Page 29 of Take Care, Taylor
“Sure.”
“Wait a minute.” She gasped, then softly giggled like a schoolgirl. “Can I say something and you promise you won’t get mad?”
“No.”
“I’ll tell you anyway. You remember your friend, Taylor Wolff?”
“No, and he wasn’t my friend.”
“So, youdoremember him?”
“Barely.”
“Okay, good,” she said. “Now, please don’t kill me, but my friend Mitchell and I were watching some old college highlight show the other day, and Taylor is soooo fucking hot now. Like, I swear, if I didn’t know him through you, I would?—”
I hung up and threw my hands at the universe.
Please stop fucking with me now. Please…
TRACK 11. WOULD’VE, COULD’VE, SHOULD’VE (2:58)
TAYLOR
Icouldn’t remember the last time I woke up this early and only had to worry about class.
It felt surreal, but as I looked down at the cast on my right wrist, the Bears playbook on my desk, and the ‘Heal Up Soon!’bouquet from the team owner on my windowsill, I accepted that this was reality.
The only thing I had to worry about throwing down for a while were words on a page.
After pulling on a university hoodie and a pair of blue jeans, I stepped into the hallway and caught a glimpse of Audrey rushing out the front door moments before me.
Of course…
Not wanting to share the elevator with her, I waited a few minutes before making my way across campus for orientation.
Other scholars walked alongside me, but no one seemed to give a damn about who I was. Even though I felt a few stares on my back as I settled near the rear of the auditorium, no one said anything.
As a staff member rearranged chairs onstage, the redhead sitting in front of me turned around.
“I’m Janet,” she whispered, extending her hand. “Janet Daws.”
“Taylor Wolff.”
“Well, duh.” She rolled her eyes. “Just so you know, I don’t care that you’re a super-rich and hot athlete with a big dick.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s not going to distract me from winning a scholarship at the end of this program, and I refuse to believe that you can write as well as a single person in this room.”
I blinked.
“They let you in because of yourprivilege, and I know you’re taking the spot that belongs to someone far more deserving.”
I pulled my hand back just in case her crazy was contagious.
“Sleep with one eye open, you non-writing motherfucker.” She huffed before moving to another seat far away from me.
Surviving Audrey was one thing, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle being here if everyone was as unhinged as she was.
