Chapter 6

()

"You're auditioning, too?"

Nick's head snapped up, meeting the warm, familiar eyes off Jeff Sterling and immediately looking away. There was far too much confidence there. It threw him off.

"What else would I be doing here," he mumbled. Jeff shrugged, sitting down next to him and looking at him expectantly. Some Warblers had already turned up to the auditions, excited about seeing who could be joining them if they got past Wes, David and Thad, but despite the atmosphere, Nick was anxious. Not only was it nerve wracking singing in front of people, but he wasn't sure how his parents would react if he told them what he was doing. Would they see it as a waste of time?

"You seem tense," Jeff commented, and Nick glared. Jeff seemed to really have a knack for stating the obvious.

"You seem too relaxed," he snapped. Jeff only laughed, which agitated him more.

"These guys are pretty laid back. And they don't turn that many people down," he told him. Nick frowned, looking at Jeff curiously. Not many people took the time to actually reassure him. "Unless you're totally tone deaf, you'll be fine. Just remember – there instruments are people," he grinned. "They need you!"

"Why are you trying to console me? You don't even know if I'm good."

Jeff shrugged, smiling easily. "Then you're not good," he said. "And you know the acapella life just isn't for you."

Nick laughed despite himself, and Jeff's face lit up at the reaction, causing Nick to become immediately embarrassed and look away. "You're really not nervous?" Nick asked quietly.

"Of course I'm nervous," Jeff replied, his tone just as soft. It made Nick convince himself the other boy sounded scared. "I'm just great at convincing myself I'm not."

Nick smiled, wondering if that was the realest thing he'd ever heard Jeff Sterling say, before a buzzing silence fell over the room as Wes, David and Thad entered. It all seemed a little overdramatic, but that was how the Warblers did things. There's even a gavel, Nick thought, straining himself not to roll his eyes.

"On behalf of the council, I would like to thank all of you for turning up today," Wes announced, looking around the room and boring his gaze into every potential Warbler. "You will be notified on your success at the end of the auditions."

"Now, we know some of you probably just want to get out and go, but we thought, to make you feel comfortable and more confident, we'd start with a little warm up exercise," David smiled. Nick tensed under the glint in his eye. "With a little help from some of our current members, we're gonna split you into groups of five, and we're gonna have a little sing song."

"To Queen," Wes put in, smiling in a way that raised a challenge.

"Bohemian Rhapsody, to be process," Thad grinned.

"But not all of it," David reassured them. Nick thought he could feel a headache coming on.

The task turned out to be a lot more fun than Nick had anticipated. He was in a group with two current Warblers, and four newbies – himself and Jeff included, along with a guy who insisted on being called 'Beat' and promised his greatest talent was the noises he made with his mouth, not his voice, and another guy named Ethan. Every group had been given a section of the song, which had apparently been pre-selected – and they had to perform it, acapella. And in the most over-done way possible.

"Our part is more fun because we have the rock part," one of the prior Warblers, Andrew, told them. There was eagerness in his expression, and the way he was talking was like he could be hatching a top secret plan. "I fought for this part guys, you better do me proud."

"Andrew, don't scare them," the other Warbler, Cameron, told him calmly. "Although, we are gonna win this, guys."

"Win?" Jeff repeated, and Nick was sure he could practically see his ears perk up. "You mean, this is a competition?"

"Of course it is!" Cameron mused. "And we know exactly how to win."

"Yes," Andrew agreed, smirking as he eyed them all up. "We need our two best singers."

"We'll do it," Jeff said immediately, grabbing Nick's wrist. Nick glared at him, shaking his hand away.

"Will we?" he asked sarcastically. "Why can't you guys do it?"

"We'll get more points this way," Andrew said simply. "I can see this guy pisses you off-"

"Hey!" Jeff interjected, but Andrew just waved him off.

"-but we can use that. As fuel. For when you sing at each other."

Nick narrowed his eyes, pressing his fingers to his temples. "You want me to sing to Jeff?"

"No, at him," Cameron tried to clarify. "Kinda like an argument. A really theatrical argument. We're gonna split and sit at two opposite ends of the room, and one of you is gonna stand up and sing the first part, then the other one is gonna sing the second part. We want you to sing like you're competing with each other."

"Because that way you'll find it easier to be dramatic," Andrew winked. Nick nodded slowly, chancing a glance at Jeff who looked comically thoughtful.

"Let's actually compete," he said excitedly, turning to look at Nick as if he thought he was thinking the same thing.

"What?"

"C'mon, I've seen you storm out of the Science lab after giving a speech on how you refused to do an experiment with milk. You're a drama queen, Duval," Jeff smirked. "Prove to me it's not because you're being pretentious."

