AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey, Eves. Can I talk to you for a minute?” Taylor asks, looking down the hallway like he’s nervous.
I crane my neck down the hall too, mocking his stance.
“What are we looking for?” I whisper with a light smile on my face.
He narrows his eyes at me before turning around, going into our kitchen, and starts washing the coffee mugs from breakfast this morning. He looks like shit. Sleeping in a sitting position on the sofa will do that to anyone, and even though I keep telling him that we don’t need a babysitter, he refuses to listen. So our little sofa has become his makeshift bed.
He sets a clean mug down on the counter and takes a deep breath.
“I wanted to talk to you about Celeste.”
His voice is low, and he keeps looking down the hallway like she’s going to magically appear, even though we both know she’s in the shower.
At the mention of her name and the seriousness of his tone, I stop mocking him, straighten my spine, and take a seat on a bar stool.
“Is everything okay with her? She seemed fine this morning,” I say.
He nods his head, but doesn’t look me in the eye. Instead, he starts to fidget with the hand towel.
I lean in to get level with his eyes. “Taylor?”
He puts down the towel and sags his shoulders. “She’s fine. She’s more than fine, I think.”
“Okay, so what is it?”
“You know that I love you guys, right?” he asks hesitantly.
I nod my head slowly, waiting for him to spit out whatever the hell he wants to say.
“Thing is… I love you like a sister, Eves, and I would do anything to protect you. But Cele…” He looks away, turning to stare at the white paint on the wall.
“Taylor, just spit it out,” I encourage sharply.
“I love her, Eves. Likelovelove her.”
My hand goes to my mouth as a huge smile spreads from ear to ear. “You fell in love with Celeste.”
His eyes snap to mine. “It’s not funny!”
Still covering my smile, I try to assure him that I’m not laughing despite my giggle.
“No, of course not. It’s just cute to hear you say it.”
His eyes drop to the counter with his lips turned down, and my eyebrows burrow inward.
“There’s nothing wrong with loving her, Taylor. She’s an amazing human.”
“I know she is,” he says.
“So, then what’s the problem?” I ask him, wondering what could possibly be wrong.
“Everything!” He drops the towel on the counter and starts pacing the room. “She keeps telling me that we’re just friends, that she can’t have those kinds of feelings for me. And she keeps bringing up the fact that you and I slept together once.”
He ends his rant and flops on the sofa. “She won’t even let me touch her. She flinches every time I try.”
I sit on the coffee table so I can face him. “Oh, Taylor, I’m sure that has more to do with her than it does you. You have to let her process what happened to her on her own time, but I know she cares about you.”
His sad honey brown eyes look up to me. “You really think so?”
