Mutiny Below

Nick.

Everything was working perfectly. I had my doubts at first, and I felt a little bad about making Nat feel uncomfortable, but it was all paying off. The more Eric pretended to be Nat’s adoring boyfriend, the more John pulled away from Jayce, the more Jayce came to me.

The perfect example of how brilliant this plan was working out was today. Eric had too much pent up energy, as always, so I suggested he go run it off somewhere. That led to the idea of the park. Of course, I also suggested he invite John and Jayce to join us.

John declined instantly after Eric went on about pushing his girlfriend on the swings. I covered up my chuckles with a few coughs while Nat glared at me and shoved me. Jayce, however, accepted our offer and here she was, sitting beside me on a bench with my arm partially around her shoulders.

I grinned as I watched Eric chase Nat with some kind of bug he was trying to put in her hair. I wondered how long before John really just cracked.

“What the hell’s going on?” Jayce huffed and crossed her arms. I furrowed my eyebrows as I focused all my attention on her.

“What’s wrong?” She rolled her pretty blue eyes and I couldn’t help the little smile my lips curled into.

“Last week you were staring that boy down because he was tickling your sister and now he’s actually dating her and all you can do is grin like some loon at them.” She glanced at Eric and then back at me, raising her eyebrows. “What the hell’s going on?” I had to force a laugh now. I hadn’t thought about how Jayce would pick up anything.

“Let’s say, I took your words to heart.” I turned to look at Eric and Nat again and shrugged. “He’s not going to hurt her.” From the corner of my eye I could see her smirking at me.

“So just like that they have your blessing?” She snorted and I know those blues rolled again. “Bull shit. Something’s going on and I’ll figure it out eventually.” She scooted closer and leaned into my side. My body electrified at the contact and I grinned as I put my arm completely around her.

“Or you could just accept things the way they are.” She rested her head on my shoulder and I swear my pulse sped up. God, I love her. She’s just so damn perfect, no matter what she does.

“I kind of like how things are.” She mumbled lowly, probably mostly to herself. My grin widened and I quickly kissed her temple while no one was looking. She giggled from that and wrapped her arms around my waist tightly for a few seconds before retracting them. “I wonder how things will be when you go home.” She sighed. “I won’t get to see you ever and we’ll probably never talk much either.” That hurt.

But hopefully things will be different by the time tour comes around. Hopefully this plan works better than I imagined. I cleared my throat. “Things’ll work out.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Nat and Eric started walking toward us. Jayce slowly pulled away from me and I put my arm against the back of the bench. And fuck, I hated hiding this.

“We’re supposed to meet up with everybody at the diner for lunch.” Eric informs us once the two of them are standing in front of us. He’s got his arm thrown around Nat’s neck while hers is around his waist. Since I know it’s not real, I can admit that they do look happy together, like everyone else keeps saying.

“Everybody?” Jayce questioned as she sat up. Eric shrugged.

“Kenny called and just said everybody.” Jayce nodded and then stood up, brushing nonexistent dirt off her butt.

“I wonder if John’s finally done with all the band stuff with Tim.” She frowned and so did I.

“You know their probably actually just sitting around Tim’s drinking beer and watching movies, right?” Eric raised his eyebrows as I finally stood up too and we all started toward the car.

Jayce scoffed. “Just like his ‘man time’ with you means you’ve taken him bar hopping?”

Eric laughed. “You know us too well, Jayce.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She brushed it off as she slowed her pace a little. It wasn’t much for anyone to notice but I slowed mine a little too so we were slightly walking behind Eric and Nat. She smiled at me and hit my hand with hers. I chuckled and shook my head. If only she didn’t have that stupid fu—

“You know the way to the diner, right Nick?” Eric held his keys toward me.

I held my hand out for them and raised my eyebrows. “Not completely.”

Everyone chuckled and Jayce placed her hand over the keys in my hand, squeezing my hand. “I’ll help you.” She winked before going to the passenger side. She could surely drive me crazy like this. We got in the car, argued over music for the five minutes it took to get to the diner, and then we went inside. Gemma saw us first, unsurprisingly.

“Guys! Over here!” She stood up waved us over. Jayce snickered as she skipped over and hugged Gemma. I scanned the seats quickly and cursed under my breath. John was sitting at the very end. “Here Nat, sit across from me.”

“Sure, Gem.” Nat grinned and sat with Eric at her side, which left me sitting in between Eric and Tim, and right across from Jayce.

“I got some of the pictures from skate night developed. Here’s your copies.” Gemma handed a little envelope over to Nat. I picked my menu up and tried to ignore Jayce’s conversation with John. “It’s mostly you and Halvo being adorable fucking bunnies.”

“Has bunnies officially become your nickname for them, Gems?” Tim snorted as he shook his head. Gemma stuck her tongue out in return of course.

“Well they are pretty cute, like bunnies.” Jayce stuck up for Gemma and I noticed she sat forward just enough to where John’s arm on the back of her seat wasn’t actually touching her. I smirked and she silently raised her eyebrows at me. I bet she didn’t even notice she was doing it. John, on the other hand, couldn’t decide which was more interesting; looking at his menu or watching Nat and Eric.

