It wasn't long before Blaine convinced Jeff to let him tell the other Warblers what was going on between him and Nick. Blaine got them all together in a spare classroom and told everyone the situation, giving Jeff support as he came out to his group of close friends. As Blaine predicted, some were surprised, but all were supportive. Jeff's eyes watered as his friends patted his back and told him that they were all still friends, of course, why wouldn't they be? Blaine smiled at that, and his thoughts trailed to Kurt for a moment, thinking about how he didn't have this. He didn't have a wonderful group of friends and a safety net to fall back on. At least, it didn't look like it to him. He put thoughts of Kurt aside for the moment, wanting to focus on Jeff's problem.

"Alright, so now what we need to do is figure out if Nick has any romantic feelings toward Jeff," Blaine explained to the group. "And this is where the Tweedles come into the plan.

"When they throw their annual party after the dance next week and suggest that we all play spin the bottle, we're going to agree," Blaine said, earning some protests from the straight guys.

"Come on, guys, for Jeff. And you know that the Tweedles will have something to loosen you up if you so choose. Besides, we're all friends here, it's no big deal. This is for Nick and Jeff," Blaine said.

A few grumbled but agreed with the plan. Blaine was surprised when Thad raised a hand up in the air. "If we're trying to make Nick jealous or something, doesn't it make sense to bring in some friends of ours that could act as if they are infatuated with Jeff? You know, come on to him and try to ask him out?" he asked.

Blaine was surprised at the clever thinking on Thad's point. "That's a good idea. Okay, everyone has to find someone to bring with them to the party that is willing to act infatuated with Jeff."

"Does it have to be a guy?" Someone asked.

"No, it can be a girl. Nick still doesn't know that Jeff is gay so it might look more normal if there are some girls, plus I know you guys want them around for spin the bottle," Blaine said.

Jeff had been blushing more and more as the conversation continued, amazed at how quickly his friends were willing to help despite their ideas being a little crazy.

"Sound like a plan to you?" Blaine asked.

Jeff nodded and thanked his friends again, all of them waving off his thanks with smiles.

"You and Nicky belong together, Jeffery, " Evan said as he slung an arm around Jeff's shoulders.

"And we're willing to do anything to get you two lovebirds to realize that," Ethan said with a nod. Jeff laughed and thanked them again.

Slowly their meeting ended and people began to file back out of the room, oblivious to Nick watching them leave from down the hall behind a statue, confused and hurt as to why his friends had been having a meeting without him.

Later that night….

"Jeff?" Nick asked from across the room.

"Yeah?" Jeff looked up from his history text book slowly.

"You'd tell me if something was going on, right? I mean, just with you or…" Nick trailed off, not really know how to voice his thoughts.

Jeff paused and lowered his book, "Yeah. Of course, Nick," he reassured him, hoping the lie didn't sound as fake as it felt.

Nick nodded, "Alright, yeah." He shook his head and laughed at himself slightly, "Sorry, don't know what's gotten into me. I'm going to go take a shower."

"Okay," Jeff said softly as Nick collected his pj's and a towel before disappearing into the bathroom. He frowned to himself, hating that he was lying to his best friend about his feelings.

Jeff slept uneasily that night, listening to Nick's breathing from across the room, which usually lulled him straight to sleep, but tonight it seemed to be keeping him up instead. Nick and him had been best friends since they were kids, they'd grown up in the same neighborhood, their parents were in the same social circle and their moms had shopping dates at least once a month to catch up. He didn't want to think about what would happen if this ended badly. If he lost Nick altogether just because he wanted him a little bit closer.

Curling up under his blanket, Jeff closed his eyes and tried to ignore everything. He had a Chemistry test in the morning and he needed his rest, but Nick started to snore lightly and Jeff's eyes refused to close. He shrugged off Nick's questions the next more when he noticed his blood-shot and tired eyes. He almost wished things would go back to how they were before, when he only thought of Nick as a friend. It was easier that way.

Warblers practice that afternoon…

"Thad, can I ask you a quick question?" Nick asked, leading them over to a corner of the room during a small break in practice.

"Yeah, sure."

"Do you know if there's anything wrong with Jeff?" he asked in a whisper, glancing over his shoulder to make sure there was no one around to hear him.

Thad seemed surprised that Nick would be asking him that. "Why are you asking me? He's your best friend," he said.

Nick felt even more uneasy at Thad's words. "Did I do something to offend him? We've haven't hung out in weeks and he barely talks to me anymore and when he does it's like he's running on auto-pilot or something," Nick said, surprising himself at how desperate he sounded.

Thad raised an eyebrow, "I think if you guys are having that big of an issue that you should just talk to him about it."

Sighing, Nick ran a hand through his hair and nodded, "Alright, yeah, you're right. Thanks, man." Nick looked like he was about to run off and grab the next Warbler in the room to interrogate them as well so Thad set his hands on Nick's shoulders.

"I'm not kidding, Nick. Talk. To. Him. None of us are going to say anything to you about what Jeff is dealing with."

"So there is something wrong?" Nick asked hurriedly, his eyes looking at Thad frantically.

Thad frowned, "Man, you are so blind. Just talk to him," Thad said dismissively and almost with an air of anger around him that shocked Nick before he stepped around Nick and walked over to David. Thad and him had always been good friends. Something must be terribly wrong. Maybe… maybe he should talk to Jeff.

