The Truth Hurts

25 │body language

"Sorry." Riley says, realizing that he had accidentally upset Morgan.

Thinking about it, Morgan leans against the wall and stares at the floor. "But you're right. We should check up on him and make sure everything is okay."

Riley looks at him, rather surprised.

"Tomorrow?"

Nodding, Riley smirks. "Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks."

Morgan's bedroom door opens and Kandice sticks her head into the hallway, the sheet wrapped around her body like a sundress. She stares mostly at Riley. "You coming back to bed or what?"

Morgan and Riley exchange awkward looks.

In the newspaper staff room, Millie stares at one of the desktop monitors and slowly scrolls through one of the unpublished articles as she goes through the oh-so-lovely editing process. A light knock comes from the door. She looks up as the door cracks open and Taylor slowly walks inside.

"Hey." Taylor smiles.

Caught off guard, Millie's chair pushes out as she stands to her feet. "Hi."

Taylor glances around the room awkwardly. "Is Marc here?"

She shakes her head. "No, he went to go grab some more printer paper from the storage room. He should be back any minute."

"Okay. Thanks." Taylor hastily turns back to the door.

"You can wait if you like. He shouldn't be much longer."

She turns back to face Millie. "No, it's okay. I just wanted to tell him thanks for earlier. My car broke down on the way to school and he gave me a jump."

Picking up on the obvious vibe that Taylor wants to leave, Millie sits back in her seat. "Oh, okay. I'll tell him you stopped by."

"Thanks." Taylor turns back toward the door but halts the second she touches the handle. She spins back around. "Millie—"

"Yeah?"Millie looks back up from the monitor.

"How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you?"

"No, sorry." Taylor sighs, stepping toward the center of the room. "I mean how've you been? God, we haven't talked in what feels like forever. I can't help but think a lot of that is my fault."

Shaking her head, Millie stands back up. "No, it's not your fault. We just... Well, we just went our separate ways. It happens, I guess. But I've been good. Busy though, especially with everything going on lately."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

Noticing something is on her mind, Millie leans against the desk behind her. "What about you? How's everything been?"

Faking a smile, Taylor nods. "It's been good."

Millie cocks an eyebrow. Ever since they were young, she could always tell when Taylor was lying by her expression. "That's good."

"Yeah. Well, I guess I should get going." Taylor glances back at the door. "It was nice seeing you."

"You too." Millie smiles."I'll tell him you came by."

"Thanks." Taylor says as she walks back to the door and, before leaving, gives Millie one last wave.

Millie nods, waving back, and watches as the door closes. Sighing, her eyes gaze back down to the computer monitor on the desk across from her. It's an article discussing the aftermath of Julia's death with a picture taken from her funeral last week. In the photograph, she sees Taylor standing toward the back of the crowd alongside a distraught Casey.

She can also tell whenever Taylor is feeling guilty.

♫ ʙᴀᴅ ᴛʜɪɴɢs / ᴍᴇɪᴋᴏ ♫