Work Text:
All the bands, including the music club stood on stage as they waited for the winner to be announced. Zander and Luke had an arm around each other, the pianist’s hand sat on the drummer's chest, feeling his heartbeat rise every second. Next to them, Milly and Sean were whispering things to each other, surely to keep Milly from exploding from all the suspense.
And finally, the two singers, Jake and Hailey, who stood behind the band. As expected, Hailey was the most nervous out of the whole club, while Jake was the calmest, which in Jake’s brain made sense knowing her role as the club president.
“Hey Hailey,” he whispered to her ear, though she kept looking at the huge crowd in front of them again. “If we win, could you let me do something?” he asked, she finally looked at him.
“What are you going to do?” She whispered back, suspicious after Jake’s multiple bad decisions. He shrugged his shoulders and smirked, to which she rolled her eyes.
“You’ll see, but calm down, everything will be okay no matter our place,” he reassured, offering her his hand, which she accepted and held, interlocking her fingers with his.
“And the winner is…”
Jake felt Hailey tighten the hold on his hand, she nervously looked at him again, he nodded, squeezing her hand.
“Rosemeadow High!” Said the announcer as the crowd broke into cheers.
Before Hailey could do anything, Jake let go of her hand out of a sudden, she looked at the blond, confused, thinking something was wrong.
“Jake, are you—” She asked worriedly, only for him to abruptly interrumpt her by tightly hugging her, his arms wrapped around her waist to support her as he spun her around. She gasped in surprise and held his shoulders for support, unable to retain her giggles.
When Jake stopped spinning them around, she saw his wide smile, laughing with small tears in his eyes. She couldn’t help but cry out of relief as well, all her effort paid its price.
Before she knew, the whole club ran to hug the two singers as well, if she wasn’t crying a lot before, surely she was now.
–
After getting the trophy, the band cheered as they walked to the backstage to fix themselves up for a group photo, and clearly those wearing make up: Hailey, Milly and surprisingly Jake, had to clean their eyes up after the sweat and tears made the black eyeliner run down their cheeks.
“Quit rubbing so hard!” Milly complained as Zander rubbed her eyes with a cotton pad, she hated make up, but she loved wearing eyeliner for the rock star vibes.
“And you quit complaining!” Zander yelled, unlike the other three, he used waterproof eyeliner, so he didn’t have any problems, but he couldn’t let the youngest member show up in the photos like that.
Meanwhile, Jake and Hailey were trying to rub off the eyeliner, he put the cotton pad down on the table besides them, that’s when Hailey realized he was wearing gold eyeshadow as well.
“Didn’t take you for an eyeshadow person,” she said genuinely.
Jake chuckled, “It’s subtle, I didn’t expect you to notice,” he said, “and eyeliner makes me look cooler, don’t you think?” He smirked.
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say,” she answered, reapplying her make up. “But you’re right, I noticed now that things are more calm”.
Talking about noticing things, she did notice something more as well.
The smell of Jake’s cologne, it was definitely different.
When Jake tightly hugged her and spun her around a few minutes ago, she didn’t notice it from all the commotion. And during school, it’s different, stronger, something that lingers.
But now, it wasn’t strong nor extravagant, it was subtle, only noticeable up close.
It’s something unexplainable, warm, sweet and familiar, it was Jake. She couldn’t help but take a step closer to him, he felt like home.
“Anything you wanna tell me?” He asked, tilting his head to look at a flustered Hailey, who was caught off guard.
“Nothing”
“C’mon Hails, what is it?”
“You’re going to call me a weirdo—”
“—I’ve said worse,”
Hailey sighed, “you smell different,” she admitted.
“Oh yeah, went back to my favourite, I’m pretty sure I spent most of high school using cologne that Drew bought me…” He said, adverting his eyes, but he could feel Hailey worry over him.
“Can’t say I’ve liked it much, it’s a relief to shower and get rid of the headache it gives me every time!” He joked, trying to clear the tense atmosphere after mentioning Drew.
“Well…” Jake looked at her with curiosity as she spoke, “it reminds me of you, and you can always consider it a fresh start”.
Jake felt his cheeks fluster at the compliment, “thanks Hailey…” He smiled, to which she let out a chuckle.
“Now come on, let me fix this up for you, I surely have some gold eyeshadow in my makeup bag as well.”