Downpour

I held my best friends hand as we walked into our house the morning after her seizure. Tayden, as usual, was right behind us. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. I knew the words he told me after he basically broke me in half were true though. We needed to act as if none of it happened. So that’s what I was going to do.

I unlocked the door and opened it wide, letting Rain walk in before me. As soon as she passed I held my stomach, a nauseating feeling rising quickly. I stepped back outside, rushing past Tayden in the door and threw up in the bushes.

“…Baylin? Are you okay?” Tayden’s hands grabbed my arms as he helped me up. I shrugged him off, ignoring his question before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and stepping back inside.

“Are you sick?” Rain asked stepping towards me. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She wasn’t supposed to be asking me if I was okay, I was supposed to be asking her.

She was the one that had just been released from the hospital, not me. I nodded and walked to the bathroom to swish the nasty taste out of my mouth. I heard a light knock and Rain stepped in. I turned to her and smiled.

“You should lay down, you need your rest. I’m perfectly fine. I swear.” She nodded and stepped out the room just in time for me to throw up again.



As it would seem, fate was not on my side. Tayden suggested to Rain that he’d stay in the guest bedroom. As long as it wasn’t my bed, I was perfectly fine with that. There was no way in hell that I would let Tayden into my bed ever again.

He was currently sitting on the couch with her, her legs spread out over his lap, and they were laughing at a Home Alone movie on the TV. I smiled at how close they were. I was never that close with anyone in my family.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I went into my bedroom to change. I put on a light green bikini with a pair of white shorts on top. Stepping into the living room I made sure not to notice Tayden looking at me.

“Where you going, Bay?” I placed a pair of sunglasses on the top of my head, and threw a couple of my things laying around in my bag.

“Um, this guy Isaac invited me to play beach volleyball with him and his friends. I’ll be back later.” I made sure to emphasize Isaac’s name more than needed, just so Tayden could see I wasn’t staying hung up on him.

Just before I was out the door I heard Rain say something to Tayden. “Ahh! I bet it’s the guy she slept with the night of our party. You hear that Tayden, our little girls growing up!” I shut the door quietly and smirked.

She had no idea.



I smiled at Isaac as I found him on the beach. He was laying in the sun with a beer in his hand. I sat down next to him and he leaned over giving me a light kiss on the lips. I felt barely any emotion as he did so, but if I couldn’t have Tayden. Which I knew I couldn’t, I wasn’t going to waste any time trying to get over him.

“Change of plans, my friends couldn’t make it. They got a flat and decided after changing it they didn’t wanna come. But I didn’t wanna leave you out here by yourself so I figured we could just lay back and chill. Sounds okay?” I nodded and stripped off my jean shorts, tossing them into my bag before pulling out a towel and placing it next to Isaac’s.

We talked about lots of different things, and even if I wasn’t totally honest with him about being interested romantically, I knew that Isaac would make an amazing friend. He was super easy to get along with, laid back, charming, funny, and handsome.

As the evening grew closer to an end, the more I was dreading to go back home. I knew what I was going to do was wrong, but it wasn’t going to stop me from doing it at all. Isaac and I walked to my house hand in hand. Considering I lived on the beach it wasn’t much of a long walk, but it was long enough to clear my mind.

As we reached my house I unlocked the door and stepped in. Rain’s laughter echoed through the house, it sounded like it was coming from the laundry room.

Isaac followed me in, closing the front door behind him. We walked towards the sound of voices I got more and more nervous. I glanced at Isaac, if he was nervous he sure didn’t show it.

Stepping into the laundry room, I spotted my best friend and her cousin. Rain was sitting next to a basket of clothes, and she was tossing pieces of it at Tayden. One piece after every piece he finished. In other words, she was making him do her laundry.

I cleared my throat and they both looked at us, mid laughter. Their gazes traveled somewhat behind me to spot Isaac. I looked at him, a big grin on his face. “Hi, I’m Isaac.”

Rain smiled and waved sweetly at him. Her phone buzzed and she looked at it before placing it back down without replying. I eyed her suspiciously but she never let on to anything.

“Tayden, nice to meet you.” His eyes never met Isaac, he was glaring at me as he said it. I shot him a look and he averted his eyes to the laundry Rain was still tossing towards him. He went back to folding the clothes, I quickly slipped my hand into Isaac’s.

“So you’re the Isaac I’ve heard about.” I glanced at Rain, confused. I’d never mentioned him to her before today. Tayden’s face jerked up looking at Rain. The smile on her face looked believable. If I wouldn’t have known the truth, I might have believed it myself.

“You talk about me?” Isaac said smiling. I tried to give him a nice smile, he leaned in and kissed me on the lips softly.

I’d met Isaac about two or three weeks ago, right before I moved in with Rain. We’d run into each other’s shopping carts at the grocery store and continued to talk the entire time we shopped. We ended up swapping numbers, although I never thought I’d use his. But payback seemed like a good enough reason.

I looked a Tayden briefly, but it was long enough to see his expression. It was sadness mixed with hurt.