You Complete Me - 21. Chapter 21 - Her Downfall

Jake’s entire world had come crashing down.

Well, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but he certainly didn’t feel good about Nic apparently deciding for him that they were no longer exclusive. It wasn’t like there had ever been a verbal agreement or anything, but Jake still felt personally wronged. Now? After patiently waiting for condomless sex for nearly a week, only to be told that fucking Kenzo of all people beat him to the punch? After just finding out he had been cheated on for months? After he had finally admitted out loud that he was growing feelings for this annoyingly smug little punk?

This was shockingly cruel, even for Nic. Perhaps too cruel. Nic took one look at Jake’s face, and whatever he saw there made him drop the playfulness at once. “I’m kidding.”

Jake blinked. “Oh.” Laughing it off would be the best course of action here, but just the thought of doing so made him nauseous. When it came to Nic, pretending to be nonchalant was becoming more difficult by the day.

“I didn’t have to,” Nic continued. “He asked me out – I think – a while ago, and since he was doing me a favor, the least I could do was take him up on it. Not that I did anything more, I mean.” Nic shrugged, and if Jake didn’t know any better, it almost sounded like he was babbling. “I was joking with you.”

“It wasn’t funny,” Jake spat. The sharpness of it made Nic’s eyes widen, and Jake saw Arnie and Shiv glance their way with some interest. “It’s whatever,” he muttered, taking a handful of flyers a short distance away to work on a different section of the fence. He had to return almost immediately because he forgot the tape, but he still didn’t say a word to Nic.

Jake felt Nic’s eyes on his back as he walked away for the second time. He knew he was being pouty and probably cockblocking himself for the future, but he felt justified in his reaction. Sometimes there were more important things than getting laid, his dignity being one of them.

It didn’t take long for Jake to get lost in the repetition of his task, because it was better than seething. Rip the tape, stick, smooth it as much as he could over the chain link, rinse and repeat. After ten or so neatly spaced flyers, Jake was approaching the end of the block and had stopped registering that he was looking at naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend that she had never sent to him – Meg was simply a flesh-colored blob, and the chatter of the other three in the distance was just noise. Distantly, he thought he heard someone shout something, but it wasn’t until he heard the thudding of rapidly approaching footsteps that he looked up.

“Car!” Nic hissed as he ran past.

“What?”

Nic whirled back around and grabbed Jake’s sleeve so roughly he thought it would rip. He got the message, though, and followed the smaller boy behind a well-manicured hedge in front of the sidewalk, just barely wide enough for two people. Closer to the gateway, Jake saw Arnie and Shiv crouched behind a similar hedge, their faces pale and alarmed.

Jake only had to wait a moment to see what the fuss was about. Headlights briefly illuminated the street in front of them before being followed by a police patrol car. It drove slowly, as if the driver was looking for anything out of the ordinary. Blind panic shot through Jake, making him twitch uncontrollably, which Nic must have felt – his hand was still gripping Jake’s shoulder, as if to keep him from bolting. It was a desperate, yet comforting sort of touch, so Jake gritted his teeth and kept his head down. After a painfully long pause, the cop continued on.

No one dared to breathe until they all heard wheels turning onto the nearby cross street. Arnie broke the quiet first, rising to his full, scarecrow-like stature. “I think we’re good,” he announced.

Jake became aware of Nic still touching him as he used his shoulder to get back to his feet. He followed suit, dusting himself off as he turned to Nic to make some sort of statement of relief, but it quickly turned to incredulity. “In what realm is almost getting arrested funny?” Jake asked him.

Somehow, Nic was grinning – chuckling even. Jake’s question had only made him laugh harder, and it was started to spread. Shiv was covering her face to hold back the mirth and Arnie had a reserved smirk on, like he and Nic were sharing some kind of secret.

“Imagine,” Nic gasped, once he composed himself a little, “explaining this to a cop.” He gestured at their body of work.

Jake looked at the fence, now a pornographic billboard featuring the richest girl in Greendale. It took a few seconds, but he eventually found some humor in his lingering terror. When he imagined a hypothetical phone call to his father from the police station, mirth bubbled out of him in a breathless, semi-hysterical chortle. This was a ridiculous plan – probably illegal – and the thought of the Watts family dragging everyone involved into court would be a very public, yet oddly hilarious affair.

