MELODY

MELODY 30

┏ 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚏 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚢 ┐

When Jackson had found out that Bryan had looked at his halloween dress-up picture, the taller man hadn't let it rest. The guitarist had found it so funny that he dubbed Bryan as his official stalker. They had bickered as if they had been friends forever when they returned to the campus that day. And as conversations died and looks began to linger, Bryan had left Jackson with his heart full and hopeful— so hopeful that something between them had changed.

He just didn't know if he should keep up with this hope or let it die.

As he walked down the quiet pathway of the campus park, once again at ten in the evening when most people weren't around, he sighed as he scrolled through Jackson's profile. Pictures of him with his band and alone were abundant... but so were pictures of him and Leah. The last picture had been the one where she was wearing the bracelet, the same bracelet Jackson had told him to throw it away the other night. 

Leah.

She was someone in Jackson's life.

And maybe all of what had happened between them was nothing more than just the taller man being kind. Because Leah existed. And she would still exist, as far as he was concerned if he kept their pictures on his profile. Sighing once more, he shoved his phone in his hoodie pockets as he walked past the empty benches. Glancing to his right through the fences encompassing a basketball court, he stopped in his tracks when he spotted that the lights were on. In the middle of the large court was a man, sitting hunched as he played with his phone. There were a few basketballs littered all over the place, an indicator that he must've played it before taking a seat. He stared at the man, recognising immediately who it was. With grey hair and pale skin, the monotonous look on his face even from afar clued Bryan in that it was Jackson.

He thought about leaving.

He didn't.

Maybe because his heart had taken a gamble to start becoming closer to the man after that day at the mall, he moved to the entrance of the court. Taking a step inside, his shoes made noises on the ground, alerting Jackson. The guitarist had snapped his head to look at him, the air between them shifted immediately when their eyes met even from afar. Bryan hesitated then to move, only doing so when Jackson gestured him over.

"Hey," Bryan said as he took a seat next to Jackson, keeping a distance.

The guitarist hummed as he placed his phone, screen down, on the ground before looking at him. He had one side of his face against the palm of his hand, elbow on his knee. "What are you doing here?"

For a second, he wondered if Jackson was mad that he had disturbed him before he realised he was referring to the time of the night. "Clearing my mind. The festival's next week and..."

Truthfully, he was nervous. They had a lot of things stacked up on the festival and they only had one more week left to sell the rest of the tickets. With MELODY promoting it, they had managed to pick up on the sales. But it wasn't enough. Not yet. Not until they finished the last one hundred tickets before it became a free entrance for late-comers.

His breath hitched in his throat when Jackson touched his head. The weight on him had him grounded back on reality, the worries vanishing a tad. He stared at Jackson as he continued to pat him before... the familiar smile he had seen a few times during their outing appeared on those pink lips. Stealing his breath away. Making him weak. Causing him to want to act out on these dangerous impulses of his.