The Friends You Make Here… by BymagaJones 4/?

[bymagajones]

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

“I told you that he’s hard to get to know,” Rosalee reminded him as she licked her vanilla ice cream cone.

“I didn’t know you meant in the biblical sense,” Nick complained, slumped in a chair across the table.  “I thought you meant talking about wetting the bed when he was eight or why he thinks he’s not good with people.”

Rosalee chuckled.  “We didn’t date for very long, so we never even got past kissing.” She threw him an arch look.  “The fact that he was all over you on your first date probably says something.”

“What’re we talking about?”  Hank slid into the chair beside Rosalee, whipped cream clinging precariously on top of two scoops of chocolate ice cream on his cone.

“Nick and Monroe’s dinner,” Rosalee said, eyeballing Hank’s creation.  “How did you get them to do that?”

Nick tuned out Hank’s attempt at explaining - to a girl he liked - how he flirted with the girl behind the counter every time he came into the store.  Instead he chose to go over yet again the night before.

He’d remained on the sofa after Monroe’s abrupt departure, totally confused.  He knew he hadn’t imagined that Monroe had been enjoying it at the time, but as he thought back, Nick realized that Monroe had repeatedly voiced objections, words that Nick had continuously disregarded.  Horrified that he’d somehow forced himself on Monroe, he’d called Juliette.

“Do you know what time it is?”  Juliette asked, having to shout over the noise in the background.

“It’s Friday night, and you’re at a party,” Nick shot back.  “Is Rosalee there?”

“Wait - isn’t this your dinner date night with Monroe?”

“I’ll tell you about it later,” Nick promised, “but right now, I really need to talk to Rosalee.”

“She’s back at the apartment studying.  Let me give you her number.”

Nick’d absently thanked his ex and called Rosalee, who promised to meet him the next afternoon so they could sit down and talk about it.

Of course, Hank had heard about the meeting and invited himself along.  Nick didn’t delude himself that Hank was worried about him.  Sure, they were friends, but they were also guys; Hank’s appearance was more for Rosalee than it was for Nick.

“Nick!” Rosalee said, her tone making it clear that it hadn’t been the first time she’d called it.

“Sorry,” Nick offered.

She smiled at him.  “So I called Monroe to get his take on things - ”

“I thought he didn’t have a phone,” Nick said.

“He has a house phone, an old-school one with the receiver attached to the phone with a cord.”

“Where did he find one of those?”  Hank asked.

Rosalee shrugged.  “No idea.  Anyway, he wasn’t very forthcoming.  He said that he knew he shouldn’t have tempted himself that way.”

Nick sat up a little straighter.  If he’d been tempted, then maybe Nick hadn’t forced himself on Monroe after all.

“So Nick was a temptation,” Hank said, mulling it over.  “That’s good, right?”

“Who knows with Monroe,” Rosalee said.  “He doesn’t feel like he deserves good things.”

“Like maybe he did something terrible when he was young and now feels like he has pay penance?”

“I have no idea,” Rosalee said, shrugging.  “He never really talked about his past with me.”

Nick got a thought.  “He and Hap grew up together, right?”

“You planning on pumping Hap for information?”  Rosalee hazarded a guess.

“Have any better ideas?”  Nick asked.

She shrugged.  “Make sure you have plenty of beer.”

“Hey, I know what this is!” Hap said suddenly, lowering his beer.

“You do?”  Hank asked warily.

With Hank and Wu’s help, Nick had come up with a pretty simple plan to corner Hap.  Late Friday night, he and Wu had ‘accidentally’ run into Hap (thanks to some intel from Rosalee and Juliette) and then proceeded to suddenly get the idea to invite him to their place that Saturday under the guise of Nick’s first attempt at Hap’s Super Nachos.  They added a bit about the beer and a football game, and Hap was in.  To be honest, Hap’d pretty much been dancing around excitedly as soon as they’d mentioned the food.

“You’re trying to figure out Monroe’s recipe for the nachos!”

Exchanging a quick glance with Hank, Nick walked to the kitchen and came out with a sheet of paper.  “Monroe wrote it down for me, so I don’t think it’s a state secret.”

“Oh,” Hap said, sitting back on the sofa.  “I guess that’s all right then.”

“Did I miss the food?”  Wu asked, walking in and tossing his backpack on the floor by the door.

“We were waiting for you, actually,” Nick said, returning to the kitchen.  He sat Monroe’s instructions on the counter next to the large platter Wu’s mom had donated once she’d heard about Nick’s cooking attempt.

As he built the dish, Nick thought back to Wednesday, when he had managed to finagle Monroe’s address from Rosalee and waited almost an hour for Monroe to come home - his last effort before hunting down Hap.

