“Miley.” I answered Kevin’s question, causing Joe’s jaw to drop. I was hoping that this excuse would work well, but Joe just shook his head and walked out. A moment later, Big Rob walked in to grab Kevin and me for dinner.
The next day rolled around, but Joe still wouldn’t talk to me. For whatever reason, he was acting like I was hurting him when I wasn’t even doing anything! Instead of dealing with his death glares and the cold shoulder, I approached him on our water break during sound check.
“Dude, what the heck is your problem?” I asked, clamping my hand on his shoulder so he couldn’t escape.
“What are you talking about? I don’t have a problem.” He avoided eye contact and tried to shake my hand off.
“Ever since I played the new song, you’ve been doing this. I didn’t even do anything to you!” I raised my voice a bit, sick of his childish antics.
He let out a frustrated sigh, “No, you didn’t do anything to me, but you are doing shit to your best friend. How stupid do you think I am, Nick? I know you went to see her earlier, and I heard your song. I can put two and two together to get four.”
“Congratulations, Joe, you graduated the first grade! Would you like a medal?” I side-smirked and punched his arm lightly.
“Hey, I’m the one with the attitude right now.” He glared, grabbing my hand and moving it, “And I’m being serious. How can you be talking to Miley when something happened with Liz?”
I was getting tired of this conversation that had taken a wrong turn to accusatory street, so I rolled my eyes, “Nothing happened with Liz. I told her we were moving and that’s it.”
“Then why the hell did you walk in with a smile on your face like you just found out we were going to Disney World?!” Joe’s voice rose a little bit and he took a sip of his water bottle.
I quickly did a side check to see if anyone had noticed our little disagreement, “Two things: One, I wasn’t smiling. Two, I’ve already been to Disney and it’s not that big of a deal,” I noticed Kevin walking over to us, “But that jump you did the other night during Year 3000 really got the crowd going, you should do it again.”
“You’ve changing the subject.” He glared.
“Hey guys, time to go back up.” Kevin announced, walking past us and towards the stage.
I turned to follow him, but this time Joe had me in a death grip, “This conversation is not over,” he muttered through gritted teeth before sauntering over like nothing happened. Typical.
---
The rest of the set went pretty well, as did our portion of the concert. I walked off the stage, practically dripping sweat, when I heard a familiar phrase. “Ick!”
“Liz!” I chuckled, feeling her arms work their way my neck.
She quickly pulled back, “You reek, but the show was awesome.”
“Gee thanks,” I glared, walking towards my dressing room, “Then let me change real quick.”
“Hurry up, it’s a school night, and some of us aren’t rockstars and have to function in a school tomorrow.” She teased.
“ELIZABETH ANNE KINGS!” Joe shouted, clearly wanting to make his presence known. I rolled my eyes while he engulfed her into a tight hug.
“You reek, too, Joe,” She swatted at his back, “I missed you, too, but get off!”
He chuckled, shaking his head and removed his arm, “Mom says she wants to talk to you again, we’ll be out in about twenty.”
“Try to make it quicker? I have to be home at a decent time tonight.” She waved and walked off.
