1 // CONFIDENTIAL // JEDDY

// fifty //

this was a shit idea. fuck lorcan, what did he know? just because he'd now started dating the person he'd been crushing on for the last 5 years (or something stupidly long like that) didn't mean he was good at relationship advice. okay, teddy knew that sentence wasn't exactly correct but it didn't stop him from believing it.

the issue was that jamie and hugo were completely different people. you might've not even known they're related because they don't even look alike, and they're polar opposites in a way. so no, teddy possibly wasn't going to take lorcan's advice. it wouldn't work on jamie.

not to mention, jamie was still working through the motions of withdrawal. and the symptoms weren't all that pretty. teddy was there to help him, not fuck things up even more than he has. because teddy really did fuck up. like astronomically fucked up. the most fucked up someone could do. all because of a single comment on instagram.

what had his life come to?

he was taking advice from lorcan scamander who he never really had talked to, ever (apart from in a supermarket amongst the jars of mayonnaise). but jamie hadn't mentioned anything yet.

that didn't mean that he doesn't know, the voice in the back of teddy's head nagged. but before he could ponder and woe over that thought, the sound of the door opening disrupted him. jamie was home.

teddy had been sat, waiting for him to arrive back home. he'd been gone for two hours, said he was getting the shopping done. the lie wasn't noticeable until now, teddy realised that the shopping jamie referred to wasn't for groceries.

as soon as jamie came into the living room, teddy stood up, meeting him eye to eye. he could feel the distance between them pull and twist like the tension in the air. teddy could see jamie knew he'd done something wrong.

"two hours, jamie. you've been gone for two hours." was the first thing he said. perhaps not the greatest way to start their evening. but teddy was concerned, he couldn't help that.

"it was a long shop." jamie replied, the bags still in his hands.

it was a blatant lie. both of them knew that.

"i trusted you, to go out and not do something stupid. and what've you done now: something stupid." teddy paused, looking jamie up and down, though not the way he thought he would be doing tonight. he took in jamie's slightly untucked shirt and more-than-usual messy hair, the lack of shopping bags (there were only three) and came to the conclusion that he definitely wasn't just shopping. "i'm gonna drug test you."

"i'm not high, teds." jamie snapped, immediately.

he dropped the bags and stormed up to teddy. teddy took a step back, not trusting either jamie or himself to keep this argument strictly verbal. he held up his hands in order to keep the distance between them larger than it had to be.

he didn't want to end up hurting jamie, and he hoped jamie felt the same about him. because they had both thrown punches before words, and they both had never listened unless it was to the sound of blood being spat on the floor. and the only time they'd used their mouths was to scream as their opponent had somehow managed to knee their stomach, rather than to talk about what was going on.

though, they hadn't done this to each other. teddy really didn't ever want to. so, maybe he was being a bit extreme, drug testing and not just taking his word for it. but it was better than what could potentially happen.

"i don't believe you." teddy replied, his voice wavering, despite his attempts to make it even.

"oh and you're gonna pat me down as well?" jamie sarcastically bickered back.