Stuck: with You

It wasn't until they reached Nicola's house that she finally decided to come out with it.

"Hey, do you mind coming in for a moment, mum and dad are out and I kinda have something I need to tell you. Something important."

Confused Arthur nodded and followed Nicola inside, she looked nervous which was never a good thing, the only times Arthur had seen her look scared was when she felt vulnerable or scared about losing him. Whatever she had to say it was obvious she was afraid it might push him away.

Once they were inside Nicola started pacing, struggling to find the words or where to begin, Arthur stood patiently for her, not wanting to risk saying the wrong thing.

"I was thinking." She begun quickly, trying to get through her words as fast as she could. "With Brendan lying to himself about how he feels I realised that I've been lying to you. Not by choice but through omission and I don't want to do that, I want... Do we have a future?"

"What?"

"Do we have a future; is this a long term thing or am I wasting my time?"

"Nikki whatever happens between us I'm in this till the end of the line. You're stuck with me."

Nicola laughed but tears still crept into her eyes. "I love you."

"I know."

"I'm sorry Art but I had to be sure, I had to because what I'm about to tell you is a big deal for me, I promised mum I'd never tell this story to anyone but the man I spend the rest of my life with, and I want to believe that's you but what I'm gonna say will change a lot about how you think of me and my family."

"I don't care Nikki, I'm not going anywhere."

She had to smile at the memory of her 14th birthday, when Arthur was the one freaking out and she comforted him, the reverse was almost funny and did enough to calm her nerves.

"Ok, you know my dad's mum, Claire?"

Arthur nodded having met Claire a number of times over the years.

"Well years ago she had a sister, Jane. I never met her she died of cancer back when dad was in his 20s, maybe even his 30s at this point. Anyway, Jane was in an abusive relationship with a man called Craig, just an absolute piece of shit, he died as well a few years ago, but being in that relationship she found herself pushed towards a co-worker that cared for her, a man called Ray Henderson."

Arthur's ears perked up, slowly putting all the pieces together.

"They slept together once but it was enough for them to have a daughter, a girl they named Alexandra though now she prefers to go by Lexi."

She watched as Arthur ran through this information in his head, trying to work out where everything went.

"I'll save you the trouble Art, my parents are cousins; I'm an incest baby."

"That's... I mean it's... How long have you...?"

"Officially since I was 8 but I figured it out a little before then, I was raised believing a man called Liam Nelson was my father until everything got spilled when I was six. I hated Liam for leaving us, then I hated mum for taking away my father, but then Liam relapsed in drug abuse and realised I'd never get him back. Took me a couple years to fully accept that my parents were related but they've done their best to raise me regardless."

"And Kevin, is he...?"

"He is my half-brother from dad's first marriage, he cheated on Kanani with mum before she got pregnant with Kevin, hence why I'm older than him, that's also the reason Kay's dad took his eye out with a pint glass. Don't judge dad too harshly, him and mum have a WAY too long history and Kay sadly got caught up in the middle of it."

Nicola stepped closer to Arthur, feeling a weight lifted off her shoulders having now confessed. "Are we still ok Art?"

"Of course we are, there's nothing wrong with you and despite an awkward heritage your parents clearly love you. You'll pretty much normal far as I can tell. I love you."

"I know."

The couple kissed again and held each other, it was a day of reveals but Nicola was happy she could finally share her secret with the love of her life.

*

Things got back to relative normality after everything that went down, Martin Allen narrowly avoided jail time since Brendan wasn't officially 'Out' so he couldn't be charged with a hate crime but he was suspended from school, that in itself didn't bother him but what did was his mother selling off his car. Martin still hadn't passed his driving test so he wasn't even using it and since it was in his parents name his mother sold it off as soon as she could as punishment, she already had one son in prison and coming that close to losing another she wanted to make sure there were consequences.

Brendan rejoined the group a little more reserved than before, his injuries healed but he still had a lot of personal stuff to figure out and often kept to himself most days, though he was happy to have his friends again.

Nicola's time on the Volleyball team proved a great match-up as by the end of the season she'd helped the team reach fifth in the country, their highest position for years and beating several favourites for the place. It was the start of the summer holidays when the season ended so in celebration Nicola invited her teammates and Megan to a sleepover at her house; some couldn't make it but there ended up being total of seven girls under the one roof.

Adam thanked the gods that David's house was walking distance and left quickly.

Brendan also came over that night to Arthur's house, things were still somewhat awkward but both were making an effort to change that. While David and Adam watched a recorded football game downstairs, Arthur and Brendan played videogames in Arthur's room.

