You Complete Me - 5. Chapter 5 - Enough

Jake whisked a handful of empty plates and glasses from the table, pausing to balance them expertly and ask the group of teenagers, all girls, if they needed anything else before he went to get the check. The bravest of them, a pretty Latina with long, dark hair, giggled and said something flirtatious to him in Spanish that he didn’t quite catch - he was fluent, but distracted, so he gave a vague answer and grinned roguishly, earning himself a giggle. Slightly flustered, Jake hurried the dishes back to the kitchen.

He was feeling a little less guilty about indulging with flirty customers at work now. Jake had been server at Flaming Amy’s for more than a year now, so he knew that being a little more friendly than necessary got him bigger tips. He had followed up on a few numbers he’d collected from work in the past, but since he and Meg started exclusively dating, he never let it go any further than that. But now he wasn’t exactly sure where they stood.

Jake hadn’t seen or contact Meg over the weekend after that awful dinner and neither had she. They had never been the type of couple of text constantly, but this silence felt more final than the others. Jake went into school today hoping that the inevitable breakup had taken care of itself; Meg knew he hated confrontation, so maybe she had simply decided to stop seeing him without comment. The thought didn’t upset him as much as it should have, but he was wrong anyway. She found him in the parking lot that morning and kissed him on the cheek as she’d done dozens of mornings before, assigned herself his partner in math, and gossiped about nothing pertinent all through lunch, oblivious to the fact that Jake was despondent and his answers monosyllabic. Even Luke had given him a pitying look before leaving the two of them alone for less awkward company.

Absentmindedly, Jake took his time filling a tray of drinks for another table as he waited for the cashier to ring up some totals. He had never broken up with someone before – in fact, it was debatable if he’d ever even been in a relationship before Meg. He wasn’t good at them, and Meg never hesitated to remind him. He’d had plenty of flings in his past, and they’d always parted ways amicably or just fizzled out without any drama. Despite not knowing much about the intricacies of dating, Jake had a strong suspicion that Meg wasn’t going to make breaking up easy.

When Jake returned to the table where the girls had been sitting, he found a sizable tip and someone’s name and IG handle written on the back of a receipt with a heart. He should probably just ignore it, but instead Jake quickly snapped a picture of it with his phone before bringing it back to the register. There was a good chance he would be back on the market soon, and the girl was pretty cute.

Right on cue, the bell over the door opened and a familiar redhead walked in. Jake locked eyes with Meg, not quite hiding his surprise in time. She waved and smiled happily, and he returned it hesitantly. Meg had visited him at work a few times before, usually at the end of his shift, but it was weird that she was acting as if everything was peachy between them. What sort of game was she playing?

Jake attempted to ignore Meg for a bit, pretending to be busy, but he could feel her eyes on him everywhere he went. After a few minutes, it was clear the other servers expected him to take care of her, so he walked over to her table with a sigh.

“What are you doing here?”

Her heavily coated eyelashes fluttered. “What a greeting. Here to see you, of course, silly.”

Jake pulled out his notepad, pen poised over the paper. “You want anything?”

Meg leaned forward a little, resting her head on her upright arm and offering a clear view down her top. She smiled when Jake’s eyes predictably drifted to her chest. “Just you.”

Jake rolled his eyes at his momentary weakness. “Meg, I’m working right now – you know, that thing people without rich fathers do.”

It was uncharacteristically harsh coming from Jake, and they were both surprised by it. Jake bit his lip against a compulsive apology and turned to leave the scene of the crime.

“Wait!”

Meg’s sharp command managed to cut through the restaurant clatter, and Jake noticed a few patrons glance their way curiously. Jake half-turned her way, an eyebrow raised.

She seemed to notice the attention they were attracting and lowered her voice. “When is your next break?”

Jake considered lying and saying it would be ages from now to discourage her from waiting, but he knew that Meg would just try to corner him tomorrow. They may as well get the breakup conversation out of the way sooner rather than later. “Twenty minutes,” he answered sulkily.

“Let’s talk then.” She settled back in her seat, satisfied.

Jake considered her for another second before returning to work.