Maybe it was relief from the close call. Maybe it was whatever was in Arnie’s flask. Maybe it was just because the sight of Nic laughing was a rare treat. But whatever the reason was, the entire group was consumed by a fit of the giggles that took them a long time to recover from.

Still wiping her eyes, Shiv took a few steps back to admire the fence. “I think that sends a pretty clear message, yeah?”

The other three arranged themselves around her, making various noises of assent. In the daylight, when the flyers were clearly not an innocent attempt to find a lost pet, it would be much more jarring. For now, though, Shiv was right: the message was clear. Jake wondered how Meg and the rest of the school would react, including the administration. He looked up at the streetlights, searching for obvious surveillance cameras.

Arnie seemed to have read his mind. “The cameras out here are shit.”

Jake stared at him, but Arnie didn’t elaborate until he pressed him. “Do I want to know?”

“Friend of mine flunked out a few years ago, hopped the fence and tagged some teacher’s car for revenge.” Arnie smiled at some fond memory. “It was broad daylight, but they never caught him. The pictures they released were blurry as shit.”

For a school catering to mostly affluent teenagers, security clearly wasn’t one of Greendale’s main investments. Jake had been a sophomore at the time, but he vaguely remembered the incident Arnie was talking about. The targeted teacher had quit shortly after, so it had only been interesting news for less than a week. Something like this would make waves, though. “I think this might be a bigger deal.”

Nic narrowed his eyes at him. “A bigger deal than vandalism?”

“The Watts will try to say this is vandalism.”

“Y’know, it’s a little late for cold feet.”

Jake held his hands up in surrender. “I don’t have cold feet. I know that freaking out Meg is the point.”

That seemed to satisfy Nic, but Arnie, who had been watching them closely, started snickering. “How many times did you have to fuck him to get him this whipped?” he asked Nic.

Jake just gaped at him, not sure if he should be horrified, embarrassed, or angry. He expected Nic to deny as he usually did, but he just shrugged. “Once.”

Shiv, of all people, was quick to intervene. “Oi! Don’t be a cunt, Nic,” she sighed, in a tone that sounded like she was admonishing a small dog.

Nic crossed his arms, his eyes still trained on Jake. “Why not? He can handle it.”

Like a tennis match, everyone looked to Jake for his response, but he didn’t care. Nic had issued a challenge and he met it readily. He glared back at him, and for a moment, they were the only two standing on the sidewalk. “You dragged everyone out for me,” he reminded Nic in low voice. “But I’m the one that’s whipped?”

Cold silence answered him, just long enough for Jake to wonder if he’d gone too far. But then he saw a spark of approval in Nic’s stare before he let a small smile slip. He was impressed.

Arnie confirmed this with a laugh. “Easy on the eyes and a backbone. I think I like this one. Can we keep him, Nic?” His arm snaked around Nic’s waist, dragging him into one-sided hug that Nic only half-heartedly tried to escape from.

Jake had never hated anyone more. If he’d done that, he would have been lucky to escape with all his limbs intact, but Arnie handled Nic with the confidence of a lion tamer. There was a closeness and familiarity between them, bordering on foreplay at times, and it made Jake burn with ugly jealousy.

Shiv didn’t seem to like it much, either. Her eyes flicked over to Jake, then she rattled a handful of the remaining flyers to get Nic and Arnie’s attention. “This is making great fanfiction, but you three can get a room later – oh, don’t be such a fucking prude, Ferguson,” she snapped, noticing Jake blush. “What should we do with them? Stuff them in her neighbors’ mailboxes?”

Nic and Arnie were intrigued by this idea, but Jake, relieved to be on a different topic, shook his head. “Gated neighborhood.”

“We could toss them everywhere downtown,” Shiv countered.

It was a good way of disposing the rest of the evidence, so Jake wasn’t opposed. He shrugged and almost deferred to Nic before stopping himself, the “whipped” comment still fresh on his mind. “Sure. Who parked closest?” he inquired the group.

