12

Taylor busts her locker door open and leans into it for a while as she ponders on the things she has to put away before finals week. She liked to be organized and truth be told, her locker was looking close to a dumpster. Picking up the books she believed she wouldn't need for now, she settles them inside her bag neatly. Then, she readies her trash bag where she dumped all of the scratch papers scattered around the space.

A familiar baby blue box catches Taylor's eyes, she hasn't seen it for quite some time. She actually forgot it was there to begin with, pushed to the very back of locker and hidden by the various books and papers that made its way inside as the school year passed by. Her hand reaches for it hesitatingly and contemplates what to do with the box.

Taylor ends up discarding it in the trash bag.

As she biked back home, she couldn't help but think about her decision to do so. Though she felt she made the right decision. She's no longer been putting entries inside nor has she added more photos in the collection. All the things she's written and taken was before she's met Romee herself.

Who Taylor wrote about was far from the person Romee actually was. She was more than her perfect blonde locks, and baby blue eyes. Sure, some details she's written would fit in to a description of the blonde but these were just hazy fragments. They would never be close enough to the wonder that is Romee Carey.

Taylor has changed a lot since she's met Romee. The blonde awakened something deep inside of her. Today she was livelier, more sensible, and more confident. A breath of fresh air, that was what Romee was for the brunette. A catalyst you could say for her very much uneventful life.

The Monroe's residence comes into view, and Taylor spots a familiar man dressed in a plain white tee and ripped jeans. "Hey you!" He greets with a bright smile.

"Noe," the brunette breathes out in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I know it's such late notice, but we're heading over to Laurens. We're going to surprise him," Noe says excitedly and helps the Taylor with her bag and bike. "UCLA offered him a scholarship, they want him on his team. Can you imagine? My little brother, a bruin!"

They head inside and Taylor finds the house to be empty. She grumbles as she realizes her parents were probably at some posh party full of old posh people. She snaps out of her thoughts at mentally scolds herself for being such a bad friend. Here Noe was, boasting his little brother to her and she can't help but admire the way he speaks of his brother and his accomplishments.

"That's amazing! I'm so happy for him!"

"Me too, Romee already did the designing. Jas and Oli are on the food."

"So what are we going to offer then? Moral support?" Taylor jokes lightheartedly, the trio seemed to have the entire surprise covered. She was certain Romee already had her blood, sweat, and tears on her assignment.

Noe laughs and shrugs, "Well when you put it like that..."

Nearly an hour later, the pair found themselves entering the interminable iron white gates that led to Laurens' home. His home was quite too big for Taylor's taste. She preferred smaller ones, they were more intimate and really she just hated having to walk so far just to get to the kitchen where she could grab snacks. Noe diverted the car over to a different path Taylor hasn't even noticed before, she looks over to him questioningly. "We're parking here."

Taylor looks around and hums accordingly. Her friends' cars were parked here as well just so Laurens wouldn't figure it out all too early. They enter through the back door and she could see majority of the football star's friends and team were already making themselves at home.

"There you guys are!" Taylor turns to face Romee and she immediately feels underdressed in her baby pink wrap dress. The blonde looked breathtaking as ever, in a strapless blue dress that stopped above her knee and hugged her body like second skin.

"You did so well," Taylor nods as she scans the newly-makeovered space. Laurens home was adorned in blue and gold, the colors of his soon to be alma mater — UCLA. "It's wonderful."

Romee sighs out a loud, "You think so? I'm so nervous. What if he's not going to love it?"

"Romee you're crazy if you think nobody's going to go crazy over you," the brunette laughs and bites her tongue hard after a millisecond. "I mean your designs, people would go crazy over your designs yeah."

"Everybody places! He's going to be here in less than a minute!" Jas yells from the front door from where she was peaking out to monitor him.

And in approximately one minute and fifteen seconds, Laurens enters his dimly lit home in confusion and takes three cautious steps before he jumps back in fright at the varied booming sounds of party poppers.

"Surprise!"