Luckily, Nick was oblivious to the way the rest of the group kept glancing at him, curious as to what he'd said to Thad.

Once practice was over, Nick tried to catch up with Jeff, hoping to ask him if they could go to their room and talk, but Jeff practically ran from the rehearsal space. Nick frowned, how was he supposed to talk to him when it looked like he didn't want to talk?

Nick went back to their room and noticed that Jeff's uniform was hastily thrown across his bed and his soccer bag was gone. That wasn't a good sign.

While Dalton had a soccer team, it was currently getting closer to December and their season had just ended, leaving Jeff without his favorite physical outlet. During the off-season Jeff constantly went back out to the empty soccer field and practiced or sometimes he went out there to run sprints. The only other reason Jeff went out to practice during the off-season was when he was really upset about something. And judging by the hastily thrown uniform on the bed, it was one of those days.

Nick cursed himself for not remembering a jacket as he walked out to the soccer field. It looked like snow as going to come early this year if it kept up this track of cold weather.

He could see Jeff out on the field, juggling with the ball and doing a bunch of complicated tricks that Nick knew he'd never be able to do. He was a swimmer and lacrosse player; soccer was never something he'd been any good at. No matter how many times Jeff tried to convince him to join a team while they were growing up he always said no. Besides, it was Jeff's thing and he liked going to his games and cheering on his best friend.

Nick took his time as he walked closer, knowing that Jeff liked to be alone while he played. He walked up slowly behind him, where Jeff had now switched to taking shots at the goal.

"How did your Chemistry test go?" Nick asked in a louder voice so that he would be sure Jeff would hear him. He couldn't think of any other way to start this conversation because he didn't know what was wrong, or if Jeff even wanted him to try and fix it. Or even if it could be fixed.

Jeff had stopped practicing and he turned to Nick slowly, "What are you doing out here?" he asked confused, sweat covering his forehead and his breaths coming a little faster from exertion.

"Asking you how your Chemistry test went," Nick said slowly.

"It went fine," Jeff responded, giving Nick an odd look.

"That's good." Nick wanted to yell from frustration, one of his favorite parts about his friendship with Jeff was that there were never any awkward pauses or silences. Even when there were silences they were always comfortable. But now Nick didn't know what had changed between them, but something definitely had.

"You've been upset about something and I want to know if I have anything to do with it," Nick blurted out a moment later when the silence kept dragging on, driving him crazy.

Jeff was shaking his head, "I haven't been upset."

"That's not true," Nick said with a firm shake of his head. "What happened, Jeff? You never lie to me and now you think you can tell me that you haven't been upset. You haven't even really spoken to me in almost a month, man!" He was getting upset now, all of his frustrations bubbling to the surface.

Head lowered and looking at the ground Jeff shook his head just slightly. "I'm not… I'm not upset with you." It wasn't technically a lie… he was upset with the girl Nick was dating, but not with Nick.

"Then what's wrong? Because something isn't right. You're hardly ever in our room except to sleep and study. I had to find out from the Tweedles that you've been spending all your time in Blaine's room," Nick said with a huff of annoyance. "I thought we were friends."

"We are," Jeff said quickly, taking a step closer. He reached up and ran a hand through his hair in frustration, "Look, it's complicated and I'm dealing with it. I just, you have to give me some time."

"Why does everyone seem to know what's going on you with, but me?" Nick asked.

Jeff had no reply to that so he just stayed quiet, biting his lip slightly, his old habits coming back from his childhood. "I need time," Jeff said again.

Nick sighed in frustration and finally decided to give up for the day. Jeff oblivious wasn't ready to tell him what was going on. "Okay, fine. Jeff, you know that I'm here for you right? We're best friends."

Unfortunately that didn't seem to get quite the response he was looking for because Jeff's face hardened just slightly and he nodded, "Yeah, I know. Thanks."

"I'll see you back at the room," Nick mumbled before he turned and walked hastily back to their room, shivering under his thin t-shirt, hands stuffed in his pockets.

His best friend watched him go before turning around and kicking the soccer in frustration, sending it flying over the net and into the bushes. Jeff made a loud noise of irritation before beginning to do sprints up and down the length of the soccer field, not stopping until his legs couldn't hold him up anymore.

Nick was asleep by the time Jeff made it back to their room, at least that's what Jeff thought. He was laying in bed with his back turned to the rest of the room and his breathing was quiet and even. Jeff stripped off his sweat soaked clothes without hesitation, he'd stopped caring about changing in front of Nick years ago, and while he typically didn't do it nearly as much since he'd discovered his feelings it didn't seem to matter since Nick couldn't see him right then anyway.

Except that Nick wasn't asleep and he could see Jeff. Well, he could when Jeff turned to walk into the bathroom, his back to the rest of the room. Nick glanced over his shoulder to see a very shapely ass disappearing inside the bathroom before the door closed. His eyebrows shot up and he sucked in a sharp breath as he stared at the door where Jeff had just been. Well that was interesting. Nick shook himself out of it and shrugged it off; the sudden nudity had just surprised him is all. That's why his heart had sped up and his hands were suddenly clammy.

He fell asleep before Jeff was even out of the shower. The last thought he had before he fell asleep being something along the lines of 'when did Jeff start working out that part of his body?'