Life After Death {t.c} [2]

7 // The Stealer of Doughnuts

"So, why were you running when you trampled me?" I ask Taylor as we walk hand in hand.

He chuckles, making butterflies erupt in my stomach, "I stole some doughnuts."

"You stole doughnuts?" I giggle.

"Yes! But in my defense, I was hungry and they were your favorite." He smiles at me.

I remove my gaze from the ground to Taylor. He's looking ahead of us, his hair is slightly misplaced from his run, and he looks exhausted yet happy and carefree at the same time.

"You remember that?" I ask him, amazed he remembered that of all things.

"Mhmm." He nods. "Over the pat year, every time I'd find a place that sold doughnuts, I'd get glazed with sprinkles because they reminded me of all the times you told me to go buy them for you."

I smile at him, "Do you remember the first time we met in person?"

He chuckles at the question, "How could I forget? When I saw you for the first time, I hugged you so tight. I knew you were gonna be my best friend. And you were, still are." He winks at me with a shy smirk. "You were wearing shorts and a tank top with Vans. You're hair was curled and you had make up on even though you're even more stunning with out it."

"You stayed by me most of the weekend . And almost every time you got hungry, you made me come with you to get-"

"Glazed doughnuts with sprinkles." We say at the same time.

We look at each other and smile. "Yeah." He smiles wider.

Taylor leads me to the Starbucks we spotted a few minutes ago. We order our drinks then sit at a booth. At first it's silent, not an awkward silence, a comfortable silence but neither of us knowing what to say.

We look at each other and I say, "Taylor." the same that he says, "Maddie."

I giggle, "You first."

"You can't tell anyone."

I furrow my eyebrows together in confusion, "About what?"

"About me. No one can know I'm alive. Not yet."

"Taylor-"

"I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna try to convince me to let everyone know I'm alive and well and then everything will go back to the way it was. Well, no. It won't."

"Well, what do you want me to do, Taylor? Lie to them?"

"For the time being."

"They're family to me, Taylor." I say sternly.

"They're family to me too." He huffs back.

I don't reply, as stress begins to take over me. This is going to be more complicated than I thought. Since Taylor 'died', I always dreamed of him coming back somehow. I imagined everyone reuniting and everything going back to normal. Although Taylor did turn up alive, unfortunately the second half of my hopes can't happen as soon as I would like them to.

"Madison," I look up at him, "I need you to come to Indiana with me."