Everyone but Jake was quickly ruled out. Nic, Shiv, and Arnie had arrived together, walking from Shiv’s house, which was a few streets away. Jake’s car, however, was just around the corner. He wasn’t too put out about being the chauffeur, though, since he was quite proud of Bond and rarely missed an opportunity to show her off.

Upon seeing Bond in all her glory, Nic let out a low whistle. “She’s much nicer in person.”

Jake wondered if Nic had been perusing his Instagram journey at some point, but he knew better than to ruin the moment it by asking.

“You clearly have a better taste in cars than you do women,” Shiv quipped. The hood was down, so she seemingly grew wings and deftly hopped over the back door and into the plush leather seats. She made herself comfortable, posing by folding her arms behind her head. “Always wanted to do that.”

Jake still wasn’t sure how to feel about Shiv just yet, but she was growing on him. Somehow, she was the least abrasive of this strange little group. “I don’t think I’ve seen a girl do that before,” he told her, in awe.

She gave him a big wink. “I’m not like other girls.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Arnie muttered. “Shotgun, pipsqueak,” he snapped at Nic, who had his hand on the passenger side door handle. Nic didn’t have the height to put up a fight, so he gave up the seat with an eyeroll and joined Shiv in the back.

Jake wished he hadn’t, but as a fellow six-footer, it only made sense. He took the time to obscure his license plate with some of the tape as a final precaution and climbed into driver’s seat. Next to him, Arnie was admiring his stereo system.

“You install this yourself?”

He’d had a little help from his dad – mostly monetary – but Jake nodded anyway as he started the car. “Yup. Set up the back-up cam, too.” The speakers burst to life with Billie Eilish at a high volume, which Jake hurried to shut off, but it was too late.

Arnie snorted. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you, big guy?”

“It makes good thinking music,” Jake said defensively. His fondness for Billie was a carryover from his relationship with Meg, one that he refused to let go.

“Don’t hate on Billie,” Shiv growled.

Outnumbered, Arnie kept his mouth shut, but he changed the station to something heavy metal as soon as Bond started rolling. Jake couldn’t think of anything more stereotypical for the scarecrow kid, but at least the ear-aching vocals meant they didn’t have to talk much.

Downtown was as dead as Jake had ever seen it. At this hour, the only businesses still open were bars and clubs, a few patrons outside smoking or socializing in front of them. Intent on starting the weekend early, they made up most of the lonely souls that still walked Main Street, along with the occasional homeless person. Either inebriated or simply apathetic from living in close proximity to a school known for such antics, they watched with only mild interest as a convertible BMW full of whooping teenagers careened down the quiet street, blasting angry music and leaving a trail of white papers behind it.

Still trying to be responsible, Jake had circled around the block a few times, waiting for a lull in traffic on Main Street before the final act. He slumped in his seat for most of the ride, fearing being seen and recognized, but the enthusiasm from the others was infection. Nic, Shiv, and Arnie were shouting along to the lyrics of a song he didn’t recognize, releasing armfuls of flyers like they were on a parade. It was only when he saw Nic in his rearview mirror, hair whipping around his face and looking unrecognizable from his usual brooding self, that Jake realized he could let his guard down a little, too. As his contribution to the disturbance they were causing, he threw his head back and howled until the rest of them laughingly joined in.

They picked up speed until they reached the city limits, which was when Jake slowed down and circled back, worried about running into more police. Greendale wasn’t large, so by the time they had reached the neighborhood where they started some twenty minutes later, they had settled down and all the flyers were gone. Shiv started navigating so Jake could drop them off back at her house.

Jake had seen his fair share of big houses. Greendale was full of them and he lived in one himself. But Shiv’s place took him by surprise; he’d driven past it on his way to and from school every day, never having any idea who lived there. It wasn’t a mansion, but it was upscale and sprawling. He took in as many details as he could as he pulled into the wraparound driveway.

“Thanks for the sweet ride,” Arnie said, as he pushed open the door. He stood outside the car for a moment, admiring the paint job. “She got a name?”

Jake nodded. “Bond.”

