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Jake awoke with a gasp—It happened again. He took time to recollect himself, wiping the sweat off his brow as the blur in his eyes were blinked away. Ever since that dreadful week went down, terrors persevered to plague his once peaceful dreams. The shadows didn't take the form of the girl he'd hurt anymore, yet they still allowed his guilt to manifest into his dreams.
He should've tried harder. He thought. If only he'd gotten them to get along, then...
No. This was bound to happen eventually—Karma's doing. You hurt your friends, you lose them. Although Hailey tried to convince him otherwise, that he wasn't to blame for leaving his friends in the dust, the guilt lingered inside him.
It'd been two weeks. Two weeks since he'd regained his place in the music club. Two weeks since he'd lost Drew, Henry, and Liam.
Much like a divorce, Drew had taken the kids when he left. Although the two weren't even involved in the fight, Jake assumed they hated him regardless... or at the very least didn't want to see him any time soon.
He couldn't have been any more wrong.
Okay, maybe his intuition had tried to tell him that "no, they didn't actually hate him, things were just really complicated right now but it'd probably all be resolved in the future", but he was in denial of his so-called "wishful thinking". However, the moment that Jake opened his phone and saw he'd received a text from Liam, he began to have a bit of faith in his "flawed" intuition.
"Can we talk?" The message read, sent just eight minutes before Jake had woken up from his sweet little dream.
His heart nearly stopped when his eyes first met the notification. He rubbed his eyes, blinked twice, and looked again.
"Can we talk?" It echoed.
He wasn't sure what to think. What did he want? Jake had considered Liam to be the most... civilized one out of their now-wrecked friend group, something which both relieved him and scared him. "Civilized" meaning "Not Drew, Not Henry." Despite his... unique comments he'd made throughout the course of their friendship, Jake respected and had shared a close bond with him.
Jake was glad that he had been the one to message him first. Henry was... well, Henry, and there was no way that Drew would ever want to talk to him again, especially if he was the one initiating the conversation.
He had a feeling Liam didn't possess ill intent--he was never the type to hold such a grudge over someone he'd considered a good friend... right?
Jake was nervous. He felt like he could talk to Daisy with more ease than this. Brimming with anxiety, he shot him a text back, trying to act more casual than he really was.
"Sorry, I just woke up." He replied--As if he'd gotten much sleep at all. "Of course we can."
Before he could even think, the "Delivered" text switched to "Seen", and three little dots appeared on the bottom-left corner.
"You're good." He said to the first message. "Wanna meet at the park? Under our tree."
Damn, he responded fast. That didn't bother Jake, it's not like he'd sent a risky message to a girl, or anything... but it certainly didn't help to soothe his anxieties.
"Right Now?"
"Yeah." He clarified. "Is that okay?"
"Totally. Be there in ten?"
Jake sprung out of bed to get dressed and ready to go out. He scrambled on whatever top and bottom was most easily accessible from his closet (which surprisingly didn't look too bad), and threw on the all-too familiar jacket that he'd washed last weekend.
Running out the door and almost forgetting his phone on the way, he yelled a quick, incoherent explanation to his brother. He pedaled his dented, old bike down the road, pondering at what Liam could possibly want to talk to him about. Of course, he already knew. They were going to talk about what happened. They simply couldn't avoid it--but what really stirred in Jake's mind was what he would have to say about it.
Jake rode into the park, finally slowing down on his bike to avoid trouble, and headed to the meetup spot.
His bike came to a stop at the backside of the tree. Looking at it, memories came back to him--they would all hang out at this park, by and on the big tree, the one next to the creek that you could easily climb into.
Despite meeting in freshman year, they all enjoyed the somewhat childish activity of adventure, of embracing the verdure and hearing the water trickle down through the rocks.
He silently propped his bike up to the tree, and stepped around to view the otherside.
And he saw him again. Liam, sitting at the edge of the creek, poking at the mud with a twig, like nothing had changed; Like two years hadn't passed and he still had those awful bangs and an anime hoodie for his main attire.
He seemed to be almost drawn to him, like a predator luring in its prey. He suddenly felt... almost nervous as he stepped forward, his brain begging him to step a little closer. He heard a tiny "SNAP!" from under him, and he glanced to the floor and back up just in time to catch Liam turning his head to meet him like an owl.
