Disclaimer: Everything belongs to me. Seriously. I am this amazing. Oh wait. My imagination is not reality. Damn, I forget that every day.
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The wedding was only 2 weeks from today. 'How could she do this to me? Two weeks? TWO WEEKS?' Taylor sighed and looked at her answering machine. It was blinking red and the number showed 5. She groaned but pressed play knowing it would be better to get it over with.
"Hey girlfriend!" Summer's voice came through. "Guess what I just heard. Veronica, getting married, two weeks from now! How crazy is that? How come you didn't inherit this spontaneous gene? Never mind. I gotta go, taking Pancakes to the vet. Seth fed him chocolate. Why is he so stupid? Why did I fall in love with a child? Ew. That sounds so gross. Whatevs. Bye Honey! Come home soon!" Taylor smiled at Summer's life. It was a lot crazier but a helluva more interesting. Next message wasn't as pleasing.
"Taylor. I'm getting married in two weeks. You should have gotten the invitation. I paid extra for it to be delivered today. Also you need to be my maid of honour. I don't want any of these women to gossip about how much it took me to actually get into my wedding dress. I'll explain when you get here. I expect you to come in a week at most for the rehearsals." Taylor hit the back of her head on the door frame as there was a moment of silence on the message. "Bye."
"Hi. Is your mortgage rate-" She quickly hit the delete button.
"Check your account from your phone-" She deleted that one too.
"Babe, I'm gonna be a bit late." She stared at the machine with tears forming behind her eyes. "I just need to pick up the milk. I'm sorry, I forgot again. But when I see you I will repay in the most rewarding way you can think of. It includes a looooot of chocolate syrup-" The machine cut the voice off. Taylor smiled sadly but pressed delete as well. She walked to the freezer, took out Ben 'n' Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream and sat on her couch whilst opening her laptop.
"Okay Taylor. Let's make a list of pros and cons of the wedding. Con, it's my mother. Pro, I can...spend some time in Newport...and watch Ryan and Marissa sucking faces...and have every single person I hate, hate me right back...yeah, that sounds more and more like a con. On the other hand, if I don't go I will go through another decade of terrorism from my mother. Over the phone. Argh!" She threw her head back. "It's a doom situation either way." She reached for her cell phone and dialled Seth's number.
"Hey, hey! You're disturbing me in the Fortress of Solitude. But I can make an exception and walked out since it is kinda freezing. Did you watch it?" He sounded bored. Seth always sounded bored these days.
"No. Didn't have time. But listen. The wedding. Yay or nay?" She could just picture Seth trying to think of the answer which would make least damage.
"Yay. Summer's making me go and with you it can at least be interesting. We can discuss the evolution of rabies and how useful a new plague would be."
"Oh so I take it someone took your parking space at the mall again?" She grinned into the phone and took another scoop of ice cream.
"It's like another universe. These women are vicious and violent and I'm just a poor skinny guy who tries to go and pick up my favourite comics whilst my girlfriend lounges about and tans with her best friend. Ryan is too busy being whipped and...Yeah, I just realized that I'm an ass. Sorry Ty." She rolled her eyes.
"Seth, please. If you're not talking about how much others are inconveniencing your life then no one else should matter. I kid of course. Seth, seriously, it's fine. I'm over it."
"Then let me continue on talking about myself and how much Ryan/Seth time I'm missing because of my best friend's girlfriend and because of my girlfriend's best friend. She is evil. See, women's solidarity."
"Seth, you're not a woman. And the only reason why you think Marissa is evil is because you're bored."
"Are you not gonna solider me back right after I soldered you? I find that offensive."
"Your face is offensive."
"And that is just pure mean. But about the wedding, yeah, you should come. I've seen you but Summer hasn't. She misses you."
"I hate it when you convince me. I guess I'll see you next week. Bye Aquaman." She grinned knowing how he'd react to that name.
"How dare you? That is the biggest insult I've ever heard-" She hanged up on him yelling at her and continued eating ice cream. She turned on the TV on her laptop. She didn't have an actual one. Her apartment was actually pretty basic. It was a bachelor pad next to a police station. LA has taught her that knowing how far away the police are is the most important thing. The neighbourhood wasn't exactly safe but a girl could get home without being bothered at 3 am at night. Her bedroom was linked with the living room and the kitchen was on the left separated from the living room by a build in bar. The whole apartment was painted in dark green. The whole place looked new even though she's lived there for 6 years now. 4 since she graduated from Berkeley with Ryan and Marissa. It never felt like home. Neither did Newport to be honest. The only place that ever did feel like home was at Berkley when she was still with Ryan. And Matt's car. Matt's car. Tears started forming again. Taylor shook them off and put the ice cream on the table. "Let's do some work, shall we? Yes Taylor who speaks to herself. We shall."
