Once Upon a URL

Part Seven

"But she was right. I mean I came with you to the dance, and then I left to go and talk to her. That's a messed up thing to do, but that's the crap I do."

"You are beating yourself up too much about this."

"I'm not though. I am a flirt, and I know it. I've known it for a while. It was an easy way to not let people really get know me, but still keep them interested."

"Why don't you want people to really know you?"

"Because they won't like me. Do you know how Taylor and I met?"

"She said something about online."

"Tumblr. I spend my time online. When you used to come and see Eli, I would be in my room, on tumblr. Its nice there, cause I don't have to pretend to be popular and be into stupid things that everyone here thinks I am into."

"Why do you pretend then? You don't care about popularity."

"People have always assumed I do. And when we were younger, I somehow started hanging out with the 'popular' kids and then I just had to fake it. People figure all I care about is popularity, and I don't know how to show that I don't, with out losing everything."

"You don't have to pretend, Heather, people will still like you."

"It's too late now."

"Well if you ever want to just be yourself, you can around me."

"Thanks Mark," she smiled at him. "You're a good guy."

"I know," he stated simply and her smile grew a little.

Ethan knocked on the front door of the house next to his. He hoped that Taylor wasn't home; he needed to talk to Hannah. Sure enough, Hannah opened up the door to see Ethan standing there awkwardly, with his hands in his pockets.

"Taylor isn't here," she said.

"Will she be gone long?"

Hannah shrugged, "I dunno. She didn't really say anything when she left."

"Can I come in?"

"Why don't you just text her?"

"I want to see you. I was hoping that she wouldn't be here, or at least be busy."

"What's going on?" Hannah opened the door more so that Ethan could come in.

"I'm worried about Taylor; she has seemed pretty down lately." They sat down at the dinning room table. No one else was home so they didn't have to worry about anyone over hearing them.

"She's seemed more angry than down."

"She's covering it, I can tell she's more upset than angry."

"Do you think it's about her parents?"

"It could be. She never talks about them. At least not to me."

"Me neither. Man, she seemed so happy when she was talking to Heather. She spent that week smiling like a complete dork, and had her face glued to her phone screen; but she was happy."

"I know, but when she found out it was Heather, she just got so pissed. I still don't get why?"

"She didn't want to get hurt," Hannah, said simply. "She probably figured that if Heather found out the truth and who she was, that she wouldn't be into her anymore."

"Which is stupid."

"But that's what I'm guessing is what happened."

"Taylor's amazing, I don't know why-" Ethan stopped midsentence when they heard the keys in the lock.

"Hey," Mark said looking at them when he saw them staring at him.

"Hi," they both responded as Mark looked around.

"Is Taylor around?" They both shook their heads. "Did you guys know about the whole thing between Taylor and Heather?" He asked walking over to them.

"Yeah," Ethan said as Hannah nodded.

"So you guys knew about it and didn't bother to mention anything to me?"

"We didn't know it was Heather Prescott."

"You were the one convinced it was," Hannah said to Ethan.

"I hoped it was; but I didn't know for sure. I don't think Taylor knew for sure until the dance."

"Well what ever the case is, Taylor's pissed, and Heather's upset," Mark said before they could get into a debate.

"Wait, Heather is upset?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah, I just had dinner with her; she was almost crying."

"Over Taylor?"

"Well over a bunch of things, but Taylor was probably part of it."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"I don't know what we can do," Ethan said. "Taylor can be stubborn.

"I know," Mark sat down next to Ethan. "I wish we could do something though."

"But what would-" Hannah started but stopped when she heard the front door open.

"Hi," Taylor said slowly seeing that the other three were staring at her.

"What's up?" Ethan asked as casually as he could.

"Nothing," she said slowly. "Why are you here?"

"We were working on environmental homework," Hannah said.

"Okay," Taylor shrugged and then walked up the stairs to her bedroom.

"We need to figure something out," Hannah said and the other two nodded.