"...Nick?" A voice spoke up.
Nick jumped up at the sound, looked up and saw Wes standing over him, looking concerned and worried.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
Nick considered lying to him, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't okay. Plus, making up a lie on the spot like that requires energy, and that's something Nick was lacking at the moment.
"No..." Nick whispered. His voice sounded weak and broken. Wes watched as tears ran down his cheeks. He quickly took a seat beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Its Jeff isn't it?" Wes asked.
Nick looked up at Wes, his face scrunched up with confusion. "How do you know?"
Wes simply rolled his eyes. "Come on, it's obvious something is going on between the two of you. You guys were practically joined at the hip before, now you two hardly ever speak to each other. What happened?"
Nick scoffed. "When I find out, I'll let you know."
Wes looked extremely confused. "Huh?"
"Jeff decided, all of a sudden to start avoiding me, I've been trying to find out why ever since, but he won't tell me."
"Well, keep asking him then?"
"I've tried." Nick exclaimed. "He won't tell me anything." He whispered the last bit.
Wes looked at Nick sympathetically. "Okay, look there must be a reason why he's behaving like this."
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." Nick muttered dryly. Wes raised an eyebrow at him. Nick just sighed deeply and winced at his rudeness, "I'm sorry Wes" he said. "You're only trying to help, I shouldn't have said that."
Wes just smiled at him, "its okay" he said. "Alright, so do you remember when it all started, when did he start acting different?"
"Urm..." Nick said, looking thoughtful. He tried to cast his mind back to when Jeff started acting odd towards him. He smiled to himself when he remembered the day he held his hand during Warbler's. Suddenly, Nick remembered something that Jeff had said to him before. We held hands and you didn't notice me let go.
"That must be it." Wes heard Nick whisper.
"What?" He asked.
Nick sighed. "I think it started a couple of days ago. Jeff and I were sitting in the cafeteria with you guys." Wes just nodded. "And we were talking and just messing around and..." Nick trailed off. He was smiling fondly at the memory, he remembered Jeff holding his hand, and he remembered being mesmerised by Jeff at that moment, until Tyler interrupted the two.
"Tyler..." Nick whispered. He looked up at Wes and nodded at him frantically. "I know now! It all began when Tyler came."
"Tyler?" Wes asked. Confusion etched on his face, "What's he got to do with it?"
Now it was Nick's turn to be baffled. "I don't even know." He said quietly. "But all I know is that Jeff was pretty upset because I've been hanging around Tyler a lot."
"Oh..." Wes said.
"Yeah..." Nick whispered.
Suddenly something clicked in his head, his eyes widened like saucers. He turned his head to Wes, "Wes, you don't think Jeff...?" He trailed off.
Wes furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What?" He asked.
"H-He might be jealous?" Nick said quietly.
"Urm..." Wes hesitated. He didn't know what to tell Nick. It's been obvious for a while to the entire Warbler's of Jeff's affection towards Nick. They've all longed for the day that Nick would realise his own feelings for him and then they could run off into the sunset together. Nevertheless, he can't, under any circumstances, tell Nick that Jeff loves him; Jeff has to tell Nick himself.
After noticing Wes's silence, Nick just nodded in understanding. "I knew it." He whispered. "Jeff fancies Tyler..." He chuckled bitterly "... and he's angry at me because I've been spending time with him." He said incredulously, shaking his head.
"...W-Wait, what?" Wes spluttered as his eyes widened. "Y-You think Jeff likes Tyler?"
"Well yeah...?" Nick said. "It's the only thing that makes sense."
Wes just laughed. He laughed so hard, that he began clutching his sides and gasping for air. After some time, he managed to calm down.
"Pheww..." Wes started, as his chuckles subsided. "That was a good one Nick, nearly had me going for a second there." He laughed lightly.
Meanwhile, Nick was starting to get annoyed. "What's so funny? He huffed.
"You. Thinking that Jeff fancies Tyler, I mean come on, as if!"
"And what's so ridiculous about that?" Nick asked, looking bewildered.
Wes started laughing again, "Nick, to my knowledge, I don't think Jeff has even said two words to the boy. He's nearly always giving him evils at Warblers practice. So he's either really good at playing hard to get, or he doesn't like him, and I think we both know what the answer is."
Nick realised that Wes did have a point there, but then if Jeff didn't fancy Tyler, then why did he dislike him so much? It made no sense to him.
"Guess I'm back to square one" he mumbled.
"Look," Wes began. "The only way you're going to get some answers is by asking him, don't give up, be persistent."
"Easier said than done Wes, it's like every single word I say goes in one ear and comes out the other." He huffed.
"Well...you know what they say," he started "...where words fail, music speaks." He said smiling up at Nick, before patting him on the shoulder and getting up to leave. Nick pondered upon what Wes had just said, how did he not think of this before?
"Wes, you genius!" He said out loud, but he looked around and realised Wes had already left.
Nick knew exactly what song he was going to sing to Jeff; it summed up his anger, frustration and hurt, and luckily enough he had the backing track for it. He quickly sent out a thank you text to Wes before rushing to his room to get the CD.
Wes:
No problem dude, let me know how it goes! And good luck :D
Nick smiled as he read the text; Wes really was an amazing guy when he didn't have that stupid gavel on him. If all this works out for Nick, then he's going to get rid of that gavel for him so he can be this awesome all the time. Nick then sent a text to Jeff; he knew calling him would be out of the question, at least with a text he knew his message would be read.
