backlogged dreams & day old teas

XIII(b) - i watched you leave

"Please come back."

Joe sighed. He knew he should return if he wanted to salvage their relationship and get back together with Taylor, but he didn't want to be rejected once he got there. He thought for another moment and decided to take a chance.

"I can come to LA in a few days, if that's what you'd like."

"Really? Thank you so much."

"Yeah I will then," he grinned. He was going to see Taylor again.

"What are you doing right now?" Taylor tried to make casual conversation. She missed this, she missed them.

"Well actually," Joe was afraid that Taylor would be mad. "I'm at the lakes right now."

Taylor couldn't hide her surprise and disappointment. "Without me?"

Joe sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry Taylor, it's just all been a lot and this is the one place where I know I can relax."

Taylor blinked away the tears that formed in her eyes, knowing Joe could only hear her over the phone. "It's almost our one year anniversary, I just wish we were there together." "As friends," she quickly added.

"I gotta go Taylor, I'm sorry," Joe said. Without waiting for a reply, he hung up the phone. There was no one here to kiss on the lake. He was all alone. One bed in their cabin lay empty, she should've been here. How pathetic. He decided to walk over to the gift shop to browse for a small souvenir for Taylor. After a while, he settled on a cat postcard and wrote a short message before mailing it over to Taylor's address in LA.

A few days later, Joe was having one last meal at the Drunken Duck before heading to his cabin where his car was parked. Their cabin. Of course, he hadn't consumed any alcohol knowing he had a six hour drive ahead of him but unbeknownst to him a girl from the pub had trailed behind him the whole way back. She had strawberry blonde hair and many piercings. She was wearing minimal clothing and Joe shivered looking at her tattoos. God that must have hurt.

"Hiiii," she said in a high pitched syrupy voice. "Where are you going?" She touched his hand purposefully, clearly in an attempt to flirt with him.

"Umm... I'm going back to the city," Joe mumbled, uninterested. All he wanted to do was to get over the long car ride and fly back to Taylor as quickly as possible.

"Can you drive me too?" the girl asked, already getting into the shotgun seat in the car. Joe frowned heavily but realised she had already made herself comfortable, so he relented since he didn't know how to reject her. He noticed she didn't have a British accent, so he was curious to where she was from. She seemed strangely familiar.

"What's your name?" he asked the girl. She was so rude, already making herself comfortable by spraying her perfume all over, giving the car an overwhelming scent. Joe rubbed his temples, already feeling a headache forming. Joe caught the name on the bottle. Vanilla Strawberry milkshake. It was so artificial it smelt nothing like strawberries. Six damn hours with a total stranger. Her specifically.

"Ohh... I'm Inez," she says, plugging her phone to the AUX cord. Loud rock music starts blasting from the speakers and honestly Joe wants to cry right now.

"Inez?"

She looks more closely at him and studies his face for a while, before her eyes lit up. "Joe? Like from Nashville Elementary School Joe?"

"I'm afraid so," Joe grimaced. God how time changes people. If he was being honest, he had already given away the army tank Inez gave him years and years ago. He only kept the one Taylor gave him, and he made sure it was hers too.