All Nick knew about that part of town was that it was considered the poorer section, and he understood why as he drove past houses with sagging porches and peeling paint.  The front lawns had patches of dead grass, a few with rusty cars resting on cinder blocks.

But that wasn’t all he noticed.  He spotted gardens running along the side yards and peeking from the backyards, bicycles - while not shiny and new, still obviously used - leaning against the front stairs.  The area might be poor, but the people who lived there still seemed to have a sense of pride.

He’d almost driven past Monroe’s house, but a glint off stained glass in a door caught his attention, and he saw the house number - the “7” hanging upside down to resemble an “L” - faded but still visible on the front of the house.  He pulled into the drive, right behind Monroe’s car, a rare spot of color in the middle of the dingy neighborhood.

After he’d parked and knocked, he took a closer look at the small piece stained glass, wondering about the significance of the - was that a wolf?

Monroe opened the door, his eyes traveling from Nick’s feet to his face.  So many emotions passed quickly over his face that Nick only managed to catch a few, surprise and panic but most importantly, pleasure among them.

“I brought your stuff back,” he said, gesturing toward the backpack slung over his shoulder.  “I really wanted to keep those knives, but Hank’s making me return them.”

Monroe’s hand twitched a little.  “Thanks.  I’m sorry I ran ou-”

“No,” Nick said, hand out in an aborted attempt to touch.  “I’m sorry.  I pushed, and I made you uncomfortable.”

A small smile flittered across Monroe’s face.  “I’m a grown man; I can handle a little pressure.”

“But I don’t want you to feel pressured by me.”

Monroe stepped forward, then stopped.  “I just -” He took a deep breath.  “The pressure - ” He stopped again, clearly searching for the right words.

A movement out of the corner of his eye caught Nick’s attention, and he turned his head just in time to see the curtains in the house next door settle.  “Why don’t we take this inside?  I’m sure your neighbors are nice, but I’m guessing that they already know more about your business than you’d like.”

Another hesitation before Monroe’s shoulders slumped, and he sighed.  “Okay.”  He pulled open the door but held out his arm, blocking Nick’s entrance.  “The place isn’t really set up for visitors.  I mean, Hap and I don’t need much, so…”

“Monroe,” Nick said gently, “I don’t care about the house.”

“Hmm,” Monroe said, obviously unconvinced, but he dropped his arm.

Nick walked inside and tried not to show his surprise.  He’d thought his apartment was shabby, but Monroe’s house was a hovel.

Just like the neighborhood, the area was well kempt; it just showed signs of poverty.   The inside of the house was clean, but the furnishings - which were a sofa, a chair, and a lamp without a lampshade in the living room - looked faded, as if they’d been outside in the sun for quite a while before being dragged inside.

Choosing to focus on Monroe, Nick turned to find the man chewing on his lip, staring at the sofa.  He took Monroe’s wrist, making sure to get the other man’s attention.  “I meant what I said.  Obviously, I’m interested in you, but I don’t want to force myself on you.”

“I think it was fairly obvious that I was as much into what we were doing as you were,” Monroe said, wry tone to his voice.

“Yeah, but you kept saying that we shouldn’t have been doing it.  I need to learn to listen more and not shove you into things.”

Monroe sighed, stared at the ground for a moment.  “I like you, like a lot, but I’m not good for you.”

“Is it the age difference?  Because you aren’t really that much older than I am -”

“No, that doesn’t matter.”

“Is it because you’re a senior and I’m a junior?  I mean, I know it’s kind of assuming stuff, but if we’re still together after you graduate - ”

Monroe huffed out a surprised laugh.  “That’s… well, that’s definitely putting the cart before the horse, but not what I - ”

“It can’t be the rivalry.”  Monroe gave him a blank look, so Nick continued.  “Between GN - ” he pointed a hand toward Monroe “ - and JT.”  He turned the hand and pointed it toward his chest.

“Of course not!”

“Then what is it?”  Nick asked, sounding more plaintive than he would’ve liked.  But he hated not being able to put the pieces together, especially when as far as he could tell, he and Monroe could be pretty awesome together.

“It’s me, okay?  For some reason, you think that I’m this good person, but I’m really not.  I mean, I try, and some days I think that maybe… but it doesn’t change who I am or what I’ve done.”

Nick thought a second.  “So these bad things you’ve done in the past.  Are you still doing them now?”

Monroe looked horrified.  “Hell no!”

Nick shrugged.  “Okay then.”

Monroe looked confused.  It was adorable.  He was adorable.  “So, um, we’re good?”

Nick smiled at him.  “Absolutely.  We’ve established that for some reason you think you deserve to be punished for the past and that it doesn’t matter to me.”

Monroe blinked.  “You don’t under - ”

“What I understand is what I know.  I know who you are now, that you are a good person now.  I know that you’ve spent the last three years here helping people, cooking for them, and taking care of Hap, which is probably a challenge all by itself.”

