The Music Freaks | countdown to his final show

the countdown

It had been three weeks after Jake had been kicked out of the club, alongside Zoey exposing the drama to the entire school. It had also been two weeks since the harassment started, and unfortunately for Jake, it only reminded him of the painful days he got bullied. Of course, he wouldn't let this neat pattern end, as every week had some new event, so he made it his goal to add another.

In just a week, Jake Sterling was going to kill himself.

His calendar rested on his messy desk. March 3rd was circled, and the following days were crossed off. Jake let out a hopeless sigh and stared at the damage he had done to his wrists prior to settling his plans. They weren't too deep and most certainly won't end his life, but he thought relapsing and letting 13-year-old him use the razor one last time was fitting for this occasion. After the bleeding slowed, he grabbed puny bandages and started covering them up. He couldn't clean them well, and they still showed underneath the bandaids, but he couldn't care less if they got infected. Why would a dead body worry over disease-ridden cuts?

When he was done finalizing his plans and cleaning up the mess he had created, Jake decided to go on his phone and do his daily check on the Instagram post that officially ruined his once half-fixed life. As his eyes followed the nasty words every person had to say for what seemed to be the one-hundredth time, his lip started to quiver. They called him a fake, a traitor, a lowlife, and worst of all, they claimed they wanted him gone. From what he gathered from the comments, they were so disgusted by him and were praying he'd get expelled.

Now, Jake knew there was no reason for him to get expelled, as he had done nothing but cause personal issues, not anything illegal, but he worried that the hurtful comments would start to personify themselves and force him to relive his lonely childhood.

Maybe that was why he decided he'd do the unthinkable and kill himself. Everyone wanted him gone, and he couldn't handle being threatened and bullied every day again, so he could only do what he was best at and run away from his problems. Run away from them and into the arms of sweet death.

—

It was the first period and six days before Jake's plans would take place. He was sitting in English class, watching the teacher's mouth open and close. He couldn't hear what she was saying; his mind was filled with laughter and mockery toward himself. His own thoughts ridiculed him, repeating every comment and now–every word–with evil intent thrown at him. Every day he started to believe in them more, so he used the negativity as fuel to keep him going so he could fulfill everyone's need and take away one more useless soul.

Just as he was starting to get too emerged in his thinking, his teacher's voice brought him back to reality, "Jake! Are you too busy daydreaming? Everyone has gone to get their books for the book report."

"Oh, sorry," he quietly apologized and glanced around the room. He noticed that one person was in here with him and the teacher, and to his luck, it was someone he never wanted to face ever again. Hailey's dull eyes locked with his, and for a second he thought that he caught a glimpse of sadness in them, but he was once again interrupted by his teacher ordering him to go meet the others at the library. Jake immediately said 'sorry' and rushed out of the classroom while Hailey went back to reading her book as if nothing happened. "Stupid idiot."

On the way to the library, Jake felt the pain in his wrist grow stronger and stronger. At one point, he stopped for a second to check on them. He noticed that the bleeding had for some reason begun to worsen again, but it wasn't bad enough that he needed to change his bandaids. He applied pressure onto them and hoped that that will both stop the bleeding and the stingy feeling. When he made it to the library, everyone was scattered around picking out their books. Some chose short ones that were most definitely below their grade level, while some chose books that Jake considered reading himself; however, when would he have time to read if his internal clock was ticking, leading to his inescapable doom? After some thought, Jake decided to sign out the shortest interesting book he could find. He received a questioning look from the librarian, probably because she was wondering how he could write a book report on such a tiny book, but she did her job and handed it back.