm not really sure how that one twitter brought on 4,000 words and this fic will probably never happen anywhere but in my head, but a girl can dream right?
David's having an 'epic housewarming party,' according to his Twitter and that corny e-invite he sent out. Kevin found out and gave Joe that "I'm-our-father's-clone-and-disapprove-of-all-fun-activities" look, so Joe didn't bother offering him a ride. Nick, despite his now regular role as Joe's right hand man, can't hold his liquor and Joe can't bear to witness the guaranteed awkward moments. Nick's a loose talker with alcohol, and David and Selena's relationship was a little too fresh for the night to go smoothly with his presence. Joe considered bringing Camilla to this, but she's "hanging out" with Rob tonight, and Joe finds himself too apathetic about their relationship to get pissed about it. Plus, he'd feel kind of stupid dancing to Lil Wayne and playing Twister when she could be like, drinking red wine or something somewhere.
He shows up around 9 and the party is already packed. David's just bought a new apartment with Matt Prokop, that crazy new guy from HSM, and this combined housewarming/Puerto Rican homecoming party was obviously the best way to break in the new place. Joe's not used to coming to parties alone though; he usually has Nick or Demi at his side, but ever since Dem's got her new show and had began semi-dating her co-star, he'd feel kind of weird asking.
Sterling Knight is her new guy, apparently. Joe thinks that might just be the stupidest name he'd ever heard, until she mentions the name of the character he plays. Chad Dylan Cooper? Because really, that name's practically longer than the alphabet. Joe doesn't think too much of it when she mentions that he was cool, but then texts like "dinner with Sterling" and "me and Sterling are working" started to overrule their mall time and movie Fridays. Joe knows that a few kisses in Canada were hardly enough to stake claims on her, but they were good kisses and he was hoping that maybe there'd be a few more when they got out of the wilderness. And there were, for a while, and things were good until Joe had to go and fuck things up by dating Taylor and Camilla.
Nick jokes that Joe's this one-man version of Survivor and makes things as hard as possible on himself. And maybe it's true because when it came to Demi, things are too good and too easy, and Joe isn't used to that. But anyways, after 27-second phone calls and twin sister girlfriends, he and Demi aren't exactly on ideal terms at the moment. He plans on changing that tonight though, because what better place to do so than a party full of strangers and booze?
And on that note, Joe heads into the living room, where one huge Disney dance orgy is taking place. He kind of smiles because seriously, if the paps could see this, there'd probably be at least two heart attacks and three strokes. Joe spots Selena dancing near the center and when he sees a flash of the ring that Demi always wears (it's got a ruby stone and red's Joe's favorite color) he starts walking in that direction.
Joe's never been good with letting out his feelings, choosing to blow them off with wrestling with Frankie or hamming it up for cameras. He just figures that when your life's out there for everyone to see, it's better not to be vulnerable. Nick can read him pretty well though. It's usually on random tour dates that Joe finds it kind of hard to let his frustrations out through a headlock and it all comes pouring out. It's in the dark of hotel rooms that Nick listens to Joe vent about that ridiculous question the interviewer forced on them or how Taylor is yet to stop texting him or didn't Demi look cute in that bee costume for Sonny? But really, since its in the dark, Joe's pretty sure it doesn't count as opening up and the next morning, he's hopped out of bed and is back to pretending that he doesn't have a care in the world.
With Camp Rock though, Joe had to open up to Demi, because Nick just wasn't around as much. And surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. She didn't sugarcoat and she listened and she could hold his hand in a way that Nick couldn't (and wouldn't.) So fuck it, Joe decided. The least he could do is tell the girl the truth; she deserved at least that much.
He finally enters the circle, ready to pull Demi aside and tell her what was up, when he got to really see who was there. Selena is storming off with a curly mop that looked suspiciously like Nick, but Joe can't really worry about that at the moment because there is something much more preoccupying going on.
Demi is in the arms of Sterling, and the way she's pressed into his body is more than friendly. Joe just stands there, frozen as Demi rotates her body to face Sterling's, and what the hell, why was this in slow motion, he thinks, as she lets Sterling kiss her, right on the lips.
It was a quick kiss and Demi pulls away first, but Joe feels like a million pieces inside of him are exploding like shrapnel and all of a sudden every inch of his body hurts. Demi is his to kiss, he thinks, why didn't she get that?
