Second Hand [manxboy]

Chapter 10

"I could take you out somewhere," Mac offered hopefully.

"That's not a good idea," Nico sighed, trying to work on his homework. "Last time... I don't know if those detectives are still looking into my dad, and I already said, with security it'd be hard for me to get out anywhere." He really didn't want to anyways. He knew Mac was trying to turn it into more of a date.

"We can just go to a club or something," Mac insisted. "Say you're going with a friend."

Nico's only friend was Amy, and any one of the men who worked for his father knew she wasn't the 'club' type. "It's not that easy." He tried to keep working on another math problem. He wished Mac would at least try and earn the money he was being paid.

"Could you sneak out?" Mac asked hopefully.

Nico groaned and dug his pencil into the paper. "If I agree will you stop asking?"

"Yes," Mac answered quickly.

"It's not a date," Nico had to add. "Just... clubbing. Whatever."

Mac still seemed happy that Nico had at least agreed, even though he didn't want to. With that, Mac finally started to help Nico on his homework. The tutoring time was over soon after though and Mac promised to text Nico about going to the club. "We'll aim for tomorrow, okay? Since it's a Friday."

Nico only grunted as Mac left. Nico worked on his Russian until Yakov was home for work. Nico was quiet during dinner. Should he even try coming up with an excuse of where he was going, or just sneak out like Mac said? Nico didn't mind going out to a club really; he was just getting annoyed with Mac again. But maybe if he could hook up with someone else...

"You're quiet," Yakov pointed out.

"Just tired," Nico muttered lamely. "How's the fraud thing?" he asked for a change of subject.

"Oh, as good as it could be." Yakov still frowned though. "I have court next week. They don't have much really. Like I said, I'll probably just pay some fines. Maybe lose my passport for a while. Have you seen anymore detectives following you?"

"No." Nico was still expecting the question of his relationship with Mac to come up because of the detective. If he'd been able to figure it out in just a few minutes, how easy would it be for someone like Miroslav? He wondered off-handedly what would happen to Mac then.

Dinner ended and Nico went to finish the homework from earlier. That was spent mostly with Amy on the phone helping him. "I know you and Mac aren't exactly tutoring all the time, but come on," Amy pointed out. "I think you should be focusing a little more on school."

"How do I tell that to my dad, huh?" Nico challenged her. "Yeah, my tutor and I are too busy fucking, so I need a new one. I can't even imagine what he would have done to Mac."

Amy was silent a moment. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that part."

Nico rolled his eyes and got them back on the topic of homework. He finished it all late and curled up in his nest inside the walk-in closet. Mac had even tried to come into his bedroom. That bothered him a lot too. His bedroom needed to be his safe place.

The next day there was a surprise test in Russian, and while Nico was indeed surprised, he didn't worry about it. She couldn't increase difficulty just for him without failing the rest of the class. She was already talking about moving him up into year two for the next semester, though.

Nico got his math homework turned in though he wasn't confident in it. If anything he was wanting a new tutor now but really didn't know how to go about it.

Mac texted him during the afternoon about their plans for going out. Nico went with it in short answers. He knew there was security around the house and that would be the biggest thing. Maybe as long as he steered clear of the guard house...