A/N: Nick and Jeff lived right next door to each other but never met. This is the story of how they met and fell in love.
Nick and Jeff had a relationship made up entirely of near misses. They lived in houses side by side to one another, neighbors since birth. They attended separate schools because the district cut-off line ran right through their backyards.
Both boys had similar interests. They both played sports in school. They both took dance. Nick attended an upper class ballet dance studio uptown while Jeff took hip-hop classes at the rec center downtown.
Jeff and his mom spent every minute she wasn't working one of her two jobs hanging out together, playing board games, or watching movies on t.v. Nick's parents fought, and he spent a lot of time in his room. Jeff might have noticed the young man lying on his bed looking mournfully up at the ceiling. Their bedrooms faced one another across the narrow alley between the houses. But Jeff's shade was always pulled down to block out the heat of the midday sun, which streamed in and raised the temperature of his room about ten degrees. Jeff knew there wasn't much to see but an old tree and another house outside his window, so it never dawned on him to raise the shade.
One night, Jeff heard the fighting. He had actually heard the yelling and screaming many times before, but this time it was particularly hard to ignore, even with Linkin Park blaring through his Bose headphones. He tried his best to block out the calls of, "Goddamned bitch!" and "Stupid whore!", but the sound of glass breaking caught his attention. He ran to his window and opened the shade to take a peek.
No one left the house, and Jeff couldn't see any broken windows on the lower level. His eyes flicked up to the second story window across from his and his mouth dropped. He vaguely remembered that a teenager lived next door. A boy about his age had on a pair of headphones just like his, probably to drown out the fighting, but they didn't seem to work for him either. The boy's eyes were red-rimmed from crying, and tears wet his flushed cheeks. In his room, away from the cursing and the sound of more glass breaking, the boy spun in tight circles, practicing pique turns and trying to get lost in his own little world.
Jeff stood and stared at the beautiful boy he never knew existed, wondering to himself how did he not notice him before? The boy wore his hair cut stylishly short, and after every turn, he pushed a coffee colored lock back behind his ear. Then he would set his stance, wait just a breath, and spin again. He did the turns over and over again, and Jeff wondered if he was just biding time, using this practice as an escape, or did he think they weren't good enough.
Jeff thought every spin looked perfect.
Nick's head snapped up toward the window on the last turn and he saw Jeff's eyes watching him. He startled, taking a step back, looking left and right quickly as if he expected someone to be there.
He looked frightened.
He reached for the window shade to pull it closed, but Jeff waved frantically to stop him. He wanted to talk to the beautiful, sad-eyed boy, but he knew with the commotion going on downstairs, he would never be able to sneak out.
Jeff did the only thing he could think of at that moment.
He performed a pique turn of his own.
The boy across the alley stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, then smiled, giving Jeff an enthusiastic thumbs up.
Jeff looked around his room and found his math notebook and a Sharpie. He wrote his name in big block letters on a piece of paper and held it up to the window. The boy looked at it for a second, and then smiled. He waved and mouthed the words, "Hi Jeff."
Jeff felt a strange warmth fill his entire body at the thought that the beautiful boy with the coffee-colored hair knew his name.
The boy looked around him and picked up a notebook and a pen. After a minute of scratching out a message, the boy turned the book around and Jeff saw a single word.
Nick.
Jeff smiled.
"Hi Nick," Jeff mouthed.
Nick smiled, and his entire face lit up.
Nick's bedroom door flew open, and a furious man with similar hair and eyes as Nick's stormed in. The force of the door flying open caused Jeff to stumble backward onto his bed. Nick spun around to meet the man, who barreled over to where Nick stood and shoved him to the floor.
The man locked eyes with Jeff's for just a moment before pulling the drapes over the window.
Jeff heard the sound of more things breaking, maybe a chair being thrown, and definitely the word, "Fag!"
But the most chilling sound of all was the sound of someone's fist making contact. Jeff was frighteningly sure it was the sound of Nick's dad punching him in the face.
Jeff stood up and ran to the window. He pressed his hands against the glass and prayed that Nick would show his face, just to tell Jeff that he was alright.
