Old Flames Die Hard

Chapter Eight

"Taylor! Come on its time for dinner!" mom shouts down to me from upstairs.

I hurry up the stairs as fast as I can. Mom hates it when I make her wait. If I make her wait a minute after she asks me to do something, she calls me selfish and says I think the world revolves around me.

When I go upstairs, I see my family eating Kraft Mac-N-Cheese. Bree made it. My mom has become too lazy to make anything for us, so we must make food ourselves. Even though we aren't good at it. I grab a plate and when Bree smiles at me, I feel sick. I'm keeping so much from her, but I can't tell her about Thomas. When we were together, she loved to be around him. He was so sweet to her and would hang out with her when he came over too. When we broke up, Bree was not nearly as heartbroken as I was, but she was hurt too. The last thing I want is for her to know how close Thomas and I are already acting.

"So, what did everyone learn in church today?" Mom asks as she takes a small bite.

I dish myself up and keep my head down and shovel down my food as my family starts to discuss this week's Come Follow Me lesson. The prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints shortened church by an hour and instead gave guided lessons for families to follow to make up for the lost hour. He compiled all the lessons into a book and called it Come Follow Me. I haven't even looked inside the book, nor do I plan to.

I look up for one second and see Bree looking at me, sadness in her eyes. She doesn't hide her emotions at all. A quality I sort of wish I had. I keep so many things from people to avoid hurting them that I hurt myself in the process.

Why is life so complicated?

I clear my throat, "I'm gonna go and finish some calculations for my chemistry project."

I wash off my dishes and put them in the dishwasher. I still don't understand the point of the dishwasher, because we have to wash our dishes before they even make it into the dishwasher.

My mom looks down and hides her disappointment by reading a section of the lesson.

I walk up to Bree and whisper into her ear, "Thanks for dinner. I'll take you out soon."

I hurry down the stairs to avoid my family during Come Follow Me. I just feel so awkward being around them while they do it. Especially my mom because she tends to act like she isn't perfect during the lesson, and as soon as I ask if she can buy me bigger flashcards for a test, she tells me she NEVER EVER complained at what she got as a kid. Never. Oh, and she also told us she NEVER EVER compared herself to others while she was growing up even though she was super poor growing up. It just gets awkward for me and those who know she does that sort of thing.

On top of that, Isaak always tries to talk while others are talking either to speed up the lesson or to share a "super deep" spiritual thought. When he does talk, he stutters and barely gets the message out without taking all day.

I've never participated in a lesson, but I am sometimes around when they do it and see those two specific patterns every single time I hear them communicate in the lesson.

As I walk into my room, I decide to check my phone that I haven't checked on for a while. I see lots of messages, 208 to be precise, from The Squad chat, 2 messages from Davis, and 1 message from Thomas. I unlock my phone and go to Davis.

Davis: You're so confusing. One second you hate Thomas' guts and the next you leave the rink with him and come back asking if I can drop both of you off at his house.

Davis: Are you ignoring me because you're embarrassed to tell me?

I quickly respond.

Me: First off, I'm not ignoring you. I just got back from dinner and put my phone away while I was working on homework. Secondly, I just took your advice and apologized for being so rude. We are on good terms and are friends now.

With that, I send the message and go to Thomas.

X: Thanks for the fun time today Tay 😊

Me: Yeah ofc. My day would be even better if you will tell me what popcorn you popped for us...

He immediately responds.

X: Sorry, I guess I can't make your day better by doing that. But I can by bringing you some more.

Without hesitation, I reply,

Me: Umm my family doesn't even know you're back at my school or that I've seen you again, and I would prefer if it stayed that way.

X: Understood. Does that mean you'll sneak out with me sometime?

Me: In your dreams

I turn off my phone and spend the rest of the night doing the stoichiometry for Peter and I's project. I must say it is taking me a long time to get the math done, but once the equation is set up like Peter taught me, it goes really well. I owe him so much.

Finally, around 10:30 pm, I finish with the last equation and turn off my lights, happy to be able to crawl into bed. I put on a tank top and black running shorts and sprint to my bed. As I readjust my position while I'm under the covers, I recall what happened at the ice-skating rink. When I admitted it was all my fault, he immediately put the blame on himself to take it off me. He doesn't want me to feel guilty and he truly understands my frustrations.

Then I think about Thomas' house. The couch, it is magical. By the time the movie was over, I was buried into his chest with the couch keeping me from moving away, only closer. My arms were wrapped around his neck and he had held me close, reassuring me he wouldn't let go if I didn't. It felt nice to be held that close again. When he had kissed my cheek for hours it seemed, I never wanted him to back away. It warmed every single square inch of my body and I missed that feeling.

Although today was more than amazing, I have to keep myself from falling for him.

Again.