Chapter Text
Then…
Nick had grown up in the foster care system, which was as unforgiving as high school. He was constantly moved between houses because none of the parents wanted to keep him long enough for him to have a stable home environment. He watched as his friends got picked over him to live in a happy family… while the only people who seemed remotely capable of loving him only used him for the paycheck at the end of his test. By the time he was ten he learned life was hard and unforgiving, that he’d always be alone… and by the end of the day new parents who filtered in and out of the shelter would be gravitated towards the younger kids. The cute five year olds who liked race cars and princesses, not him, who’s only interest was learning how to shred on the guitar.
“Turn down the music!” His case worker, a middle-aged hag named Olga Halvitch, shouted through his locked door. She tried to turn the doorknob, but Nick learned to lock it after the other kids used to break into his room to trash it at night. Nick just rolled his eyes and kept the rock music blasting at his chosen volume. At this point, the only reason Olga checked on him was if one of the other kids got adopted, or if she wanted him to wrangle the kids together for new parents. “Hey!” Ogla shouted, banging on the door, “I’ve got the key you little brat!” As promised, he heard the sound of her shoving the room key into the lock.
“Go away!” Nick called out, he was thirteen. He just had to wait five years, then he’d be able to escape the hell he grew up in and never look back. Maybe he’d get lucky and be able to join up with an already existing band, or even start his own.
“Nicholas! I thought I told you to pick up, you have a meeting!” Olga exclaimed when she walked into the threshold and was met by the sight of his unmade bed and songbooks thrown on the floor. Nick just turned on his bed, facing the wall instead of her two buck teeth and the wart on her nose.
“Tell the others I’m done playing along with their tricks,” Nick mumbled as AC/DC started playing. “Five more years and I’m out of here Olga, this place’ll be a distant memory.” Someone cleared their throat, and a man Nick had never met before spoke up.
“We’ll be fine Ms. Halvitch. Trust me, Chad’s room was way worse than this back in high school.” Ogla let out a sound of disgust, throwing a few of Nick’s dirty shirts onto his bed.
“I told you he was problematic Mr. Evans, perhaps one of the younger -” Mr. Evans cut her off instantly,
“There’s no need. Ms. Halvitch, thank you for showing us to Nicholas’s room.” Nick sat up and was shocked at the sight of the two men standing awkwardly just outside of his doorway. While one was dressed in a suit, tailored to near-perfection, topped with the ugliest fedora Nick had ever seen, the other went for a more casual look. The afro-hair dude was wearing jeans and a red hoodie with some sort of high school logo on it.
“Don’t screw this up. They’re the first parents who asked for an older kid in months, it’s your last chance,” Olga hissed. She turned around and left Nick’s room, heels clacking against the wood floor. Nick scampered across his floor to turn down the volume on the music.
“Hi,” he said, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. “Uh.. come in I guess, you can sit anywhere.” Nick gesturing nonchalantly around his room as he stacked his songbooks unceremoniously on his desk. The adults sat next to each other on Nick’s bed, too close for them to be sitting if they were just friends. A few minutes passed and no one said anything, so Nick took to anxiously bouncing his knee up and down, still waiting for someone to tell him it was all a prank.
“It’s nice to meet you,” the suit-dude said holding out his hand. “My name’s Ryan, this is my husband Chad. You’re Nicholas, right?”
“Nick,” he answered, correcting him. Nick reached forward and shook Ryan’s hand. Nick glanced between the two adults, still unsure of why they were taking to him. Chad shifted awkwardly and reached behind him, pulling out a few loose pages Nick had written lyrics on. Ryan glanced at the pages and his eyes widened as he read it.
“You like songwriting?” Ryan asked.
“Songwriting is for girls,” Nick countered, using the line the other kids often bullied him with. Ryan laughed, but it didn’t sound like he was laughing at Nick. Chad smirked,
“You ever heard of Troy Bolton?” Nick nodded, he wasn’t exactly the biggest basketball fan, but it was almost impossible to not know of the legendary player. “Well what if I told you when he was in high school he was in the spring musical?” Nick almost laughed at Chad, the theory was too good to be true. To his surprise though, Chad looked dead serious, Ryan did too.
“Nick, if you want to write music then nothing can stop you.” Ryan said softly, handing the music sheet to Nick. With a common interest discovered, Nick started to find out he had more similarities to Ryan and Chad than he originally thought. When their two hour meeting session was up, Nick felt something strange tighten in his chest. Something he hadn’t let himself feel since his last family two years ago… he felt a glimmer of hope.
Current Day...
Nick knew he lost the second Julie’s guitarist appeared on the Orpheum stage. He took his cue late, but when his hologram focused, Julie smiled at him as though he hung the sun and the moon in the sky. It wasn’t a question, there wasn’t a doubt in Nick’s mind that Julie didn’t love the guy she was singing to, and he was happy for her. He was happy that Julie finally found someone who was able to make her smile again, make her laugh again like she did before her mom died. If he was being completely honest with himself, Nick didn’t want to know what he’d do if one of his dads died, they were the most important people in his life… He would probably shut down just like Julie did.
Nick was happy for his girl-next-door, even though he was kicking himself for not noticing her crush on him sooner. If he wasn’t so wrapped up in the recent round of Dirty Candy drama he would have asked Julie out in a heartbeat. Instead, he ended up realizing his feelings for her a year too late, and he lost her to a guy from Sweden. Sure, maybe there was a small tiny annoying part of his brain who thought Luke was cute… but just because his dads were the two gayest men in Los Fleiz doesn’t mean he has to be gay too.
