Bad Influence - Finale

 

 BAD INFLUENCE

Bad Influence - Episode 59&60

(•Tainting Her Innocence•)

GENRE: College romance 

By, Mide L.

    ✧༺✰༻✧    ✧༺✰༻✧    ✧༺✰༻✧

                  ✮{...THE END...}✮

FEW MONTHS LATER, AT A BAR*

The bar was half-empty. A low hum of music blaring from the background, the kind that drowned out thoughts but not pain.

Hailey sat alone in a corner booth, a cigarette between her fingers, smoke curling lazily toward the ceiling. A nearly empty bottle of rum stood on the table beside two drained shot glasses.

Her eyeliner was smudged. Her lips pale. She hadn’t touched makeup in days, hadn’t smiled in weeks. Not since...

Not since XAVIER DIED.

One month ago.

She took a deep drag, letting the smoke sit in her lungs before exhaling slowly. Her eyes were glassy, but she wasn’t crying.

She was empty.

Completely hollowed out.

Hailey’s hand trembled slightly as she lifted the last bit of her drink to her lips.

It burned.

But not as much as the ache in her chest.

She stared ahead blankly, eyes fixed on nothing.

The bartender glanced her way but didn’t say a word. Everyone knew heartbreak when they saw it and hers was tattooed in every movement, every breath, every second she kept choosing to sit there instead of going home.

Because home didn’t feel like home anymore.

Not without him.

Hailey doesn't smoke, doesn't drink but grief had a way of rewriting people.

And losing Xavier… it shattered every rule she used to live by.

She lit another cigarette with shaky fingers, her fourth one tonight, coughing slightly as she dragged it in like a lifeline.

"Hailey!"

The loud voice cut through the bar’s static like a whip.

Heads turned.

But Hailey didn’t move. Didn’t blink.

Jasmine stormed in like a tornado of rage and concern wrapped in a tight braid and oversized hoodie, her face flushed with anger. She spotted Hailey instantly slumped over, dazed, lost.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Jasmine barked, rushing to her side. "What the hell is this? You said you were going home!"

Hailey didn’t look up.

Jasmine grabbed the cigarette from her hand and crushed it into the ashtray, her voice breaking. "You don’t even like the smell of this crap. Now you’re puffing them like you invented the damn thing?"

Hailey finally looked at her. Her voice came out dry. Detached.

"I needed silence"

Jasmine’s eyes welled with tears. "This isn’t silence, Hails. This is self-destruction"

Hailey chuckled bitterly. "Same thing. Different name"

Asher appeared behind.

He looked hesitant. 

He had no right to care anymore.

And yet… here he was.

"I told her not to come alone," he said quietly. "She told me to stay away"

Jasmine spun on him. "And you listened?!"

Asher sighed. "She doesn’t want me. Said I was too soft. Said… she couldn’t love anyone again"

He looked at Hailey, the pain in his eyes unmistakable. 

"And maybe that’s true. But seeing her like this? I couldn’t sit still"

Hailey’s gaze drifted back to the glass in front of her.

"Go home, both of you" she murmured.

Jasmine ignored her. "You think this is what Xavier would’ve wanted? For you to bury yourself in alcohol and Marlboros?"

Hailey flinched. The name alone was a gunshot to her soul.

"Don’t" Her voice cracked. "Don’t talk like you knew what he wanted. None of us did"

Jasmine knelt beside her, gripping her hand tightly. "But I know what you want. You want him back. And you can’t have that. So you’re punishing yourself"

Hailey didn’t deny it.

She couldn’t.

Asher stepped forward, slowly. "I know I’m not him. I know I’ll never be. But even after everything, I still care about you"

She looked up at him, hollow eyes meeting his gentle ones.

And that’s when she broke.

Tears finally spilled... ugly, silent ones that clung to her chin and fell into her lap like broken pieces of glass.

Asher didn’t ask.

He just pulled her up into a hug.

She didn’t resist.

Didn’t fight.

She let herself collapse into him, her fists curled weakly against his chest, her sobs muffled into his hoodie.

"I miss him," she whispered. "I miss him so much it physically hurts"

"I know," Asher whispered back, eyes shut. "I know"

Jasmine stood there quietly, her own tears spilling.

After a while, Hailey pulled away, wiping her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Take me home" she muttered.

Asher nodded, placing an arm around her protectively.

Asher gently draped his jacket over Hailey’s shoulders, the way someone would cradle something broken but still precious. She was quiet now, eyes down, leaning slightly into Jasmine as they made their way toward the exit.

And then...

"Ashyyy!"

That voice.

Jasmine paused mid-step.

Hailey blinked, barely registering it.

Asher? He sighed like someone who already knew what was coming and wished he could rewind time.

Because there she was... Lana, his neighbour. 

Currently wearing a cropped bar uniform and the biggest smile known to man. She was balancing a tray in one hand and skipping over like gravity didn’t apply to her.

"Oh my God, I knew it was you!" she squealed, stopping a little too close. "You walked in and I was like, those shoulders… that neck… that broody face… yep, that’s Asher"

Asher forced a smile. "Hey, Lana"

"You’ve been dodging me," she pouted, brushing a stray curl behind her ear. "And I know you saw my texts. You even read the one with the cat meme!"