"Now, now, guys-"

"You got it," Nick declared, outstretching a hand for Jeff to shake. Anything for Jeff to take back the rudest thing he'd ever heard from those ever smiling lips.

They went through what they were going to do a few times, before their time suddenly finished. As it turned out, they were performing a lot more of the song than the newbies had thought; instead of announcing that the time was up, even though everyone could feel it coming to an end, Wes, David Thad and Flint stood up on opposite sides of the room, breaking into the opening bars of the song and playing with who sung what, creating a stereo sound with volume alternating techniques and performing as though they were really in front of an audience. They'd never do this on a competition stage, though. It wasn't their image.

As soon as all the rest of the Warblers had had their turn, taking turns to sing lead while the rest backed up and together made up the slow, classic sound of the opening of the song, it was time for the potentials to try. There were several people that stood out, including a boy they soon learnt was called Trent who performed every line like his whole life had been a Broadway show. Jeff laughed gleefully at the way people used their voices to create the iconic song, loving how they would yell like it was the only thing they were passionate about when it came to singing we will not let you go or carefully time it so each person had a different part on magnifico-o-o-o.

But then suddenly, the Warblers were singing the part to represent guitars, and Jeff looked across at Nick, smirking and raising his eyebrows as the boy slowly stood up, finding his confidence in spite for Jeff's words. He raised his head high, and Jeff was surprised at how his eyes didn't falter from him for one second. He'd thought Nick was more timid than that.

"So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?" Nick sung, and Jeff was already ruined in the way he was smiling, Nick's arms raised like he was silently telling Jeff to bring it.

"So you think you can love me and leave me to die?" Jeff returned, unable to shake his grin but his body language was just as dramatic as Nick's. As they sung the next lines together, Nick was almost on his knees with his hands air grabbing and motioning with the song, where Jeff had one had fixed over his heart and the other motioning at Nick, creating the illusion of real conflict between them. But the best part for both of them was the way their voices meddled together, creating a mesmerising sound that forced anyone that heard it to listen. Everyone cheered, despite the song continuing, and they found themselves smiling at each other from across the room. Everyone could tell a new force-to-be-reckoned-with had been born.

When the song finished, everyone cheered, silenced only by the double tap of Wes's gavel. There was an almost cheeky smile on his face, looking around the room as if he knew he could do it just because he had the power to drag time out like that.

"The council has made a decision," he started, looking straight over at Nick and Jeff. "Cameron and Andrew's team have won this little exercise-"

"YES!" Andrew cried, quickly hushed by Cameron.

"And, as a result – Nick, Ethan, Jeff, and Jon-"

"Actually, I prefer Beat-"

"You have all made it into the Warblers, and will have high consideration should you wish to audition for a solo part. Trent Nixon, this honour also goes to you."

Trent gasped, a shocked grin on his face while everyone else applauded him and the other team. Jeff clapped too, looking at Nick and squeezing his shoulder.

"Hey," he grinned. "You definitely won."

"Guess I'm dramatic by talent, not pretentiousness, huh?"

"Yeah," Jeff smiled. "But I always knew that."

Nick rolled his eyes fondly, pushing against Jeff teasingly and smiling wider when the other boy pushed back. It was the start of his time with the Warblers, but more than anything, it was the start of his unbreakable friendship with Jeff.

Breadstix wasn't somewhere Nick came often, but it turned out to be Maya's favourite spot. Maya – a leggy girl of 5 foot 7 inches, blonde hair that tumbled down her back in soft ringlets and big blue eyes that looked as though they could be alive. She smiled a lot, but she was clever, and Nick could hold a conversation with her easily.

But nevertheless, he was so grateful when Jeff called.

"I'm sorry, I have to take this," he said, and Maya nodded understandingly, sitting back in her seat and sipping her soda. Nick looked away, knowing deep down he had no good reason to be doing this.

"Jeff?" he asked.

"Nicky, hey. Look, I know you're on a date and this is such a bad time, but… my parents were in an accident."

"Oh my God, Jeff, are you okay?" Nick asked, looking at Maya with a concerned frowned. Maya raised her eyebrows in interest, and Nick quickly looked away. "Do you need a ride to the hospital?"

"I'm there. They're not letting me see them, b-but… I just… I n-need… a friend right now."

Nick paused, looking at Maya for a long time with an expression that could've been translated as being torn, but eventually accepting what he had to do. "I'll be right there," he said softly, hanging up the phone and turning to look at his date.

"Is everything okay?" she asked. He couldn't even find a fault in the way she talked.

"Yeah, it's… well, no. That was my best friend," Nick explained. "His parents are in the hospital. There was an accident, and… I hate to cut this short, but… he needs me."

"That's completely understandable," Maya smiled. "I think I'd actually be madder if you stayed."

