15

Taylor's Tuesday schedules for the entire month were reserved for club shoots as well as organization and sports shoots. The photography team were only composed of six people including Taylor herself so juggling the various clubs was truly difficult for the bunch. Keeping them in one place was even much more of a disaster.

The brunette groaned internally as a football player played with the equipment. Accessories for this shoot were expensive. Anything that comes with photography itself is expensive in general and she didn't want this random jock to mess with them. "Hey, stop playing with the softbox."

"The soft what?" He asks dumbly and throws his football in the air. It comes crashing straight back down to where the stand was positioned, missing an inch of the box itself. Still it was enough to piss Taylor off but she decided against saying anything at all.

There were many things the brunette has learned over the year. And if that wasn't obvious, confrontation was absolutely not one of them.

Taylor has gone over her schedule for today and thankfully she wasn't in-charge of the cheer team. She's been avoiding Romee since that afternoon in the parking lot. She wasn't angry or anything, the way they left things were just awkward and like she said, she didn't like confrontation.

On the other hand, the blonde was very well aware of Taylor steering clear of her. She hasn't been going to lunch with the group, hasn't been accepting invites to hangouts as well. Romee wasn't sure what to make of it really and she didn't know if she should be amused or frustrated. But she decided not to bother Taylor with whatever it was she wished to accomplish with her absence.

The shoot for the football team finished in half an hour and decided they would have to postpone creative shots to a later date as the sky was getting dark. Taylor hauled the equipment back inside the campus alone and she took her sweet time doing so. She wasn't scared, she's done this almost her entire high school life. She's used to going solo and often times being the last student to exit the premises of building. Except maybe for staff and employees.

Taylor shuts the door to their designated club close and ensures it is locked before she begins to walk towards the main entry and exit. She eyes an opened door and hears loud sneezing as she comes closer. She realizes it was the cheer team's changing rooms. She sighs and rotates her body slightly as she leans towards the door wanting to poke her head in and check on whoever it was. But she feels her head hit something hard and warm, Taylor stumbles back a few steps and holds the right side of her forehead in pain. She feels for a bump, fortunately there wasn't one.

The brunette looks up to see Romee staring at her confusedly. Her hair was damp, making her blonde locks appear darker than they usually were. Taylor also notices a box of kleenex on her hand. And Taylor also realizes how much she has missed her.

Taylor sucks up what little pride she has left and breaks the silence first. "It's ten to eight, what are you still doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Romee replies lightly, her voice sounding hoarse.

"I was late to the shoot, so they had me do my creatives first," She states and moves forward, arm pulling the door behind her shut. "I'm feeling a little bit under the weather if you can't tell."

"A little bit?" Taylor smirks and laughs when the blonde rolls her eyes. "Romee you look like a disaster."

A beautiful one though, Taylor says in her head.

"Gee thanks." Romee fishes for her phone in her back pocket and seems to be scrolling through her contacts before she looks back up at Taylor. "You should get home, don't you have Kavinsky's test tomorrow?"

"How'd you know?"

"Just heard someone from your class complain about it." Romee shrugs nonchalantly and Taylor believes her.

But Romee lied.

Because she didn't hear anyone from Taylor's class talk about Kavinsky's test, heck she didn't even know anyone from Taylor's AP Chemistry. On the way to Romee's Calculus class yesterday, the blonde made a beeline to the left wing where she knew Taylor was, she was thirty minutes late anyway a few more minutes isn't going to hurt her attendance any more than it has. There Taylor was, listening intently to whatever was being discussed in her AP Chem class. She jotted down notes as well, and pulled out five different highlighters to highlight keywords in her book. It was cute. And Romee actually loses track of time and realizes she's skipped class to stare at Taylor from the backdoor. That was all after the bell rung and Kavinsky yelled about a test on Wednesday.

"I studied in advance."

"Of course you did, Taylor Monroe."

Taylor walks a few steps in front of the other girl and turns back when she realizes the blonde halted. "Come on, I'll walk you to your car."

"Uhm I didn't bring my car today," she coughs and settles on a bench against the wall. "Laurens is picking me up after his boxing class."

"Doesn't that end around nine though? That isn't for another hour."

"Yep." Romee leans her head against the wall and closes her eyes hoping to somehow ease the pain in her head.

Romee stays that way until she feels her arms being pulled from around her body, "Get up, I'm taking you home. You don't look very well to me."

"It's fine Tay," she muffles out in protest weakly. "I'll be okay."

"Don't even argue with me."

"I'll feel bad..." Romee lets out whining slightly and Taylor laughs at her. Stuffed pink nose, slightly watery eyes, and skin paler than usual. Still beautiful, still the reason behind the smile on my stupid face. The brunette thinks.

And that was how nearly an hour and a half later Taylor found herself preparing soup for her friend. Once she transferred it to a blue bowl, she began making herbal tea. This was how Logan always took care of her siblings before she passed. Taylor blinks the tears away and focuses on trying to get Romee better instead.

Taylor enters the room and feels her heart melt at the sight of Romee tucked under her comforters surrounded by pillows and stuffed toys. She looked so small compared to everything that surrounded her, and Taylor wishes she could take all the pain the blonde was experiencing instead. She wouldn't mind taking care of her at all. And she'd be truly jealous of the person who gets to witness this sight everyday, the person Romee would like to spend her life with in the future.

Taylor approaches the bed and settles the tray on bedside table.

Romee awakens from her slumber when she feels the bed dip slightly. "Hey sleepyhead," Taylor breathes out. "I made you something."

It was only then when the smell of the soup filled Romee's head, her stomach involuntarily rumbles loudly in response. Taylor giggles when Romee covers her face in embarrassment. "Oh god."

"Come on, sit up I'll feed you."

The blonde huffs but complies anyway. It was stupid, she though. They were stupid. And many times Romee turned her face away just to piss Taylor off because by then she'd have wiped the corner of Romee's mouth a couple times just for her to get soup on it again. But they had a good night and had a couple of genuine belly laughs. Taylor doesn't think of Kavinsky's test and doesn't feel the slightest bit of remorse when her test score comes back the week after and she barely made it to a line of nine. Not when the memory of the reason behind it was worth so much more.

Something about that night changed their friendship. Their shared glances lasted a little longer, they hugged a little tighter, and brushed hands a little more often. And every single time Taylor felt like she was on fire, everywhere Romee touched her burned and tingled.