Meg was at the same table when Jake clocked out a short while later, texting and looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. This irritated Jake a little; the least she could do was pretend to be a little regretful about cutting him loose. He lowered himself into the seat across from her with a small huff.

Meg did put her phone away as soon as Jake had settled. She pouted a little and crossed her arms. “That comment earlier about my dad was uncalled for.”

Jake again considered apologizing, but that wasn’t what came out when he opened his mouth. “It was less about your dad and more about you. Although he's kind of a dick, too.”

Meg didn’t even blink. “So you are mad at me.”

“So you did notice,” he fired back.

“Of course I did.” With a whine creeping into her voice, she added, “You didn’t even walk me to practice. What’s this all about, Jake?”

Now it was Jake's turn to cross his arms defensively. “What do you think, Meg? How do you think that dinner went?”

She squirmed in discomfort and glanced out the adjacent window, finding the pedestrians easier to look at. “It really wasn’t a big deal – Dad said he liked you.”

Jake snorted. “That’s why you left me, huh?”

“I left you? You didn’t talk to me all weekend.”

“You know how to reach me.”

Meg didn’t seem to have a response for that, and the silence dragged as Jake stared at her expectantly for a moment. Though he tried to keep his expression stony, his heart was racing: he didn’t like arguing with her. He wasn’t very good at articulating his thoughts, so he typically kept them to himself. As a result, Meg usually got her way and they rarely fought.

“Meg,” Jake said finally, ruffling the back of his hair. “Where do you see us in the next year?”

For once, she struggled for words. “I – I haven’t really thought about it. Does it matter?”

“Of course it does.” When Meg scoffed, he frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s just…well, Jake, it’s not like you’ve been the commitment type most of the time I’ve known you.”

“I committed to you. I was the one that popped the relationship question, remember?”

“And that was very sweet, but…”

“But then the dinner happened and now you want to break up?” Jake finished for her, hopefully.

“No!” Meg exclaimed immediately. She reached across the table, placing her slender hand over his. “So maybe my father doesn’t exactly want you for a son-in-law, but I don’t date boys for him. We like each other enough, right?”

“…Yeah,” Jake answered reluctantly. He couldn’t find it in him to actively dislike Meg, especially after seeing her every day with her for an entire summer, but he definitely didn’t like where the conversation was going, either.

“So maybe we can just stick this out for the rest of the school year. You don’t like commitment, I’m going off to school next year, and you know the sex is good. Then we can split quietly after graduation and neither of us has to deal with how the rest of the school will react.”

Now they’d finally gotten to the root of the problem. Jake moved his hand away from hers. “I don’t want to date you just for appearances. I want – ” He stopped himself. What exactly did he want? He was fond of Meg – most of the time – but it wasn’t like he loved her. He had never felt that way for anyone, but he knew that much at least. “A real partner, I guess,” he finished lamely.

“I’m right here, babe,” Meg purred. “What we have is very real. It may come with an expiration date, but all relationships do. Doesn’t make it any less real.”

“That’s not what I meant. I just don’t want the relationship to be business for you.” Something dawned on him. “Wait, was that what this always was?”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have had you meet my dad if you were just arm candy.”

Until I failed the test, Jake thought. He bit back the words, though, unsure of how to say it without going in circles with her. Meg pounced on his indecision.

“Come on, Jake. We have fun together and these next two semesters are the most important of our lives; do you really want to deal with a public breakup in the middle of all this?”

She kept her face pleasantly blank, but Jake still sensed a veiled threat in her tone. Meg once told him that Regina George was her idol, and it was easy to see why. She had a mean girl streak and lot of pull in the high school rumor mill; if Megan Watts said it or at least cosigned it, it may as well be written in stone. Jake stayed out of that scene and grew to like Meg for the softer side she showed him, and in turn she knew a lot about him, too. As he considered her, he wasn’t completely sure that she wouldn’t turn on him and make this way uglier than it needed to be if he decided he didn’t want to be with her anymore.

He carefully weighed his options, which didn’t feel like many. “I don’t know if this will work, Meg.”

