Time for
Nick to meet the two people he's been forced to hate all his life. Enjoy the encounter and don't forget to
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Chapter 12
\\\ Nick ///
I tried
closing my eyes to doze off again but it was no good, I was wide awake and
there was no way my eyes were going to stay closed. I knew it was really early as my room was
still dark and that was confirmed when I checked my phone to see it was only
6am. I put it back down and lay there a
little longer but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get back to
sleep. Ever since I'd started at the
school I'd been prone to panic attacks whenever I was nervous or stressed out
about something and I could almost feel one coming on now. Even though it was a Saturday I was still
nervous as hell about the day ahead.
This was the day I was going to go to see where Lucas lived. This was the day I was going to spend with
Lucas...alone...just the two of us, and I just didn't know if I could do it. On top of that I'd probably meet his parents,
the two guys I had been almost trained to hate from a young age, but one of
them was also one of my favourite artists from some of my favourite
comics. I didn't know how to feel about
all of those things or if I could even go ahead with our plans, but then I
started to worry about how things would be with Lucas if I stood him up, which
left me feeling trapped and more anxious.
Time kept
dragging on and I could gradually see more light coming through those flowery
curtains, telling me that it was at least getting to a more civilised hour. Checking the time again I could see that it
was still before 7am and I just flopped back onto the bed with a groan. I finally decided to at least go and make
some breakfast, just to kill some time if nothing else. Mum was staying over with Luke again so I had
the house to myself but I still had to be fairly quiet as the walls between our
house and the neighbour's weren't very soundproof.
As I ate my
cereal I kept playing through how things would go with Lucas today but it was
hard to imagine as I didn't even know what his place was like. Would we hang out in his bedroom? In Sammie's room? I knew he lived on a farm so would we end up shovelling
horse shit, or worse, just sitting in one of the family rooms with his dads,
trying to make small talk. I could only
think of one course of action to hopefully make the day less awkward but I knew
it wouldn't make me very popular.
"This better
be important." Ben said groggily from
the other end of the phone. I felt a bit
bad calling him when the sun had only just risen, but if I'd waited any longer
I would have gone insane.
"Hey, uhhh sorry it's a bit early but you got any plans for the
day?"
"Well my
plan was to sleep in quite late but some fuckwit screwed that up for me." He replied.
"Sorry...uh
anyway...I'm going over to see Lucas today and I was wondering if...well...I mean you
don't have to if you don't want to but...umm..."
"You want me
to come with you in case the big, bad gay boy decides to bum rape you." I couldn't help but smile as Ben said that
but I had to play it cool, even though he was right on the money.
"Nooo...of course not...I just kinda thought you might wanna
hang out with Sammie and...well I'd be there anyway so I thought we could go
together."
"Fine, I'll
pick you up at ten." While I was glad he
said yes, I still wasn't so happy.
"You don't
want to go any earlier?" I asked
hopefully.
"For every
minute you keep me on this phone I'll add an hour..."
"Okay okay,
I'll see you at ten." I quickly ended
the call and then checked the time again.
I still had nearly three hours to wait, which seemed to stretch out even
longer as I paced around.
After what
seemed like an eternity I heard a knock at the front door and suddenly realised
I'd lost track of time. Since phoning
Ben I'd showered and tried on loads of different outfits to see which would
look best on me. I'd spent a long time
trying to figure out what to do with my hair, but after gelling it and styling
it, then putting on some of my smartest looking clothes I looked at myself in
the mirror and thought `what the fuck are you doing?' I looked like I'd made far too much effort to
just hang out with friends so I quickly washed the gel out and left my hair to
do its own thing, then put on some casual, but fairly decent clothes.
When I
opened the door Ben was standing there with a bit of a scowl on his face and I
figured he'd had about as much luck at getting back to sleep as I did. I gave him a rather sheepish smile and a fist
bump as his scowl actually turned into a smile.
Dickhead was just trying to make me feel bad. I was glad to see his dad in the car behind
him as I knew it'd be quite a walk to get to the farm. I'd met Sam a few times when I'd been into
the comic shop to see my mum and he was every bit the same as his twin, even
though he was slightly thinner than Luke.
All the way to the farm I felt my stomach practicing its own free running
skills but listening to the banter between Ben and his dad helped to calm it a
little.
We pulled
into a nice little road with a few houses along one side and then I could see
it leading off to a much narrower track at the end. A little way down I spotted what looked like
an old barn on the side of the road and at the end of it was a chest high,
wooden gate with Lucas sitting on top.