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She saved up exactly 14 days off work. Her boss was not pleased about losing her best translator for 2 whole weeks but he understood. When she walked out of the airport she expected to take a cab to her mother's but instead a jeep stopped right in front of her and she was attacked by a bush of black curls. She stepped back and Summer leeched onto her. Taylor realized that she was being hugged and spun her friend in circles whilst hugging her back. Summer finally let go and took a good look.
"Damn girl. You're looking good. LA does you good." Taylor laughed and looked at the jeep she recognized so well. Ryan didn't even look at her but Marissa on the passenger seat shot her a small smile.
"You guys shouldn't park here." Summer hit her shoulder.
"Don't be stupid. We're here to pick you up." Taylor raised her eyebrows at the girl.
"Summer. I have luggage and I'm going to my mother's. You really wanna see her? I'm just gonna take the cab. It's fine." She actually moved to a cab whilst she was talking.
"Fine. But I'm coming with you. You two..." She faced Ryan and Marissa. "...go and entertain Seth. He's too bored."
"Are you sure? Summer, we can just follow you guys." Marissa said whilst she glanced at the security guard coming their way.
"Coop, I hate to break it to ya but we need to go take a break. For at least an hour." Marissa just laughed.
"Okay, see you later. Come on Ryan." Taylor could see that he gave his girlfriend a smile in the rear-view mirror. However when he glanced into it she had to look away so he didn't realize that she stared at him. They drove off and Summer got into the cab.
"Taylor?" She stuck her head out at the girl who stared after the jeep. "You coming?"
"Yeah." She smiled and gave her bags to the cab driver. "Yeah. I'm completely fine."
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"Taylor. Good. You're on time. You can't stay here though. The house is in complete preparation for the wedding and I turned your room into a gym." Was what greeted Taylor Townsend when she walked into her mother's house. Summer looked at her friend.
"Wow. Hi mom. You're pregnant." Yes, in fact Veronica Townsend was 7 months pregnant. And Taylor knew nothing about it.
"Very observant darling, but you need to get your luggage out of here. The harpists are meant to come any second now and you're blocking the entrance."
"Harpists?" Summer couldn't believe her ears. "As in PLURAL?"
"Yes Summer. What is it with you two today? Do you need a doctor?" Veronica frowned but someone called at that moment and she went to answer. Taylor stood with her mouth opened.
"Where am I supposed to stay?"
"Well your room at the Roberts residence is still open. Kaitlin tried to take over it but I wouldn't let her. The only downside to it is that the nursery is next door to it." Summer said. Taylor sighed. One the one hand, she needed a place to stay. On the other, she'd have to stay in the same house as Marissa Cooper.
"I don't want to impose. I think I'll just stay at the motel." Summer hit her shoulder. "Ow. Did you get stronger? Well, Seth is the perfect punching bag." The black haired girl took her luggage and called a cab on her cell.
"Hey! Summer! That's my stuff!" Taylor ran after her.
"Townsend. You're stupid. And you're staying at my house." Tyler rolled her eyes. "Besides. We haven't hanged out in two years. We need some sistah time."
"Why do you sound so much like Seth sometimes?"
"I know. It's tragic."
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When Summer went to hang out with Marissa, Taylor took her car to go to the comic store. There was a geeky teenager behind the desk.
"Hi." He grinned at her in this leery way. "Can I help you?"
"No thanks." She send him a bright smile. "I know my way about this place." He looked surprised but nodded and went back to his phone. Taylor looked around through the new issues, she already read them all online and she stopped collecting them a while back. After Matt said that it was stupid. She left the store pretty quickly and decided to walk around.
"Taylor!" Someone called her name. She turned to see it was Seth. With Ryan. She smiled at her friend. He ran up and hugged her tightly. Ryan walked rather slowly to catch up to them.
"Hey. So what have I missed in the last week?" Seth beamed.
"I made some life changing plans." He told her. Taylor looked from him to Ryan, from Ryan back to him.
"Oh God. You're not proposing again, are you?" Seth's face froze in a grin. "Well, at least this time, get her a real ring, with a diamond, not one that glows in the dark. Or one that does AND has a diamond in it."
"Forget about my plans. What about you? How have you been? Wanna get coffee? I'm trying not to talk about myself." Taylor smiled.
"Nah. Besides, you have your Ryan/Seth time right now. God forbid somebody interrupted that." In the corner of her eye, she saw Ryan look at her in that moment. "I'm gonna go and stalk something." Seth grabbed her arms.
"Go to the pet store. That store. Just go. It's like heaven. With soft moving pillows." Taylor scrunched her nose at him.
"Ew. See you later."
"Actually yeah you will. Me, Ryan here, Summer and Marissa are going out to eat on The Boat. It's a new restaurant. It's on a boat."
"Very creative."
"Yeah but you should come. We're meeting there at 8. Reservations under Roberts."
"See ya Seth. Ryan." She nodded and walked away as fast as she could. Being in his presence just made her feel so small. Once upon a time he didn't. Once upon a time he made her feel special. Loved. And now she was alone. All alone. And second best.