Flatline

i'll always be just so inviting

Hayley called the officer she had spoken to and told him she was dropping the charges. He told her there was enough evidence to prosecute but she didn't care, just believing that if she dropped the charges she would never have to see him again. Zac and Taylor were very surprised to hear this because Hayley had never been one to back down from something she knew she was right in.

Her pain wasn't like Taylor's. Taylor's pain was empty, a total numbness, while Hayleys was feeling all too much. She was totally blindsided to the fact that not everyone was out to get her. Not everyone would hurt her — but it didn't feel like it.

She wanted to cry and scream and shout about how helpless she felt in this whole situation.It was constantly on her mind, when picking out clothes, when she was asleep in the form of nightmares. Sometimes she couldn't even bring herself to get into bed because the feeling of the comforter was too similar to his.

She was trying to take a nap on the sofa when her door knocked. She approached it carefully, checking who it was through the window this time. It was Zac, so she opened the door.

"Are you okay?" He immediately started with, entering without Hayley saying anything. She didn't reply to him. "Why did you drop the charges? We had a chance," he said. Hayley dropped her head.

"He promised he would never come near me or contact me again if I dropped them,"

Zac's eyes went wide.

"He came here?" He asked quickly. She nodded.

"Winning this never promised me I wouldn't have to see him again." She sat back down on the sofa and looked at the blank TV. Zac took notice to the many empty glasses around and empty tissue boxes.

"Hayley, are you okay?" He repeated himself, putting his hand on her arm. She flinched away from his touch. Zac saw her eyes flash with fear when he touched her, so retracted his arm.

"Taylor needs you right now," the tears in her eyes seemed permanent by now as she pushed Zac away.

"Taylor is doing fine. You need someone here with you," he sat down next to her.

"I miss playing shows," he didn't expect her to say that. "God, I just wish we could've done art and friends. I really needed that show," she knew it wasn't really fair to complain about not being able to do the show considering how Taylor was doing, but she wanted to do that show none the less.

She thought about doing shows after this. Could she really handle so many people looking at her again?

"We could speak to management," Zac suggested quietly. She nodded in agreement.

—

"Hi, guys. How are you doing?" Neither Taylor or Hayley wanted to take the question, so left it up to Zac. Mark could probably tell something was wrong, but didn't mention it.

"So we were thinking a show? Here in Nashville to replace Art+Friends. Just a small one, maybe," Zac suggested.

"We could sort something like that. Promotional or just a pop up show?"

"A pop up show," Mark wrote down a few things, then started typing on his laptop.

"We could do The End," this got a smile out of Taylor. That was where they performed their first ever show.

"That sounds great," Taylor said. It was so strange for him to be truly smiling, especially in Hayleys presence. Mark glanced at Hayley, who usually did most of the talking. This time, she hadn't said a word.

"What time frame are we thinking?" Zac looked to Hayley, wanting to know when she felt most comfortable. She just stared down at the table.

"Hayley?" Her eyes snapped up to meet Zac's.

"When should we book it for?" She shrugged.

"In two weeks? Gives us enough time to practice and get a set done," Taylor suggested. She nodded.

"Alright, that all sounds great. I will get back to you on the exact date," Mark told them.

—

Hayley still couldn't stop thinking about Lukas, even though she was trying to distract herself with music the last week. She was terrified he would come to the show and it would completely throw her off. She tried to distract herself while at practice, but it wasn't successful. It was lucky she just had to stand and sing, because her hands were shaking too much to play any instruments.

"Okay, what about I Caught Myself? We played that for most of the tours," Taylor suggested quietly. Hayley shook her head.

"Let's just stick with these." The set simply consisted of Rose Colored Boy, Still Into You, Thats What You Get, Misery Business, Aint It Fun and Hard Times. Short, but they were fun songs.

While singing that's what you get, Hayley related to the lyrics all too much now. Possibly more than she had when she wrote them. She was totally silent when she wasn't singing. No one questioned it though. They didn't want to make anyone upset because the band were finally on good terms.