As we approached I saw a big smile cross his face as he hopped down and
pushed the gate open for us. We drove
past him and into the courtyard and I couldn't help noticing that his usually
floppy blond hair was neatly styled and he looked like he'd agonised over
picking out the perfect outfit for today.
By the time
we'd parked up and got out the car Lucas had made his way over to us.
"Mini me!!!" Sam exclaimed, holding his arms open as Luke
had done.
"Ha feckin ha."
Lucas replied sarcastically, wrapping Sam up in a hug with an amused
smile on his face.
"Hope you
don't mind but I bought this dickhead along to hang out with us." Ben said, pointing over to me.
"Yeah I
guess he can, I wasn't really expecting him."
Lucas replied, flashing me a brilliant smile. I blushed when he did though as I knew he'd
clearly made an effort to look good for me.
Wait, did this mean Lucas liked me?
Oh fuck!! I tried to take my mind
off it by looking around the courtyard as Sam asked Lucas if his dads were
around. I soon spotted Sammie walking
over from what looked like the stables and when she reached us I was surprised
when she gave me a warm hug to say hi.
"Hey!! I'm you boyfriend remember?" Ben protested as she released me wrapped him
in a hug as well before planting a huge kiss on his lips.
"I don't
think I'm ever gonna get used to that."
Sam said in mock disgust.
"How do you
think I feel?" I turned around to see
where that deep yet soft voice came from and was stunned to see an absolute
mountain of a man walking over from the main house. The guy was a few inches taller than Sam but
I was only at eye level with his chest...which was huge. Even though he was wearing a thick sweater I
could still see the shape of the muscles beneath. Looking at the size of this
guy I thought he must be able to bench press a tank, and I suddenly felt myself
wanting to see him take off that top to marvel at the amazing body I knew had
to be hiding under there. He gave Sam a
bro hug and I couldn't believe Sam wasn't crapping himself at the size of this
guy.
"Hey Josh,
the kids wanted to hang out here for a while if that's ok with you." Wait, this is Josh? Lucas and Sammie's dad? Holy shit!!
I remembered Sammie saying that Lucas was actually Josh's biological son
and I suddenly got to wondering how successful Lucas could actually be with his
plans to `bulk up a little.' I could
definitely tell Josh and Lucas were related as, facially at least; they looked
very similar, even down to the same hairstyle and dazzling blue eyes.
"Sure not a problem." He replied, and then
fixed me with a glare that nearly made me wet myself. "So you must be Nick."
"Ye...yes
sir." I replied, trying to lock my knees
so I didn't collapse through fright.
"Hmmm...Brandon's kid." He grunted, still
with a look of utter contempt on his face as I meekly nodded. "I remember your dad, he was an absolute
cunt." I didn't know what to say, I know
I'd hated this guy all my life but now that the feeling seemed to be mutual it
was really scary, especially considering this guy could probably kill me with
his little finger.
"Knock it
off DJ; he's not Brandon so lay off him."
Sammie was fixing her dad with a deadly stare like she was ready to kick
his ass to defend me. Looking over his
body though I didn't think she'd be too successful.
"We'll
see. At least you don't look like your
dad, that's one thing going in your favour."
He scowled and then walked back to the house.
"Wow that was
intense; I haven't seen him like that for a long time." Sam said.
"I'm gonna head off anyway guys, just let me know when you want me to
come pick you up." He ruffled Ben's hair
and then started walking back to the car.
I was so tempted to go running after him to take me home as well but I
knew I couldn't.
"Hey, don't
worry about DJ; he's a big softy really."
Sammie said as we all started to walk away from the house towards one of
the outbuildings. I wanted to believe
what she'd said but it didn't look like any part of her dad was soft. Hugging him must be like trying to hug a
brick wall.
"Why do you
call him DJ?" I asked.
"It's short
for Daddy Josh." She replied. "It's less confusing than calling them both Dad."
"Ok, I think
I'll stick to calling him Josh." I
replied, although I was tempted just to call him sir so he didn't turn me into
a stain on the floor.