“Can you at least try to make it work for me? I mean, if you ever had any feelings for me, you’d try.” She fluttered her lashes coquettishly at him and reached for his hand again.

Her skin felt warm and smooth in his. Jake sighed. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, really. It wasn’t like he planned on marrying her, and he didn’t have to talk to her father ever again. She was pretty, they had regular sex, he was slightly less lonely when she was around, and she could be a somewhat passive-aggressive study partner if he needed her to be. “Alright, we’ll give it another try,” he answered, and Meg’s face broke into a brilliant smile that made him feel a touch uneasy.

***

Nic’s second week at his brand-new school was already overcast by his dark mood. Arnie had reluctantly let him go after another hour of fooling around, so it was well after midnight by the time Nic slunk back into his family’s apartment, where his irate mother was waiting for him in the living room. He smelled of sex, had a fresh hickey on his neck, and lacked any plausible excuses for being out that late without telling anyone. Needless to say, he was grounded for the rest of the week, which he was sure Amos would get a kick out of. At least that meant he had an excuse to avoid Arnie for a little while.

The weight of what he had done settled on him throughout the next few days. He had made a number of promises to himself since moving here: no drugs, no fighting, and don’t sleep with Arnie. Until his overdose a few months ago, that last promise had been the only one he’d kept. Months of building a wall between himself and Arnie had been destroyed with just a few sweet words in a moment of weakness. He could only hope that Arnie took his own advice when he said it couldn’t happen again – their friendship would not survive another blowout like last year, and he’d likely lose Shiv this time, too. Arnie checked in on him throughout the weekend and his messages didn’t come across as particularly sappy or romantic, so that gave Nic some hope that the encounter didn’t reignite any old feelings.

Nic felt a little less on edge by Tuesday, which was also a gym day, and that meant he’d have to deal with that meathead quarterback that seemed fixated on him. Fortunately, he had a day’s worth of classes separating him from P.E., so he had plenty of time to force himself to some state of impassivity that had gotten him this far.

The art teacher was young and fairly lax, so he gave them a free period to work on their first project or just sketch. Nic was already ahead on the project, so he put in a set of ear buds to help him tune out and started working on a commissioned piece. He was adding details to the outline of some sort of warrior elf when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.

Nic flinched in surprise and fixed a slightly annoyed stare at a ginger-haired boy that had slipped into the unoccupied seat next to him. He recognized him from his Biology class that morning, but he didn’t know his name. “Yes?” he asked tersely.

The kid seemed unbothered. He held up a hand in surrender as he used the other to slide what looked like a zine across the table towards Nic. “Sorry to bother you,” he whispered. “I’m part of the news committee and I’m trying to keep up a regular art segment. I noticed you were really good and thought you might be interested.”

Nic gave the zine a quick, disinterested perusal, taking in some amateur work a few pages in. “Does it pay?” he asked bluntly.

Ginger seemed amused. “No, but you can post social media links if you have any. Do you do commissions?” Nic nodded, so he continued, “There’s another girl that sells her art and she was on the first edition last semester. She’s gotten twice the work since then.”

Nic tilted his head. It could mean he’d have access to the school copy room and that would make it easier to make prints. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.” He took the zine and tucked it into his backpack underneath the table. “Thanks,” he added dismissively when he noticed Ginger was still there.

Now that he’d fulfilled his mission, the kid looked a bit awkward as his eyes flicked away from Nic’s. “Um, actually do you mind if I sit here? I don’t have any friends in this class and you’re new, so...” He trailed off, letting Nic fill in the blanks.

Nic’s first instinct was to say no, he wasn’t in the market for new friends, but he realized that if he did decide to do the zine he should probably be nice to the editor. He sized him up briefly, remembering that this was the same kid that Shiv had pointed out to him last week, and the same one that Nic noticed checking him out occasionally. He was the classic pale, freckled redhead, and about the same height as Nic but well-muscled, like he played a lot of sports. He was cute; not really Nic’s type, but he could still play nice. “Sure,” he said, after a moment of scrutiny.

