One More Year Ch. 17

I carefully climbed up behind him, my legs grazing Eric's as I lined myself up again and pushed my dick back into Nick's hole. He groaned and collapsed on Eric, who let out an amused chuckle.

I leant forward as I got back into a rhythm. Eric's arm snaked around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. Nick was panting heavily, and whimpering into Eric's ear.

"Oh god. Oh god, Eric, I'm..."

I felt his body tighten underneath me, and I felt his hole spasming around my dick. My own climax was quickly approaching, and I pulled away from kissing Eric and looked into his eyes. I could tell by the look on his face that he was close too. I'd seen him get like that so many times. It was almost as if Nick wasn't there between us. Like he didn't exist at all.

When Eric grunted in that familiar way, it was too much for me. It had been a while since I'd touched a guy, and images rushed through my head. All the times I'd been with Eric. All the times I'd been with Jamie, too. The guilty feeling resurfaced. What was I doing? Should I have been letting my hormones tell me what to do, again? It was far too late, though.

I felt myself tense up, and unload in the condom. It felt like tiny flames roiling across my skin. I kept still for a minute after the sensation faded, awkwardly propped up above them, and then rolled off and shuffled to the far side of the bed. Nick flopped down off of Eric a few seconds later. Eric closed his eyes, and just lay there, covered in their cum.

"Wow." Nick was panting and looking up at me. "Fucking intense."

"Yeah." I nodded.

The two of us wandered outside and grabbed our shorts from where we'd left them on the deck. We pulled them on and sat down on the two metal chairs next to the table. Nick grabbed a pack of cigarettes that had been lying there, and tipped one out. I grinned. Menthol. Just like I'd thought. I poured myself a shot of tequila to sip on, and looked into the room. Eric didn't seem to be following us out here any time soon.

"He's always so sleepy after sex." Nick flicked the lighter, and held the small flame to the tip of the cigarette in his mouth.

I made sure to seat myself upwind. "I know."

"Right." He nodded, and studied me seriously for a second through the cloud of smoke he exhaled. "I kind of wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"You've been so nice to me."

I blinked. "Have I?"

"Yes, you have." He took a drag. "You and Louis. Although this was definitely nicer than anything Louis ever did for me." He chuckled. "Eric told me he was very kind, but you were better to me than I think I deserved. I was so surprised when you said yes to coming to the bar with us."

"Oh." I didn't actually know how to respond.

I'd seriously considered saying no, and I'd been so reluctant to deal with Nick that even my desire to prove how fine I was to Eric hadn't been enough. But Louis had told me he'd already been roped into it, and I didn't want to abandon him to the fate of being a third wheel. Especially not with Nick involved. Nick thanking me like this suddenly made me feel really guilty about that.

"I'm not for everyone. I know that." He smiled sadly. "Besides, I'm not an idiot - I know how that movie night went."

I grimaced. "I don't think it was about you, really."

"Whatever. Like... I know this thing with Eric has a time limit, anyway. High school relationships don't last. I can deal with friend drama for the rest of the year, if I have to." He took a deep pull on his cigarette. "God, I can't wait for university."

"Yeah, same."

He looked over at me and grinned. "You know, I was always so intimidated by you."

"What?" I laughed. "Why?"

"You're sort of very... I don't know. Prickly, sometimes. I just remember that time in English where Marc heckled your presentation, and you made that joke about him wanting to fuck his own mother or something. And everyone laughed so hard. Mrs. A actually had to scream to get us all to shut up."

"Oh, right." I blushed. I'd done a report on Greek tragedies, and it was just after I'd figured out Marc was straight. "I was... going through some stuff."

"I think it was like the first time I'd really noticed you, so it just kind of became what I thought of you. Jason's a quiet guy, but don't piss him off." He chuckled. "When Eric told me you were his ex, I was terrified. I totally thought you'd hate me, and be like... a massive bitch about it. And then the way he talked about you... I was just really worried you wouldn't like me."

"Did Eric say I was mean or something?"

"No, nothing like that." He took another drag. "I think it was just that he made it sound like I HAD to impress you, you know?"

"Not really." I shrugged. "Were you trying to impress me?"

