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Here we go, chapter 4! (Sssh, only this and another chapter left before they both finally meet again ;))

The days at Dalton Academy always passed by quickly when being surrounded by your friends, studying hard because of the high expectations of grades and joining different clubs of the school as well. It was no surprise that in the middle of October most of the students asked themselves where the first one and a half month of the school- year had gone. For Nick time seemed to fly by even faster because in between all of the things that were going on in his daily life and already kept him busy enough, there was always a certain blond man sneaking into his head. Whether it was during History, French or P.A., at lunch or even in the middle of Warbler practice- he just started to drift into thoughts.

Wes had to use his gavel about every 15 minutes to knock Nick right out of his thoughts and it annoyed the Asian because it meant that his beloved Gavely would get hurt more often than necessary- and also because he insisted on everyone to be fully concentrated during practice. Mostly it was about his gavel though.

Nick was bent over his history book and starring at the same article about the First World War taking place in the Austrian and Italian Alps for more than 30 minutes. He had started reading it for about 10 times by now but somehow he never made it further than down the first column. In his mind he was back at the club with Ivan, both of them being on their own.

Nick imagined how he would first dance for him just like he did the other day but when he was about to take his shirt off, the brunet would stop him and tell him that he didn't have to do that.

In his mind he would tell the blond that it was okay and that Nick not wanted his body but get to know the blond. He would tell him what he did to him and how he dreamed about him every night and that he had never seen a more beautiful human being before.

Then Ivan would lean slowly in so Nick was already able to feel his hot breath on his lips, anticipating what he wanted so bad…

"Dude, you completely zoomed out again!" The brunet shrieked at the voice and shot Trent a death stare.

"I am just saying. The history test is tomorrow and as far as I know you haven't studied anything at all yet."

"Sorry!" Nick mumbled and ran his fingers through his thick hair, sighing in frustration. "It's just that I can't get my thoughts together, no matter how hard I try."

"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Trent asked and sat down on Nick's bed. He watched the brunet from the side intently. Ever since they both shared their dorm he'd always known him as an outspoken person that never kept to himself what he was thinking about and usually there has never been someone he paid attention to for longer than 2 days- but if it was so, he mostly told Trent about how he wanted to get in this persons pants.

To now see him this thoughtfully over a boy he didn't even know the real name of was something he wasn't used to yet.

"I feel like I am obsessed with him!" Nick crunched as he started drawing random patterns in his book. "There's nothing I can say or do that keeps him out of my head- trust me, I've tried. I have never felt like this before Trent, and trust me when I say that it sucks." He glanced at the book and papers in front of him and dropped the pen on the desk.

"I need to go outside!" Nick put on his shoes and grabbed his coat, wallet and iPod. As he was already halfway out of the door, he heard Trent's voice asked from behind: "Where are you going?"

"I have no idea." With those words he left the room.

It was a darn cold late afternoon and Nick stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He could see his breath and wondered how long it would take until the first snow would cover the Dalton grounds again.

His feet dragged him into the little town that was nearest to the school. It consisted out of a few streets with lovely family-homes, a coffee shop, a supermarket that provided the most important things to survive with and a bus-station, that served as a connection to Lima for the students and inhabitants.

At first the boy stopped by the coffee shop to get a coffee-to-go to keep him warm. His hands clasped firmly at the paper cup as he excited and a cold wind gust ruffled through his hair, leaving it slightly rifled. He wandered to the bus-station and sat down on one of the benches, thinking about the mysterious man again. Daydreams took over his head and the world around him suddenly didn't seem to exist anymore- that was until Nick heard a squeaking of wheels in front of him and noticed the bus with the letters 'Lima main station' written as destination on it and that's when a plan popped to his head within the next few seconds.

Without hesitation he entered the bus and bought a ticket from the driver, a tired looking man. The vehicle was nearly empty. There was only an old lady that watched him cautiously in the front row and at the end of the bus Nick could make out a couple that had a make-out session going on.

He chose a seat in one of the middle rows and plugged in his headphones into the iPod, starting to listen to music. Occasionally he took a sip of the coffee while he starred outside of the dirty window, taking in the landscape.

Now that he thought about his plan, he had to realize that it probably wasn't as good as he had first thought it was. He wanted to go to the strip club again, find Ivan and talk to him to apologize. It was simple and easy, something that could barely go wrong, right? Maybe for normal people it could have worked out but not for Nick Duval because all of a sudden he remembered that he had no idea where that strip club has actually been located and as much as he tried he didn't even know the name anymore which sure was a really good prior condition for what Nick was about to do.

"Damn it!" he muttered to himself when he realized that the only person that could probably help right now was Seb and Nick hated asking him to do him a favor, mostly because he knew how the tall male loved to brag about people being helpless without him- as he liked to call it.

Reluctantly the brunet wanted to grab for his mobile phone- which he always put into the right front pocket of the trousers he was wearing- just to find it empty. Oh great! This was getting better and better.

Nick frowned, searching for it in his left pocket but still there was no phone in sight. He thought about the last time he had seen it- that must have been while studying, or at least trying to study, before he left the room when it was lying next to the pencil case and where it still was right now.

He let his head drop against the headrest of his seat and took a deep breath, exhaling the air out in frustration. Man, this really sucked.

After not all too much time the bus made a stop and the doors opened, the bus driver screaming through the whole vehicle that they had arrived at the terminal.

Nick took the exit at the back while the old lady was fighting with the stairs at the front of the bus and as she stood in front of the bus, she shot Nick a hostile glare and pursed her lips as if she didn't trust him at all and expected him to rob her at any second.