Arnie just smiled goofily at him from outside, having had a few more swigs from his flask throughout the night. Since he had the build of a stick figure, Jake wasn’t sure where it was going. He didn’t seem drunk, just more personable, which was lost on Jake. He still didn’t like him.

Light fingers grazed Jake’s arm, startling him. He turned and had the rare experience of looking up at Nic, who had slipped out of the car unnoticed and was standing on the other side of the door. His hair was wind-tousled and he still had the remnants of laughter on his face. Relaxed looked good on him.

“Mind dropping me off at Luke’s?”

For some reason, it took Jake a very long time to translate that to something that made sense. When he finally did, he didn’t fully trust it. “Oh. Um, you didn’t drive?” Too late, he realized that that made him sound like a dick.

Judging from the way Nic frowned at him, he thought so, too. “No, I don’t have a car right now. I guess I could ask Arnie, though…”

“No, it’s fine!” Jake blurted out. “Luke’s house is on my way back, anyway.”

Nic had a knowing look in his eye. “Cool.”

What should have been a defining moment of growth in their relationship turned into a huge mistake. Several minutes into the drive, neither of them had exchanged any words with substance, each staring in opposite directions and in separate thoughts. At first, Jake’s mind raced with potential things to get the conversation going, but each suggestion seemed more asinine than the last, leaving him tongue tied and confused. He thought he wanted this – some time alone with Nic, a chance to learn more about him, to see if there was anything there. But who was he kidding? They had nothing in common, Nic just thought of him as an oversized idiot whose dick he happened to like, and maybe Jake didn’t actually have feelings for him, anyway –

“Do you—?”

“Yes!”

Nic just blinked those luminous eyes of his a few times, bemused. “Um…okay. Is cash alright?”

Jake wondered what it was about Nic that sometimes left him as awkward as a virgin on his first date, but it was a powerful weapon. Laughing off the mortification, he shook his head. “Sorry, I thought you said something else.”

“What did you think I said?”

“Doesn’t matter. What was that about cash?”

Nic still seemed a little concerned, but he let it go. “Right. I asked if you wanted anything for gas.”

“Oh, no. Of course not. It’s not out of my way.”

“You did all the driving before, though.”

“Seriously, it’s fine,” Jake refused gently. “Least I could do, after what you did.”

Nic nodded at that, then returning to staring out the window. They still had a solid five minutes left of this trip, but the conversation seemed to have died again. Until…

“You know, I have a printer at home you could have used.”

Jake could sense Nic’s exasperation without having to look at him. “That would have used up a lot of ink,” he pointed out.

“So?” The printer in question was in his father’s office room, and he probably wouldn’t have been happy about Jake using up all of his ink cartridges, but this was a matter of pride. “I would have liked to contribute. Besides driving, I mean.”

“I sincerely apologize,” Nic drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “The next time I want to paint the town with someone’s nudes, I’ll make sure to come to you, first.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” Jake quipped, which made Nic chuckle. He liked that sound.

Luke’s house loomed just ahead, and Jake didn’t know if he should feel relieved or disappointed about it. He turned into the separate, small driveway for the cottage, parked, and turned to Nic one last time. “Guess this is the end of the road.”

Nic didn’t move right away. Still staring straight ahead, he asked, “Earlier, why did you get upset about Kenny?”

Isn’t it obvious? That’s what a braver, less insecure Jake would have said, in the deep, sultry tone that had melted many hearts before and had granted him access to nearly as many pants. But the words got stuck in his throat, halted by his uncertainty of how Nic would have handled it. Nic was the only person to ever make him second guess himself in this way, as if every word he uttered to him carried a great deal of weight. Neutral answers always seemed safer. “I don’t know,” Jake said finally. Coward.

Jake wasn’t the only one full of surprises tonight. Instead of relieved, Nic seemed as if he agreed with that inner thought, and was almost disappointed about it. The tight smile he gave him didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Goodnight, Abercrombie.” He reached for the door handle.

Again, Jake felt like he was being tested, except this time he had definitely failed and he hated himself for it. The use of his pet name gave him a little bit of hope, though. “Nic?”