Jeff heard the door slam shut and watched Nick's father stagger out of the house. He turned around and glared at Jeff, staring down at him from his bedroom window. Jeff glared defiantly back, his body full of a dark rage he had never felt before knowing that this horrible man had just hit his son. The man turned away cursing. He climbed into his car and drove away, the car skidding over the ice on the pavement before it sped off unsafely down the street.
Jeff waited at the window. He needed to know Nick was alright. After an hour, Jeff couldn't take being kept in the dark. He put on his jacket and gloves, opened his window, and climbed out onto the tree limb that grew flush against their house. It was narrower around than he had hoped, but sturdy, and Jeff managed to make his way across. He shimmied around the tree trunk when he reached it, and found another obliging branch. Jeff climbed at the way across to Nick's window and knocked on the glass.
"Nick?" Jeff whispered. "Nick, can you hear me?"
"Go away," a heavy voice, thick with tears answered. The voice sounded broken, embarrassed, ashamed, but it was still the most incredible voice Jeff had ever heard.
"Nope," he answered simply. "I'm going to sit out here on this branch all night until I get to see you."
Nick sighed deeply. He could tell Jeff meant business. He would sit out on that tree limb in the cold until he saw Nick. Nick pulled the drapes open. Jeff fought not to gasp. Nick's father had opened a cut above Nick's eyebrow, the left eye already swelling shut.
"That's one nasty shiner, Nick…"
Jeff left it an open-ended question.
"Duval," Nick filled in. "Nick Duval."
"Sterling," Jeff offered. "My name is Jeff Sterling. So, does your dad know he's an asshole, or was he just proving a point?"
Nick dropped his head, hiding his eyes from Jeff's view.
Jeff sighed.
"Open your window and put on your jacket, Nick Duval," Jeff said. "You're coming with me."
Nick's head snapped up, looking at Jeff with fear.
"I…I can't…"
"Yes, you can, Nick." Jeff pressed a hand against the glass. "Please, Nick. Come with me."
Nick thought about Jeff's offer a moment longer. He picked up his jacket from his desk chair and slipped it over his arms and shoulders. He opened the bedroom window and took Jeff's hand. One touch of Nick's hand holding onto Jeff's for dear life told Jeff the only thing he needed to know…he would protect his new friend, no matter what it took.
Jeff helped Nick across the tree limb to his window, and into his room. He closed the window and pulled down the shade. He took Nick's jacket and hung it up beside his own. Nick watched him, cursing himself for blushing. Jeff didn't like him as more than a friend. For Christ's sake, they just met, but that was Nick, falling irrationally in love at the drop of a hat. Only, Nick hadn't really fallen in love before. After watching his parents fight all the time, he wasn't even sure falling in love really happened to anyone.
So why was he suddenly certain that he was already in love with Jeff Sterling?
Jeff raced to the kitchen, put some cubes of ice in a plastic sandwich bag, wrapped the whole thing in a washcloth, and brought it to his friend. Nick sat nervously on the edge of Jeff's bed and waited, not knowing what to do with himself for the five minutes he was alone.
It made Jeff smile to see him that way because he knew…he just knew that Nick liked him.
Jeff handed Nick the ice, and Nick awkwardly held it to his face. Jeff laid down on his bed and looked up at Nick, who slowly followed suit. And then all at once they started talking, about everything and anything. They discovered all the things they had in common, all the books they loved together, their years of dance, their appreciation for modern art.
Jeff told Nick about his strange Brazilian nut allergy.
Nick told Jeff about his fear of heights.
That's when Jeff realized he was in love.
They talked all night, and sometime before five in the morning, Nick's eyelids drifted shut, and Jeff gently kissed him goodnight.
They spent the entire weekend together. At dinner on Sunday night, Jeff introduced Nick to his mother. He talked all through dinner about how wonderful and amazing Nick was while Nick turned an impressive shade of crimson and slipped down low in his seat. Once Nick got more comfortable sneaking in a word or two, Jeff's mom realized the feelings between them were mutual. She smirked knowingly while she watched the two. She had a feeling Nick would be around for a while.
