Secrets [Trans Jake AU, Juke Fanfic]

~Chapter 13: ~ The Truth ~

Tuesday

Hailey stands leaning against a tree, the rough bark scratching at her watermelon pink cardigan, thinking for a long moment. She's been waiting for a certain blond boy to arrive. It's been several minutes and he still hasn't showed. It dawned on her that it was still early in the day, around seven o' clock in the morning, so it would probably still be awhile until he showed up. Rather than waiting for almost half an hour, she decided to rest her eyes for a moment. She sat down on the soft autumn grass, noticing the crunching of a few leaves as she did so. Hailey lifted her bag over her head and laid it leaning on her leg after taking her phone out to check the time and to set an alarm to make sure she actually wakes up. She types in the numbers 7, 3, 0 on her keyboard then closes the phone screen and slips the device back into the light colored bag that lay beside her. The teal girl then leaned her head against the hardwood of the tree that lifted her up, and soon let her eyes drift shut. 

She woke up moments after this, but just before her alarm. She heard a familiar voice calling her name quite loudly before her eyes slid open to see the very boy she'd been waiting for. "Hailey?" he called. "You awake?" The girl lifted her left arm and balled her hand into a fist to rub her tired eyes. "Yeah? What time is it?" she uttered out, reaching for the bag on her lap. "I don't know, like 7:15 or something?" the boy answered unknowingly, "how long have you been sleeping there?" Hailey shrugged. "Well, I sat down at 7, so, 15 minutes?" she responded, lifting herself up off the dirty, yet comfortable, ground. Hailey then proceeded to wipe off the debris from the trees off her legs. 

"So, what'd you wanna talk about?" the blond asked, yawning loudly and lifting his arm above his head to stretch, holding said arm with his other arm. "Luke." Hailey said bluntly. Jake froze in his motion then dropped his arms from the air. "Luke? What about him?" he asked, fiddling with his jacket sleeve. "Well, technically I want to talk about what I told you the other day, in science." Jake's expression dropped, as did his mood. He managed to choke out a few words, "What? About Luke liking Zander?" he fakely scoffed, "I'm over it." 

Jake slapped his hand over his mouth when the words slipped out. Shit. he thought. "You're over it? I didn't know it upset you in the first place..." Hailey uttered, searching Jake's eyes. The blond swallowed. "Upset? Oh, no, I-I wasn't upset I just meant... uh..." the boy tried thinking of an excuse, but he couldn't before Hailey spoke again. "Jake, do you like Luke?" she went right to the point. Jake's eyes darted around the campus, avoiding Hailey's eye contact. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Me? Like Luke? What, no! Of course not," he lied. "If you say so." Hailey wasn't buying it. 

"Anyway, I wanted to correct some misinformation I gave you," she continued from her previous sentence. "You actually mentioned it, Jake. Luke doesn't like Zander. He does like someone else though." Hailey did her best nine-year-old impression on the last sentence. She bobbed her eyebrows up and down with a smirk on her face. Jake stared at her blankly. "Okay?" he muttered, doing his best not to seem upset at all. Which, he was. A part of him wished that Hailey never told him the second bit and let him to just assume that Luke didn't like anyone. It may have been a lie to him, but at least he would feel better, right?

"You don't wanna know who?"

"No? That's not any of my business." A rock was forming in his throat. 

"Why do you look so upset, though? Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine, can I go to class now?" He really wanted to just skip class to lock himself in a bathroom stall and cry again. But, this time without Luke. 

"I- Yeah, sure, go ahead..." Hailey's voice trailed off and Jake gave her a confused nod. He's a good actor. The blond walked away and headed towards the bathroom to execute his plan. Little did he know...