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TUESDAY - 12.21.04
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Justin put his pencil down and sat back in his seat. Looking over the answers he’d filled he double checked with the question paper, making sure everything was in the right place and that he didn’t make any mistakes. ‘Math isn’t supposed to be this easy!’ He thought to himself as he looked at the time and saw that only twenty five minutes had passed since class started. ‘But then again, I did spend every single second studying math and biology in the past few weeks, like I had anything better to do!’

Once he was certain of his answers he grabbed the scrap papers, the answer scantron, and headed up the isle to his teachers desk. “Mr. Cox?” He questioned in a whisper. “Can I hand in my extra credit take home right now?”

Mr. Cox raised an eyebrow and slowly nodded his head. “You can hand it in tomorrow but sure, If you have it I’ll take it now.”

Justin smiled with a nod of his head and headed back to his seat. Once he put his things away in his bag he grabbed the take home test and handed it to Mr. Cox. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye, Mr. Cox!” With that Justin slung his book bag over his shoulder and headed out the door. He just finished his math test early and was now walking down the hall not knowing what the hell he’s going to go to do. Next period is a free period and after that he has lunch. Twenty minutes plus forty five minutes gave him an hour and five minutes of nothing to do. He headed down to the basement where the locker rooms were located and put his things away except for his biology study notes that he’d prepared for the test he was going to have last period. His second to last class was Global History I but he didn’t even bother to bring anything with him because Mr. O’Hagan said they would be watching a movie, no notes required. Yay for Justin!

Wandering down the halls again on the main floor Justin stumbled into the auditorium for some quiet study. He got himself situated in one of the seats in the back row of the right side of the auditorium, right by the big window. The seats were similar to the ones that were in movie theaters, the school having renovated the auditorium over last summer for a friendly and comfortable environment for the students and guests. It was only few seconds later that Justin realized that coming to the auditorium was a bad idea because the noise coming from the stage and the front of the auditorium was keeping him from concentrating on biology.

Looking up he noticed people running around, calling out things, and getting the props and things set. ‘Oh the senior’s Christmas play,’ Justin thought to himself. ‘It’s tomorrow!’ Just then the doors behind him opened and a few students dressed in their costume came walking in. Looking at the senior Justin noticed Marshall and Scott with a few other seniors. He was surprised when both Marshall and Scott waved and him and let their friends go ahead of them before taking a seat in front of him.

“Justin,” Marshall said. “Long time no see kid.”

“Yeah, where the hell have you been hiding?” Scott questioned.

“Hey guys,” Justin said with a smile. “No where really. Just been busy with school and stuff.”

Scott looked over at Marshall with a questioning look before Marshall turned to Justin. “You part of the play or something?”

Justin shook his head. “Nope,” he said and waved the papers in his hands. “Thought I’d come in here to study for bio, I didn’t realize rehearsals were going on up front.”

Marshall and Scott both looked behind them at the stage before bringing their attention back to Justin. “Yeah,” Scott replied and bit his lower lip.

“Listen, J,” Marshall said as he ran a hand through his hair. “We’re not trying to be rude or anything and we wouldn’t mind you staying in here but…”

“…but right now the auditorium is closed for everyone except for those involved with the play. Kinda like we don’t want people getting a sneak peek and have it ruin tomorrow’s opening since the first people that get to see it are the freshmen’s and sophomores,” Scott finished.

Justin laughed as he nodded his head. “Don’t worry about it guys,” he said sitting up straight and ready to stand up. “I swear I totally forgot that this was going on. I’ll just go to the library or…” He trailed off as he noticed Nick walk out on stage wearing a head piece with a microphone and a clip board in hand. Nick was saying something about the lighting looking over to the left hand side of the stage to… Lance? Taking a deep breath he looked back over at Marshall and Scott who were already standing and were about to make their way to join the rest of the cast on stage. “Bye guys.’

“See you tomorrow J,” Scott called out over his shoulders while Marshall just gave him a little wave of the hand.

Walking out of the auditorium Justin sighed. He hadn’t spoken to or seen Nick since the Mother-Son Thanksgiving dance in which he had acted like a complete idiot. He had been killing himself over it. Sometimes he’d even gotten the feeling that Nick was purposely trying to ignore or avoid him and that made him feel like a complete asshole.

