Hell To Pay

Miserable

Taylor can't believe that there's still one box of Sam's belongings that left on his place. "She must be forgot about this." He blow some air to wipe the dust and then open the box. There's a lot of mixtape that's probably her works while she worked as sound engineer. A lot of Foos and other stuff like RHCP and else. Among any other band, some small tapes marked with dates and also location. He doesn't know what they are, but curious enough to take them to his listening room.

The first one marked 'London, New Year' with a date when they celebrate their first new year together.

He put the tape on a player and quickly notices some background sound, it was on a restaurant and he remembers that he made Sam wait for an hour because he needed to back to hotel.

"Taylor isn't here... I mean he's really clumsy to put his wallet haha. But since he's not around, I...just really want to say that I'm so happy to have our first vacation together. Our new year eve together. It's like I'm getting all the luck in the world today... Oh, he's here. I need to cut this."

It's a short recording but it's just enough to makes Taylor smile a little bit. He kinda get that these tapes probably like her audio diary or something. He never really see her with recorder around her, it must be very personal for her. And so it's possible that all of these stuff isn't meant to be left out. Next tape marked  'Brooklyn'.

"It's 3 a.m now, I get cold and umm.... I'm crying because... I don't know, I kinda feel the way he talked to me is different. I mean... I know he doesn't want to upset me or else, but it's.... It's like he loses some feelings on me. I might be wrong but... My senses told me about it. I hope it's just me being paranoid. Because I can't even imagine to witness his feelings slowly fade away from me. I can't..."
"Sam? What are you doing?"
"Yes? Nothing, just checking my eyes. I think it's an allergy from my eyeliner." He can hear his own voice, he recalls that he once wakes up at 3 a.m to found Sam inside the bathroom and she went out with red eyes. But since she said something about allergy, he doesn't think too much about it. He doesn't know that Sam was actually feel the change on his behavior, and he doesn't know that she was very sad about it. She was always funny and anything, so it's hard to tell.

He goes with those tapes and put them back on the box but then he notices a recorder at the bottom of it. Under all of Foos tapes. This is the portable recorder that she probably used. There is one tape without label in it. He has no idea wether the tape already record anything or not. So he just hit the play on the recorder.

"So... I got these tickets from Chad for a trip to Barbados... He's the best. Haha. Umm.. I will surprise Taylor about it and we will go there together hopefully. Probably made up things. Getting close and umm.... I don't know what to say anymore.. haha. I love him so much, I can't wait to see him today. I wake up very early today just so I can surprise him in the morning.... Actually I can picture him right now, sleeping like a cow and it would be cute for me to be in front of him as he open his eyes. You have no idea how much I miss him. It's a lot."

Apparently, this tape was taken on the day she caught him and Patricia on bed. He still can't forgive himself to did something horrible like that. "Fuck you Taylor, you're piece of shit. How the fuck you...you let her down?" He curse himself and then throw the recorder into the box. "Look how much she loved you! She gave you everything! Fuck your stupid head!" Still with face down, he pack the box again and put it on his attic. Just maybe he would have a chance to give it back to her. But absolutely not now.

••••••

Soon as Chris going down from the stage, he walks to where Josh and Sam are sitting, again. This time with a bag and guitar case. "Hey, umm thanks for taking care of her. Don't worry I got this." Chris is about to pick up Sam but Josh insists to help. "You seem carrying a lot of stuff, let me help you to put her in your car."
"Well, why not make it a stay over? I'm sure it's already late and you don't live around here I suppose? You should've went home earlier."
"Umm... I don't wanna annoy you or something, It's...."
"No, of course not. Since you're Sam's friend, it makes you my friend as well."
"Well umm.. haha. Okay then. If that's really okay for you." Josh lifted Sam's arms and put her on his back while Chris leads the way to his car.

The road is pretty much just a short one and his apartment is only over the corner. "There it is." He turns his car to the parking lot and get his guitar out before open the door for both Josh and Sam. They go straight to the elevator and go to the unit.

"Wow. It's pretty big to be an apartment." Josh looks at it and then looks to Chris. "Oh, this? Yes. Because it supposed to be a shared unit. I shared this with....her?"
"Oh, okay. That's why you guys went home together." He smiles and then look away. But Chris quickly fix the position. "It's not like what you think. We didn't even know we would share it up until she moved in. That's funny actually."
"So you guys didn't...."
"No. She was Taylor's girlfriend for fuck sake. I'm not a backstabber. We are close because we are friends. I guess since she now distance herself from him, I'm officially her new best friend." Chris giggles to him, assure him that he really just friends with her. "Come on. Don't stay in front of the door." He says and Josh nods, while also smiling.

After he put her on her room, Josh goes to out to find Chris makes some coffee. "I get you some. Would you like it black or...."
"Maybe a little sweet." He replies. "Okay. I'll put the cubes so you can set your sweetness." Chris bring the cups along with sugar cub on the table. "Hey Josh." Chris then calling out for him who just sit in front of him.
"Yeah?"

"Do you have a crush on Sam?"