Taylor furrows her eyebrows, confused. Maybe he's in a different bedroom. Taylor walks up and down the stairs, looking for anywhere Joe could be, suddenly quite worried about him, but she tries to push it down, reminding herself that she's still mad at him. She goes past the kitchen to the front window, peeking outside to see that Joe's car is still parked in the same place it was last night. Taylor thinks for a moment as to where he could've gone. She scoured the whole house so the only place he could be is... outside? They had a lovely trail that connected to the backyard. Taylor breathes a sigh of relief, she didn't even realize she was holding her breath. She checks the time: 5:58. Assuming he left before she came out of the bedroom, or she would have seen him, he must've left before 5:30. Most of his walks never go for more then an hour and a half, so all she'd have to do is wait. Wait!? she criticized herself internally, you aren't waiting for that jerk. Taylor had a mental battle with herself for a full five minutes before she gave up and went to do what she does best when she wants to clear her head: write a song.
Joe looks around him, trying to recognize where he is but all he see's is trees. Trying to remember in what general direction he came from, he attempts to backtrack, only to get himself more lost. He looks around at the trees, stumped as to what he should do next. He had already been out an hour and a half at this point, it was now 6:47. He decides to keep moving, he's not really sure there's another option.
Taylor anxiously glanced at the clock again, 7:03 and he isn't back yet. She's sitting on the piano bench, and resists the urge to come after him. It's fine, she thought to herself, he's just taking a longer walk today. Still it doesn't stop her from putting on her jacket and heading out back, alerting her security where she was going.
After another 20 so minutes of walking, he finally connects back up with the path, but looking at the marker on the side, he realizes that he's quite a ways a way from home. His mind wanders back to Taylor and her voice resonates in his head 'Well maybe sometimes you are a bad boyfriend', yeah I guess no one will miss me, and starts back on his way towards the house.
Taylor had been walking for 30 minutes and was yet to find Joe, irrational thoughts flood her mind, what if something really bad happened to him. Would I be at fault? Taylor shivers at the thought of something happening to Joe, and tries to block the idea out of her mind. It's fine, it's fine.
Joe glanced at his watch 7:42. He looks up and sees a figure walking toward hims with their hands in their pockets. He could faintly see the outline of a ponytail. Shit I'm not ready to talk to her. What is she doing here. Joe looks around him, seeing no way out of this conversation for she had already spotted him. He was unsure whether or not she was still mad and not sure how to act. Just act nonchalant he told himself. If she doesn't want to own up to her actions then so be it.
Taylor finally spots a tall silhouette of a man walking towards her and a wave of relief crashes over her, it's Joe. Now that she's finally here though, she isn't sure what to do, is he still mad? They get into talking distance after what feels like an hour and Taylor stops, the path is narrow and shes not sure what to do. She looks at his face and notices bags under his eyes, as if he got no sleep, but quickly averts her gaze as soon as his eyes meet hers.
"Oh, um, wasn't expecting to see you here... just going for a walk," Taylor says, her throat scratchy, it was all a complete lie to save her pride of course.
Joe takes in her bloodshot eyes and red nose, he wants to apologize but can't find the courage so he just nods and turns sideways so he can inch past her on the narrow path.
Taylor feels like he punched her in the face, blowing her off like that. She fights the urge to break down in tears and practically whispers, "Yeah I was just going to start heading back too.." she trails off as she realizes Joe quickened his pace and she was left in the dust. She allows herself to let one tear fall down her face, but quickly wipes it up. She turns around and follows after him, unconsciously trying to keep up with him.