Nic was already standing outside the car. “Yeah?”

“Just don’t do it again.”

He raised a sandy eyebrow at him. “Is that a suggestion or a demand?”

Jake didn’t answer. With great restraint, he resisted the urge to wink at Nic as he changed gears. “Goodnight, Nic.”

Jake hardly slept that night, and when he did sleep he kept having those weird, hyper-realistic dreams where he got arrested by Meg’s father himself, handcuffs and all. He woke up with the feeling that he was standing on the edge of a cliff, but with a parachute: it was dangerous, but he’d likely survive, shit himself in the process, and want to do it all over again once he reached the bottom. Oddly enough, it was strikingly similar to the way he had felt just before having sex with Nic for the first time.

Jake was the first one up in his house. Or at least he thought he was, which left him completely unprepared to find himself face-to-face with Samwell in the kitchen. Jake stopped dead in his tracks, blinking away some grogginess in case this was another dream. “Oh…hi, Dad.”

Samwell was shoving some instant oats in the microwave. “Morning. Nice to see you up this early.”

“I’ve been…working on it,” Jake said, trying to decide if he wanted to stay long enough to make himself breakfast. A part of him wanted to reconnect, but there was always the risk of getting dragged into stuff he didn’t want to talk about.

Samwell nodded in approval, standing in front of the microwave with his hand on his hip. He was already in his office clothes and back to being clean-shaven, like the annoyingly put-together person he was. “By the way, while you were out, I checked your prescription…”

Jake tensed. He knew he was behind on it. “Yeah?”

“I appreciate you taking them regularly, but you almost let them run out. I reordered some, and they should be ready for pickup by the time you’re done with school today.”

“Oh…thanks.” That was a little weird, but perhaps he was being more consistent than he thought he was. Samwell seemed to be in a relatively good mood and Jake was well ahead of schedule, so decided to make some toast. “I don’t really like stims,” he said, almost as an afterthought.

He’d said as much before and was always met with some expression of apathy from Samwell. This time was no different. His stirred his hot oatmeal as he took a seat at the table. “Maybe we can reevaluate that in the summer,” he said, as his phone buzzed with some kind of alert.

That’s what Samwell had said last summer. “Yeah, maybe.” The toast was done, so Jake turned to retrieve it, assuming his father would answer the notification.

He didn’t. When Jake took a seat next to him, Samwell was still eating as if he hadn’t heard it. “What did you and Luke get up to last night?” he asked, conversationally. Not as if he were searching for some kind of confession.

Jake had a mouthful of crunchy bread, so it took him a moment to answer. “Oh, you know,” he said airily. “Just hanging out. We stayed in.”

Samwell accepted that without comment. “It’s good that you had someone to help you through the break up while I was gone.”

He had no idea. Jake smiled to himself a little. “Yeah, he’s a good friend.”

Samwell didn’t ask anything about the breakup; after several years of living with teenagers, he seemed to have finally figured out that he wasn’t supposed to bring that stuff up first. That left little else to say, which faded the conversation into a comfortable silence. Still, he didn’t check that work email, as if he were afraid of shutting the door.

Jake didn’t walk through it, but he liked that the option was still there. He brushed crumbs off his lap and checked the time. “I guess I should go.”

“Want to lift weights with me after school?” Samwell asked suddenly.

Jake paused, already standing with his bag slung over his shoulder. “Um, sure. I’d like that.” He and his father exchanged a friendly smile to seal the deal and he hurried on his way to school, knowing that the day could only get weirder from here.

“Weird” ended up being an understatement. As he drove up to Greendale High for the second time in less than ten hours, Jake could see the crowd gathering in front of the school from the end of the street. They were almost blocking the entrance: as Jake observed, a car had to honk repeatedly to get the reluctant students to move out of the way. Hands slick with sweat, he wasted no time parking so he could hurry back to the scene on foot.

He didn’t need to linger to listen to what everyone made of the scene. “Onlyfans” seemed to be the prevailing narrative, and that’s all he needed to know. At least he wasn’t the subject of the day for once. Most of the students seemed bewildered or just found it funny, and others (mostly boys) were plucking flyers from the fence to collect memorabilia. They wouldn’t be there for long once word got out to the staff.

