Never Too Late

Lacey's Point of View

When I woke up the next morning, Nick wasn't there. I sat up and saw some ibuprofen and some fresh water. I took the ibuprofen and then sighed. Last night was a shit-show and unfortunately, I remembered every single thing. But most importantly I was confused about what I had found in my sister's room. I had so many questions and the one person I could get answers from wasn't alive anymore. I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard the door open. I looked up and saw it was only Nick. He sat at the end of the bed and said "So, about last night…"

"Which part?" I asked, already knowing what he was talking about but wanting to avoid it as long as possible.

"Well, why don't we start with why you got so drunk last night," he said.

"Before Lucy left yesterday, she was acting weird. Like she was hiding something from me. Well, when she left her room I decided to investigate. I found my birth certificate buried underneath her pajamas in her dresser," I started.

Nick looked confused and I continued on.

"My dad isn’t my real father," I said

"Then who is your father?" Nick asked, looking as confused as I felt.

"Frank Iero," I said.

"No fucking way, you're kidding right?" Nick looked surprised.

"Not one bit, I’m one hundred percent sure," I told him.

I could tell Nick was shocked. Hell, I was even still in shock from what I had found out. Now with that out of the way, I knew what was coming next – the conversation I was avoiding the most. I wasn't ready for this but I knew it was coming.

"About the other part of last night…” Nick started. He paused and looked me in the eyes. "What are we going to do about this?"

I wasn't sure how to answer. What were we going to do about it? Clearly there were some unanswered feelings going on between us.

"What about it?" I asked, stalling.

"Well, it's happened twice now, Lacey. I don't want to just hook up and have things get awkward between us. Last time we didn't speak for like a week straight.”

Neither one of us said anything for a few moments. I understood where he was coming from. I'd already been hurt once before and I didn't want that to happen again, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn't afraid to get into another relationship. Nick put his hand on top of mine.

"You're scared and I can see that. But Lacey, I'm not like John. I'm not going to use you like he did. We can take things slowly and not rush into anything. But we can't keep hooking up and then not talking because it's giving me mixed signals here," he said patiently.

"Promise?" I asked.

"I promise you I will not do anything to hurt you," he told me.

I looked up into Nick's eyes and could tell he was being serious. I thought about it for a few seconds before giving an answer.

"Okay," I said, nodding.

"Okay? As in we're giving this thing a chance?" Nick couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

I nodded again, smiling back at him.

"Okay then, it's official. As much as I’d like to celebrate that right now though, I probably should get you home" he said.

I agreed and Nick grabbed some of his sweatpants for me to borrow so I didn't have to wear my dress home. Nick took me home and we said goodbye. I went inside and straight to my room so I could take a shower. When I was done, I ended up going into Lucy's room and grabbing my birth certificate before headed back to my room. I laid down in my bed while I waited for Lucy to get home and ended up falling asleep. A little while later, I woke up to voices talking downstairs. I got out of my bed, grabbed my birth certificate, and headed downstairs. The voices were coming from the dining room. I walked in and saw it was Lucy, Gerard and Mikey.

"We need to talk about something," I said.

I held up my birth certificate and the looks on everyone's faces said it all. I wanted answers and no one was leaving this room until I got them.