chapter eight"Hi, Ellie, is Rhian there, please?" Taylor asked into the receiver.
Ellie’s voice sounded cold, and he wondered what was wrong. He heard the muffled sound of talking in the background, and then a little shouting. Geeez, he thought, don’t tell me she’s already in a bad mood. He suddenly felt three more times guilty for what he was about to do. Finally he heard the sound of someone picking up the phone.
"Hello." It was Rhian.
"Hi." She didn’t say anything else, and he sort of stared accusingly at the phone. Rhian was a great talker, and whenever he rang her, she was always full of news. After a while, he said, "Rhian? Is something wrong?" There was a bit of sniffling from her end, and then she said, "Uhh, Tay, can I come see you or something? I really need to talk to you." He listened for some signal of how she was feeling, but nothing came. Eventually he just said; "Sure. Why don’t you come over?" She mumbled yes, and thanked him.
"Hey, it’s no problem. You know I’m always here for you." He said gently.
"I know. Bye."
"Bye."
Taylor hung up and stared at nothing for a moment. He couldn’t do it - it wasn’t fair. He didn’t want to break up with her. He sighed and went upstairs to tidy his room a bit before she came.
* * * * * "I was not going to break up with him over the phone, Ell. I couldn’t do it. I need to say it to his face." Ellie gave me a disapproving look.
"Rhian, if you’d done it on the phone, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now, looking like you’re about to kill yourself or something."
"Maybe I should - it would be so much easier!" Ellie sighed and headed over to me.
"If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to - but it’s gotta end somehow. One of you is going to do it sometime." I looked up at her, and nodded.
"I know you’re right - but it still doesn’t make it any easier."
"I know, I know." She said, as she got up. "But I know you can do it, Rhian." And with that, she left the room, leaving me staring at the floor.
"Hi, Avie. Can I see Tay?" I asked as Avery answered the door for me.
"Hi, Rhian. I’ll go get him for you." I stood in the entryway, waiting for Tay.
"Hey Rhian," He said as he made his way down the staircase. He went straight to me, and put a hand on my arm. "What’s up?"
"I - I just needed to talk to you. Can we go for a walk?" He nodded, and took my hand to lead me out the door. We started down the street, neither of us really sure where we were going. We walked in silence until we ended up at the same park we had been to when rollerblading. "Hey, remember this place?" Tay asked. I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, he would hear the break in my voice.
We made our way towards a park bench and sat down. Still neither of us spoke.
Finally he looked up at me. "Rhian, I’ve been thinking about us. I - I think it might be a good idea if we were just friends." He watched me, waiting for my reaction. I couldn’t believe it. Even though the only reason I was about to break up with him was because I thought that was what He wanted, it was still such a shock to hear him saying it. I stared at him, not knowing what to say.
"Tay, I - I-"
He interrupted me "I think it would be better off in the long run. We’re leaving to record the new album in a month, and you wouldn’t see much of me, anyway, and I think - I think - " He must have seen the look on my face because he stopped in the middle of his sentence. I jumped up off the bench.
"What!? You think we should be friends? It will be better off in the long run?! What a cliché, Taylor! Why not just say you don’t like me and be done with it!?" Even as the words came from my mouth I had no idea why I was saying them. He jumped up too.
"You don’t believe me? Why would I lie?! I DO like you, Rhian, but I just can’t - I - "
I turned on my heel and set off down the path, the tears already burning my cheeks.
He didn’t try to follow me. I guess he knew me too well to think that he could do anything to change the way I felt. He just stood by the table and called after me; "Fine! Have it your way, Rhi! See if I care!"
I whirled around."If you cared, you wouldn’t have done this to me! And don’t think you can change anything, Tay, because you can’t!" I started running and didn’t stop until I reached another bench by a tree. I flopped onto the chair and let the tears flow freely.
* * * * * Taylor slumped onto the bench, fuming. He couldn’t believe it. He had tried to be nice about it, and this was what he got for it? As he stared in the direction she had gone, one part of him wished he could hug her and tell her he was sorry, that he didn’t mean it, that he’d do anything to change it. Tell her that he had only done it for some stupid PR person’s peace of mind, anyway. But another part of him told him to get up and go home. To forget about Rhian, and get on with his life. If she really cared about him, she would have understood what his problem was. He suddenly remembered the reason they had gone for a walk in the first place. I wonder what was up? He thought as he stood.
"Tay, get over it! Gawd, she’s just a stupid girl!" Zac stood over his brother who was lying on the sofa, staring aimlessly at the television screen. ‘Come with us, please? You’ll just get even more depressed if you sit here and dwell on it!" Isaac came up behind him and looked over the edge of the sofa. Then he said quietly to Zac, "Leave him be. He’ll get over it in his own time. Come on," Ike took Zac’s arm and steered him towards the door to the living room.
Taylor rolled over and listened to his brothers get their skates out and head out the door. He sighed and turned back to the flickering screen. It seemed that over the last two weeks without Rhian, everything that happened cruelly reminded him of her. When Zac had first suggested going Rollerblading that afternoon, his first thought had been of that first day in the park, but that had been followed by the more bitter, recent memory. His family had been really worried about him. Even the PR manager who had suggested the break-up in the first place had been trying to keep him happy. But, contrary to what Ike had told him once, the days without her did not get easier, instead they made him feel worse every time. He groaned and rolled off the couch towards the phone. He picked it up and started to dial her number before replacing it. He had begun dialling that number hundreds of times, but he never got past the third number. "Damn her!" He said, to no-one in particular. He picked up the phone book and threw it at the wall, but it didn’t make any difference to the hollow feeling he had in the pit of his stomach.