An hour and a half later, Romee pulls herself away from the crowd in an immediate yearn for a change in scenery. She walks up the stairs and heads further until she could only make out faint noises from the music downstairs. It was a fairly large house for a small family. When she and Laurens started dating in her younger years, the blonde found herself getting lost countless of times. She'd rather not recall exactly how many times as that would be quite embarrassing. As she walks further away from the stairs, her feet involuntarily started taking her towards her favorite balcony. Out of the five balcony's on the second floor, this one would have to be her favorite. She spent most of her time here whenever she was waiting for Laurens to finish practicing, or when he was busy doing homework and she didn't want to bother him.

Sliding the glass door shut, Romee was surprised to find her favorite spot occupied by non other than Taylor sitting on the couch, a book clutched tightly in one hand. "Hey you," the blonde says as she moves in and settles beside her friend.

"Fancy seeing you here," Taylor grins cheekily and adjusts her glasses. "Why aren't you down there?"

"I could ask you the same question," Romee retorts playfully. "What, do I make a bad host?"

"What? No! I would never think of you badly."

"Woah I was kidding," the blonde giggles as she runs her thumb to the space between Taylor's scrunched brows in an effort to calm her down. The brunette relaxed into the feeling of Romee's fingers dancing across her skin. And there she sat pliant to Romee's touch and suddenly, it felt as if she'd forgotten everything about the novel she spent nearly an hour investing her time in.

Taylor cradles the blonde's neck between her neck and shoulder as she settled in comfortably, "We're graduating in two months. I've never heard you talk about your plans like everyone else," she points out, eyes staring ahead unto the skies above.

A conflicted smile makes its way to Romee's lips as she continued to stare into the dark. "I'm going home Tay," the blonde breathes out.

"Home?" Taylor stared down at her friend confusedly. "Where is home?"

"The Netherlands, I'm finishing my higher studies there."

"Oh," Taylor says, almost sounding a little disappointed. "What about Laurens?" she asks but really she was in a conflict with herself, what about me? Then she scolds herself internally for thinking such things. The only thing she should do is be supportive of her friend.

"4,676 miles," Romee says aloud into the night. "We'll be 4,676 miles apart."

"Does that worry you?"

"I don't know," the blonde groans out. "There's nothing to worry about. I know Laurens won't do anything crazy."

"You're right Romee, he does have a heart of gold." Taylor admits with a hint of bitterness in her tone. He's perfect, perfect for the love of her life as well. But he's a good guy, and she knows she'll do no wrong.

"But I don't want to be so far away from the people I love."

"You'll be okay, you've been far apart from your family for god knows how long and look how that turned out," Taylor assures Romee as she pulls her closer in an attempt to ease her worries away. "Maybe it's time you go home."

"You'll meet a lot of people in college," Taylor continues and realizes this all applies to herself as well. "We will. But I'm scared too...When we grow separately, will we grow apart as well?"

"I sure hope not," the blonde sulks in her thoughts in a moment before pulling away and slapping Taylor. "Enough about me, what about you? I'm sure the ivy league schools are just waiting to be blessed with your presence." Romee mocks dramatically.

"Don't be silly, Stanford isn't an ivy league school," Taylor smirks and shakes her head when she realizes she hates showing off. "Okay I'm sorry that blew."

"It's alright to toot your horns every once in a while but I've got to be honest Carey, you suck at it." Romee deadpanned.

"Wow, I hate you. I really do."

Romee playfully scrunches her brows in fake annoyance. "No you don't, you love me." And Taylor's worst nightmare presented itself in the form of slender fingers that walked on her side. "Say it," Romee grins before tickling her.

"No!" Taylor laughs as she reacted to involuntarily. Squirming under Romee's touch. But the blonde wasn't feeling merciful today and her tickles began to feel endless.

"Fine! Jesus," Taylor yells as she makes an effort to grab Romee's fingers into her hand. "I love you, you loser."

And eventually, Romee stops her fingers from further movement. She just continues to stare blankly at Taylor and the brunette immediately grows concerned. The younger girl reaches her hand out to Romee's cheeks and gently pokes it.

"Hey, where'd you go?"

Romee laughs nervously and shakes her head incredulously. "Nowhere silly, I'm right here with you." But if only Taylor had seen through her eyes and seen how defenseless and lost she was moments just after the brunette declared her love for her then maybe she would have noticed.

Taylor put her heart on the line, but why was Romee the one trembling with fear and heart sinking?

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Okay okay I'm so sorry I took so long to update don't be mad at me