< Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Lance put his bag into his locker, stomach churning nervously. He’d spoken to both Nick and Justin on the phone the night before, neither willing to talk about the other person. It was as they refused to admit what had happened, that Lance realized that there were big problems brewing. He pulled out a book he’d been reading from his locker and was about to start when he heard Britney and Christina at their lockers. "I said I was sorry," Britney pleaded. Lance couldn’t help but look up, surprised at the difference between the girls.

Britney wore a micro mini skirt and a halter top, where Christina was wearing a floor length shimmery skirt with a black sweater. Neither girls were smiling.

"No, you didn’t. You ruined them and blamed me for it, saying it was my fault for lending them to you."

"Well," Britney said hautily. "I’m apologizing now."

"I don’t care." Lance jumped as Christina slammed her locker. She pushed her bangs from her forehead and looked down at Lance who was openly staring at them. She smiled and nodded at him. "Hey Lance."

"Hey Christina," Lance greeted her back.

"How’s the paper?" Her question startled him and for a moment, he didn’t answer. When he regained his composure his smile was more relaxed and less forced.

"Great, thanks. Got a new column coming out soon that I have to start working on."

Britney watched in horror as Christina paused to talk for a moment. "Oh yeah? What is it?"

Lance only shook his head. "Can’t say just yet. You’ll find out soon enough."

"Well, if you need any help with it, let me know."

"Ummm, yeah. Of course." Lance was as surprised as Britney looked, but Christina only said good-bye and headed down the hall, leaving both freshmen to watch her in shock. When Britney realized that her best friend wasn’t going to turn back around or ask if she was coming, she bolted after her, struggling to catch up. Minutes after, Nick arrived and Lance knew that there was definitely something wrong with him. He looked as if he hadn’t slept, and was jumpy and agitated.

"Hey Lance!"

Lance only narrowed his eyes.

Nick leaned against his locker and banged his head against the door. "Oh god, not you too!"

"Not me too what?"

"Are you mad at me too?"

Lance raised his eyebrows and shook his head. He was more relieved that Nick wasn’t mad at him for disappearing on Monday than anything. "Of course not." He could tell that Nick was in desperate need of a hug and pulled the blonde close. Despite all of his attempts to get Nick to open up to him, Lance was unsuccessful.

The tension mounted to insurmountable heights when Justin arrived.

Nick hadn’t been expecting Justin to come by his locker, and thus was shocked as he approached and stopped, greeting them both in a syrupy tone.

He hadn’t intended on going to Nick’s locker, but Justin didn’t know what else to do or where else to go. He was so used to getting to school early and going to hang out with Nick and Lance, that it was hard to break old habits. The minute that he arrived, he knew it had been a bad idea. Seeing how tense Nick was around him, reminded him how mad he was at Nick which only put him in a worse mood. Thankfully he had practice that day at lunch and would be able to get out of eating with them in the quad again, despite how much he actually missed laughing and joking with Lance, AJ and Josh. And truthfully, Nick, not that Justin would admit that to himself.

The three friends made awkward small talk until Nick’s attention was on Kevin as the four friends made their usual walk down the hall. Justin’s eyes were riveted on Nick, watching his ‘best friend’s’ every move and facial expression. When Kevin was safely out of ear shot Justin shook his head and mumbled something under his breath.

"What?" Nick heard Justin say something and somehow knew it was directed to him or about him. He was already agitated, so starting a fight with Justin wouldn’t have diminished his spirits.

"I said you should either say something to him or get over it."

Both Nick and Lance looked as though Justin had struck Nick physically. Justin pretended to be immune to their reaction. He simply shrugged and pretended to look down the hall at something. "I mean, really Nick. What’s the point?"

The last thing Justin had expected was for Nick to slam his locker shut and storm off in the direction of his home room, but that was exactly what happened. He also hadn’t anticipated the disappointed look on Lance’s face, his friend who was watching him as if he didn’t recognize him. "What is wrong with you lately?" Lance asked.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about!"

Lance could only shake his head sadly. "I know." Was all he said before walking away. Justin was left only to feel more miserable than he thought possible and he’d not only alienated himself from Nick, but Lance as well.