Monroe smiled faintly.  “Hap’s… an adventure.”

“So, okay then.”

The smile faded.  “Okay.”  Monroe’s shoulders dropped slightly.

“Want to have dinner Friday night?”

“What?”

“Dinner.  Friday.   My treat.”

“But you heard what I said about - ”

“ - and you heard what I said.  If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m pretty determined.”

Monroe remained silent for a few seconds as he seemed to absorb the information.  “So, once again, it doesn’t matter what I say?”

Nick sighed.  “Shit.  I came to apologize for forcing myself on you, and I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

Monroe shrugged.

Shit.  Shit.  Shit.  He was just making things worse.  “Look.  I’m sorry.”  He pulled the backpack off his shoulder and leaned it against the sofa.  “Here’s your stuff.  I won’t force myself on you anymore.”

“Nick -”

For the first time since they’d met, Nick didn’t want to look Monroe in the eyes as he slipped past and walked out the door.

Hank and Wu had found him a few hours and several beers later bellied up at the Rat’s bar, despondently fiddling with the tab on the can in front of him.

“So I’m guessing the visit didn’t go well,” Hank said, motioning for two more beers from the bartender as he and Wu sat on either side of Nick.

“I pushed too hard,” Nick confessed.  He’d always thought of his single-mindedness as a positive, his way of mowing over stumbling blocks; he wasn’t sure when it’d morphed into a need to impose his will over others.  He looked between his friends.  “Do I force my ideas on you guys?”

“You’re strong-willed,” Wu said, “but Hank and I can hold our own if it’s something important.”

“Yeah,” Hank agreed.   “If he can’t handle it, maybe Monroe isn’t the right fit for you.”

“Funny, he didn’t seem like someone who’d have a problem saying no to you,” Wu said, taking the beer but ignoring the bartender until Hank sighed and handed the man some money.

“Right?”  Nick said.  “It didn’t feel like I was forcing him into something with me as much as pushing him to do something he wanted but didn’t think he deserved.  He said he liked me a lot.”

“Wow,” Hank took a pull from his beer.  “I didn’t expect you to quit so easily.”

Nick sighed.  “Just because he likes me doesn’t mean that he necessarily wants to be in a relationship with me.”

“What else did he say?”  Wu asked.

“That he wasn’t good for me, that he’d done bad things in the past.”

“So it's not like he doesn't want a relationship with you," Wu started.

“It’s that he doesn’t think he’s worthy of it or something,” Hank finished.  He grinned at Nick.  “That man I met the other night at Rosie’s was besotted.”

Nick couldn’t stop his small smile.  “Besotted?”

Wu snorted.  “If you’re confused about what that looks like, just check Hank out when Rosalee walks into a room.”

Nick chuckled at Hank’s weak protest.

They sat in silence, drinking their beers, until Wu finally said, “So… Hap?”

Nick looked at Hank, who shrugged.  “Hap.”

So here they were, Hap in their apartment for beer and the nachos that Nick was bringing to the coffee table.

“These look fantastic!”  Hank grabbed the small stack of paper plates and handed them to the others before reaching in for a handful.  “This is pretty… messy,” he said as he dripped the food to his plate.

“Yeah,” Nick admitted, grabbing the instructions and rereading each step.

“Still good, though,” Hap said around a mouthful of food.

“Hmm,” Wu nodded, chewing vigorously.

Nick stared at the platter.  “It is too liquidy.”  He pointed to the bottom, where there was obviously a pool of… something.  “There’s too much water or juice at the bottom.”

Hap took a swipe at the liquid with his finger.  “Tastes like meat.  Oh, hey!  I remember this one time, when I was so hungry I couldn’t wait and went in to grab some chips, Monroe was doing this thing, said he was draining the beans?  Draining the meat?”  He looked at Wu.  “Can you drain meat?”

Wu shrugged and took another large bite.

“It’s still good,” Hank said.  “Can you grab more plates?” Hank asked.  “We’ll put them under these to shore them up a little.”  He held out his messy hands.

Nick handed out more paper plates and slid some of the nachos onto his own before sitting on the desk chair he’d dragged across from the three men on the sofa.

“It must be pretty cool living with a guy who cooks like this,” Wu said.

“Yeah, Monroe’s awesome.  He’s a little too serious, you know?  He always worries about stuff.”

“You two were friends before college, right?”  Hank asked.

“Yeah, we grew up together.”

“And you both end up at the same college.  That’s a pretty big coincidence.”  Wu grabbed a napkin from the pile Nick had put on the edge of the coffee table and wiped around his mouth.  “Nick, this is the best thing I’ve eaten since Rosalee and Juliette’s party.”

“I wasn’t even planning on going to college.  I mean, I like the parties and everything,” Hap said, leaning toward Wu like he was imparting a big secret.  “I’m not really all that smart.”