She catches him staring though, because a person standing still in a crowd of dancing maniacs isn't hard to spot. Demi seems to jerk away from Sterling like she was doing something wrong and begins to say Joe's name, but it's too late because by that time, Joe's darted for the kitchen.
Now he remembers why he hates being vulnerable.
-----
Nick mentions something about sleeping over at Mitchell's, and even though Mom hates him having pothead friends, she figures that's better than having none and lets him go. What Nick doesn't mention, however, is the fact that Mitchell makes him want to puke and that nowadays 'sleepovers at Mitchells'' is practically slang for 'David's housewarming party.'
Nick's knows that Joe thinks he's doing him a favor by not bringing him to David's, which is ridiculous. It's not like Nick'll doing anything stupid like try to steal Selena away, because whatever, he could if he wanted to. The thing about him and Sel though, is that he had actually really liked her. She was just so chill and fun, and understood that sometimes phone calls just weren't possible on tour. They'd had some pretty good times too, using all the old J.O.N.A.S spy gear to patrol their sets and attempting to accomplish Operation Joe/Demi, or skateboarding around L.A early enough to see the sunrise. And sure, he was the one who had broken it off so he couldn't whine about it, but Selena was the first girl he had meant the "I really like you but work comes first" line with.
But seriously, it was whatever. Yeah, it makes his stomach hurt when he thinks about her and David doing God knows what, and when he found out about them he maybe went to the studio for three hours to burn off steam, but he kind of lost the right to comment on her life when he cut himself out of it. Nick's thinking that David's party will be closure or whatever. Maybe seeing Sel with David will make it real and he can stop fantasizing about dropping in at the Wizards set, and yelling cut in the middle of a scene and kissing her senseless with David watching and....yeah. Closure.
-----
Zac is usually beer pong champ, but at the moment he's getting owned in the face by Ashley and Brittany Snow. He doesn't like the situation one bit, and it doesn't help that there's a crowd in the kitchen watching this battle go down. It becomes clear that the losing streak is due to Vanessa's ingested jager bombs, which have left her incapable to do little but giggle and lean on Zac like she's about to keel over, let alone throw a good ball. He thinks its cute and all, but really, couldn't she pick a better time for it?
"Van, you are absolutely useless at this," Zac's rolling his eyes at his girlfriend, and tries to throw well enough to override Vanessa's last tosses that have somehow ended up in someone's eye, the sink, and a pot on the stove.
Zac loves Van and her complete drunken sloppiness, but he's not a fan of losing. He hands off the game to some dudes that are next in line, offering a semi-serious line of encouragement about "carrying the torch" then drags Vanessa to sit with him at the kitchen island.
The middle Jonas boy's there and even though there's at least twenty people in the kitchen, he's sitting by himself, an empty can in front of him.
Zac's feeling pretty awkward about this because besides small talk at the Golden Globes, they've never spoken. But the dude looked pretty down and Vanessa wasn't exactly a riveting conversationalist at the moment, so what the hell.
"Whatsup dude? Cool party, huh?"
"Yeah, awesome," the Jonas says. Okay maybe it was the awards scene, but Zac's sure the guy was more hyped up then. Zac's a good dude to talk to, but considering the fact that him and Joe have never even talked before and, oh, they're at a party, he feels really the only thing he can say is:
"Wanna get drunk with me? Vanessa'd probably have more fun chilling with Ashley, anyways."
The Jonas boy smiles for the first time since they've started this conversation.
"Sounds like a plan."
-----
They're in the living room with Matt's ipod speakers blasting Right Round and Selena's dancing like an absolute lunatic with Miley and Demi. The room's packed so they're practically grinding into each other, but she's too busy spinning and shaking to give a damn. David's being a good host and trying to get drinks for everyone, so Sel hasn't seen him that much tonight.
It's nice though, being with David. It probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Puerto Rico and the Spanish breeze and the scenes that were practically straight out of Dirty Dancing 2, but that's alright. Selena loves David in a best friend way and he's ridiculously hot, so being able to make out with him on a regular basis is no loss for her. She kind of needs something like that after Nick Jonas.
