This chapter is dedicated to _sarah_nichols_! HAPPY BIRTHDAY - I HOPE YOU HAVE A REALLY BRILLIANT ONE! x
Anyway thank you everyone for all your support with this story - I'm really enjoying writing this so it means a lot how responsive you've all been so far <3 x
Vote and comments are appreciated but as always PLEASE ENJOY::
::My Happily Never After::
Chapter Sixteen: Not A Damsel in Distress
“So what do you say?” Rachel asked me expectantly, from across the counter at the coffee shop where I worked. I felt like a deer caught in headlights as I stared back at her.
“Uh…I can’t.” I answered with a small wince.
Rachel frowned at me. “Why not?” She pressed.
I racked my brain, trying to think of a plausible lie.
“I can’t go to the pool with you because…I can’t swim.” I finished lamely. It was an obvious lie. I’d been swimming with her before without any issues. “I mean I can’t go with you because…” I’m not supposed to be hanging around just you and Isaac alone anymore – rule one – plus, if I was honest with myself I really didn’t want to be alone with them.
They were all smiles and sunshine around each other, and I really couldn’t deal with it.
But now she’d finally caught up to me – corning me in the one place I couldn’t excuse myself and make an escape.
“Because?” She waited for me to continue. I winced.
Because I’m allergic to chlorine.
Because I recently discovered an inner fear of floaties.
“…I broke my leg?” I said, my words coming out as a question. I cringed – mentally face palming myself for being an idiot.
Keep it cool, Taylor. Maybe they didn’t hear you.
“You broke your leg?” Rachel repeated questioningly, her eyes darting down to where my legs were hidden by the counter top, her features twisted into disbelief.
Okay so she definitely heard me…but the situation could still be fixed.
I scrambled to correct my mistake. “I meant arm.” I said unhelpfully.
Or maybe my best option would just be to shut up.
The last week had been torture.
I’d been putting space between myself and Isaac and Rachel – somewhere around day four they started to twig on though, and since then it’d been harder and harder to come up with smooth excuses.
Rachel narrowed her eyes. “You’re lying.” She pointed out the obvious, with a small hurt note to her voice.
I winced lowering my head slightly, feeling guilt hit me.
“Taylor. Working just about as hard as usual I see.” Mackenzie entered the conversation with his usual impeccable timing, seeing to appear out of nowhere. “You do realise you’re on the clock right?” He asked, trampling all over the awkward atmosphere.
I looked up, finding him standing in the doorway to the kitchen, with his shoulder propped against the wall as he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
I winced once again. “Sorry.” I mumbled.
His eyebrows rose higher as he took in my meek voice, probably having expected some kind of snarky response.
But the week had completely drained me of my typical mouth.
And although I’d clearly hurt her with my lame lies Rachel quickly stepped up into my defence. “Actually Mackenzie, it’s my fault.” She excused me, making me feel ten times guiltier.
Mackenzie’s eyes went from me over to Rachel, and then back again a calculating look on his face.
“I came here to invite Taylor out swimming because the weather’s so nice lately.” She continued, sending a small glance in my direction.
A brief sadness crossed her eyes that felt like a punch to the gut. I grimaced apologetically. “Rach…” I started.
Her eyebrows pulled together as she frowned at me. “Will you at least tell me why you’re avoiding me?” She asked.
Self-preservation.
“I’m not.” I lied feebly.
Rachel let out a disappointed sigh. “Look whatever I’ve done to upset you, I’m sorry.” She said, her words twisting my stomach.
Crap. This wasn’t her fault. It was mine.
“Don’t apologise.” I said. I shot an almost pleading glance in Mackenzie’s direction, only to find him watching the exchange with a small thoughtful frown set into his features.
I don’t know what I was hoping for him to do…pull me away maybe? Pretend there was an emergency in the back room that he needed my help with?
Nothing came.
“Why not? You’re clearly upset with me.” Rachel asked, bringing my attention back around to her.
I frowned, wishing she would stop blaming herself. “I’m not upset with you.”
“You’ve been avoiding me all week.” She said straightforwardly. “Even Isaac-”
I really didn’t want to hear the rest of the sentence. I caved. “I’ll go.” I interrupted her.
Rachel’s eyes widened slightly with surprise, all other emotions dropping from her features. “What?” She asked, clearly not sure she heard me correctly.