Jake scanned the heads of the crowd until he found a familiar face: Jazzy. She was hard to miss, waving frantically at him to approach.

As Jake made his way over to her, a boy he had never talked to before grabbed his shoulder. “Did Meg Watts send those pictures to you?” he asked excitedly, as if he were preparing for a future in paparazzi.

Jake blinked cluelessly down at him. “I’ve never seen those pictures before,” he told the kid, hoping he pulled off the right amount of hurt and confusion to sell it. The boy let him go as he turned to his friend to relay back Jake’s answer.

Impatient, Jazzy met him halfway. With surprising strength, yanked him off to the side to speak. “You and Luke did this,” she whisper-yelled.

Jake was taken aback by her vitriol. “You don’t approve? You’re the one that said we should get down to her level.”

“It’s brilliant!” she hissed, her curls practically standing on end. “But so, so dangerous. What if you’d been caught? What if they trace it back to you guys? You should have asked me for help!”

“I think that’s why Luke didn’t want to involve you, Miss Harvard Bound,” Jake said firmly. “Luke wasn’t there, anyway. My ex, my problem.”

Jazzy sighed, looking more fretful than angry now. He was beginning to suspect that she was just upset that she didn’t come up with the idea first. “You better hope no one from school saw you. This is revenge porn, you know that? Of a child, no less.”

“Child?” Jake repeated, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Meg’s not eighteen!”

Oh. He hadn’t considered that yet, but he wasn’t going to let Jazzy know that. “Well, it’s not revenge porn, technically. She never sent those to me. Just calm down and we’ll see how this plays out.”

“I don’t really have much choice, do I?” Jazzy asked flatly, deflating. “Who else is in on this? The less people, the better.”

Jake wondered if Kenny should be included in the final count, but before he could respond, the sound of brakes squealing brought the surrounding chatter to an abrupt halt. Every pair of eyes in the crowd were drawn to a pristine, white Cadillac that had skimmed the curb, causing several people that were standing on it to leap backwards.

The car still running, Meg herself spilled out the driver’s side of the car, leaving the door hanging wide open. She looked as perfect as always, in her expensive clothes and immaculately styled hair; this was in stark contrast to her bloodless face and too-wide eyes. Jake heard audible gasps at her appearance – he’d never seen her this frazzled before.

No one spoke as she took a few stumbling steps towards them as though possessed, her eyes oddly blank as if she were staring straight through them. In a way, she was – her gaze was locked on those flyers, completely ignoring everyone else. People scrambled to get out of her way, some of them raising their phones up, eager to capture her reaction.

Meg stopped several feet away from the gate, silently taking in what she was seeing. Jake held his breath, tensing for what he knew was coming an instant before it did: a bloodcurdling scream. The high-pitched, ear-splitting kind that could have been ripped straight out of a slasher movie, complete with Meg gripping her own hair at the roots.

“I’M GOING TO KILL WHOEVER DID THIS!”

After unleashing that threat, Meg whipped around, pinning anyone within range with an accusatory glare. People flinched away from her and avoided her eyes as if they were afraid of turning to stone. Jake felt Jazzy grip his sleeve for comfort. They were standing near the back, but Meg, eyes alight with blue flame, found him anyway.

Meg glowered at him, but Jake didn’t look away. Here was his trump card. “Who’s ‘QB,’ Meg?” he asked calmly. The flyers hadn’t included any of the Bryan’s nudes, but his number and the name she’d saved him under was clearly displayed. “I haven’t been quarterback in over a year.”

All heads turned back to Meg, who looked like she was about to explode. Instead, she turned on her heel and audibly stomped back to her car like a child throwing a tantrum. She screamed for people to get the fuck out of the way before making an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road and peeling away in a cloud of exhaust.

Jake’s heart was in this throat, rendering him unable to speak, so Jazzy, still clutching his sleeve, voiced his thoughts for him. “Wow,” she breathed.

