Simone stirred from her sleep and saw that Taylor was staring at her. Though he was looking at her, he didn’t seem to notice that she had waken up. She reached for his hand. At her touch, he blinked his eyes rapidly and looked at her with a smile spread across his lips.
“Tay, it’s late. Go home and sleep.” Simone joked. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere.” He gave a small laugh.
“I need to have you near me.” He replied, pulling her hand to his lips, gently kissing the top of it. Why is he being so good to me now that he knows what happened? Simone thought to herself.
“Tay, you’re so sweet and I love you, but please do this for me. Go home, shower, then take a long nap. I’ll be here when you get back.”
“But I’ll miss you.” He said. “It’s my fault that you’re in here so I want to be with you as much as I can!”
“If you love me, then you’ll do this for me.” She taunted him. Their eyes connected and finally Simone saw that she won him over. She smiled and used all of her strength to push herself up and reach for him. She caught hold of his shirt and pulled him toward her. It seemed like Taylor was afraid to kiss her and that he was hesitant about the whole situation. Their faces were so close together, but he couldn’t help but have the image of Zac and Simone kissing. He shut his eyes tightly to try to rid the image from his head.
“So, are you gonna kiss me goodbye or are you just going to sit there?” Simone asked him. Slowly he let his lips touch hers, but it was only a brief kiss. Before it lasted for more than 3 seconds, Taylor pulled away quickly.
“I’ll see you later.” Taylor promised her and then stood to leave. He gave her a little wave and then left.
***
“I know how I feel about Zac. Now I am confident to fully say that what I shared with him was nothing more than lust. But my feelings for him were, and still are so strong! It had to be more than lust. I’m just confused about the whole thing. Taylor – I love Taylor with all of my heart, all of my body, and all of my soul. And I always will. He’s such an important person in my life and now that I think about it, I was absolutely crazy for even thinking about not having him in my life. I need him.”
Simone stopped writing suddenly when there was a quick knock on her room door. A few seconds later, it opened and though she was anticipated on seeing Zac poke his head around the corner, instead she saw Angela slowly make her way inside. Simone tensed up. She hadn’t prepared herself for an encounter with her yet.
“Hi Sim.” Angie said in her normal cheerful voice.
“Hey.”
“You look good.” She commented. “How are you legs?”
“The same. Still no feeling.” Simone gave her short answers. She felt really uncomfortable around Ang.
“Do you know how much it hurts me to know about you and Zac?” she asked after a few long seconds of akward silence.
“I know, I’m sor--”
“No, you don’t know. Have you ever been lied to and cheated on?”
“I’ve been lied to, but never cheated on.” Simone answered her question, getting the vision of Taylor and Ashna walking up the stairs together at Ashna’s party. “But I have thought that I was cheated on.”
“That’s completely different!” Angela said. Simone could see the anger behind Ang’s soft brown eyes. “I liked you Sim, really I did. I even thought of you as an older sister … but when I found out…”
“Ang, I know you’re mad, and I know that this really isn’t going to make things any better, but I was so drunk that night--”
“You’re right, it didn’t help.” She said in hideous disgust.
“I feel bad enough as it is! What did you want to do? Come here and make it worse??”
“Well, you deserve it. Things with Zac and me were perfect, and then you had to screw things up, literally.” Angela spat out.
Simone was really surprised with her word choice. She’s never heard Ang swear before, only when she was really upset over something.
“Well, you know what? Zac wasn’t drunk. Why don’t you talk to him about it?”
“I already did. Even though it was trying to be macho when I actually confronted him about it. Like he was proud that he nailed you. Goodness knows how many other people you’ve been with!”
“Only Taylor.” Simone admitted.
“Oh, and Zac.”
Their eyes met. Silence followed.
“Look, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I’m sorry for you to believe me. I do know that I made a mistake, a huge mistake, and I’m admitting it. I just wasn’t thinking clearly that night, I wasn’t able to think clearly that night for that matter. Anyway, I didn’t take time out to imaging the consequences and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for Taylor because he lost trust in me. I’m sorry for you because you lost trust in both Zac and me. I’m sorry for Zac because his personal life and family life have been screwed up. And I’m sorry for both you and Zac because what him and I did ruined a lifelong friendship and a blossoming new love.”
Angie turned, said nothing in response and left in silence.