"L-Liam..." He stuttered. Why on Earth did he stutter?
"Jake... " The blood-eyed boy greeted him.
They seemed to shine like polished garnets, those features of his. Jake always wondered how they'd come to be, yet he supposed he could ask the same for half of the eye colors in their town.
"Um... you said you wanted to... talk with me?" Jake asked, taking a seat next to him by the creek. His eyes met his, then darted back to the water.
"Yeah. I..." Liam bit his tongue, suddenly unsure of what to say.
He let out a sigh, his eyes darting from point to point on the ground as he recollected himself.
"I want to apologize." He said. "For- everything."
Throughout their two years of friendship, Jake had never seen him so... serious. They had never really been the kind of duo to open up to each other... Liam would just go to Henry, and Jake would go to Drew. Liam was always more of a "fun friend", someone to goof off with, not someone to be vulnerable around.
Yet he was definitely vulnerable now.
"Actually?" Jake perked up, his eyes fully on him now.
"Uh- Yeah." He chuckled. "I... I don't think you're a freak at all, okay? I think it's cool, that you like to sing, and all that."
"So then why did you-?" Jake tried to point out, but he was cut off as Liam rambled on.
"I- I know! I know." He interrupted. "I know what you're gonna say. Yeah, I bullied your friends. I shouldn't have. It was never really about 'liking music' or whatever, it's just what we'd do, you know? We made fun of everyone, dude, remember?"
Jake's eyes flickered back to the water for just a moment at the recollection of his own mistakes.
Liam went on. "But I know it was wrong. I know how much you seem to care about the club, and music, and whatever. For some reason, they're your close friends.
"Not- Not for just some reason, of course! I mean, I know the reason. But what I'm saying is, I'm really sorry! I didn't really mean most of what I said, but even so, I shouldn't have said that, and I wanna be a better person and I just really want you back and I'm sorry...!!"
Liam would've fallen into the boy's arms if he didn't have a little bit of composure left. He reached out his arms to him in a desperate manner, praying the blonde would accept his apology.
“Liam, Liam, hey!” Jake moved a hand to his friend's shoulder. “It’s- It’s okay, really! Just…”
Jake paused. While he wanted to accept his apology, he couldn’t simply do so immediately without letting things go back to how they were.
“Can you do something for me?” He asked.
“Anything.” Liam replied. He subconsciously moved a bit closer to Jake, eager to make amends.
“I want you to apologize to the music club, too.” Jake requested.
Liam let out a sigh—he saw that coming. His eyes fell away to the ground once more as he processed Jake’s wish. He knew how hard it’d be to admit he was morally wrong to what would feel like a somewhat-large group of people. How humbling, for a bully like him.
“Okay, I- I can do that.”
When his eyes looked up from the ground and into Jake’s once more, he saw that sweet, all-too familiar smile that he couldn’t get enough of.
“Thanks,” Jake hummed. “…I missed you.”
Liam smiled. “I missed you too.”
Whilst looking into his milk-brown eyes, Liam studied his face, holding onto the vision like it’d fade if he lost focus. He tilted his head in curiosity and blinked upon spotting his features.
“Are you doing okay?” He asked, taking his cheek into the palm of his hand. “You look like you haven’t slept.”
Jake attempted to hide his reaction to the sudden touch, but the blush on his face was undoubtedly visible. The flutter in his heart could be justified though, right? What he’d done was so sudden and unexpected that anyone could’ve done it and still given him the same reaction. And it definitely wasn’t anything to think about, either. He was just worried about his friend…
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied. “Just a bad dream… and you can’t be talking—you look like you never sleep yourself.”
“But that’s different, I’m a vampire…!” Liam claimed.
Jake gave him a glare. “Dude, you’re still trying to convince me you’re a vampire?”
“I’m not lying!” He protested. “I’ve got the fangs to prove it!”
“Just because you have slightly-longer canine teeth than average doesn’t mean you’re a vampire!”
“I could literally-“ He stopped, realizing that Jake had redirected the conversation. “Wait, that’s besides the point- you said a bad dream?”
Jake tensed up, realizing his subtle plan didn’t go accordingly. “Uh- yeah… but it’s nothing too important.”
“Yeah, right. Like I’d believe that. You wanna talk about it?”
