Chapter 02: Our Humble Abode

A Chapter by Jen Marks

It's awkward reminicing on memories because they're gone. Personally, I don't really like this chapter. It was previously used as a filler, and even though it is important for the story, I wrote it a couple years ago, so my writing style hadn't matured.

"Ahh, good! You’ve met up with the boys!" My dad says as we enter the house. "And you’ve already seen Kevin Sr."

"Yup," I nod, smiling.

"Oh my goodness, sweetie! It’s so good to see you again!" Denise Jonas comes over, and overwhelms me with hugs and kisses. "The last time I saw you was, what? Two years ago? It’s been too long!"

"It has," I say honestly, as I think of my own mother. Denise was her best friend.
"It’s so great to see you Mrs. Jonas," I smile fondly.

"Hun, what’s wrong? You’ve never called me Mrs. Jonas before," Denise surveys me with her hands on my arms.

"Ahh," I sigh. "It’s nothing. It’s just that being with you right now reminds me of...my mom..."

"Oh, come here, sweetie," she has tears in her eyes as she wraps me in another enormous hug. We stay there in the hug for a while, and everyone just watches. Not awkwardly, but serenely and sombrely.

I can feel tears starting to form in my own eyes, but I don’t let them fall.

I pull back from the hug and say "thanks," and wipe away the would-be tears.

Everyone is still looking down, possibly recollecting memories...and I start to piece together, bit by bit, everything I had forgotten about this amazing family...

"Last person you need to see is Frankie," says Mr. Jonas. "Now...where is he?"

"He was with you last, dad," Joe moans.

"FRANKIE!" Kevin (Jr) yells.

"Yeah?" A young, muffled voice yells from what sounds like upstairs.

"WHERE ARE YOU?" Shouts Nick.

"Upstairs!" Frankie shouts back.

"WHY -" Joe begins to yell back. "…Ahh, forget it."

The four of us, meaning myself, Joe, Nick and Kevin, walk through my living room (Joe runs), and walk up the stairs (Joe leaps) leading upstairs.

"Why are you up here, little man?" Asks Nick as we enter my game room.

"There’s a pinball machine!" Frankie says excitedly, standing next to it.

We all laugh, but not in a mean way.

"Hey, buddy! How’s it going? I’m Ellie," I bend down to his level. The last time I saw him he was only four, so I don’t think he would remember me much.

"Hi, Ellie," he smiles. "You’re really pretty."

"Aww, thanks! What’s up?" I put my hand up to give him a high-five.

"Your hand," he says as he high-fives me.

We all laugh again at his quick-witted-ness.

"This kid here is a genius!" I say to the older brothers. "He’s gonna be hilarious when he gets older!"

"He’s already hilarious!" Nick smiles.

"That's true," I smile back.

"I’m gonna be a drummer when I get older," Frankie says with a big smile.

"Is that true?" I ask him.

"Yup, and I’m gonna play in my brothers’ band," he says, and starts to get really excited about it.

"Is he really?" I ask the rest of the guys.

"Yeah," Nick says, and nods. "He’s in a band called Rockslap right now, though."

"Yup. And he’ll start to perform with us when he’s around 10 or 11 probably," Kevin tells me.

"So he's played drums before?" I ask again.

"Yeah, and he’s actually really good!" Joe says. "...Considering his age and all!"

"That's really cool," I nod.

"We teach him new things on drums every day, or every few days, just so he can be amazing when he gets older," Nicholas says, staring at Frankie.

"He’s a really fast learner; you should hear him," Kevin says.

"I guess I’ll have to, then!" I say. "Sounds good!"

Cute boys! ...Very cute boys!

We chat for a while longer, then decide to go outside for a little walk-around, and we begin walking slowly down my street.

"I love this neighbourhood," Kevin reminisces. "There are so many good memories here."

"When we moved to Cali, we still kept our house in this city too," Joe fills me in.

"That’s awesome," I say. "But are you gonna sell the house here, or keep it?"

"Nah, we’re gonna keep it!" Nick says excitedly.

"Oh, really? That’s great!" I say, happily.
"Yeah, at first I was really worried that we would have to sell it, and never be able to live in it again," he tells me.
"Wow...uh...but why? Don’t you spend most of your time in California lately? Like, recording and all?"

"Yeah, but since we’re half-way through recording, we’re going to finish up with the remaining songs here in New Jersey," Kevin explains.

"So we’re going to be staying in our old house for quite a while," Joe smiles. "That said...do you think you’ll be able to handle us?" He asks playfully.

"I dunno..." I play along, sarcastically. "I might not be able to, you know?"

The guys laugh.

