Work Text:
Jake stares across the classroom, eyes drifting towards Hailey. The girl that he left behind. The girl that he couldn’t reconcile with. The girl that he ended up loving. Why was love so difficult? Jake doodles on his workbook, vines with pointy thorns snaking up the margin. Jake imagines that the thorns were lethal, digging into skin, breaking skin, drawing blood.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Jake reaches for a red pen from his pencil case and continues to doodle, adding blooms of red onto the thorns, the sound of his teacher’s voice becoming softer and softer as he zones out. He draws small curves around the drops of blood, adding more and more leaves and petals, until his entire margin is filled with blood red roses.
Jake loves Hailey. Not romantically. But his heart yearned for her voice. His heart yearned for them to sing together again. He yearned for them to dance together, be together, be friends together. Jake continues to draw, trying to ignore the way Drew and Liam were whispering behind him. Probably about him.
Just how Jake yearned for Hailey’s music, Jake yearned for Drew to just understand him. Instead of flowers, Jake now drew music notes: thick black treble clefs with a sharpie and series of random notes. Drew had never understood Jake. Jake had never understood Drew…
Jake bites his lip, and tries to fog out the thoughts. He can’t go down that route. Not today. There were still five more hours until Jake could be freed from this hell.
Jake draws some birds in his margin, and frowns.