Nick rolled his eyes. Old people could be so prejudicing when it came to the teens nowadays. Just because Nick wore a leather jacket and had his dark hair slicked back with gel didn't mean that he was some sort of gang member. Seriously, how were teenagers supposed to find their selves and their own style when the whole world would judge them anyway?

Without really knowing how to continue now, Nick decided to walk around the station awkwardly. He thought about buying a ticket for the ride home already but that would have meant that this bus ride was for nothing and that was a thought that he was definitely not happy with.

So he was wandering around, hands in his pockets and an attentive look on his face to observe his surroundings when a familiar green sign with a white 'I' written on it caught his eyes. Of course, why hadn't he thought about this earlier? The information center!
With no hesitation he headed towards it and pushed the glass door open, heated air welcoming him along with the smell of brochures and wood.

"How can I help you, sir?" a friendly looking woman on one of the tables asked and looked up from her computer, smiling at Nick. She pushed her glasses up her nose before gesturing Nick to take a seat across from her.

"Yeah, I am searching for a certain club!" Nick explained as soon as he had settled himself on the cushioned chair.

The lady opened a drawer and went through a stack of papers and pulled out a little map of Lima. "Can you tell me the name of it?"

Nick shook his head. "I really can't remember it anymore, but what I know is that it is a strip club." He hesitated for a second. It wasn't like he was embarrassed, not at all, but he knew too well that Lima wasn't the most open-minded city about homosexuality and he had experienced it on his own quite a few times when being thrown into dumpsters.

"It was a gay strip club!" He leaned in when saying the words though they seemed to be alone. He still didn't want to risk someone overhearing them.

The woman looked baffled before getting her facial expressions under control again and beamed a smile at Nick. "I only know about two of them in town so you'll either be talking about the Starlight or the Indulgence!" She marked the map with two crosses when saying the names and Nick's head snapped up at the second one.

"That's it!" Suddenly he was able to see the neon-light letters of the world in front of his inner eyes again. He grabs for the map. "Thank you so much!"

He didn't look at the woman twice as he made his way out. It was rude of him, he knew, but he only had a little less than 2 hours left before the last bus back to Dalton would leave and he really had to catch it, not really flattered about the thought of staying in Lima overnight, especially without a phone or a place to sleep at.

Nick looked at the map to sort out in which direction he had to go now before turning into the second street on the left.

It nearly took him 20 minutes to finally arrive at the club and he leant against the wall in attempts to catch his breath again because for at least half of the way he had been running like a maniac.

Finally, he thought to himself at the familiar looking house in front of him just to find the main entrance still closed.

He went into the small side alley that was so cramped that he only had to stretch out both of his arms to touch the walls.

There were garbage bins, some of them still standing, others lying on the ground, their content scattered all around the floor. Nick had to bring a hand in front of his mouth and tried to not breathe if it wasn't necessary, the smell of it turning his stomach around and making him want to puke.

It was a blind alley and at the end there was a grey door with a small lamp over it that flickered though it was still light outside.

Nick knocked at the door three times, waiting for an answer but there was none. Nick raised his hand again to knock another time when the door was opened from the inside, revealing a huge man with a lot of muscles and a dangerous look on his face.

The brunet intuitively took a step back as the man glared down at him. "What do you want?" he huffed in annoyance. His raspy voice sounded like it was affected by cigarettes and his blood-shot eyes gave away his consumption of either alcohol or drugs.

"I- I am searching for someone who works here." Nick explained. "His name's Ivan!"

A grumpy sound came over the man's lips that sounded like a chuckling crow that was gagging on something.

"You are searching for Ivan?" He spat out the words and raised a pierced eyebrow. "I am sorry boy, but I can't help you with this one." His voice got dangerously low as he started growling at Nick. "If he would want to be found by you, he'd given you his real name. Now get the fuck away from here and don't show up again, do you understand me? And stay away from our staff!"

The door was closed forcefully with a loud 'pang' and Nick flinched away. Now this really wasn't helping him at all.
With a sigh he walked back to the street again and got rid of the map he had still held in his hands earlier.

When he sat in the bus back to Dalton again, that was still standing at the bus station and waiting until it would finally take him back home, he listened to music again and starred out of the window numbly when a flash of bright blond hair caught his eyes.

At first Nick didn't really pay attention- why should he? It wasn't like Ivan was the only male with that hair color in all of Lima. As much as he tried to ignore the person, his eyes still always darted back to the person.

The figure was standing on the side walk and talking to someone and all Nick could make out of him was his back which didn't really give away if it actually was the boy he had come for, that was standing there.

When the blond turned around, for a second he thought his heart would stop beating. There he was standing, in all his beauty and fully dressed properly- which also didn't look bad. He had a smile on his face as he chatted to the other man Nick recognized as the red haired that was on stage with him the other night. How did Seb say was his name? Nick couldn't remember.

He watched both of them and was about to stand up when the bus doors closed and it started driving.

"Fuck!" Nick growled to himself, slamming his fist against the window. There had been his chance and because of just a few seconds now it was gone. God damn it!" he cursed while continuing to lightly punch the Plexiglas.

He looked out again in desperation at the blond as the bus drove away as their eyes met for a short time. Was that recognition that was reflected in them?

Jeff's POV

"Are you alright man?" Tanner asked as Jeff stood there and looked at the bus driving by with huge eyes.

The blond gathered himself and nodded, his hands nervously playing with the hem of his jacket. "Yeah, I am good. I thought I just saw someone I knew."

TBC