“The pool, with you and Isaac. I’ll go.” I clarified inwardly sighing in defeat. But the knot of guilt loosened inside my chest, and my next breath came that little bit easier as a smile lit up Rachel’s face.
Rachel beamed. “You will?” She asked, instantly seeming to forgive me for my abysmal attempts at lying only moments before.
I nodded my head in hesitant confirmation.
This letting go thing was hard.
I felt physically exhausted.
“The pool huh?” I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of Mackenzie’s deep voice, a lot closer than he had been before. My head whipped to the side seeing him standing just behind my left shoulder, not looking at me but at Rachel.
Rachel looked surprised that he was addressing her, but still smiled and answered him with the same brightness she showed everyone. “Yep!” She said cheerfully. “The weather’s finally nice enough. It should be fun.”
Mackenzie didn’t return her smile. “You’re right. That does sound fun.” Contradictory to his words his tone was completely flat in his usual aloof demeanour. “Mind if I join?”
My lips parted in surprise, but Mackenzie still wasn’t looking at me as he waited for Rachel’s response. She looked just as surprised as I did, and slightly unsure about how she was meant to respond to him.
“Um…Sure.” She decided on her answer, before giving us both details on when and where to meet.
Now that I knew that I wouldn’t be alone with just Rachel and Isaac an invisible weight on my chest had lifted slightly.
Once Rachel left I turned to Mackenzie, my eyebrows pulled together in confusion as I craned my neck to get a better look – trying to read his completely blank expression.
Noticing my stare Mackenzie tipped his head down to look at me, his eyes meeting mine.
“What?” He asked.
I didn’t answer straight away.
“You like swimming?” I decided on asking instead.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Not particularly.” He answered.
I felt myself frown slightly. He’d invited himself along for my sake.
“Thank you.” I said gratefully.
Mackenzie didn’t look at all moved by my thanks. “Whatever.” He said blandly, easily brushing off my gratitude. “I promised I’d help you get over Isaac, didn’t I?”
I nodded my head in agreement. “Still…thanks.” I repeated anyway.
Mackenzie rolled his eyes at my repetition. “If you really want to thank me stop slacking and actually do some work.” He said gesturing to the coffee shop. He paused for a moment before continuing. “You can also stay behind and close up today.” He decided.
I smiled. “Aye, aye Captain.” I said obediently, offering a small salute. Strange as it sounded I was glad he was making me pay him back. I felt less indebted to him this way.
I was no damsel in distress – so having anyone swoop in to save me for nothing was just outlandish.
Mackenzie shook his head at me, looking as if he didn’t know whether to find me amusing or annoying.
“Anything else?” I asked.
Mackenzie seemed to think about it seriously. “You could clean the bathrooms.” He said with a wide smile, making me regret asking. My smile fell away into a small grimace.
“Right. Got it.” I said nodding.
With an amused smile Mackenzie continued. “Oh and Taylor?”
I flinched slightly. “Yes?” I responded warily.
Mackenzie’s eyes assessed me for a brief minute before he continued. “Just a quick word from the wise-”
I cut him off before he could finish his sentence. “The phrase is a word to the wise.” I corrected him.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Yeah…in this case I think not.” He replied. My jaw tightened as I narrowed my eyes at him.
‘Wise’ my left foot. ‘I think not’ was probably a very accurate description of his thought process. Pursing my lips, I held in the colourful reply I had on the tip of my tongue, remembering I was still on the clock.
“Ha, ha.” I said sarcastically.
His eyes glinted with amusement. “Anyway as I was saying,” he continued seeing I wasn’t going to interrupt him again. “You should stop making yourself so obvious.”
I clenched my hands into tight fists. “Hey! It’s not like I’m trying to be obvious.” I told him hotly, feeling offended.
Mackenzie ignored my words, and acted as if I hadn’t said anything, which made my eyes tighten with annoyance.
“You also need to be less concerned over hurting those two’s feelings.” He continued. He didn’t have to elaborate on who he meant by ‘those two’.
“They’re my best friends.” I said. Of course I was going to be concerned over hurting their feelings. I went to tell him that when he continued over me, rolling his eyes once again.
“If you keep trying so hard all the time you’ll end up being the one getting hurt.” He put it simply, effectively shutting me up.
I felt my heart contract.
Me getting hurt was inevitable wasn’t it?
Mackenzie didn’t say anything else, he just walked away getting back to work. With only the slightest moment’s hesitation I followed suit, pushing all of my self-pitying thoughts to the back of my mind to dwell over later.
