Yes! I am back! (again). Sorry for my lack of focus on my fanfictions lately, guys. I've been SO busy at school. But summer break is in a week and I promise to give you lots of new chapters over summer! For now, enjoy this new chapter, which took me months to complete thanks to school, homework, and writer's block.

Jeff sat in the living room the next morning, staring down at the smeared and faded phone number written on his hand. He was debating whether he should wash it off or not. With his boyfriend away in Italy for now, Jeff felt like spending any more time with Jonah would be unfaithful to Nick, somehow.

On the other hand, he didn't want to completely blow Jonah off. That would be rude, plus he had a good time with Jonah and he felt that they had the potential of being good friends.

Tyler came into the living room from the kitchen with a piece of toast in hand. "Oh, you're awake?" he said to Jeff. "I figured you'd probably be sleeping all day."

"I didn't drink anything last night," Jeff told him. Since his father took up the habit, alcohol had become more than unappetizing to Jeff. Sure, it had yet to make his father violent, but Jeff had a feeling that it was only a matter of time.

"Still, you were out half the night."

Jeff shrugged. "I couldn't sleep." Or more like he was afraid he'd dream about Jonah again…

Tyler seemed to accept that response without question. He flopped down on the sofa by Jeff and took the remote to channel-surf. "So, where'd you go last night?"

"Just some bar," Jeff said as vaguely as he could. "It's in Lima."

"Which one?"

Jeff hesitated. What were the odds that Tyler would know that Scandals was a gay bar? "Um, it was called Scandals or something like that…"

"You went to a gay bar?" Tyler sent a look at Jeff.

Of course. Jeff had yet again misjudged his brother. "Yes," Jeff mumbled. "Just for curiosity's sake," he explained uncomfortably.

Tyler shrugged. "I've been to gay bars before and I'm not even gay. I'm not judging."

"Of course you have," Jeff said, rolling his eyes. He fell silent for a long moment, once again glancing at the number written on his hand. Without thinking, he said, "…I met someone there, too."

Tyler raised an eyebrow at Jeff. "What was that?"

"Don't look at me that way," Jeff said defensively. "It's not like it was anything serious. We didn't do anything."

"Are you going to break up with Nick…?"

"No, of course not," Jeff said. "I told you it's not serious."

"Then why bother bringing it up?" Tyler questioned.

Jeff shrugged. "He gave me his number," he answered. "I'm not sure if I should call him or not."

"So you asked for his number?" Tyler guessed.

"No, he asked for mine. But you know I don't have a cell phone. So he gave me his."

"And you like this guy?"

"No," Jeff answered reflexively before realizing that was a lie. "I mean, not exactly…"

"…Not exactly…?" Tyler echoed.

"Okay, yes. I like him," Jeff admitted. "Not seriously, though. Not the same way I feel about Nick, not even close." He was surprised how easy it was to say these things to Tyler. He always assumed it would be too awkward to talk to anyone about these sorts of things, let alone his straight older brother.

"Then don't call," Tyler advised simply. "I'd assume you don't want to cheat on Nick, so…better safe than sorry."

Jeff nodded slowly. "But he's a nice guy. I'd feel guilty for just completely blowing him off…"

"Then you'll just have to decide if the risk if worth it. I don't know how serious it is with this guy, though, so I can't really help you there."

"Well, I did dream about him last night," Jeff confessed ashamedly.

Tyler winced. "Then I'll say the sooner you lose his number, the better."

Jeff sighed. "That's probably the best decision," he agreed.

The doorbell suddenly rang and Tyler jumped up. "That's probably Vivian," he said. "We're supposed to go to the bookstore today. Some author she likes is doing a book talk or something…" his voice faded as he hurried to open the front door.

When Tyler opened the door, he greeted Vivian with a hug and a kiss. "Good morning, beautiful," he said.

She smiled weakly. "Good morning." No sooner did she walk in the door did Jeff notice how pale her face was and how dull her eyes were.

Tyler seemed to notice this as well. "Are you feeling alright?" He touched her forehead, but she pulled away.

"I'm fine," she said. "I'm just a little tired."

