My Happily Never After

Chapter Sixteen: Not A Damsel in Distress

This chapter is dedicated to _sarah_nichols_! HAPPY BIRTHDAY - I HOPE YOU HAVE A REALLY BRILLIANT ONE! x

Anyway thank you everyone for all your support with this story - I'm really enjoying writing this so it means a lot how responsive you've all been so far <3 x

Vote and comments are appreciated but as always PLEASE ENJOY::

::My Happily Never After::

Chapter Sixteen: Not A Damsel in Distress

 

“So what do you say?” Rachel asked me expectantly, from across the counter at the coffee shop where I worked. I felt like a deer caught in headlights as I stared back at her.

 “Uh…I can’t.” I answered with a small wince.

Rachel frowned at me. “Why not?” She pressed.

I racked my brain, trying to think of a plausible lie.

“I can’t go to the pool with you because…I can’t swim.” I finished lamely. It was an obvious lie. I’d been swimming with her before without any issues. “I mean I can’t go with you because…” I’m not supposed to be hanging around just you and Isaac alone anymore – rule one – plus, if I was honest with myself I really didn’t want to be alone with them.

They were all smiles and sunshine around each other, and I really couldn’t deal with it.

But now she’d finally caught up to me – corning me in the one place I couldn’t excuse myself and make an escape.

“Because?” She waited for me to continue. I winced.

Because I’m allergic to chlorine.

Because I recently discovered an inner fear of floaties.

“…I broke my leg?” I said, my words coming out as a question. I cringed – mentally face palming myself for being an idiot.

Keep it cool, Taylor. Maybe they didn’t hear you.

“You broke your leg?” Rachel repeated questioningly, her eyes darting down to where my legs were hidden by the counter top, her features twisted into disbelief.

Okay so she definitely heard me…but the situation could still be fixed.

I scrambled to correct my mistake. “I meant arm.” I said unhelpfully.

Or maybe my best option would just be to shut up.

The last week had been torture.

I’d been putting space between myself and Isaac and Rachel – somewhere around day four they started to twig on though, and since then it’d been harder and harder to come up with smooth excuses.

Rachel narrowed her eyes. “You’re lying.” She pointed out the obvious, with a small hurt note to her voice.

I winced lowering my head slightly, feeling guilt hit me.

“Taylor. Working just about as hard as usual I see.” Mackenzie entered the conversation with his usual impeccable timing, seeing to appear out of nowhere. “You do realise you’re on the clock right?” He asked, trampling all over the awkward atmosphere.

I looked up, finding him standing in the doorway to the kitchen, with his shoulder propped against the wall as he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.