Never Too Late

Lucy's Point of View

She knows. She knows. She fucking knows.

Fuck the fact that my one of my favorite Brand New songs was bumping through the speakers, that was all that kept replaying in my mind. She absolutely knows.

But how? I thought I had hidden the birth certificate pretty well. Since when did she snoop through my stuff? We’d never been the type to do that to each other. But if she really knew, why hadn’t she said something? It also wasn’t like Lacey to keep something like that bottled up; she was definitely more likely to confront me about it and probably cause a scene. Instead, I was watching from a distance as she quickly knocked off two drinks in succession while I slowly nursed my own. I hadn’t initially set out to get drunk, but I was beginning to feel like Lacey had the right idea.

“Hey,” a voice behind me greeted, pulling me from my thoughts. I knew who it was, but turned anyway to be face to face with Nathan. “Happy birthday! Again, anyway.”

He smiled at his own little joke and I forced myself to grin along, a Mona Lisa smile. “Thanks. How’d everything go tonight at the store?”

“Fine.” He shrugged noncommittally. “But who cares? It’s your birthday, we’re here to party. I’m gonna get a drink, do you want anything?”

To rewind time and never find that fucking birth certificate, I thought. I shook my head and lifted my drink slightly. “No, but thanks anyway. I’m still working on this.”

“Got it.” He nodded and put his hand on my shoulder as he passed. “Be right back, don’t go anywhere.”

I turned, watching him walk in the direction my sister had just been, and realized that I’d lost sight of her. Goddamnit. This night was really starting to get annoying. I poured the rest of my drink down my throat, fighting the urge to gag. Time for another.

Instead of waiting, I ended up joining Nathan in the kitchen, sidling up to him as he poured his drink. I slid my cup over his way, batting my eyes at him jokingly. “Wanna fill me up?”

“Anything for you, birthday girl.” He smirked, and only then did I realize the double entendre of my request. But instead of being embarrassed, I just rolled with it, pretended I’d meant it. “What’re you drinking?”

“Crown vanilla,” I told him. I’d never had whiskey before, but Zoey had poured me a shot when I got there in celebration, and I had to admit, I kind of liked the taste. The buzz I was getting was even better.

“Mixed with…?” he trailed off, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Nothing. Straight’s fine,” I answered.

“Damn, Lucy, I had no idea you were that hardcore,” he teased, but obliged by finding the bottle of Crown Royal vanilla and pouring a fairly liberal amount into my solo cup.

“Just tonight,” I said, and immediately took a sizeable sip after he passed the cup to me.

“Whoa, slow down on that,” Nathan warned with a laugh. “The party’s just getting started, there’s no need to get shit-faced already. You want to remember your birthday, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not sure if I do or not.”

Nathan looked concerned, like he wanted to question me more, but then Zoey came flying up to us. “Dude. Nick fucking Jonas is in my house right now. Could you not have given me even a tiny heads up that he’d be here? I would’ve cleaned up better or something. And maybe put on a better bra, but I didn’t think I’d need to impress anybody.”

“It’s nice that you love us all so much, Zo,” Nathan joked.

“You know what I mean.” Zoey scowled.

“I wouldn’t worry too hard about impressing Nick anyway,” I warned her. “He’s here with my sister, and they’re…” I trailed off. Dating wasn’t exactly the right word to describe them, but they were clearly more than friends despite her insistence that they weren’t anything but. “Seeing each other, I guess.”

“Oh shit, that’s your sister?” Zoey said, eyes widening a little. “My bad. I’m not trying to steal her man or anything, but seriously, I would have worked a little harder at cleaning if I knew he’d be here.” She grabbed for my hand and started to lead me out of the kitchen. “Come on, let’s get the karaoke going. Maybe we can get Nick to honor us with a song. You know, for your birthday and all.”

Nick, did not, in fact, honor us with a song. I had no idea where he and my sister were, but the more I drank, the more I found that I didn’t really care. Socializing with everyone and pretending to have fun was becoming a lot easier, though I still resisted participating in karaoke. Despite the short skirt I’d worn, I found myself getting hot after a while and went out the back door of Zoey’s place and sat down on the back porch steps with my drink. Alone, everything started to hit me as my head spun, and the guilt and worry came flooding back.