She leans over Miley's shoulder and yells something about a girl's night needing to happen and relaxes back into dancing. As nice as Puerto Rico was, it feels so good to be back with her girls and have someone to dance her boy problems out of her system. She glances around the room at the hordes of people with drinks in hand and hips in motion and has the urge to hug every single one of them for being here, but that's probably the alcohol thinking. That feeling goes away in an instant the minute she catches sight of a curly mop of hair, however. A curly mop of hair grinding pretty damn hard with some blonde chick.
Selena's not really sure what provokes her to do this, but suddenly she's wading through the crowd right up to Nick Jonas. She gets that he's allowed to move on too, and that maybe Just Jared wasn't the best way for him to find out about her new relationship, but seriously? Could he not have his hands on that chick's ass right now?
"Nick. Enjoying yourself?" She says, in a voice she hopes that is one of a host's girlfriend, not a completely jealous sixteen year old.
His hands don't move from that girl when he smirks and answers her: "Oh I am. Where's David? Busy lighting up somewhere?"
Oh my God, Selena's ready to reach across his slut and smack him in the face. How dare he? Just because he has a few drinks in him doesn't give him the right to dump her then show up to her boyfriend's party and talk shit like that. Instead of physically attacking him there however, she chooses to grab his wrist and drag him to the wall of the room, where she can murder him properly.
"What the hell Nick? At least David has actual friends besides his brothers and can be mature in relationships. I'm pretty happy without you, anyways so why don't you just get right back to dancefuc---"
Selena doesn't even realize that she has Nick pushed up against the wall and that she's yelling at him literally inches away from his face until he kisses her. He kisses her hard, like he's trying to tell her something, and even though Sel knows she shouldn't, she kisses back. She's missed him so much.
-----
Joe's done at least four shots by now and him and Zac are pretty shitfaced. They've been playing Twister with some backup dancer friends of Matt's and the only thing funner than Twister is drunk Twister. Zac's running the spinner and is shouting out colors that are clearly not on the dial and body parts that aren't family-friendly, which is funny, but how's a game of Drunk Twister going to progress like that? Finally, someone takes over for Zac so that they can actually start playing and Zac says he's going to grab Van to peace out. They do a bro-hug, which is kind of awkward because Joe's got one hand on yellow, but it's cool; Joe's pretty thankful he had Zac to get him out of the kitchen and is sincere when he mentions hanging out sometime.
Joe's in the middle of trying out his concert split for right foot-red left foot-green when Demi walks up to the game. No one else notices and continues using their weird dance flexibility to stretch around each other, but Joe falls flat on his ass when she stands at the edge of the mat.
He sits there and smiles drunkenly at her a little, trying to block out the memory of her and Sterling dancing, hoping that she didn't notice how much it fazed him. But even trying to do that makes him think about It, so the smile comes out a lot more pathetic than he meant it. Damn.
"..um, Joe? You're pretty much blocking the game," Demi laughs, offering a hand to lift him up. She doesn't meet his eyes though, so Joe knows they're going to have to talk about what happened. Double damn.
They walk (well, he stumbles,) over to the couch, and Demi asks the occupying couple to kindly relocate their make out session.
They sit down, which is a good thing because things are kind of spinning at the moment for Joe. He tries to focus though, because Demi's started talking, and the look on her face is serious. She's talking about Canada and Taylor and Sterling and screw ups but he's having a hard time piecing together her words. He gets the jist of it though: that maybe it's a little late to go back to what they were.
He wants to say something to make it all better, so he musters all the sober in his body and slurs:
"Deeemi, I looveshyou so much thoughhh."
Maybe he's more drunk than he thought, and for one horrible second Joe thinks that maybe Demi thought he just complimented her shoes or spoke Chinese or said he loves her, because oh my god does he?
She gets it though and smiles sadly. "I know you do, but that's not good enough anymore." She kisses his cheek and leaves Joe on the couch.
Joe wants to go home now.
-----
People are slapping him on the back, toasting him drunkenly, telling him this is the party of the year. And damn straight it is, David thinks. He's been refilling kegs and shuffling his playlist all night that he barely has time to party himself, and it's almost twelve and he's still pretty sober. Things seemed to have cooled down for a bit though, and he decides that he'll maybe grab a drink and dance with his girl.
