“He’s not worth it.”

That’s the lie Maggie’s been telling herself for months.

That it wasn’t worth it to even try to get involved with a man like Joe Jonas.

He was a world traveler, a famous musician.

And her? She was just his neighbor.

A friend.

“He’s not worth it.”

She said it so many times to herself,

but never once did she believe it.

He's Not Worth It won Favorite O/C (Maggie) in the 2013 JBFA Awards

In the darkness before the dawn. In the swirling of the storm.

When I’m rolling with the punches and hope is gone,

leave a light on...

“It’s almost twelve,” Joe breathed quietly in Maya’s ear, despite the fact that all of their friends were mere feet away from them.

Maya’s breathing hitched. It was never spoken out loud that 12 am was a thing between them. It was just something she’d noticed – like a coincidence. She looked at Joe questioningly, wondering if it was planned that way all along. Like it was his master plan for all these years. 

12 am. It was their time.

“You…” She breathed, unable to finish the sentence.

“I covet this time of night,” he whispered, leaving a kiss on her forehead before walking away, silently begging her to follow him.

It was a beautiful summer in California and my parents didn’t have any better idea than to send me off to surf camp. Surf camp. Me! I swear there is no one less athletic than I am. 

But still I had the sun, I had the sea and I had the beach.

Oh, and a very hot surf instructor. 

Jenna Cade just turned 30, is still known as ‘that gymnast who played Supergirl’, and just released her first studio album. It was supposed to be a one-time passion project to strip her sweetheart image until her friend Joe insisted she join his next tour.

Nick Jonas is 28, recently divorced, and starting to feel a little uneasy about this world tour. Until he meets Jenna Cade, their new opening act.

They were best friends, but the night before Olivia Torres left to college would prove to change her relationship with Joe Jonas forever.

I never thought I'd be going back to college. Once my business started going and I could pretty much support myself I didn't think I'd want to. Then I was reminded of my true passion, teaching. Even now I'm not sure if that's what I want to do but I'm working my way towards a bachelor's degree in that area. While all this rebounding and discovery is going on within myself I've learned that some people just turn us upside down.

FUTURE TRIGGER WARNING: I'LL WARN YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER INCLUDING TRIGGER.

It only takes a moment for the course of your life to be steered in a different direction. You think you’re right on track but suddenly that path that you were driving along takes a turn and you’re treading new ground. That’s how I came to LA. That’s how I met Nick Jonas. That’s how my life, as I knew it, was being left behind in the dust.

Sometimes, I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear
And I can't help but ask myself how much I'll let the fear
Take the wheel and steer

It's driven me before and seems to have a vague
Haunting mass appeal
But lately I'm beginning to find that I
Should be the one behind the wheel

Life is simple. The goal of life? To live. All you have to do is eat, sleep, and breathe, and you’ll breeze through life pretty easily. But human beings are selfish. We’re not content with just living. We want things; we want pleasure. Everyone has something that makes their life worth living. Everyone has that one thing that awakens their soul.

For me, it’s Charlotte Taylor.

Charlotte seems to make my life worth living. She has shown me what it feels like to truly live. Life is about doing; Life is about firsts. Without them, how will one be able to become acquainted with the person they truly are? How can we know what we want if we don’t try something new more frequently than we’re comfortable with?

So now I’ll ask you this:

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

When Nova Harper moved in with her best friend, Joe Jonas, she never expected a worldwide pandemic to quarantine the two of them together for months with no end in sight. But that's exactly what happened. Everything changed between them in a blink of an eye.

MAY/JUNE 2020 CHALLENGE: QUARANTINE EDITION