“Sweet,” the boy said happily. “I’m Kenny, by the way. Nicholas, right?”

“Just Nic,” Nic corrected; he hated hearing his full name. He returned to his drawing as Kenny pulled out his own supplies. They worked in silence for a few minutes, with Nic occasionally sneaking glances at Kenny’s progress. He was clearly no artist himself, but he seemed confident about his piece, at least.

When Kenny finally found the courage to restart the conversation, he never stopped. It wasn’t in an annoying way, since most of what he had to say was vaguely interesting – they happened to have a lot of common interests, including horror movies and art – but Nic was mostly preoccupied with his piece. Kenny was undeterred, though, encouraged by Nic’s responses, laconic as they were. It made the period pass quickly and they even ended up exchanging contact information by the end of it.

Nic headed off to lunch feeling accomplished. It was week two at his new school and he’d managed to make one new friend that he had no current plans to sleep with. Shiv would be proud.

Once he’d reached the courtyard, Nic searched for his cousin. Luke had been trying to check in with him throughout the weekend, and his concern had initially annoyed Nic. Since the “incident” over the summer, Luke had been more protective and Nic hated feeling babied; he got enough of that just for being slightly younger. He knew he should be grateful, though; in Maine, he hadn’t had anyone.

Luke was sitting at one of the large picnic tables with a bunch of other seniors, but he was at the end where Nic could join without interrupting anything. Jake and Meg were with him, but they weren’t as close as they had been the last time Nic had seen them together - they were sitting next to each other but were completely engaged in separate conversations with other people. As Nic approached, Luke noticed him and scooted over.

As Nic straddled the bench, Jake briefly glanced his way and acknowledged him with a curt nod, which Nic returned. He felt a little guilty for trolling Jake the last time they had spoken, so he planned to be at least cordial from here on out.

“Long time, no see,” Luke said sardonically. “You’re always ghosting people.”

“Sorry,” Nic said sincerely. He had meant to sit with Luke yesterday, but he wasn’t quite ready to talk about what happened at the Ensings’. Panic attacks left him raw and ashamed in a way that nothing else did. He’d avoided his cousin by going off campus for lunch. “Had a lot on my mind.”

Luke was never one to hold a grudge. “Was Anus home Friday?”

Nic smirked at the childish nickname they had for him and lowered his voice. “Yeah, and he was plastered. He was insufferable, so I left.”

Luke spoke more quietly to match him. “You could have come back to the cabin. Where did you go?”

“I should have,” Nic conceded. “I went to Arnie’s shop, though.” He didn’t feel like lying to his cousin, but he kept his face blank. Luke had known him long enough to read between the lines, though.

“You slept with him,” he said flatly.

“I did.”

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

“I am.”

“Are you going to do it again?”

“I...hope not?”

Luke sighed and turned away from Nic in disgust, which Nic reluctantly understood. Luke and Arnie had become acquainted while Nic and Arnie were “dating” the previous year, so he had sympathized with him after the fallout even though his loyalties were ultimately with Nic. “You make it really hard to stand up for you sometimes. You broke his heart last year and acted like it was no big deal—”

“Hey, don’t say I didn’t care. I apologized a thousand times over.”

Luke continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “And now you’re setting him up for more hurt. You really need to stop doing this, Nic – using people just because you need an outlet. I thought you learned from what happened last year.”

Nic wanted to get angry and fire back. He wanted to tell Luke that Arnie had been making passes at him for weeks now, so it wasn’t as if he was an innocent that had been corrupted by Big Bad Nic, and that they had a much better understanding of each other this time around. But it didn’t seem to matter. He wasn’t expecting to get berated, and certainly not by his normally gentle cousin, but the message was clear. Nic was a fuck up, and despite his best efforts, everyone was waiting for him to fall into bad habits again. So he said nothing.

“Well?” Luke pressed. “Have you talked to Arnie since?”

“Some. He seemed normal.” Nic shrugged. “What happened, happened and I’ll try not to let it happen again, but if it does, we’re not together and never will be. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

Luke gave his head a small shake as he chuckled sardonically. “Whatever, Nic, I’m not your dad.” He went back to picking at his food with a little more force than necessary.

