The Love Letter Game || The Music Freaks

Chapter 2 | Early Morning Café

"One blueberry muffin, please," Hailey said, putting on a small smile.

"Coming right up," The cafe worker muttered, clearly annoyed Hailey had taken so long to decide on such a simple order.

She paid the worker, then headed back to the table her friends were seated at.

"Oh my God, did you finally order?!" Milly groaned, as Hailey sat down next to Jake in the booth.

"Yeah, the rest of us already have our food," Sean chuckled, taking a sip from his coffee.

"You know I'm indecisive!" Hailey scoffed defensively, though the small laugh she tagged along indicated she was only joking.

There was a muffled voice, and the club turned over to Zander, who was attempted to speak with his mouth full, white powder from his donut smudged across his lips.

Milly couldn't help but burst into laughter, and not too long after, the rest of the club, excluding Zander, joined in.

"What?" Zander asked, glancing around at his friend, unaware of the mess he had made.

"My love..." Luke managed between laughter, "You have something..."

Zander narrowed his eyes, using his wrist to wipe his mouth, in an attempt to wipe off the donut powder, only smearing it further along his cheek.

Everyone seemed to laugh harder, as Zander kept trying to clean his face.

"You know, maybe you could help him out, Luke," Jake teased.

The auburn-haired boy only smirked, cupping Zander's face and pulling him into a kiss.

He pulled away a second later, a bit of the powder now on his own mouth. Luke giggled, as his boyfriend buried his face into his hands in embarrassment, mumbling inaudible sentences.

"You know, this is really fun," Jake pointed it, calming down from his laughs, "Why don't we do this more often? The six of us coming here for breakfast before school."

"Yeah," Sean agreed, "This could be like a little tradition for us."

Milly, Luke, Zander, and Sean broke into conversation, although Hailey wasn't paying much attention. Instead, she stared down at her fingers, gently drumming them together, fidgeting in her seat.

"Hailey?" She gazed up, her eyes meeting with a familiar set of dark mocha eyes blinking back at her.

"Oh," She muttered, "Yeah, Jake?"

"I, um," He nervously glanced at the other club members, who seemed to be caught up in cheering Milly on and laughing as she chugged a glass of water. Glancing back at Hailey, he continued, "I got a love letter yesterday."

Crack.

Hailey felt something in her chest, not something good, a bad, painful feeling. It was like a crack. Like fragile glass shattering, thin ice splitting, leaving a hole in her heart.

Why did hearing that hurt so much?

"O-oh," She stammered, "Um, really?"

"Yeah," Jake forced a small chuckle, "I just wanted to show because, well, I trust you."

Hailey felt a small smile tugging at her lips, one she tried desperately to fight back, "Okay, let's see it."

Jake returned her grin, pulling a folded-up paper out of his jacket pocket. He unfolded it, before placing it on the table, in front of Hailey, giving the teal-haired girl a chance to read it.