Secret Little Sister (Shawn Mendes)

Chapter 13 ~ You're the Reason

I looked at Taylor with a surprised face. We had only just seen each other for two days in the past two years. He was already ready to tell me?

"Oh, um, okay," I said awkwardly.

I didn't really know what to say. Taylor sighed and took a deep breath.

"Remember when I first left how we promised to always call, text, or video chat?" He asked.

I nodded,"Yeah, I do. Why?"

That was a question I didn't need to ask. As soon as he brought it up, I knew exactly why he was acting this way.

"Well, for the first couple months, we kept that promise. Then, you started calling less and less until...you just...stopped. It was like you had fallen off the face of the earth," Taylor explained.

"I felt...alone. Unloved. You never called, dad never contacted me. It was like none of my family even cared what I did. So, I turned into a bad boy." He looked at his feet, ashamed.

I felt horrible. I was the reason he was this way. I was the reason Taylor was hurting. I was the reason he was falling apart.

"I turned to drugs because they took my mind off of things. The smoking and black clothing just made me feel like people would notice me. Pay attention to me. Stupid, I know." Taylor looked at me.

"So, that's basically why, Brielle." He gave me a broken smile.

I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Taylor. It's just, school, sports, bullying, everything got in the way!" A tear slipped down my cheek.

"Bullying?" He asked.

Shoot. Nobody knew I was bullied. Suddenly, I wasn't really in the mood for ice cream. I ran into the bathroom and threw up.