Teenage Runaway

Chapter 14

Saturday morning came too fast for Taylor. Her alarm rang through her bedroom at the crack of dawn, She quickly woke up the whole house. Before she went to get dressed, she grabbed the box that the funeral home had delivered the day before. She grabbed one of the empty beer bottles that the boys finished and carefully poured her fathers' ashes into the bottle and super glued the top on.

Liam was fixing the collar on his black Polo shirt in the mirror while Bentley sat on the matress in Taylor's room, still in his pajamas. Taylor went into the closet and pulled out the only black dress she had--the one she had worn to the Winter Formal. It was tight around her waist and her bust, reminding her that things had changed since that night. The hem of the dress rested right above her knees and the half-sleeve of the dress rested above her elbows. She paired the dress with black flats so she would be able to walk in the sand without heels sinking into it. Taylor slightly curled her dark hair and added eyeliner and mascara, even though she knew she would eventually cry it all off.

When she exited her bathroom, Liam and Bentley sat on the bed waiting for her. Liam and Bentley were matching, Bentley's clothes a birthday gift from the boys, along with many superhero toys. In fact, all of the boys were matching, wearing a black polo, khaki pants, and Sperry's.

"Are you ready?" Liam asked.

"I guess." Taylor shrugged. How could anyone ever be ready for their parents funeral?

They arrived at the beach as the sun rose above the ocean, painting the sky with streaks of pink and orange.

"Say bye-bye to Grandpa, Bentley." Taylor told her son, who she held tightly on her hip with one arm and the bottle in the other.

"Grandpa?" Bentley asked, pointing to the bottle. His mother nodded. "Bye-bye, Grandpa!"

Liam comfortingly placed his hand on Taylor's back as she placed her lips to the bottle.

"I love you, Daddy." She told the bottle as she placed it into the waves, her voice barely above a whisper.  She watched the tide drag her fathers's remains further and further out to sea.

"Are you okay?" Liam asked Taylor. She burst into tears. Liam opened his arms for her. Taylor put Bentley down and walked into Liam's arms.

Bentley tugged on the hem of his mother's dress. "Why you crying, Mommy?"

"Can you guys take Bentley to the car? It's unlocked. We will be there soon." Liam asked, stroking Taylor's hair as she cried into his shoulder.

Sam took Bentley's hand and led him up the sandy beach. "Why is mommy crying?" Bentley asked her.

"She lost her daddy," Sam told the toddler.

"Where he go?"

"Heaven." She said, pointing to the sky.

"Grandpa up there?" Bentley also pointed to the sky. Sam nodded and they continued towards the car. "My daddy up there?"

"No," Sam said, turning around to look at Liam and Taylor. "Your daddy is back there, hugging mommy."

Just as Sam was putting Bentley into his car seat, her mother called her screaming about how hard it had been to get ahold of her since the new broke about what had happened to them. Her mother, Michelle, went on about how she had been worrying herself gray-haired and insisted that Niall and Sam fly up to visit her before they left the States.

Taylor and Liam stood on the beach and watched the bottle disappear on the horizon, even after the rain started to pour.

"Can I ask you something?" Liam said to Taylor as they walked up the beach hand and hand. She nodded. Liam stopped walking and turned to face Taylor, taking her hands in each of his. "Come back to England with me."

"Liam, I...I don't know."

"I'll take care of everything, the plane tickets, the flat--"

"Bentley and I don't even have passports. Those take months to get."

"We can get them in a week or two if we get them expedited." 

"I'm not so sure about this...Florida is all Bentley and I have ever known."

"Exactly. I don't want to leave you."

"Lets do it. What have I got to lose?" She half-smiled, ignoring the voice in her head reminding her that she had Bentley to lose.

"Good," Liam smiled back, kissing her. "We better get back to the car before the four of them begin to think we've drowned."

As soon as they arrived home, Liam insisted that Taylor, Bentley, and himself go to get Taylor and Bentley's passports expedited. They told Harry, Niall and Sam that they were going out to get coffee so Taylor could vent--she didn't want to tell them that her and Bentley were planning on moving to England with Liam unless everything worked out with getting their passports, although they had already known Liam was going to ask her to.

The woman they had spoken to barely asked them any questions. Taylor had assumed she had recognized them from the news, or at least recognized Liam from One Direction. She took Taylor and Bentley's passport pictures and told them that they would recieve their passports in the mail within the next three to six business days.

"What's a passport, Mommy?" Bentley asked Taylor as she drove back home.

"It's a pass to leave the country."

"Where are we going?"

"To England...with Daddy."

"Where's England?"

"It's across the ocean." Liam answered.

"Exciting news!" Taylor yelled as she walked through the door.

"You brought back bagels?" Niall joked.

"We didn't actually go on a coffee date, we went to go get Bentley and I passports. We're moving to England with Liam!"

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Sam screamed, adding to Taylor's excitement.

Liam was sent out to buy them three large suitcases after they had purchased their airline tickets--Niall, Sam, and Harry's for tomorrow evening, Taylor, Bentley's, and Liam's in 10 days. Taylor spent the rest of her night getting everything in order to move. She called her landlord and said she would have her final payment in by the end of the week. She called her boss and told her the exciting news and apologized on such short notice of her having to quit, but her boss told her not to worry about it and said to come in to pick up her last paycheck whenever. Before putting Bentley to sleep, Taylor did his laundry and laid out enough clothes for him to wear for the next ten days before the move and took all of his other clothes in her room to pack away, doing the same with her own.

Taylor and Liam agreed that they would only pack their clothes, leaving all hygiene things behind as they would buy new supplies in the UK. When Taylor asked about what they would do about her car, Liam said they would simply sell it to a used car dealership--it would be no use shipping it to the UK since Liam has four cars of his own and cars are constructed differently in the UK.

Taylor was awoken by Sam late in the morning. Liam and Bentley were already awake downstairs.

"I need you to drive me to the drug store." Sam told Taylor.

"Why?" Taylor groggily responded.

"I've been throwing up all morning."

"So?"

"I haven't gotten my period this month." Sam swallowed. "I think I'm pregnant."