Tyler didn't seem to buy that for some reason. "Are you sure?" he asked worriedly. "Have you eaten today?"

She nodded. "Although I wouldn't mind skipping the bookstore today. Maybe we could stay here and watch some movies or something?" It seemed like talking was an effort for her as she was beginning to sound a little breathless.

"Why? I thought you were looking forward to this?" Tyler asked.

She shrugged. "I didn't get much sleep. And he's not my favorite author or anything."

Tyler frowned. "If that's what you want…" he agreed reluctantly. "Why don't you sit down? I can get you an apple or make you some toast…"

"No, I'm not hungry," she insisted. "I already ate."

"What did you eat, then?"

She hesitated before saying, "Cereal," as if she had to think about it.

"What kind?"

"Um. Cheerios?"

At first, Jeff couldn't figure out why Tyler was so focused on what Vivian had eaten for breakfast. She looked too sick right now to eat anything, really. She was also looking pretty disoriented.

"Come sit down," he told her gently, offering a hand which she didn't take, or even seem to notice.

Without any warning whatsoever, Vivian suddenly collapsed. Tyler sprang to catch her before she hit the ground, which he only just barely managed. It all happened in maybe 5 milliseconds.

"Vivian!" he gasped. "Vivian, are you okay? Can you hear me? Vivian?" He checked her pulse briefly and then leaned forward to listen for her breathing.

"Is she okay?" Jeff asked in bewilderment.

"She just passed out, what the hell do you think?" Tyler snapped.

"What do you want me to do? Should I call an ambulance or something?" The situation was catching up to him and he was suddenly freaking out. People don't just faint out of the blue unless something is very wrong.

"Not yet," Tyler said. Somehow, he seemed calm. "She'll probably come to in a minute. Just…get me a wet towel."

Jeff nodded and darted for the kitchen. He retrieved a towel from a drawer and hastily ran it under cool water. When he returned to the living room, Vivian was lying on her back on the carpet with her legs slightly elevated by a small stack of pillows on the floor. Tyler was lightly fanning her with a folded page from the newspaper.

He seemed to really know what he was doing. As Jeff handed him the wet towel, he said, "You're really on top of things, Tyler…Has this happened before or something?"

"Once," Tyler admitted, laying the rag over her forehead. "Not to mention I passed my first aid exam with 100%."

Jeff couldn't imagine being so calm if this were him in such a situation. How would he react if Nick randomly fainted out of the blue? Not well, probably. "So this has happened before?" he confirmed. "Does she have some sort of illness?"

Come to think of it, Vivian did seem awfully thin…

Tyler ignored Jeff's question and went back to focusing completely on Vivian. "Vivian? Can you hear me? Wake up…"

After enough coaxing and nudging, Vivian stirred. She turned her head to one side with a soft moan and opened her eyes halfway. The relief that shone on Tyler's face gave away just how worried he'd really been. "Glad to have you back, beautiful," he said softly to her. "You really shouldn't scare me like that."

She seemed confused and still disoriented. "Did I faint?" she asked in a nearly inaudible voice.

"Yes," Tyler answered honestly. He looked to Jeff. "Can you get a glass of water?"

Jeff nodded and turned back for the kitchen. He wasn't sure he wanted to intrude here anyways. He brought Tyler the glass of water and stepped aside for the meantime to let Tyler handle things from there.

Within the next half hour, he got Vivian to accept the water and eat half a piece of toast, and now she was resting on the sofa. When she fell asleep, Tyler stepped outside briefly to phone someone—probably Vivian's parents or something. Jeff followed him outside and stepped out on the patio just as Tyler ended the call.

Tyler turned back toward the door and noticed Jeff. "Vivian's sister is coming to get her," he informed his younger brother.

"That's good," Jeff said absentmindedly. He had an idea of what was wrong with Vivian, but he was hesitant to ask about it. Obviously, this was a personal matter, but still. The girl passed out right in front him—of course he was curious. "Um, Tyler?"

"What?"

"Um, well…I was just wondering…" How does a person go about asking this sort of thing? It was insensitive and rude and not really much of Jeff's business. But he couldn't just forget it and pretend that this didn't happen. He decided to just blurt it out. "Is Vivian anorexic?"