~*~*~*~*~*~

Nick spent lunch that day in the art room. He’d worn headphones to class so that he could avoid all conversation knowing that AJ had probably already talked to Lance and had found out about the fiasco at his locker that morning. If Justin was only going to do things to hurt him, Nick didn’t understand why he would bother coming to hang around with them. When the bell rang, Nick simply told AJ that he’d be staying there for lunch to work on his next piece for class, a painting which looked to be very dark and angry, matching his mood.

He knew that on one hand, Justin was right, but it was how he had gone about saying it that had bothered him. Nick thought about telling Kevin about his feelings for him every single day, but never did he think he had a chance, so he kept quiet. And he figured that if anything, Justin would understand him, but apparently he didn’t. He didn’t even want to know what Lance and AJ were saying about him in the Quad.

"Are you serious?" AJ asked in utter disbelief. Lance was filling him in on everything he’d seen and heard that morning and AJ felt as if he’d walked into the looking glass. Nothing was as it was supposed to be and everything had been turned upside down. The last two people he’d ever expected to start fighting was Nick and Justin, yet there they were, not speaking.

"It was so harsh," Lance admitted sadly. He wanted to be able to do something to help his friends, but didn’t know what. Or whether he should interfere at all. Lance was at a loss.

"When did this happen?"

Lance thought back and the first time he noticed anything amiss was Monday, during Nick’s game. He told that to AJ who still didn’t understand where the tension was coming from. "What should we do?" Lance asked. Regrettably, AJ shook his head.

"Nothing. If we try and step in, we’re only going to piss one off or both of them off. They’ll think we’re siding with the other and it will be a mess." Lance frowned as he looked at the math text book in front of him. They hadn’t gotten any work done and lunch was almost over. "We studying tonight?" AJ asked hopefully. Lance frowned and shook his head.

"Report tonight."

"Tomorrow?"

Both of them grinned. "Definitely.

Lance had run into Nick between fourth and fifth periods, surprised to see him laughing and talking animatedly with Christina at their lockers. They were discussing a movie that they had both recently seen and she suggested that if he wanted, they all go to see something that weekend.

"You should ask the others to come," Christina said, smiling in Lance’s direction. " Do you like horror movies?

"They scare the crap out of me," Lance admitted with a grin. "I love them."

"Awesome, we should go see Night of the Dead Mummies at the EightPix this weekend. It’s two for one so as long as we have an even number, it’s all good."

Nick nodded. "That’s awesome. We’ll set it up." When they were alone, Lance turned to Nick with a confused smile.

"Since when did you two become buddies?"

Nick reddened. "When Justin gave my seat in science to Britney." Lance paled and didn’t ask any more questions. Nick felt the need to explain though. "He gave her my seat so I sat in Britney's Christina and I got to talking and I realized she’s different. She was telling me that she was acting how she thought she had to, to get attention. She’s cool, I really like her. Is that a problem?"

Lance shook his head and smiled encouragingly at Nick. Talking to Christina was the only time in the past few days that he’d seen Nick genuinely smiling, and if it took her to do that for him, he wasn’t going to complain. Not to mention that he’d noticed her gradually changing as of late. She hadn’t been hanging around with Britney as much as she had been, and even when she was, it wasn’t the same as the beginning of the year. Three months at Lincoln High seemed to be changing her, and Lance was also starting to like who she was becoming. "Of course not, she’s not that bad when you get to know her."

"I know huh," Nick said as he watched her walk down the hall. "She’s so ...funny too. Really quiet and shy, which is so different to how she acts when Britney’s around." Nick grabbed his books from his locker and shut the door. "So, you really want to come to the movies on Friday?"

Lance grinned as he nodded. "Totally. We’ll see if Josh and his friends want to come. AJ too. I know from Halloween that they love getting scared."

Nick thought about what he wanted to say. He figured that it wouldn’t be too bad for him to maybe drop a few hints to Lance about AJ’s feelings towards him. "You know he’ll definitely be in if you are." He received the reaction he’d been hoping for as Lance blushed and averted his eyes. What Nick hadn’t been expecting was for Lance to inhale deeply and let it out before his expression turned serious.

"What ...what did your mom say? When you ...you know ...told her?"

Nick’s eyes widened and he fought not to look as surprised as he was. It was the first time Lance had really opened up to him about anything serious and Nick felt a sense of elation, that fighting with Justin had taken away from him. They shared a silent look of understanding before Nick pushed the butterflies out of his stomach and seriously tried to answer Lance’s question.

