Although I was extremely tired, I tossed and turned all night Saturday night. Finally, when my clock blinked 5 am, I got up and sprinted to the shower. Once I finished and dressed, I paced my room, thinking, trying to figure out what to do. When Annie threw her pillow at me, I decided to not think anymore and just do.

I was not surprised in the least to see a few reporters hanging out by the gates that early in the morning. One of them asked me where I was going.

I sighed and turned back to him. “I’m going shopping for 2 lemons, tampons and vinegar. Wanna come?”

I laughed as I hopped in my car, knowing I’d probably regret what I said, but who cares? I was tired of them always prying.

When I got to Jake’s hotel, I raced up to his room, sorting in my mind who was in what room. I remembered Matt and Ronnie arguing over room numbers until finally Nick set them all straight. I crossed my fingers that Nick was right as I pounded on the door I heard him say was Jake’s. My prayers were answered when Jake pulled the door open, eyes barely open.

“Iz,” he said, trying to contain a yawn. “It’s very early. Everything ok?”

“No,” I said, biting my lip. “Not at all.”

“Come here,” he said, taking my hand and tugging me inside. He shut the door and locked it before leading me to the messy bed. “Sit down, angel. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I smiled at how cute he looked with his bed head and wrinkly shorts and t-shirt. I knew I couldn’t live without him and intended to make that point perfectly clear. “I miss you, Jake. I want you back in my life.”

“I never left your life, Iz,” he reassured me.

I pulled away from him and stood up. “Yes you have! I’ve talked to you maybe once this month before last night. You don’t call or text or come see me. And I miss you so much.”

He got up and stood in front of me and took my hand. “You didn’t call, text or come see me either, Iz,” he said with a slight smirk.

I yanked my hand out of his and turned away. “I didn’t know if you wanted me to call or anything.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder. “I wanted you to get through your last few months of school. I want you to ace your finals. I wanted those rabid reporters to leave you alone and let you enjoy your last year of high school.”

I turned in his arms to face him. “But it’s hard to enjoy any of it without you.”

He smiled and leaned in to brush his lips lightly over mine. He gradually deepened it and I wound my hands around his neck. He finally pulled away to grin at me. “Iz, I think we needed this time away from each other. You relaxed and got your studying done and this whole charity thing organized. And the way you handled those reps and especially the press, well I was very impressed and very proud.”

I frowned. “So you think I’m better off without you?”

He squeezed me. “Not at all. I just think you had your mind on too many things besides where it needed to be. When I stepped out of the picture for awhile, you got the important things done that needed to be done. Without the press circus distracting you.”

“I can handle the press now, Jake,” I said firmly.

He squeezed me again. “I know you can.”

“And I’m ready for my finals.”

“I know.”

I sighed. “And I can handle being your girlfriend again.”

He kissed my forehead. “I know that too.”

“I mean, if you want me,” I mumbled, looking down.

He tipped my chin and smiled. “Don’t you know how much I missed you, Iz? It was so hard to be without you. But, if we want to make it together, we have to be able to make it alone, also.” He leaned in and kissed me softly. “And I think we can do both.”

I played with the ends of his hair which had grown out some since the last time I saw him. “So, what are you saying?”

“That I want you back, Iz. If you’ll have me.”

I stood on my toes and hugged him as tightly as I could. “Of course I will. I love you.”

He picked me up, carried me to his bed and dropped me. “I love you too, Iz.” He looked at the clock on the table next to the bed. “Let’s take a nap since it’s not quite 7:00. We’ll talk more when we wake up.”

I kicked off my shoes and gave him a look. He sighed and pulled his t-shirt over his head and handed it to me. I grinned as I grabbed it and started to take off my own shirt and jeans so I could slip his shirt on. Jake watched for a few minutes before deciding I needed help and before I knew it, he had all my clothes off as well as his and I was clutching his shoulders, biting my lip to keep from screaming.

Afterwards, I finally had his t-shirt on and was tucked under his chin, content to listen to his light breathing and snores, when someone knocked lightly on the adjoining room door. Jake grunted and turned his head. I merely shook my head at him and untangled myself from his arms. I tiptoed across the room and opened the door a crack.

