Taylor,
I went out. I might be back, I might not. All depends. I hate to admit it but I left once I got home. Everything changed once Mom got all her money back. I hate it. It sucks, it really sucks. That�s why I came here. It�s weird that you and I just go back to everything we used to do, but now everyone can see us. I hate trying to explain myself, so I�ll think about it today. If you don�t see me then I�ve gone home. Sorry.
Angela
Taylor read and reread the note. He had gotten it the next morning. When he got home from the studio, he ran upstairs and read it again. He didn�t know if she was coming back. What the hell? Already he missed her.
When the clock struck midnight, Taylor sighed. She wasn�t coming back. He let himself walk downstairs and into the kitchen. Zac was sitting in there, and chuckled. "She�s playing you, Taylor. She�s gonna be there one minute and gone the next."
"You shut the fuck up!" Zac made a face and stood. "She�s not that way, Zac. My Angela is not like that," Taylor demanded. He wasn�t going to have his brother giving him advice again.
"Your Angela?" Zac asked, slightly laughing. "Your Angela? What the hell? Are you, how should I put this, �romantically linked� now or something?" Taylor looked at Zac blankly, before answering.
"God no!" he said. The way he said it made Zac think that Taylor wanted her pretty bad. He was overreacting to this situation. "Why would you think that?"
"Well from the way the two of you are constantly all over each other�it�s obvious. Mom thinks you�re a pervert. I personally don�t know what to think. All I know is that whips and chains have been involved in your relationship."
Taylor ignored the comment. "Zac, we�ve always been like this. Ever since I met her. It�s cause I was never able to see her. I always had my arms around her to make sure she didn�t run off." Zac was still skeptical. "It became a habit. We�ve been doing it for so long that neither of us cared anymore."
"Did she?" Zac asked. "Maybe you scared her away." Taylor looked at him blankly. "What?"
"Maybe you scared her off! Do you think I care why she�s gone? I just care that she�s gone and I don�t know if she�s coming back! Doesn�t any of this get through to you? Zac, she is the person who was with me through so much shit, you do not understand. If she didn�t come I�d be dead and buried by now."
Taylor resisted the urge to yell further, remembering that Angela didn�t like them fighting. He walked out of the room. Zac followed, a bit confused. "And what�s that supposed to mean? Taylor, did you try to kill yourself?" When Taylor kept walking, Zac grabbed him and flipped him around. "Did you?"
"Why?"
"I want to know! I want to know how you could think about something like that! Death is just so final, Taylor." Taylor grunted, and went upstairs. "I�m taking that as a yes." Taylor stopped and turned around.
"You do what you, you think what you want, Zac. I�m upstairs if she does come back."
When she didn�t come back, Taylor lost control. He�d shut himself off from everyone, just everyone. Mackenzie had come, wondering what was wrong. Taylor yelled at him, saying that the boy reminded him of Angela. Then he slammed the door and sunk to the floor. He wanted to cry, but he wasn�t about to resort to that again. For a second he thought that if he tried to kill himself she would come back and stop him. Yeah right, he thought, I�m just going to end up dead.
Taylor looked around the room he had trashed. Dammit he only knew her two and a half weeks before she left again. Taylor had never in his sixteen years of existence cared about someone as he did Angela.
The fact that they had been together for such a short time and he couldn�t stop thinking about her brought Taylor to anger again. With a flick of his wrist he sent a glass across the room. It shattered against the door, falling in pieces to the ground. Taylor slipped on his shoes, just in case he ever wanted to go to that side of the room. He�d gotten a piece of glass in his foot before. It wasn�t pleasant.
It scared him more than anything else that he knew he was out of control and yet he didn�t care. He knew he�d gone too far when he yelled at his five year old brother, but he didn�t care. He had broken several things around the room, but it didn�t matter to him. He just forgot about everything. Well, he tried to forget about everything. A flash of Angela would often appear in his mind. When that happened, another object was flicked at the wall. The family had gotten the vibe that he wasn�t to be disturbed.
Taylor looked at himself in the mirror. He�d taken his shirt off to examine his healing wounds. He�d put on a pair of shorts to see the one on this legs. The one on his chest had healed already, leaving a large scar. Angela could of healed it for him but he didn�t like the idea of her kissing his chest. Not yet, he joked to himself.
The wound on his legs hurt the most, because the whip had gone pretty deep. It bled through his clothes for three days, so he had to get rid of three pairs of jeans. He took his chances with the trash. If his mother was doing the laundry and found blood streaks across his jeans he knew he�d have to explain. So far no good ideas had come to mind.
Zac opened the door, stepped over the broken glass, and shut the door behind him. Taylor looked over and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw who it was. He grabbed his shirt and put it on. Still he didn�t want him in the room. The only way he knew to get him out was to throw something at him.
Taylor picked up the nearest thing and threw at Zac. Zac was expecting it, so he caught it and tossed it between his hands. "Some arm you got there. Been playing catch with dad, I see." Taylor gave him a look. Zac looked at the object in this hands. "A lemon? You threw a lemon at me? Why the hell do you have a lemon in here?"
"Go away Zac."
"I�ll remember to do that later. But right now I�m the middle of tossing a lemon around. Maybe if you throw something else at me�" Zac had to duck when a picture frame flew at his head. "I was kidding you lump of shit."
"Since when do you swear?"
"Since you completely fucked up Mackenzie and he won�t stop crying! Don�t you realize he�d always looked up to you? He�s wondering why you�re mad at him and he�s wondering if he caused everything. Taylor I know Angela�s gone but you don�t have to take it out on the rest of us."
"Oh fuck off Zac. You don�t know anything if you can�t understand why I want to be alone." Zac shook his head. "What? What�s shaking your head showing me?" Taylor asked, cynically.
"Taylor I do know what you went through. It shows when you look at her. It shows when you even think about her. I know how much she means to you but she�s got a lot of issues to go through if she can�t just stay here. She cares a lot about you, even though she tries to hide it. Taylor don�t be stupid and let her go if she ever comes back."
"Well what the hell am I supposed to do?" Taylor asked, plopping on his bed. "What am I supposed to say to her? �Oh Angela I never want you to leave. You mean to much to me?�" Zac smiled, realizing that Taylor didn�t want to tell her anything.
"As corny as that sounded, yes. I want you to say that you never want her to leave and don�t just tell her how much she means to you. I want you to show her how."
"Huh?"
"Kiss her." Taylor laughed, stating he�s kissed her before. "Oh I�ve seen that before. I don�t mean kissing her on the cheek or anything. It�s gonna work much better if you smack her on the lips and get a little of the tongue in there."
"Zac!" Taylor said. "You�re three years younger than me, where the hell is this coming from?" Taylor asked. Zac only shrugged. "I�m not about to kiss her, Zac. For one thing, it�ll change our entire relationship. You know how those things go."
"Yeah, I know. But what makes you think that you�ll turn out the same way?" Taylor turned away, feeling insecure about the whole situation. For one thing, Zac was younger than Taylor. And another�he had no idea how Angela felt. For all he knew she could not want to have anything to do with him.
"I don�t know," Taylor said. He sat up and put his knees to his chest. Zac noticed the welt across the middle of his shins. It wasn�t healing as well as they planned. Zac feared it was going to get infected. That was the last thing they needed.
"I�ll help you patch up your legs. They aren�t looking all that great." Taylor looked down at his legs. Zac was right. He nodded, and Zac ran out of the room to fetch the supplies he needed.