Kiss Me Like you Did -IGHS Sequel-

Taylor’s POV

So it turned out that I had dated a sociopath.

Well, okay. So that’s not what the “official” term was. In fact, the only mental problem Ryan was actually diagnosed with was a severe case of anxiety. He’d lost me, he had to share a room with my new – old? – boyfriend, and on top of that, he was completely failing out of college. And all of those problems could be solved in one easy move – murdering Jake.

You can see why the rest of us still call him a sociopath.

Somewhere in Ryan’s twisted mind, he thought getting Jake out of the way would cause me to come crawling back to him. And of course there’s the grief policy – if your roommate dies, you immediately get straight A’s without even having to take your summer exams. It was kind of genius, in a way, especially for somebody who’d consistently failed every single exam he’d taken so far that year. Jake would die of an allergic reaction and of course Ryan would never have been implicated – if it hadn’t for me waking up in the middle of the night completely freaking out for no apparent reason. Jake likes to joke that we have a psychic connection. Me, I know it’s all down to Landon being an ominous creep.

Seriously. “I think you should stay away from him Taylor. You and Jake.” That’s pretty ominous right? And while I was sleeping it must have sparked something in my subconscious psyche that made me realise he was right and need to warn Jake... Okay. So that sounds just as unlikely as the psychic thing. And I guess it’s pretty cool to think that at any time, anywhere, I might just need to take a nap and wake up knowing exactly what my boyfriend is up to.

Jake decided not to press charges against Ryan. In fact, he wouldn’t even tell the police, or campus security, or anyone except me and Kelly about what had happened with Ryan kissing him and stuff. Safe in the knowledge that Ryan wouldn’t be returning to Brown for a second year, he claimed amnesia and wouldn’t let either of us say anything either – though Kel put up a significant fight. Eventually she gave up fighting Jake and fought Ryan instead. He went home that summer with satisfyingly swollen black eye that he was, when questioned, very tight-lipped about.

Speaking of Kelly, she joined us in Jake’s hospital room about an hour after I had crawled into his bed beside him. Although “joined” doesn’t really give her entrance justice. More like, she storm in in a whirlwind of righteous indignation, having had to spend ten minutes proving her relationship with Jake was, indeed, familial.

‘Brother!’ she hissed, glaring at me. ‘You don’t even look like us! And they believed you, but not me!’

I didn’t bother to point out that they hadn’t exactly believed me, because I thought it might have made her even angrier. She calmed down pretty quickly when she saw Jake was awake, and threw herself at the bed, immediately bursting into fresh tears.

‘You absolute shit!’ she sobbed at him, while choking him half to death. ‘You had better never do this to me again. Either of you. I am so fucking over having to see you both passed out and turning blue!’

I didn’t need to ask what she meant – I knew she was referring to my brush with date rape drugs, which was, by all accounts, pretty scary for everyone who had been awake. Ie, everyone but me.

‘So how was your drive with Jacob?’ I asked casually. Now that I was safe in the knowledge that the love of my life was alive and well, it was a relief to start teasing Kelly about the guy who’d been crushing on her all year.

‘Huh? Oh, do mean did I find Ryan? You know I didn’t. Jacob just drove me around in circles for half an hour before I figured out what he was up to and made him bring me back here.’

I rolled my eyes and glanced at Jake, who bit his lip to stop himself from ginning. ‘Crafty little fucker, isn’t he?’

‘Who? Jacob?’

‘Yes!’ we both shouted at her.

She frowned. ‘What am I missing here?’

I dropped my forehead into my hands. Jake groaned and leaned back against his pillow.

Kelly sat up suddenly, eyes wide, mouth dropping open in shock. ‘Oh my god!’ she whispered.

‘Finally worked it out, huh?’ Jake asked his sister.

‘Has anyone called Aunt Jessie?!’ she demanded.

-------------------------------------

In light of what had happened, the three of us decided to veto going to Cali for two weeks before going home to Ireland. Jake’s parents were pretty anxious to see him – make sure he was alive, all that jazz – and to be honest, I knew I’d have been an antsy, excited mess if we’d gone to see my parents anyway. All I wanted to do was jump on a plane and go home. I hadn’t been home in two years. I wanted to go somewhere where every familiar landmark didn’t remind me of shrink visits, pills, insane crying jags, deep bouts of depression, things I’d done with Ryan. And I couldn’t wait to go to the skate park again.

Instead, we decided to shift the Cali visit to the end of the summer. We’d visit my parents for two or three and then – you guessed it – take a road trip back to Rhode Island. I was looking forward to this one. I thought it might be more fun than the last.

Jake and Kelly’s Aunt Jessie drove us to the airport. She was still fussing over Jake – not dissimilar, Kelly told me in a whispered aside, from the way she’d been fussing over him at the start of the year. But remembering Jake’s emaciated, depressed presence from nine months ago was upsetting, so I shook it off and grinned at the way Jessie snatched away anything Jake tried to eat and scanned the ingredients list first.

‘Aunt Jessie, it’s a ham sandwich,’ Jake said long-sufferingly, staring at his hands which had, up until seconds ago, been unwrapping his lunch. ‘It doesn’t have any nuts in it.’