“Jake, dude,” Nick said, “You gotta see this news shit.”

I pushed the door open wider. “I’m not Jake and what news crap are you talking about?”

“Oh, hi Iz,” Nick smiled. He looked down at my apparel and quickly turned his head. “Get some clothes on, Iz! I’m not allowed to look at you dressed like that!”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed Jake’s drawstring shorts that were lying on the floor. I pulled them on and tied them as tight as possible. His t-shirt still fell past my knees and totally covered the shorts but if it would make Nick happy, so be it. I went back to his room and he darted his eyes my way. I smiled and pulled the t-shirt up to show him the shorts and he relaxed. He was flopped on his bed watching commercials.

“What news, Nick,” I asked. He motioned for me to sit next to him. “We should probably wake Jake for this.” I shrugged as Nick got up and grabbed the pillows off his bed and threw them at Jake. I heard Jake curse and throw the pillows back.

“What the fuck do you want,” he groaned. “Hey, where’s Iz?”

“In here now come on,” Nick urged.

“Where the hell are my clothes,” Jake called out.

“Looks like they’re on Iz’s body,” Nick answered. “Bring your boxer shorts wearing ass over here.”

I snorted my laughter into the one pillow remaining on the bed.

“Guess I’ll have to come claim my clothing, huh,” Jake smirked, walking into Nick’s room.

“Keep a firm hold on those hormones,” Nick warned. “Save it for when I’m not around.”

Jake laughed and plopped down next to me. He kissed my neck a couple times until Nick ripped the pillow from my hands and hit him with it.

“I can’t believe you watch this shit,” Jake complained when the show came back on.

“Is this Entertainment News of the Week,” I asked.

“Uh huh,” Nick answered. “And they said before commercial break they had news on you two.”

Jake scooted to sit against the headboard and pulled me back against him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and locked his hands together on my stomach.

Nick moved back as well. “Glad to see you two finally back together.”

“Me too,” Jake said and kissed my neck again. I shuddered and he laughed in my hair.

“In other news,” the anorexic gossip reporter who was in desperate need of a root job and whose name was Natasha said. “Bad boy Jake visited sweet Isabella Ames’ school campus yesterday to perform a charity concert Isabella organized.”

“I really wish they’d quit calling you a bad boy and quit calling me sweet. It’s disgusting,” I said. Nick and Jake laughed as Natasha continued.

“Miss Ames gave a brief statement before the show.” And they played footage of me talking to the press before the concert.

“Impressive, Iz,” Nick said. “You sounded like a pro.”

I blushed and Jake kissed my cheek.

Natasha went on. “Miss Ames would not answer any questions concerning her relationship with Jake Johnson, but sources report she left campus early this morning around 6 am.”

“I hope you checked out with admin,” Jake said, only half serious.

I shrugged. “I signed out. I said I was taking a run then going into town. They can all bite me.”

Nick raised a brow at me. “Getting feisty in your old age, Iz.”

“Entertainment News will keep an eye on the story and bring you updates as they happen,” good ol Natasha finished.

“You woke us up for that,” Jake asked Nick.

He shrugged. “I thought you’d like to see it.”

“They’re grasping at straws now, aren’t they,” I asked.

Jake let me go and stood. “Don’t worry, Iz, they’ll be there when you get back.” He took my hand and led me back to his room.

“I can handle it, don’t worry.” I gave him a smile. “They don’t scare me anymore.” I laughed as I recalled what I yelled to the reporters that morning. Nick and Jake stared at me so I sheepishly told them what I’d done.

“Oh, Iz,” Jake said as he smiled and hugged me.

Nick, on the other hand, nearly rolled off the bed in laughter.

I spent the rest of the day with Jake in his room. We ordered room service and talked, mostly. We made plans for the next weekend and he asked me to come spend the summer at his house in Chicago. I agreed.

I ignored the reporters when I returned to school that evening and went straight to my room to tell my friends the latest news.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Finals went fairly well and before I knew it, it was Friday and time to get ready for prom. Jake drove down Thursday night with Nick but we only talked briefly on the phone. Unfortunately, the tabloids set up some kind of ‘Jake Watch’ and knew he was in town.

