Opposites Distract

I pushed the blankets off and just sat up. Yes, there was an IV in my arm. Yes, I needed stitches above my brow. Yes, I was in pain and extremely dehydrated. But everything’s fine. “Seriously, Taylor, fucking talk to me!” May screamed at me, tears down her face.

But I couldn’t talk to May. Not about this.

Dinner with Warren was a tragedy. I told him I knew about him and Reese. He didn’t get defensive or try to deny it. To my surprise, he was so blasé about the whole ordeal. Apparently, when he proposed to May, he didn’t think she would say yes. Now, with their wedding coming up, he was having second thoughts and just freaking out about the thought of marriage. Reese happened to be available, and, in his words, “She’s reminded me how much fun it is not to be married.”

I was never more furious with Warren than I was that night, not even when he spilled coffee all over my blueprints that one time and I had to redraw everything. I chewed him out for leading May on, and then he argued that he wasn’t because he still planned to marry her…eventually. I chewed him out for cheating on May, and he argued that he wasn’t because he and Reese hadn’t done anything… past kissing. That was still cheating! I was so, so angry with him.

When I threatened to tell May, he pleaded and begged me not to. I made him promise to tell her by the end of the week – today – and he still hadn’t. I went to him last night to remind him…and that’s when it happened.

He slapped me across the face and threw me in the trunk of his car. It was kind of funny. He was apologizing and everything, telling me he wouldn’t have to do this if I had just left him and Reese alone. Then he threatened me, too – threatened to tell May that Jack and I fucked in the bathroom of that restaurant we had dinner at once. I wondered how he had come to that assumption. Apparently, Reese saw Jack and I walking out of the men’s bathroom together. …You know what assuming does.

After giving me his little monologue, he shut the trunk and locked me inside. It was hot and dark and I was suffocating in there. I don’t know where he was driving, but when he stopped, I did my best to get out. Lucky for me, Warren’s Cadillac had the middle seat of the back row opening up into the trunk. It took me a while to open it because he had a bunch of books and bags in front of it, like he knew I’d try to get out. I made it, though, and that’s when I cut my brow on something, trying to squeeze out of the trunk and into the car through that tiny space.

Once I was out, I unlocked the car and left all the doors wide open. I hope somebody tried to hotwire and steal it, or roll it off to a chop shop, because that was when I realized where Warren was – Reese’s apartment. I didn’t even want to know what was going on in there right now, but I knew I needed to get away. I ran away for a while, a little lost. Well, more than a little lost, I had no idea where I was going. Warren took my phone, and my phone had everything on it. I could have used my GPS on there to get home. I walked around all night and day, and I couldn’t get anywhere that was remotely familiar to me.

May found me passed out on the highway a few miles from some gas station…and now, here I was, in the hospital, with May freaking out about the whole situation. She thought I got raped and left for dead or something, but the doctors checked me every which way. Nothing else had happened to me. I just fainted from exhaustion and dehydration.

I wonder if Warren knew I was alive. Or if he cared at all.

“Ok, I just got off the phone with Jack,” May sighed when I still wouldn’t answer her. “He and Alex are coming over. If you’re not going to talk to me, you should at least tell one of them or just Jack what happened, alright, Tay?”

I still said nothing, but I felt my heart wither at the mention of Jack’s name. I felt terrible. He probably hated me for not showing up. I missed our date tonight. I was supposed to meet him at The Cheesecake Factory. Still, I couldn’t exactly tell him that his sister’s fiancé was cheating on her and held me hostage because I was threatening to rat him out.

“What about Warren?” May said, snapping me out of my thoughts. She began typing something on her phone. “Will you talk to Warren if I get him to come here tonight?”

“NO!” I yelled, leaping up to snatch the phone out of her hands. I winced, the IV wiggling around in my arm at the action, but held her phone away from her. “No one else. Just Jack.”

May frowned. It was the first thing I had said to her ever since I regained consciousness. “Ok…”

I sighed, laying down on the bed properly this time. It was killing me not to tell May about Warren, but I couldn’t say anything about anyone. I didn’t want to break up the soon to be married couple. Both were among my best friends. If I told, Warren might hurt me even more.

This silence isn’t easy.

“I am her boyfriend, dammit!” A familiar voice yelled from outside my room. I froze. Jack opened the door, ignoring the hospital personnel trying to keep him out. “Taylor?”

My heart leapt up into my throat. “Jack,” I choked out, feeling my eyes water.

He grimaced at the sight of my injuries, rushing to my side and wrapping me up in his long, skinny arms. “Jesus fucking H. Christ, what the hell happened to you?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t make it tonight,” I mumbled into his chest, letting my tears fall freely onto his shirt. I was surprised he was here at all. I was surprised he wanted to come see me after I’d stood him up.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack murmured, stroking my hair and rocking me in his arms. Alex came in and left with May, giving Jack and I some time alone. “Talk to me, Taylor.Who…What…”

“I can’t.”

Jack held me at arm’s length, staring at me. “You can’t tell me who hurt you, what happened to you? Taylor, why the…Why can’t…Fuck,” he said simply, hugging me again. “I’m glad you’re ok, but can you promise me you’ll tell me everything eventually?”

“Yes.”

“Ok,” Jack sighed uneasily, releasing me. “Well, since you didn’t come tonight, and no one leaves The Original Cheesecake Factory without to go boxes…” he trailed off, grabbing a plastic bag off May’s chair. He put the bag on my lap. Inside was a huge slice of Red Velvet cheesecake…my favorite.

“Aw, Jack…!” He wasn’t listening to me. He was busy unwrapping the plastic forks for us to eat it with. We ate together, talking about everything but why I was in the hospital. We were especially talking about our families. “You’re Arabic? Whoa. I forgot that.”

“I can understand a little, but I can’t speak any,” Jack admitted, grabbing the pen and clipboard left on the table by the doctors. “See, this is my name in Arabic.” And Jack doodled something on the paper.



“That’s so cool! Can you draw my name?” It took Jack longer, but he doodled my name, too.



“Grr…your name looks so much prettier than mine,” Jack laughed.

“Hey, when I get out, take me to a tattoo parlor. I want that on the back of my neck or something.”

“The first place I’m going to take you when you get out is your apartment…You smell like Zack after playing a show.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks so much, Jack…”