Doubled

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Taylor's POV:

Wake Up! Holy crap Taylor, I swear to god, if you don't wake up… ughh I don’t know what I’d do. WAKE UP! I jerked up from my recumbent position. I had been lying across the back seat of my car.

We were driving, still. Well, Seth was driving. We switched places a while ago, and I passed out from exhaustion in no time flat.

I looked behind me to where my head had been, only to see Jace's lap. Of course. My face heated up immediately.

"Jeez, what's with the rude awakening?" I questioned after I got over the shock. Hannah shot me a questioning gaze from the passenger seat. Jace was asleep, thank god, leaning against the car window.

"Are you okay Taylor? Have a weird dream or something?" Hannah asked concerned.

It was me, idiot.

Then it dawned on me: Seth. "Yea, I guess so." I shifted into a proper sitting position. "How much further is it until we're there?" I asked out loud before fully opening my mind up to Seth so that we could communicate more effectively.

"About another hour," Hannah replied in utter boredom. "I'm just gonna try to sleep, you should too." She didn’t even notice my lack of reply, for she had already fallen asleep. That girl was lucky. She could just fall asleep on command, whenever she wanted to.

What's your problem Seth? He must have felt that I had opened up completely, because he soon did as well.

I couldn’t figure out why he was so cranky. His emotions were right in front of me. Heck, they were IN me. They were MY feelings. Still, I didn’t understand. He was feeling a little mad, but also happy. He was reserved, but excited. He was confused. Most of all, he was disgusted and embarrassed.

Okay, what happened to you, bro? I gave up trying to decipher it. I was frustrated. Usually we could read each other so easily. It's not fun, not knowing. Not fun at all.

You happened, Tay. He shuddered visibly. Do you remember your dream at all?

My dream? Umm, no. But what's that got to do with anything?

He urged me to try and remember. Suddenly, it dawned on me. I was reliving my dream as a flashback. Unfortunately for him, Seth was right there in the flashback too.

The kiss, the almost kiss, between me and Jace. That was the dream. Except instead of being in the car, we were at a beach. I guess my subconscious wanted this whole confusion sorted out just as much as I did.

Ew, ew, okay, enough. Please, spare me. Seth shuddered again. I had no doubt Seth could feel the swell of embarrassment run through me, through us both. I thought we talked about this. I thought you said you weren't into him. Taylor, I mean, I don't really care if you do like him. I mean, I'm into Hannah, so that'd be a hypocritical of me. I guess I'm just trying to ask for the truth. That's all I want to know.

I felt a sudden swell of emotion come across the two of us. I could feel our love, care, trust, and loyalty. It felt like waves of an ocean swirling and swishing around before finally coming together and crashing upon us. We really are close. I love Seth, and I know he loves me too. He's my brother.

Older brother. I'm your older brother. He smirked and caught my eye in the rear-view mirror.

Yeah, yeah, shush. I really don't think 8 minutes counts for that, bro. Well, there goes our moment. We don't have those really close connections all that much anymore. But hey, I'll take what I can get.

Everything counts, Tay. Everything counts. I felt him smile. But really, what's up with you and Jace?

I- I don't know. I stuttered a bit. It's just, I don't know how I feel. But I got so caught up in the moment. And I really did want to kiss him, you know? But then the car came and the moment was ruined and I felt really bad, like really bad, but I don't know. I had to keep driving and I just don't know how I feel. I mean, we're friends. That's all. But something tells me he wants to be more than that, but I don't know if I want to be more than just friends. Besides, what if something happens and our friendship is ruined forever and then we'll never be the same and I don't want that to happen. Everything went tumbling out of my mouth. Well, tumbling across our mind-link. I don't know if it made any sense whatsoever. My words ran together. I was rambling.

Whoa, Tay, slow down. Come on now, chill. Take some deep breaths or something. I did as he said and felt my heart-rate slowly return to normal.

We continued talking for the rest of the trip. In the end, Seth pretty much just told me to follow my heart, my instincts. Like I haven't heard that before… like I even know what that means.

My conclusion was that I have some serious talking to do with Hannah when we have a chance. Unfortunately, that time was not now, for we had finally arrived at our destination.

We pulled into the driveway of our private, ocean-side cabin.