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Drew, he thinks for not the first time in his life, looks really good.
“Of course you came in all fancy-smancy,” Jake hears the teasing voice of Liam nearby, but can’t seem to care when all he’s looking at is the magenta locks of hair in front of him.
It’s the last year of high school, tip-toeing near graduation and the last day of - whatever, he doesn’t want to think about it too hard.
Drew Velasco wears a black blazer and vest that feels like clouds alongside with the usual white shirt underneath to contrast, even if all of it is silky smooth and a little overkill for a senior prom.
The guy in question rolls his eyes nonchalantly, “It was my dad’s hand-me-downs where he wore it to a wedding with my aunt, actually,” He says as he straightens his tie for the fourth time this minute, either distracting himself or wanting to look good in the bathroom mirror of the dining hall that RoseMeadow High School funded itself.
A warm bile swallows up in Jake’s throat a few minutes before the venue starts the party, but he manages. “What’s this, trying to impress a secret girlfriend?” He stretches the last word out as a sing-song, teasing, but not even one laughter spares out of his mouth.
“Ooo, our good ol’ pal Drew here has found himself a new boo!” Henry’s voice adds on distantly, coming out a cubby of the bathroom, having one hand on Drew’s shoulder for extra dramatic effect as to cheer on. The ladder flicks his hand off in exasperation.
Drew’s mouth flicks upwards, “Quit it already, besides, if I had one, I definitely wouldn’t tell you idiots,” Rolling his eyes, referring mainly to Henry and Liam.
His finger twitches and he has to force himself to concentrate at the sudden microphone screech that's definitely a cue to stop whatever you’re doing and come to sit down, just a weird feeling, Jake decides after all the heart beating and the nerve-wrecking aches to stop doing anything.
*
There’s a stage propped up in the middle of the dining hall, filled up with hundreds of seats for students to sit at. Neon lights flicker in his iris as he looks up at the center stage: There’s the principal - dark orange eyed, melanin skin, white beaded choker around her neck - heading up the small stairs of the set.
He hears the tap of the microphone, and then a speech starts. “Hello, hello, this is the official senior prom, now, to all of my students —” And then the words subtly fade away from the center of his mind, because all he wants to hear from right now is the boy to the left of him.
Jake cranks his neck slightly to the side to see Drew, who boredly holds up his head with his left arm while listening somewhat intently to the announcement. It amused him how Drew complained about how long it was a few seconds ago but then got all hush-hush when the microphone was active.
It was the afternoon, approximately about 3:31 PM after the sun directly beamed from the windows up above, the light hitting half of the magenta boy’s figure; for one, his hair looked more alluring, as Jake’s heart skips a beat after one strand of Drew’s hair fell and Drew blew it up with his mouth softly, the short strand changing between an outlined honey yellow to the normal magenta color. Secondly, maybe he never noticed this, but Drew’s eyes were so pretty. Now that the sunlight enhanced it, Jake got a good look. The iris was dark-brown, with some hints of light brown that were on the bottom, looking like it was traversing in and out of the eye repeatedly. The thought of it made Jake never want to look away. Lastly, it also made the suit nicer, shining on the smooth pieces of fabric that glistened.
He stayed like that for a few minutes, occasionally moving a muscle when he wanted to and his right thigh sometimes bouncing up and down idly. It wasn’t until someone snapped loudly got him out of his daydream.
“Uh, Jake? We’ve been calling you for a good thirty seconds now, hello?” Hailey’s voice called out to him, immediately, he blinked a few times before turning to his other side. There, he saw Hailey, Zander, and Luke all in that order from right to left. “Took you a while, what were you staring at?” The dark purple haired boy asks suggestively, right hand linked with Luke’s as they get up from their seats.
Jake scoffs, “Pfft— I just zoned out for a second, don’t worry, just— staring at the wall!” He lamely excuses, scratching his head as a habit, seeing three different variations of unconvinced looks directed towards him.
