love in the mix - a tayvis au <3

12 - unraveling threads

The tension was thick in both houses. Days stretched into weeks, and the rift between parents and children only seemed to widen. Emma and Liam were miserable, confined to their separate lives. They barely spoke to their parents, except when necessary, and even then, it was strained and short. Taylor and Travis, meanwhile, were caught in a painful in-between—aching for each other but convinced they had to stay apart for their children's sake.

Liam spent most of his time locked in his room. He'd lie on his bed, staring at the ceiling, the silence suffocating. He'd pick up his phone a hundred times a day, fingers hovering over Emma's contact, but he knew he couldn't risk another mistake. The consequences were already too severe.

Across town, Emma's days were just as bleak. She went to school, came home, and retreated to her room. She had started sketching more—mostly abstract, angry lines across the page, her frustration bleeding into every stroke. The only time she seemed to come alive was when she thought of Liam, but those moments quickly turned into a sharp pang of longing.

Both of them were suffering, but the pain wasn't just theirs. Taylor and Travis were struggling just as much. Every time Taylor saw the way Liam avoided her eyes or how his usually charming smile had faded, it broke her a little more. She'd tried to talk to him a few times, to bridge the gap, but Liam's responses were short, curt, and void of emotion.

And Travis, well, he could see Emma slipping away from him, too. She wasn't her bubbly self anymore. She rarely laughed, her humor replaced by a bitter edge. She kept herself busy with her art or stayed out late, only coming home when it was necessary.

One evening, the weight of everything was too much for Taylor. She sat at the kitchen table, staring blankly at her untouched cup of tea. The house was too quiet, and it felt like she hadn't heard Liam's voice in weeks. She missed him. She missed Emma too. And she missed Travis.

Sighing heavily, she picked up her phone. Her thumb hovered over Travis's name. They hadn't talked much since that night. But she needed to talk to him now—if only to share in the misery they both seemed to be drowning in.

Hey, can we talk?

A few minutes passed, and then her phone buzzed.

Yeah. Same place as usual?

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Usual place" was a small, secluded café on the edge of town. It had become their go-to spot when they wanted to get away from everything. She grabbed her coat and keys and headed out.

The café was dimly lit, cozy, with only a few customers scattered around. When Taylor arrived, Travis was already sitting at a corner table, nursing a cup of coffee. His face looked tired, shadows under his eyes and a heaviness in his posture. When he saw her, he gave a small, tired smile.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Hey." Taylor slid into the chair across from him, wrapping her hands around the warmth of the teacup the server placed in front of her. For a moment, neither of them spoke. They just sat there, letting the silence settle around them.

Finally, Taylor broke the quiet. "This is killing them, isn't it?"

Travis sighed, nodding. "Yeah. It's killing us too, honestly."

Taylor looked down at her tea, stirring it absentmindedly. "I just wanted to protect them. I thought this would help them focus, you know? But now... now they're avoiding us. They're miserable, and I'm starting to wonder if we did the right thing."

"Same here," Travis admitted. "Emma barely talks to me anymore. And when she does, it's like I'm not even her dad, just... just some guy she has to put up with. It's hard."