“Good.” Nick said flatly.
He watched as she looked over her shoulder, then back to him.
“But we both know you didn’t hurt anyone.” She whispered. The tone of her voice was cold as ice.
He looked up at her, then went to stand up. He’d stick his fist in her mouth if she uttered a word.
“Sit!” She ordered, and he did. She held up his phone. “You dropped something.”
She fingered the phone in her perfectly manicured hands, scrolling, to his last, text message. She turned the screen towards the cell, making sure he saw it. Making sure, he saw Jake’s name.
“Now here is how this is going to go.” She had his attention and she knew it.
“These charges will be dismissed and your name will be cleared. I can do that and keep your little friend out of this.”
“How?” Nick asked.
“You just listen to me.” She dismissed his question.
“Under one condition, will this happen. You go to Seattle and forget about these people. You forget Luke and Jake, and that little tart Samantha.” He jumped up at the mention of Sam. “Oh, I’ve seemed to have struck a nerve.” She pointed her finger at him. The corners of her mouth turned up, a devious smile played on her face.
“And that is exactly why you have to leave. You are going to let those people suck you dry and you’ll amount to nothing, I won’t allow it.”
“You don’t know shit about, anything.” Nick spat.
“I know that if you stay here, you’re going to end up right where you are!” Her voice breaking slightly as she spoke. She took a deep breath and began again regaining her composure. “Do we have a deal?”
Nick looked at the phone in his mother’s hands and then at the hard gaze her eyes held. He was not going to let Jake go to jail for assaulting Cara’s father, not because his mother was a bitch.
“Fine, I’ll go.” He said.
Lucille nodded, appeased. She slipped the phone into her Louis Vuitton purse.
“I’ll just hang onto this, in case you forget this little conversation we had.” She gave him one final hard look before turning to walk away.
“What did they ever do to you?” Nick called out.
“They took my only son.” She continued to walk away, her heels clanking on the cement of the floor.
Nick took a deep breath, he had buried that conversation, with his mother, so deep, and he forgot the emotions that came with the memory. He looked up at Jake, his hand was covering his mouth as he simply stared at Nick.
“You left Riverdale, to save me.” It wasn’t a question, Jake meant it a statement.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” Nick said sternly, watching Jake begin to lose whatever control he was holding on to.
Jake didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at Nick. He turned around and stared absent-mindedly at the trees that isolated Luke’s house from the road. Nick felt like an ass, he didn’t want Jake to feel guilty. That’s why he never told him. Telling him now, while he was battling cancer, made him feel like a dick.
“You know what’s funny? You would’ve let me die never knowing what you had done for me.” Jake turned and faced him.
“Fuck that.” Nick said, and he clenched his fists at his sides. “You’re not dying. You’re getting a bone marrow transplant tomorrow.” He shook his head and looked up at the sky, reining in his anger. “What I did? It’s nothing.” He looked at Jake. “I was glad to help you out, and as long as I live I will never regret it. You know why? Because it gave me the opportunity to do something good for someone who is an incredible inspiration.” He pointed towards Luke’s house. “Your brother would’ve done the same thing, and he would still be giving you his bone marrow tomorrow. It’s what brother’s do and we may not share blood, but you’re my brother in every way possible. You know that.”
Jake bit the inside of his cheek and waited a beat before he nodded. When he spoke, his voice was heavy with emotion. “You left your plans that you had for your future, with Luke. Hell, with Sam, because I was hot-tempered and stupid. You put your life on hold for seven years for me.” He sighed. “I don’t know how to repay you for that.”
“I don’t want you to. Jake I need for you to understand, even if my mother had never visited me in that holding cell. Even if she had never given me the ultimatum that she did, I still would’ve had your back. I most likely would have done time for it and those plans would’ve been on hold anyway.”
“She wouldn’t have hated you for leaving.” Jake said as he glanced over at Sam’s car.
“Don’t be so sure of that. I’m sure she would hate me for something else.” He sighed and shoved his hands into his back pockets. “I don’t think your sister and I are meant to be, they’ll always be something that pulls us apart. It’s just not in the cards.”