Chapter 1
Their music teacher decided Secret Santa was a good idea. No one really knew why, especially when she announced the gifts could not be music related. She also wasn’t doing a name draw. She was meeting with each student privately and assigning a name, because she felt it gave everyone a chance to understand someone else better. Nick was not looking forward to it. Carrie was the only one in the class he actually knew well enough to buy a gift for, except maybe Julie and Flynn. Since Carrie and Julie had become friends again when Carrie started dating Flynn, Nick knew them enough to find something for them. But when he was called to meet with Miss Harrelson, she slipped him a paper with a name to someone that he did pay a lot of attention to. Because he couldn’t seem to stop staring at them. Nick took a deep breath, and moved back to his seat, not looking up from his feet as he shoved the paper in his pocket. Carrie was watching him curiously, and he knew she would get the name out of him by the end of the day. She leaned over to him, “By the way, did I mention we’re eating lunch with Flynn and Julie’s band today?” Fuck. So she would definitely get the name out of him by the end of lunch, at least. He nodded, keeping his eyes closed.
Turned out, he couldn’t even make it through another period before he panicked and told her. She was his best friend, and he needed to talk to someone about it. “What’s the problem?” She quirked an eyebrow as she fussed over the Bunsen burner in chemistry.
“I got Reggie Peters.” He sighed, muttering quietly so no one else would hear him. She matched his volume. He glanced across the room where Reggie was working with Luke.
“For what?”
Nick rolled his eyes, “Secret Santa.”
“And why’s that a problem?” Carrie asked as she passed him the chemicals she measured out.
“Because I don’t know enough about him to get him a gift and if I fuck this up he may hate me forever.” Nick ran his gloved hands through his hair after he added the chemicals together.
“Over dramatic much?” Carrie sighed as she wrote notes from the experiment, across the room they heard beakers clanking.
“No, Luke, don’t add those-“ but Reggie was too late. Suddenly the beaker they had over the burner was smoking and the teacher was hurrying everyone out of the room. Out in the hallway, Reggie was still coughing from the smoke he inhaled, and Nick was anxious. He didn’t talk to Reggie much because everything about the dark haired boy made him nervous, but he found himself standing beside him, rubbing slow circles into his back until he was able to breath again. “Thanks.” He said quietly.
“No problem.” Nick answered, still rubbing his back before he realized what he was doing and slowly retracted his hand. Nick cleared his throat before turning to look at Reggie, who was watching him cautiously. “So I-“
He didn’t get to finish before the teacher was calling their attention, telling them that it was safe to gather their things and move to the study hall next door.
When lunch rolled around, Nick was tempted to skip and head to the gym for extra practice time, but he knew Carrie wouldn’t let him. If anything, she would just bring the others there to eat and watch him and he was uncomfortable with the thought alone. So he made his way to the cafeteria, taking the open seat on Carrie’s right with Flynn on her left.
“Hey, what were you gonna say earlier?” Nick looked at the voice on his right and almost jerked in surprise when he found himself staring into Reggie’s eyes. They were sparkling in the cafeteria lights, and for a second Nick forgot he was supposed to answer.
“Oh, uh, I don’t really remember now.” He laughed nervously, and he thought Reggie looked disappointed. “But uh, since you guys didn’t finish the experiment, you can borrow my notes if you want.”
“Oh, yeah, thanks.” Reggie grinned. “I can get them from you in English if you want?”
“Maybe after school.” Nick laughed, “You never lose focus in English. You might not remember.” Reggie flushed and it was the most adorable thing Nick had ever seen.
“Reg loves to read.” Alex grinned from his seat next to Willie, the only person on Nick’s lacrosse team that he spoke to outside of the sport. “Getting him away from a book he’s interested in can be a pain in the ass.”
Luke chimed in, “Remember when we had to postpone practice for two weeks because he was obsessed with that series? He finished it the first week and had to spend the second one crying over fictional characters.”
Reggie groaned, “House of Night is a good series and you both can fight me on that.”
“House of Night?” Nick asked, “The vampire series where they get elemental powers?”
Reggie’s entire face lit up, “You’ve read it?”
“Only the first half. I had trouble finding the books past Tempted and couldn’t find hard backs online.”
The rest of lunch was spent mostly quietly, as the others watched fondly as the two boys went over every part of the books they’d both read.
(“Of course your favorite part would be where he shoots the arrow at her heart and hits himself in the chest.” Reggie grinned.
“What’s that supposed to mean? What’s your favorite part?”
“Can’t tell you. It would be a spoiler.”)
By the end of it, Nick knew he was getting dangerously close to falling in love.