Chapter nine! It's longer than usual, but that's because it's like two chapters thrown in one :) Enjoy!

"What?" Nick spoke first, breaking the stiff silence. He was standing now, facing Lewis. His eyes were wary yet stony, demanding an explanation.

Lewis opened his mouth only to close it again, biting his lip with uncertainty. He stepped back a single pace, glancing around the room self-consciously. All eyes were bearing down on him, all asking the same question. "Errr…I…" he stammered.

Apprehension dropped in Nick's chest, but he still pressed on. He needed to know. "Don't make excuses. We all heard what you just said." He took a breath, fighting to stay as calm as possible.

Lewis was silent, his dark eyes fearful and appearing trapped. He obviously had something to hide. "Lewis?" Wes said from the table. "I hate to say it, but I think you owe us all an explanation."

Lewis gulped and let his eyes fall back on Nick. "I…I don't know what to say…" he said quietly.

"Why don't you start with that last outburst?" Nick challenged with a glare. "'Neither am I?' Please elaborate on that part. I'm all ears."

Lewis frowned and sighed with defeat. "I'm sorry, Nick," he began. "I'm…I'm not gay…"

Nick clenched his jaw. "I think that's been established here already," he muttered through his teeth. "I'm looking for a different explanation…like why the hell would you pretend to be gay?"

Lewis hesitated, averting his eyes from Nick's. "I-I didn't mean to…It just happened. I'm sorry! I thought it might…er, it might get my parents' attention…but it didn't and I'm sorry, I never should have done this in the first place. I regret it more than you can imagine, and I know I don't deserve forgiveness…"

Nick was hardly listening. The news was only just sinking in. His mind was racing, but every thought led to one conclusion: He had been used. His throat tightened and he glowered at Lewis. "Just shut up. I've heard enough," he muttered.

"Nick—"

"You used me," he accused in a dangerous tone. "You lied to me." He could feel the tears threatening his eyes, but he refused to cry here in front of everyone. Without another word, he shoved passed Lewis and forced the door open to make his retreat.

"Nick!" he heard Jeff's voice this time, a protest. "Wait!"

Nick slammed the door behind him, ignoring his friend. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now. His eyes overflowed as he staggered down the hallway and he swallowed back the sobs building in his chest.

He'd never felt so betrayed and humiliated before. To think that all along, Lewis had been faking it? And Nick had been enough of a fool to fall for it!

What killed him even more was that this had been his first relationship with anyone before, and it had been a complete and utter lie. He was deceived and lied to the whole time. A breakup he could deal with, but this was so many times worse.

Just when he felt like his life was finally getting better, after all those years of torture, something like this has to happen. Why couldn't he just be happy for once? What did the universe have against him? It always felt like every force imaginable was always working against him and happiness was always just barely out of his reach.

Nick didn't stop until he was out of the school building and alone in the back parking lot. He didn't want anyone to see him crying like this.

Too late for that, though, for when he turned around, there stood Jeff a few yards back. He should have guessed that the blonde would follow him out here.

"Go away, Jeff," he rasped. His breath was ragged as he fought back the sobs tightening his chest. "I'm not in the mood to listen to petty reassurances and empty consolation."

Jeff paid no attention to what he said and stepped closer until he stood a few feet away. "I didn't plan to say anything, actually," he said softly. "I just thought you might need a friend." He opened his arms wide, offering up a comforting hug.

Nick hesitated for just a moment before he reminded himself that this was Jeff. He didn't have to hide anything from Jeff because he knew Nick just too well. Nick completely trusted his friend with everything, which right now appeared to be his mental stability.

Unable to hold it back any longer, Nick collapsed into Jeff's arms and allowed the sobs to wrack through his chest. He didn't even try to control it, and the pain overflowed as an endless stream of tears. His hands formed tight, trembling fists against Jeff's chest and he pressed his cheek against the shoulder of his hoodie, wetting the fabric with his salty tears.

Jeff enveloped the sobbing brunette tightly in his arms without a word, as he'd promised. And even though Nick was beyond comfort, it did soothe him ever so slightly. No matter what went wrong in his life, no matter how steep of a fall he took, he knew he always had Jeff. Nick didn't know where he'd be today if it weren't for him.

After a little while, Nick managed to get it under control. Or at least he stopped sobbing so hard. Somehow, the tears still fell, and he wondered just how many tears his eyes were capable of producing.

The front of Jeff's hoodie was pretty soaked, but he barely seemed to notice or care. He pulled back slightly to look at Nick. "Let me take you home?" he asked.

