“My friend ShariBeth is having a Sweet Sixteen party tomorrow night.”
“Sounds like a blast,” I said sarcastically, leaning into the pillows on my bed, thankful to be back in my bed, but sad that it wasn’t still on the East Coast.
“It’s like one of those formal things,” Tay continued.
“Stop, stop, it’s getting too exciting,” I teased.
“You got a dress?” he asked.
“Yea... Tay, are you asking me out?” I asked, a little amusement in my voice.
“No...” he paused, and then laughed, “Yes.”
I put on a Southern accent, “I do declare, Mr. Hanson, do you have a crush on little ole me?”
He laughed a little more, “Do you always have to make every thing so difficult?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”
“Well, then maybe I don’t want to bring you with me,” he teased.
“Fine then, I’ll call Brix, and we’ll go to the movies...”
“No don’t, I’m only kidding,” he seemed anxious or something.
“Calm down, boy! Of course I’ll go with you,” I laughed.
“Come over our house tomorrow night at around six?” he asked.
“What? You’re not going to ‘pick me up at seven’ like they do on TV?” I exclaimed.
“Maybe if I had a car I would,” he laughed.
“All right, tomorrow at six,” I smiled, “How formal is this thing exactly?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Well what are you wearing?” I asked.
“Isn’t that what you ask when you’re having phone sex?”
I cracked up, “No, silly boy, that’s how you start cyber sex. You start phone sex by saying, ‘Where is your hand?’”
“Where is your hand?”
“On the wall... Anyway, what are you wearing to the party?”
“I guess I’ll wear black,” he laughed.
“Okay, then I will, too. We’ll be a happy morbid couple.”
“Sounds cool.”
“Talk to you later,” I smiled.
“Yep.”
We hung up. Since we’d arrived in Oklahoma, I’d had a little confidential chat with Ike about my slight crush on Tay. I guess Ike had told Tay (I never told Ike that he couldn’t... and I’m glad I didn’t or the previous conversation would have never taken place). I was still up in the air about Zac. I hadn’t told Ike about that part. I hadn’t spoken to Zac about my small crush on his brother as I’d planned . I guess Zac would find out sooner or later, now that Tay was bringing me to this party.
Also since we returned (only two days ago), Heidi called and said that her parents agreed to let her stay if she promised to get stupendous grades in school. My mother agreed to let her live in our spare room.
My life was peachy. The guy I like asked me out, and my best friend was moving in with us. Not only that, in school (which I had also returned to) I discovered I was getting an A in my hardest class. I knew my life had to make a turn around. I mean, before the trip, I was missing my family and friends, I felt out of place, and I thought I was doing badly in school. I know I sound corny, praising my life, but after all that divorce and moving and confused feelings about Zac, a calm peace in my life was well welcomed.
I asked my mother if I could go to the party. She said I could go, as long as I got all my homework done. She always said that. Anwyay, that night I assembled my outfit. A black dress from DeLiA*s with a dragon along the bottom, chunky black strappy sandals, and a black cardigan. Simple.
I went to bed that night thinking of how Brix and Odessa were going to absolutely flip when they found out I was going with Tay. But right before I fell asleep, I pictured Zac giving me weird looks as I left the house with Tay. He wouldn’t be gung-ho for the whole idea of me going with his brother.
I rang the doorbell. Ike answered. “Hi, Robinson,” he smiled, “You look pretty.”
“Thanks.”
“Tay’s upstairs,” he let me in.
“Okay,” I said, following Ike shyly into the living room. “Where’s Zac?” I tried not to sound nervous.
“He’s at his friend Gordy’s house,” Ike sat on the couch.
I sighed quiet relief. I didn’t sit down; I leaned on the doorpost. “I’m weirded out,” I had a weird shivery feeling.
“Why? I thought you liked him,” Ike said, puzzled.
“Shh...” I looked toward the stairs.
“He already knows,” Ike half-laughed.
“I know,” I mumbled.
Tay came down the stairs. “Ready to go?” he asked, entering the living room.
I nodded.
“Ike, can you take us?” Tay asked.
“I guess,” he shrugged.
We pulled up to the hall where the party was to be held. Ike let us out, and winked at me slyly as I slid off the seat. “Shut up,” I mouthed, smiling as I hooked my arm through Taylor’s. Ike revved the negine and sped away.
“Come on,” Tay pulled my arm to get me to move toward the building that was pulsating with bass of a dance song.
