After Jackson adjourned the meeting, everyone scattered but few of them went to sleep.
Taylor sat out on the beach, her knees huddled up against her chest. She shivered and shook lightly. She was considering getting up when Eric approached her and put his jacket around her before he sat next to her.
"What're you doing out here in the cold? And all by yourself?" Eric asked her, looking out at the water.
"It's not that cold" She murmured. Her tone of voice worried Eric.
"Is everything okay?" He asked as he turned to face her, his eyes intense.
"Yeah…I'm okay." She lied, not daring to look at his face.
Eric reached over and turned her face to look at him. "I don't believe you."
Taylor stared into his eyes momentarily before shuddering a sigh. She broke her face away from his hands and looked down at the sand.
"He used me." She nearly whispered. Eric looked at her still.
"He used me…" She continued, "Because he heard from other kids at school that I was easy."
"And you're not?" Eric spoke carefully; he didn't want her to feel worse than she already did.
"No. He doesn't know me. He just thought I was that way. I'm tired of hearing that from people. All my life people have thought that I'm something that I'm not. Ever since middle school I've been known as the school slut. I don't know how it started, but it never went away." A tear slipped down her cheek. She wiped it quickly hoping that Eric wouldn't notice. He did.
Eric shifted and pulled Taylor against his chest, his arms wrapped gently around her.
"You know," Eric started, "You can cry if you want to. It's okay."
Taylor looked up at him, as if asking to make sure it was alright. He nodded gently at her, and she began to cry. Eric gently rubbed her back and looked out at the water.
"I think I know what our problem is" Eric broke a long reign of silence. Taylor glanced up at him, but he pushed her head back down, "You don't have to speak. Just listen. I think our problem is that we don't know each other. I mean, we know who we are here, but we don't know about each other's lives back home. We only know what we've heard. That's why things like this happen. We need to fix that."
Silence came about again, and the two of them just sat there on the beach until a cold breeze went by and they realized how late it must've been.
"We should go to sleep." Eric told Taylor quietly.
Eric and Taylor got up off the beach and brushed themselves off. Taylor slowly pulled off Eric's jacket and handed it to him as he began to walk up the beach to his tent.
"Eric?" Taylor called his name and he turned, "Thank you."
Eric smiled lightly and pushed the jacket back into her hands, "Any time."
- - - - -
Hey. I feel like this is a kinda awkward point to end a chapter, but maybe it's just me because I was intending on it being longer. I was going to expand but it's 1:30 AM and I'm kind of exhausted. Anyhow, I got word that last chapter was a bit confusing, if someone could tell me why that'd be awesome.
Next chapter I'm planning the start of several chapters which reveal background on everyone, good and bad…But mostly bad.
Happy Christmas to those who celebrate, and to those who don't have a great day.
-The Next News Headline