The twins
led us over to what they called their studio and I was amazed at the size of it
when I walked in. You could almost fit
my house inside it and I could definitely see why my dad was jealous of what
Alex and Josh had. Lucas was almost like
a kid trying to show me his dance studio area and then almost dragged me up to
the mezzanine to show me where they liked to just chill out and play
games. Now when I say he almost dragged
me up there I wasn't kidding. I remember
Amber telling me he was stronger than he looked and I now know exactly what she
meant. Even though he was eager to show
me all of his stuff I was more drawn to Sammie's area. Her drum kit was far superior to the ones in
Adrian's shop and she had a couple of guitars, a bass and some amps scattered
around which made it look like it was set up for band practice. What I really wanted to get my hand on though
was the keyboard and computer set up she had as it looked like you could just
create music without even having to have all the instruments there.
While I was
still admiring Sammie's gear, Lucas started blasting some music over the sound
system and cranked out some pretty silly dances in front of the mirror. He seemed much more relaxed and spontaneous
than he had been in the dance studio at school.
There he'd been trying to get me to mimic some more elaborate dances but
here he was busting out moves like the electro shuffle and even did some pretty
good Michael Jackson dances. We spent
what must have been over an hour doing random stuff in front of those mirrors;
sometimes as a group and sometimes one at a time with Lucas giving us little
pointers. The funniest thing was trying
to watch Lucas loosen up his flips and tricks to copy Ben as he always seemed
to want to keep his legs straight and point his toes. Then there were times when Ben would show us
some tricks that I hadn't seen when we were out in the park like his wall
flips, but when I encouraged Lucas to try them he just said he didn't want to
damage the wall. I could see his point;
I mean you wouldn't really want scuff marks on that fantastic mural of their
names.
After a
while I started to get too tired to do any more dancing so Sammie and I
switched to the instruments. Lucas still
kept the music on and carried on dancing around with Ben but this time Sammie
and I played along to the songs to give him some semi-live tracks to dance
to. By the time we'd played three of the
tracks Ben was starting to look a little worn out as well and just slumped down
against the wall to watch. Lucas didn't
seem to be flagging at all though, I dunno where he got his energy from but he
just didn't seem to be slowing down even a little.
We finally
managed to get Lucas to stop as we all went to flop down on the couches
upstairs. Lucas ran back to the house to
get some drinks and soon came back with two milkshakes for himself and Sammie
and just Coke for Ben and me. He saw me
looking at the milkshake longingly but then he went red as he said they were
the last ones, which didn't surprise me as he'd been bringing them to school
all week. He made it up to me though by
running back to the house and grabbing a load of snacks, so we just sat there
for a while playing Xbox, eating and chatting together. I didn't know what to expect from being there
but my anxiety from earlier was definitely misplaced, it was just a normal,
chilled out day with friends hanging out.
I kept thinking back to when I saw Lucas dance though and felt that
there was something I really needed to do.
I really wanted to play that melody I had stuck in my head from when
Lucas had been dancing in school so I asked Sammie if I could use her keyboard
setup to try something out.
While I sat
there with the headphones on in my own little world Lucas had gone back to
dancing in the mirrors while the other two watched over the balcony. I watched Lucas dance as I carried on making
the song up on the computer, all the while I could see him looking at me and
pulling faces in the mirror to distract me from what I was doing. Finally I had the general gist of the song
planned out and asked him if I could play it to see what he thought. He turned the stereo off and just leaned back
against the wall near the mirrors as I started the track up.
The track
itself was more of a backing track with strings and a general beat to it but I
played the main part on the piano myself.
As I played I looked up to see Lucas dancing along to it by the mirrors
as I'd hoped, but what amazed me was that he almost seemed to be in a trance
and it was like he knew which way the song was going to go, making his
movements completely fluid and perfectly in sync with the music. As the song came to a close Lucas finished
off with a flourish before ending up on the ground like he'd just finished a
full on performance. Before I knew it
there was applause coming not only from above us but from the doorway as well. I looked over to see Josh there with another
handsome, buff guy, both applauding with huge smiles on their faces. They both walked over as Sammie and Ben came
down to join us and I couldn't help noticing that Josh had one of those
milkshakes that Lucas said had run out.
"Wow! That was amazing, how long have you been
rehearsing that?" The other guy said.
"That was
the first time. I just wrote it." I replied, feeling my face burn up.
"Really? You guys were so in sync it was
incredible. I'm Alex by the way, their
other dad." He held his hand out for me
to shake but I was too stunned to say anything.
I'd never met one of my heroes before but now, right in front of me was
one of my favourite comic artists and he was seriously good looking. Not only that but he was wearing a t shirt
that looked painted on under his jacket and I could see the contours of his
chest and abs just poking through the opening.
