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As Jake stupidly gives her those finger guns and carries the papers for Ms. Jones, she almost blushes instinctively.
“Don’t miss me too much,” He teases as a goodbye, and Hailey fondly feels a small smile creep up from her face.
Then, she hears a small vibration sound from the outside of her pants, it’s probably Zander messaging me , is her initial reaction, since for some reason, he’s sometimes a little lazy to just walk out the music club himself.
She looks down to see a… familiar contact.
(1-###-###-####)
check out this for a surprise ;)
It’s Lia , Lia who hasn’t contacted her for about 2 years, Lia who walked away from her at the end of 8th grade graduation, Lia who has all the school gossip and rumor at the tip of her pinkie.
She’s almost scared to look at the message.
Hesitantly, Hailey clicks on the audio file and turns up her volume.
“ -ever they’re using me for, I’m not letting them get in my way! ” Wait, is that.. Jake? She pauses the long voice recording, turning the bar of her volume up even more as she walks to the Music Club.
Somehow, Hailey knew the ending before it even began.
“ Heck, Hailey can’t even sing without me because of her stupid stage fright ― ” As if the world went dark for a second, she felt the loud thumping of her heart all of a sudden.
“ And they probably wouldn’t stand a chance without me! They should be grateful that I joined them in the first place! They should’ve known from the moment I joined that I wouldn’t be a music freak! ” The Jake in the recording spits out as it was such an inconvenience that he even said anything about his supposed friends.
Blinking once, twice, and three times to avoid something hot running down her chin, Hailey realizes the awful truth.
*
She looks down at her phone like her life depends on it as Zander shows concern for her first.
“Hailey, tell Milly that my ‘boring classical music’ is so much better than her loud and funky guitaristic music!”
He looks back at her step-sister, who looks frozen in place, face carefully not daring to show anything other than blank.
“Uh, Hailey?” Zander calls, and any chatter or commotion that was happening dies down in a second.
When she doesn’t respond, Luke’s the second one to call her, gentle.
“Hailey, are you alright?”
Nothing. The silence she gives makes the concern evermore rising.
“Why the long face, Hailey?” Milly stretches out the o’s, trying to make the tense atmosphere disappear.
Just say something, anything ! Is a command that she’s ferociously trying to let out at the current moment, but the small chokes of tears that bubbles just slightly beneath her says otherwise.
“It’s alright, just calm down for a moment Hailey,” Sean says reassuringly.
Taking a deep breath, Hailey coughs out, “I think you guys should take a look at this.”
*
The room falls to a standstill, but it’s Milly who breaks the silence.
“How…How could he!? ” She says in disbelief, hearing the audio over and over again.
Hailey could tell a lot of things about her family, like how Zander’s probably on verge of both crying and fussing with anger, how Luke tries to keep a calm face, how Milly hides her feelings under a load of rage, how Sean ignores a lot of problems.
But she doesn’t say any of that.
Instead, she manages a more nonchalant route, “It’s not like it matters anyways, the competition’s this week, and he only joined for Daisy.”
Sean pipes in, “Hailey, you didn’t deserve that,” he says with a slight frown and a disappointed look on his face.
“It’s really alright,” She insists.
Because maybe Zander was right all along in the beginning; Jake had some ulterior motive being here, and he was just using them for his own benefit.
He never stood up to his friends when Drew came along and insulted them, or if Liam or Henry started making fun of them.
It felt real, every moment felt like he meant it, like he didn’t feel ashamed of his club or friends.
“Some good he did,” Zander says bitterly, crossing his arms. Luke’s hand around him tightens for moral support.
Well it’s whatever. Now, she knows that Jake would never be around music freaks .
“Hailey, are you really okay?” Luke asks after a few seconds, looking at her with concerned eyes.
It’s really fine. She doesn’t care that Jake’s going to become a jerk again, that he’s never going to hang out with them again, and that he’s just doing this to impress some… perfect girl at school that everyone likes.
“ Fuck ,” Hailey cries out, and Zander holds her left wrist absentmindedly.
Suddenly, the door creaks open slightly, and she knows - everyone knows who it is.
Jake Sterling walks in with a cheery attitude and it’s actually pathetic.