“I’m sure,” Luke eyes him knowingly, glancing from him to Drew, who is on the other side of the room with Henry and Liam filling his plate with a tong, chatting as interested as he can be. The food was packaged in rectangular aluminum foil containers spread out evenly among the tables that were on either side of the main hall.
A laugh interrupts his sight, “I didn’t know Drew was a piece of wall,” Hailey says with no animosity, just a smile on her lips after she jokes. It’s been a few months since the whole club forgave Drew and the rest of his crew, and it’s been pretty peaceful since then.
“I wish he was, then he’d look a lot better and close his damn mouth,” Zander purposefully mutters a little louder than the average person, making everyone giggle a bit as Jake finally gets up from his seat, wiping his yellow blazer with golden vines on top in case of something dirty. His vest is black with sparkly yellow button ups to match and lastly, the shirt he’s wearing is almost skin-toned, matching with his hair, if he does say so himself.
The whole group walks up to the food table, all grabbing a paper plate with the logo of “ROSEMEADOW HIGH SCHOOL” with a blue flower in the middle to decorate it. There’s hot steaming macaroni & cheese, pizza, french fries, chicken wings, hamburger slides, some spaghetti and meatballs and some nachos on a metallic plate to grab for one’s delight.
Just when Jake’s about to grab some nice and warm macaroni & cheese, a shorter girl pops up behind him, jumpscaring him, making him drop the tong he’s holding and making him hiss on the hot food that fell on his skin.
“Boo!” Milly says in the back of Jake, Luke, Zander, and Hailey, “Did’ya get scared? Please say yes, I worked on it with Sean,” She says boastingly, holding her phone in her left hand, which is currently face-timing with one Sean Everett, who is on basically her whole screen except for a small rectangle in the top left corner, rolling his eyes fondly.
Hailey sighs and facepalms herself, “Milly, how did you even get in here?” There is slight amusement in her tone, mixed with mostly exasperation as she puts a hotdog to her plate and walks. Luke giggles slightly on the right of her. Zander just shakes his head. The group makes their way to the end of the table with sodas and drinks, walking slowly while they put some snacks and actual food on their respective plates.
“Easy! Since this was basically like… uh, fifteen, ten? Minutes away from the school, I just told Mr. Davis I needed a little bathroom break, in which I’ll be gone for a little while! No worries,” Milly says with too much glee that is concerning to be talking about when the subject is skipping, but no one in the group could convince her to fully quit that habit. “Okay, just for today, alright? Then I’ll go back to being the best student I can be,” Which is, by a normal person’s standards, a little bit below average.
Zander gets a pizza bite on his plate along with some salad, “Fine, but just don’t get caught, alright? The last thing I would want to hear tomorrow is that someone from the music club was caught intruding on the senior prom.” He says as he eyes Milly suspiciously, to which the ladder puts her arms up in a defeating position.
Luke nods lazily, agreeing with Zander, “Try to blend in with the crowd, don’t go anywhere that puts you in a specific headlight.” The light brown haired guy says with just vegetables on his plate and one singular meatball.
Milly hums in agreement, “Aye, aye captain! Won’t let you down!” She mock-salutes Luke, who quirks up a smile and raises an eyebrow.
“Hey, Jake, did I scare you that bad? My bad if I did, but you haven’t said anything in a while,” The “Pink Haired Devil” asks tentatively to the boy on her left, who is doing nothing but walking with the group while staring into another direction she can’t quite pinpoint at where or who.
She tilts her whole head to the side of Jake’s point of view, rubbing her eyes, she sees the main dance floor with disco tiles on the floor and a big metallic disco ball already hung up on the roof. Beyond that, there are some paintings, Henry, Liam, and… Drew. Oh.
“Jake?” Luke says, but it doesn’t seem like the former heard. A few seconds later, Milly suddenly had a great idea: She gets on her tippy toes to barely reach Jake’s ears, and screams with her two hands across her nose, “Hey loverboy! Can you please stop staring at—” Before her mouth’s slammed close by a quick instinct, making gurgling sounds as Jake embarrassingly drags Milly to the end of the table, hurrying up his walking speed, which makes the whole group speed up.
