hard | daniel seavey

five

ayla's pov

The band was dead? I couldn't stop the silent tears from escaping my eyes. All I could think was: Is this my fault? What hurt the most was that I felt like I already knew the answer.

"But- But what about that album? Going all around the world? 8 Letters?" I asked, certainly confused about why there was only one song on that 'album. She shook her head, "They did go all around the world for a brief amount of time after Daniel got better. And 8 Letters? That was the last song they wrote together, before everything happened." She continued sobbing when her phone started ringing, Zach 💙😚

She looked at me, "Let me take this," She wiped away her tears, trying her best not to sound like she'd been crying. "Hey. Yeah, I'm about to be home. You'll never believe it but Ayla.. What? You knew? Can you come over? You're already there? Okay, I'll see you in a sec, bye, I love you." She hung up the call, sighing, "Zach and I will explain everything, let's just hurry home."

-

There was a knock. I waited for Maya to open it. She just looked at me and moved her head in the direction of the door. I got up and went to answer it, "Zach!" I immediately tackled one of my ex-best friends in a hug.

He squeezed my small body, "Dude, Ayla it's been sooo long." I let go to see him watery-eyed. He still had the young look on him, he was still the youngest at 19. But he looked 17. The rest of us were at least 20. "Yeah, it really has," I choked out, beginning to feel myself cry. He smiled at me and went in for another hug, "What happened to the band, Zach?" I asked, breaking up the hug. Maya stood silently, walking over to the couch. "All she knows is that it's a long story," Maya huffed out. I watched Zach walk into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of apple juice from the fridge.

"Well when you were gone, Daniel was messed up, but eventually after like, a year. He got better and-" He began, walking back into the living room, I stopped him, "Yeah I know that part, go on," I spoke softly. He sighed, "We came here, to go to school for a bit. And like, we all drifted while we were here. None of us had many classes and we didn't see each other as much besides at home," He continued, him and Maya were both sitting now, Maya lightly cuddling next to him, hanging onto his arm. She slowly lay her head on him, causing Zach's head to turn, planting a small kiss on her head.

"Daniel, he'd been with his first real girlfriend, her name was Nicole. She was a bitch," Zach growled, Maya shook her head as she stared blankly into space, "Christina and I saw it, we tried being friends with her anyways," Maya groaned. Zach nodded, "Im telling you. She just wanted some plug, but Daniel couldn't see it, he's such a good guy, he can be used so easily and it was hard for us to watch," He seemed to roll his eyes at the next part. "Nicole lied to him. She told him that she overheard us talking shit about him, funny thing is that the kid Lucas?" Raising an eyebrow at me, he let out a huge groan, "Yeah. He lied too, he was in on it. Said that we were gonna boot him from the band, Daniel didn't believe him of course, but Lucas has this effect on people. He can make you believe the biggest lies. It's kinda scary actually, now that I think about it," Zach was now standing, "But what sucks the most is that, Daniel knew it was a lie, he almost didn't believe him, but then Nicole. God. We all hated her by the way." He growled lowly, I slightly chuckled, Zach was beginning to walk around, "She told him otherwise." he made a dramatic pause, "And. He believed her."

"And for what worth?" Maya lightly shouted, angry. "She dumped him a month later, after she got like 2M followers on Instagram," She let out, that made me so unspeakably mad. What kind of person could do that and be fine with it. I stood awestruck with the information that was flowing into me. "Yeah. That's not even the worse part," Zach continued, "We convinced him they were lying and he believed us, barely. He still didn't break up with Nicole though, so she kept trying to get him to lose our trust. Lucas helped her a lot, it was a weird bond they had," He blinked a few times, shaking the image out of his head.