Sorry for how late (and how short!) this chapter is! It's been a very eventful month for me, so I haven't had as much time and motivation this chapter, especially because, to be honest, it's mostly just setting up for the next part of the story.
Nick liked to think of himself as a fairly non-nosy person. He was willing to accept what information was willingly offered to him, and that was generally enough. Sure, he always slowed down to look at a car accident, but who didn't?
The point was, Nick was the kind of person to let a person have their privacy. He wasn't the kind to meet someone new then run home and Facebook stalk them. He tended to ignore cryptic Facebook posts and tweets because they just weren't his business and other people's drama had never been his cup of tea.
But maybe things were a little different with Jeff, for reasons that he couldn't quite put his finger on. So maybe, just maybe, one lazy evening in the hotel room that consisted of mostly flipping through the channels aimlessly, he grabbed his laptop and typed Jeff's name into Facebook.
It took him a little bit of searching, being that, given the completely different hometowns and lack of any sort of connection or mutual friends, Facebook saw no reason that he should be looking for this Jeff Sterling.
After sifting through various Jeffs and Jeffreys and even a Jefferson, including some whose last names in fact were nothing even resembling Sterling, he eventually found the face that he was looking for. His profile picture was immediately identifiable as him, a closeup of him and a young girl with a stuffed elephant in her hands and hair that was just as light blond as his.
Clicking on his name, he found that Jeff's profile was fairly public, and he could see pretty much everything on it.
He took some time to look through his pictures, starting with profile pictures but also branching into a few random albums as well. His more recent pictures often featured the same little girl, who was named in a few of the picture captions as Bridgett (or, just as often, Birdy). There were also a few other people that showed up regularly, friends and family. As he went backwards in time he also saw a couple of different guys that he couldn't help but wonder about, a couple kissing Jeff's cheeks or lips for the camera. There were a few sets of pictures that were set up artfully, a friend of his named Victoria apparently fancying herself a photographer and seemed to appreciate having a model.
Backing out of his pictures and switching over to the About Me tab, Nick saw that Jeff listed San Francisco as both his hometown and his current location. He had to pause for a moment at this information, then pulled up a Google Maps tab to find out the distance from San Francisco to Pasadena (383 miles, or five hours and twenty minutes without traffic). Though he had known that Jeff said he was "a while" from home, part of Nick had assumed he wasn't that far away from home, alone, for seemingly no reason.
Moving on, he saw that he had graduated from San Francisco University High School in 2012, a year before Nick himself had graduated high school. No college was listed, which should not have been as surprising to him as it was, considering how he had been milling about in Pasadena in April and made no mention of any university when Nick had discussed dropping out of his own school.
"Ooh, whatcha looking at?" Nick jumped at the sound of his sister's voice suddenly behind him. Lacey stepped in closer to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, leaning down to look at his computer screen. "Creeping on someone?"
"Yeah," he said with a sigh after a moment, knowing that it was useless to try to tell her anything different. "Jeff."
It took her a moment to process who exactly he was talking about, but then she grinned and hopped over the back of the couch, landing to sit down beside him. "Scroll up, I want to see what he looks like," she said, though she didn't give him a chance to before she was reaching over and doing so herself. "Ooh, he is handsome. His—wait, that's not his kid, is it?"
"No, I'm pretty sure that's his sister," he said, looking over at Lacey and rolling his eyes fondly. "Besides, she's about eight. If she was his, that's... Possible, but really not something I'd like to think about."
Lacey chuckled softly, shrugging. "I had to ask," she said. "And I mean, sure, he's gay, but who knows if he was always gay, right?" She laughed softly before adding, "Anyways, okay, keep looking at whatever you were looking at before. For my own sake, I'll stop talking."
"Thank you," he said with a soft laugh, scrolling back down to where his personal information was listed.
As he had been able to guess by the fact that there were no other boys (besides ones that were clearly just friends) in recent pictures, Jeff's profile stated that he was single at the moment. (Lacey's comment on this, being that she was at times physically incapable of holding her tongue, was, "So what you're saying is I still have a chance.)
Just below that, Jeff had listed his employer as a flower shop somewhere in San Francisco. ("That's equal parts adorable and ridiculous, I love it.")
Nick couldn't help himself but to look at some of Jeff's recent statuses, wondering if maybe any of them would mention what he was doing five hours from San Francisco. And, if he were being completely honest, he might also admit that part of him hoped that he hoped that maybe just maybe the blond had mentioned him.
Unfortunately, there were pretty much no posts since before they had even met, aside from a couple of lighthearted updates and pictures as well as well-wishing posts from family members and friends.
