"L A B E L S"

Episode 101

WRIITNG UP A STORM HERE SO I THOUGHT I WOULD GO AHEAD AND GIVE YOU A NEW CHAPTER! YOU READ, I WRITE. SOUND GOOD? HOPE SO! PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT LETTING ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! ;)

~

THAT PLAY BUTTON IS WAITING FOR YOU ;)

The party ended shortly after, no one really felt the need to catch up all in that one night. Taylor was exhausted from her trip and everyone else had their own definition of a crazy day. By nine o’clock it was just Taylor and Nick sitting outside by the small campfire. Scarlett had gone to bed close to an hour ago and Zac passed out on the couch not long after eating his third piece of cake. “I can’t believe you wrote a book.” Nick declares with a smirk while lifting the bottle of beer to his lips.

Taylor smiles and leans forward towards the fire, her bottle resting loosely in her left hand. “I’m finding it a little hard to believe myself.”

“I knew you’d do great things, Tay. I always knew.”

“Even when you treated me like crap?” Taylor questions in humor before lifting the beer to her lips.

Nick rolls his eyes and lifts his beer to his lips. “I treated everyone like crap.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bring up ancient news. Guess writing this book has had me stuck in the past for a little too long.”

“It must feel good to finally be finished, have something accomplished and something to show for it. Time to move on, right?” Nick was trying to move this conversation in a certain direction, a direction Taylor would deny she had been traveling for a very long time.

“Moving on is what I do best, right? Move on from a terrible home life, move on from a terrible high school experience, move on from you, move on from Joe, move on from this town and this life. I’ve been moving so much I’m not sure I would even know how to do anything else.” Her tone had turned from lighthearted to resentful and she wasn’t sure what caused the sudden shift.

“You pretend to move on.” Nick states bluntly while staring straight at Taylor, his eyes not faltering despite his serious accusation.

Her eyes jolt to the right and stare him down without hesitation. “What are you talking about?”

“You make everyone think you’ve moved on. You do what you have to in order to please others or in order to move forward with your life but you never really move on.” He can see the fear in Taylor’s eyes but he continues to speak, knowing he had to say this in order for her to grasp the truth. “I think that’s why you decided to write about us, your life, your heart. I don’t think you’ve moved on from anything, Tay.”

The water begins building in her eyes and she quickly turns her head. It wasn’t like Nick had never seen her cry, he had at least a dozen times and half of those times it was because of him but she still felt so embarrassed. Was she really so transparent or was it just Nick that knew her better than she knew herself? “Andrew proposed to me.” Her body internally shook at the sound of the words falling from her lips. She had no idea why or what she was thinking but for some reason she spilled the secret she had sworn to keep hidden, at least for the week.

His eyes widen at the sound but for some reason, he didn’t seem very surprised. “Andrew? Isn’t that the guy you just started seeing around March of this year?”

Taylor nods and takes another, much needed, sip of beer.

“Congratulations?” It was more of a question than a statement but Nick couldn’t even force a smile, much less an honest sense of excitement.