Chapter Twenty
Taylor
I couldn’t sleep, so I scrolled through Twitter while I lay in bed. A text came through with a picture.
It was of me and Dylan, kissing at the park. It was from Bailey. “Call me.”
Oh shit. So much for being on the down low. I called Bailey, who hadn’t spoken to me in days. Not since the incident. They were all mad at me because Greg had been kicked out of school.
None of them could grasp that I was the victim in all of this.
“What?”
“I saw you and Dylan today at the park.”
Shit. “So?”
“I would bet Daddy would love to know what delinquent boy is doing with his daughter,” Bailey said.
Maybe this hiding thing wasn’t going to work so well. “Where were you?”
“Going for a walk and I hid behind a tree. Very Romeo and Juliet.”
We were not star-crossed lovers. Shit. Shit. Shit. “Very classy, spying on people.”
“If you we doing something you didn’t want anyone to see, you shouldn’t have been in a public park.”
“What’s the point of his conversation?” I asked.
“I have demands.”
“You have demands?”
“If you don’t do them, I’ll tell Daddy, and guess who will be back in his trailer faster than you can say drug addict.”
Bailey was right. My father would kick Dylan out if he found out. What had I been thinking? I’d hoped to ease my father into the idea. He gave me just about anything I wanted. If I wanted Dylan, couldn’t I have him?
“What are your demands?”
“I’ll send them to you in a text. Sleep tight, Taylor.”
Bailey hung up on me. I wanted to throw the phone across the room. This was the worst. Why did Bailey have to see us? I called Helena.
“Lo.”
“Did I wake you?”
“That is what people do at night,” she said.
“I have two things I have to tell you.”
“Okay, but ignore my snores. I’m really listening.”
“Helena.”
“Okay, I’m awake. Go ahead.”
“Dylan and I kissed today.”
I heard her covers rustling. “Okay. Now, I’m really awake. When did this happen?”
I guess I had to tell her everything. “Well, I gave him that present I bought him.”
“Obviously that went well.”
“Yes, it did, ultimately. I left it for him, and he came and found me. He ended up kissing me. We went for a drive and we talked about being together.”
“That’s great, but what about your parents?”
“Yeah, that’s part of the problem. We weren’t going to tell them. Just keep it to ourselves.”
“Did you really think you’d get away with that?”
“We’d hoped.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.”
“Well, apparently Bailey was at the park. She took a picture of Dylan and me kissing.”
“That bitch.”
“It’s worse, Helena. She told me she would tell my parents if I didn’t do what she asked,” I said.
“What exactly does she want you to do?”
“I don’t know yet. She’s going to text me her demands.”
“You need to tell Dylan.”
“I am not telling Dylan,” I said. “This is my problem. If my parents find out, he’ll be back at the trailer. He has a lot to lose.”
“But it is both of you going through this. And knowing Dylan, he would want to know. He wouldn’t want you to go through this alone. He certainly wouldn’t want you to capitulate to Bailey.”
“Then, I’m in a bind.”
“You need to tell him.”
“I’m going to wait until I see the demands.”
“You know they are going to be outrageous. This is Bailey we’re talking about.”
My phone dinged. “Let me look at them and I’ll call you back.”
I read the text. The first thing on the list was to retract my statement to the police about Greg. What the hell? I couldn’t do that.
I called Helena and told her.
“You know you can’t do that. You and Dylan haven’t done anything wrong. You can stop this now and never have to tell your parents.”
“But I don’t want to lose Dylan.”
“Come on, Taylor. Don’t be so dramatic. You can still be friends.”
“But I don’t want to be friends.”
“It’s better than Dylan going back to the trailer. He’ll have a future. If you really care about him, that should be more important than the short term.”
Leave it to Helena to tell me what I didn’t want to hear. She was a true friend because she was not going to enable bad behavior. She wasn’t going to let me get away with anything. “You’re right.”
“I am, Taylor. Break it off with him. You can’t do this. It’s selfish.”
I hated when she was right. And, she was very right. I couldn’t hold Dylan back with my selfishness. My head knew the right answer. My heart didn’t like the answer.
“I have no argument, Helena. This really sucks. He’s the first guy I’ve liked in a few years. And, he’s a really good guy.”
“Well, he can’t be your really good guy.”
I groaned. “I know. So, what do I tell Bailey?”
“After you break it off with Dylan, tell her what you’ve done. She will have no hold over you. If she still tells your dad, tell him it was a moment of weakness and that you’ve broken up with him. Blame yourself so it doesn’t reflect badly on Dylan.”
Helena was so much smarter than I was. “What would I do without you? You are the best friend a girl could have.”
“You don’t want someone who will yes you to death?”
“No. You save my ass. That’s better.”
Helena laughed. “I got a test in the morning. Can I go back to sleep?”
“Love you, girl. Sleep tight.”
We disconnected. I hated what she had to say, but she was right. In the morning, I’d have to talk to Dylan. He’d been right, after all. Everyone else was right. I sighed.
Story of my life.