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The only people who didn’t know Cooper and Oliver were dating were Cooper and Oliver. And the only one who can see it as clear as day was Taylor Otto herself.
“Is to stop bothering our boyfriends.”
“Not my boyfriend.”
“I don’t see the problem, you let Oliver have his boyfriend sleep over.”
“Cooper is not my boyfriend.”
“Well you don’t have to say it like that.”
To her, it just felt blatantly obvious with the amount of times Cooper has come over and is basically part of the family in the same way Trip has. It just seemed like a plausible explanation (word of the day for Taylor) to assume that her brother and the richest guy in Westport were together. Hell, with the amount of times she’s talked about it with Trip make her feel like she’s not insane for thinking, Trip genuinely thought the two were dating the entire time he’s known them. And sure, Trip isn’t the most brightest person of the bunch that he had to repeat senior year, but he was able to notice this.
And every time she makes a comment about Oliver and Cooper to Oliver, he just denies it. And it’s in a way that he’s trying too hard to convince Taylor otherwise, even if she insinuates that he can be honest with her. She wasn’t making those comments to be mean or rude or homophobic about it, she just had genuine curiosity and support for her brother.
“Do you have something to tell me?”
Taylor just wants to be able to be someone her brother could confide in about these things. She knows Mom wouldn’t understand, or at least in a way that doesn’t have her doing what she does and screwing everything up. Taylor just cares about her brother, even if they argue all the time, but that’s typically what siblings do, basically a requirement. But as the oldest sibling who is definitely not the smartest, she wants to put in an effort into looking out for her siblings. ‘Cause really, who knows what’ll happen to their parents as time goes on, anything could happen.
She tries to be patient, even gives slight encouragement when she had a plan to come out as bi herself so Oliver feels comfortable enough to open up to her.
“Hey guys! I’m bi!” She blurted out to the rest of her family. Dad just gave her a quick “Proud of you, kiddo” smile, Mom just casually said “That’s great, sweetie” without looking at her directly, and Anna-Kat gave her a thumbs up. That last reaction at least brought her some satisfaction. Taylor herself didn’t even really know herself till she said it for the plan but the moment she did, it felt surprisingly uplifting despite the reactions. Oliver especially, when he didn’t say anything.
Which then had her move onto Plan B: Cooper.
The two of them had a friendship, which wasn’t too serious but they’ve watched enough Glee together to be more than just the sister of his best friend or the best friend of her brother. She wasn’t being invasive or schemey or sneaky, there was mainly genuine stuff involved. And Cooper was similar to Trip in that golden retriever, always smiling type of way. So it was kind of easy.
This week, they always plan to watch a handful of Glee episodes every Friday. They just got to season 3 and Santana’s coming out scene to her Abuela and didn’t turn out well. Taylor noticed Cooper’s red face and she swore she could’ve seen tears. He grabs the remote and pauses the TV to excuse himself before heading off to the bathroom.
Taylor got up from her seat and headed towards the bathroom and gently knocked on the door, “Cooper? Are you okay?”
“Yeah!” She hears him on the other side of the door, “Fine, just got something in my eye. My eyes are easily irritable and sensitive.” Taylor sighed heavily, she didn’t wanna push but she wasn’t stupid. Okay well, she kind of was, fitting to the dumb blonde stereotype though she wasn’t naturally blonde. But something was obviously up that even a blind person could notice.
“You can talk to me, you know. Oliver isn’t your only friend from this family, ‘cause that would get irritating really fast.”
“Yeah, I know.” He then quickly brushed it off, getting out of the bathroom and then he said he had to go. Once leaving, Taylor sighed heavily.
Later, she was talking to Trip as they were laying on her bed together, staring at the ceiling, and she was talking about the whole situation with him because he’s her boyfriend and he was easy to talk too.
“It feels like they're practically married.” that was conclusion Trip came too, which, valid, Taylor had thought. She said, “I mean, they act like a married couple and argue like one more than my parents. Which is tough competition.” The blonde then paused befoelre adding, “What should I do?”
“Maybe just let it see how it goes.” Trip shrugs, “I’ve watched enough teen dramas with you to sense when two people are gonna get together.” he was right, Taylor had made him watch a bunch of shows she grew up watching like Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, just bunch of girlie teen dramas that a boyfriend would refuse to watch, but Trip had no problem. In fact, he was overly invested in them too, more than Taylor sometimes. It was cute. Overall, Trip may be considered this stupid guy but he was smart in his own unique way, and that’s what she loved about him.
A few days go by and Taylor is looking for something and walks into Oliver’s room and sees him and Cooper a little too close but they move away from each other when Taylor opens the door, “Uh. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Both boys say in unison, and both voices sounding like they were hiding something. Taylor rose her eyebrow and just decided to play dumb, “Okay, whatever you say.” And she closes the door.
Once again, Taylor Otto was always right with her intuition. Though she’ll wait ‘til Oliver comes out on his own time before she says it. Though Anna-Kat said that telling someone you knew they were gay right after they come out is offensive but Taylor didn’t really see it that way. And as long as Oliver is happy, that’s cool.
She just would like to be the first one to officially know from him before anyone else does.