"Behind you." Arthur had to keep himself from shouting as Brendan spun the round just in time to shoot a demon in the face.

"Thanks."

Arthur watched as Brendan paused the game to wipe something from his eye.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, eyes are a little sensitive to the screen is all."

"We can stop if you want."

Brendan thought it over and decided it would be pointless to act tough in front of Arthur. He kept the game paused and turned away from the screen. "Yeah, probably best we take a break."

"Feeling any better?"

"Physically, yeah. But mentally... the worst part is I know Martin's out for my fucking blood, he blames me for him losing his car, I don't fucking know why his mum did that."

"Probably thought it would straighten him out, keep him from going to prison like his brother."

"Actually his brother's out, made a plea deal and joined the army, but that's beside the point, Marti still wants me fucking dead."

"I don't think he'll touch you, he's already got a reputation as a 'gay-basher' so he's not going to try anything again soon."

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that. Nothing's changed between us, you don't care that I'm..."

"No, I don't care Brendan, you're my friend and so long as it's legal I don't care who sleep with."

"Thanks man, I'm still figuring a lot of stuff out. You remember Leon Fitz from the team; he came out as gay few years back so he's been helping me figure it all out. But I'm glad we're still good."

"No worries, you told your family yet?"

"Not to my parents yet, not until I'm sure what's going on with me. My sister though, fuck me she loves this, for all the times I've called her a rug-muncher she's finally got something to throw back in my face. I swear Arthur if I didn't love her I'd call her a cunt."

Arthur chuckled, despite everything Brendan's spirits seemed to be on the mend. At that moment Arthur's phone rang, he saw Nikki's name on the screen so excused himself to answer it.

"Hey Nikki."

"Hey Babe, we're just getting ready to find some horror films on Netflix, you got any recommendations?"

Sure, you want Scary Scary, Funny Scary or Bad Scary?"

"Go Funny Scary for now."

"If Tucker & Dale Vs Evil is still on then give that a watch."

"Will do, how's Brendan doing?"

"He seems to doing fine, still calling Heather names. How are things over there?"

"We're good, just pillow fighting and practising kissing, the usual."

"Stop, you're making me jealous."

"You love it."

"I love you."

"Pfft, you girl."

Arthur laughed, he knew Nicola was putting on a show for her girlfriends but it was all in good humour. "I'll leave you to your friends, talk in the morning?"

"Sounds good, love you."

"Love you too."

Arthur hung up, the smile still evident on his face, Brendan noticed it immediately.

"How's Nicola?"

"She's good, they're having fun."

"Sounds like it. Hey you know how you said you don't care who I fucked..."

"You go anywhere near her and I'll beat you down."

The two friends laughed as Brendan picked up the controller and went back to shooting demons.

Across the road, Nicola put down her phone and rejoined her friends, already engaged in a lively discussion. Sarah turned to Nicola as she sat down.

"Ok let's ask the girl herself; Nikki, you and Arthur, you fucked yet?"

"Jesus Sarah." Emily chastised her friend.

"What? That's what we all wanted to know."

"You could've asked a little more delicately."

Nicola chuckled to herself, she and Emily had become good friends since she joined the team, and since Emily was team captain she often took the role of responsibility on and seemingly off the court.

She looked towards Sarah and answered. "No, we haven't 'fucked', not yet anyway."

"Damn, really? The way you two are with each other I could've sworn you'd done it by now. I don't get it but you just work."

"Trust me." Megan interjected. "I've known Arthur for over ten years, I still don't get it either."

"Ladies please." Nicola quickly spoke up to take control of the conversation. "It's not like we haven't thought about it, we've fooled around here and there and the only reason we haven't yet is because Art's nearly a month older than I am, it would be fine now but the minute he turns 16 anything done with me until my birthday would legally class him as a sex offender. And girls I don't want to keep my hands off him for a month so once we're both of age we'll talk about it."

"I think I need to talk to Frankie tomorrow." Emily said mostly to herself, like Nicola she was in a long-term relationship but her and her boyfriend Francis had essentially been together since they were 5 and had no doubt made the next step, from her tone of voice she hadn't considered certain things about their relationship.

"I think we need to move on from talking about dicks already. " The team's token gay-girl Tina 'Shep' Sheppard called out, while she had no issues with the girls talking hormones her first love was horror movies and she was getting impatient waiting to see what their choice for the evening was.

"Shep you wouldn't know a dick if it slapped you in the fucking face." Emily teased.

"I know exactly what a dick is." Shep countered. "And they're shaped like Martin Fucking Allen."

