The Tangles of My Heart

“Can I come with you to work again today, Taylor?” Anna asked at breakfast one morning.

I arched an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t rather hit the beach with Sid and Vince?”

“Nah, I like the hotel where you work at.”

I narrowed my eyes at my younger sister. “…This is about that guy, isn’t it?” Anna merely laughed nervously, so I smirked. “Alright, you can come with.” She thanked me before running off to get dressed.

We drove to the hotel and I went straight to the construction site. I left Anna in the lobby. She was texting someone – I can only assume it was the guy she met here the other day – so I quickly got to work. Supervision was easy as fuck, anyways.

“Hey, pretty lady! Are we allowed to golf here?” a definitive male voice asked.

I turned around, preparing to give the guy hell for his rudeness, when I saw Anna right beside him. “Obviously not,” I scoffed, gesturing towards the yellow caution tape.

“Taylor, this is Matt. Matt, this is my older sister, Taylor,” Anna introduced the both of us, and once Matt got that “Oh, snap” look off his face and shook my hand, he…looked at me funny. He looked at me the way that people look at you when they know you but can’t remember your name to save their life. It was a bit unsettling, but I let it slide.

“When do you get off work, Taylor?” Matt asked politely.

“Not for another few hours…why?”

“We’re going to grab some lunch,” Anna said, and I tried not to smile as I watched Matt’s arm surreptitiously slide around her waist. They looked so cute together I could die. “Why don’t you come with us?”

“Well, firstly, I hate being a third wheel. Secondly, I can’t leave a job unfinished.”

“That’s what she said,” Matt muttered, making Anna laugh. I rolled his eyes at his immaturity, internally scowling – because it reminded me so much of Jack… “Do you, uh, want us to bring you back some food?” Matt asked after clearing his throat.

“No…just take good care of my sister, Matt,” I said firmly, smirking when he nodded and fingers hooked onto one of Anna’s belt loops. “But pineapple orange juice would be awesome if you could find any.”

“Gotcha, Tay. C’mon, Matt, let’s go,” Anna said, tugging Matt along. Matt seemed like a good guy, despite his lip ring and gauges. I wasn’t worried about Anna. I was happy for her – maybe even jealous of her…

Even by the time I was done with work, Matt and Anna weren’t back yet, so I just called up the twins to see what they were up to. They were having lunch over on the beach, so once I went home and changed into proper beach attire, I decided to join them. We were eating some tacos on the beach. “Tay, could we come live with you?” Sid asked after four or five tacos. “Like, permanently.”

I laughed. “Well, I won’t live in Hawaii forever, you know. I was actually thinking of moving back home.”

“No, Tay, please! Hawaii is so awesome!” Vince whined.

“I’m only here for my job, boys. I’ll probably end up going back to the states, anyways…”

They kept complaining about how they wanted to stay here in Hawaii with me and I got tired of listening to it, so I went over to the ice cream shop on the beach and bought myself some…but guess who I met there. Guess who the fuck I met there. “Taylor? Taylor, is that you?”

I arched an eyebrow. “Well, hi there, Zack…what…what brings you to Hawaii?”

“Hi,” Zack said, as if I didn’t ask him my question. He was probably more shocked to see me than I was to see him. “I, um, like what you did to your hair,” he muttered, scratching the back of his neck and glancing around.

“Thanks,” I laughed nervously. This was all kinds of awkward. I never talked much to Zack, but I’d much rather run into Zack than Alex, or…Jack. “I’m happy you got rid of the, uh, fro,” I teased, ruffling Zack’s short, dark brown hair. “What are you doing in Hawaii?” I repeated.

“Taking a vacation. We worked really fucking hard and felt like we earned it.”

“That’s nice,” I said as I nodded, moving up in line so I could buy myself a cone of ice cream. “Well, uh, it was nice to see you, Zack…”

“Taylor?” Zack called my name, walking beside me as I tried to walk away. “You didn’t really cheat on Jack, did you?”

…I knew it. I knew he would ask me that. “Zack, why don’t you go enjoy your vacation and pretend you never saw me?”

“It’s impossible to enjoy, what with Jack being a little bitch,” Zack scoffed, making me stop walking. He had continued walking, so he turned around to face me. “What? It’s true, Taylor, he’s not the same without you. It is not a fucking coincidence that Jack’s here. You two are so supposed to be together.”

I rolled my eyes and walked past him, whipping out my phone to text the boys that we were leaving soon. “Have a nice day, Zack.”

He sighed, but the next thing I knew, my ice cream cone was shoved in my face and my phone was stolen from me. I yelped when the ice cream hit my face and quickly pulled it off, only to see Zack laughing and running off with my phone. “Merrick, get back here!” I yelled, running after him.

I wasn’t far behind him, but Zack cheated and kicked up some sand in my face. I stumbled to the water to wash myself off, but I couldn’t see shit, so I tripped on something and fell face first into the water. I’m not exactly the most graceful person on earth, you know. “Clumsy slut,” some guy scoffed, and I felt more water splash onto me as the guy walked away.

“Fuck off,” I muttered, pushing my hair back and trying to get a better look at this rude motherfucker, the sunlight making me squint.

“Sweetie, look at this shell I found!” a gorgeous blonde girl declared, cupping something in her hands as she ran through the water towards the guy that didn’t bother to help me up when I fell.

“That’s nice, Holls,” the guy sighed, slinging his arm around her shoulders before the both of them walked off.

Zack trotted over. “Uh, Taylor…”

“Can I please just have my phone back?” I asked flatly, tearing my eyes away from the couple that was walking away. Zack swallowed hard before handing me my phone. I snatched it from him and started walking back to the twins. This must’ve been Zack’s plan all along - for me to ever so conveniently accidentally run into him... except for her barging in, of course. I’d recognize that spiky black hair and that voice anywhere.

…Well, Jack sure did upgrade from me.