"Right," Nick laughed, already standing up. "But I had a lovely time."

"Yeah, me too," Maya smiled. "I'll text you?"

"Sure," Nick agreed, throwing one last smile at her as he chucked a fistful of money on the table that could pay for their meal twice, before turning on his heel and leaving. As soon as he was out the restaurant, he dialled Jeff's number again.

"Hey," he said, unable not to smile.

"Are you gone?" Jeff asked.

"Yeah. You were weirdly convincing, though," Nick grinned. "I was actually kinda worried you were serious and fate just has the worst timing."

"Well, maybe we should have a safe word for if we need to get out of the get-me-out phone call, too," Jeff teased. "Was she that bad?"

"No," Nick confessed, biting his lip. "She was perfect. She was pretty, she was interesting… she didn't even have any annoying habits."

"So…? Perfect not your kinda thing?"

"I have no idea," he shrugged, unlocking his car. "It just… didn't feel right."

"Oh," Jeff said, wishing his heart didn't pick up a little. "And why is that, do you think?"

"I don't know," he sighed. "But enough about me. My mom's gonna drill me about this enough as it is. How about you?" he asked, and Jeff's heart was beating fast for a whole other reason. "Anything more permanent on the go?"

"No… but can you seriously not talk like that? I don't wanna be dubbed as a tamer version of Sebastian."

"I'm only kidding, Jeff," Nick smiled, turning the Bluetooth on his phone on so he could drive and talk at the same time. "Besides, if that were the case, I'd know about it. You'd have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yeah," Jeff laughed, leaning back on his bed. "Whenever I let Sebastian drag me out-"

"Woah, woah, woah," Nick interrupted, wishing he wasn't driving, now. "You went out with Sebastian?"

"Not like that! But I did go out with him to the bars he went to a few times. Just to see what it was like. You knew that," Jeff pointed out, worried he'd upset Nick. He didn't want him thinking he was lying to him.

"Yeah, I guess… I just didn't realise it was so… Sebastian."

Jeff frowned, hearing the disappointment in Nick's voice. "Well, I guess that's my business," he mumbled. "I won't bring it up around you again."

"Hey, no. Lower your guard, Sterling. I just meant I can't imagine you like that. You're my Jeff, you know? You're the guy that still gets excited about candy and has giggle fits."

"Everyone's got a dark side, Nicky," Jeff teased, and Nick laughed, practically hearing the snarky expression on his face.

"Even Jeff Sterling," he quipped. Jeff was blushing on the other end of the phone.

"I think I liked it better when you thought I was purely sunshine."

"You could start wearing dark leather and carry a whip and you'd still be sunshine to me."

Jeff had to laugh at that, rolling on his side and smiling against the pillow. "Well, that's good to hear," he grinned. "But leather's not really my thing, Nicky."

"Not by day. But when night time Jeff comes out…"

"Nick!" Jeff snapped, but he only laughed more.

"Hey, I don't know," Nick said defensively. "I've never met night time Jeff!"

"Do you want to meet night time Jeff?" Jeff asked, still smiling before he realised what he said – and just how suggestive he sounded saying it. He held his breath, waiting for Nick to say something, anything, that could push his slip up away.

"I dunno," Nick started, and Jeff panicked, scared by how he seemed to be really contemplating it. "If he's not all kitted out in leather, is it really worth it?"

Jeff sighed, laughing again more out of relief before a new thought occurred to him. "Don't you have a leather jacket?"

"Night time Nick," Nick whispered, and Jeff laughed louder, rolling back onto his back.

"He sounds like fun."

"Oh, he's great," Nick smirked. "Doesn't go to bed until past midnight."

"Wow. I'd better tell night time Jeff to watch out."

"You do that," Nick grinned, stopping at a red light. "Speaking of night time, did you hear about David's party?"

"I did," Jeff nodded, crossing his ankles. "Are you going?"

"I'm not sure I'll fit considering the rest of Ohio is going."

"Awwh, c'mon," Jeff cooed. "You're only little."

"Not so little I won't hit you," Nick teased, eyebrows raised as he put the car back into drive. "But hey, I guess you're right. Shall we go together? If I try to meet you there, I'll never see you."

"Hmmm, you're right. I mean, I'm tall enough but you'll probably get drowned in all the people."

Nick rolled his eyes, turning off the main road. "I'm hanging up, now," he said, but Jeff could hear the small smile on his lips.

"Awww, you're such a spoil sport."

"Good bye, Jeff," he grinned, pressing the end call button. As he drove on, he did his best not to dawn on the niggling thoughts at the back of his head, trying to make him ask questions he didn't want to know the answers to.

The one thing he did know, though, was that he was very curious to meet 'night time Jeff'.