"She kind of ...I think she already knew," Nick admitted. It hadn’t been all that long since he’d had ‘the talk’ with his mother and it was still very fresh in his mind. "I mean, she didn’t know for sure but she suspected."

"But ...when you TOLD her..." Lance was sheet white and trembling nervously. His voice was barely audible.

Nick scrunched up his nose. "She was kind of disappointed I think. She’d never tell me that, but I know she was. I could see it in her eyes. She kept asking about school and if there were any girls I’d had my eye on and I knew I had to tell her. I didn’t want to lie to her."

"Were you scared?"

Nick’s face was completely serious. "Terrified. I..." His voice broke and he cleared his throat. "I nearly cried, I was just so scared that she would be mad at me. She was a little sad ...but we talked about it and a few days later when she had thought about it more, she asked me questions."

"Like ...."

Nick looked at his watch and saw that they were already late for class. The halls were empty and doors all closed. This seemed to be becoming common practice for them to be skipping last period, but Nick couldn’t bring himself to worry about that. He would deal with the consequences when they came up, looking at the terrified expression on Lance’s face, he knew his friend needed him more than Ms. Elliot’s History.

"Let’s go to the quad," Nick suggested. It would be less busy than the football field and they wouldn’t have to worry about whispering in the library. Lance looked like he was going to refuse so Nick shook his head and pulled him in that direction. "No. Come on, we’re going."

"But ...you need to go to history. I don’t have to keep my grades up for the paper, you do for basketball."

Nick wasn’t worried about history because he was doing very well in it. He had always been fascinated with historic events, dates and times. He always had his assignments and homework done on time and had been passing each quiz and test impressively. Yes, his attendance marks had brought him down just a little, but the mark wasn’t enough to do any long lasting damage. Nick put Lance’s mind at ease and led him to the quad. It was when they had sat down in a private corner that they resumed their conversation.

"What did she ask you?" Lance asked timidly. He’d been wanting to talk to Nick about this for what felt like ages, but hadn’t been able to find the courage. Hearing Nick bring up AJ wanting to go because he had been there had only verified his hopes that AJ did like him and lance knew he couldn’t keep quiet any longer. He needed to talk to someone about it before it drove him crazy and gave him a break down. While Nick and Justin were having their public drama, he was having a more private one, and no one had a clue.

Nick took a deep look at Lance and realized how nervous he was. He realized that while they had been so preoccupied with their own problems, no one was there to pick up Lance’s pieces, which he was definitely falling to. He put his hand on Lance’s leg and squeezed comfortingly. "She asked me if I was sure. How I knew and if it might just be a fluke. I don’t think she wanted to believe that her son was ...you know, not into girls." Nick still was having difficulty saying the word out loud and hoped that over time he wouldn’t be so nervous about saying it. "She asked about Kevin and ..." Nick shrugged. "She just wanted to talk to me about it."

Lance nodded. "How did you know?"

The grin spread across Nick’s face instantly. "I saw him and ...all I could see was him. He made my heart beat really fast, my stomach get all in knots and I couldn’t breathe. It happened for a few days in a row and then I realized that I was always thinking about him."

Lance blushed as he picked at the grass underneath him. "That’s ..." He cleared his throat and looked up at Nick so that they were staring directly into each other’s eyes. "That’s how I feel about AJ." Now that he’d admitted it, he wanted to cover his mouth. He wanted to take it back. But he also wanted to shout it to everyone who would listen and hope that AJ felt the same way. He watched as Nick smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Based on Lance’s questions, Nick suspected that he was the first person that Lance had told. That knowledge made Nick feel special. They now had a bond between the two of them and Nick felt an overwhelming rush of emotions bombard him. Things had been so rough for him the past few weeks, so much was changing so quickly and he didn’t know what to do or think. His best friend since forever hated him and this person who he’d only met just a month earlier was looking at him with trust and respect. It was nearly too much for Nick to handle. He swallowed down the lump in his throat and fought not to cry. It seemed that all he wanted to do lately was cry, and crying wasn’t going to solve anything. Instead, he smiled and leaned over so that he was hugging Lance tightly. "I’m so happy for you. Thank you for telling me."