I took a deep breath and straightened my sweater before I moved, “How are you so damn calm?”
He laughed, “I’m not calm.”
“Yea you are... I’m like shaking and you’re all ‘Come on,’” I said in a low, suave vioce.
“Shut up, I am not,” he laughed, leading me up to the door.
“I’m scared,” I admitted, pulling back on his arm.
“You? Scared?” he seemed surprised.
“Yes. I am capable of that emotion,” I said snottily. “I wont’t know anyone,” I bit my lip, “I’m going to feel really out of place.”
“You look so cute when you do that,” he blushed a little.
I smiled, “And you look cute when you do that,” I pinched his pink cheek.”
“Okay, we’re both really cute. Let’s go in,” he opened the door.
“But- I,” I stammered.
“I’ll introduce you to everyone,” he led me through the door into a hallway with some kids in it. A couple of the kids waved to Tay. He waved back. A guy came over to Tay and they started to talk. The guy looked inquisitively toward me. “This is Tayler Robinson,” Tay introduced. He then turned to me and said, “This is Greg.”
“Hi,” I smiled.
“Hi,” he replied, and then went back to discussing things with Tay. I felt like an idiot, crouched next to Tay, biting my lip and attempting to smile at all the strangers. When Tay was finished talking he said, “See, that wasn’t so bad.”
“Yes it was,” I pouted, laughing a little. “I feel like a retard.”
“Why are you so nervous?” he asked.
I wasn’t about to tell him that the main reason was because I was on a date with him... which not only weirded me out a LOT, but it was like any first date (I imagined... after all, this was my first) and I was jumpy. “I don’t know anyone.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he shrugged. I’d pictured him to be the jittery one, not me. How was he being so calm?
“I’m still going to stay glued to your side, Mr. Socialite,” I said, loosening up the slightest bit.
“Fine with me,” he shrugged as he opened the door to the party. There weren’t as many people as I had been stressing about. But of course, they all had to come over and talk to Tay, and therefore talk to me.
“Are you two going out?” sleazy Tiffany (you remember... the one from Gen’s party.. the one Tay said he’d rather procreate with) asked.
Tay looked at me before he answered. I shook my head the teensiest little bit so that only he noticed. “No,” he answered her, smiling politely.
“That’s so cute. You two are friends then?” she gushed. I almost vomited up my dinner. Ew, she was so fake.
“Yes,” I smiled.
“Well, I’ll see you around,” she said seductively to Tay, sliding her hand down his shoulder as she glided away.
“Um... ew,” grimaced when she was out of earshot.
“Jealous?” Tay asked proudly.
I slapped him with my free hand (the one that wasn’t looped through his arm). “Don’t be so arrogant.”
“Wanna dance?” he asked.
“Sure,” I nodded.
As he lead me to the dance floor where most of the guests were gathered, he asked, “Is there something the matter?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, why did you want me to tell Tiffany that we weren’t going out?” he asked, showing his first insecurity of the evening.
“Because she’s a gossip and she would have told everyone, and that could have been dangerous for you,” I explained. After a brief pause I inquired, “Are we going out?”
“We’re out,” he avoided the question.
“You know what I mean,” I said as we took our place on the dance floor.
“Do you want me to say yes?” he asked.
“Do you want to say yes?” I replied.
“Yes.”
“Okay then,” I said.
“Okay then,” he repeated.
The rest of the night was filled with meeting Tay’s multitude of friends, dancing, delivering an envelope of twenty bucks to ShariBeth. We hung around until about nine, and then we both started to get bored. We found ourselves sitting at a table sipping water, and waiting for something interesting to happen.
“Want to go?” Tay asked finally.
“I’ve been waiting for you to ask that,” I laughed. We said goodbye to ShariBeth and thanked her for inviting us, etc. Outside, I asked, “What do you want to do now?” Ike isn’t going to pick us up for another hour.”
“We could walk home,” Tay shrugged. “It takes like, a half an hour or something.”
“Okay.”We exited the hall where the party was and started walking home. “Did you like my friends?”
“Most of them seem nice,” I said softly.
“I don’t understand you,” Tay laughed.
“What do you mean?”
“You are all outgoing all the time, and you act like nothing can make you uncomfortable. Then we go in there and I introduce you to my friends, and you hide behind me the whole night becuase you’re shy.”
I smiled shyly, “I don’t know, I just felt... shy...”
