New Years Day

Oneshot

- December 31st, 12:45 pm -

One final attempt, just one more shot. If it fails, so be it. But how will Jake ever truly know if there's some hope for redemption unless he takes that chance, right?

It's been more than two months since the recording incident, and nothing has worked to make Hailey or anyone in the music club even speak to him. Yeah, maybe it was stupid to continue trying to make 'peace' when things should probably be left as they are, as Zander demanded, but it was driving him crazy. Time had passed—really, but he felt stuck on the day when he screwed up everything. Winter break made things more difficult, days feel longer, and Jake didn't have many options for excuses when Drew and the others wanted to go out. Jake couldn't deny the offers any longer.

He couldn't bear to lose any more people he loved. They were all he had now.

Christmas had already passed, and New Year's Eve graced the calendar. Jake didn't realize how holiday sadness truly impacts somebody until he became that somebody. He couldn't shake that soul-consuming feeling in his gut—how it dragged him down. His cheeky, charming traits, which the dark teal-haired girl once ridiculed him for, gradually began to wither away. He's a lot quieter than before, or he'd get really quiet again if there was nobody else around or bothering him. Losing Hailey was incomparable to losing the other band members. It's not like Jake cared for them less, or anything like that. it was just different with her. What they had was more significant, if that's the right word to use, than any other relationships Jake has in his life.

I mean, Hailey was the first person he genuinely opened up to. She was the first who ever saw him so vulnerable. She practically laid the first stone in places in his heart he never knew of or had lost. He never laughed so hard like a little kid when they were friends. No, best friends. She was his best friend, that funny feeling he got whenever he was with her.
Now, she was basically a stranger whose laugh he could recognize anywhere. How he held onto the memories, wishing they'd hold onto him and become the present.

"Jake?"

Hailey was the burning topic that was glued onto the forefront of Jake's mind and how she never blocked him but leaves him on read than the others who blocked him on everything, which he couldn't tell if that was a curse in disguise or a blessing in disguise keeping him sane.

"Jakey.." Liam's teasing tone snapped Jake out of his thoughts where he was mindlessly scrolling through his old messages with Hailey, his distant gaze fixated on Liam's hand persistently waving right at his face to get his attention, the freckled boy's upper body was laying across on the table at the booth they sat.

Jake immediately jolted up from surprise, chuckling off the scare. All eyes were on him, shit.

"Did you even listen to a single word we said?" Drew spat out with arms crossed, it couldn't be more obvious how irritated he was with Jake, who continued zoning out ever since he joined the music club. How foolish he felt when he thought Jake would be back to normal after he got kicked out.

"Um," Jake hummed out. He was clueless, he knew that himself, and everybody knew that unfortunately for him.

"Don't tell me you're still thinking about those music freaks," Drew raised an eyebrow, huffing in slight disbelief. But it was no surprise to him, anyone really.

"No," Jake weakly asserted, his timing was sharp but his tone was nothing but unsure and hesitant. He was a bad liar, horrible even.

"Mhm," Drew hummed with a hint of somewhat acceptance, his tone dripping with heavy sarcasm, prompting laughter between the duo sitting across from them. His dark brown eyes glanced down at Jake's cellphone, unable to discern the words but noticing the sizes of the paragraphs. "Don't tell me..." Drew huffed, swiftly moving closer to Jake's side in their shared booth.