The Beautiful Truth

// 136

Two weeks before filming was set to begin, I was in LA for one last table read with my cast, and once that part of my day was over mid-afternoon, I headed out to surprise Talyn. My world had been a little off-kilter since Jason gave himself away as the catalyst behind Barton Black's nuclear reaction in Norman.

Norman was more than a year ago now. You'd think I'd have moved on. Even so, it was important to me that Talyn know that I knew the truth.

"Oh good, you're home," I answered nonchalantly when Talyn picked up my call from the intercom outside his student-athlete super-dorm.

"Oh my—Sawyer?" his voice asked incredulously.

"Well, I was just in the neighborhood...kind of...so I thought I'd stop by, um..."

Click.

Faster than the speed of light, it seemed, he was at the doorway. "SF, hi!"

I smiled. "Long time, no see, Talyn, how are you?"

He moved to envelope me in his familiar embrace. "I'm great, Say. God, it's good to see you. It's been months!"

I smiled, more to myself than at him. The last time we'd seen each other was Spring Break. We were more like ships passing in the night, then—I was only home for a few days before Talyn headed back to LA. Our breaks were staggered this year, so we hadn't had too much time together.

We had talked since then. Talyn knew all about the movie, and the filming schedule, and even why I was in town today, but like with Jason, ever since the last time I'd seen him in LA the weekend of the Cal-USC game, something had shifted between us, and everything just seemed a little...different.

Finally, Talyn pulled away, beaming. "How long are you here?"

I shrugged. "Another night or two. I'm not in a hurry to get back. We had our last table read at the studio today, so now I'm just waiting for filming to start in a couple weeks."

"Wow, listen to you. Can you believe this is happening?"

I smiled widely. "Not really. But from what I hear, it is, so I may as well accept it."

"For someone about to put their life's story on film, you sound remarkably calm," he teased.

I laughed. "Yeah, I think I'm stuck in the denial phase."

"Are you grieving?" Talyn laughed. "Denial...Bargaining...Anger, Depres--"

"Grieving the loss of my sanity, probably."

He laughed again. "Hey, so what are your plans for the night? You want to grab dinner or something? I was about to head over to the Children's Hospital, but I can reschedule—"

"No, no, don't do that. I'll go hang out with Hadley for a while or something," I assured him. "We can catch up later. It was rude of me to stop by—"

"Come on, SF, you are welcome any time. Don't apologize for showing up randomly. That's what I liked about it," he winked.

I smiled back at him. "Hey, listen, I wanted to tell you...remember how...when Barton broke up with me, I told you he was yelling something about how he couldn't believe I'd brought you to the show and whatever?"

Talyn looked at me with the hint of a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

I just stared at him. He already knew.

"Jason called you and told you he fessed up, didn't he?" I moved past the rest.

Talyn shrugged and grinned off into the distance. "Say, I knew from second-one that Jason was the one who'd been messing around with you, making your that guy think there was something going on when there wasn't. You were so absorbed in the show that you didn't realize what was going on, or you didn't realize how your automatic reactions to him could be misleading...Whatever. I knew it was Jason. And I knew he'd let me take the blame."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I wondered aloud.

Talyn turned back toward me. "Because, SF. I just got tired of competing with him for you. He's always been so jealous..."

And Talyn had apparently always held so much inside. Just when you think you know a person, they turn around and surprise you by showing you a part of themselves you didn't know ever existed. My super-competitive, extremely outgoing, king-of-the-world best friend was actually one of the most forgiving, kind, and understanding people I'd ever known.

Jason, on the other hand, was more jealous than I'd ever imagined. How could he have let me blame Talyn for the heartbreak I'd felt to my core, when he knew all along that he was the one that had caused it?

Never mind Jason Mandrino. I sighed. "I'm so sorry." There it was—if things had even been a little bit different, Talyn and I would have ended up together.

Talyn sighed. "Water under the bridge, SF. And yeah, Jason called to let me know you'd probably be here sooner rather than later."

"How can you still be friends with someone like that?" I asked.

"Eh, he's a good guy deep down. Besides, I knew y'all wouldn't end up together in the end. Now that would have been unforgivable, but I know Barton's your guy."

My heart sputtered. I had long since stopped thinking of Barton Black as my guy. "Whatever you say, Tally. Give me a call when you want to go grab some food. You mind if I bring Hadley along?"

He shrugged. "I kinda figured you would. Besides, she's not so bad. Pretty sure her bitchiness was all an act, anyway."

I grinned, having just recently learned that he was absolutely right. "God I love you, Talyn Parrish. Don't you ever forget that," I reminded him.

"Yeah yeah," he teased. "See you later, SF."