Tyler frowned but didn't seem surprised by the question. He nodded almost sadly. "She wanted me to keep it a secret. But I figured you'd figure it out after that."

"So she is?" Part of him suddenly regretted asking. This was a personal matter that he wasn't meant to know. He felt like he was intruding.

"…Yeah," he mumbled. "It's something she's been dealing with for a long time now. Before we even met."

"And this has happened before," Jeff stated.

"Yes, but that was several months ago. I thought she was getting better lately. Shows what I know…"

He seemed really unhappy about this. Jeff didn't think he'd ever seen his bother so distraught. "It's not your fault, you know," Jeff tried to reassure him.

"I know that," Tyler said sharply. "It's not like her therapist hasn't told me that countless times. That's not even the issue. No, the issue that there is absolutely nothing I can do to help her. I just have to watch and hope that things work out, because she's too sick to see how beautiful she truly is. All I can do is give 'moral support,' whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. It obviously doesn't help, because she keeps relapsing."

"I'm sorry…" Jeff murmured, unsure of what else he could say. He wasn't used to this kind of thing. Tyler never told anyone what he was feeling, so Jeff pretty much assumed that nothing was ever wrong. Evidently, that was a stupid assumption, especially since no one in the world had a perfectly carefree life.

Tyler shook his head. "It's nothing you can help anyways," he said. "I'm going to go check on Vivian."

Vivian slept soundly until her sister arrived to take her home.

…

Nick always felt better the moment his feet touched solid ground. He'd never been very fond of flying, even though he should be used to it by now. His family flew to Italy almost every other year, sometimes more.

What's more, he was more than thrilled to be back in the United States. He couldn't wait to see Jeff again. The two of them hardly spoke in the time that Nick was away due to the lack of communication devices, like cell phones or computers. Nick had access to both while Jeff had access to neither. Returning to the US (finally) meant that they could see each other again at last.

Jeff was there waiting when Nick got out of the car at home. He gave Nick no chance to speak before he drew him into tight embrace.

"I missed you," Jeff said without letting go.

Nick smiled and breathed a laugh. "I missed you, too," he said. "Have you been waiting out here all day?"

Jeff laughed, too. "Maybe," he said softly. "Would you call that creepy or romantic?"

"Well…" Nick pretended to think about it. Jeff still wouldn't let go of him. "Let's go with romantic," he decided.

"Then yes, I've been waiting out here all day," Jeff said.

"I would've come straight to your house, you know," Nick told him.

"But that would mean waiting at least one minute longer to see you than I'd have to," Jeff pointed out. "My summer was awful without you," Jeff went on. "You're not allowed to go on vacation next year. Or ever again."

"Believe me," Nick said, "if I have any say in it, I'm staying here." He pulled out of the embrace finally, since Jeff showed no signs of releasing Nick. His parents were unloading the car now.

"I can help you unpack," Jeff decided.

Nick had no objections there. He wasn't very keen on letting Jeff out of his sights anytime soon. "Sure," Nick agreed. "We packed up half the house, so I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind the extra help."

Unpacking took a great deal of time, since Nick had packed almost his entire wardrobe for his trip to Italy. He liked to over-prepare for things rather than under-prepare.

By the time everything was in its rightful place in his room and closet, it was around 4 o'clock. Thanks to the jet-lag, Nick was completely exhausted already.

When he expressed his fatigue, Jeff suggested he go to sleep.

"I can't," he responded. "It'll mess up my whole sleeping routine."

Jeff smiled. "And then you'll become nocturnal?" he concluded.

"Exactly," Nick said. "It's almost the end of summer, too. I have to get my sleeping pattern under control." Just at the word 'sleep,' Nick couldn't suppress a yawn. He was still running on Italian time, which was six hours ahead of Ohio time. His internal clock was set at 10 pm right now, and he'd woken up really early for his flight, too.

"Then take a nap," Jeff suggested. "There's still a few hours before it'll be a suitable time to go to bed for the night."

Nick tried to say, "No, I'm fine," but the words were obscured by yet another yawn.