Lance hugged Nick, relieved to have lightened the load on his shoulders. Now that someone knew about his secret, he didn’t feel so alone. When they broke the embrace, he shrugged sheepishly. "So.."

"Are you going to tell him?" The horrified look Lance gave Nick was answer enough.

"Are you kidding?"

"Why not? You might be surprised."

It wasn’t as if AJ hadn’t acted interested in him, but Lance couldn’t let himself believe it was anything more than just AJ being friendly. He valued the older boys’ friendship too much to risk it and be rejected. Instead of talking about it more, he turned the conversation to Nick and Justin. "Are you going to do anything about Justin?" Nick’s face hardened and Lance wished he hadn’t have brought the other boy up. Nick was finally starting to relax and now he was back to the level of agitation he’d been at earlier.

The mention of Justin’s name caused for Nicks’ stomach to sink. He didn’t want to think about how his best friend hated him for something, and he didn’t know what it was to fix it. The more Nick asked if Justin was mad at him, the more distant Justin got and the more he would say it was nothing and not to worry. "There is nothing to do. He hates me and won’t admit it."

"He doesn’t hate you." Lance knew that much because if Justin did hate him, he wouldn’t be so upset with him. In the few minutes he had spoken to Justin that day, Lance had brought up the fight with Nick and Justin’s eyes had gotten sad before turning hard. The conversation had ended with Justin’s look that could kill and Lance figured that it wasn’t his place to intervene.

"Well he’s got a funny way of showing it."

They talked quietly until last period was finally over and Lance had to go to the Report office for their meeting. He promised Nick he would call him later and headed through t he halls to where he knew Chris was waiting for him.

"So this is the final idea," Lance explained to Chris quickly. He knew Chris had a lot of work to do in editing peoples submissions and getting everything ready for the following week. He’d been given ten minutes to convince Chris that his idea was going to work. "We don’t have a personals ad section."

"Personals, like people trying to get a date?" Chris looked at Lance skeptically. He had to hand it to the kid, when he got something in his head, he didn’t do it half assed. Chris had been watching Lance pour over old issues and work on ways to improve the Lincoln that year. He figured that at the rate Lance was going, by the time he was in Junior year, he’d probably be Editor of the paper.

"I guess, but not just that," Lance argued. He knew Chris would try to intimidate him into backing down and that was why he had spent all of the night before working on a mock paper to show him. "There can be four or five sections. A section for messages, where students can send fun messages to other students. Just a few sentences at most, with a to and a from. And then we’ll have a Lost section and a Found section. So if someone loses or finds something, they can advertise it. And then there will be a section where if someone is selling something or wanting to buy something, they can advertise that too."

Chris had to admit, the idea sounded really good. Something innovative and different, for as long as he could remember, they hadn’t done anything like that in the paper. "Keep talking."

"Well, I figure that for each advertisement or message we print, we can charge a small fee. Like fifty cents a message or advertisement. That way, we don’t have to worry so much about the cost of the paper and putting it out. And if we find that it goes really well, we can donate proceeds to a charity or something." Lance sat back and watched as Chris thought it over in his head. His lips were pursed in a tight line, which Lance had always thought had meant he was angry, but he’d come to learn that it meant he was thinking intently. Finally, Chris nodded and slammed his hand on his desk.

"Good. It’s done. You’re our personals man. Get to it."

Lance’s jaw had dropped and he was watching Chris in surprise. "Huh?"

"Well, you’re going to have to figure out how to advertise that we’re doing it, since no one is aware of it. And if you can get enough submissions for at least a page by next Wednesday night, it will go in this issue. So you’re in charge of pimping your column, as well as collecting money and keeping track of it."

Lance sat motionless, unable to believe that Chris had actually agreed. He was elated.

"Well?" Chris asked with a laugh. "Get to it."

Lance knew he could use the school’s supplies to advertise for a school project, so he found a free computer in the corner of the room and started making fun posters to put up all over the school. He would have to set up a table somewhere for lunches so that he could tell people where to go and find him to make submissions. Deciding that he could ask AJ and Nick to help him, he would have a table in the front foyer as well as one in the cafeteria to reach more students. By the time he’d told his mother to come and get him, Lance had made more than enough posters to decorate the many bulletin boards and student postering zones for the whole school. He couldn’t wait until the next day to get started.