Nick:
Meet me in the choir room in 10, please x - 3
He knew Jeff wouldn't text back, but he just hoped he would come.
Nick was currently sitting quietly in the choir room waiting for him. He kept glancing at the clock on the wall, ten minutes had already past. He's not going to come, he thought. He then decided to wait five more minutes before he leaves.
Another two minutes had past, and Nick was getting more and more anxious. "Come on, come on..." He muttered, eyes never leaving the door. He took his phone out of his pocket to see whether he text back saying he couldn't come. But no, nothing.
Who was he kidding, why would he come? Annoyed, Nick made his way to the CD player to take out his disc, unaware however to someone entering the room.
"Sorry I'm late..." A voice said quietly.
This new voice caught Nick off-guard, he stopped what he was doing and quickly whipped his head around, seeing Jeff standing a couple of feet away.
"I didn't think you were going to come..." Nick said in disbelief.
Jeff just nodded his head slowly, "well...your text sounded urgent."
"Oh...okay" Nick replied.
Both boys just stood in the choir room, neither knowing what to say to each other.
Nick glanced up at Jeff; he looked very shifty and uncomfortable, as if he wanted to run out of the room. He couldn't let that happen, he's finally got an opportunity to talk to Jeff; he's not going to let that pass. Nick took a deep breath before plucking up the courage to speak up.
"Urm..." He started. "I really need to get this out, and I don't know what else to do or say to get through to you." He said, crestfallen.
"So for the next three minutes, please just listen and don't talk or leave, okay?"
Jeff looked unsure, "Erm..."
"Please" Nick pleaded.
Jeff saw the hurt in his eyes, he felt guilty. "Ok..." He whispered quietly. Nick heard this and smiled.
He went over to the CD player and pressed the play button, before beginning.
Run
Run like you do
I'm chasing you
I'm on your tail I'm gaining fast
You're going nowhere
Try to fix what you've done
Turn back the sun
The night is calling
And were falling faster now
Nick moved towards Jeff, all the hurt and anger now visible in his eyes.
You're pushing me away
Every last word
and every single thing you say
Pushing me away
Try to stop me now but it's already too late
Pushing me away
If you really don't care then say it to my face
Pushing me away
You're push push, pushing me away
Stop! Tell me the truth
Cause I'm so confused
He now stood less than metre in front of him, glancing down he took Jeff's hand and gave it a small squeeze.
Spinning round these walls are falling down and I need you
More than you know
I'm not letting go
I'm getting close so take my hand
And please just tell me why
You're pushing me away
Every last word
and every single thing you say
Pushing me away
Try to stop me now but it's already too late
Pushing me away
If you really don't care then say it to my face
Pushing me away
You're push push, pushing me away
Push push pushing me away
You're Push push pushing me away
Push push pushing me away
Push push pushing me away
You're Push push pushing me away
Push push pushing me away
Push push pushing me away
Oh...
Jeff saw Nick close his eyes and clutch at his heart with his free hand. When he opened them again, they locked onto his; Jeff noticed that they were glossy due to the tears that were now forming.
Pushing me away
Every last word
and every single thing you say
Pushing me away
Try to stop me now
But it's already too late
Pushing me away
If you really don't care then say it to my face
Pushing me away
Push push pushing me away
Pushing me away...
When he finished, Nick began talking again. "Jeff, please. Why won't you tell me what's wrong, we always used to tell each other everything."
Jeff was confused. He hated the way that this was tearing apart their friendship, but if he told him the truth, the damage would be much worse. If only Nick could just see.
"There's nothing wrong Nick." Jeff lied.
Nick groaned in frustration. But this time he wasn't taking any of it, he was sick of the lies Jeff was feeding him, he could feel his patience wearing thin. "That's total bullshit Jeff and you know that!"
"What do you want from me?" He yelled back.
"The truth!" Nick shouted.
Jeff just shook his head, "I can't..." He whispered.
"Why not?" Nick argued, lifting his hands up in defeat.
"Cos I know how it'll end up Nick!" He shouted. "I know what you will say and that will kill me inside. I just can't take it, not from you."
"Look, whatever it is, you're still you, you're still Jeff. Nothing will change!" He exclaimed.
"Yes it would Nick!" He put his hand up in exasperation. "Do you know how I know? Cos you can't even figure it out for yourself. Which means it's never even crossed your mind and..." He stopped himself.
He just scoffed and looked back up at Nick. "If you can't even work it out, then it's not even worth mentioning."
"Just go back to having fun with Tyler." Jeff muttered, grimacing at the name.
"What the hell does he have to do with it?" Nick asked, now completely perplexed.
"He's got everything to do with it!" Jeff argued back, losing his cool. "Before he came, everything was so perfect and now..." He groaned in anger.
"Look I'm still your best friend!" Nick said, trying to reassure him.
"Exactly!" He laughed sullenly. "You're just my best friend!"
Nick looked up at Jeff, his face scrunched up with confusion. What did he mean by that comment? He thought.
"Look, forget it okay," Jeff started again "just leave me alone." He then turned around and started walking towards the door.
Nick just shook his head; he could deliberate upon that comment another time as he saw Jeff making his way towards the door.
"Jeff, please. Just help me out here. I'm so confused." He whispered.
Jeff then stopped in his tracks; he slowly turned around, locking eyes with Nick, who noticed Jeff's watery eyes.
"Maybe...its best that way." Jeff whispered, before turning back around and leaving the room, leaving a very confused and heartbroken boy, standing alone in the choir room.