Jasmine raised a brow, whispering to Hailey, "Cat memes?"

"Neighbor," Asher muttered. "Lives across from me. Bakes cookies. Unplugs her fridge just to borrow mine"

"I also knock when my bulb blows out, and when I can’t reach my ceiling, and when my dates cancel," Lana added helpfully, flipping her tray to her other hip. "Basically anytime fate gives me a reason to see him"

Jasmine’s expression was unreadable.

Lana turned her full attention back to Asher now, totally ignoring the heavy grief in the air.

"So… I get off in five. Drinks? Or should we just go home and argue about which Netflix series we should pretend to finish?"

Asher looked toward Hailey, who hadn’t lifted her head. She looked as fragile as she did silent... like one wrong word might shatter her.

He turned back to Lana.

"I can’t, Lana. Not tonight" he said quietly, but firmly.

"Oh…" she blinked, faltering slightly. "Is it serious?"

"She’s not okay," Asher replied, his tone soft but definitive. "And neither am I"

Lana hesitated, her smile twitching before she forced it back up. "Okay. I get it. Rain check then?"

Asher gave a small nod. "Yeah"

Lana gave a tiny wave and spun away with a too-cheerful "Goodnight!" that didn’t quite match the crack in her tone.

Asher joined Jasmine and Hailey outside just as they hit the pavement.

Jasmine nudged him. "She likes you"

"She likes everyone" Asher replied, unbothered.

"You ever…?"

"No" he cut her off before she finished. "She’s loud"

Hailey let out a small, tired sound—half laugh, half broken breath. But it was something.

Asher glanced at her, and Jasmine caught the look.

They said nothing more.

•••

30 MINUTES LATER*

The drive back was quiet.

No music.

No small talk.

Just the gentle hum of the engine and the occasional sniffle from the back seat.

Hailey sat curled up beside the window, her fingers clutching the edge of Asher’s jacket like it was the only thing anchoring her to the moment. 

When they reached her apartment, Hailey didn’t move at first.

She just sat there.

Staring at the door like it led to a past she wasn’t ready to face.

"You want me to come in with you?" Jasmine asked softly.

Hailey shook her head. "No. I need to do it alone"

"You sure?"

"No," she said honestly. "But I’ll be fine"

Jasmine didn’t argue.

Asher stepped out first and opened her door. Hailey climbed out slowly, her limbs feeling heavier than her body. She turned to him, eyes still red-rimmed.

"Thanks," she whispered. "For tonight. For… everything"

"You don’t have to thank me, Hailey"

"I do. I pushed you away. You didn’t deserve that"

Asher gave a small shrug. "Grief changes people. I know that now"

There was a pause.

A silence that felt like a closing chapter.

"Will I ever be okay again?" she asked, voice small.

Asher looked at her gently. "Maybe not like before. But yes. In a different way. A stronger one"

She nodded slowly, like she wanted to believe that.

Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Not romantic. Not flirty. Just… grateful.

"Goodnight, Ash"

"Goodnight, Hails"

Hailey turned and walked up the steps, each footstep echoing louder than the last. When she reached her door, she paused.

Then she looked up at the sky.

It was quiet.

Still.

And somewhere deep in her chest, something shifted. Not the pain but the way she was holding it.

She unlocked the door and stepped inside.

She wasn’t the same girl Xavier met in the boys' restroom that day. She had been tainted, broken, torn apart...

Xavier was her chaos.

Her addiction.

Her first love.

The guy who stole her first kiss, her virginity, and every piece of her heart without even asking.

He was dangerous. A walking storm.

But she loved him anyway.

God... she still did.

And maybe… a part of her always would.

Maybe she’d never be the same.

Maybe she’d never stop missing him.

And then... as if someone pressed play inside her chest, she remembered the hospital room, the beeping machines.

The way his hand, bruised and weak, squeezed hers like it was the only strength he had left.

Xavier had turned his head slowly, his voice barely a rasp, his lips dry and cracked.

> "You think I’m darkness, Princess..."

She had shaken her head fiercely, eyes soaked in tears.

But he gave the faintest smirk.

> "Maybe I am. But you... you’re the only light that ever made me wish I wasn’t"

She had broken right there.

> "You changed me" he whispered.

"I wanted to ruin you... but you saved me instead"

Then he said the last thing she'd ever hear him say.

> "If I don’t wake up... don’t cry too long. Live like you’re still with me. That way… I never really left. I love you, Princess"

And just like that... his eyes had closed.

And he never opened them again.

Back in the present, Hailey sank on her couch slowly, the echo of his voice circling her like smoke.

 *Live like you’re still with me...

A tear slipped down her cheek. 

Some love stories don't need forever to be real.

Some don’t end with happily ever afters...

Some just leave scars, and songs, and smirks you never forget.

And maybe... just maybe...

Some love stories don’t end… they echo.

🖤

___________________________________________

THE END.

Finally

And to the readers, thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did! 

So now tell me...

Saddest scene?

Funniest scene?

Favourite scene?

Best male characters?

Best female characters?

Best couple?

Who will you miss the the most?

Say something to me jare make I blush small

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