Long Distance Call | tayley ✓

9 | Drunk Texts

{tw!!! r*pe mentions}

[Hayley]

"How's Brian been?" I ask Lynn as we get lost in the topic of high school, discussing the people we befriended, the secrets we kept, and everything in between. I earlier admitted to her that I found Taylor hot back then, but that was no shock to her. In reality, she knows everything about me from my youth until now. I don't have much to hide, especially from her.

"Good, actually. He recently signed a deal with...what was that team that he was into and would never stop talking about? Oh! Chelsea, yeah! I don't know his position or anything, and I haven't spoken to him in some time, but hey, whatever. I should reach out to him," she trails off, staring at a spot in the wall. I smile over the way she zones out before I go to check my phone.

My mouth gapes open a bit when I see the message I had received. It's from Taylor.

"What's your problem, Hayles?" Lynn asks in a teasing fashion, pushing her dark locks to one side. I gesture for her to come closer, which she instantly does. Reading the message over my shoulder, I turn my head just enough so that I can see her. Her eyes have gone wide, and her expression is unreadable.

She steps away after a few seconds. She returns to where she had previously been sitting.

"Are you gonna message him back, or what? You did say that you had thought he was hot. And he obviously thinks the same thing." I look up, and see a smirk is upon her lips. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to my phone's screen. Should I? No way in hell is he sober.

Fuck it.

@yelyahwilliams: Hey Taylor! I hope you're having fun. Must be hard to be so far away from home. How's your night been?

Minutes later, I receive a response. I can sense that Lynn's staring.

@itstayloryall: Its ben good. my friend jeremy has a freind here so i hungnn out with her tongiht. but how have you been?? u didnt answere when i asked that ;(

This is humorous, now. But, wait. Jeremy. That was that delivery dude. Huh.

@yelyahwilliams: I've been good. I'm hanging out with my friend Lyndsey. Do you remember her? She went to high school with us, she was my friend then, too.

It feels like I'm talking to a child.

@itstayloryall: Oh yea I remember Lyndsesy. I like talkin to u. i wasjust gonn a ask you for your phone numberrr but long disttance texts n callls are expensive. except texts arent if u have imessage!! my parents are lame n dont even use iphones smh

@yelyahwilliams: I have a long distance plan, because my dad and step-mom travel out of the country like, every summer. But I have an iPhone and all, so no worries. I'll send you my number. :)

Following that message being sent, I send my phone number. I don't even realize it, but I guess I must be grinning like a fucking fool. I know that because those are Lynn's exact words.

"Why are you grinning like a fucking fool?" she asks, her question causing me to look up. When I turn my attention to her, I swipe that expression off my face, as if that makes it as though I was never looking so happy.

"Nothing. I wasn't," I lie. After a few seconds, I decide I can't hold it back. "Taylor just asked me for my number!" I blurt out.

"Well he's clearly drunk, unless he just has extreme difficulty spelling, so this should be good," she says with a smile, resulting in me tossing a pillow from my bed in her direction. Unfortunately for me, she's much too quick for me to hit. Having played sports, ducking to get out of the way of my weak throw was effortless for her.

As she tosses the pillow back at me, I feel my phone buzzing once again in my lap. I'm too lazy to even make the smallest effort to move out of the way, so the soft pillow hits me directly in the face. I lift my phone up to see why it's been vibrating. I'm being called by an unknown number. I think I know who this is, though.

"Helloooo," I extend the final vowel of the word as I wait for confirmation of who the caller is.

"Hayley. It's me, Taylor. How ya' doin'?" he asks, words slurred. Didn't he just ask me how I was doing? Whatever, he's drunk and it's cute.

"I'm doing good, just with my friend, as I told you earlier."

"Mm, that sounds fun. Hey, did you know it's like...nighttime here? It's a lot later. I made new friends tonight. I'm already getting used to the timezone. How's life back in 'Merica? What if after a few months here I have an accent? Would that make you like me more? Girls always love dudes with cute accents," he says, having some difficulty with saying the word 'accents' the second time around.

He continues. "Like, I met these dudes Dan and Josh earlier. And they both had accents and no homo but I'd toooootally let them do stuff to me," he says with a giggle. Of course. Say that, but as long as you say no homo, it's not gay.

"I'm gonna go home and leave you two to it," Lynn whispers and I roll my eyes at her. Right before leaving my room, she gives me a wink. Isn't she the worst?

"It was weird meeting a guy named Josh, because I used to have a friend named Josh. Do you remember him? He went to our school. We were friends but then we had a falling out over something and long story short, we haven't spoken in years." The sadness in his voice is evident.

But I know that Josh all too well. I won't bore you with the details, but long story short; we both went to the same post-prom party. We drank a few too many — or at least I did — and we almost had sex. I was going to go through with it, but then I decided I didn't feel like losing my virginity to a guy I didn't know a thing about, and while drunk. Right before we were about to do, y'know, it, I told him I didn't want to and was going to go home. He didn't want that, so the only way I was able to escape was give him a kick you-know-where. I had nightmares of the experience, though I didn't tell anyone about it. Except for Lynn, after her and I had several sleepovers that included me waking in the middle of the night out of breath, or screaming, or talking in my sleep. I've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt in some way. He was young, at least a little drunk, but as I've grown, I've realized that no one should ever do such a thing to anyone. I know that he wouldn't have hesitated to continue if I wasn't able to escape.

Looks like I've bored you with the details. Sorry 'bout that.

"Yeah, I remember Josh. What happened with you two? If you're willing to share the details, that is."

"He's such a dick. I was dating this girl, junior year of high school. It wasn't serious, just sex, really. But we were technically boyfriend and girlfriend. Exclusive. Josh knew that. And what does he do? He fucks her. He was really manipulative about the whole thing and acted like it wasn't his fault, but hers. After graduating I discovered it was the other way around, and he sort of pressured her into doing it with him. Her and I are sort of friends now. Not really friends. But on good terms. Better terms. Oh, oh also, there was a girl I was into, senior year. But after prom, he goes and fucks her. What an asshole." It's kind of hard to feel my true emotions when I'm really focusing more on how cute he sounds with slurred words while allowing his feelings to flow out of him.

But I get a bit upset while thinking about Josh. He's so needy that he needed sex that bad that night? I exhale a heavy breath, my hold on the phone tightening a little bit.

"Who did he fuck after prom?" I ask, bitter now.

"It was...uhhhh. No one. You probably don't know them. I, um...I have to go. It's late. Have a good night," he says hurriedly and ends the call. I set my phone down, a bit annoyed over the whole thing. It was clear that he did know and didn't want to say who, or else he wouldn't have hung up all awkwardly.

But then it hits me. Maybe it was me.

But Josh and I didn't go all the way.

But, I mean, anyway. That was only high school, right? His feelings can't still be that way. They can't be...