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14

Taylor's pov

I took a deep breath, realizing this was going to be harder than I thought.

"Hey Colby," I said awkwardly, pulling him off to the side so he was facing away from everyone else climbing into the pool.

"Hi Taylor," He replied with a blank expression on his face.  I pushed away the pain hitting my heart.  I needed to stay calm, stay strong.  

"Look, I'm sorry I called you a dumbass or whatever," I folded my hands in front of me, trying to be as genuine as possible without overdoing it.  I also had to distract myself from his shirtless body, so I focused my eyes on his hair instead, which was a easier said than done.

He frowned down at me, clearly unsatisfied, "This has nothing to do with you calling me names.  But you were putting yourself in danger without realizing it.  And what if something happened to you?  I couldn't live with myself knowing that I was part of the reason you got hurt," 

"I didn't-" I began, but he cut me off.  That's not how I wanted this conversation to go.

"You may not have noticed that you were in danger.  But if I didn't get you out of there in time, then you would have been escorted out by a coyote mama and its pack chasing you back to the car.  And you can't outrun them, not for such a long distance," Colby held his arm out in front of his body, using his other hand to grab his elbow.

"I know, you told me that when we were there.  I'm sorry, okay?" I pushed down the annoyance that I could feel rising.  I had a task, and I was not going to let his voice sway me from doing what I wanted.  Though he was making it difficult.

He brought a finger to my mouth, shushing me before whispering in my ear, sending chills down my spine, "If I'm being honest, you yelling was sexy as hell.  But don't tell Taylor I told you so,"

"So you forgive me?" I asked, and he raised his eyebrows, keeping his face close to mine. 

Colby gently placed his lips on mine before smiling at me, "No," He winked at me, so I took it as a joke.

"Taylor!" Katrina yelled from across the yard.  I looked over to see her waving me over to where she was with one of the camera men and Nelson, "We have to film your shot!"

I quickly walked up to them, and Maria explained how I was supposed to act like I was taking pictures of myself with Nelson, and Kat would be talking to the other girls when one of them points us out.

"Alright, let's do this," I clapped, walking over to the rock where she instructed us to start walking from.

Nelson wrapped his arm around my back, and I tucked my arm back on his shoulder.  We waited as everyone got situated in the water, making it seem like an actual party was going on. "Action!" One of the directors shouted, and we walked down the sidewalk.  I didn't look at the camera, but I smiled at the ground.

Nelson turned me as Mariah asked, moving my hair and kissing my neck.  I smiled, looking over his shoulder to see Colby staring at Nelson with a stupid kind of surprised look on his face.

I giggled, messing up everything.  "Okay, retry that.  Just smile, okay Taylor?" Mariah asked, and I nodded. 

"Sorry," I said and she brushed it off.

We walked back to the starting point, redoing the entire walking scene again.  As instructed, Nelson would move my hair and kiss my neck.  But yet again, Colby was watching and I found it so interesting because his reactions were more pissy the second time.

So I messed up again.  And again, and again.  

But eventually, after some time I decided I wanted to do it right and stop pissing off the directors. Colby was continuing to glare at Nelson even after we finished recording the scene and still when he was talking to the directors, though technically Nelson didn't do anything wrong.