"Taylor, I left a shirt out on the balcony to dry, can you get it?" Stacie asked.
Taylor sighed and dragged himself up off of the floor,"Yeah, sure."
"Thanks." Stacie said smiling as she packed hers and Erica's suitcases.
Taylor nodded as he made his way across the room. He had been listening to Stacie's lecture about how to treat the situation with Erica. Stacie told Taylor how she knew Erica better and this was what he could or could not say or do.
He slid open the sliding glass door and stepped out. He glanced at Erica who was sitting down, dragging heavily on a cigarette.
Taylor silently grabbed the shirt that hung over the railing and delibrately coughed. That was his way of letting her know that he did not approve of what she was doing in front of him but to show that he wasn't going to nag her about.
"You hate me now?" Erica asked before Taylor disappeared back into the room and as she brought the cigarette to her lips with a shaky hand.
Taylor looked down at her,"No." he said quietly.
Her face crumpled and she put her head down. This would be so much easier if he was mad at her. But of course, he wasn't. Leave it to Taylor to be compassionate after she had dumped all over him,"Oh God Taylor..." she sniffed trying to hold back tears.
His heart cracked again, little by little it was breaking away. All he wanted was to hold her right then but, he couldn't. He twisted the shirt in his hand. It was all he could do to stop from reaching out to her.
She ran her free hand through her hair and dragged off of her cigarette again. She blinked a couple times to keep the tears that eagerly wanted to fall from falling.
"If you ever need help, I'm here. You just have to ask." he said quietly.
Her bottom lip trembled,"How do you do it?" she asked almost angrily.
"Do what?" he asked.
"Be so...nice to me after I treated you like crap?" she asked and then blew out a cloud of smoke.
He shrugged and leaned against the wall,"I just want to be there for you. You are my best friend and I want you to be able to depend on me, even if you don't need me." he mumbled the last few words.
"Well, I feel alone." she let a tear slip out,"I feel very alone right now."
Taylor looked away,"Well, why don't you call Mike up?" he asked. Why did he say that? Why did he have to make everything harder for her?
"Taylor please..." she trailed off wiping the tear off of her cheek.
"Please what?" he asked staring at her.
"Please don't do this to me." she glared at him.
"Don't do this to you?" he asked in disbelief,"To you?"
She closed her eyes,"I'm sorry, I just," she opened her eyes and looked away,"I don't know, I guess I'm just sorry and I just," she sighed.
"You just what?" he asked tossing Stacie's shirt in the room.
"I just guess that if I needed someone to help me feel...not alone that I would want it to be you." she mumbled.
Taylor walked over and squatted in front of her and rested his arms on her legs,"I can help you," he whispered,"but you have to trust me."
She stared in his eyes,"You know I trust you." she whispered back.
Taylor then reached into his pocket and pulled out a stick of gum, he placed it in her free hand,"We'll go through this together, just like every other problem, it's me and you okay?"
She fiddled with the stick of gum. Could it be that easy?
He gingerly took the lit cigarette from her hand and held it in front of her,"You don't want this to comsume your life, Erica. You know what you're doing to yourself." he informed her as he dropped it to the floor of the balcony and stepped on it.
Erica let out a deep breath It can't be this easy. she thought to herself.
"Give me the pack." Taylor instructed holding out his hand.
Erica pulled the pack out of her pokcet and held it in her hand hesitantly. Did she want to hand it over?
"You have to trust me." Taylor said as his eyes burned into hers.
"I do it's just that..."she started.
"It's just that what?" he cut her off,"You don't need to smoke Erica. That's bullshit! It's just that you need to trust me, I would never do anything to hurt you or that wasn't in your best interest." he informed her.
"Are you sure I can trust you?" she asked staring at him through big eyes.
He smiled,"Of course you can."
She placed the pack in his hand and sighed,"Now you're going to stick by me right?" she asked.
He stood up and pulled her up with him,"You know I will." he murmured as he wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her shoulder,"I'm proud of you, you'll be fine." he whispered.
She placed this piece of gum in her mouth,"I'll be fine." she told herself.
They sat at the airport. Again they were saying goodbye and again they hated it.
"It's not going to be that long," Isaac assured them as they sat in the airport,"two months go by really fast."
Stacie smiled and rested her head on Isaac's shouler,"I'll still buy you a present for Christmas, even though you won't be there."
"Oh, so I guess I have to buy you something. Damn, I thought I was getting out of it." Isaac joked.
