REPUTATION - PLL (Caleb Rivers x oc)

CHAPTER 17 - The New Normal

Taylor was currently sitting on Emily's bed with the other girls apart from Aria. The girl still hadn't forgiven Taylor and it had been a few days already and Taylor tried to talk to Aria but the brunette just wouldn't listen. Taylor hated the thought that she may have lost her best friend forever, but she did it to save her mother and to save Hanna from being in her position so she doesn't find herself fully regretting her decision. She definitely felt guilty but she didn't necessarily have any regrets.

"Your sister's pregnant. How'd that happen?" Hanna questions, shocked when she heard the news that Spencer's sister Melissa was pregnant and she wasn't the only one. "I figured pretty much the usual way." Spencer dryly comments to Hanna's question, thinking that she was stupid to even ask that. "It's not really a 'how' question. It's more of a 'why' question." Emily inputs from her spot next to Hanna. "Well, I mean, Melissa could have gone all maternal, but I doubt it."

Shaking her head, Taylor focuses back onto the note that Toby had left for Spencer. "What do you think this means?" Taylor questions. She's thought about it for a while but nothing had yet come to mind, she always ended up getting distracted by how obvious Aria was making it that she was ignoring her. Spencer shrugs as she picks up the note, "I don't know, but Toby wanted us to have it."

The group where having another look at the note and Spencer realised that it was in braille. They got up the braille alphabet and it turned out that the message was simply BAD. That's it, B,A,D. BAD. "Aria you want to see?" Emily questions but said girl only shakes her head. "No. I can see just fine from here." She says from the seat by the window. Taylor glances at her but lets out a sigh when Aria turns away from her and looks back out of the window.

"Bad? That's it? What's that even supposed to mean?" Hanna questions, obviously disappointed. "It means you got punked. Toby doesn't trust us. I don't blame him." But Emily shakes her head, "No, I don't think he'd mess with us like this." She didn't want to believe that Toby would lead them on. "You'd be surprised what people are capable of." Aria quickly says. Taylor could tell that the snide comment was aimed towards her causing her to shift uncomfortably.

"You guys, we have to figure this out. This might be a joke, but it could be something real." Spencer says, not wanting to drop the whole note thing. "Look, either way, Toby's not the enemy." Hanna adds before Aria suddenly stands up and grabs her bag. "You know what, guys? I'm going to go."

They all watched her leave, Emily and Spencer watched in confusion whilst Hanna and Taylor watched in sadness, knowing the true reason why their friend had left suddenly. "What was that all about?" Spencer wonders, she wasn't paying attention to all the comments that Aria had aimed at Taylor as she was too busy with the note.

*****

The next morning Taylor woke up early to head into the basement to make sure that Caleb wouldn't make a sudden appearance during breakfast and would instead wait until her mother had gone. She had also gone down to make sure that none of her music equipment had been broken. "Glad to see that nothing is broken." Taylor comments, announcing her presence and surprising Caleb who had been lying on the couch.

Sitting up from his spot, Caleb looks over at the blonde who made her way further down the stairs to join him on the couch. "Is that all you care about? Whether I broke a piece of equipment, not if I tripped and broke any of my own bones?" He teases causing Taylor to let out a small chuckle. "I've got to have my priorities straight."

Looking around the basement Taylor noticed that her notebook filled with song ideas for a possible new album that she was thinking about creating. "Looks like someone couldn't keep their hands to themselves." She comments as she picks up her notebook. Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Caleb chuckles nervously. "Yeah, I just saw it and got curious. But once I opened it and realised what it was I put it down and didn't read more." He confesses causing Taylor to smile at the fact that he did know some boundaries.