S P A R K L E S

potr

Dedicated to angellwings, for being amaznass beyond all reason. :)

She handed him the guitar and he held back a wince. It was not his style at all. He preferred his guitars androgynous—not clearly male or female, but kind of toeing the line in between. Graceful and still masculine, or dark and woody with elegant slopes and curves. The pink, sparkly guitar in his hands was highly feminine and although he was more mature than his brothers, he still felt like an idiot to even be touching it. But he got on with it, made his jokes, watched her giggle. Until confusion crossed her face.

"What's wrong with your hand?" she asked.

He looked down and saw, to his horror, that his fingers had turned a ghastly shade of pink. They sparkled in the light, much like the guitar he now held. When he tried to wipe the stuff away, it merely spread to his other hand. As if that weren't enough, it was slowly climbing up his arms, turning his skin that horrible, sparkling color. He carelessly dropped the guitar and backed away from it, horrified. What had it done?

"You know…" Penny said slowly from where she sat on the bench. A slow smile started on her face. "You don't look half bad like that. Almost like that vampire kid."

He looked like who? Any affection he had for the girl died then and there and when she got up from the bench, he turned tail and ran for the door. But it wouldn't open. No matter how hard he tugged, it wouldn't budge. With a wrench and a roar of frustration, he pulled the handle clean off.

"Oooh," Penny said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "A strong man. I like that." He turned and she put her arms up on either side of him, trapping him between herself and the glass door, leaning close to his face. He turned his head away, repulsed beyond reason. "Come on, Ed—Nick. Make me forget there ever was a Jimmy."

She grabbed his head and turned him toward her, pulling him down toward her face—

"NO!" Nick screamed, jerking forward on the couch. All eyes turned on him and he blinked slowly. Stella paused the movie on the face of an all-too familiar vampire and Nick recoiled at the sight. He stood hastily and headed for the stairs. "No more of these idiotic movies. I refuse."

The four remaining in the living room traded looks. And then immediately began arguing.

"I went after him last time," Stella said, holding up her hands. "It's someone else's turn."

"I nominate Joe," Kevin said. "I went the time before Stella."

Joe scoffed. "You're our LA Mom and Dad. Shouldn't you go do something about it?"

Macy looked around at the three as they argued, disbelief shining in her face. Were they really arguing about who would go and find out what had upset Nick? She sighed and shook her head, pulling the blanket off her legs so that she could get up. She stumbled a bit, having had her legs underneath her, as she stretched and yawned, trying to shake off the post-movie drowsiness. She climbed the stairs after the rock star and then wondered when she got to the top which room would belong to Nick. She hadn't ever been up on the second floor before, except to use the bathroom, and she had carefully avoided snooping around, lest she get caught.

She didn't need to know which room was his, however, when she heard a mumbled curse from the bathroom. Finding the door open, she carefully peeked inside. Nick stood at the sink, furiously washing his hands and face. He had apparently cursed upon getting soap in his eyes. Macy hesitated before she walked into the bathroom.

"Nick?" she said, keeping a distance.

He jumped and paused in rinsing his face before he reached for a towel. "Macy? Is that you?"

"Yeah," she said. She bit her lip and then continued. "I was worried when you suddenly ran off… But if you're busy, I can talk to you later…"

SHIT! Where had confident!Macy gone? She liked her. That Macy could talk to Nick. That Macy didn't chicken out. That Macy had flirted with Stone Stevens. That Macy HADN'T passed out when Nick took off his shirt (and she refused to admit that there had been the tell-tale darkness gathering around the edges of her vision and that she'd started to get majorly dizzy). That Macy wouldn't be contemplating running away at this very second. Or if she would, she would have stood her ground instead of edging toward the door.

"No, no," Nick said, stopping her with a look when he finally pulled his face from the towel. "It's okay. I just… I felt the need to wash my face."

"And scrub so hard that you took a layer of skin clean off?" she asked, looking at how red his cheeks were.

He cleared his throat. "Okay, to be honest, I had a really freaky dream and I got something on my face and I just felt… dirty."

"Dirty… how?" she said curiously. "Dirty as in dirt-dirty? Or as in violated-dirty?"

His cheeks got darker and she suddenly realized that he was blushing. Since when does Nick Lucas blush?

"A bit of both?" he said shakily. She looked at how his hands were shaking and realized that his dream had really freaked him out. A sympathetic noise escaped her and she moved forward to take the towel and put a hand on his arm. He took a deep breath. "Okay, do you remember Penny?"

She nodded. "What, did she, like…?"

He forced a chuckle. "Almost," he said. When he saw the look in her eyes, he quickly amended, "It wasn't like that… Let me explain."

He explained how he'd taken the guitar and demonstrated being bored, trying to be funny, and how his hand had suddenly taken on that awful pink color. He told her what had happened when Penny had noticed his "transformation" and how he'd ripped off the door handle trying to get away and how she'd nearly forced herself on him. And when he was done and still blushing like crazy, Macy shook her head.

"Wow," she said. She hid a smile behind her hand and gave him a scrutinizing look. "I'm sorry, but I cannot see how sparkly pink skin would make anyone attractive."

Nick sighed in relief, thankful that she hadn't used the opportunity to make fun of him. "Now do you see why I was so freaked out?"

"I think anyone could understand," she said, smiling warmly. After a moment's hesitation, she slid her arms under his and gave him a quick hug. "Personally, I think you're attractive enough without the pink and the sparkles. But you already knew that."

"Well…" Nick said as he wrapped his own arms around the girl. "I know what you think of Nick of JONAS… but not necessarily Nick Lucas."

"I would think Nick Lucas was smart enough to figure it out by himself," Macy said, smirking into his shirt. She broke the hug with extreme reluctance so that she could look into his eyes. "But, I suppose I could tell you…" She watched his eyes light up. "After we finish watching the movie. They won't un-pause it without you and even if I don't like sparkly vampires, I'm invested in the plot now."

He groaned. "Do we have to? I could spoil the end for you. Stella's made us watch it eighteen times since it came out," he said, allowing her to take his hand and drag him down the hall.

"It's either the movie or a beach sunset," Macy said, smirking evilly up into his eyes. "And if we do the sunset, you have to wait until it's completely dark before I tell you. Your pick."

She giggled as he pretended to think it over before he took the initiative and dragged her toward the front door.

And as Nick hauled her past his bewildered brothers and friend and toward Kevin's car, he thought that maybe he could deal with sparkles—as long as they were in Macy's eyes.

a/n: So, me and Logan were talking about Penny's icky guitar and I said, "I wonder if Nick had nightma-:O:O:O:O" and this happened. xD Gotta love her for inspiring this. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and leave a review on your way out. :D

Love,
Beth.