“Join the club,” Wu said blithely.

Nick briefly caught Hank’s eyes.  Wu frequently acted like he was at JT for the parties, but only a few people knew that the reason he was able to party so much was because he was brilliant.  Only Nick and Hank knew that he’d been offered full rides to quite a few established colleges and universities but decided on JT because he wanted to remain close to his family.

“Monroe’s like, really smart, but he said that he wasn’t gonna leave me behind, that we had to get out of there or we never would.”

Hap settled into a melancholy silence that made Nick uncomfortable.  “Another beer?”

Hap brightened.  “That’d be awesome!”

Nick ended up having a fun time hanging out with Hap and his roommates.  By unspoken consent, they agreed to stop pumping Hap for information and just chill for the night.  They pulled Wu’s television out of his room and watched a college football game while they finished the nachos.  Wu’s mom had made them a strawberry pie, which they simply cut into four large pieces and finished in record time.

During one of the commercials, Hap pulled out his phone and started texting.  “I gotta check in with Monroe.”

“I thought he didn’t have a cell phone,” Wu said, plunking down fresh beers in front of all of them.

“He’s pretty old school.  He’s meeting with Bud, this guy who works with him at the garden, and I have Bud’s number.”

“It’s Saturday night, and he’s working?”  Wu’s incredulous voice made Nick laugh.

“Contrary to what you think, partying on Saturdays isn’t a college requirement,” Nick said, dodging the stray chip Wu tossed his direction.

“Yeah, Monroe doesn’t really party.  He likes being in control.”

“He keeps pretty close tabs?”  Hank asked.

Hap shrugged a shoulder, his fingers never pausing.  “He worries about me.  He’s been looking out for me since forever.”

Nick felt a warmth in his chest.  Monroe might think of himself as this bad guy, but everything he did proved the exact opposite.  “You wanna crash here tonight?  The sofa’s pretty comfortable.”  It had to be more comfortable than that terrible sofa in Hap and Monroe’s house.

“Dude, that’d be excellent!”  Hap’s fingers started moving again.

A few commercials later, Hap’s phone buzzed, and he looked at the message. “Shit.  I forgot that I promised I’d help Monroe with this thing tomorrow morning.”  He looked up.  “He’s gonna pick me up in a couple of hours.”

Nick made the appropriate disappointed face, wondering if being happy about seeing Monroe again made him a bad person.

Later that evening, Nick stood next to Hap outside of Nick’s apartment building, waiting for Monroe.

“You don’t have to hang out here with me,” Hap said.

“It’s no problem,” Nick said, zipping up his jacket before shoving his hands into his jeans pockets.

Hap shot him a sly smile.  “Wanna say hi to Monroe, huh?”

“He’ll kill me if he drives up and you aren’t here,” Nick said, which was partially true.  They’d been standing there for less than ten minutes, and three different groups of people had invited Hap to come party with them.  Nick was fairly certain that Hap would’ve agreed to each and every one of them if Nick hadn’t been standing right beside him.  He looked over at Hap, dressed in jeans, short sleeved t-shirt, and absolutely no jacket at all and shook his head.  “How’re you not freezing your ass off right now?”

“Monroe and I run a little hotter than - ” he shot Nick another glance “ - most people.”

Nick noticed the pause but was distracted when he saw Monroe’s car.  “Here he is.”

Monroe pulled up, surprising Nick by turning off his engine and getting out.

Hap paused with the passenger side door open.  “Monroe?”

Monroe didn’t spare Hap a glance as he rounded the front of the car and headed toward Nick.  “Get in the car.  I’ll be right back.”

Nick wasn’t used to seeing such an intent look on Monroe’s face - especially not centered on him - a determination and focus that alternately excited and scared him a little.  He found himself backing up slowly.  “Hey?” he said, his voice going up a little at the end.

Monroe remained silent, taking Nick’s arm and opening up the apartment building door, pushing Nick inside and against the wall just inside.

Nick stilled, wondering if this were what prey felt like when being cornered by a predator.

“Are you sure about this?”

Nick felt a little spark of hope but didn’t want to assume anything.  “About what exactly?”

“You.  Me.  This.”

“Absolutely,” Nick said without hesitation.

One step had Monroe’s body pressing Nick’s into the wall as Monroe kissed Nick.

But this wasn’t any kiss.  This was Monroe staking a claim, setting Nick’s body on fire.

It could have lasted thirty seconds or thirty minutes.  Nick only knew he was wrecked when Monroe pulled away.

“I’ll call you,” Monroe promised before turning away, walking through the door, getting back into the car, and driving away.

As he slid to the floor, Nick felt absurdly pleased that Monroe had been just as out of breath as he was.

On to Chapter 5