Taylor's POV...
As expected, not a single word could be heard as Tim drives off through the night, passing the city lights. Of course, I chose to remain silent in this awkward moment. After the conversations we had, despite the amount of guilt in my heart, I don't think saying more words would put any positive affect. Another apology would only seem useless when it's inable to change anything. By this, to remain silent is the best option. Yet, that doesn't mean I don't have any guilt lingering in my heart. We don't always have to say how we truly feel at the moment out loud, just like we don't always tell the person we love how much we care.
As Tim continues to drive, my eyes glance at him for a few seconds. His usually bright eyes now seems sorrow, with his thin lips forming a frown. It's a rare sight to witness. In fact, for years of being in the same school, this is the first time I'm seeing Tim Anderson looking all sad. It's still hard for me to believe, especially since it feels like everything happened too fast.
"How is Eleanor?" Tim's voice suddenly tinkles through my ears through a question, making me a bit shocked.
"Good," I answer in a low tone. I turn my gaze away from him and continue to stare at the night scenery, while hoping that we would reach our destination soon. I really had enough awkwardness in a night. From Joey's drunken call regarding his dad's behaviour, to Tim suddenly confessing his feelings and showing his vulnerable side, all of these are simply too much to handle.
Minutes passed by like hours, at least that's what I felt. Tim eventually makes his stop in front of my house. Finally, after the long awkwardness. I can't wait to get some sleep tonight and forget about everything.
"Thanks for the ride, Tim," I say as unbuckle my seatbelt.
"No problem," he says in a flat tone, with simply no elements of cheekyness.
I exit the car and close the door shut. Yet, I thought it would be rude if I left without even bothering to see Tim's face one last time. After he confessed his feelings all of a sudden, how could I just continue to behave coldly towards him? By that, I turn around to face him one last time, only to see that he had just left the neighborhood.
Anderson. I thought. Somehow his name suddenly walks around in my head.
I sigh. This night really had a lot of drama, I wish to just forget about all of this by tomorrow. I walk up to the front door and pull out my keys. Turning the door knob, I walk inside to see that the lights are off. Great, everyone is asleep, and I shall also get some sleep.
The next day...
At the cafeteria...
I continue to eat my spaghetti in silence, with Eleanor sitting beside me. I saw that she only had took two bites of her tuna sandwhich. Her eyes are literally too busy on her phone.
"Waiting for the tuna to get cold?" I ask her casually. It's not everyday that I get to see Eleanor being too busy with her phone, that she only took two bites during lunch while I'm almost done.
"Just replying to Fred's text first," Eleanor says, while her eyes are still glued on her phone.
Fred...I should have guessed. Eleanor was just talking about the study date she had with that guy last night. Seems like they're getting pretty closer these days.
"By the way, last night Mom asked me about where did you went," Eleanor states as she puts her phone back in her bag.
"Oh. And what did you told her?" I ask casually. I didn't expect Mom would actually found out about my absense last night.
"Followed with what you said, told her that Lillian invited you for a sleep-over," Eleanor says, before she takes a bite of her tuna sandwhich.
"Ah, I see," I say.
"But anyway, did you had a hard time sleeping at Lillian's place last night?" Eleanor asks, which made me a bit nervous upon hearing her question.
"Actually...I didn't went to Lillian's place last night," I say, knowing that I just might as well tell the truth to Eleanor. It's better than to see her thinking about why did I went back home when Lillian invited me for a sleep-over, and why she wasn't invited in the first place.
"Oh, so where did you went?" Eleanor asks.
"Last night, Joey got drunk. I went to see him and took him to Tim's place," I say. A feeling of relief fills my heart, finally being able to say what actually happened last night.
Eleanor stops as she was about to bite her tuna sandwhich. She turns her head to my direction as her hazel eyes widen, and her small lips forms a worried yet surprised look.
"Joey was drunk on a normal day? That's new. Did something happened to him?" Eleanor asks with curiousity.
I sigh. "He saw his dad cheating with another woman."
Eleanor's eyes widens as she almost drop her jaws upon hearing my statement. I could tell she is really surprised by what I just said.
"Damn, that's bad. No wonder I haven't seen him all day," Eleanor says. Her face still looks speechless after hearing what I had to say.
"He didn't want to be in the same roof as his dad, by that he asked me to take him to Tim's place," I add.
"I see," Eleanor says. "By the way, did you notice that Tim had been behaving more quiet today?"
I turn my vision up from my spaghetti to face Eleanor. Speaking of Tim, I did noticed that he haven't pull out any of his annoying cheeky quotes to any of us since this morning. Well, I'm not surprised by his different action today, after his sudden change of behaviour last night after the confession he made. Honestly, he's not the only one to behave differently. I know it won't be easy for me as well to behave like normal to him after what happened last night.
"Well, he's probably just a bit sleepy after looking out for Joey last night," I say, which I could say is probably a half truth. I know well the main reason behind Tim's silence, yet with myself still being in total surprised mode, I didn't want to add up more awkwardness and questions in this moment with having to tell my twin sister that our biggest all time enemy just confesses his feelings towards me.
"I see," Eleanor says. "Well, at least that's better than having to see him behave like his usual self."
Hearing this, I only form a small smile before I continue with my spaghetti. Right now, both the thought of Joey being depressed and Tim behaving differently kept haunting my mind, slowly growing the agitated feeling inside of me.
To be continue...