Chapter Fourteen

Isaac Hanson

"What do you think is wrong with Tay?" Zac asked as I walked back over to the bed we were sharing. He was now sitting straight up, his eyes wide obviously not prepared to go back to sleep. If he had ever been asleep. I know I hadn't been.

"I don't know," I answered. I had always hated giving that answer to anyone. I always felt like I was letting them down if I didn't have the necessary amount of knowledge to answer all their questions.

"Do you think he's...?"

"I don't think there's anything in there he could do it with," I said quickly, not prepared to here the word suicide and Taylor mentioned in the same sentence. I wasn't about to be honest with Zac and tell him that I hadn't gotten the chance to look for and hide anything someone can kill themselves with.

I watched the door worriedly, wondering what exactly it was that Taylor was doing in there. I couldn't hear him moving around. For all I knew, he might actually be going to the bathroom.

"I want to know what's going on," Zac said.

So did I. Our parents and Taylor had come out of the dressing room with tear-streaked faces, none of them had said two words since before we had been forced to leave the dressing room, and now Taylor was locking himself in the bathroom. None of them had bothered to even give us a hint as to what was going on. Just a silent warning to leave Taylor alone for the time being.

"I'm sure they have a good reason for not telling us yet," I said. "We'll know soon enough."

"But why wouldn't they just tell us?"

"I don't know."

It scared me, as it did him apprently, that no one would just tell us what was going on. The way they were keeping it such a huge secret was disturbing. It could only indicate that whatever it was that they were keeping from us was serious. I wanted to know what it was.

"What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?"

I sighed. "I have no idea," I said, cringing slightly as I said it. Three times in one night to three different questions. It was so difficult not having any of the answers!

Zac opened his mouth to ask yet another question, but was interrupted by the opening of the bathroom door. Taylor came out of it, keeping his eyes to the floor as he had done before. We watched as he wordlessly, stiffly climbed into the bed and covered himself with the sheets. He was facing away from us, but it was easy to tell he had been crying(and maybe still was) by the way he kept sniffing.

I felt another kind of helplessness as I watched him.

"Tay, you okay?" Zac asked tentatively.

Taylor didn't answer.

"Taylor?" Zac tried again. He knew he was venturing into dangerous waters. I warned him with my eyes just to leave him alone and let him speak if he wanted to. He pretended not to see me.

"Could you turn out the light, please?" Taylor said quietly, his voice hoarse.

"Sure, little bro," I said. It wasn't something I called Taylor often. Usually onlly when I was being condescending or trying to cheer him up(strange, huh?). I didn't realize that night that that was probably one of the worst possible things I could have said to him.

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Index
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fifteen