Author's Note: I really felt like writing this after I watched "Table 34." This chapter takes place at the beginning of the episode.
A band aid. That's what it felt like. Every time Nick and Jess addressed each other it was like putting a band aid over a bleeding, gushing wound. It'll work for a little while but it can't fix what's really going on.
When Nick and Jess brushed their teeth next to each other after she ran away from him, when Nick didn't move in with Caroline, when they agreed that they were friends who were sometime attracted to each other... all band aids.
But that kiss.
That was the most band aid-y band aid of them all, Nick thought to himself before wincing at how awkwardly it was phrased. How long could he keep doing this weird dance with her?
And if the kiss was a band aid, what was the wound? That they were attracted to each other? That they liked each other? That they loved each other?
He shuddered at that word and everything it meant and how easily it had popped into his mind.
"Shit," whispered to himself, head in his hands.
The kiss had been amazing. But he still couldn't honestly say why he did it. They had spent most of the night in confined quarters with people chanting for them to do it, he easily could have gotten it out of his system then. But for some reason, kissing her that way felt wrong. It felt distant and impersonal which was the opposite of how he felt about Jess.
Even though they had only known each other for about a year and a half, he felt very close to her. He knew what kind of toothpaste she used, because she always lets him have some when he forgets to buy it for himself. He knows what movies she watches when she's sad and what outfits she wears when she thinks she's going to get lucky. If there's one thing Nick knows, he knows Jess. Doesn't he?
Then why couldn't he figure out how she felt about the kiss? All he knew was that, for now, he needed to stay the hell away from her.