tayley drabbles

control ; ficlet

Taylor still remembers the day he found out. He was at a recording studio in LA, helping produce an album for one of his musician friends. His phone had been on silent the whole time, so he hadn't heard it ringing. After a while, he decided to check his notifications and noticed that Hayley had called him three times within the span of ten minutes.

He tried calling her back but she didn't answer. He texted her asking what was wrong and when she still didn't reply, he gave his friend some poor excuse to come back the next day and went to Hayley's house, not wanting to go back to work without knowing what was going on with his best friend.

When he got there, she wasn't home. But when he went to his own house, to decide what to do, he found her sitting in the living room after letting herself in - Taylor had told her where he kept a spare key, just in case she ever needed a place to crash and he wasn't home.

She looked like she had been crying and Taylor's heart sank. "What happened?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

She sighed heavily and put her head in her hands. "He cheated on me," Hayley replied, voice strained, "I checked his phone and found messages from some girl he's been seeing for months."

Taylor stared at her in disbelief.

He sat there, for a moment, unsure of what to say. "God, I'm so sorry, Hayley" he said finally, "I know how much you love him and how much this must hurt."

"It does hurt," Hayley said, looking up at him with her red rimmed green eyes, "Shit, I can't believe he did this to me."

"Me either," Taylor said, pulling the short woman into a tight hug, "I'm so sorry."

Hayley sighed, "I don't know what to do, Taylor," she said, her voice muffled by his t-shirt.

"It's okay, you don't have to figure it out right this instant," Taylor said, rubbing circles on her back, "Just know that I'm here for you. Always."

"I know," Hayley said softly. "Thank you."

Taylor felt Hayley's body relax against his as he continued to stroke her back. He laid down with her on the couch for a few minutes before getting up and walking over to the kitchen. "Do you want something to eat or drink?"

"I'm not really hungry," she said, still laying on the couch. "But I could use a glass of water."

"Coming right up."

Taylor walked into the kitchen but as soon as he filled the glass with water, he set it down on the counter and clenched his fists. Anger boiled within him, fueled by the betrayal Chad had inflicted on Hayley. He took a deep breath, reminding himself to stay composed for her sake.

Returning to the living room, Taylor handed her the glass of water. "Here you go," he said, with a tentative smile, which she unexpectedly returned.

Later that night, in the solitude of his own home after taking Hayley to her mother's - where she would be staying until she figured out what to do -, Taylor let his rage out.

But as he stood there, breathing heavily after the drywall crumbled around his fist, he realized he couldn't let this rage consume him. Hayley needed his support more than ever and a confrontation with Chad would only complicate things.

After calming down, Taylor went to bed and slept restlessly, waking up every now and then from bad dreams. The next morning, he woke up feeling exhausted and drained, but determined to be there for Hayley no matter what.

***

a/n:

if only i had been more like taylor...

it would definitely have saved me a lot of sleepless nights.