~*~*~*~

"Lance?" Christina tapped him on the shoulder gently. She didn’t want to startle him, but he was pretty preoccupied with something in his locker. He pulled his head out and looked at her warmly.

"Hey, sorry ... I can’t find my pencil case." Just as soon as he’d said it, he noticed the black case sitting on the shelf above his head and rolled his eyes. "I’m so disorganized today." They shared a laugh before Lance turned around so he could talk to her. "What’s up?"

"I saw your poster ...for the personals page."

Lance nodded. He’d had to add, at Chris’ insistence, that submissions were subject to editing based on explicit content. Nothing foul or questionable would be printed and no money would be returned upon failure to be printed. Lance hadn’t even thought about that and was glad he’d asked for Chris’ help before printing everything and putting the posters up. "Yeah, I got the idea the other day and ran it by Chris. He’s really excited."

"It’s a great idea," Christina agreed. "Did you need help? I mean, I always eat in the cafeteria anyways, so Mandy and I were talking last night and we thought that if you wanted, we could do duty in there for lunches."

Lance gave Christina a thankful smile and exhaled in relief. He had decided that if anyone, since it was his project he would take cafeteria duty, but if Christina was offering to do it, then he could let her without any guilt. "Are you serious? That would be awesome."

Christina nodded. "I told you I wanted to help, and I mean it."

"Sure. Thanks so much. Our names won’t really be on it ...you know, since it’s not an article or anything," Lance admitted. Christina shook her head and cut him off.

"Oh, I don’t care about that. It just sounds like such a fun idea, and I thought it would be good to get involved. I didn’t make the cheer leading team, so I don't really have much else that I do here."

"What do you mean you didn’t make the team?" Nick asked as he approached his friends. "You and Brit were shoo ins I thought."

Christina frowned and shook her head. "Neither of us made it. We’re really bummed. Brit’s pissed." As her name had been mentioned, Britney came bounding around the corner. She looked a little more subdued than normal, but still as colourful as ever.

"Hey guys," she pouted as she opened her locker and shoved her bag inside.

"What’s wrong?" Christina asked with concern.

Britney flicked her eyes to Lance and Nick before shrugging and answering her friend’s question. "Oh, I was just talking to Justin and ..."

At the mention of his best friend, Nick felt his stomach churn sickly. He hadn’t talked to Justin since he’d snapped at him about Kevin yesterday and Nick hadn’t been too eager to see him. But rather than say anything, he listened.

"...I asked him to the dance next week and he turned me down. Said that he was going alone."

"I just don’t think he’s interested in you that way," Christina said softly, almost apologetically.

"Of course he is, he has to be." She turned to Nick and looked at him hopefully. "Has he said anything to you about me?"

Regretfully, Nick shook his head. "No, sorry." He watched her face fall and she slammed her locker door shut in frustration.

"I hate high school." And with that, she stomped down the hall towards her home room. Christina flashed them an apologetic smile and followed her best friend through the hall, trying to comfort her.

"So what were you two talking about?" Nick asked. He needed to get his mind off of the fact that Justin was there, but hadn’t come to their locker. It was a double edged sword. Nick didn’t want Justin to come if he was only going to be mean and instigate a fight, but at the same time he wanted him to come and for things to be like they had been. Nick was tired of everything, and on top of it he had practice that day at lunch.

"Oh, she’s going to help me with the personals ad I'm doing for the paper." Lance handed Nick a flyer, who read it and gave a bright smile.

"Awesome idea. If you need help, just let me know. I just can’t do it today or tomorrow. I have practice today and a meeting with Coach Griffiths tomorrow.

"Okay," Lance answered, interrupted by the bell. Both boys looked at their watches and realized how late it was. Nick looked down the hall in surprise at the fact that he’d totally missed Kevin’s appearance in Fresh Meat lane. Lance couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on Nick’s face. "Wow.. Things must be weird. You usually can sense him from a hundred feet away."

Nick shook his head. He hadn’t thought a day would come when he’d forget all about Kevin Richardson, let alone not realize when he’d been directly in front of him. He said his good bye to Lance and let him know he’d see him in second period at the gym.

End Chapter 17


Chapter 18 >