In Our Secret Moments

Chapter 9

"Why did we have to get to soundcheck so eeearly?" I moan as I walk up the stairs headed towards the stage, hand in hand with Taylor, dragging my feet slower after each step.
Taylor suddenly falls out of step with me and I soon feel his stubbly chin graze against my neck as he me cups my butt with both of his hands. I'm just about to turn around so I could kiss him when he starts pushing me up the stairs. "At this rate we're never getting there. Come on, we aren't even early. Besides the quicker we are done with sound check, the quicker we can have that shower we were talking about earlier".

Well I suppose he did have a point. I start walking quicker and we soon make our way up the stairs and walk through the heavy door into a seemingly empty room.

"So I see my brother is a good influence on you". I try to find where the voice came from and I finally find Justin lying on the edge of the stage with his legs dangling over.
"Yeah well if she gets to places early, she gets a reward." Taylor says laughing as he jumps up on the stage to sit next to his brother.
"Oh my god. Babe no."
"I was kidding. Justin knows I don't talk about my sex life, well not while I'm sober anyway". With this Justin lets out a loud belly laugh.
"I'm still getting used to the concept of you two being together. How has it been keeping a relationship secret on a tour bus? As hard as it sounds?" He questions as Taylor helps me up onto the stage.
"Very hard, we've had a few close calls hey?" Taylor nudges me with his shoulder before wrapping an arm around me. "It will be much easier on tour three that's for sure."
"Oh wow you're not coming out about it before the next tour?" Justin says with a surprised tone.
"Well we'll see but it just feels stupid making a big deal about it right? A big announcement, just doesn't feel natural".
"Yeah I suppose I see where you're coming from" Justin says with a yawn. "You know what? I'm beat, I'm going to grab some coffee, do you guys want some too?"
"Yes please". Taylor and I answer simultaneously.
With that Justin jumps up and heads out of the room leaving us alone. It's a rare moment but I'm too scared to do much, lord know when everyone else will get here.
So I just lean into his embrace, I feel a gentle warmth of affection rush over me as he starts stroking my hair with his free hand. I need to tell him how I feel about him. I keep trying to tell myself that I can't just jump from one relationship to another, but taylor is different. I originally wanted to stay single for a long time after all the troubles with Chad, I felt like I lost myself along the way, but T encourages me to be me, he's the reason I'm in such a good place now...

To distract myself from my rather intense feelings, I start scrolling through my social media. I've become a little fanatic about it recently. I'm terrified someone is going to figure out what's happening, and worse, someone getting a hold of some evidence. I'm just about to put my phone down just as I'm mentioned in a tweet. It catches my eye from its heavy use of capitalisation.

@yelyahwilliams @itstayloryall WHAAAT??? PLZ TELL ME MY EYES DO NOT DECEIVE ME???

Oh shit. Shit shit shit. I feel all of the blood drain from my face. Please tell me my fears haven't already come true. I look up to Taylor revealing the tweet before hesitantly scrolling down to reveal a video.

I click play and the video starts to play out.

It looks like it's a video of T and I in a backstage corridor late after a show. I'm on his back as he gives me a piggy back ride. Well so far, so good. Nothing incriminating about a piggy back ride. We pass the filmer and go down the stairs to the back exit.

That's when I expect the video to switch off, however, whoever is filming walks over to the window overlooking the desolate but unfortunately fairly well lit laneway that the tour bus is parked in. Taylor and I stumble into the frame again and if I can remember correctly I think we were already making out by this point. But all you can see is Taylor's back and my arms around his neck. Not too bad, you can't tell we're making out from this angle, we could just be hugging...

But no, we have to ruin it. In the process of us turning towards the bus you can see without a doubt that we're making out. Matters are then quickly made worse when Taylor lifts me up so I'm straddling his waist with my skirt hitching up in the process... oh Jesus.

By the time we make it into the safety of the tour bus and the screen goes black I am in shock.

Alright this isn't just some disputable little video that will be forgotten in a couple of days. This is cold hard proof that there is something going on between me and T. We're screwed.

I look up at taylor, I'm lost for words. Panic is  sprawled over his face, his brows are furrowed and his mouth is hanging ajar. Before I can formulate something to say, the door swings open and in walks everyone. Right so they're half an hour late and then have the audacity to barge in when we're dealing with a major personal crisis?

"Hey guys what's with the long faces? You're not still fighting about whether or not to change the set list again are you?"Joey says as he walks across the stage to where Taylor and I were sitting at the front of the stage.

The door swings open again just as I open my mouth to say something. It's Justin carrying two trays of coffees. "Oh good, you guys are finally here! I bought coffees all around! Shall we start soundcheck?"

"Actually-" I look to Taylor. We really need to do this now don't we? We need to do it now before it turns into a massive thing. Taylor nods his head slightly at me as if he knows exactly what I'm thinking, I love how he does that. I turn back to the group of confused looking men in front of us.
"Well, you see... the thing is... Taylor and I are kind-of-together." I look down to my feet as my chest drops to my stomach. I feel Taylor's hand wrap around mine and look up at him briefly, he looks as nervous as I feel.

"Oh that's the big news?" Logan says with a laugh, the rest follow suit and soon the whole room is filled with the sound of laughter. Well this isn't how I expected this to go.

"What's so funny?" I ask through the laughter but I get no response, instead, the laughter only increases with my comment.
"Come on guys" Taylor says.
After the laughter finally peters out, Joey comes by and sits next to me. "Hayley, my little naive Hayley, do you really think you and Taylor have been keeping that a secret? We've all known since... when was it?"
"Uhh I think it was the first day of tour actually, definitely by the first show, you don't exactly get hickeys by yourself do you". Brian says sitting down behind me and T, putting an arm around both of us.

"So you knew? You knew and you never said anything?" Taylor says.
"Yeah, we just figured out you didn't want to make a big deal about it or something". Joe says, joining Brian on the floor.

Justin starts handing the coffees out and I take a long sip. Well I was worried about nothing. I'm an idiot, I can't believe I thought no one knew.
"So I'm guessing you're telling us because of that video that's blowing up all over the internet?"
"Uh yeah" T says, hesitantly.
"Well at least now I won't have to pretend I don't hear you leaving each others bunks every morning, the urge to wolfwhistle has been strong." Zac says with a grin, I can't stop the rosy hue creep across my cheeks.

"So what are we going to do now that this video is out?"