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” The back door opened again and Nathan stepped out. He sat down next to me on the steps, close enough that our shoulders and knees touched. Zoey’s steps were pretty narrowly designed to accommodate two people sitting there. “So what’s going on with you? You’ve seemed weird for a while now.”

“I’m not weird, I’m fine.” I gave a little shake of my head and quickly regretted it.

“No, you’re not,” he said. “I think I know you a little bit better than that, don’t you?”

“It’s just college stuff,” I insisted. “I’m fine, really.”

“Lucy.” Nathan looked at me knowingly. “Come on, seriously, you can tell me. I’m an amazing secret keeper, mainly because I’m forgetful as all fuck.”

“And also probably drunk right now,” I added, smiling a little.

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m sober. I had one drink when I got here, but it’s been water since then. I thought you might be wanting a ride home since you didn’t seem to be in much of a party mood and I figured I owe you one.”

“Well, thanks,” I said. “I think I was supposed to head back with Iris, though.”

“Nah, you’re not going anywhere with Iris. She’s about three sheets to the wind and she threw her keys up on top of Zoey’s fridge. They’re gonna have a hell of a time finding them tomorrow.”

I rolled my eyes. “Great. Did you see my sister anywhere?”

“She just emerged and is singing karaoke, and I’m pretty sure Nick’s thinking about taking her home. He looked like he was desperate to get her out of there though, she’s definitely had a lot to drink,” he reported. “Can’t really say I blame him, though. Is something up with you and Lacey?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Uh, because she’s singing Bad Blood by Taylor Swift a little too passionately, if you ask me,” he chuckled. “Is that what’s bothering you?”

Now that he’d mentioned it, I could faintly hear Lacey drunkenly singing inside. Had there not been so much tension between us lately, I would have found it a lot funnier. “Honestly? Yeah. Do you have time for a long story?”

“All the time in the world.”

I launched into the story of going to my dad’s house on my birthday and finding Lacey’s birth certificate, and how our dad wasn’t really our dad, and how I had no idea what to do with that information, but that I was one thousand percent sure that Lacey had found out despite my best efforts to hide her birth certificate.

“Has anyone ever told you that your life could be a soap opera or a reality show on Bravo?” Nathan asked when I was done.

“Shut up, it’s not funny,” I told him and elbowed him in the ribs, even though I was laughing.

He was laughing and smiling, too. “I know, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see if I could make you smile.”

“Well, mission accomplished, but it still doesn’t change the fact that I have no idea what the fuck to do now,” I said and then groaned, throwing my head back. “It’s always fucking something, you know?”

“I’m sorry,” Nathan said. “I really wish I knew what to tell you, but that’s a really tough situation to be in.”

“I know I need to talk to her, but how do I start that conversation?” I asked. “And what do I say to my uncles? I can’t imagine they’re exactly innocent in this, you know?”

“I mean, they could be,” Nathan said. “They might not have known that Frank and your mom were seeing each other.”

“I guess, but that’s kind of hard to miss.” I sighed. “This sucks.”

“I know,” Nathan said sympathetically and put an arm around me. Without thinking, I eased into him, feeling like I belonged there. Just like the night we’d hugged outside of Applebee’s, he felt safe and warm. His hand settled on my knee. “But it’ll get better. It’s not like you’re the one who really lied to Lacey, you were just trying to figure out how to tell her. She can’t stay mad at you forever.”

“You don’t know my sister,” I scoffed and finished the rest of my drink.

“It’s gonna get better. I promise, it will.” He pressed a kiss to the side of my head, and I turned to look at him, unable to keep my eyes off of his lips. Nathan started to lean forward at the same time I did, and just as our lips were about to touch, the back door opened and we jumped apart.

“Oh, sorry if I’m interrupting something.” Thankfully it was just Nick and nobody from work, but that didn’t slow my heartbeat. “My bad.”

“No, you’re fine,” I said, trying to sound like it actually was. “What’s up? Is Lacey okay?”

“I mean, she’s drunk, but she’s fine,” Nick said. “I’m gonna take her back to my house, though. I don’t think Gerard or Mikey would be thrilled if she came home like this. Can you just let one of them know that she won’t be back tonight?”

