Chapter Text
Okay, fine, he was actually starting to get along with Jake after the competition. And sure, he laughed at his horrible jokes, bonded over their shared love for dogs… But he still had Jake standing on tip toes whenever he got too close to Hailey.
He hated admitting how fond of each other they were, Zander has heard his sister talk about Jake in all ways possible, both good and bad, yet something about her has changed. Now, whenever she talks about Jake she smiles to herself, slightly blushes when he’s mentioned or around, lets out a chuckle whenever she mentions something stupid he said… She’s no longer talking about him with her usual annoyed nor neutral tone.
Jake is also acting unlike himself, since the competition, his eyes are always on Hailey. During history class, the teacher partnered him and Jake together, and instead of helping Zander complete the project, he kept glancing at Hailey. Putting a soft smile whenever she glanced back.
Not only that, during rehearsals, he’ll look at Hailey the whole time. Just like during the competition, hands on the microphone, eyes on Hailey. And so does she, searching for Jake’s reassurance as she sings her heart out. He stands behind the piano, watching them sing as if the rest of the club wasn’t in the room, before, Jake looked at everyone while he sang, but now he refused to look away from Hailey. As if a tragedy were to happen if he ever did.
Their eyes are always on each other, always. During P.E. she used to complain about Jake’s cocky behaviour, saying ‘he’s too full of himself’. Now she stands with the rest of the girls and cheers for him the loudest, feeding that behaviour she always complained about. She will even drag Zander so he cheers on Luke, saying: “we have to cheer for our bandmates” so Zander doesn’t suspect of her new-found crush. And who is he to ignore his sister’s demands? He’ll agree to cheer on his boyfriend, and watch Hailey beam with happiness when Jake waves back at her.
So when Jake shows up at their house unannounced, they don’t share a word, they look at each other, Zander points at wherever Hailey is, Jake thanks him and heads that direction. He’ll sometimes knock on Hailey’s bedroom door and check on his fellow bandmates, and always they look like they were in the middle of something.
Last time, he saw Hailey wearing her jacket all wrinkled, her coloured lip balm all messed up and Jake with tears running down his face and for some reason, that lip balm was on his lips as well. The singing duo flinched in the same way when they saw Zander, but they just laughed nervously and did their best to look away from Zander, but he knew that whatever was going between those two wasn’t a casual friendship at all.
He was trying his best not to grab Jake by his earrings and drag him out of his house, but he wasn’t going to waste his precious time with Luke by fighting his sister’s soon to be boyfriend.