So sue him if he decided to buy Julie a bouquet of congratulations flowers the morning following her big debut. Uncle Troy had warned him it was a bad idea, which would be a fair point if his Uncle Troy hadn’t wooed Aunt Gabriella by building a not-so-top-secret garden on the roof of East High. (Nick had heard the story enough times to be able to recite it forwards and backwards). He just wanted to tell Julie he was proud of her for overcoming her stage fright, and that he still wanted to be friends with her if she was comfortable with it.
HIs car rolled to a stop as he parked on the street in front of her house. “Fuck, this is stupid.” Nick muttered as he looked at the bouquet of flowers resting on the passenger seat. Julie was amazing, she was definitely going to make it in the music business… “Okay,” Nick said, psyching himself up. “It’s just a bouquet of flowers. You can do this, you got this.” His fingers clenched around the bouquet, the paper crinkling under the pressure. He curbed the slight feeling of jealousy he felt for the guitarist, and pushed the car door open.
The walk up to the front door was more daunting than he expected. He half-dragged his feet, heels sliding against the black paved driveway. Carrie told him it was a bad idea, that he’d be leading Julie on more than reaffirming their friendship. Nick didn’t care though, he just wanted to be friends with Julie. “Hi Julie,” Nick stuttered, regretting not rehearsing what he was going to say earlier. “Uh… I saw you guys perform at the Orpheum and -” Nick shivered as a sudden chill cut through the air even though the sun was shining brightly overhead. The hairs on the back of his neck spiked, like they were warning him of something.
“The broken hearted teenager fighting for his girl…” Someone said behind him, almost monotone to the point of sounding bored. “How adorable.” Nick turned around to see a man dressed in the most expensive looking suit he’d ever seen in his life. Honestly, if Aunt Sharpay had a say in it she’d probably have his dad work the costume into this summer’s Star Dazzle Award routine. “Your name is Nicholas, correct? Julie’s ex?” The man asked, with a grin more devious than the Cheshire Cat’s. Something about his voice drew Nick in, like a spell had been cast, wrapping around his mind like honey. Nick didn’t fight against the spell, answering with a nod.
“I’m Nick, Julie’s friend,” he said, making it clear he and Julie weren’t exes… that they were never going to be exes. No matter how much he wanted to go out with her now. They weren’t meant to be together, Julie and Luke were and Nick wasn’t about to get in the way of fate. The man tsked as he stalked forward, somehow drawing the shadows closer to him, curving to a point of distortion. A sense of danger dawned on Nick and he tried to back up, to get away from whoever the hell this asshole thought he was. He wasn’t able to get far though, his back thudding against Molina's front door as he watched the stranger inch closer to him.
“My name is Caleb Covington,” the man said, introducing himself with an over-dramatic bow. I should get him Ms. Darbus’s phone number, Nick thought humorlessly, they’d probably have a blast planning East High’s next musical. The uneasy feeling continued to inch it’s way up Nick’s spine and suddenly he wanted to be anywhere but having a direct conversation with Caleb Covington. Fear etched it’s way into Nick’s mind, filling out the cracks of doubt and bringing out his anxieties and worries. His fear about not living up to his dad’s expectations, his fears of always being alone, of never being enough by just being him. All he wanted to do was push past Caleb and sprint to his car, put it in drive and speed as fast as he could away from the Molina’s and never visit them again. To Nick’s horror he couldn’t move his feet… at all. It was like some unseen force was keeping them in place, like he was a fly stuck in Caleb’s trap. He tried to bury the feeling of panic spiraling at the pit of his stomach, push it aside as he focused on whatever Caleb was trying to do.
“Uh, it was nice to meet you Mr. Covington, sir…” he said, trailing off at the end. Caleb met Nick’s eyes with a wicked looking smile. He reached out his hand, but Nick kept his hands shoved in the pockets of his pop’s old basketball sweatshirt. After realizing Nick wasn’t going to shake his hand Caleb pulled it back.
“I’m glad to finally be acquainted with you,” Caleb said with a glint in his eyes. “I’m a long time friend of your father, he never mentioned me?” Nick frowned, he met most of his dad’s business partners personally. Ryan Evans-Danforth had never signed any sort of contract with a man named Caleb Covington, Nick knew that much for sure. Suspicion started to replace Nick’s anxiety as he asked himself two very important questions, who the hell was this guy, and, what the hell did he want with me. Nick settled for shaking his head,
“No, dad never said anything about you to me.” Caleb sighed like he expected it to happen.
“I suppose since he declined my very, very impressive offer it makes sense,” he said with a tsk. Nick felt something inside him relax, as if since Caleb knew his dad, he felt as though he could trust him. Caleb looked behind Nick at the door when it sounded like someone walked past it from inside the house. “Now, as nice as getting acquainted with you has been mister Nick Danforth-Evans, I’m on a tight schedule. See, I’m not talking to you because your father said no to my deal…” Nick’s scream got caught in his throat as Caleb suddenly turned into a cloud of scary-looking purple smoke. When Nick opened his mouth to scream, Caleb’s presence settled into his mind and Nick couldn’t do anything to fight against him. Nick no longer had control of his own body, like something else had taken it over, using it as a puppet. When Caleb looked at them in the reflection of the glass in the Molina’s door he flicked Nick’s hair forward. “I’m here because Julie Molina said no to my deal,” Caleb said using Nick’s voice.
Nick could only watch from the backseat as his finger pressed the doorbell. Julie opened the door not a few seconds later, looking slightly confused at seeing Nick there. Nick tried to fight against the chains Caleb had him trapped in, he tried to warn her, to warn Julie she wasn’t talking to him… but Caleb’s control was too strong… and Nick could only watch as Julie accepted the bouquet of flowers and invite Caleb into her house.