Before the Storm (A Jonas Brothers Fanfic)

Chapter 21

Joe

As soon as Kevin left to get ready for dinner, I volunteered to shower first. Once I finished getting ready, I sat at the desk in my hotel room, and began writing in my song notebook.

"Cause I'm not afraid to fall

If you're the one who catches me

Tell me that you'll be there when I'm

About to lose it all

Cause you're the one who helps me see

That sometimes it's okay to fall"

I sat there and wrote the words as they came to my head, but couldn't finish the song.

I guess the chorus?

I shrugged it off as I began looking through the notebook and sighed. Every song in this notebook was for Aubrey. This was my "Aubrey" notebook. Yeah, I had other songs I wrote that weren't just for Aubrey, but they never felt special enough to put into this notebook.

"What'cha writing?" Nick asked from behind me as he finished buttoning his shirt.

"Nothing," I said, slightly embarrassed. I always felt embarrassed showing Nick a new Aubrey song, but I guess I should be used to it by now. Just about every song in this notebook was incomplete, but it never stopped me from writing them. They were either choruses, lines, ideas, etcetera, but Nick and Kevin usually helped me finish the songs. Whether we all felt the same way about someone, or they just had ideas to pitch in to the songs.

I opened the book and the first page read "Please Be Mine". I shut the notebook and pushed it aside, taking a deep breath in. Nick came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"It'll all be okay, Joe," he said with sympathy in his voice. I nodded my head, not because I didn't think things would be okay, but because I just wanted to move on from this. "Now, let's go pick up the girls, shall we?" He asked.

"Sure," I responded and grabbed my jacket and coat off the bed and led Nick out of the room. He knocked on the girls' room and we stood outside and waited for them.

"Coming!" I heard Ronnie say from the inside, and sure enough, the door opened.

"Hello, ladies," Nick said with a grin as Ronnie opened the door wider and we walked in. "You ladies look-"

"Beautiful," I said, cutting off my younger brother, only watching Aubrey. She stood with a beautiful cream colored dress, picking up a couple of stranded curls in the mirror.

"Thank you guys. Shall we go?" Ronnie asked and Aubrey turned around with a smile on her face. I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"We shall," Nick responded to Ronnie and they went off. Aubrey and I exchanged hellos and I followed her out the door, making sure to slip my suit jacket on as soon as we started walking in the hallway.

"You look very handsome, Joe," Aubrey said to me with a light smile on her face.

"Thank you," I responded, returning her smile. "I hope you're hungry, the restaurant's supposed to be delicious," I said as we entered the elevator.

"Famished," she responded with a grin as the elevator began to descend.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Ronnie teased her sister.

"I'm only kidding, Ron," she responded. "But," she said and looked at me. "I really am hungry, so I hope this food really is delicious." I nodded at her as the elevator opened and my parents walked over to us. We walked out of the elevator and all kissed and said hello.

"Everyone put on your coats," my dad warned. "It's pretty cold out there."

Taking my father's advice, we all slipped on our coats and followed my parents out to the limo we rented.

"This is all so fancy," Aubrey said as she slipped into the limo, sitting next to me, Ronnie to her right. "I don't think I've ever even rode in a limo before."

"Yeah we have," Ronnie told her. "You might just not remember." Aubrey shrugged and looked at me.

"Do you think the driver will turn the heater up? It's really cold," she said softly to me. I laughed and put my arm around her.

"We'll be there in less than 5 minutes - don't worry about a damn heater."

-----

When we got to the restaurant, the waitress took our coats and led us to our own private part of the restaurant, where Kevin and Danielle already had some drinks in their hands as they finished setting up.

"Hey! There you guys are!" Kevin said, embracing us, one by one, Danielle following his lead.

"Where are the Deleasas?" Nick asked the happy couple.

"Should be here any minute," Danielle said with a smile. "Pick your seats. We've got the place to ourselves back here."

Our parents sat at a separate table for the parents, while all the kids sat together.

"It's like we're 5 years old again, sitting in separate tables," Nick mumbled into my ear as he took his seat next to me.

"Technically, you still are a kid," I responded to him with a wink as I slipped off my suit jacket. Aubrey sat across from me, Ronnie to her left, across from Nick. As I picked up the menu, the same waitress walked in, the Deleasas right behind. We all got up, said our hellos, and sat back down.

"Aubrey and Ronnie, right?" Mikey, Danielle's brother, asked as he sat on my left.

"Yes," Aubrey responded with a smile as the waitress brought everyone some water. "Michael, right?"

"Mikey," he said with a grin and a nod. We all looked at our menus. "She was the one in the accident, right?" He whispered to me and I nodded. "I remember when I first met you and you were still shaken up from it. Are you sure you're okay being around her?" He asked me with concern in his eyes and I sighed.

"I'm fine, it's just some getting used to, you know?" I responded to him and he nodded.

"Joe, Nick, come take pictures with your brother!" My mom yelled from behind us. Nick and I rolled our eyes and got up. I slipped on my suit jacket once again and took a bunch of family pictures. Eventually, my mom invited Aubrey and Ronnie to join us. Aubrey, being stubborn as she is, declined the offer a hundred times, until my mom practically forced her (with kindness) to take the picture. My mom even got away with taking some of just me and Aubrey.

Dinner ended around 11:30 and we decided to walk back instead of call the limo guy again. We all wore our coats and froze our asses off because we didn't really think things true.

"Aub, your lips are turning purple," I said to Aubrey as she walked next to me, half-frozen. She just nodded her head and chattered her teeth. "Come," I said with a sigh and wrapped my arm around her in a sad attempt of keeping her warm. She then wrapped her arm around me and tried to cuddle as we walked and, no matter how cold I was, I was happy.

Eventually, we made it back to the hotel, just barely alive. The workers gave us all complimentary hot chocolate and everyone went up to their rooms. Aubrey, Ronnie, Nick, and I all stayed in the hotel lobby around the fireplace.

"In my head, I cursed Danielle and Kevin the whole walk over here because of their decision to get married in New York in December," Nick said as we began to warm up. We laughed.

"I've been cursing them since I figured out how many layers of clothing I needed to stay warm," I responded. Again, we all laughed.

"Hey, but this is fun, okay? We're the crazy ones who get to experience the wedding of the year," Ronnie said with a grin on her face and we all agreed and continued to make jokes together.

After about half an hour of this, we all went up to our rooms and said our goodbyes for the night.