Stacie playfully hit him,"Ha ha, you wish!"
"No, I wish I was going home with you." Isaac said wistfully.
Erica sat tapping her fingers on her leg. It was almost imposssible because her leg was shaking. She needed a cigarette, bad. She gazed off trying not to think about it.
"Do you want a piece of gum?" Taylor asked her.
"I have one." she replied shortly before biting her nails out of nervousness, her leg was still shaking.
Taylor nodded and tried to ignore the shaking of her leg. It was annoying. He just wanted to grab her leg and tell her to stop, but her couldn't, he had to go through this with her.
She sighed and let her hand drop and shifted her position in her chair.
Taylor grabbed her hand and kissed it gently, offering her an encouraging smile.
She smiled back nervously,"I'm trying Tay." she assured him.
"Okay," he whispered giving her hand a little squeeze and kissing her cheek.
"Do you think she's going to be able to stop smoking?" Kerri asked Zac.
Zac shrugged,"I don't know," he paused,"you better not put me through the crap that Erica is putting Taylor through."
"I wouldn't," Kerri assured him,"besides, Taylor looks pretty calm to me."
"He only looks that way," Zac laughed,"he doesn't want to make more problems for Erica. He's too damn nice."
"Maybe you could learn something from him." Kerri said nudging him.
"What?" Zac cried in disbelief,"I'm nice to you damnit! I flew you here didn't I?" he exclaimed.
Kerri rolled her eyes.
Zac looked at Taylor,"He was crying last night." he informed Kerri.
"Who?" Kerri asked confused.
"The Pilsbury Doughboy." Zac joked,"Taylor! Who were we just talking about?" he asked exasperated.
"Oh." Kerri said eyeing Taylor.
Zac waited for Kerri to ask for more information, when she didn't, he supplied her with it,"He was like mumbling 'Oh God, please let Erica pull through this.' I heard him saying it last night." he informed her.
"Awe, poor Tay." Kerri said sympathetically.
"Bye Ike," Stacie said giving him a quick kiss and a hug,"see you in two months."
"It will go by so fast," he said smiling,"you'll see."
Erica kissed Tay gently and hugged him,"I'll be fine." she said.
Taylor slipped a small box in her front pocket,"It was your present. I never gave it to you, open it on the plane."
She nodded.
"Well, goodbye." Zac said bluntly as he hugged Kerri.
"Goodbye." she said as she pulled away.
"Oh, and in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight." he said.
Kerri laughed and kissed him quickly,"Don't watch 'The Truman Show' ever again." she lectured.
Isaac hugged Erica,"Hang in there okay?" he asked,"I'm your surrogate big brother ya know? Call, for anything, I'm always here to listen." he reminded.
"No problem." she hugged him back.
Stacie and Taylor hugged,"Keep an eye on her for me...please." Taylor said quietly.
"Sure Tay." she said.
Isaac hugged Kerri,"Protect Zac from all of those screaming, horny girls." she said.
Isaac laughed,"Yes ma'am."
Taylor hugged Kerri next,"Hang in there," she told him quietly,"it will get better."
"Thanks." he smiled.
"Zac, can I have a hug?" Stacie asked.
Zac laughed,"Yeah right."
"What about me?" Erica asked.
Zac stopped laughing,"Sorry ladies, I don't hug anyone but Kerri. I know you all want my studly man body, but you can't..."
"Shut-up." Taylor cut him off laughing.
Once on the plane, Erica removed the small package from her pocket. She carefully removed the lid. A small piece of paper fell out. It read:
Erica,
Taylor
She smiled and reached inside the box and pulled out a crushed velvet box. She carefully opened it. Inside was a beautiful gold locket on a chain. Inside of the locket was a miniature picture of the two of them.
"Is that what Tay got you?" Stacie asked peering over her cousin to get a better look at the locket that Erica held delicatley in her hands.
Erica nodded.
"It's gorgeous." Kerri said admiring it.
Erica smiled and put it on. It was gorgeous alright.
Stacie shook her head,"You treat him like shit and he is still the sweetest guy in the world to you."
Erica's smile faded,"I don't mean to put him through all of this."
"Oh really?" Stacie asked in disbelief.
"Really. I just can't deal with the change. I can't deal with the fact that he's not with me all the time and so I took up smoking and I didn't think about it anymore. It was like the pain was gone." she explained.
Stacie sighed,"Erica, I can tell you right now, the pain will come back and when it does you have no idea how much more it will cause."
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