Chapter 16
Taylor's POV
"So...what happened between you guys again?" Ashley asked for the 5th time.
"I told you, Ash. Nothing happened."
She studied my expression. I for a moment that she knew when I was lying.
"Right. Y'know," she pulled her chair closer to mine, "Lately you've been keeping a lot of things from me. We hardly spend any time together," she sighed a fake, sad sigh. It was obvious how sarcastic she was being. "If you don't want to hang out anymore then," she sniffed. "I understand." she slowly turned away but I grabbed at her hand.
"You idiot!" I laughed and she eventually joined in. "I swear nothing happened."
"Then why are you being all funny?"
"I'm not. Anyway, enough about me. What are your plans today?"
She smiled widely. "Well-"
"Jeez, Ash! If you're going to rope me into another one of your things then-"
"No! I swear it's not like that! My parents are out of town, thank God, and I htink it's time I had a party."
I just looked at her then. Ashley was notorious for throwing the greatest house parties, but her parents always came home at the wrong time.
"Ash, if your parents get home early like last time-"
"They won't, they're in England for a while,"
Ashley's parents were both psychologists. They went out of town a lot which gave Ashley a lot of time to throw parties and mess around. Normally, I would be in
for this kind of thing but all I could think about was what happened- what could have happened between Jared and I.
"Soooo, are you in?" she said, interrupting my thoughts.
"Um...?"
"Pleeeeaaassseee?" she said pulling a puppy face.
I smiled at her attempts. "Okay, fine. I'm in."
Drew's POV
"Helloooo? Earth to Jared? Dude?2 I nudged him in the arm, finally getting his attention.
"What?"
"What's your problem? You haven't said anythiong all day."
"Nothing. I'm...i'm just thinking."
"Yeah, like you always do."
He smiled weakly. "Damon's coming in a week."
I paused. Damon was his half-brother. Jared neever talked about him much, not even to me. His arrival was obviously a plan of his mom for them to get re-acquainted.
"Damon? Sreriously? You haven't seen him in years."
"We've been in contact."
"So, does Taylor know?"
"No, I haven't talked to her since, like, yesterday."
"Why-" I was going to continue but by the look on his face, I could tell he didn't want to talk. Whatever happened between them, must've been serious.
"I wasn't gonna ask but," he turned to me as soon as I spoke. "Did anything bad happen last night? I mean, I can guess but-" I prepared myself for another 'It's-none-of-your-business' speech but he just laughed.
"No, nothing bad If you can call it bad-"
"Wait, it? Did you guys-"
"No, that's not what I meant-"
"So that's why you've been acting funny? Ha, I should've known."
"That's not what happened-"
"If you say so!"
He punched me lightly in the shoulder. I laughed with him then.I knew he was telling the truth but I figured annoying him about it was the best way to keep him laughing. I could tell that when his brother arrived, things were not going to end well.