"You look like something is really troubling you about this," Lacey commented lightly, raising an eyebrow at him before resting her chin against his shoulder.
"I just don't know why he'd come here," he said, shrugging. "I mean, no big deal, really. I don't even know why I looked him up."
Lacey nodded slowly, looking at the screen. "Well, everyone is fascinated by a mystery, I guess," she said with a small shrug. "And also, he's really handsome. So there's that. Even a straight boy can admit that, I'm sure of it."
Nick looked back at the picture of Jeff still on the screen for a moment. "I don't know," he said with a shrug. "I guess so. There's something compelling about him, definitely. But I think that's more... It comes across better in person."
"I'm sure," she agreed, nodding. "I've met people like that. Vibrant. That's the word I'd like to use."
"That fits," he said with a nod.
"Anyways, sunshine, I think I need to go take a shower," she said, lifting up an arm and leaning in closer to him for him to (in theory) sniff her armpit. "Right?"
"Sure," he said with a soft laugh, rolling his eyes at her.
Lacey chuckled, leaning over and kissing his cheek before getting to her feet and going to the bathroom.
Once she was safely in the bathroom and Nick was certain that she would not be coming back out for a bit, he went back to the top of the page and typed into the search bar 'Natalie Colette' and hit enter.
It was the first time that he had really let himself look at her profile since they had broken up, having told himself over and over that looking would be a terrible idea and he would hate himself for it. The last he had looked, her profile picture was one of the two of them together, but it was now the last picture she had used before that, one of her with her family's dog.
Scrolling down to look at her most recent posts, he saw something that almost made him want to close the page and never look back yet simultaneously made him keep looking.
Apparently, between then and April, she had become more comfortable with the idea of being pregnant, and was in fact being very public about it. The first post at the top of the page was an update on her symptoms and progress (she must have gone to a doctor at some point, because she had stated how far along she was—twelve weeks, apparently). Just below that was a picture of her, turned sideways for the camera and holding up her shirt. Nick supposed that maybe there was a slight curve to her stomach, but she mostly looked normal to him. But he wasn't a doctor, and he wasn't really sure how much she was supposed to be showing, anyways.
There were comments from friends and family, some faces that he recognized but also a handful that he didn't. Nobody mentioned anything about the father of the baby, which Nick was equal parts relieved and made even more anxious by.
He stared at the picture on his screen for a bit longer, taking in her face and her smile and all of the supportive comments on the sidebar. Even though he knew that she probably would have contacted him again if she had decided to abort the baby, it was still jarring to see, so openly, how happy she appeared to be and how accepting she was of the idea of motherhood. He tried not to let himself think about how he had once daydreamed about having kids with her. He clicked out of the tab and shut the lid on his laptop, forcing from his mind any thoughts of what it might be like now if he had not found out that she had been cheating on him.
Nick sat there for a bit, the laptop sitting discarded beside him, just staring at the wall in front of him. After a few minutes he got to his feet and went into the room Lacey was staying in, slipping into her bed. Shortly later she came into the room, making a questioning noise at his presence but not demanding an answer. Instead, she just laid down beside him, giving him a hug before flipping the lights off to sleep.
The next time Nick saw Jeff was at a coffee shop. They sat together at a small table outside, watching the cars pass by.
Nick knew that looking at someone's profile on Facebook was not a crime, it was not something to be ashamed of. Okay, sure, the two of them had not added each other as friends, but still, it wasn't uncommon for one person to look up another. But still, it was nagging at him that he had done it and he hadn't said anything to Jeff about doing so.
"I looked you up on Facebook," he announced.
"Oh?" Jeff replied, raising an eyebrow. He glanced over at his phone laying on the table, as if he were expecting a notification to pop up on his screen. "I didn't look you up on Facebook."
"And if you had, you would've added me, wouldn't you?" he asked.
"I mean... I guess so, yeah?" he said after a moment, nodding slightly. "I guess that's the normal thing to do. You can add me, if you want."
Nick let out a soft sigh, realizing a bit belatedly that yeah, looking someone up on Facebook really isn't such a huge deal. Of course Jeff didn't find it too weird. "I was curious about you," he said, part of him still trying to feel like mentioning it was the right thing to do.
Jeff blinked in surprise at that. "You were curious about me?" he repeated.
"Yeah," he said with a small nod. He paused for a moment, taking a sip of his coffee as a way to get himself a moment as least awkwardly as possible. "You're..." The word 'vibrant' flashed in his mind. "Interesting. So, I looked you up. I guess I just... I kind of wanted to know what you're all about."
"I see," he said slowly, a smile forming on his lips. "You know, though, anything you can find on my Facebook, you could have just asked me." He chuckled softly, giving Nick a grin.