The girls laughed, none of them liked Martin to begin with but since his beating of Brendan Shep had particularly taken to insulting him.

"Seriously though, what the fuck are we watching?"

"Art says Tucker and Dale if it's still available."

"Yes, great fucking choice."

As Shep searched for their evening entertainment Emily scooted over towards Nicola.

"Hey Nikki, your birthday's in October right?"

"The 1st, yeah."

"You think you can wait till the end of the month till you jump Arthur, I might have something that could help you out."

Emily explained her plan to Nicola who immediately loved it, as the film started she started thinking about how to put it into action.

*

By the time Nicola's 16th birthday came around she, Emily and Megan had banded together to pull off the biggest trick of their young lives so far. Nicola spent most of her time with Arthur to avoid suspicion but she found an opportunity to leave him for a moment when she saw Emily and Megan join the table where Adam, Lexi, David, Penny and Emily's parents Kenneth and Jennifer were sharing a drink and getting to know each other.

"It's so rare to see divorced couples being so civil." Jennifer told David and Penny. "My sister got divorced five years ago and she still spits venom whenever someone mentions her ex's name.

"Well we had our reasons but it was amicable all the way." Penny smiled. "I couldn't ask for anyone better to raise our son."

"Your Art's a good lad." Kenneth chimed in. "Our Emily's been singing his praised since Nicola joined the team."

"And for good reason." Emily joined the conversation. "Nicola's my friend and I want to make sure she's happy."

"You just want a happy team so you can win more trophies." Her mother countered.

"This is also true."

Emily looked over and Nicola and subtly winked, their plan was kicking into action.

"Hey mum, are you still doing your Halloween party this year, I was telling Nicola about it earlier but wanted to make sure."

"Of course we are. OH, actually that reminds me, if none of you have plans you're welcome to join us, adults only but it's a big house so you're welcome to stay the night."

Lexi looked a little apprehensive. "Are you sure, I mean I know our daughters are on the team but..."

"Absolutely Lexi, in fact I encourage it, you and Adam need to let your hair down and introduce yourself to the neighbourhood, I'll be your guide on who to know. David, Penny you're both welcome as well of course."

"I'll pass." David said. "I learnt a long time ago that parties aren't for me, whenever I'm at one all it takes is one mentioned of 'Single' and 'Cop' for the cougars to get their claws into me."

"Why don't you just go with Penny?" Megan entered the conversation. "You wouldn't technically be single and there's no awkwardness at the end of the night."

"She's got a point David, I don't want to be fending off the wolves all night but I'd like to meet some new people."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

A small smile hit David's face, unnoticed by most of them, including himself. "Alright, I'm in."

"Great, give your numbers and I'll text you all the details. Oh, and costumes are a must so get looking."

As the parents discussed their plans for their upcoming party, Emily, Megan and Nicola left giggling, everything had worked perfectly. Arthur found them all laughing.

"Hey, what's so funny?"

Emily and Megan left quickly so as not to spoil anything. Nicola wrapped her arms around Art and kissed him. "Nothing hun, just talking with Emily about some plans."

"Really? What sort of plans?"

"Well... what are you doing for Halloween?"

*

Truth be told Arthur wasn't too thrilled about going out with Emily and her friends, even less so when Nicola said she found the perfect costume for him, but she wanted it and he wanted to see her happy so he agreed. When Halloween came upon them Arthur walked over to Nicola's house after their parents had left for the party at The Fitz's house, to his surprise Nicola was wearing a dressing gown when she opened the door.

"Hey, you not ready yet?"

"What? Oh, no I am, I've got my suit on underneath."

"Can I get a peek?"

Nicola shut and locked the door behind them. "No, not yet."

"Well can I see my suit then, I want to know how embarrassed I'm going to be tonight."

"You won't be. Because there isn't one."

Arthur looked at his girlfriend confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean there isn't a Halloween party for us, I mean that me, Megan and Emily worked to make sure nobody would be home tonight, I mean that you and I have other plans."

Before Arthur could ask Nicola opened her gown and dropped it to the floor. And instantly Arthur knew what was happening, though he couldn't quite believe it.

Tearing his eyes away from her bold and brazen body, Arthur Ross looked Nicola McAllister in the eyes and smiled.

"Oh."

*

Fuck me, four years and I'm only half-way finished with this story, I miss my free-time.

I wasn't originally going to split this but the time it's taken me and since after this point there's going be a bit of a time jump it made sense to cut it here. Sorry for anyone expecting any sexual content but given the age of the characters - while legal in their home country - I didn't want to push anything too far. You'll get plenty of it in the next part.

Whenever that will be.