Nic placed an elbow on the table, staring at his cousin through a long moment of silence as it dawned on him that he was being iced out. “Are you actually mad at me?”

“A little,” Luke admitted. “Talk it out with Arnie, and if he knows what’s up maybe I’ll be cool with it then.”

Nic rolled his eyes, knowing that he would absolutely never do that, but he nodded in agreement anyway. “Ugh, fine.” He grabbed his bag and skulked off to find a quiet place to draw. He decided he was done with socializing for the day.

***

Jake had felt a nervous pit in his stomach that only grew more intense as the day went on, and he was confused and pissed off to discover that Nic was the cause of that at lunch. It was as if his gut did a strange flutter at the mere sight of the kid, and Jake did his best to ignore him when he joined the table. He decided that the reaction must be residual embarrassment from catching him and Vince together last week, or shame from letting the memory creep back into his thoughts in the shower afterward.

Meg and staying afloat in chemistry had occupied most of his thoughts since that happened, so he didn’t get a chance to dwell on it much. He’d managed a B+ on the quiz, which was a small glimmer of victory across a mostly gloomy week. As promised, he kept up appearances with Meg and shrugged off questions Luke had about their status. The last time he had spoken to his friend about her, he was fairly certain about ending the relationship. Yet, they arrived at school together Tuesday morning, holding hands after Meg had very obviously spent the night.

Jake started to regret his decision almost as soon as he committed to it, but he didn’t want to admit to himself or anyone else that he was willing to stay with Meg because he was lonely. It felt pathetic. Still, he didn’t have to pretend that he was happy about it: he avoided talking to Meg more than he had to. Fortunately, he didn’t share any other classes with Meg for the rest of the day, so it passed uneventfully. Until P.E. of course, because he shared it with Nic.

Today, Reynolds had the class play dodgeball, seniors versus juniors. Bryan and his friends targeted Nic, so he was one of the first ones out. He didn’t seem to mind, though, happily jogging off the court to watch from the bleachers. In contrast, Jake was one of the last ones on his team eliminated, and this pattern would repeat for three rounds until the bell rang.

Since it was an indoor period, there wasn’t much equipment to be picked up and the locker room quickly flooded with students. Jake wanted to pull in a few hours at Flaming Amy’s after school, so he planned to just quickly rinse of the sweat and take a proper shower later. On his way to the to the open showers, he passed by Nic and his boyfriend Vince by the lockers. Vince placed a hand on Nic’s lower back and Nic shied away, looking annoyed. Trouble in paradise, Jake thought with a small scoff. Hopefully that meant no more surprise peep shows in the locker room in the near future.

Jake chose a shower head in the far corner and stood outside the spray for a moment, waiting for it to reach a warmer temperature. Nic rounded the corner a few seconds later, having apparently escaped Vince, his expression still sour. His green eyes flickered to Jake’s for an instant and Jake quickly looked away, as per locker room protocol.

Jake was just about to step under the stream when he heard the squeak of the faucet next to him. He somehow knew it was Nic right away, inwardly groaning before confirming it with a glance. Nic was already naked and went under the freezing cold water with barely a flinch. Jake looked around to make sure that that was the only free shower head in his vicinity and that Nic wasn’t intentionally trolling him.

He hadn’t had any more intrusive thoughts about Nic since that Thursday, but he didn’t want to play with fire. Jake had diligently avoided talking to or acknowledging the kid for several reasons, and Nic not being particularly friendly was only one of them. Jake fixed his stare firmly on the tile in front of him, determined not to let Nic’s presence hold him up.

The locker room was noisy and boys whisked in and out around them, but Jake was never quite able to shake his increasing awareness of Nic a mere few feet away from him, innocently scrubbing away without a care in the world. Meanwhile, Jake had a rather vivid image in his head of Nic being pounded into a wall and was trying very hard to not get turned on by that when there was literally no way to hide it.

