My Heart Belongs to You

Taylor thanked Dylan as they returned to the house, heading inside and finding Tammy sitting on the sofa waiting. Motioning for her best friend to follow her upstairs, they retreated to her room and Taylor closed the door behind them.

"Your mom told me about your argument," Tammy said as they sat on the bed, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Taylor mumbled, grabbing her notebook from her school bag and reading over the assignment, "Okay, so we need to decide on a story to write and then each create a character."

"Why don't we write about a wizard who discovers a radioactive rabbit?" Tammy suggested.

"Let's not," Taylor countered, "The story needs to have a message behind it, something that will make the reader think as they read..."

"Who wouldn't walk away thinking after reading about radioactive rabbits?" Tammy argued playfully, earning a glare from Taylor and holding her hands up in mock surrender, "I'm sorry, I'll take it seriously."

"Why don't we write about a soldier going off to war and the effect it has on his family?"

"Excuse me miss, but your geek is showing," Tammy teased, causing Taylor to burst out laughing, "I like that idea, maybe you could write from the perspective of the soldier and I'll take a family member."

"Sounds good to me."

It took them the rest of the weekend to finish their story, giving Taylor an excuse to avoid her mom and time to think about what had happened between them. She was angry at first, but after a while, the anger faded and she was left feeling guilty.

Walking through the school doors on Monday morning, Taylor took a shaky deep breath and made her way through the crowd of students that were milling around. Reaching her locker, she felt her phone vibrate and retrieved it from her pocket. Seeing that it was a new text from Dylan, she opened it and smiled as she read what he had put.

'Hope things are good for you today. Know that I am here if you need me and that I care.'

Sending him a quick 'thank you' in reply, Taylor headed to her first class and took her seat. She found it nearly impossible to focus in her classes before lunch, trying her hardest to concentrate on what her tutor was saying and ignoring the looks that Michelle was giving her from the other side of the room. Grabbing some food from the cafeteria, Taylor joined Tammy at a table and grimaced as she stabbed her fork into some sort of meat dish.

"I'm pretty sure that my cat had this for dinner last night," Tammy announced, examining her fork with a look of disgust and allowing the chunky brown mass to drop back onto her tray.

"Maybe it tastes better than it looks," Taylor replied, putting a forkful into her mouth and spitting it straight back out, "Nope, it tastes just as bad."

Hearing a commotion behind her, Taylor looked over her shoulder and saw the football team entering with Dylan leading the pack. Returning the smile that Dylan sent her way, Taylor picked her bag up off the floor and dumped her food in the trash as she left with Tammy close on her heels.

The school day was going fine, until her final lesson and everything seemed to go to hell. She had been working on her art project in silence, when a folded piece of paper landed on the desk in front of her. Thinking that is was from Tammy, Taylor rolled her eyes at her best friends constant need to communicate and opened the paper out to find one cryptic sentence.

'I know your little secret and so does Dylan.'

Glancing over at Tammy with a frown, Taylor was surprised to find that she was immersed in her work and scanned the room to find Michelle smirking in her direction. Feeling her phone vibrate, she quietly pulled it out and wasn't surprised to find a new text from Dylan.

'Word on the street is that you're in love with me, is it true?'

Heard through the grapevine that your GIRLFRIEND is a jealous little idiot, is it true?' Taylor quickly replied.

'I'll take that as a no then, shall I?'

'Take it however you want.'

Putting her phone away, Taylor screwed up the note and tossed it in the bin. Getting home in record time, Taylor made herself some food and headed to her room. She was watching Buffy on Netflix, when a red dot appeared on her laptop screen and she glared out her window at Dylan.

I'm sorry read the sign that he held, rubbing it out and scribbling something else in its place, I shouldn't have even asked

No, you shouldn't have Taylor wrote in reply, holding it up and smiling at Dylan's face as she changed it, Buffy?

I'll bring the popcorn