[TAC] THREE'S A CROWD

Chapter 27

{Tay}

His fingers lightly grip the fork in his right hand as he sits at the kitchen table. He's not sure of how long he's been sitting here, and he knows he should probably be heading out the door because he's late for school, but he doesn't really see a point in that anymore. He can't bring himself to care about anything when life is being so awful to him right now.

His eyes are glazed over as he stares blankly at the plate in front of him, which is full with his mother's pancakes, eggs, and two pieces of toast. Usually, Tay would be smiling with delight at the fact that his mom went out of her way to make him a big breakfast on a school day, but he just can't get into that "delightful" spirit.

The sound of his mother casually chatting on the phone as she cleans out the sink sounds muffled in his ears as he continues to sit there with no intention of getting up anytime soon. He doesn't want to partake in today, or tomorrow, or any day thereafter where things are still the way they are. He'd much rather stay in and curl up into a ball of self loathing and regret for all of his actions.

"Tay?" he hears, jolting him out of his silent trance of emotions.

He shifts his eyes up to his mother, not having realized she'd ended her conversation on the phone at some point.

"My pancakes are usually your favorite," she says, followed by a sad sigh as she approaches him at the kitchen table. She presses her palm against his head to check for a fever, as though he's a five year old, but he doesn't voice any complaints. "Are you okay?"

Tay puts his fork down and shakes his head. "I just don't have an appetite," he answers, his voice a hint raspy.

"Well you have to eat something," she says, going back over to the stove where she'd forgotten to turn it off. "You have practice today after school. It's not healthy to go that long without eating anything."

Tay's already standing up from his seat before his mother's finished speaking, moving toward the coat rack by the doorway of the kitchen. "I'll just pick up something On the way"

"Tay..." he hears his mom call out, followed by a groan. He keeps moving toward the front door anyway, picking his backpack up off the couch on the way and letting himself out.

Obviously, he's not going to pick up anything, but he knew he had to say it to keep his mom from worrying too much.

The day seems too long already, and as soon as Tay's pulling out of the driveway, he's ready to go back home. He doesn't think he can truly get through today, but he knows he has to push through it, no matter how hard it will be. It's times like these where he has to remind himself that he isn't weak and has gotten through much harder things in life before this.

It's just another day of taking special routes to class just so he can walk past him, right before feeling pain in his chest from the boy not even as much as turning his head to look in his general direction. It's another day of partaking in useless conversations that he doesn't even care about, with people that don't know him, while acting like New isn't constantly on his mind 24/7. Everyone thinks he's fine, because he's so good at making it seem that way.

It's another day of clutching his pencil in his hand as he watches New in his peripheral, making his way toward the back corner of the classroom like he'd begun doing lately. Those fifty minutes of pain were already bad enough with New sitting right next to him and tempting him like no other, but now it's even worse because the boy is making a point of not sitting next to him.

Tay twists his fingers around one of his hair as he wills himself not to turn all the way around and look at New.

He can't blame this whole ordeal on anyone but himself. He'd taken it too far, that day in the gym when he almost fought Off and then snapped on New in front of everyone. At the time it felt like the right thing to do, because Tay was so hurt he could barely breathe. It wasn't even just about New fucking lying to him about seeing Off, as though Tay wouldn't know, but it was also about the fact that they were even seeing each other.