Chapter eighty one:

Zac woke early and wandered downstairs to get himself a drink of water. Becky was still sleeping softly next to him, looking so cute and utterly peaceful; he almost didn’t want to move for fear of waking her.

He found Isaac standing in the kitchen already, not dressed for the day or even begun to get ready. He was simply pouring water into the pot and flipping the switch on the coffee maker.

“Morning.” Isaac said.

“It’s not morning yet. I’m just getting a bottle of water. In a couple of hours it will be morning.”

“Alright, listen. I was going to talk to you about this. Just sleep in and we’ll hit the studio later this afternoon. It’s Saturday, I don’t feel all too productive today.”

“Me either.”

“Alright, I’ll leave a note for Tay in case he gets up, I don’t think he will.”

Zac nodded, and quickly chugged the bottle of water. “I’m going back to bed. I’ve got a beautiful girl sleeping next to me, and I want to be with her.”

“Yeah? How are things going with Becky?”

“Amazing.” Zac couldn’t help but smile. “She’s perfect… I love her. I know its early, and we’re young but… I am so absolutely crazy about her… I love her. Every day I love her more.”

“That’s good. You two do make a good match, you know that?”

“Yeah. I know. Anyway, see you later.”

Zac exited the kitchen and jogged up the stairs, taking them by twos. He pushed open the door and closed it softly behind him, luckily finding Becky still asleep.

He slipped into bed carefully and slipped closer to her, wrapping his arms tightly around her body, and folding himself around her.

“Mmm… Zaccy?” She asked, still half asleep and not bothering to open her eyes.

“Yeah, go back to sleep, babe.” He gently kissed her shoulder.

“What time is it?” She took his hand in hers and pulled it to her chest, pulling his arm as far around her as possible.
“Early. Don’t worry about it, let’s just sleep, okay?”

“Okay.” She slowly drifted back into sleep in his arms.

He smiled to himself and gently whispered. “I do love you.” Before falling back into sleep himself.

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Taylor rolled over in bed, still in the peaceful dream world he found himself in every morning, feeling the optimism surrounding a brand new day with brand new tasks to accomplish.

When that peaceful feeling faded away, he all too quickly remembered the night before. He groaned out loud and pulled the blankets up over his head.

Even the sun coming through the windows annoyed him.

How could he have been so stupid to believe that actually telling someone he loved them and not hearing it back would make him feel better?

And to make matters worse, he had even screwed things up with the best friend he had at the moment, by making her uncomfortable to even be around him.
He didn’t even feel like getting up and going for a shower.

“Tay?” Isaac knocked on his door.

“Go away!” Taylor groaned in exasperation.

The door opened and Isaac pushed his head into the room. “Okay, so I take it you’re not willing to get up and go into the studio today?”

Taylor threw a pillow across the room at him. “What time is it?”

“It’s 12:30.”

“In the afternoon? Jesus Christ!” Taylor sat up.

Isaac almost laughed at his brother’s disheveled appearance. His hair was standing up in every direction and he looked as though he hadn’t slept at all. “What’s wrong?”

“What are you, the in-house shrink?” Taylor retorted, lying back down, but flipping onto his stomach.

“Seems like it… you told her didn’t you? It didn’t go well?”

“No kidding. She hates me. Nice going.” Taylor mumbled into his pillow.

“Me? I believe I told you not to tell her.”

“Yeah well….” Taylor racked his brain for a way to make the events anyone else’s fault but his own. “You should have used reversed psychology then.”

Isaac laughed at that. “Okay, next time I will. Is she mad?”

“No… things are just awkward. I hate that. We were so close and now it’s like I have a disease or something. I can tell already.”

“It’s Jen isn’t it?”

Taylor sat up suddenly. “How the hell did you know?”

“Christy told me. She thought she sensed something between you two…”

“Great. Now the whole house is going to know what an ass I am.”

“You’re not an ass. You told her how you felt. And that took guts.”

“Yeah, but now things are weird.”

“They’ll get better. You just have to wait it out.”

“Right, and what do I do until they do get better?” Taylor rolled his eyes.

“Well, you could start by showering. You stink!”

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