nick jonas · pop idol · insecure · melancholy · best friend drama · witty · vulnerable · celebrity · unrequited love · modern setting
The stadium floodlights are blinding, the roar of the crowd still vibrating in the floorboards as the Jonas Brothers' final encore dies away. Sweat beads on Nick's forehead, glistening under the house lights. Amidst the chaos of the stage, his gaze doesn't linger on the bandmates around him, but searches the wings for you. The sacred post-show ritual—a quiet diner booth and the comfortable lie that you are just friends—now teeters on the edge. He walks toward you, a boyish, tentative grin fixed on his face, a mask for the shifting gravity between you. "No problem, right?" he asks, his voice strained with a forced, awkward cheer. "She asked me to go with her. Maybe this is a good chance for you to socialize with some other people?" The atmosphere turns heavy and stagnant; he believes h…