loveless // haylor au

chapter eighteen

"secrets I have held in my heart
are harder to hide than I thought."

~

chapter eighteen
the figuring-it-out problem

August 26th

There was a trip over Easter break, some time ago. Not too long, but long enough. It changed everything.

There were seven of us. Myself, Wes, Dex, Ed, Sammy, Cara and... Taylor. I'd known her for maybe three months, and our dislike for each other was only growing. The group had fully embraced her by that point, and I just couldn't decide whether I hated her, or wanted... more from her. A part of me felt like she felt the same. At least up until the trip.

It was a beach trip, of sorts. There wasn't much beach activities, sure, but there was a beach. A true british looking pebble beach, with true british weather; absolutely freezing and rainy half the time, it made one question why we'd even bothered to rent the house, and take two cars and drive four hours to the coastline.

'Ugh, this place stinks,' Cara groaned, her nose scrunching up when we got inside our rented beach house, 'Who's bright idea was this again?'

The beach house was dark, and I pulled back a curtain to let in the very little afternoon sun. It was cold too, and I wondered if the last occupants had left a window open accidentally, maybe in a bathroom or something.

'Dex,' I muttered, sunglasses on top of my head. They were not needed. 'Go help unpack the cars and I'll try and get the heaters working.'

Cara happily agreed, and I was left in the dark, dingy little house, cottage really, rummaging around to find a fuse box.

Two stories and made mostly of brick, Dex found the place online. "It's cheap!" he had said, excitedly. Unfortunately, even with the seven of us going, we were broke uni students and we couldn't afford anything spectacular. Or even decent, apparently.

It took me far too long to find the bloody thing, but the fuse box was on the wall in the tiny garage, behind the carport. It was genuinely creepy, especially with the dripping pipe somewhere, and I hurried around, not wanting to waste time.

With a snap of a few switches, light was restored to the house and I instantly heard the rattle of the heating system. I thought it was a turning point. I was wrong.

'You got it working, then,' Taylor had commented, when I returned to the main living space; carpet feeling stiff against my toes. She was sitting on the shitty looking yellow couch, reading glasses on and cardigan pulled tight around her body. Her legs were tucked underneath her, but I could see the goosebumps scattered across her bare skin.

'Yep,' I muttered dryly, and she managed a smirk, nearly.

'They've got a pool table upstairs!' Dex yelled, coming down the creaky stairs, and stopping at the bottom. He frowned at Taylor. 'Don't tell me you're gonna study the whole time, Swifty?'

Taylor snorted, and twisted her head around to look at him, 'Told you I had work to do. Like we can do much else? It's fucking freezing. I'm not so sure how good of an idea this was of yours, Dexter.'

'Better than doing nothing. The others back with lunch?'

'No,' Taylor replied, returning to her studies. I shrugged at Dex.

It rained for the first couple of days, but still the boys and I went out swimming, while Taylor and Cara sat by the shore with blankets around them, talking. We caught colds, and regretted not staying indoors instantly, but there were perks. One perk happened to be Taylor Swift's breasts through a wet t-shirt, one afternoon.