The Monday following the dance Justin had gathered up enough courage to dial Nick’s cell phone number but Nick hadn’t answered and Justin was too chicken shit to leave a message on the voice mail. He’s even tried e-mailing Nick but he never got a response back. He just thankful that both he and Nick had AOL accounts because in the mail box it allows you to see if your mail that you sent was deleted or view and at what time by the recipient. Nick had done neither which meant that either Nick is purposely not opening the mail or he hadn’t even logged on to his account to check his mail.

After the Thanksgiving break Justin had hoped that he’d be able to bump into Nick in the hallways or even see him in the student council office but with the upcoming Christmas events Nick had been preoccupied and no where to be seen. Justin had even called Nick’s house and Jane had informed him that Nick, as of late, had been coming home from school at eight in the evening and was really busy with school work and other school activities. Justin had thanked her and happily gave the phone to his mother who then went about talking with Jane about mother/woman things.

But now realizing that Lance was also part of the genesians pissed Justin off to no extent. That meant Nick and Lance were hanging out a lot more now and Justin had barely even seen or spoken to Nick for a few weeks.

Today was the second to last day before Christmas break with a full day of classes. Tomorrow would be a half day with no classes in which they all get to dress up in regular formal clothes. Feeling sad Justin entered the library on the third floor so he could continue his review of biology. The bell rang signaling the end of fifth period. It was his lunch period now but he wasn’t at all hungry.

* * * * * * * * * *

Nick flopped down in the bean bag chair of the student council office. He smiled gratefully at Brian who handed him a cup of hot chocolate. “I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over with,” he said taking a sip and letting out a content sigh.

“Tell me about it,” Brian said sitting next to him and grabbing the controller he’d dropped a few minutes earlier. “I’m sick of singing the same songs over and over and over and over again.”

Nick laughed. “That’s you get for being in the glee club you weirdo,” he stated as he set his cup down and picked up his own controller and un-paused the game.

“You two knuckle heads still playing that game?” Marshall questioned as he came in and flopped down across from them on the chair.

“Yeah,” Brian answered, not taking his eyes away from the screen, his fingers expertly working over the buttons. “You done with everything for the play?”

“Ready for tomorrow, D.L.?” Nick questioned. D.L. was short for Detroit Louie, Marshall’s character in the play.

Marshall snickered. “More than ever,” he said. “With all that fucking rehearsing we did, I better be damn well ready for tomorrow.”

“I hear ya,” Scott said walking in, untying his tie.

“How in the world did you two end up with the main roles?” Brian questioned, pausing the game and looking up at the two of them.

“Marsh is going to have to die his hair brown tonight,” Nick pointed out.

Marsh nodded his head with a groan. “I’m gonna look weird,” he said.

“No, you’re gonna look normal,” Nick retorted.

Scott and Brian chuckled and then howled with laughter as they watched Marshall jump put of his seat right towards Nick and started to tackle Nick to the floor.

Nick was laughing too hard to fight Marshall off while Marshall kept trying to tickle the hell out of Nick.

“You know, you two should both dye your hairs brown,” Brian said watching the two of them on floor, amused.

That stopped Nick’s laughter as he looked up at Brian looking down at him. “Huh?”

“Dye your hair brown,” Brian simply said. “It’d be a nice change. You’re way too blonde and I’m sick of seeing you as blonde… maybe with the dye job you’ll actually look smarter.”

It wasn’t long till all four of them were on the floor tickling whoever was in their reach.

* * * * * * * * * *

“I’ll see you guys bright and early tomorrow morning,” Nick said as he and Brian stepped out of the student council office.

“Yea, later guys,” Brian said his good bye to Marsh and Scott.

As they walked a few steps Brian noticed Nick’s step falter a bit and when he looked ahead he saw Justin standing there watching them with an unreadable expression on his face. “Hey Nick,” Brian said looking at Nick. “I gotta go to the main office and get some things done,” he paused to look at Justin before turning back to Nick. “Remember what we talked about,” he whispered and smiled. “Come get me when you’re done.” With that he walked away from Nick and smiled at Justin as he walked past him. “See you later Justin.”