While that’s happening, Sean peeps in at the end of the phone in his college dorm, “Milly, can you chill out on the screaming?” He is heard, but not answered afterwards.
Once there, Jake opens his mouth for a second, but closes it and moves his right arm around, gesturing to the whole dining hall. “Why would you do that!? In front of everyone!” Now, his mouth opens bigger than ever, but just to prove his embarrassment.
“Uh, because that was the only way to make you get out of la-la land?” Milly shrugs, grabbing a classic red cup that is filled with Dr. Pepper and drinking some of it.
Zander huffs in amusement, “Seriously, you haven’t stopped gawking at him once, maybe it’s time you confessed or something.” He suggests non-committedly, grabbing a cup of Fanta and putting it on his tray.
Jake freaks out at those words, immediately making an ‘X’ sign with his hands, “Aha, funny joke guys! But isn’t it kind of stereotypical to confess at prom? Like, some fairytale cliche,” The boy is smiling nervously as he tries to change the topic and fails miserably.
A very done glare is thrown at him by Zander, who sighs, “I’m just saying, the longer you wait, the longer you won't know how he feels, and…” He pauses, pupils dilating towards Luke and head turning the other way slightly, “I know that from personal experiences, so just give it a try on the last month.” It’s said in a way that’s almost like commanding, but Jake would know it’s in good nature and that Zander’s just trying to help.
“Whatever, let’s just go,” The purple haired boy concludes as Hailey flicks a finger to Jake’s head, to which he winces in pain, “Hey, what was that for!” In the background while his step-sister chuckles in response.
Milly nods, “Alright, I’m gonna recommend the DJ some of my hottest tracks! B-R-B!” She says vocally while running off. Zander looks from Jake, who is still rubbing his forehead to Milly, who almost trips on the ledge of a chair. “Idiots,” He mutters, and looks to his boyfriend, who just shrugs and smiles.
*
So, the party’s going great. About thirty minutes in, Milly has run back and forth about seven times into the most noticeable and attentive spots and has still not gotten caught yet by some staff. At first, he stuck with the rest of the music club on the dance floor, (which got really loud as it went on, also the excessiveness of neon lights from either the top or bottom is bright enough to make a grown man blind) but then it got too crowded, and he might’ve lost Luke and Zander in the crowd, oh well, at least they had each other?
“Maybe we’ll come back to this later,” Hailey says as the both of them push slightly to the seats they put their bags on earlier. The earlier sunlight passed, and it was getting later, almost like a sunset orange-y type of sky now, but without the lights of the dining hall, this place felt like it was midnight for Jake.
They sat there for a few good minutes just talking about random topics, until someone from behind tapped Hailey on the back. “Hey, so… if you don’t mind, wanna come dance with me?” Lia asks smoothly, smiling a bit, but there’s obviously nervous tension between her words.
Even if it looked like midnight now, he could still see the massive blush appearing on Hailey’s face. She was wearing a sleeveless short black dress that reached barely to her legs, with black boots and long transparent gray knee socks that had criss cross patterns on them. “Uh, sure!” The teal haired girl says, and takes Lia’s hand, getting up, a toothy smile was about to appear on her face.
“You don’t mind if I just—” Hailey starts to question, but Jake cuts her off immediately. “It’s all good! Go enjoy your night,” He says smugly, as Lia rolls her eyes, but doesn’t start walking yet.
“By the way, Drew’s on the third floor.” She says, turning to the left to reveal staircases to uh, whatever floor he’s currently on right now.
Jake sputters as the two girls begin to walk away, “Who says? I wasn’t looking for him!” But every one of them knows he doesn’t mean it.
*
So, it’s not just RoseMeadow High that’s attending this large dining hall, sure, but he didn’t think there'd be that many people on the second, or even third floor. The staircase felt like expensive marble, felt foggy when he rubbed on it too hard. But even if there weren't fewer people up here, at least the music was a little more quiet and the frisky lights weren’t reaching all the way up here.
