Top Priority

40

Taylor’s pov

The girl I hadn’t seen in over a year, the only reminder of Ryan’s existence besides myself, was standing less than ten feet in front of me.  She was beautiful, she always has been but it stood out now that I could look at her without Ryan trying to seperate us.

Her beautiful, dark curly hair with her gorgeous green eyes and natural freckles along with her hourglass figure.  I suddenly felt self-conscious of myself, wearing baggy clothing and no socks.  

She seemed to be taking me in, too. 
Unsure of what to do, I stepped over the mess I made on the floor and gave her a hug, “Angelina,” I said quietly, squeezing her once before pulling away from her, “It’s been so long, how have you been?”

She brushed one of her curls out of her face, smiling at me, “I’ve been good.  I didn’t realize we were friends with the same people,”

We looked back at Jake and Aryia, who we left standing together in confusion.  “Am I missing something?” Aryia asked, pointing back and forth between the two of us.

“Uh, yeah.  We’re old friends,” She said, swinging her arm over my shoulder.  

I could see why Ryan didn’t want us hanging out together.  She gave off a vibe that made me want to hang out with her, that made me want to get to know her better.

“Oh, well that’s cool.  We met Taylor at my birthday party with her friend Alex,” Jake explained, clasping his hands together.

“Yeah, we were in the same friend group as Alex and a couple other buddies of ours,” I chirped, smiling over at Angelina.

“Right,” She agreed, “We’ve missed you at the bar, Mikey, Gray and I,” She turned to me, and I felt like I was going to get sucked away into her eyes.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve stopped drinking ever since,” I rubbed the back of my neck, indicating that Ryan’s death was the reason I didn’t drink.

“Me neither,” She admitted, “I still go, though.  It’s not the same but I still manage to have fun,” 

“Well,” Aryia came over and gave Angelina a quick kiss before turning to me and talking, “We’ll be in the other room.  Have fun catching up,” He said before walking off.

Angelina watched him walk away with Jake and Kevin, back into the arcade room.

“He’s so cute,” She gushed as soon as he was out of sight.  

Usually I wouldn’t agree with a statement like that if it wasn’t about Colby, but she wasn’t wrong.  He wasn’t as nearly as attractive as her, though.

It was like even Colby couldn’t match Angelina’s beauty.  It was something I couldn’t believe I was just noticing now.

“So,” I shook my head, leading her over to the couch next to the back entrance of the house, “What’ve you been up to?”

She shrugged, smiling over at me, “Same old, same old.  I still work at the bar with Mikey and Gray.  That’s where I met Aryia, thanks to Alex, actually,” Her tone became bitter when she said Alex’s name.

“Alex is the reason I met my boyfriend too.  How funny,” I said, laughing even though it wasn’t really humorous at all.

“Things haven’t been good between us in nearly six months,” Angelina leaned back on the couch, “She tried to hook up with Aryia when we first started dating,”

“Really?” I asked in disbelief, and she nodded.  “Yeah, she hasn’t been back or talked to the boys since,”

I never saw Alex as one to try and do something like that.  Maybe she was under heavy influence of alcohol and wasn’t thinking right or something.