Jessie was reading the sticker on the side of the packet carefully. ‘Hmm,’ she said suspiciously, but handed it back to him. Sitting in a bustling cafe in the airport, Kelly and I smirked at each other as Jake finally bit into his sandwich. I guess it was pretty understandable overprotective behaviour though. Jessie hadn’t been let in on the Ryan story and was one of the majority who thought Jake had become complacent about his eating and hawked back a handful of peanuts. It was funny watching Jake try to put up with her though.

‘Well fancy meeting you here.’ We all looked up from our lunches in surprise to see two familiar, identical faces grinning down at us. Dropping our sandwiches, all but Jessie signed a greeting at Johnny while simultaneously saying one to Jacob and dragging chairs from a neighbouring table over to ours so they could sit down. Conveniently, Jacob ended up next to Kelly. On her other side, I watched in rapt fascination as she switched on her flirty smile and turned it full force on him.

‘So I figured something out recently,’ she said coyly.

‘Did it hurt?’ he asked, avoiding her gaze and picking at her sandwich for want of something to do with his hands. She didn’t even stop him.

‘You know,’ Kelly said archly, flicking her hair, ‘for someone who’s supposedly been steadily crushing on me for almost a year, that’s not a very nice thing to say.’

I do believe Jacob choked on his own spit. ‘I haven’t- I mean, I’m not- I don’t-’

Kelly laughed and put a hand over his mouth to shut him up. ‘Think you can wait another three months?’

Jacob swallowed and nodded, his eyes wide.

Kelly grinned. ‘Aces,’ she said, before removing her hand and leaning in to kiss him properly on the mouth, right in front of her brother and her aunt, not to mention his brother. And, you know, me.

Jake’s POV

I was jittery with excitement as the announcement came over the airplane’s speaker system for us to put away our trays, take our seats, and put on our seatbelts. I was sitting by the window, so I could peer outside to watch the runway getting closer and closer, even though it was slightly difficult what with it being a) after midnight and b) raining. But I looked outside anyway, my hand grasping Taylor’s tightly as he leaned across me to look outside too.

I wasn’t excited, exactly, about being home. I mean, I had missed my parents and my friends from school – though they hadn’t featured greatly in my last year anyway, seeing as I turned into a depressed recluse – and my room and my bed and my house. I was looking forward to seeing all that stuff. But I wasn’t excited about it. The reason I was excited was because Taylor’s excitement was infectious. He was bouncing in his seat. He was rejoicing about the rain – which they don’t get much of in California, I’ve heard. He was squealing about the clouds, the lack of sunshine, the fact that he’d get to stay inside – possibly even by a fire – all day every day for the next three months. He’d tried to start a conversation with us in Irish half way over the Atlantic. He all but imploded with the wheels of the plane bounced off the runway.

Kelly and I were laughing at him as he rushed us through baggage claim, and practically glomped my parents when he saw them. They hugged him back happily, delighted, I’m pretty sure, that they had their surrogate second son back and that my walking, talking, laughing and – at this particular moment – squealing medication was going to be staying with us for the summer. I don’t think they trusted me to stay well on my own.

When we stepped outside the doors, Taylor launched himself into the rain and literally danced and splashed about in the puddles. It was strange since there’d been plenty of rain in Rhode Island. But I guess it wasn’t the same.

We eventually got him into the car, where he dripped all over everything, including Kelly and I, as he insisted on sitting in the middle. After a few moments of driving, his head lolled onto my shoulder and he fell asleep.

‘It’s like a little kid on Christmas,’ Kelly whispered to me across his sleeping form. ‘He got too excited and exhausted himself.’

When we got home, I lifted him out of the car and carried him up to my room. Dad offered to help me, but I refused. Taylor was my responsibility, all mine, completely mine, mine forever. I wasn’t sharing him with anyone, and anyway, my dad might have tried to take him to the guest room.

As I laid him on the bed and started trying to tug off his wet clothes, Taylor stirred and woke up.

‘Are you trying to take advantage of me as I sleep?’ he murmured, not opening his eyes or sitting up.

‘Would you object if I was?’

Taylor laughed a little and grabbed the hem of his wet t-shirt, pulling it off over his head. ‘What do you think?’

I rolled my eyes and threw some dry clothes at him. ‘You’re going to be so sick tomorrow.’

‘All the more reason to take advantage of me now.’

I laughed and pulled off my own clothes, then crawled into bed next to him. He squirmed over to me and wrapped his cold, still slightly wet arms around me.

‘Really?’ he asked, and even though I’d turned off the light I could tell he was sulking. ‘Nothing?’

‘Some of us didn’t get to nap the whole way home in the car,’ I teased him. ‘Some of us are tired.’

‘You suck,’ he mumbled, laying his head on my chest and squeezing me in the way I knew meant he was settling in to go to sleep. That’s when I let my hand wander down and squeeze his butt.

Taylor’s POV

Sweaty, spent, and exhausted, I curled up beside Jake, my legs entangled with his, my head on his chest.

‘I love you, Jake Chaplain. In case you didn’t know.’

‘I love you too, Taylor Hannon. In case you were interested.’