Because I Want You

Chapter Five: Bulletproof Cupid

Nick didn't dare open his eyes until he could hear Dave getting back on his bike and cycling away from him, afraid of what feelings they might betray if he did. His breathing came fast, in ragged pulls, and his heart was racing. At last he opened his eyes and stared into the darkness after the retreating back of the boy on the bicycle. He felt a single tear slide down his cheek, and he shivered, pulling the jacket tighter around himself.

Dave's jacket, he realised with a jolt. He had left it. Run away without it. Nick breathed in deeply. The jacket smelled of leather and clean sweat and deodorant and soap, with a different, sweeter scent hiding underneath. Dave's scent. He buried his nose in the lining, imagining that Dave was still there.

He had stupidly thought, for just a moment, that Dave had been about to kiss him. His eyes, so impossibly blue, had met Nick's own, and the look in them had been so intense. He had wanted to lean into the touch of Dave's hand on his cheek, wanted to kiss him, hold him and be with him.

Dave must have sensed it. That must have been why he stopped, got up and left. Of course he hadn't been about to kiss him. Why would he do something like that?

But he had stopped to see how he was, and he had helped him, cleaned his wounds, listened to him and been concerned about him, and that wasn't nothing. And he had said his name. It was the first time in as long as Nick could remember that Dave had called him Nick. Not Davis, or Nicky, or dickhead or stupid or nerd, but Nick. And it was the first time he'd said it with such urgency in his voice, like it mattered, like Nick mattered. It had been the most beautiful thing Nick had ever heard.

He had sounded almost protective of him when he asked Nick who had hurt him. 'No one else is allowed to mess with you.' That shouldn't have made Nick feel so warm inside, but it did.

It was nearly midnight when Nick dared return home. Craig had fallen asleep by the telly, the empty beer cans nowhere to be seen. Nick went upstairs to his room, shutting the door quietly behind him. Then he lay down on the bed, let the tears come, and cried silently.

The following morning, he found Zoë back as she'd promised. Craig was in the kitchen with her, making coffee, acknowledging Nick's presence with a nod and an unreadable look. How he wasn't hungover was beyond Nick's comprehension. Nick told his sister that he had tripped and fallen down the stairs. She called him clumsy and hugged him. He stayed home from school that day, nursing his arm and listening to Death Cab for Cutie.

* * *

Dave shook his head in frustration and threw his pen down on the desk. He couldn't concentrate on anything. He'd been battling with himself for days, unwilling to admit to himself what had actually happened in the park. A week had now passed, and he and Nick hadn't spoken at all. No quips, no fights, nothing. Not a single glance had passed between the two of them. For all the world, it was like they didn't even know each other.

As the last lesson of the day was coming to a close, Dave glanced over at his enemy, who was sitting over by the window and appeared not to be paying attention either. The area around Nick's right eye was now dark blue and yellow. His nose looked mostly back to normal. The cut in his lip was healing, but slowly. Dave noted how Nick's tongue flicked out every few seconds, moving over the cut. Occasionally he chewed his lip absent-mindedly. No wonder the cut wasn't healing quicker.

His arm was apparently fine, though Dave had noticed in PE the previous Friday how bruised it looked. He wondered vaguely if Nick had reported his sister's boyfriend, or even told his sister about it. He guessed not, or people would have heard about it. Gossip spread quickly in Windfield Green. Small town syndrom.

Dave left the classroom with Alan, Chas, and Matthew Taylor. The latter had started hanging out with them more and more of late. He had moved to Windfield from Birmingham a couple of weeks after the start of term. It was Dave who had convinced him to join the football team, as he was exceptionally talented. With his athletic body and bad boy image (complete with pierced ears and a nipple ring), Matt was growing to be nearly as popular as Dave. He didn't really seem to care much about popularity, though, hanging out with Dave and his friends mostly for something to do. He was far more interested in his friends back in Birmingham, whom he visited every other weekend or so to attend concerts and get high. It hadn't stopped him from sleeping with about a dozen girls from school, though. Matt didn't have girlfriends, he had fuck friends, and the girls he slept with seemed completely fine with that.