Turbo
It was official. Taylor Hanson was a horrible influence.
Once I had given in to him again at the party I really couldn’t deny that I did want him. I still couldn’t stand his personality, and I didn’t have any interest at all in dating him, but I did enjoy having sex with him. There was just no point in denying that when it was completely obvious.
Since I couldn’t deny it, I couldn’t come up with any good reason to stop sleeping with him. So when Taylor began propositioning me and texting me to hook up, I had no reason to turn him down. I hated myself for it each time it happened over the following week, but it became a routine pretty quickly. If Taylor texted and asked me to come over, it wasn’t hard to find an excuse to slip away, especially now that I wasn’t hanging out with Zac. It was surprisingly easy to keep this thing with Taylor a secret.
Unfortunately, not hanging out with Zac didn’t mean not hanging out with Bella. We still had that Harry Potter project to work on, and the due date for our outline was drawing closer and closer. We couldn’t avoid each other until the project was done, even though I had definitely tried. Finally, the day before it was due, she nearly banged my door down until I came out and sat down to rewatch the movie with her. If I had it my way, I would have sat there and not spoken a single word to her, but of course Bella was having none of that.
“Georgie,” she said, the nickname grating on my nerves when it came from her. “I think we need to talk.”
“I think we need to finish this project,” I said, staring straight ahead at the screen.
Bella gave an overdramatic sigh. “I’m serious. I know we’ve had… some problems. And I think we need to talk about it.”
“We’ve had some problems?” I repeated, incredulous, as I turned to face her.
“Well, you know, my relationship with Zac,” she said, smiling widely. “I know it’s causing problems between the two of you, and I really, really hate that. I never meant to come between you, and I would really like it if we could be friends. If we could all be friends.”
“Yeah, okay,” I replied half-heartedly. I didn’t believe her for a second. There was no apology there, and nothing genuine at all in her words.
“Great!” She replied with far too much enthusiasm. “I know this is just a little bump in the road, no big deal, and we can all get past it. There’s no reason for anybody to be upset about this.”
Even though her words were sweet, it was obvious that she was telling me I had been stupid to get upset. I knew that was true, because Zac wasn’t mine, but it didn’t need Bella to remind me. I didn’t need her fake attempts to be my friend. I turned back to the tv and angrily began to take notes in my notebook. I was going to get my outline done and I really didn’t care what Bella did.
She seemed to at least get the hint that I didn’t want to talk to her and so we resumed watching the movie and taking notes in silence. I couldn’t stop thinking about what she had said, though, and the more I did, the angrier I became. How was it possible for one person to be that two faced and expect no one to notice? And how dare she expect me to just be friends with her when she was dating my best friend?
Then again, I was doing his brother. Who was I to judge her?
At that thought, I reached for my phone. I hadn’t heard it ring or buzz so I knew that there was no message from Taylor waiting for me, but I couldn’t help myself. I had become pathetically obsessed with checking for his messages, another fact that I would never admit to him or anyone else. Just as I suspected, there was no new message from him, and I was severely disappointed. If Taylor had messaged, I could use that as some sort of excuse to leave Bella’s lovely company.
But he hadn’t texted, and no matter how many times I stared at my phone, no text appeared.
Sure, I could have texted him. Somehow, though, I felt better about our whole arrangement if Taylor was the one to contact me. That way, I could pretend that I was reluctantly giving in to him and that I didn’t want it just as much as he did. It was silly, I knew, but it still made me feel a little bit better.
At some point, I gave up on him texting and sat my phone down on the coffee table. I had seen the movie and read the book so many times that I felt like I wasn’t gaining anything from yet another rewatch, especially with Bella by my side and so many things on my mind. Frustrated, I stood up and walked off to the kitchen, assuring Bella I would be right back. I didn’t bother offering to get her a snack, too. I just couldn’t manage to be that friendly with her.
I stayed in the kitchen while my mini-pizzas cooked, just to avoid spending any more time with her than absolutely necessary. I could still hear the movie in the next room and the sound of Bella typing on her phone, her long fingernails clicking against the screen. Figures that she would stop paying attention the second I left the room. At least we were being graded independently on this thing, or else I was sure my grade would have suffered horribly. After all, it was due the very next day and my outline was still nothing but some notes in my notebook. I couldn’t really blame Bella for that, though; I had procrastinated just as much as she had.
And I was still procrastinating, because I despised spending time with her. Once my pizzas had cooked, I couldn’t avoid her any longer. I walked back into the living room with my plate in hand and sat down on the couch.
“Ooh, looks yummy,” Bella said.
With a sigh, I asked, “Do you want one?”
“Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve got to watch my diet, with all these parties and things for the sorority. But you go ahead.”