It was impossible to top the explosiveness of that morning, so things calmed down considerably after that. Not long after Meg had stormed off, the principal himself came outside to demand everyone go to class and tear down the flyers with the help of a few sympathetic volunteers. The match had been lit, however, setting off a chain reaction of gossip and rumors in every classroom and hallway for the rest of the day. Meg never returned to school after that, which allowed people to speak freely. Her meltdown might have gotten more attention than the flyers that caused them.

Throughout the day, Jake was periodically asked by other students if he had anything to do with the stunt. He denied it, of course, but the inquiries kept him too much on edge to gloat about his victory; if his fellow students and Meg suspected his involvement, the administration would be soon to follow. A suspicious number of people were called to the office that day, so every time the intercom buzzed for some sort of announcement, Jake expected it was finally his turn. However, by lunch time, where he could finally confer with Luke and Jazzy, he was still in the clear.

Worlds collided at his usual lunch table. Nic was there for the first time since the start of the semester, and without his usual partner-in-crime, Shiv. He was huddled up with Luke and Jazzy, deep in conversation about something, so Jake hesitated. He was very aware that he wasn’t the most collected around Nic, and Luke seemed like the only person in the world that didn’t know about them yet. He’d been working up to telling him, but today didn’t seem the right time.

Nic looked up then and beckoned him over, breaking the spell. Jake took a seat across from him, next to Luke. “What I miss?” he asked the group at large.

“Not much,” Luke told him. “A lot of ass-kissing on my part.” He cast a wary look at Jazzy, who gave him a frosty one back.

“It was really pathetic,” Nic added.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jazzy said, though it clearly did. “They’ve been pulling people out of class left and right, and we need to have a story ready if that happens to any of us.”

“Right,” Jake agreed. “Is Kenny in on it?” he asked Nic.

Nic shook his head. “I printed them myself, just asked him for access. I don't think he's connected any dots yet.”

Jake nodded. “Cool. So I was with Luke, Luke was home, you were with Kenny, and you and Meg don’t even know each other. I think that’s pretty solid if anyone asks.”

“Jazzy said you brought up Neumann this morning,” Luke said. “Good thinking. If she tries to blame him for it, case closed.”

“So...the plan is to just wait?” Nic asked, doing something on his phone. He looked bored. “Glad we hashed that out, don’t know if I could have figured it out on my own. Luke, you know anyone that’s good with cars?”

Luke was startled by the random question. “Depends. Something wrong?”

Jake’s phone buzzed. He didn’t look at it immediately, having a suspicion it was from Nic. When he could no longer resist checking his phone, he tried to look casual about it, taking in what looked like a screenshot of some test results. Negative test results, at that. Despite all the other things they had to worry about, Jake’s cock began to awaken from its long slumber. Perhaps he hadn’t ruined everything last night, after all. Now what?

Nic was still talking to Luke about his car. “I dunno. Since I got it back this morning, it shakes when it’s idle sometimes.”

Luke shrugged. “Could be a lot of things, but Jake knows more about cars. Jake?”

Jake had been staring into space, enjoying vivid daydreams about raw-dogging Nic in the near future. Luke’s inquiry woefully brought him back. “It shakes? Like, rhythmically or constantly?”

Nic stared at him blankly. “…Rhythmically.”

Jake frowned, fully dialed in now. “Maybe the throttle body, the radiator, or a bunch of other things. Expensive things. You could take it to…” He trailed off, finally noticing that Nic was looking at him rather pointedly. “Actually, I can take a look at it if you want. Help you narrow it down.”

“That would be cool. You free now?”

Jake only had a few bites of his lunch left, which he quickly shoveled down. “I am now.”

Nic smiled at him, which Jake returned as he stood up. He started to walk away with Nic, completely forgetting about the others at the table until Luke called after them, “Hope it’s nothing too serious.”

Jake waved backwards in lazy acknowledgement, then turned to Nic once they were out of earshot. “That was just a front, right? Because radiator issues can turn pretty serious in the summer.”

Nic sighed in exasperation. “It’s a twelve-year-old piece of junk – it’s always shaking for some reason or another. But yes, that was a front. Now, do you want to fuck or look at my car?”

Jake carefully thought that through before giving an answer.