Once Upon a URL

Part Six

"Sure," Taylor opened her door wider and Mark walked over to her desk.

"I haven't seen you since the dance." Mark glanced over his laptop and Taylor shrugged. "It's like you've been avoiding me."

"I haven't," she lied and began to stack books on her bedside table. "Did you have fun?"

"It was alright." He paused, "Heather was kind of weird."

"What do you mean?" She asked slowly, glancing over at her stepbrother.

"I mean she seemed a little distant, and then like half way through, she seemed kind of pissed off. I asked what was wrong, but she said she was fine. But she still seemed mad."

"I'm sorry," Taylor said before she could think of something else to say.

"It's not your fault."

She bit the inside of her cheek. "It kinda is."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when I was talking to that girl online for a while?"

"Yeah," Mark said slowly.

"That was Heather. I didn't know it was her, but I stopped talking to her when I found out she lived around here."

"So you had a crush on Heather?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." She sat at the edge of her bed so that her and Mark were only a couple of feet apart. "I don't know what I felt for her, but I didn't think it would be Heather Prescott. We stopped talking and Ethan was convinced it was her, but I was trying to figure out my feelings and that is when you"

"Started talking to her," Mark finished.

"Yeah."

"So what happened at the dance?"

"She found out that it was me she was talking to. She confronted me and we argued."

"Oh," Mark thought. "She must really like you then."

"Liked. But it doesn't matter now. If she liked me, I doubt that she still does."

"Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome." Mark walked to the printer and got his paper and then left her room. Taylor flopped down on her bed and opened her phone up to the messages with Heather and began to reread them.

There was a knock on the door and then Eli walked into Heather's room. "What?" She asked, scrolling through tumblr.

"I wanted to see my sister."

"Well you see her."

Eli glared at her. "I heard you went to homecoming with Mark."

"Yeah."

"He's a good guy. Did you have fun?"

"Not really."

"Did he hurt you? I will beat him up."

"It wasn't anything he did."

"Oh. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"I'll see you later than," Eli walked back out of her room.

Heather continued to scroll coming across some of the posts Taylor had made. She had debated about unfollowing Taylor, but decided that would be too immature.

If Heather had thought Chemistry was bad before, it had gotten much worse. It was one thing when Taylor had hypothetically been the Taylor, but now she knew for sure. And it wasn't that she had just stopped talking, she had also called her a flirt and a bitch. Heather could accept being called a flirt she was to some extent. But she wasn't a bitch, or at least she didn't think she was one.

What was worse was she had plans with Mark later. Mark had texted her asking if she was okay, and that he was sorry if she didn't have a good time. Heather had told him everything was fine and that they should get dinner. She just figured she would have sorted out her feelings. But she hadn't. She had had a crush on Taylor, and it had not gone away since the night of the dance.

Taylor turned in her seat to talk to the person behind her and their eyes met for a second. Heather didn't know what to do, but before she could make an expression, Taylor looked away. Heather tapped her pen against the desk as she closed her eyes.

"Heather!" Julie hissed.

"Sorry," Heather muttered and looked at Julie.

"Do you understand this at all?"

"Not really."

"Why don't we ask Mark's sister, she always seems to know what's going on."

"No," Heather said quickly, taking Julie back. "I mean: I'm sure I can figure it out."

"Why can't we just ask her?"

"Why don't you ask the teacher?"

"Cause he'll give us crap for not paying attention. I'll go do it."

"Whatever," Heather muttered. Julie stood up and walked over to Taylor.