Chapter 13
The next two weeks pass much like the first weekend did. Taylor spends most of her time quietly writing in her notebooks, and we spend our evenings watching TV and drinking together. There are only a few sarcastic exchanges of note, but she's been surprisingly guarded since Brian's son's birth announcement came. I don't know why she's holding out on me.
The Saturday when she gets her first paycheck, I have to help her rent an apartment, since she's not quite eighteen. There's an open one bedroom three floors above mine, so she rents it.
"That way I can still take the car for school," she says. I love that it's suddenly 'the' car instead of 'your' car. I try to mind, but I really don't give a shit. After we've got the apartment upstairs rented, we go looking for furniture with what's left of her check. I guess she'll still be using my cell phone and eating my food.
She spends the majority of the remainder on a TV, then finds a couch, a bed and some bedding at a thrift store. We load everything into or on the Continental, and then wrestle it all up to her apartment. I don't think the two of us have ever laughed so much together, trying to get the couch into the elevator while it's closing on her.
When we finally get everything up to the apartment, and through the door, we settle in. We plug in the TV, order a pizza and find something to watch. There's a Law & Order Marathon on. It's showing all three of them. I'm such a sucker for those shows. I just wish the original had a hot girl instead of the old guy from Dirty Dancing. I can't believe I just admitted to seeing that movie.
The pizza finally arrives, and it's the same greasy college guy. Taylor flirts with him again, and gives him a bigger tip than I would have.
"Did you guys move, or something?" he asks. He remembered her. Great.
"Oh, no. I just got my own place, my dad's still downstairs," she says. He smiles at her, and I hear something being written on cardboard. Damn it. When Taylor sets the pizzas on the floor in front of me, there's a name and phone number written on top of the box. I roll my eyes, but choose not to say anything after all.
The next episode is the newest one. The one with the short, hot girl, and the tall creepy guy. The victim is a doctor at an abortion clinic. I don't think anything of it until Taylor drops her slice of pizza a few minutes in, and bolts for the bathroom. She slams the door, but I don't hear it lock. The shower starts almost immediately, but I can still hear her throwing up. I knock, but there's no answer. I wait and listen a little more. She's stopped retching, and flushes the toilet.
"Taylor?" I ask, opening the bathroom door. What I see puts a weight in the bottom of my chest. She's sobbing, curled up against the wall in the shower with all her clothes still on. I choose not to say anything else, but push the glass door a little bit out of the way and climb in with her. She looks so small. It frightens me.
I silently wrap my arms around her and pull her onto me, holding her tightly. She doesn't protest, just keeps sobbing. She leans her head on my chest, as the shower soaks our legs. I just stay with her there, and push her hair out of her face, until her cries subside.