Jeff breathed an affectionate laugh. "I'll wake you up in like an hour," he offered.

Nick still hesitated, although he knew he probably wouldn't even last to 9 pm, he was so tired. Maybe if he drank a lot of coffee, he could, but he liked to avoid too much caffeine because it triggered his anxiety more than anything else and he really didn't want to set off a panic attack in his first few hours home. "Fine," he agreed finally, "but only because I've been awake for nearly 20 hours straight."

"What, you didn't sleep on the plane?" Jeff asked.

"I couldn't," Nick said. "Flying isn't exactly my favorite thing to do," he said vaguely. In short, he couldn't even relax completely until his feet were back on solid ground, let alone sleep on a flying airplane constantly hit with bouts of rough turbulence late into the night and early into the morning. He was actually pretty surprised he didn't get very bad panic attacks every time he was forced to fly. Maybe he was just too used to it.

Jeff seemed to accept that answer and didn't ask any further questions. He knew all about Nick's anxiety issues, so there was no need to inquire deeper than necessary.

It wasn't long before Nick finally allowed himself to relax, per Jeff's wishes, especially warm and comfortable wrapped in his arms on the bed.

It occurred to him that his parents would probably have a conniption if they walked into his room right now, but it felt so good to be in Jeff's arms again that Nick didn't spend any time on the thought. Besides, it wasn't like they were doing anything wrong.

Nick was only just beginning to drift off to sleep when Jeff suddenly spoke. "Hey, Nick?"

"Hmm?" Drowsily, he lifted his head from Jeff's shoulder to look at him.

"I have to tell you something." Suddenly, he appeared very serious.

Nick sat up to listen. It wasn't too often Jeff sounded so serious, so this must be something important. Although why he was choosing now to say it, Nick had no clue. "Yes?"

Jeff hesitated to think about what he was going to say. "Um. . . Well, the other day, Tyler gave me a fake ID. And I went to a bar. Er, a gay bar."

He blurted the whole thing out so fast that Nick—in his currently drowsy and weary state—had to pause a moment to take it in. "Alright," he said slowly. He couldn't think of why this information was so urgent for him to know. It wasn't like it was any secret that Jeff occasionally drank, and it was even less of a secret that Jeff fell into the 'gay' category. "So? Is that all?"

Jeff blinked as if this wasn't the response he expected. "Well, no," he mumbled. "I. . . I met this guy there."

This caught Nick's attention and he was suddenly wide awake. "What?" he demanded.

"N-no, it wasn't like that," Jeff said quickly, holding up his hands. "Nothing happened. I swear. I don't even like him. He may have liked me, I don't know, but I'm perfectly happy being with you."

Nick stared a moment longer before relaxing. Jeff would never cheat on him. Maybe the lack of sleep was getting to his head. "So why bring it up?" he asked in a less severe tone.

Jeff shrugged. "Well. I sort of thought—I don't like him at all—but I kind of thought he was. . . Erm. . ."

"Attractive?" Nick guessed.

"Yeah. . . " Jeff admitted ashamedly.

Nick managed to smile at that. "So?" he said. "It's not like you're not already attracted to plenty of girls as it is—trust me, I've seen you stare at the French teacher. Do you think you're not allowed to find other guys attractive, too?" Granted, Nick wasn't too happy knowing his boyfriend was attracted to people other than himself, but it wasn't like he expected anything else. He was a teenage boy.

"What, you're not upset?" Jeff seemed surprised.

."No," Nick said. "You are bisexual, after all. It just comes with the territory, I guess. You don't have to tell me every time you see somebody you think is attractive—guy or girl," Nick assured. "I mean, it's not like I don't notice other guys, too, but that's a far cry from cheating."

Jeff seemed comforted by this. "I just felt like I had to tell you," he admitted. "I don't know why, but I felt guilty for it."

Nick smiled. "Well, thank you for being honest with me," he said. "And you don't need to feel guilty for anything. I know I can trust you to be faithful." He dropped his head back to Jeff's shoulder. "Now shut up and let me sleep."

Jeff laughed softly. "I love you, Nick."

Nick smiled and closed his eyes. "I love you, too, Jeff."