4*TOWN

Reprisal 4

The band all looks confusedly at Raya after what she said.

"What? Ray, come on-"

Robaire starts, and Raya quickly cuts him off.

"No. I... I'm sorry."

"Dude, what are you doing? Just come on, I wanna f*cking sleep!"

T exclaims. Raya still doesn't move, her expression plain and unreadable.

"I've been thinking about this for a while. And I've made my choice."

"Okay, that sounds dramatic as hell, first off. Second, what?"

Z questions.

"I'm not doing this anymore. This going back and forth between you guys."

"Yeah! She's leaving your a**es!"

Chris, again, laughs from behind Raya. Jesse narrows his eyes at the both of them.

"What are you talking about? Back and forth?"

"You know, I tried to make you guys get along. I really wanted this to work, but it's not."

"So you're choosing them over us."

"Don't take it personally. ...Actually, do!"

Justin says, laughing and leaning onto Raya. Robaire shakes his head in disbelief.

"But why? Nothing was even going on. This is so out of nowhere-"

"It's not."

Raya looks between Jesse and Beck, then sighs. Her eyes land on Jesse, the concern in his eyes, and the dark red lipstick mark on his cheek.

"I'm sorry."

The group falls into an uncomfortable silence. One that goes on for way too long.

"So... That's it?"

T breaks the silence, his voice carrying a hint of anger.

"You're just gonna leave us now? Because you can't have Jesse? That's immature, and this is coming from me."

"I never said-"

"You don't have to say anything! Just go! Go be with Justin and JC and those other guys, because they just care about you so much, don't they?"

T goes on, obviously hurt.

"They're not really your friends, they just want everything we have- first Tae, now you! I have no idea how you don't f*cking see that, Raya. God, if we were anywhere else I would totally be storming off right now."

He looks down, his face scrunched up as he tries to stop himself from crying. Z wraps his arm around his shoulders, looking at Raya with anger.

"Well, uh... Your ride's here."

Raya says, avoiding looking at T or any of the others. Their limo is pulling up on the driveway beside them, just in time. T is first to get inside, and everyone else follows. Jesse is last, and before he gets in the car, he turns around and looks at Raya.

"You can still change your mind."

He says softly. Raya's about to respond when the door to the building opens quickly, and out walks Nick.

"Hey Jesse!"

Nick smiles, walking up to Jesse, then seeing the look on his face.

"Um... Bad time?"

"No, I was just leaving anyway."

Nick pulls Jesse in for a side hug.

"Alright! I'll say hi to the rest of the guys for you. AJ, Kev told me to come get you."

Nick goes back over to AJ, and Jesse finally gets into the car. Raya watches them go. Everyone else slowly disperses, leaving Raya standing alone outside with JC.

"Hey, don't feel too bad about this. They won't even notice you're gone."

...

"I don't understand."

Jesse says, looking down at his lap.

"Jesse, how the hell do you not- I mean, it's so-"

"Calm down, love."

Z pets his boyfriend's hair, speaking softly to him. T shuts his mouth for a moment, but then starts talking again- getting a tired sigh from Z.

"You know, I never really had a problem with any of those guys before. But now, I- I mean, they're just-"

"As much as I hate those guys, it's not all their fault-"

"Could we just talk about this tomorrow? Tae's asleep and you guys are being loud."

Jesse says. T and Robaire apologize before going silent, and the rest of the drive is without noise.

☆

The next day, Jesse is drinking his morning coffee when he gets a phone call.

"Robaire, why are you calling me..."

"Mostly because I don't wanna get out of bed."

Jesse rolls his eyes as he listens to Robaire talk.

"Some guy named Jake called me. Apparently he's from management and we have to go to a meeting later."

"Ugh. Well, thanks for letting me kno- Okay."

Robaire hangs up in the middle of Jesse's sentence. He goes back to sleep, and Jesse returns to his cup of coffee.

Tae Young joins Jesse around the same time he always does, but today, his bad mood is visible.

"Morning. You doin' okay?"

"I guess it finally hit me. Raya's gone."

Jesse nods.

"Yeah... I don't know where any of that came from."

Tae sighs and looks at Jesse.

"Really?"

"You guys keep saying that. Should I have known?"

"I mean... Raya's been pretty subtle about it, but she kinda has a huge crush on you, Jesse."

Jesse chuckles a bit, but stops once he realizes Tae is serious.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. I guess she was upset about you and Beck getting back together... But I never thought she'd go that far because of it."

"Huh. How long have you known about that? Did she tell you?"

"Uh, I don't know. And no, she didn't tell me, it wasn't really that hard to pick up on."

Jesse sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"Wow. That is so weird."

"It is."

"I'm, uh... gonna change the subject now. We all have a meeting later today. Probably about... you know."

"I really wish she hadn't done that."

Tae says sadly.

"I know, kid. Good news is, this'll probably be the worst thing we'll have to deal with for a while."

Jesse says, giving both himself and Tae some much needed reassurance. If only what he said had been true.