𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎; 𝚓𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚛

𝐱𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢. '𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫' 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫, '𝐞𝐱' 𝐢𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭

Blake
one month later

"jesus fuck, is he still in his room?"

"never heard that expression before"

"shut up Josh, who's gonna go bring him down?"

"NOT IT" Quentin and Noah chorus at the same time, fingers on their noses.

"I volunteer Blake as tribute," Noah smirks.

"why can't Kio go?" I snap back, my question instantly met with a glare from Kio. "don't tell me you're still not talking to Jaden." When I don't get an answer, I roll my eyes and begin the long and tiring journey up the stairs.

why am I the only mature and mildly sensible one out of all these dipshits?

"Jaden?" I knocks on the door, crossing my fingers in the hopes the tattooed boy wouldn't be in the middle of yet another mental breakdown.

"yes?" a muffled voice responds.

"wanna come down?"

"no."

sighing slightly, I runs my fingers through my hair. When I'd joined TalentX, I wasn't aware I was signing up to play the role of a therapist. "wanna talk about it?"

"no."

"come on Jaden, give me something to work with"

"no."

"Cora's song comes out today. You want to see Cora, right?"

please work, please work, please work

the door swings open, revealing a very exhausted looking Jaden. There are dark circles under his eyes, the same dark circles that have been there for an entire month. Today's exactly one month from the day he broke up with her, and every day has been a living hell for him.

and coincidentally, it's also the day Cora releases her song.

"show me," he demands. I'd taken away his phone-in-the-room privileges after the second week, realizing how much the hate was affecting his mental health. See what I mean about being the therapist? I should be getting paid for this shit.

"walk downstairs and I'll show you"

please work please work please work

"you sure Kio won't try to punch me again?"

"psshh, Kio couldn't hurt a fly if he tried"

"a fly didn't break up with his best friend. I did."

"okay no guarantees, let's go!"

please work please work please work

grudgingly he follows me down the stairs and into the living room. I hear some sort of growling sound coming from Kio's direction. Evidently Bryce hears it too, because he grabs the smaller boy and plops him on his lap. Hesitantly, Jaden makes his way over to the couch and sits down.

"show me"

the other boys raise their eyebrows at me, causing me to shift uncomfortably. It was an unspoken rule among us all to not bring up Cora or show him anything that would send him deeper into his shell.