It's about five minutes into searching for Selena that David sees them. Selena's got her hands in Nick's hair and they're kissing each other like it's necessary for survival, and it's twisted, but David feels like they're the couple and he's just this outsider watching. Maybe it’s the one too many joints that David's smoked, but he doesn't react right away. He could clobber Nick Jonas in a second, there's no question there, but it's more complicated than that.
The pot may have slowed David's instincts, but it hasn't made him stupid. He got that there's something about Puerto Rican beaches that gets to girls and that him and Selena are together more because of her being a hopeless romantic than being hopelessly in love with him. It sucks but David's acknowledged that he and Sel will never be long term, but after people like Lucy and Nick, maybe this is what they both need. So David decides to watch a little more to decide what to do.
They've stopped kissing, but their faces haven't moved much further apart. Selena looks like she's trying to catch her breath, and after a few seconds she takes a step back, trying to release Nick's grip on her hands. Instead of letting her go, Nick pulls her back in, lightly kisses her forehead, and wraps his arms around her.
David knows that if he was drunker then Nick Jonas would have a black eye around this time. There's something about the way Nick's holding Selena and how Sel's not letting go, though, that keeps him from doing so. Selena's a good girl, he knows, and she'll do the right thing tomorrow, even if that means dumping him for Mr. Serious Musician over there.
David makes his decision, then turns around and heads back into the kitchen. He'll let them have their moment. Besides, beer pong's calling his name and there'll always be time to beat up Nick Jonas in the future.
-----
The thing about LA is that there's more sidewalk than grass, Demi thinks. But David and Matt have scored the corner apartment and it has its own little patch of green, perfect for barbecues or sunbathing. Or lying on one's back and determinedly blocking out Joe-thoughts, as Demi was now doing.
It's just that, with Camp Rock and fans and the media always talking about "Joe and Demi" and "Demi + Joe" or even some ridiculous "Jemi" contraption, Demi kind of started believing it too.
Maybe it was the way Joe couldn't stop himself from kissing her at the end of every take of "This is Me" and it took about three hours of retakes to make a Disney appropriate one. It could also be the way he did things like show up at her house with chicken noodle soup and Miss Congeniality the day after she screwed up the Texas show because of shot vocal chords. So yeah, when Demi was crying on his shoulder more than watching Sandra Bullock kick ass, she might've thought they had something.
Once you get off tour and out of Canada though, things change. There's tall blondes who you thought were your friends and brunettes who should be hanging out with boys her own age.
But at first, she lets it slide, because the thing is, Joe was like a damn puppy dog. A dog that can't help but lick everyone because he just loves so much and eventually wanders home. Demi got tired of waiting for Joe to come back though, and the puppy dog eyes weren't doing the trick anymore.
So Demi says yes to Sterling and yes to a tan and a dye job and when she sees the look of shock on Joe's face at the 3D movie premiere, she knows she should feel liberated or something, but all she wants to do is cry. She doesn't do complicated though, and it seems like that's all Joe does. He's kind of the girl in this relationship, Demi realizes, frustrated. A wishy-washy little kid who can't just put down his toys for a second to grow up.
Then Joe walks out of the flat and Demi's angry enough to scream at the boy, but then he stops in front of her with this face, this horrible broken look that takes the fight out of her. So instead of yelling at him for how he stamped her heart into pieces, she silently pats the ground next to her.
Joe lies down at her side and for a long time they lay there in the grass, counting stars and listening to the strains of disco music vibrating in the house.
After a little bit, Joe speaks, slightly sleepily, "I'm not really sure if that's a star or a plane, Dem. See how it's floating, like right over there..."
Joe's leaning over her and pointing into the sky and Demi can feel his warm breath on her cheek and suddenly it's too much for her to take.
"Joe," she says kind of desperately, "we need to ta--"
"Not now, Dem," he interrupts, smiling sadly, like he knows what she wants to say. "Let's just stay like this for now."
He takes her hand and intertwines their fingers and Demi knows she should let go and head inside. They still need to talk about what they're doing and how she needs Joe to be more than a fair-weather boyfriend and then there's Sterling and Camilla to discuss, and dear God, there's so many reasons to let go.
Demi knows all of this, but instead she relaxes her body and squeezes the boy's hand.
"Okay. For now."
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This was totally out of left field and took forever, so I'd REALLY appreciate feedback on it. ♥ thanks!