When he reached the top of the last stair, he looked around for Drew, or some clothing of Drew. This floor was mainly just chairs with people talking (save for the occasional two people that he saw doing tik-toks) and eating. After turning his head in every direction for a good seven minutes, Jake sees a similar silhouette walking near the corridors, nearly escaping from his sight, and he knew he’d recognize the figure anywhere, even in a semi-dark room.
As it turns out, going about smaller rooms left and right and hallways for what seems like forever, he huffs as he opens the last door to reveal some actual air.
Something shifts. “Jake?” Drew, finally, for god's sake, stops speed walking and looks behind him, taking his blazer off, now just the black vest and the white shirt underneath. This outside area, he recognizes now, is a small balcony with two comfy laid back chairs.
Clenching his knees for air, he stumbles a step forward, “Hey, I—” Jake holds the door frame with one hand, trying to catch his breath, “I didn’t think I’d see you here,” He tries teasing, but the coughing marks that out.
He hears a small chuckle, the one he’s told he apparently only hears because Drew doesn’t laugh a lot (which is really cute and quick, but it suits his personality: dry and witty and sometimes funny.)
“Didn’t expect to see you here too, thought you’d start charming the ladies with your personality on the dance floor,” Drew emphasizes with big sarcastic undertones, looking back at him and holding the railings of the balcony. He doesn’t sit, weirdly enough.
Jake walks near him a few seconds later, “Ladies had enough of the Jake Sterling for one night, they couldn’t handle it if they had more, but uh, what about you?” His boastful voice asks, putting one hand on his neck.
He earns a small eye roll momentarily, and then Drew turns the other way to look at the view from up here.
A small scoff is heard, along with a click of the tongue, “I don’t really like crowds, and the music made me want to steer my head off.” Jake laughs with his mouth fully open for a whole two seconds, before it turns into a very comfortable silence.
“So,” he turns his head to look at Drew and only Drew, “how’s the view?” The view up here is nice. They both see the entrance of the main building, along with the buses they took to get here with sometimes the usual random sounds and leaves shuffling repeatedly.
“Hm,” Drew says, looking kind of spaced out, “it’s nice,” He says, holding up his head again.
And Jake who is looking at anything but the view agrees, and finds it suddenly very hard to focus on anything but Drew’s unfairly adorable ruffled magenta hair that works in his favor, along with the vest that still looks silky smooth that’s probably a bazillion dollars.
A voice in his head urges him to do something to ruin the peace, but he pushes it down, but also remembers another particular sentence: “I’m just saying, the longer you wait, the longer you won't know how he feels, and I know that from personal experience, so just give it a try on the last month.”
The warm bile he swallowed returns to him as he zones back in to see Drew still admiring the view idly, and for not the first time, he takes a big chance, “But hey, I just wanted to say thank you.”
Drew turns in his direction, almost amused, “What for?”
Taking a deep breath, he tries to prepare his words. “For being one of my best friends after all this time and for apologizing to the club, I know I already said sorry for the day of the competition several times, but still,” Jake pauses, looking at the ground like it has prepared words written on it, “I’ve realized that it really wouldn’t be the same without you.”
The usually nonchalant guy’s pupils turn smaller as he registers his words, “Look, we all know that I was practically the biggest asshole around at that time, I wouldn’t blame you if we weren’t talking right now.”
And that’s the weird thing: Ever since some time this year around, Drew… changed. Not extrovertedly-more-people-welcoming-changed, but nicer, and that’s not something you see everyday.
Say it. Say it. The words burn like acid trying to get out of his lungs. “No - uh, you don’t get it. I can’t afford to lose you again. I know we had our downs— lots of downs, but you’re really important to me, and I… love you.” He closes his eyes shut. One. Two. Three. Four.
And then nothing. As he opens his eyes, he sees one surprising thing looking at him. Drew.
Because Drew’s staring at him. Staring at him with such fondness like he’s done it a million times before. Freshman Year when he decided that they were equals. Sophomore Year when he grew into Henry, Liam, and most importantly Drew’s schedule of a small knit-tight circle. Even Junior Year, when things weren’t going all that well, Drew still cared and tried to make amends after they broke it off. And now…
“Really,” Drew’s voice croaks with each syllable, “then why don’t you prove it to me.” Stepping closer to Jake and putting his hands off the hinges of the balcony.