Much later.
First I could work on repaying Mackenzie.
_ _ _
I returned home that night to find my Dad sat on the doorstep to our house.
Seeing me approach a tipsy grin lifted his lips. “Taylor!” He cried in a cheerful slur, making me wince. Drinking had robbed him of all volume control. Running a hand through my hair I moved closer to him.
“Dad.” I greeted warily, casting a quick glance around us – relieved to see the street was empty. My dad had enough rumours circulating around about him and his drinking problem, and I didn’t want to give anyone any more fuel for talking.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked.
“The key is broken.” He answered with a frown as he pointed to the lock.
My stomach tightened when I saw he had somehow jammed the backdoor key into the front door.
I glanced back down at him, feeling slightly annoyed. “Seriously, Dad?” I asked him. He blinked up at me innocently.
It was pointless trying to talk to him. He was too drunk right now. Stalking past him I walked up to the door and took a tight grip on my Dad’s stuck keys. It took a few attempts before they finally jerked out.
I had to catch myself on the doorframe to stop me stumbling back and tripping over my Dad who was still sat on the ground, watching me as I tried to get us inside the house.
Relief hit me as I looked down at the newly freed keys in my hand, glad I hadn’t had to call anyone to fix the problem for us, before I selected the correct key to the house door, unlocking it.
Opening the door I turned back to my Dad, catching a frim hold of his upper arm I led him inside like a mother would a disobedient child.
I was annoyed.
Sure my dad liked to drink, but he usually didn’t drink this much. Something must have happened to cause this.
Once we were safely inside our house, with a closed door between us and the rest of the world, I turned on him demanding an explanation. “What the hell, Dad?” I asked with my hands placed tightly on my hips.
My Dad watched me with a deep frown. “What?” He asked.
“You know what.” I said snappily. “Don’t you think your usual amount is too much?” Everyone else did. “What possessed you to drink even more?”
I was stressing out, but my father was the picture of calm. “Does it matter?” He asked.
“Yes.” I answered though clenched teeth.
He stayed silent, and so did I – both of us trying to wait the other out. However I’d gotten my stubbornness from my mother’s side of the family, and when I was this determined my Dad’s pig-headedness couldn’t hold a candle to mine.
“Your mother called earlier.” He finally said, breaking the tense quiet. “She demanded an apology off of me.” He continued incredulously. “She’s the one who ran off!”
I felt some of my anger waver away into disappointment. Of course this was to do with my mother.
“The bloody nerve of the woman.” Those weren’t exactly the words that had left my Dad’s lips as he raged. He used a much more coloured vocabulary.
Insults and curses rolled off of his tongue one after another in a slur, half of his words coming out as garbled nonsense.
As he continued in his drunken rant I forced myself to let go of my anger.
I was far too used to this.
Gently rubbing my temples to fend off an oncoming headache I helped my dad upstairs to his room, leaving a bin beside his bed for when he undoubtedly would have the urge to be sick.
I didn’t bother offering him any comforting words – I knew from experience he wouldn’t pay any mind and even if he did he wouldn’t remember any of it in the morning.
Closing myself into my room, my eyes automatically went to the window.
My throat felt tight, and my head was aching. I felt like shit.
I just need to see him.
Before I even fully thought through what I was doing I was pulling my phone out of my pocket.
All I had to do was send a text.
If I sent him a text he’d look out of his window. He’d give me his smile. It’d make everything just that little bit better.
Just one text.
My fingers hovered over the keypad.
I just wanted to see him for a brief minute.
Closing my fingers tightly I pressed ‘hold’ on my phone without typing anything. Instead I put my phone aside and leant back so my back was against the door. Sliding slowly down until I was sat on the floor I pressed my face into my knees and started counting deliberately backwards in threes from ninety-nine.
Just like I used to when I was a kid.
Just like I used to before Isaac.
___
That's it for now guys :) Let me know what you think - I know it's not the most interesting of chapters - for all Jaylor fans you might be happy to know Jake willl be making an appearance in the next chapter again <3 x
Though I have no idea when that is going to be finished!
PS I've watched the new Hunger Games film OMG WHY WOULD THEY END IT THERE? Just why? So not fair! *Deep breath* now I just have to wait one more year until the next one :) x
STAY BEAUTIFUL - LikkleAngel x