I Needed You

20

Colby's pov

The three of us followed the officers out of our house while watching them put Taylor in the back of one of the two patrol cars.

Two of the officers stayed with us, the other two with Taylor. I could hear her crying from the porch, though luckily she didn't try fighting her way from the police.

Sam verbally forced me to look away from the sight, and I forced myself to hold in my sigh as we faced the officers.

"Can you please tell us what she did?" Sam asked politely, holding his hands together in front of him.

"Well, she broke a glass tea set in a store and refused to pay. She was on the run, and the manager that confronted her called law enforcement. And the greater issue legally is her running from police," The officer explained, while the other watched the scene happening with Taylor.

"Sir, she's mentally," I paused, thinking of the right words, "Mentally, um,"

"Unwell," Sam threw out the word, and I gave him a grateful look before continuing, "Yes. She didn't mean any harm. She hasn't been in public in nearly two months," I knew that probably wouldn't help her case, but it was best that they knew as much information as possible.

The officers seemed to be taking this into consideration, his lip slightly pouted as he considered, "You know what," He clicked his tongue, "Why don't you three follow us down to the station, and one of you can come in to explain it to the sheriff, who is waiting for her,"

"Thank you," Kat smiled at the officer before turning to us, "Corolla," I told her, knowing that was Taylor's favorite car out of all the ones we had.

Kat nodded once, jogging off and grabbing the keys off the hook and shutting the front door behind her. She tossed them to me, and I caught them before the three of us quickly made our way to the car.

Thankfully the car gave me no trouble as we made our way to the station, and Sam offered to go in to convince the sheriff to let her out.

I had no words, so I only nodded as I watched him leave the passenger seat, the car shaking ever so slightly as he slammed the door shut and walked into the station.

I didn't feel like talking, and I knew that Kat knew that but would speak to me anyways because that's how she was.

"She'll be alright," Kat gently reassured me.

"She's going to hate me, Kat," I let my fingers stray to my ear, twisitng my helix piercing, "I'm the one that handed her over to them,"

"Taylor will understand when she gets better," Kat gave me a half grin, letting the car fall into silence for a moment when I didn't respond, "You don't think so?"

"I don't know anymore," I let my eyes fall closed, as if that could make all the difference, "She's so different but there's just a bit of hope in me when I see something that she says or does and it's just like the old her,"

"The drugs Alex put her on changed her," Kat agreed before speaking reason, "But you have to understand that she's trying. She's getting so much better every day and when I asked Kevin if she acted funny he said he couldn't tell a difference,"

"Well she's not the same," I snapped and looked at her through the rearview mirror, "This isn't right, it's not fair. You don't know her like I did, Kat. She's not the same!"

"Get out of the car," Kat told me gently, and I thought she was kicking me out until she slid from the middle seat to the door, opening the backdoor on my side. I shut the car off before following her.

As soon as we were both out of the car, Kat opened her arms to me, and after a moment I met her in a hug, a long, good hug.

"I know how hard this is for you," She muttered into my shoulder, "But I promise I will be here if you ever need to talk to someone. Don't try and solve this on your own, okay?"

I hummed, letting my eyes fall shut as I buried my face down into her neck. Kat and I didn't show affection often, so when it did happen we both knew we meant it. And that's part of the reason why I love her like a sister. We were each other's siblings in a non-related way.

"Thank you, Kat," I said quietly, "Thank you for everything and putting up with my bullshit,"

"It's not bullshit, it's our lives," Kat said humorically, causing me to let out a chuckle.

"It just gets hard to deal with, you know?" I pulled away and looked her in the eye.

"I could say I do but I don't," She shrugged honestly, and I smiled to show I appreciated her i'm-not-taking-your-shit-just-because-i-don't-feel-like-it attitude. I needed that from time to time.

"Well, I hope you never do," I rubbed the back of my neck, "Cause this shit sucks,"

I heard the station doors swing open, and I turned my head, hoping that Sam got Taylor out in such a timely fashion. It wasn't and instead it was some random guy I didn't recognize.

I sighed, crossing my arms and letting my body fall against the car so I was leaning on it.

"I hate this," I growled impatiently, "Sam better know what he's doing. Why are you staring at me like that?" I noticed the fascinated look she had on her face as she looked at me.

"You know, what you do for Taylor is admirable. You could have any girl in the world, but you choose her. Even when times get rough you're always there for her," Kat's smile caused one of my own to appear on my face

"Yeah," I shrugged, brushing it off, "Anyone would do it if they truly loved someone,"

"And it shows. How many friends have you turned down in the past couple months alone?" She laughed at me, poking me in the arm as if it was a bad kind of achievement.

"Look, you make it sound really bad. I friendzone Amber and I was drunk when Brennen's sister tried something on me," I remembered how both of those things happened within weeks before reconnecting with Taylor.

"Yeah, you pretended you had a ghost girlfriend," She had been our designated driver that night, and had been the one to tell the story to me the next morning to try and distract me from my hangover.

"Not one of my best moments," I admitted with a smirk.

"There's that smile. And what about Stas?" Kat teased me, nudging me once more, "She has the biggest crush on you, though she won't tell you,"

"She may not have told me but the both of you have made it quite obvious," I looked at her.

Stas was a nice girl, and funny too. She was Kat's friend, someone she met with Devyn a couple years back. But not my type, though she's told me how she felt a couple of times in a private setting.

"Whoops," She giggled mischevioiusly and both of us snapped our heads over to the door as it opened once more.

Finally, it was Sam and Taylor. Taylor wasn't crying, but her face was red and puffy. Sam's hand was on her back, guiding her through the parking lot since she didn't know where we parked.

Kat waved her hands, shouting, "Sam! Over here!" as he started going in the opposite direction in search of my car. I pushed myself off my car, readiy to meet them and take them back home.

Now that they were in the right direction, it was only moments before Taylor's wandering eyes met my blue ones.

Once they did, it was like we were the only two people in the world. She ran up to me, freeing herself from Sam just to end up back in my arms, knocking me back a couple of steps from the force of her body colliding with mine.

Taylor's eyes were bright, her face erupting in a huge smile as she looked up at me with her chin resting on my chest. It was almost the same look she used to give me, when we first started dating.

What surprised me was when she grabbed my face, pulling it down to meet her lips with mine.

It was the first time since the hotel room, nearly two months ago, that she initiated a kiss with me.

And god, it made my heart flutter. I loved her, I knew it.