"I realize that now," he said, chuckling a bit self-deprecatingly. "But it felt like the right thing to do at the time."
"I'm sure," Jeff said with a nod, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice. There he was again, being the sort of universally kind and sincere person that Nick found so compelling. He leaned forward then, a slightly more mischievous look on his face. "So... I have to ask, did you find anything interesting? I mean, besides the very interesting fact that I like Taylor Swift, which is absolutely true."
Nick laughed softly, nodding. "Ah, right, of course," he said. Shrugging, he answered, "I don't know. I mean, I guess you could say that there's something interesting about everything on your profile."
"That's a terrible answer," he said, but there was still a playful smile in place on his lips. "It's a politician's answer, is what it is."
"Sorry," he said with a soft laugh, shrugging. "I guess you got me there."
"So, should I take that to mean that you did find something interesting on there?" he asked. "Ooh, is there something scandalous that I need to take a look at?"
Nick shook his head, chuckling. "Sorry, but no, I wouldn't say scandalous," he said. "Just... interesting. I kind of assumed you lived closer to here than San Francisco."
"Ah," he said, nodding. "Gotcha. Yeah. I guess I could have been more clear about that. But yes, San Francisco born and raised."
"Cool," Nick said, maybe more as a space filler than anything else, since that was just what people said when topics like that came up. After a moment, he asked, "What are you doing so far away from there? And, well... For so long?"
"I don't know," he answered, grinning.
"You... don't know?"
"Nope," he said. "And don't act so surprised. Could you give me a reason as to why you're here, even farther from your home than I am from mine, for so long?"
Nick paused for a moment before shaking his head slightly. "Ah. You've got a point," he said.
"I know I do," he said, chuckling. "But I guess if you want a real answer, the best thing I could tell you is that I wanted to get away. Just like you did."
For a moment, Nick debated whether or not to follow up on the question. It was none of his business, really, even though he and Jeff were quickly becoming friends. But he knew that if he didn't ask, he would still be curious, so that curiosity got the best of him. "Did you have a bad experience?"
"No, no, I didn't have a reason like you did," he said, chuckling softly and shaking his head. "I just..." He trailed off, gesturing vaguely with his hands. "I'm not sure that you're going to get this, because you've been moved around a lot, but I'll do my best to explain it."
Nick nodded, gesturing for him to go on.
"Okay, so... I haven't really been far from home, like... ever. And don't get me wrong, I love it there, I live for the Mission and Castro and being in pretty much the best place to be gay in the country, but... I've only been there. Nowhere else to speak of."
"Alright," he said, nodding. "Yeah, I get that."
"So, I guess I really just wanted an adventure," he said with a small shrug. "That probably sounds funny to you, given the fact that the city has some reputations that I can't dispute, but still. I needed a change."
Nick nodded his understanding. "Yeah, that is kind of funny. I mean, if I was the right sort of person, I'd probably go there looking for an adventure."
"You'd love it," Jeff affirmed, giving him a smile. "But yeah. I wanted to get away, and the stars aligned and you needed to get away, too, and here we are now." He chuckled softly, a grin on his lips as he reached across the table and grabbed Nick's hand to give it a quick squeeze.
Nick laughed along with him, nodding. "That's definitely true," he said, the smile on his companion's face once again proving to be incredibly contagious.
"And so far, I've been fairly pleased with how that's turned out," he said, pulling his hand back and taking another sip of his drink. "But I think that it could be better."
Raising an eyebrow at him, he asked, "Am I disappointing you?"
"Not at all," he replied, waving off his words and smiling at him. "I just think that we both aren't getting quite as much out of this experience as we could be."
"I see," he said, nodding. "How would you propose that we solve that problem?"
"I don't know," Jeff said, chuckling softly. "But I feel like I would be failing the both of us if I didn't do something."
Nick shook his head. "You don't need to do anything," he said. "I mean, hell, I'm just as responsible for making sure that we have a good time as you are."
"Not really," he said, grinning. "The stakes here are higher for you. You came from miles and miles away in search of adventure, I came... okay, yes, miles and miles, too, but way less miles. You understand."
He chuckled softly, nodding. "Yeah, I guess so."
"So, yes, I feel like I'm still kind of on home territory, so I should be a good host and do something to make sure you have a good stay," he said, humming.
"You've already done way more than some random stranger I met at a bus stop is obligated to do."
"Oh, but I'm not a random stranger at a bus stop anymore, am I?" he asked, a bright, hopeful smile on his lips. Nick wished that he could just reach out and take some of Jeff's effervescence for himself.
"You're definitely not," he said, nodding.
