"Hey guys!" I grin as I walk into my friend Taylor's house, carefully shutting the door behind me. The conversation from the lounge was cut off as soon as the door shut. I furrow my eyebrows at the sudden quietness and toss my keys on the table.
"Hey Y/N." I hear Dillon say. I smile to myself and walk into the lounge and stand behind the couch. "What's up?"
I take a step over so I'm standing right behind Taylor. "Nothin' much, I just got back from my grandparents in Arkansas."
"Oh so that's where you were, how was it?"
"It was good to see my family, the weather wasn't great but it was fine."
I got to see my family from my moms side, we only ever see them every other Christmas because my dads family is from Indiana. It's my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary so we went on a little road trip to Arkansas for a week.
"So you just got back then?" I nod. "You decided to come and see your lover boy as soon as you got back in the state?"
"Of course I did," I grin, wrapping my arms around Taylor's neck from behind. "I missed my little lover boy." I kiss Taylor's cheek quickly and rest my chin on his head. "What's up with you, Tay? You haven't said a word to me yet."
"I uh, hi, um, yeah."
I look over at Dillon who's watching Taylor with a smirk on his face, but as soon as he catches eyes with me, his smirk drops and he just shrugs at me.
Something is definitely going on.
Taylor Caniff is never quiet. For the 11 years that I've known him, I've never seen him be this quiet or sputtery. Especially at the same time. He's always been so open and crazy around me, not once have we ever had a silence for longer than ten seconds.
"Tay, my mom told me to ask you if you wanted to come over for dinner tomorrow?"
"Sure, uh, okay."
I furrow my eyebrows once again and walk around the couch and sit down on the coffee table in front of the two couches. I look between the two boys in question. Taylor refuses to look at me and Dillon looks like he's going to piss himself with laughter.
"What did you guys do whilst I was gone then?" I ask, trying to ease up the tension and awkwardness in the room.
"Not much, played some video games, went with Taylor to a couple meetings about the tour, ate a whole lot of takeout, spent a whole lot of money."
"Well, it sounds like you two had a fun week."
"We also tried to do laundry, but it didn't work. We broke the washing machine-"
"We? Aw hell naw, you put too much damn powder in!" Taylor finally speaks up, narrowing his eyes at his best friend with a cute little glare.
"What did you guys ruin?"
"That blue button up of Taylor's-" I widen my eyes and gasp quietly, snapping my head to look right at Taylor. They can't be talking about the shirt I'm thinking about, can they?
"Not my favourite shirt?" Dillon nods and looks at Taylor. "The pale, denim-like blue colour one with the black buttons?" Dillon nods once again and I instantly frown. "You know how much I love that shirt on you, Tay! You were going to wear it to my cousins wedding!"
My cousin is getting married in two months and I asked Taylor to come with me, along with the circumstance that he wears my favourite shirt of his, and he agreed. He looks so good in that shirt! I know that he looks damn good in tank tops, but he just looks so smart and pretty in formal shirts. And now it's ruined?
My heart is going to break over a damn shirt.
"Hold up, Taylor's going to your cousins wedding with you?"
I nod, "Yeah, of course he is, why are you asking?" Is there something bad about that?
"Is he your date to the wedding?"
"I guess so." I never thought about it that way.
I guess Taylor is my date for my cousins wedding. He's my friend, and he's a male, so people just automatically assume that we're dating because we're the opposite genders and we're so close.
"What do you have to say about being Y/N's date, Taylor?"
As the attention is centred on Taylor, his face starts to pale and he begins stumbling and muttering every syllable he tries to speak. I need to know what the heck is going on because something is seriously not right with Taylor and it's really worrying me.
"Right okay, what is going on?"
"I think it's time for me to leave," Dillon mutters as he quite literally launches himself off of the couch and sprints over to the front door without any kind of explanation as to why. "See you later!"
As soon as the door closes, I catch Taylor's eye and widen mine to ask him what's going on.
"Why are you being so odd, Tay? Did I do something wrong?"
"No, I uh, you didn't do anything wrong, you never do."
I raise an eyebrow before nodding, "Then what is it? You know you can talk to me."
"I just, I, Y/N, I, I can't."
"Tay, are you okay?"
"No! I'm not fucking okay!" He bursts, throwing his hands in the air to emphasise his voice. "I swear, all you ever do is tease me and I'm sick of it!"
"What? Tease you? What are you talking about?" When have I ever teased him? I've never been mean to him?
"With all your flirty words and playing along with what Dillon was saying about us being lovers! He only said that because he knows that I want us to be like that!"
"Wait, slow down okay?" His fast, over reactive breathing instantly slows down as he looks at me, his eyes glistening brightly. "You want us to be what?"
"The way you were hugging me, I, it just got me thinking about what we could be, and Dillon! Dillon knows what I was thinking about, I told him every god damn thing about what I freakin love about you and he just keeps teasing me and you play along!"
Does Taylor like me? Is he trying to tell me that he has feelings for me?
"Are you saying you want us to be more than friends, Taylor?"
He looks down at his lap before answering me. "I guess, yeah..."
"How long have you been feeling like this?"
"Since the day you left for Arkansas." He almost a whispers, looking back up at me. "Ever since we almost kissed when we were hugging, I, I started feeling things and I told Dillon and I'm quite rightly, uh, whipped."
"That was definitely unexpected," I puff, resting my hands on my hips. "I don't really know what to say."
Taylor just shrugs his shoulders and wraps his arms around himself. "It's fine that you don't like me back, I couldn't even come to terms with it until this morning."
I purse my lips to the side and look at Taylor. He smiles half heartedly at me and barely makes any eye contact with me, avoiding the awkwardness but raising the tension instead.
"I don't want it to be awkward between us." I finally blurt out, biting down on my dry, bottom lip
"It won't... I uh, um, yeah."
With a big, deep sigh, I close my eyes and bring up a sudden idea, one that could work really well for the both of us, or it could completely ruin everything. "We could always try to make something work?"
"What do you mean?"
"We could go on a date and see if we can get along as a couple?"
Taylor's face perks up as soon as I say 'date', and then even more as I say 'couple'.
"Do you really mean that? You want to actually go on a date with me? Me?"
"Why wouldn't I?" I smile and Taylor just shrugs. "You're one of my closest friends and we've always gotten on really well, we might as well give it a try."
People have always said that we act like we're a couple, people like Dillon. He always teases us about it, hence why Taylor was so awkward when I first arrived, and I'm sure that he would be overjoyed if Taylor and I came out as a couple.
That means that he would become the third wheel instead of me.
"So," All of Taylor's awkwardness suddenly cowers away and he's finally the bubbly, confident Taylor I know and love. "You busy tonight?"