He’s now hyper-aware of every single millisecond thing in existence. From the blush that arises on Drew’s cheekbones to the shiny dusts of air that he can see existing on the top of Drew’s fancy shoes, and before he has any time to process it, a gentle feeling reaches his lips.
Then, there’s something else. Milly barges in suddenly, making Jake jump backwards, “Guys, okay so, I desperately need one of you to go out there with me and disguise me as a senior since I’ve kinda gone a little-teeny tiny bit overkill with suggesting too many songs for the Dj and I think some of the staff are onto me.” She still holds her phone, but puts it back in her pocket a second later.
He barely registers Milly’s words because the only thing he’s feeling right now is wanting. The inner adrenaline inside is telling him to do it again, retry, redo. Every inch of him feels like he’s on fire right now.
“Did you seriously sneak in and get yourself caught?” Drew’s voice puts him out of trance, making him jolt his head a little as he realizes how well of an actor Drew is, blinking a few times, trying not to think about what happened a good thirty seconds ago.
Milly’s body movements make it seem like she’s about to break the whole world, “Yes! And I need one of you to hide me on the dance floor so I can get to the song choices again!” She says with most hurriedness, almost a command as she frantically shakes both the right shoulders of both Drew and Jake.
A quick glance is exchanged, and then Drew sighs. “Why couldn’t you ask anyone else?”
“ Because! Luke and Zander are probably being the most disgusting things on earth right now and I don’t want to interrupt Hailey and Lia because they’ve been avoiding each other forever, and also, I think Henry and Liam left,” Milly shrugs as she explains quickly, trying to tug on one of Jake’s arms to get him inside.
Then, after a few seconds of Milly pulling Jake, the latter resisting, Drew snaps both of their arms apart. “Hey, what was that for?!” The shorter girl whines, and Jake’s eyes widen when Drew groans and makes motion to go back to the loudest music on earth.
Please don’t leave, he wants to say immediately, but there’s a soft glance that Drew gives him between the few seconds that Milly drags him excitedly back and when he walks voluntarily that’s so unlike him Jake thinks he can communicate telepathy with him.
“Make it quick, I don’t want to accidentally walk in on Zander and Luke’s make out session,” Drew exasperates, smiling at Jake before disappearing out the door. He’d be back later at his side.
It takes him a minute to process what just happened. The initial frustration turns into a ridiculous heartbeat that blooms a sort of softness that he hadn’t felt since Hailey or Daisy.
“Yes!” Jake externally pumps his fists and stares at the balcony like it’s the love of his life. Despite Zander’s overtly dramatic personality on that one day, the advice he gave after wasn’t half bad.
*
“Mills, c’mon now…” Even though Sean isn’t here right now, she could practically hear the face palm from a billion miles away.
Milly takes her phone out one of the pockets of her jacket, wincing when she feels that it turned into an oven and the fact that it gave her a Less than 10% battery notification. “What? Okay, I know that last song might’ve been a tad cheesy, but it really grew on me.” She says defensively in the darkness of one of the rooms she hid in an hour later.
“Did you seriously not see what Jake was about to do on the balcony?” The LED lights of Sean’s college dorm turn blue.
The guitarist blinks confusedly, “Nope, not a single clue,” She says, popping the p.
“Now, maybe I’m playin’, but I think you might’ve walked in on him and Drew.” Sean laughs, squinting his eyebrows to recall.
Milly raised one eyebrow in amusement, “Sucks to suck, actually.”
She hears the sound of Sean laughing, “Give Jake a little slack, he’s not the-“ And then suddenly, Milly’s phone lags, and the sound of Sean’s voice gradually disappears and now she’s stuck in this entirely dark room.
“Dude… I was gonna send like, 50 pictures too!” Milly cries, and then accidentally hits her knee on the edge of a table, reverberating backwards, it’s gonna be a long night.
*