"Good," he said. He picked up his cup and then set it back down, realizing that it was empty. "Good timing." He started to get to his feet, sending Nick yet another grin. "I think I need to go. You know, figure out how to make things even more fun for us."
"You really don't have to do that," he replied, if for no other reason than just because he didn't want Jeff to leave just yet. Part of him considered offering to get him another coffee just to get him to stay, but he decided after a moment that that might seem too desperate, so he decided against it.
"Oh, but I do," he said, shaking his head. "I'll see you soon, okay, Nicholas?"
Nick was struck for a moment by the fact that he had just called him by his full name, something that only Lacey ever did (reminding him again that the two of them would probably get along well and therefore should never be allowed to meet).
"Okay," he said, smiling softly at him in reply. "Call me or text me whenever you want."
"I will. You'll hardly even miss me," he said, chuckling softly before starting to walk away from the table. He tossed his empty cup in the trash before glancing back at Nick, smiling and waving.
Nick waved back, watching the other boy walking down the sidewalk away from him.
Jeff didn't text him. Or call him.
Nick knew that it would be ridiculous to expect him to: Jeff was probably a fairly busy person, and he was probably wrapped up in something more important than talking to someone who was just barely more than a stranger.
(Another part of his mind suggested the thought that maybe Jeff had realized that he wasn't really interested in making good on his promise to make big plans or whatever for some guy he had only just met and was just going to ignore him instead of doing anything about it, but Nick was able to keep that thought quiet for the most part.)
And really, even though they had exchanged phone numbers the day they went to the observatory, they hadn't talked much between then and their coffee date except to schedule said coffee date. Just because Nick had opened the door for them to text more than they previously had didn't mean that Jeff had to do it, and hell, Nick could text him first if he wanted to.
But still, he didn't want to seem too needy or clingy to him, so he held off on texting him for the most part. A couple of times he saw something that he wanted to tell Jeff about and those texts led to conversations that were very brief in nature.
He couldn't shove back the feeling that Jeff was being a bit distant, so he didn't push too much in their short conversations. He figured that if Jeff was indeed busy with something else, it would be better to let him be and let him come back and talk to Nick more on his own terms.
That being said, it wasn't easy, having pretty much no contact with the person who was quickly becoming his best friend for the better part of two weeks. He was feeling an embarrassing amount of desperation for attention, something akin to when he had broken up with Natalie and part of him just ached to pick up the phone and call her and tell her that all was forgiven.
Speaking of calling her, the temptation had struck him more than once. It wasn't like it was before; he no longer held any feelings for her, not really, anyways. Maybe a sense of obligation, considering her circumstances, but with enough well-meaning rants from Lacey he had accepted that fact that what she had done to him was unacceptable and it cheapened the entirety of their relationship.
So no, he didn't want her back in any capacity. He barely even missed having her in his life the way they had been before. Mostly what he felt now was just a desire to know what was going on in her life, and maybe if a tiny part of him wanted her to still want him, well, he probably wouldn't admit to that out loud.
Eventually he had to hand his phone to Lacey and have her delete Natalie's number out of his phone, getting rid of the temptation to call her.
He added Jeff on Facebook like he had been told to, and the friend request was accepted the same evening, but that didn't really mean too much of anything in the long run.
So he spent the days of relative radio silence with Jeff mostly with Lacey, letting her fill his time so that he didn't get too bored or caught up in wondering what Jeff was doing. If she noticed that something was off with him, she didn't say anything.
Until, finally, Nick's phone went off. The first time Jeff called (or rather, the first five or so times), Nick was in the shower and didn't hear it ringing.
When he finally did see it going off and he picked up, he didn't even have a chance to say anything in greeting.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Jeff said almost immediately after he picked up. "I was started to worry that you had died."
"No, sorry," he said, chuckling softly and shaking his head in spite of the fact that he was fully aware that he couldn't see him. "I was just in the shower."
"Ah, I see," he replied. "Nice and clean now, I hope."
"Yeah, I guess so," he said. "But I've got some ratty old clothes on now, so it might negate that a bit."
"Eh, I guess so. But at least you've showered," he said with a soft laugh. "Where are you staying?"
Nick paused for a moment, surprised at the sudden change of conversation before answering with the hotel's name.
"Okay, cool," Jeff said, and there was a moment of relative silence aside from him mumbling as he did something. "Alright, go outside in about twenty minutes."
"Okay..." Nick said slowly, not sure what else he could say to that.
"Okay, see you soon," Jeff said brightly, and a few seconds later Nick's phone beeped in his ear to indicate that he had hung up.