Justin smiled as Brian walked by and then up the stairs before bringing his attention back to Nick. He felt really awkward all of a sudden. Clearing his throat he shifted from foot to foot. “Hi,” he said in a shy voice.

“Hey,” Nick said taking in a deep breath. “How are you?”

“I’m good, tired, but good. You?” Justin said.

“Same,” Nick said and then looked at the time. “You’re teacher let you out of class early or something?”

Justin shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “I had a bio test, finished it early.” He shrugged. “I was just about to head home since PM homeroom was cancelled for today.

“Yeah, how was the test?” Nick questioned, curious.

Justin smiled. “I finished early, didn’t I?”

Nick chuckled. “That hard, huh?”

Justin rolled his eyes. “Totally.” He then tried to think of the best way to approach Nick and apologize to him.

“Justin, I’m sorry,” Nick said taking a few steps towards Justin.

Justin’s head snapped up and he looked at Nick in surprise. “What?” He questioned, thinking he heard Nick wrong. ‘What the hell is he apologizing for?’

“I’m sorry,” Nick repeated looking directly into Justin’s eyes. “I was meaning to apologize but every time I tried to some thing always came up.”

“Don’t.. I mean, stop,” Justin said shaking his head to try and clear his mind. “Don’t apologize when you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But-”

“No,” Justin cut Nick off looking every where but at him. “It’s my fault. I was just…”

“Jealous?” Nick questioned, slowly.

Justin’s eyes widened, as he looked deep in to Nick’s eyes. “Uh…”

“Of Lance?” Nick continued.

“Bu…” Justin didn’t know what the hell to say anymore as his face turned red with embarrassment.

Nick sighed. “Like I said, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t like Lance,” he said.

“No-”

“No, no, no,” Nick said holding his hand up to indicate that Justin should let him finish. “I didn’t know you were jealous of me hanging out with Lance but I want you to know that there’s nothing going on between him and I. I don’t like him like that… just as a friend.”

Justin just nodded his head.

“But some times I do get the feeling that Lance likes me,” Nick added softly.

“Duh,” Justin said rolling his eyes. “That’s why I was the way I was. It’s like every time I wanted to talk to you, he’s around. When I haven’t seen or talked to you in days I find out that he’s been hanging out with you all those times. And like at the dinner, I barely got to talk to you and there he was, laughing and talking with you. How the hell was I supposed to feel?” By the time he was done he looked at Nick’s amused face. “What?”

Nick licked his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You know Justin,” he said taking another step closer to Justin, this time they were almost nose-to-nose. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say we were already dating except I missed the memo.”

Justin was finding it really hard to breathe. “I guess,” he paused to swallow. “I guess I missed it too.”

Nick chuckled and took a step back. “Things between us okay now?”

“More than okay,” Justin corrected with a smile and then bit his lower lip nervously.

“What?” Nick questioned noticing Justin has something to ask.

“Um,” Justin said. ‘Ask now you idiot!’ His mind yelled at him. ‘Do it!’ “I was wondering just when we’re gonna… okay. Like we’ve been skipping around each other for a while now… and like I was wondering.-”

“Justin, just ask me,” Nick said.

“When are we gonna hook up?” Justin blurted out. “Are we gonna hook up? I’m not trying to rush you into anything but I was just wondering if we are ever gonna hook-”

“My parents know I’m bi,” Nick said evenly, cutting Justin off. “And they know I like you.”

“They do?” Justin questioned. “And..?”

“And they’re okay with it,” Nick said with a nod of his head. “I overheard my mom talking to your mom last night. We might have both our families get together and celebrate Christmas. Our mom‘s got really close.”

“Really?” Justin questioned. “My mom didn’t mention anything like that to me.” He frowned.

“Mine neither, I think it’s all in the planning stages or something,” Nick said. “And I heard it while I was walking by my parents’ room.”

“I thin it’d be cool if we had Christmas together,” Justin said with a few nods of his head.

“Yeah,” Nick said and looked down at the time on his cell. “Hey J, I gotta get going home, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Justin nodded his head. “Definitely,” he said with a small smile. “See you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Nick smiled and quickly looked around before quickly leaning over to Justin and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. “Later J.”

Justin stood there a bit dazed as he brought his hand up and touched the spot Nick’s lips had touched him cheek.