“Um…” Jake’s gaze faltered to the mud before Liam spoke again.
“Er- sorry, it’s too soon for that, isn’t it?” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck as he scolded himself internally.
“No, it’s not like that-!” Jake assured. “It’s just- you know what, yeah, I can talk about it…
“It was about you guys,” He began.
Liam’s eyes perked up at that.
“I just feel bad for leaving you guys in the dust.” He sighed. “For lying, and all that. Drew’s right.”
“Dude, no!” Liam blustered. “I get why you did that. Drew just took it way too far–he took all of that way too far. He wasn’t in his right mind.”
“He’s never in his right mind.” He scoffed. “But still! He- I hurt him! I hurt him, and now he hates me.”
“Hey, no,” Liam’s hand fell to his shoulder in an attempt to soothe his guilt. “He doesn’t hate you. He’s just… going through a lot right now. He misses you a lot, he just won’t admit it. I mean, have you ever heard him admit to being wrong?”
Jake gave a wistful smile. “I don’t think so.”
“Exactly. But he’ll come around, just you wait.”
“You really think so?”
“Totally. Once he caves in and realizes how much he actually cares about you, he’ll be begging at your knees trying to get you back.”
The thought amused him. “I think he’d rather die than do that.
Liam chuckled. “Maybe you’re right. But the point is, he misses you, and you shouldn’t blame yourself.”
“I- I know, but still–” Liam glared at him. “–I can’t help but feel like it was all my fault.”
“Well, I don’t see it that way at all. I mean- yeah, you’re partially to blame, but it’s ridiculous to not hold him accountable, too.”
“But I still-!” Jake tried to argue, despite knowing that Liam was ultimately correct.
“Jake.”
“Okay,” He sighed. “Maybe it’s not entirely my fault. But you can’t blame me for feeling like it.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But just remember that it really isn’t.” Liam reiterated.
Jake nodded.
“So, um… are we cool again?” He asked, unsure of what to really talk about at this point.
“Absolutely.” Liam nodded. “And I’ll apologize to your friends too, whenever I have the chance. I just can’t do it when Drew’s around.”
Jake chuckled.
Liam reasoned, “As much as it’d be cool to ‘stand up for what’s right’, I can’t just leave Drew behind. He’s gotta have someone to talk to–it’s just me and Henry now. And no offense to him, but I just can’t leave Drew behind with him.”
Jake snickered, then inquired, “What does he think, by the way? About me, and you apologizing, and the whole thing.”
“Oh, he agrees.” Liam replied. ”I would’ve brought him, but he’s busy today… and I also just wanted to talk to you myself.”
“Really?” Jake beamed.
“Yeah. Said he’ll talk to you about it soon. I don’t know if that means in a few hours, or days, or what.”
“I was referring to you, dummy.” Jake nudged him.
“What do you mean?”
The blonde sighed. “Nothing.”
Internally, he smiled at that. He wanted to see him alone? He wanted to have a meaningful, deep conversation with him… alone?
His burgundy-brown hair had a sort of shine to it in the morning light. In fact, in that moment the sun’s rays hit him in a way that made him seem to glow more than the sun itself. Jake loved that.
Jake had also been staring for a bit too long, he realized. Quick, say something before you make it awkward.
“You- uh.. You wanna go to the mall, or something?” He chuckled.
“Ah, I can’t…” Liam mumbled. “My dad wants me to help clean out the shed, I told him I’d be back after this. But I could probably come tomorrow?”
“Sure.” Jake smiled. “I suppose you’d better get to it, then?”
“Yeah.” He stood up from his place by the creek, and dusted the dirt off his pants. “I’ll see you.”
When Jake’s eyes followed him as he rose, something flickered in his chest. Was it joy, relief, or gratitude? Or something else entirely? The sunrays shadowed his face, and his oddly-cut bangs hung forward as he looked down at him.
He was grateful. Absolutely. He hadn’t lost one of his best friends for life, who wouldn’t be grateful? And he actually realized what he’d done wrong, and owned up to it? Vowed to make up for it, and change as a person? Jake almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing… he had also formed a much stronger sense of respect for him, a sense he’d previously been doubting.
Liam turned to walk away, but just before he left Jake’s eyesight and turned the corner around the tree, he looked back to him, and said,
“By the way– thanks for giving me a second chance.”