Nick wiped his eyes with his sleeve and nodded with a sniffle. Jeff led him over to his car and opened the passenger door for Nick. He took his seat, waving Jeff away when he tried to help with the seatbelt. Nick may be an emotional wreck right now, but he could still find his way around a car seatbelt.

The whole drive home was silent. Nick only spoke once, a quiet 'thank you' to Jeff when they arrived at his house. With that, he got out of the car, closed the door, and made his way up the walkway to his front door. He managed to get into the house and get to his bedroom without either of his parents noticing him. Thankfully. The last thing he wanted to do was have a 'talk' with his parents. He locked himself in his room for the rest of the night.

…

Nick missed the next two days of school, which happened to be Thursday and Friday. Their performance at the Gap was coming up after school on Friday, and most of the Warblers occupied themselves with getting ready for that, doing their best to ignore what had transpired during Wednesday's emergency meeting.

Although Jeff had the solo and was actually pretty excited for this performance, he wasn't really sure he wanted to go. He'd barely spoken to Nick since Wednesday, and he was getting pretty worried for his friend. The brunette almost never missed school, and here he'd skipped two days. Sure, it could possibly be his mother's idea—she sometimes kept him home when he had a mild cold—but it still worried Jeff nonetheless.

He decided to stop by to visit Nick before the performance. When he knocked at the door, Mrs. Romano was the one to answer. She looked a little stressed out, but still managed to smile a greeting at Jeff. "Oh, Jeff! It's good to see you. Come in, come in," she offered, holding open the door. "Here to see Nick?"

"Yeah. I brought his homework…How's he doing?"

She sighed. "I don't know. He won't talk with me about it. He's kept himself locked up in his room these passed two days. I'm tempted to call his emergency psychiatrist…"

Jeff furrowed his eyebrows. "He has one of those…?"

"After what happened last time, we don't want to take any chances," she explained vaguely.

Now he was even more confused. "Last time? What last time?" he asked. "And what happened?"

She frowned. "Last time when he was depressed…?" she reminded him.

Jeff could recall that part perfectly fine. It was back in seventh grade, just after Nick came out of the closet. …Actually, he'd been outed by someone. He probably never would have come out on his own, considering that he was the scared and shy kid that no one else seemed to talk to. Jeff had been the only one he'd actually come out to, but somehow, someone else must have figured it out, and they told just about everyone. This was back before Dalton, and the two of them went to a regular public school for middle school, and Nick was bullied and harassed mercilessly back there. He had already been the 'weirdo' and the 'freak.' Imagine his dismay when everyone found out that he was also gay? Needless to say, it had been hell for the poor kid. The harassment escalated to the point where he couldn't even walk down the hallway without a jeer or a shove. Jeff had done anything in his power to help by standing up for him and calling the bullies out, but it hardly changed anything.

As a result to the bullying, Nick fell into a depression. He would hide away in his room for hours on end and he skipped school in order to avoid the bullies. He kind of isolated himself from everyone, including Jeff. It lasted a few months, but Nick's parents managed to take control of the situation—for the most part—by hiring therapist who specialized in depression cases and demanding that the school take more initiative in punishing the bullies. It seemed to help lessen the daily harassment Nick received there and he eventually eased out of his depressed state.

Still, Jeff was confused by what Mrs. Romano had said. "After what happened last time, we don't want to take any chances,"? What did she mean by that? Did something happen that Jeff didn't know about? Or was she just talking about his depression in general?

He dismissed it for now. He had to be at the Gap in an hour, so he didn't have much time here. He nodded in response. "So, is Nick in his room?" he asked.

"Yes. Maybe you can talk him into getting out of the house? His therapist says that staying locked in his room isn't good for him," she suggested.

"I'll try," Jeff promised. Trust me, I hate seeing him like this just as much as you.

Jeff went Nick's room. The door was closed, but it wasn't locked, so he walked right on in. Nick's room was dark, the only light coming from the windows. The room was clean as usual, except for Nick's bed which was unmade and littered with random snacks and drinks and what not. Jeff could see a half-eaten bag of red vines, an empty can of guava juice, a few unopened candy bars, and a bag of chips. It seemed kind of unusual, seeing how health consciences and sugar free Nick's diet was normally, but Nick did tend to eat a lot more junk food when he was depressed or upset…

So…where was Nick, then? Jeff glanced around the room until he spotted his friend, huddled in the corner under a window, a thick book opened in his lap. He was hunched over reading, and he seemed pretty engrossed in the book.

"Whatcha reading?" Jeff asked casually.

Nick barely glanced at him. "Edgar Allan Poe," he mumbled distractedly.

"…Um, the poet guy?" Jeff guessed.

Nick sent a look at him. "Yes, he was a poet. He was also an author. He wrote macabre mysteries and tragedies."