When Cammy and I finally walked down to admin to wait for Jake and Nick, we could see a horde of reporters gathering outside the gates. My heart pounded when I spotted Jake’s Mustang pull into the parking lot. It tripled when he got out dressed in an immaculate black tux, crisp white shirt and hair gelled in that sexy messy way. Nick was dressed similarly and the press went nuts as they both approached the gates. They ignored their questions and pushed through them, finally making it on school grounds. I couldn’t wait so I left the admin building and greeted him with a soft kiss on the cheek. He presented me with a beautiful white rose wrist corsage and offered me his arm. Cammy and Nick followed behind us and soon we met up with Annie and Zach.

Nothing eventful happened at prom. Everyone was pretty used to seeing Jake around anyway. Dean spiked the punch and Lance showed up with some sophomore girl whose name I couldn’t remember. He’d either run out of upper classmen to date or else they all got wise to him.

Once prom ended, I left campus and stayed with Jake at his hotel. I didn’t go back to school until Sunday morning so I could get ready for graduation.

I was surprised as we filed into the gardens to take our seats for the ceremony at the number of people in the stands. I located my parents, my grandfather and Seth first. Sitting right behind them was Jake, his dad, Greta, Nick, Ronnie and Matt.

I graduated in the top five of my class so I was one of the first called up (not like I wouldn’t have been one of the first with a last name of Ames) and when I collected my diploma, I looked in the direction of my family and friends and caught a wink from Jake.

After the reception, Jake and the guys, including Seth, loaded all my stuff into the trunk of Jake’s Mustang. He was going to drive me home and spend the night before heading back to Chicago. I would spend a week with my family before joining him.

“You’ll be a little farther from me next year, angel,” Jake mused as he navigated through traffic.

I took his hand. “I’ll come see you every weekend.”

He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “You better. But you know, we’ll probably start touring again after this new record is released.”

I sighed. “I know.”

“Hey,” he said, tugging on my hand. “We made it this far. We’ll make it all the way.”

“It’s not that,” I said, biting my lip and trying to control my laughter. “I worry about you trashing more hotel rooms.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “Iz, we never trashed any hotel rooms. It was sorta staged.”

I sat up straighter. “What?”

“We’d been touring for a week straight, sleeping on the bus so when we ended up in Boise, we got hotel rooms. We had a show that night and the next day off. Me and the guys were actually a floor above the alleged trashed rooms. Once we got in our rooms, we crashed. It was actually the crew who had a party the floor below us but they didn’t really trash anything.”

“So how was this staged,” I asked.

He smiled. “Our agent leaked it to the press that we partied and trashed several rooms. He figured any press was good press and suddenly we were the ‘bad boy band’ and our ticket and CD sales starting going up.” He smirked. “The hotel manager went along with the story because people started calling, wanting to stay in the rooms Controlled Environment destroyed.” He shrugged. “Worked out for everyone I guess.”

I sat back. “Clever.”

“I agree,” he said. He was silent for a moment. “Know what’s even smarter?”

“What’s that,” I asked as I leaned back in my seat.

“Going to Burger King in the middle of the night for something to eat and ending up carjacking the love of your life.”

I only smiled because, hey, he was right and who was I to argue?

A/N: (sniff) It’s over! And yes, this chapter was sort of sappy, but hey, we all need some sap in our lives! Sorry not much prom details but I wasn’t really in to it.

I don’t know when I’ll start posting the sequel; I’ve actually gotten pretty far on it, but I had an idea and I might go back and change almost the whole storyline. I didn’t want to just ramble on and on about nothing and not really have a plot. So, I might post it tomorrow or one day next week or it might not be until after I get back from camping.

I can’t list all my reviewers here, but I do want to acknowledge everyone and thank you all so very much for reading and reviewing and giving suggestions etc. Oh, I changed the rating to Mature (thanks to a suggestion) because maybe some of the scenes might be a little…racy(?)… But THANK YOU ALL SO VERY VERY MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS! YOU ALL TOTALLY ROCK!

SIX DAYS TIL NICKELBACK!!