"Well you’re gunna have to, 'cause we're gonna be pretty close to you," Kevin says.

"Oh, yeah! That’s right, you guys used to live near here, didn’t you?" I recall.

"Yeah! What was it? About five houses away?" Nick asks.

"I think it was six," Joe ponders for a bit, "I dunno. We’ll see when we get there."

"We didn’t hang out much outside of church, did we?" I ask. "’Cause if we did, I’d probably remember exactly where you guys lived."

"Naw, we didn’t," Nick shakes his head. "I think you probably hung out with Mandy more anyways, out of church, I mean. I think you thought I had cooties."

"No way, Nick! I think it was the other way around!" I smile, remembering when we were younger.

"Oh, yeah. That’s true..." He laughs. "Because we did start hanging out more as we got older, right?"

"Yeah, we did..." I smile wider, remembering how I used to feel about Nick two or three years ago.

"But then it came to this," and by this he meant getting famous. "And then we had to leave this great place."

"Yeah…" I say in a dreamy, almost not-there voice.

"Alright, here we are," Nick tells me as we stand in front of his house.

"That’s great, Nick!" I smile. "But there’s just one little, teeny weeny, itsy bitsy problem."

"Uh, and what might that be?" Nick asks, not wanting to know the answer.

"That Joe and Kevin are nowhere to be found," I declare.

"Wow..." Nick looks astonished in himself. "How could I not notice that?"

"I dunno, Nick. Sometimes you’re just oblivious to your surroundings when you’re intrigued in something."

"I guess…" He looks like he’s thinking hard about something; he won’t look up.

"Are you okay?" I ask, looking at him.

"Huh?" He snaps back into reality. "Oh. Yeah. I’m fine."

"Alright...let’s just go inside."

"Yeah."

We begin to walk up the driveway, towards the house, until -

"Welcome to our humble abode!" Kevin says as he opens the front door.

"...WHAT?!" My mouth is wide open.

Joe comes up behind Kevin.

"Are. You. Serious?!" Nick’s facial expression looks exactly like mine. I giggle at that.

"How’d you guys get in there so fast without us noticing?" I ask, still laughing.

"Well when you two were being all lovey-dovey, making wedding plans and all, it was no problem getting in here unnoticed!" Joe smirks.

"We weren’t being lovey-dovey," I say as I start to walk up the steps leading to the door.

"Suit yourself," Kevin murmurs.

"I heard that, Kev," Nick walks up from behind me.

"I know, I know," Kevin nods and rolls his eyes.

Nick laughs, then shakes his head and walks past his brothers, into his house. Kevin follows him.

"Entray, Madame!" Joe says to me in a totally non-French accent. He somewhat bows and holds his arm out, leading the way for me to walk.

"Mercy buckets, Missyeur!" I say, imitating Joe’s non-French accent as I walk past him into the front foyer.

The Jonas house is grand, to say the least. It's a very impressive house considering it hasn't been lived in for a few years.

You see, we live in the somewhat wealthy part of this neighbourhood. All of the houses on this street are different, and not one is the same. While all of the houses are about the same size, and have the same amount of property, the Jonas' house seems as though it's just a bit bigger than ours.

It probably just seems bigger because there are none of Frankie's toys strewn all over the place, none of Kevin's dirty laundry hanging on the banister, and none of Joe's belongings covering the floors...yet! The house usually looks like that, from what I can remember...if you can imagine!

JONAS HOUSE:

BROOKS HOUSE:

I walk through the foyer, into the living room. Joe's already sitting on the L-shaped couch with his feet up on the coffee table in front of him.

"You look comfy," I say to him as I walk around the table, and sit myself in the corner seat. I cross one leg over the other to make myself more comfortable.

"I should say the same for you!" He laughs, and just looks at me weird.

"What? Can't I be comfortable in a friend's house?" I ask, acting offended in a joking kind of way.

"Of course! ...It's just that most people would be all uptight if they went into someone's house for the first time in, like..." He looks up to think, "Two and a half years!"

"That's so true," I agree with him as Nick sits on the other side of the L. "But I'm not like most people, so you're gonna have to get used to that fact!"

Joe laughs, and Kevin enters the room.

"Drinks?" Kevin asks, as he goes to set down a tray of four glasses of orange juice on the coffee table, then pauses. "Joe, move your feet! That's just nasty!"

Joe heaves a loud, overdramatic sigh, and grumbles quietly to himself as he slowly slides his feet off the table.

Nick and I giggle quietly to ourselves. We catch each others' eye, and try not to burst out laughing.

Kevin finally sets the tray of drinks down, after wiping the table with his sleeve, and we each grab a glass.

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