"A little."

"You didn't have to. I've always found you fairly impressive."

His eyes widened. "Seriously? Why?"

"Your art, and the set pieces for the play. You're really talented. I could never do stuff like that."

"Thanks." He smiled broadly. "Maybe I could show you my studio sometimes. It's pretty cool."

"Yeah, okay."

"Candace is your sister, right?" He asked. I nodded and he grinned. "She actually really helped me a lot when she was still around at school, you know."

"Oh, was she your mentor in that program?"

"Yep."

Candy had complained about the extra workload that year, but she'd ended up having a lot of fun. They'd even bought each other gifts at the end. It had been kind of sweet. I'd completely forgotten that her 'mentee' had been Nick, though.

"She never got paid for making stuff though, not in high school."

Nick snorted. "Please! I've only gotten paid twice." He waved his hand, sending a snake of smoke twirling in the air. "Plus, it was next to nothing. Barely covered my material costs. I was just kind of trying to seem important when I said that."

"You know, you don't need to try so hard to get people to like you."

"Yeah." He grinned wryly. "It kind of doesn't work, anyway."

"Maybe it's a little bit counterproductive." I tried to keep my tone neutral.

"Dick." He laughed.

"So, with the Marc thing." I wanted to fill the emerging silence, but I also kind of wanted to know what he thought. "Do you think other people think of me like that?"

"I don't know." he shrugged. "Lea does, but I think she finds it hot. She kind of wants your D."

"What?" I laughed. "Seriously? She's barely ever spoken to me."

"Duh. She's terrified. It's what does it for her. She's kind of messed up." He smiled.

That worried me. I barely remembered even doing it, but it had left such a big impression on Nick. And on Lea, too. Marc and I had drifted apart after I had stopped making so much extra effort to spend time with him. At least, that's what I'd thought. Maybe he just didn't want to hang out with the guy who'd embarrassed him so severely in front of a whole class.

"But she's like... totally obsessed." Nick continued. "She'd freak the fuck out if she knew what we'd just done."

He saw the look on my face.

"Oh, calm down, I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm not even out to any of my friends."

"Really?" I would have thought the whole appeal of befriending a group of girls was that you could come out to them fairly easily.

"Yeah. I mean, I think they all know, but we don't really talk about it. Tiff walked in on me blowing a guy once, and I'm not sure who she's told."

"Oh, shit."

"Yeah, it's bad. Plus, her and I aren't really friends, so it's like this thing she has over me now."

"Oh, I thought you and Tiffany were actually pretty close."

He looked horrified. "What? Why?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "You sound very similar. Use a lot of the same words."

"Oh. That." He sighed. "I was um... She's always like... confident and cool."

"You were TRYING to talk like her?"

"Yeah..." He grimaced painfully. "Another one of those counterproductive things?"

"Yep." I grinned at him and shook my head.

"Noted."

I just smiled, and stifled a yawn.

He set his cigarette down in the ashtray. "You tired?"

"Yeah. I should probably get going. Tell Eric I said goodbye?"

"Sure." He waved. "By Jason."

I cleared my throat. "You can call me Jay."

"I kind of prefer Jason."

"I really don't."

"Oh, sorry." He looked a little taken aback. "I kind of thought it was like a nickname, and it'd be too familiar-"

"More familiar than what we..." I nodded back towards the bedroom.

He laughed. "No, I guess not. Okay, then. Goodnight, JAY."

"Night, Nick."

I grabbed my shirt and made my way back home. Half formed thoughts flitted through my mind on the way there, but nothing coalesced into anything I could make real sense of. Tired as I was, it felt important to have a shower. I was sweaty, and probably needed to rinse off the club, the hot tub, the sex, and Nick's smoke anyway. But I'd kind of been hoping that it would make me feel like a better person.

It didn't, and I was grateful the steam of the shower had clouded the mirror, so I didn't have to look at my reflection on my way out. I threw myself down on my bed, and passed out, slipping into an unpleasant dream where I was yelling at Marc, but then he turned into Leah, and Leah turned into Nick, and the whole time, Eric watched me from the sidelines, his icy blue eyes never blinking.