Stepping out of the bathroom and going to find Lacey, he announced, "I think Jeff is coming."
"Here?" she asked, her head snapping up from the book in her hands and her face lighting up.
"Yeah, here," he said, nodding. "He asked where I'm staying and he told me to go outside in twenty minutes. Sounds like it to me, right?"
Lacey, nodded, glancing at the clock. "I want to meet him, you have to bring him up here."
"Of course, Lace, of course," he said with a soft laugh, rolling his eyes and already bracing himself for whatever catastrophic craziness or adorableness that would result from Lacey and Jeff associating with each other.
Fifteen minutes later, Nick found himself stepping out onto the sidewalk outside their hotel room, watching the street for any sign of the blond.
Eventually, a car pulled up by him, windows rolling down to reveal Jeff grinning at him. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," Nick replied. Glancing at the car—a two-door Jeep Wrangler that he would best describe as being olive green (the reject of all crayons, but somehow not a terrible color for a car, apparently)—he added, "I kind of assumed you didn't have a car."
"I don't," he said, shaking his head. "Or, rather, not here. This is a rental. I've just always thought that these were really cool." He chuckled softly, shrugging.
"I see," he said, nodding. "Well, go park it, and you can come inside with me."
"Alright," Jeff said with a grin before going to do so, finding a parking spot then returning back to Nick on his feet.
"My sister is pretty excited to meet you," he said as he walked with him back inside.
"Oh?" Jeff asked, raising his eyebrows and looking over at him. "I take it you've mentioned me, then?"
"Of course I have," he said with a small shrug. "We've hung out, it's worth mentioning to her."
He nodded, humming softly. "Good things, right?"
"I don't think there's a single bad thing to say about you," he said, almost feeling embarrassed for how true he realized that statement was after the fact.
Jeff didn't say anything in reply, just followed after him to go into the hotel room.
Pretty much as soon as the door was open and they stepped inside, Lacey was on her feet and crossing the room towards them.
"Hi!" she said brightly, taking in the sight of Jeff.
"Hey," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake. "Jeff. You're... Lacey, right?"
"I am indeed," she said, smiling and shaking his hand. She kept hold of it, using the contact to pull him further into the suite and towards the couch to sit down. "I've heard plenty about you."
Nick inserted himself to sit between the two of them, wanting to give Jeff a buffer from his sister's entirely uncouth enthusiasm.
"I've been told," Jeff said with a smile, nodding. "I've heard a bit about you, too. Not much though."
Lacey looked at Nick and gave him a playful slap. "Hey, why haven't you told him all about me? I'm very hurt, baby brother," she said, and part of him wondered if she was intending to pull the embarrassing sibling card. If so, she was well on her way to succeeding.
"I'm sure you are," he said, rolling his eyes fondly.
"I really am," she said with a pout.
"Anyways," he said, looking back at Jeff and sighing as he saw that he was looking on at them with a fond look on his face. "You're being rude to our guest."
"The only rude one is you, for not telling him about me. I'm very important to you," she said with a laugh. She looked back at Jeff as well, smiling. "But really, it is great to meet you. You sound like you're being a pretty great friend for my little dork."
Jeff chuckled softly, shrugging. "I don't know," he said. "I try."
"And I'm fairly certain you succeed," she said, humming.
For the most part, their conversation from that point on was fairly innocuous. It was just the polite small talk of two people who had just met through a mutual friend, though Nick could tell that, given time and more access to each other, Jeff and his sister could probably become good friends. He liked the thought.
Eventually, the conversation came around to why exactly Jeff had showed up at their hotel out of the blue with a rental car.
"Well, that's easy," he answered. "I promised you more of an eventful, fun time, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Nick said with a slow nod.
"If it's alright with you, I think that I'd like to take this on the road."
"On the road?" he echoed.
"Yeah," he said. "Like Jack Keroac. But with less drug use. Good old American road trip."
Nick paused for a moment, considering the thought. It would certainly be a departure from anything he had ever done before.
"Sounds like fun," Lacey said, nudging him. "You should go for it."
He nodded slowly, looking from her back to Jeff. "Yeah," he said, nodding. "I should. I will."
"Fantastic," Jeff said, grinning. "I was hoping you'd agree."
"Since the whole idea here is to get away from the life I'm used to, I'd have to be pretty ridiculous to not take this opportunity," he said, chuckling.
"Fair enough," he said, nodding.
Shortly after, they got up from the couch in order for Nick to start to gather up his things that had scattered throughout the hotel room over the course of his stay. Jeff laid on his couch and watched him, eventually falling asleep. Nick didn't have the heart to wake him up, and the bed was big enough that he didn't mind sharing it.