XVII
(edited.)
Taylor had been so engulfed in his practice that he had forgotten that Carmen was in the stands, watching him. He turned around as soon as he remembered, a large smile on his face. However, as soon as he saw the empty spot, his smile vanished. He frantically looked around but she was nowhere to be found.
Immediately, he skated off the ice and walked as quickly as his skates would allow him. And as soon as he entered the dressing room, he walked to his locker and retrieved his phone. He dialed her number and held the phone to his ear, waiting with baited breath as he heard multiple rings. And when it went to voice mail, he called again.
And again.
And again.
Over and over until he received a text. He looked at it, not recognizing the number but immediately recognizing the people in the picture. On his screen, he saw a picture of Carmen sitting beside Mike as they both smiled, hers looking more hesitant than his. He felt his hand clench tightly around the phone until it vibrated with another message.
"You know where my dorm is, why don't you join us?" He didn't need to be told twice before he changed, grabbed his belongings, and began to make his way to the dorm.
When he reached the correct door in the building, Taylor opened the door and immediately felt his eyes bulge as he took in the scene before him, his gym bag hitting the floor beside his feet. Sitting on the sofa facing the TV was Mike and Carmen and they were doing more than just sitting together.
They were kissing.
At that moment, Taylor didn't think of anything else as he felt the anger fill his body as he took steps towards them. And as soon as he reached them, he pulled Mike away, grabbing onto his shirt tightly and shaking him.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
He looked at Mike's face and felt his anger elevate when all he received was a smirk. He removed one of his hands to punch him in the face but as his fist got closer, the sound of Carmen's voice stopped him.
"Taylor! Stop!"
He paused when his fist was just merely inches away. And although a large part of him wanted to listen to Carmen and stop, he couldn't stop himself from colliding his fist with Mike's face. He watched in silence as he stumbled back from the force, unsatisfied. He took several steps towards him, attempting to continue what he had started but he didn't get far before Carmen stopped him, grabbing tightly onto his arm and pulling back.
"Taylor, please stop! He didn't do anything," she tried to plead with him. As much as he wanted to believe her, he couldn't get himself to stop and listen to what she was saying.
He forcefully shrugged her away, causing her to land on the floor as he walked to the man before him, who was still smirking even though his lip was starting to bleed. Taylor picked him up from the floor and pushed him against the wall.
"How dare you touch her, you─"
And at that moment, the door opened to reveal the last person he thought he would see.
"Stacy," he barely heard himself whisper her name as he watched his ex-girlfriend standing at the door, hand on her mouth as tears streamed down her face.
"You know, even after you told me what had happened, I thought that I could still wait for you and that maybe we could work everything out somehow. But after seeing how you would defend this─" she pointed in Carmen's direction as the tears got worse. She couldn't finish her sentence before she turned around and ran, the sound of her tears filling the air.
---
He didn't know how long he had been searching for her. He had walked all over the campus several times, even stopping by her dorm multiple times, but he still couldn't find her. And as he stood beside a light pole, his frustration caused him to kick it. He watched as the pole shook several times, the light blinking but ultimately staying on.
He screamed into the silence which filled him as his frustration reached its peak, feeling his legs weaken under him as he knelt down with his head in his hands, not caring how cold the snow was on his knees.
He had messed up.
Big time.
And he knew that.
His anger turned into tears as he looked down at the ground, wondering why his mistake was coming back to haunt him, just when he thought he was getting somewhere. And for a moment, as he thought that, he wished he could go back in time and stop what had happened that night.
When he felt a hand softly touching his, he lifted his head and was surprised to find Carmen beside him, squatting. Under the light, he could slightly see the sad smile which was on her face.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
"I messed up," was all he could say to her. There was a moment of silence which surrounded them before she spoke, her words hanging in the air.
"Do you still have feelings for her?"
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