"L A B E L S"

Episode 54

Taylor walks out of the school, towards the parking lot and begins searching through her duffel bag for her car keys. She looks up and sees Dani sitting on the picnic table and hesitates before walking over to her. "Hey."

Dani looks up from her notebook and notices Taylor walking towards her. "Hey."

Taylor points to the empty spot in front of her. "Mind if I sit?"

She closes her notebook and begins to put it in her bag. "Actually, I was just leaving."

"I wanted to talk with you, it'll only take a minute."

She looks back up at Taylor with an unsure look before slowly nodding. "Okay."

Taylor sits down and looks at her with questioning eyes. "So, what are you still doing at school?"

"I'm meeting Joe."

"Oh, yeah, that's right." She pauses before giving Dani a confused smirk. "So, you lied to me."

"What?"

"You're waiting on Joe...you lied and told me you were leaving so you wouldn't have to talk to me." She shows a small smirk and looks at Dani intently. "I get the feeling you don't like me very much."

She stares at Taylor without saying a word.

Taylor takes her silence as confirmation and continues talking. "Look, Dani, I just want you to know that I really like Joe."

She shakes her head and starts to squirm in her seat, not wanting to hear anymore. "You don't have to explain or prove anything to me, Taylor, I'm not his mother."

She puts a hand on her arm, stopping her from getting up. "I know, but you are his best friend and I'd really like to be friends with you...for his sake."

Dani sighs and pulls her arm away, looking back at Taylor. "That's great and all Taylor, but nobody is forcing you to be my friend and the truth is, I think it's better if we just avoided each other all together." She stands up and throws her bag over her shoulder.

Taylor looks up at her with disbelief and confusion. "I don't understand why you hate me so much."

She looks down at Taylor and talks with sincerity. "I don't hate you, I just don't think you truly care about Joe. I mean how could you? Before a couple weeks ago you didn't even know he existed. I mean do you even know that he's allergic to peanuts or that he absolutely hates mayonnaise? Or how about the fact that when he was eight he got stung by a bee and has been deathly afraid of them ever since? Or how about when he was thirteen he had his first kiss with metal mouth Molly during a game of seven minutes in heaven?"

"I knew the thing about the mayonnaise." She forces a small snicker, nervously.

"I just don't want to see my best friend get his heart broken because he really cares about you Taylor...to a fault."

"And I really care about him. I know you may not see it or understand it but I do care about him, Dani."

"Good, because so do I and I won't hesitate to hurt you if you hurt him."

"One of those tough girls, huh?"

"You have no idea."

She stands up giving Dani a reassuring smile. "I hope we can work up to friendship but if not just know I would never intentionally hurt Joe because he has been so amazing to me and I would never do anything to ruin that...I need that." Taylor smiles at her for a moment longer before turning around and walking towards the parking lot.

Joe comes out from behind a large tree beside the picnic table and stands behind Dani with a large smile. "Did you really mean all those things you said?"