I remembered my dad saying Alex had modelled some underwear a few years
ago but I'd never seen the picture on the box so I didn't realise he was so hot,
especially all these years later.
"Are you
ok?" Ben asked as I still stood there
with my mouth open. I suddenly
remembered where I was and all too eagerly grabbed his hand and started
babbling about how much I loved his work and thanking him for signing the
comics for me.
"Always nice to meet a fan." He chuckled, drawing
his hand back from me. "I might end up
becoming a fan of yours if you keep on playing music like that." I felt my cheeks heating up again as this
awesome guy just paid me another compliment.
I instantly felt at ease it him and found myself asking how the hell I
had ever hated him.
"I'm not
that good." I protested.
"Don't sell
yourself short, from what I've just seen as well as when you were busking in
town I can tell you've got a bright future."
Alex replied.
"Huh? You were there in town last week?" I asked in surprise. I hadn't seen him there but I sure as hell
would've remembered if I had spotted him.
"No I missed
it unfortunately but Lucas showed me the video."
"Ah right...wait,
what video?" I couldn't believe Lucas
had actually videoed me and not said anything.
"Here." Lucas said as he suddenly pulled up the video
on his phone and handed it to me with a big smile on his face.
I saw a
little image of myself strumming away by the fountain as the camera panned
around a little to show that there was quite a crowd gathered around. I even felt my heart flutter a bit as I
spotted Lucas standing off to the side looking impressed, but without his phone
in his hand. Hold on, if it wasn't Lucas
then who the hell had been filming it?
As the video finished it went back to the listings screen and that was
when I realised this was online and not just stored on someone's phone. I looked at the title and then noticed my
name, the town and the date had all been tagged in the description which made
me feel a little uneasy, but when I saw the viewer count I felt another panic
attack coming on. It had been viewed
thousands of times and then I noticed there were other videos on there of different
songs and angles, all with similar amounts of views. I couldn't believe it.
"Oh no...no no no
no no no...I need to get
these down...delete them. No...too late I
need to go...gotta get out of here..." I
started to hyperventilate again as panic set in. I almost dropped the phone as I could feel
myself shaking like a leaf. I didn't
know what to do. I felt like I wanted to
scream, or cry, or just run away, but where to?
Now it was making sense why people in school were looking at me like
they knew me; they'd obviously seen the videos, but that wasn't the worst part.
"Hey Nick it's ok...tell me what's wrong." Josh was kneeling down in front of me,
bringing us face to face. I should have
been more nervous but I didn't feel intimidated by the look of genuine concern
in his eyes and the way he gently held me by the shoulders so I didn't try to
run.
"He'll see
it!! He'll see it and find us!! I need to go!!" I tried to back away so I could escape but
Josh held me firmly.
"Ok just
take a few deep breaths and tell me who will see it?" He asked.
"MY DAD!!!" I screamed.
"He'll see it!! He'll know where
we are!!! He'll come after me again!!" I'd never been so scared in my life. I was looking around crazily for a way out
but there was no way past Josh and Alex who were blocking the doorway. There was a brief flash of anger in Josh's
eyes but it quickly melted away to a look of sympathy.
"Don't
worry; your mum's got a restraining order on him." Ben said.
"If he comes back to town the police will get rid of
him."
"It won't
stop him...he'll never stop trying to hurt me."
I sobbed as I sank to the ground, crying into my knees. I suddenly felt my chin get tilted back
slightly as I was looking into Josh's eyes again.
"Listen to
me ok, you've got a huge support network here now; you're not alone anymore so
you don't have to be scared of him. If
he tries to contact you in any way at all I want you to let someone know as
soon as possible and if the police don't get rid of him then I will ok?" I don't know what came over me at that point
but I suddenly flung my arms around Josh's huge neck and just cried into his
shoulder as his powerful arms wrapped around me, all the while he kept quietly
reassuring me. There was a determination
to Josh's statement that let me know he wasn't messing about, and I kinda
wanted my dad to run into him as it would probably be the last thing he'd ever
do. I was still convinced that my dad
would see the video and find out where we were.
I knew he'd find me, there was no doubt in my mind about that; it wasn't
a matter of if but when. I needed to get
home to warn Mum but what would she do?
Would we go on the run again or would she stand her ground and fight
back? It was so unfair, just as I was
starting to make friends and get over the past it suddenly came roaring back
again.