Chapter 15
Taylor's POV
"Taylor, I'm going to the," she came inside my room and paused when she saw Jared there as well. "What are you doing here?"
"Homework." He quickly said, without eye contact.
I gave her a look. I wondered if she had forgotten about her part in the argument.
As if she had read my mind, she walked over to Jared. "I'm really sorry about what I
said. I had no right talking about you like that."
"That's okay. Apology accepted." Jared gave her a friendly smile and she suddenly looked happier.
"Soooo, you guys are doing homework?"
"Yep."
"Right..." she obviously didn't buy the whole 'homework' story. "Anyway! I'll give you guys some privacy!" she said in her annoying giggling voice. I rolled my eyes as Jared laughed.
"You're sister really needs to chill out, Taylor."
"Yeah, I know! What does she think we're gonna do, anyway?"
He shrugged. "I'm not really sure."
"Me either." I lied. I had a pretty good idea what Tarynn thought we were planning to do at this late hour.
Jared stood up and walked over to the other side of the room where my artwork was.
"Wow. You know, you're really good."
"I'm not that good-"
"Yeah, you are."
"No I'm not. There are, like, thousands of people who can do stuff better than that."
"Yeah, 'course (!) These are better than all of the people I know, anyway."
I sighed. It sounded like I was being modest but I really thought that they weren't that good. I always liked art and did amazing stuff according to everyone, apart from my dad. He was always saying how I shouldn't be wasting my time drawing and painting when I could be studying to become a doctor or a dentist or something like that.
"I dunno. My dad wants to be a dentist or something."
"Why's that?"
"Because he's an annoying, self righteous, idiot who thinks he can control my life." I said sharply.
He laughed. "Whoa. I'd never expect you to say something like that-"
"Why not?" I interrupted.
"Well...because you don't seem like the type...y'know."
"Know what?"
"Okay, sheesh don't get offended, Taylor. You just seem too good to do bad stuff, I guess."
"I can do bad stuff. I, like, do it all the time."
"I find that hard to believe! I mean, you never swear or get wasted or-"
"Actually, I swear all the time. In fact, I swore, like, three times today." I said, putting an emphasis on three.
"Whoa, three times?(!)"
"Yeah, and I drunk like a bottle of Holden Beer the other day-"
"You do know that's non-alcoholic beer, right?"
I paused. "So, anyway-"
"Just stop talking, Taylor." He said and kissed me.
I took a step back and sat on the bed since Jared had been acting weird lately. "What's wrong?" he said.
"Nothing! Nothing at all!" I said, unconvincingly
"Then why are you being all weird?" Jared sat back down close to me. A little too close. I started to get a strange feeling so I moved away and got a book.
"I think we should do the homework thing-"
"It's not due in for another week."
"Yeah, but I should do it now just in case Mrs Opara asks for it early." I laughed nervously and got that feeling again as he came closer. I started thinking about what Ashley said.
He gently took the book from my hands and set it on the bedside table. This time he was extremely close and I started feeling slightly uncomfortable.
I managed a glance at the clock. "Oh, it's, um, 11. It's pretty late, I think you should be-" before I knew it, his lips were on mine. I tried pulling away, worried that Tarynn could burst through the door any minute but in the end, I gave up. I felt his hand going higher and higher and in a moment of slight panic, I pulled back.
"Sorry, Jared, I can't do this."
"Why? I mean, what's wrong?"
"I don't know, I..I can't I-"
"Wait, slow down. It's okay if you don't want to, I mean, I don't even know what I was thinking."
"I'm sorry, I..I'm not-"
"Taylor, It's okay, I get it. We don't need to do this now-"
I heard a door slam downstairs. It was obviously Tarynn. I felt glad that Jared understood about the whole thing but on the other hand... a part of me wished that it actually happened.