There was some sort of insult there, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Somehow, I just felt insulted every time Bella spoke to me, no matter what she said.
“Hey,” she said just as I was about to take my first bite. “We’re okay, right?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “We’re fine.”
We were definitely not fine, but I just didn’t have the energy to fight with her, too.
Once the movie was finally over, I quickly excused myself and scurried off to my bedroom to type up my notes. We hadn’t compared our notes that much, but I really didn’t care. I just wanted to get mine typed and printed and go to bed. Once it was turned in, we would have a small break before the first draft of our actual essays were due, and in that break, I planned to spend no time at all with Bella.
It seemed like a perfect plan.
Film and Literature was my first class of the day in the morning, and I wished I could just hand in my outline and skip class entirely, but I knew that I couldn’t. I sat on the opposite side of the room from Bella and ignored her entirely as Dr. Marley lectured about special effects or something. I really couldn’t focus on her lecture at all. If my life didn’t stop being so stupidly dramatic, I had a feeling my grades were going to seriously suffer.
When class finally ended, I wasted no time gathering up my things, shoving them into my bag, and hurrying out of the classroom. I practically sprinted up the stairs, anxious to be away from Bella as quickly as possible. I had nearly made my escape down the hallway when I heard someone calling out my name, but it wasn’t Bella.
“Georgie!” Taylor shouted. “Slow down, Turbo.”
I rolled my eyes and spun around to see him once again lounging on one of the lecture hall’s couches. I wasn’t sure how I had managed to walk past him without noticing those stupidly long legs sticking out into the hallway, but I had.
“Where’s the fire?” He asked.
“Nowhere,” I replied. “I was just… whatever.”
“Avoiding someone?” Taylor guessed.
I shrugged. “Maybe. What does it matter to you?”
“It matters because you’re avoiding me,” he said, standing up and stepping in closer to me. “What’s up with that?”
I stared up at him. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“So you’re denying that you turned down my booty call last night?” He asked, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, I am,” I replied. “Because I didn’t get a booty call from you, so how could I have ignored it? Also, can you say that a little bit louder so everyone at OSU knows we’re… you know.”
“Fucking?” He offered, grinning. “Relax, Zac isn’t around to hear us talking about it. He’s the only one who you really don’t want to know, right?”
“He’s the main one,” I said.
“Is he why you turned me down last night?”
“Once again, I have no clue what you’re talking about,” I replied. “So if you’re going to keep being weird, I’m just going to go.”
“Well, I guess that’s one way to handle keeping this a secret. Just deny it’s happening altogether,” Taylor said.
I rolled my eyes and turned to leave. “Seriously, Taylor. I have no clue what you’re talking about. I’m not denying it, and I’m not ignoring you.”
He grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving. “So, are you saying you don’t want to stop?”
I stared up at him. There was something weird in his eyes, like he wasn’t actually confident in what my answer would be. I didn’t think I had ever seen Taylor uncertain of anything in his life, and it was really weird. And strangely sexy. Finally, i shook my head. “No, I don’t want to stop.”
“Great,” he said, his usual confidence coming back as he smiled down at me. “So the next time I text, you won’t say no?”
“Still have no clue what you’re talking about, but… no. I won’t say no.”
“Alright, Georgie Girl. See ya later.” With that, he finally let go of my arm and allowed me to leave.
Just a few steps down the hallway I stopped in my tracks again, this time because of yet another Hanson brother. Zac. I had been avoiding him at lunch and dinner, and doing a pretty good job of it, so I couldn’t even remember the last time I had seen him. I supposed it was Taylor’s party, and that realization didn’t make me feel any better about seeing him right then.
“Hey,” he said awkwardly, rocking back and forth on his heels. “Umm… what were you and Taylor talking about?”
“Umm, nothing,” I said a little too quickly. “Just… the party. Why I left early.”
“His party?” Zac asked. “I didn’t see you there.”
I scowled. “No, I guess you didn’t. Not that you would have noticed anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think it means, Zac?” I asked, then sighed. “Nevermind. I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Seems like you don’t want to talk about anything. I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I’m surprised you even noticed,” I mumbled, then hurried away before Zac could say anything else.
He called out my name, but I didn’t stop again. If he was actually trying to imply that he missed me, I didn’t believe him. Even if he did miss me, he was still with Bella. I hated that someone like her could end our friendship, but there was just no way I could be around Zac if he was dating her. It didn’t help that I was no better than him. Not only was I having sex with Taylor, but I was lying to Zac about it. I didn’t even remember the last time I had lied to Zac about anything, aside from one big thing–my crush on him.
Realizing just how big of a thing I was lying to him about now, and how easily that lie had fallen from my lips, didn’t make me feel any better at all.