Match Maker | T. Swift x OC

Chapter Twelve

"You know, I got asked to do an interview," Mallory mused, resting her chin against her hand, tapping her cheek, "I didn't know the industry cared about athletes that weren't pro-footballers."

"Oh?" Dr. Burns asked, jotting something down on a notepad.

"Yeah. I'm just assuming that it's because I've been seen with Taylor and her friends many times since May." Mallory murmured.

"And how does that make you feel?"

The brunette shrugged, "I guess shitty. It's not like these people want to talk to me, they want to talk to Taylor through me, like I'm just glass or a phone for them to contact someone who doesn't want to be contacted."

"Have you spoken to Taylor about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about," Mallory chuckled, leaning back, "I mean, if I tell her she's going to feel bad and start pushing me away again- I don't want that."

"You do know what they say, right?" Dr. Burns asked disappointedly. "Communication is key."

Mallory sighed, "it's like we're dancing," she started, "but our hands are tied. I want to go one way, she wants to go another and we both know that we'll end up at the same place, but instead of just letting the other go, we cling on. We cling on, but also try to go our own ways, breaking the rope. And I'm scared that when we break the rope they'll be no way to fix it."

"I thought you said Taylor was the one that was good with words," Dr. Burns joked, making the latter relax slightly.

"I think she feels it, too, you know?" Mallory asked, "like we're just a ticking time bomb, waiting to go off."

Burns nodded, "and you fear that if you tell Taylor the truth, she'll let you go your own way and make you break the rope?" She asked, making Mallory nod, "have you tried... untying the rope?"

"The rope isn't real," Mallory scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"I know," Dr. Burns shook her head, "but if you can both feel it, it's there."

"I guess."

"Try easing the two of you into a conversation about it. Find a way to bring it up without it seeming like you've been dying to talk about it. Sit her down, open a bottle of wine, try sitting away from each other." She suggested, "spend less time together. Your hers and she's yours-"

"I don't think she knows that," Mallory admitted, pulling her knees up to tuck them behind her chin, "I don't think she trusts me."

"You mean because of what Lea did to you?"

"I mean because of what I did to Nat," She shook her head, "I cheated on her. Despite what she said, I know that Taylor doesn't really believe that people change."

"Do Taylor know the whole story?" Mallory shrugged so her therapist pushed, "does she know that Lea was twenty, bordering twenty-one, and that you were barely seventeen? Does she know that you said no multiple times? Does she know that Lea is the one at fault, that you immediately told Natalie?"

"I told her it was my fault," Mallory admitted, "that I wanted to for it, that Lea was my age, that I was the one that kept it going on all summer."

"Why?"

Mallory shrugged, "I don't know. I-I didn't want her to think badly of anyone because of me."

"Mallory, you were r-"

"Don't say it," Mallory cut her off, "I know. I know, but she doesn't have to."

Dr. Burns nodded in understanding, looking at the clock on her wall. "Think about what I was saying, communication is key. Always has been, always will be when it comes to new relationships. Even if you're still in the honeymoon phase. You don't have to tell her everything, but tell her something, something that's true."