"Sounds pretty morbid," Jeff commented.

"Most of it is," Nick affirmed, looking back to his book.

Jeff helped himself to a red vine from the bag on Nick's bed. "So, our performance at the Gap is today," Jeff reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. I completely forgot about that," Nick said. He looked over at Jeff again. "Good luck with your solo."

"You're not coming?"

"I'd rather not."

"Aw, come on…It's my first solo," Jeff reminded him in a pleading voice. "Don't you want to come support me?"

"Not really," Nick said bluntly.

"Ow. That kind of hurts, you know."

"Sorry," Nick sighed. "I didn't mean that. I just…I can't face the Warblers yet. Especially not Lewis."

"No one is judging you, Nick," Jeff assured him. "And Lewis is the one who should be ashamed to show his face to us anymore." He paused and added, "Which I think he kind of is. In the last two meetings, he sat in the back corner, away from everyone else."

"I'm not going," Nick said. "I'm sorry, I just can't."

"You're going to have to face everyone again sooner or later," Jeff reminded him. "Hiding in your room isn't going to help you at all. You know that."

Nick was silent, turning back to his book without responding. Jeff frowned to himself with uncertainty. This was pretty bad if Nick felt he couldn't even face his friends. Jeff understood that the situation had probably been humiliating, but why would that change how any of the Warblers looked at Nick? If anything, they would never see Lewis the same way again, but Nick hadn't done anything wrong at all.

"Alright, Nick. If you won't go to the Gap, then neither will I," he decided suddenly.

That seemed to get his attention. "What? You can't skip this! You got the solo," he protested.

"I did…but I'm sure someone else can take over for me. There were at least four of us who had Blaine's part down pat."

"Jeff, this is your first solo. You can't skip it just to join my stupid little pity party," Nick said sternly.

"Listen, Nick. You're way more important to me than some silly solo performance." The words were more sincere than Nick would probably ever fathom, and he may never know the exact meaning Jeff had in mind. "If you don't think you're up to it, then I'll stay here with you."

"If this is your ploy to try to get me to go, then it isn't going to work," Nick warned.

"It's not," Jeff assured. "I'll call Wes now to tell him I can't go if that will convince you that I'm being sincere."

"I don't want you to miss your solo because of me," Nick protested. "Just go without me, please."

"I don't mind at all," Jeff said. He wish he could tell Nick just how much he didn't mind it. In fact, he couldn't think of anything he'd rather do than spend time alone with Nick. A solo, despite how much he had longed for one, seemed pale in comparison.

He couldn't tell him, though. He couldn't let Nick know how he really felt. It could ruin everything. It could destroy their six year-old friendship and Jeff wasn't sure he could handle that. He had to keep this locked up, for both their sakes.

"Trust me, Nick," Jeff said, meeting the deep emerald eyes that he was only too fond of. "I won't be missing out on anything. I prefer spending my time with you, anyways." That wasn't too personal, was it?

Nick didn't seem happy with this solution, but he still didn't give up and offer to go to the Gap. Instead, he turned his eyes back down to the book, but he appeared too distracted to possibly be reading any of the words on the page.

Jeff left the room to call Wes and explained to him exactly why he wouldn't be attending the Gap performance. Wes seemed to completely understand, which was a shocker, and simply shrugged it off and decided to give the solo to Trent. He wished Jeff luck and told him to pass a message from the Warblers onto Nick.

"So, I just told Wes I won't be at the Gap today," Jeff told Nick when he went back to his room. "He understood, and Trent is going to take over for me."

Nick looked surprised. "I can't believe you were actually serious," he said. "You gave up your first solo just to sit around at home with me?"

"But of course!" Jeff said lightly. "Why would I say it if it I wasn't serious?"

"I just figured you were trying to guilt me into going…"

Jeff shook his head. "I'd never do that to you. You're upset enough as it is. The last thing you need is me heaping some guilt onto your back," Jeff said. "Speaking of which, you don't need to feel guilty at all. This is all me. It's my decision."

"You've always been a little crazy," Nick mumbled.

Jeff smiled. "Oh, yeah. I have a message from the Warblers," he remembered out loud. "They all miss you. And we expect to see you at Warblers practice this coming Monday!"

Nick smiled vaguely and sighed. "…I'll try to get a hold of myself by then," he promised.

"Glad to hear it."

Nick was quiet for a long moment before speaking again. "Thank you, Jeff…I'm really, truly grateful to have a friend like you."

Jeff smiled sincerely. "Ditto," he said lightly. You'll probably never know it, but there's nowhere else I'd rather be in the world than here with you…