Scars and Souvenirs

Seven

Okay so this is a warning because things are going to get considerably darker from this chapter onwards - Taylor's relationship with Matthew is becoming something sick and twisted, which you'll see in this chapter.

  There is also going to be a gory and rather detailed chapter explaining the reasoning behind Taylor's mental health and the person she is, as well as something to show the person she used to be before everything happened.

  Hunter will be making more appearances, simply to show the changes in Taylor's mentality and the direction her character will be going but this story is only a first draft so if at all in the future I decide to revisit Scars and Souvenirs this could change. But I feel that what happens in the coming chapters is as realistic as I can make it and that's what I'm aiming for.

  I have no intentions of romanticising the things Taylor is going through, so if that is the direction you hoped this story would take I'm sorry to say but this story isn't for you.

  Taylor isn't saved by Hunter's love for who she used to be, and she has no intention of Hunter ever finding out about who she really is, but of course we can't all get what we want. (Potential spoiler or foreshadowing? I have no clue.)

  Matthew is a destructive character with a power of Taylor that nobody should have over another person, meaning he has absolutely no intentions of saving Taylor, and if you'll remember in a previous chapter he refuses to acknowledge Taylor's obviously poor mental health.

  So yeah, thank you for reading and please please vote/comment/whatever. I hope you enjoy chapter seven, and every other one in the future.
  *********
Mr Fraser smelled cigarettes when he woke up a few hours later and had promptly asked Matthew to escort Taylor from the premises. Not that she minded, the bed was far too soft and the pillows far too hard for her liking. But then again she slept on a mattress on the floor with pillows that sounded like bean bags when her head hit them. So Matthew got her a room at the same five star hotel they'd been at the night before, the receptionist the same, and she gave Taylor a smile with a glint in her eye.

  The room was way too big and the bed was soft enough that it was comfortable but hard enough that it felt more like home, and the pillows were like lumps of candy floss as she put her head on them. Matthew stood by the closed door, her bag on his shoulder and a scowl on his lips as he watched a starfished Taylor snuggle into the bed.

  "Are you sure you're okay paying for this?" Taylor asked after a while, not bothering to raise her head as she spoke. She yawned loudly, rolling onto her stomach, suddenly wishing she'd slept more than an hour before Matthew's alarm sounded through their room. "I can probably give you, like, twenty quid or something."

  "Don't worry about it, Tay," his scowl turned into a smile as he placed her bag in a chair and walked to the bed. He sat, back against the headboard, legs stretched in front of him, as he watched the girl with skin as white as snow and bags the colour of a midnight sky under her whiskey coloured eyes. "I was thinking about staying the night with you, so think of it like I'm paying for both of us."

  Taylor's sleepy eyes widened at the thought, and she turned her head to look at the blue eyed man beside her. Her palms grew sweaty and her heart drummed loudly in her chest. He wouldn't bring sex into the equation when Taylor hadn't even answered what he'd said the previous night, would he? He wouldn't pressure her, even when he thought she'd had bad boyfriend experiences in the past, would he?

  "Matthew, I," taking a deep breath, Taylor closed her eyes. Her dislike of touching people would come in handy. An abusive boyfriend would leave the girlfriend wary of the opposite sex, of anything revolving around intimacy. "I'm not ready. Not yet."