English with Ryan and Taylor

Frightened and destroyed, he felt. How could Helen betray me like that. It's been a day, and my teacher is already whispering horny things into my ears during class. Who else has she told? How much did she say? What kind of friends are they? These and a thousand more questions pierced his mind in a daze as he stumbled through the halls. His wandering eyes caught a familiar figure: Taylor stood a few feet from him, exactly where she said she would be. He woke up from his nightmare and looked at her. She seemed scared of him.

"Are you okay? You look like you just found out something terrible." she asked concerned.

Yes terrible. Terrible. Is it terrible? If he was in trouble he would have been called to the office, right? What Mellon did was almost harassment, there's no way she told someone with any power over him. He felt more betrayed by Helen than he did scared. They had been so intimate, and she exposed him like that. Why was he reacting this way, what's so terrible? Helen probably didn't mean anything bad by it, and best case--Mellon definitely wants to do something to him.

"Taylor... sorry I, I don't know. I was somewhere else."

"Okay there we go; your face seems to have come back to normal. What happened?"

What could he say? He wanted to be honest, but not here, not now. "Oh, you know, I just uh..."

"Dude that's okay--some things are...private. You don't have to tell me."

"Thanks, Taylor..." They shared a few seconds of eye contact. It felt nice. It felt like in those few seconds a new bond of trust was formed. In the silence they forged an understanding. They knew each other a little deeper, accepted each other a little more, longed for each other a little longer.

"Anyway--I texted you because I wanted to ask you about this homework before we go to class."

They walked and chatted. Taylor's questions were endless and pointless. An excuse to talk, a reason to make eye contact. A place to put her desire to be near him. When Watson responded she listened as if he spoke for God himself. He spoke words unimportant, and useless for any who listened. But to her ears, every syllable added together painted a wider and grander picture. A picture of a green-grassed future. One where the sun rises and does not set until their eyes and droopy and ready to shut. She begged for more; more words of meaningless detail about things neither would remember. She waited eagerly to be asked a question, any question at all, any question to answer and give a spirited response to share herself with him. She wanted his time. She wanted to surround herself with him. The details and the importance of them matter so little, they could each be speaking a different language, and she would feel the same as she does now. When they sat down in their chairs, she retreated inside herself. Realizing how little purpose she felt without him to orbit. He was the sun, and she the earth.

He fully expected Ryan to come over to him and say a similar thing that Mellon did. He just never expected those two worlds to cross in real life. His time with Helen was a new reality, they weren't supposed to mix. Could he live two lives? Or three or four.

After class Taylor got called up to Ryan's desk. “Taylor? Would you stop by my desk for a quick sec please.”

Watson sort of watched them talking, and sort of walked out of class. He wanted to overhear them, but also didn’t want them to know he was lingering. Why did Ryan want to talk to her? They spoke for longer than they should have. If it was about actual school, it wouldn’t last as long as it did. He saw them share a few laughs. Ryan even gently touched her arm for a moment. Taylor soon joined him in the hall.

“Well, what was that about, huh? You think you’re special?”

Taylor giggled and smirked. “Well, I think so, don’t you?” She looked up at him with consuming eyes. He blushed and looked away. Something new began to grow between them, it can’t be stopped now.