Don't Forget Part 16

"How come you never told her?" Joe asked his brother. "Um—" Nick looked at Joe, then back down. "I'm afraid." "Afraid? Afraid of what, Nicholas?" "Afraid of losing her," he said in a low voice. He looked up once more. "My friendship with Miley is too valuable to me. I don't want to risk the one thing I hold special in my life." "What if I told you," Joe began, "that I knew that Miley loves you, too?" "Who did you hear that from?" "A little birdie told me," Joe answered. "Would this little birdie happen to be named Selena? Or Demi, maybe?" Joe sighed. "Selena told me. Miley told her." Joe quickly covered his mouth. "But I wasn't supposed to tell you that!" Nick began to say something but was interrupted by a knock on the door. The two brothers turned to look. "Dem's here," Kevin told his brothers. He shrugged. "Just thought I'd let you know." "How is she?" Joe wondered, knowing that she wasn't handling the whole situation well. Kevin sighed. "She—" He stopped, leaning against the wall. He looked at Joe, wondering how he would take this. "She hasn't talked, Joe. Miley and Danni told her about you, and she just...won't talk. To anyone. Not even to Selena. We had the doctor look at her, and he thinks that she's suffering from shock. Maybe you can help her. Just seeing you, knowing that you're going to be okay." "But we don't KNOW if I'm going to be okay," Joe interrupted. Kevin held up his hand. It looked like he was about to cry, but he held his tears in. "Until I hear the doctor SAY that you're going to die, I'm going to keep believing that you'll be fine. The doctor said that if you had a strong enough will to survive that you might make it—" "MIGHT, Kevin...MIGHT make it! He didn't say that I WILL!" "Just shut up, Joe." Kevin put his hands in front of his face. "Just shut up." "Kevin—" "Do you not believe that you'll survive? Because if you don't believe that, how are we supposed to?" "I'm sorry!" Joe cried. "Yeah." Kevin turned his back on Joe and Nick. "Me, too." He walked out of the room. Joe looked at Nick, the sadness evident in his eyes and in his voice when he spoke. "Does Kevin hate me?" "No," Nick quickly told him. "Kevin doesn't hate you, Joe." "Are you sure? Because you saw the look on his face—" Nick sighed. "He's just upset...and worried for you, Joe. But what he said—" Nick sighed. "I agree with him. If you don't believe that you're going to get better, how in the world are we supposed to believe it?" "Nick—" Nick stood up. "I'll go get Demi." He walked out of the room, as well. Joe sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "Joe?" he heard a small voice ask. Joe's eyes shot opened and he turned his head to find Demi staring at him from the doorway. "Hey, sweetie." Joe smiled slightly. "Come here." "I don't—" Demi looked at him. "I don't wanna hurt you." "Honey, the only way you could possibly hurt me is if you don't lay with me." Demi nodded, carefully laying down next to her boyfriend. "Are you okay?" Joe put his head on top of hers and closed his eyes. "I don't know," he told her. "But I want to be." 20 comments? Eh, short, I know, but I've had writer's block for this story. And I'm watching "Supernatural" as I write this, so I'm a little distracted. But I'd love to know what you think (: Favorite part? Least favorite? Favorite line? Too much emotion? Not enough? JUST enough?