Jonah Marais
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Every time I travel from my hometown to L.A. to visit my boyfriend, I stay at the Why Don't We house. It is a tradition of the boys and I to listen to each other's playlists throughout my stay. In the past, it has taken several days to get through all of the songs, filled with many laughs and jabs at each other's tastes in music.
I'm sitting on the couch with Jonah in the living room, lying against his chest as he drifts in and out of sleep. Every time I visit, we want to spend every single second of it together. That means a lot of late nights talking and cuddling and not a lot of sleeping.
I'm scrolling through fan edits on my phone, smiling to myself about how much they love, support, and care for the boys and their careers, just as a song on Daniel's playlist fades out, signaling the end.
A ding rings out from the Bluetooth speaker sitting on the coffee table in front of me. Though I wait for several seconds, a new song doesn't begin. Confused, I look over at the armchair not far away from the couch where Daniel is sitting.
"Why did the music stop?" I ask.
"The music's over," he says with a laugh. "My playlist has been played all the way through."
I glance around and see that Corbyn, who has headphones in talking to his girlfriend, Christina, over FaceTime, is the only other person in the room.
"Well," I say, switching apps to Spotify on my phone, "I don't think anybody's going to care if I play mine next."
After connecting my Bluetooth to the speaker, I go to the playlist titled Jammin and hit shuffle play.
What are the odds that Jonah's song, Heartbreak Weather, is up first.
I sit up with a start, forgetting that my boyfriend is - probably was, now - sleeping, and almost scream with excitement.
I jump up and run over to Corbyn, grabbing one of his earbuds and screaming, "Christina! It's fetus Jonah!"
I catch her laugh just as I drop the earbud and run to the sliding door that leads to the backyard where Zach and Jack are skateboarding.
"You have to come listen to baby Jonah!" I yell to them after pulling the door open.
I'm pretty sure that Daniel catches the wave of excitement I'm riding on because he turns the speaker up as loud as it can go.
When I rush back to the living room, Daniel is jumping around, Corbyn is laughing with Christina, and Jonah is sitting up straight on the couch, looking adorably disheveled and out of place.
At this point, the chorus has rolled around and I jump into a horrible rendition of it just as Jack and Zach come running in.
"Baby the rain won't wait forever, heading straight for heartbreak weather," I yell in a terrible singing voice. Jonah is laughing as the other guys join in.
"Time to open up my eyes and see the writing in the sky. There ain't no way for us to stay together... through heartbreak weather," we all sing dramatically, before spinning off into demented-looking dance moves during the music break.
***
I'm laying on my back on Jonah's bed when he enters the room, closing the door behind him.
Usually, Zach and Corbyn sleep in here with him, but every time I visit, they blow up an air mattress and sleep in the living room, insisting that Jonah and I need "alone time".
The bed dips as Jonah lays down on his stomach and scoots closer to me on his elbows.
He finally reaches me and just stares into my eyes, grinning.
I place my hand on the side of his face and shake my head slightly at his expression. I've never fully understood how someone like him could look at someone like me the way he does.
"Why in the world are you grinning like that?"
He shrugs.
"You're cute," he says. I laugh.
"That's why?" I say quietly, blushing slightly.
How does he still make me feel like this after so long of being together?
"Yeah," he gushes. "That and the fact that you were hilarious while dancing and singing to my song earlier this evening."
I give him a regal nod.
"That's what I'm here for," I say.
My boyfriend smiles and then he's back to just looking at me.
"What the heck are you looking at when you stare at me like that?" I ask him, honestly wanting to know why, since it happens so often.
"Well," he says, "I look at your eyes because they're beautiful."
He presses our foreheads together and gets as close as he possibly can to me. My eyes cross at his close proximity and I laugh as he leans back.
"I look at your nose 'cause it's cute," he says, rubbing our noses together.
"Really, Jonah? An Eskimo kiss? You're such a romantic," I say, swatting at his shoulder.
He chuckles before resuming his staring.
"How did I get so lucky?" he whispers.
"I think I should be the one asking that question," I whisper back, "not you."
