Friday after school, Jake was at the football field, watching Troy at football practice. Ricky approached him, wearing his football gear.
"Ricky?" Jake asked. "I thought you're in the band."
"I'm just helping the band out," Ricky responded. "I'm the linebacker on the football team. What you doing here?"
"Troy told me he had something to give me. He was about to give it to me at his party, but he never did."
"Okay. You and Nick are gonna join us later on, right?"
"Yeah, it was her idea. We won't be in the way, though."
"To be honest, I wouldn't mind if you was in my way. Meet us at the mall at six o'clock. The movie start at eight."
"Okay..."
Ricky walked away, Jake thinking about what he said with a confused look on his face.
"Hey, Jakey," Troy said as he sat beside him.
"Hey," Jake replied. "Good practice."
"Thanks. I got the present I was gonna give you at the party. Here."
Troy handed Jake the locket with the baby picture and the picture of the woman inside.
"It's a, uh, a necklace," Troy said. "It gave me good luck for a while. I want you to have it."
"Really?" Jake asked. "It seem important to you."
"I'll be fine. Take it. It's yours now."
Jake put the necklace on and looked at it, smiling happily.
"Thanks, Troy," he said.
"You're welcome, Jakey," Troy responded.
The two hug each other, Trina seeing everything as she entered the field. She walked over and had a smile on her face.
"Hey, Troy... Jake," she said.
"What's up, Trina?" Troy replied.
"Just wanna ask you something important. Jake, would you mind?"
"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of him."
"Fine... Troy, you wanna go to the homecoming dance with me?"
"Uh... I dunno... I was thinking about going with Jake and his friends."
"Um, can you please tell me when Jake became popular enough for you to wanna hang out with him so much?"
"He don't have to be popular, Trina."
"I gotta go," Jake said. "Thanks again for the necklace, Troy. I'll see ya later."
Jake walked off the field and headed towards the street, Troy watching Jake and Trina watching Troy.
"You gave him a necklace?" she asked. "You do know he got a boyfriend, right?"
"That's not why I gave him the necklace," Troy responded. "He'll find out the true value of it... soon."
Later, at Pender Mall, Jake and Nick were walking around, finding Erica and Ricky at the food court.
"Finally," Erica said. "What took you so long?"
"I was waiting for Bae to leave the damn football field," Nick answered. "What did Troy want?"
"He gave me a necklace," Jake responded. "He said it gave him good luck. I wonder why he gave it to me."
"It look good on you, Jake," Ricky replied.
"Thanks."
Erica and Nick looked at each other in silence and discreet shock. Then, Jake sat down beside Ricky, Nick sitting inbetween him and Erica.
"So, what is this horror movie about?" Jake asked.
"It's about a creepy magical monster who kills twins on a search for a divine pairing. They are the most powerful twins in existence, and the monster wants to exploit their powers for his own purposes," Erica explained.
"So it's a sci-fi horror movie?" Nick asked. "One of my favorite kind of movies. I might actually enjoy myself for once."
"So what am I, leftover meat?" Jake joked.
"You know what I mean, baby."
Ricky looked at Jake, who chuckled at Nick. Erica and Nick noticed this, Erica becoming nervous and Nick becoming silently angry. Later, they reached the movie theater and sat in their seats. Jake and Nick sat in one row, and Erica and Ricky sat directly in front of them. As the movie was being played, Jake tapped Nick's shoulder.
"I'm gotta use the bathroom," he said.
"Oh okay," Nick replied.
Jake got up and headed to the bathroom. Ricky heard what Jake said and went to the bathroom behind him. Erica and Nick were looking rather concerned.
In the bathroom, Jake was standing in front of the urinal, urinating in it. When he was done, he flushed the urinal and turned around, being face-to-face with Ricky.
"Can I tell you something?" Ricky asked. "I think you're very cute."
"But I thought you like Erica," Jake replied.
"I do. She's pretty great, but not as great as you."
Ricky had Jake's back against the wall, one hand planted on the wall and the other on Jake's hip.
"So you was using Erica to get to me?"
"You're making me sound like a hoe. Look, I know you're dating Nick, but you should date me instead. I can treat you better than that brute can."
"Oh, is that right?!" Nick asked angrily as he enters the bathroom.
Ricky backed up from Jake, who was still resting on the wall.
"Nick!" Jake called out.
"I knew something was up. You tryna take my man! Not. Cool."
"Nick, you know as well as I do that you're not boyfriend material," Ricky said.
"You must not know the whole story. I went good for Jake, I've been protecting him for the longest, I got him staying at my house so he won't have to deal with his abusive foster mother. And I'm not boyfriend material... right?"
"You're a great guy, Ricky, but I'm not gonna break up with Nick," Jake added.
"I suggest you run... before I make you see red."
Ricky glared at Nick and walked out, Nick approaching Jake.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jake answered.
Jake gave Nick a strong embrace, wrapping his arms around Nick's waist. Nick replied by wrapped his arms around Jake's neck, feeling a soft squeeze on his butt.
"Someone's a little grabby for almost being sexually assaulted," Nick said.
"I'm tryna get my mind off what just happened," Jake replied. "And besides, you like that kind of stuff."
"Whatever. Let's go."
The two walked out the bathroom, Eirca spotting them rushed up to them.
"What's going on?" she asked. "Ricky just up and left."
"He was using you to get to me," Jake explained.
"He tried to get some action with Jake before I barged in," Nick added. "Basically, Ricky almost raped him."
"We should tell the police!" Erica replied.
"Did you forget that Becky is a policewoman? If the station hears anything about Jake, Becky's gonna try to go after him again."
"So we're just gonna let what happened in there happen?"
"Let me worry about that. It's my job to protect my boyfriend."
Jake gave Nick a tender kiss on the cheek, smiling at him with a small blush.
"Just don't do anything stupid," Erica said.
"Okay, 'mom'," Nick replied.
The trio walked back in the theater and finished watching the movie before heading back home.