“Yeah, no problem.” I mustered up all the intimidation that I had in me and wagged my finger at him. “But if anything happens to her that she didn’t explicitly say she wanted and I find out about it, I will not hesitate to cut your dick off I Spit on Your Grave style, understood?”

He moved a hand in front of his crotch and winced. “Yes, ma’am. I mean, Lucy. I’ll take care of her, no worries.”

I ignored Nathan next to me, who had put the hand that was not still attached to my knee over his mouth to conceal his laughter. “That’s right, you’d better. I like you, Nick, and I’d hate to have to give you the snip.”

Nick saluted me and then disappeared back into the house to escort Lacey out, leaving me alone with Nathan again. Inside, I could hear someone else singing a very bad rendition of Dancing Queen. I wished my ear drums had the power to kill themselves. “Do you want to get out of here and go back to your place?”

Nathan looked extremely surprised at my suggestion. “I mean, I definitely wouldn’t mind that at all, but maybe you should sober up a bit first. I’m not trying to be that guy, you know?”

Realization dawned on me and I felt heat creep up the back of my neck. “Oh God, no, that’s not what I meant. I just meant that I want to leave but I don’t want to go home.”

“Oh, shit, yeah. Of course. Well, that was really fucking awkward, so let’s just erase the last thirty seconds and pretend they never happened.”

“What awkward situation?” I joked. “The last thing I remember is threatening Nick’s manhood.”

“Right? My forgetfulness pays off sometimes,” he said, and stood up. “If you wanna leave though, we should probably just sneak through the side yard. No use drawing everyone else’s attention, you know?”

“Right, sounds good.” Nathan extended his hand to me and pulled me to my feet. The alcohol I’d had rushed to my head and I stumbled, catching myself by putting a hand to his chest. He caught me, his hand on my lower back. He started to guide me backwards around the side of the house. “Whoa, easy there. We’ve still got a little walk to the car yet, are you gonna be o-”

I pressed my mouth to his, cutting him off. For about half a second, he was surprised, then eased into the kiss. I pulled away a moment later. “I’m sorry, I-”

This time he interrupted me. “Don’t you dare apologize. I’ve been praying for an encore of that for weeks.”

I thought back to the conversation we’d had outside the store the last time we kissed. “But you told me you weren’t looking for anything, and you said this was a bad idea because of the whole dating rule and all that.”

“I know what I said, but what I said was also garbage,” Nathan said, leaning back against the side of the house and pulling me closer. “Fuck what I told you. I just want to keep kissing you.”

“I think that can be arranged.” I smiled coyly, and he started kissing me again, deeper this time. My head was spinning in the best possible way; I couldn’t believe this was finally happening. My arms snaked around his neck as we got as close as humanly possible with our clothes on, and the more we kissed, I began to think just how much more enjoyable things would be with our clothes off. As much as it killed me, I broke apart from him and he groaned. “What do you think about going back to your place?”

“I think that’s a fantastic idea, but are you sure?” he checked.

Admittedly, I was still a bit tipsy. But never in my life had I wanted something more than I wanted him, all of him, in that moment. “I’m absolutely sure.”

“Like, one hundred percent?”

“One hundred and ten percent.”

“Without a doubt? Absolutely positive?”

“Yes.”

“Because you can change your mind whenever you want to.”

“I know that.”

“Have you ever done this before?”

I’d had a few close encounters over the years, but had turned them all down. Foolishly, I’d been saving myself for John, convinced that we were one of those inevitable, epic love stories and that one day everything would work out and we’d be passionately in love. But since it had turned out that he was in love with my sister and he’d proven himself to be a real dickhead, that was obviously all out the window. I wasn’t about to admit all of that to Nathan, though. Talk about a mood killer. Instead, I just shook my head. “No. But I really want to.”

“And you’re one thousand percent-”

“Yes, for the love of God, yes, I’m sure. Are you really going to make me go through all that again?” I asked him.

“No,” he said, and then kissed me sweetly. “I promise to be the perfect gentleman, though.”

“I’m gonna hold you to it,” I teased, and then grabbed his hand and gestured forward. “Lead the way.”