Jeff confessed to his mom in private about the way Nick's father had hit him, hoping she could do something to help. But as much as it pained her as a mother with a teenaged boy of her own, when Nick said he had to leave, she had to let him go.
Nick and Jeff spent every day together. After school, Nick went to Jeff's house to do his homework. After hip-hop on Tuesdays, Jeff met Nick at his fancy dance school and rode the bus home with him. Every weekend Nick spent over at Jeff's. Nick's mother seemed too self-destructive and depressed to care what her son did anymore, and Nick's father hadn't come back.
A few months of knowing each other and one night both boys came to the same realization. Without it being expressly stated, they had been dating each other exclusively. They had kissed. They had touched. They had been together in many ways, but hadn't gone too far.
Jeff wanted more, and he was sure Nick did, too.
He hinted when they kissed, sucking Jeff's tongue into his mouth and moaning wantonly; or when Jeff had his mouth around him, and Nick muttered about how much he wanted Jeff, how much he wanted them to be together.
So on Valentine's night, when Jeff's mother had a double shift, and wouldn't be home till the morning, Jeff concocted a plan. He cleaned his room. He covered every surface in rose petals and candles. He made Nick dinner and rented his favorite movie.
It wasn't a lot. Jeff didn't have much more than himself to give.
To Nick, it was the most amazing Valentine's date of his life.
When Nick saw Jeff's room, he nearly cried.
Jeff made love to Nick that night. It was by no means perfect. They didn't always fit together, or move the right way at the right time. Nick giggled and Jeff laughed back, kissing him deeply to put the nervous butterflies back in their place. An hour of fumbling and awkwardness later, Jeff was staring deep into Nick's eyes. He found a rhythm he could keep, and an angle that made Nick chant Jeff's name over and over until he came, with Jeff not too far behind.
Jeff cleaned them up and dressed Nick in a pair of his own sweatpants. They lay together in Jeff's bed, with the moon glowing over their skin.
"You were my first," Nick whispered.
"You were mine, too," Jeff replied with a bashful smile.
"Thank you," Nick said.
"For what?" He didn't know why, but Jeff really hoped Nick wasn't thanking him for having sex.
"For climbing to my window." Nick bit his lip.
Jeff smiled wider.
"Thank you for climbing to mine."
Jeff wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and sighed.
"I love you, Nick Duval," Jeff said, and held his breath, waiting for Nick to respond.
"I love you, too, Jeff Sterling," Nick said, snuggling closer and drifting off to sleep.
Jeff didn't know how he got in. He remembered locking up the house behind him when he and Nick got home. He found out later that the man sat outside in his car all night, waiting for the moment he could break in and settle an issue with his son.
The issue about him being a pansy.
The issue about him being a fag.
Both boys were woken rudely to the sound of Jeff's bedroom door being slammed open. Before he could open his eyes, Jeff was shoved out of Nick's arms onto the floor, and Nick flung across the room. Nick's father raised a hand to punch his son, and Jeff broke. He slammed his lamp over the man's head. Startled, he let go of Nick, who scurried away. The man grabbed his lacerated head in shock, but Jeff wasn't done. He hit the man once, twice, the third time shoving him down the stairs.
"He's not your son anymore, you fucking bastard!" Jeff roared at the figure sprawled in a daze at the foot of the staircase. "So get your ass out of my house!"
Nick's father didn't move, stunned into silence and paralyzed temporarily by the shock of the fall.
Jeff's mother had been opening the door after her shift when the man pushed passed her into the house. As soon as she knew the boys were okay, she called the police. They took Nick's dad into custody.
He never saw his son again.
Nick spent that night, and every night after, at Jeff's house. His mother had given up and left him, and Jeff's mom refused to let him live alone.
That was the beginning of Nick and Jeff, two boys who spent their lives next door to each other for seventeen years before they met…and fell in love.
After all that time spent with their paths trailing off in all different directions, they finally met, and started to travel together.