Finally Free -- JATP Luke x MaleOC

Chapter 43

When Luke arrived in Jay's trigonometry class the next day, he immediately noticed a difference in him.

He was mostly the same as he was for the first two days of the week. But there was a new light behind his eyes, a light that started to shine through the darkness that clouded them before.

There was a new energy in Jay's words when he spoke and Luke picked up on it immediately. It kind of fed his own energy, got him even more excited and invested in their conversations than before, which he didn't think was possible.

It gave Luke hope that Jay would be coming back soon.

And maybe he was being a bit too optimistic and way too selfish, but the fact of the matter was that they needed Jay in the band. More importantly, they just needed Jay around to hang with. Sure, having quick conversations in his classes was nice and they could always just drop by his house too, but nothing felt the same as making music with him.

Luke could still remember the day when Reggie was reading through Jay's song journal and he got so mad that he stormed out, only to come back and offer one of his songs to the band. He could remember every hour, every minute, every second that he spent with the band rehearsing and perfecting that song once Julie had agreed to come back to the band. He remembered the time and energy they poured into Edge of Great and Stand Tall, songs that Luke thought they wouldn't get to perform until Sunset Curve got signed.

It was only thanks to Julie and Jay that they could perform those songs now.

Julie.

Jay's departure from the band hit her hard, and the boys could all tell. She was more muted during rehearsals, for lack of better words. And it made perfect sense: Jay was like her brother, and having someone like that in a band with you was probably the most fun thing ever. Like a family band. If Luke had any brothers or sisters, he would love to be in a band with them.

Wednesday and Thursday's trigonometry classes were nearly identical, with one crucial difference happening on Thursday.

"Hey, what time is the garage party tomorrow?" Jay had asked. At the beginning of the week, Jay had tried to use the notes app on his phone to communicate with Luke. He had given up on that idea and kept going with verbal conversations starting Wednesday.

"We go on at seven," Luke answered, raising an eyebrow. "Why, you coming?"

"Maybe," Jay admits, looking away from where Luke was sitting on the desk in front of him. "My aunt probably won't let me, though. She doesn't want me hanging around Julie anymore. Says she's a bad influence."

"Julie Molina, a bad influence?" Luke scoffed. "I guess I'm a demon or something then."

Jay hummed for a moment as he brought his gaze back to Luke as if he were analyzing him.

"I can see that."

Luke fake pouted at Jay as the other boy simply gave him a cocky smirk. Luke then broke his pout and gave a quick but hearty laugh, shaking his head. He looked back at Jay to see him smiling at him and Luke couldn't help but look at him with something akin to adoration.

"You know, you should just sneak out," Luke suggested, lowering his voice as if he were sharing a secret. "Just tell your aunt that you've got a project or something."

"No, no, I can do that," Jay shook his head, fear slipping into his voice. "That's what I told them last time, I can't do that."

"C'mon Jay," Luke pleaded. "We're not doing this without you. We can't."

Part of Luke wanted to say 'I can't do this without you,' but he held himself back.

"Luke, really." Jay sighs. "I can't. I would if I could, but I can't."