Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, nor do I completely own Nick and Jeff (although I'm pretty much creating their personalities myself since we haven't gotten to know them too well on the show).
A/n: So I apologize; this chapter is influenced by the fact that I've recently seen "Spring Awakening" and Moritz actually nearly reduced me to tears. Which is almost impossible… even sad movies rarely bring me as close to tears as he did. And I sort of felt bad after I told him, because he said that he feels bad when he makes people cry. But really… how can you avoid making people cry with a role like that?
Also, this is going to be a follow-up piece to "Silence."
Sweatshirt
Jeff couldn't help himself. The worn fabric of the old gray sweatshirt was too comfortable… too full of Nick's scent. His cologne, and something else that Jeff couldn't quite place that was just uniquely Nick. He'd slept in it every night since he'd come back from the other boy's funeral, spraying it down with the bottle of cologne he'd pulled from the boy's drawer before Nick's parents had come to clear his things out of the dorm room. Jeff wasn't exactly sure what he would do without something to hold onto.
So every night, when he was running out of strength to keep the forced smile on his face, Jeff pulled on the sweatshirt that just didn't quite fit him properly and curled up on the bed that had once been Nick's.
Sometimes he felt ridiculous; after all, they hadn't been dating or anything like that. The two of them had just been friends. Best friends. The kind of friends that just knew each other – just understood exactly what was going on with one another without having to spell it out in a conversation. And Jeff couldn't imagine what his life was going to be like now that he no longer had someone like that in his life. So he put on a brave face every morning before he walked out of his dorm room, hiding his pain behind a mask that everyone suspected but no one could see through. But at night, after everything he had to do for the day was finished, Jeff let himself finally feel something about the fact that Nick was gone. And somehow, that was the only part of the day when he really felt alive.