“Thank you very much, Jayce.” Gemma smirked.

“So, Nick,” my head snapped up to Kennedy while I raised my eyebrows. “Any luck with finding that dream girl?” Pretty much all eyes focused on me after that. I smirked.

“I’ve given up on the whole ‘dream girl’ thing.” My smirk widened as I noticed Jayce’s face fall a fraction or two. As if I could ever give up on her. “I’ll settle for how things are now.” Jayce rolled her eyes and sat back, making my jealousy rise just a bit. Nat started choking on her water at the end of the table and I sighed, turning my attention toward her and Eric.

“You okay, Natty?” Eric rubbed her back as she hunched over. Her poor face started turning red, probably because of how many people were looking at her now. I frowned as she nodded and bit her bottom lip. Our eyes connected and she gave me that look again, the one where I can tell she wants to curse me out but she’s too good for that. I winked at her but that only made her glare.

“Nick and I are going to start a man’s club. No girlfriends allowed.” Tim said the sentence so seriously and nonchalantly. The whole table cracked up after five seconds.

“Tim, you’re such an idiot!” Gemma giggled. The waitress came up to our table after that and we all ordered. John was whispering something in Jayce’s ear and it was annoying the hell out of me. I started getting antsy just being around them again so I went out for a smoke.

I felt better instantly, though the thoughts of him so close to her kept bombarding my mind. Two seconds later the diner door jingled open and Nat came to stand beside me. She waited until the door closed completely before she said anything.

“That was an awful comment you made.” She crossed her arms and stared out in the road. I smiled a little and breathed in the smoke, making sure to exhale away from her. “And it was a really big lie. I thought we were past all the lying.”

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked over at her. “You’d like for me to tell everyone now how things really are?” She shook her head and then sighed. I took another drag and tried to catch up to what she was getting at.

“I know you’re not happy, Nick.” She muttered and then frowned. “It’s the only reason I’m actually going along with this stupid,” she made sure to give me a look with that word, “plan.”

We stood in silence for a while. I smoked and she just stared.

“You know those cigarettes are going to kill you.”

I chuckled and put my cigarette in the ashtray. Then I couldn’t help but grin as I put my arms around her and hugged her tight. “You’re a good person, Nat.”

“Ew, Nick!” She shrieked and started pushing me away, making me laugh more. “You smell gross and now I’m gonna smell like smoke too!” Her nose was scrunched up when I finally pulled away. We stood there again for a few seconds, me just smiling at her, before she rolled her eyes. “You’re a good person too, Nick.” She shrugged. “You’re just caught in the wrong place.”

“You got that straight.” I snorted and she elbowed me. “But thanks, Nat.”

“And one more thing.” She glanced over her shoulder and I could see the anxiety in her expression. It worried me.

“What’s that?”

She hesitated.

“Natalia?”

“It’s just that I was thinking, about stuff, and, uh,” she paused.

“Nat!”

“Okay! I just thought that maybe you should try getting a girlfriend.” She crossed her arms again and kept her eyes on our feet. The idea completely baffled me.

I ran a hand through my hair. “How would that, I mean, that’s not.” I shook my head. “I don’t want a girlfriend unless it’s Jayce, Nat. I love her.”

Nat rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t talking about a girlfriend girlfriend to get over Jayce, stupid.”

“Then what the hell were you talking about?”

She shrugged again. “Like a pretend girlfriend, you know? The plan is to make John jealous, which I don’t think is happening—,” I cut her off.

“It is.”

Nat ignored me. “Maybe making Jayce jealous would help too.”

It didn’t sound like it would work. Not really. I knew Jayce, and I had a pretty good idea about what would happen if she saw me with someone else. She’d run right back to Johnny boy and then she’d really never let go of him.

“As much as I hate this whole situation, I know she loves you too. It’d probably drive her crazy to see you with another girl.” Nat continued and I nodded along. “I don’t know. It’s just a suggestion.”

“I’ll keep it in consideration.” I smiled and threw my arm around her again. “Now let’s go back in and eat.”

When we reached the table, our food still wasn’t there but everyone was either laughing or awe-ing. Everyone except John. His mouth was sealed shut while he nodded from time to time at something Jayce was showing him. It took about three seconds to figure out what they were looking at.

“Oh Nat, look at how adorable you are.” Eric grinned as he extended a picture to her before she’d even sat down. Nat’s face went red instantly too. “Isn’t my girlfriend just lovely?” He boasted and I smirked as Tim started handing me pictures.

The pictures were of us all, really, but Gemma had paid special attention to Eric and Nat. John was practically seething jealousy. I knew the feeling all too well not to notice it. The plan was working. I would just have to be patient for a few more weeks, maybe days. He’d fall apart, just like I was. Time was the only thing I could really see between Jayce and I now.

It would be hard, but I could wait. For her.