Unable to resist, Jake snuck a glance. He took in Nic’s body briefly, looked away, and immediately returned for a slightly longer look. Not bad. Jake took some comfort in the fact that Nic didn’t have the most masculine of forms; in fact, his physique could almost be described as delicate. He had just enough muscle tone to keep him from looking waifish, though still very slender, and with a pretty round ass for a dude.

“Had fun, faggot?”

Jake immediately snapped out of his shameless scrutiny, horrified that he had been caught. But the insult hadn’t been aimed at him.

Bryan Neumann had said this loud enough for the entire locker room to hear as he proudly strode, naked, into the showers. He was looking directly at Nic and his thin lips curled into a mean smile as he approached, aiming for the empty shower head at the opposite end. Jake frowned at Neumann, then looked at Nic.

Nic rolled his eyes and didn’t bother turning around, but Jake noticed that his back had become very stiff. “You obsessed with me or something, Neumann?”

Bryan sneered at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I was just wondering if you liked dodgeball.”

Nic shrugged and didn't reply.

What happened next occurred so quickly that Jake didn’t have time to react. It started when Bryan casually slapped Nic on the ass as he strolled by.

It was the kind of slap that guys sometimes exchanged after a game, or during locker room banter, but Nic and Bryan clearly didn’t have that kind of relationship. He’d done it get a reaction…and he definitely got one.

Nic reacted so quickly it was almost as if he’d been waiting for a signal. He whirled around, his face twisted in rage, and punched Bryan squarely in the jaw. Since he was striking upward, it lacked power, but it stunned Bryan long enough for Nic to follow it up with a vicious knee to his unprotected groin, which made him double over.

The locker room abruptly went into shocked silence. Even Nic looked unnerved by what he had done. Bryan knelt on the ground, holding his injured groin and breathing hard, his jaw – and the rest of his face – reddening by the second. He slowly lifted his head towards Nic, his eyes narrowed and murderous.

“I’m going to fucking end you,” he said in a low, quiet voice. Then he lunged.

Nic didn’t even try to move, but Bryan never touched him. Jake moved before he could think, darting across the gap between showerheads and intercepting Bryan like he was a training dummy at practice. The quarterback was in mid-lunge as Jake’s shoulder collided with him, so he slipped the wet floor. He landed right on his ass, mouth open in shock.

But he was up again in an instant and right in Jake’s face, close enough for him to practically feel the steam coming off his red skin, but he didn’t dare hit him. “What the fuck, dude?” he shrieked.

Jake pushed him away. “You touched him first,” he said calmly.

Bryan seethed as he looked around them for his usual goon squad, but they were conveniently nowhere to be seen. He sized Jake up for a moment, which made Jake acutely aware that everyone around him, including himself, was completely naked. It made the situation strangely funny, and he had to bite back a smirk that would have most certainly set Bryan off again.

There was an uncomfortably long stare-down and Jake was grudgingly prepared to fight if he had to, but he knew it wouldn’t come down to that. He could see Bryan running through the mental calculations in his head. He was heavier, but Jake was taller and everyone knew his rugby nickname of “Train” had originated on the football field. He wouldn’t be an easy target, and there was a risk of Bryan getting embarrassed yet again in the span of a minute. The best thing he could do to leave the situation with some dignity intact was to walk away.

Once he’d reached that conclusion, Bryan looked away. “Whatever, man.” He rounded on Nic: “We’re not done.” He sauntered out of the locker room without showering, shoving the towel rack so forcefully that the entire structure fell over with a loud clang.

Jake looked over at Nic, who was shaking out his right hand as if he’d hurt it. Jake almost asked if he was okay, but something about the way Nic’s jaw was set warned him not to. There was some intense anger still in his eyes, but it melted away when he looked at Jake. “Thank you,” he said. No smirk, no snark, just pure sincerity.

“No problem,” Jake grunted with a shrug, immediately turning away.

A few guys muttered their approval of Jake’s actions as they sheepishly resumed what they were doing. Jake’s closed his eyes and willed himself to calm down. He felt like he did a good thing, but there went his plan to ignore Neumann. It was only week two.

In the forty-five seconds or so it took Jake to finish rinsing and drying, Nic had slipped off unnoticed.