“Stop smiling like that,” Tay laughed. “You’re too damn cute.” That made me smile more. We rounded a corner to a residential street with no street lights. I shivered. The black leather jacket I was wearing was not enough to keep me warm. “Cold?” Tay asked. I nodded. He put his arm around me as we walked.
I started to hum a song that we’d heard in the party. Partly from being cold, and partly for the fun of it, Tay and I started to dance in the street. Then, we began to spin. I was wearing think, chunky heels, and so I started to yell, “Stop!” But Tay kept on spinning me. “Taylor, stop! I’m gonna break my ankle!” He laughed and kept spinning me. I shreiked, laughing, “Taylor Hanson, stop it!” Finally, he stopped spinning me.
“You weren’t going to break you ankle...”
“I could have. Look at my shoes.”
“How do you walk in those things?”
“I guess I’m just good like that.”
“I guess you are,” Tay smiled. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him. Our mouths were centimeters apart when we heard a commotion at one of the houses we’d walked by. There were three or four girls who hed just burst out of the front door, yelling.
One of the girls exclaimed, “I heard someone yell his name!” I looked at Tay warily. He put his finger to his lips to signal for me not to say anything.
Another girl said, “Why would he be around here at this time of night?”
“Who cares, he’s Taylor Hanson. He can be anywhere he wants, anytime he wants,” the last girl sighed dreamily.
“Dammit,” Tay said under his breath as he let his arms loosen from my waist. He whispered, “Let’s go.” We started to walk briskly, hoping the girls wouldn’t notice. Then one of the screamed, and we knew we were caught. Tay grabbed my hand, and we took off running. The girls were screaming and begging Tay to stop for them. But we didn’t. We sped up as we dashed around the corner. “Sh@#!” Tay yelled as a car had to stop short to aviod from hitting us as we dashed across the street.
I started to laugh. It made it harder to run. “Tay, this time I really am going to break my ankle!” I gasped for air.
“Take off your shoes!” he laughed back. Attempting to unbuckle my shoes while running caused me to trip. I fell to the ground. I tumbled especially hard because I had been running, and so I shredded my knee open and scraped my hands. Tay grabbed my arm to help me up. “Are you okay?” he asked, breathing heavily.
“Yea, let’s go!” I laughed, running again. That time I was able to remove my shoes without falling. Not wanting to carry them, I threw them into a bush by the side of the road. Tay started cracking up. Since laughter is contagious, I started laughing, too. Laughing as hard as we were slowed us down. The girls were gaining on us. “Let’s cut through my yard!” I suggested as we came upon my street. We turned the corner and booked down. The girls followed us into my back yard and into the trees. Not wanting to bother going to the bridge, we hopped over the creek. We dashed into Tay’s yard and into the house. Tay and I burst in the back door, laughing. Tay pulled the glass door shut and yanked the vertical blinds over it. We collapsed to the floor, giggling and trying to re-gain our breathing.
“Are you guys okay?” Ike said, raising an eyebrow.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even breathe at that point. The look on Ike’s face made me laugh even harder.
“Robinson, what happened to your leg?” Ike asked.
Barely choking out the words, I giggled, “I tripped.”
“Sometimes I wonder about you two...” Ike shook his head. He pulled some stuff out of the fridge to make a sandwich. “Robinson, you’re bleeding al over the floor... that’s disgusting...” Ike scrunched up his nose as he ate a spoonful of mayonnaise from the jar. Calmed down a little, Tay got up off the floor. He offered his hand to help me up. I accepted it. “Why aren’t you wearing shoes?” Ike wondered.
“I tripped, and so I threw them by the side of the road,” I smiled. I took a napkin from the kitchen counter and wiped up the blood on the floor, as well as that which was dripping from my shredded knee. “Do you have a band aid?”
“I’ll get one,” Tay said, going upstairs.
“Thanks,” I called after him.
“So,” Ike said when we heard Tay’s footsteps upstairs, “did you guys have fun?” he raised one eyebrow slyly. I stuck my tonuge out at him as I grabbed the sandwich from his hands. “Hey!” Ike frowned as I bit into it, “I don’t know where your mouth has been!”
“What are you insinuating?” I asked, taking a second bit from his sandwich.
“Nothing,” Ike smirked as Tay came back downstairs with a band aid, Zac following behind him.
“Here ya go,” Tay said, placing the band aid next to me on the counter. Taylor took the sandwich from my hands and took a bite, “Tastes good.”
I took it back from him and ate some more, “I know.” I then handed the sandwich to Zac. He finished it in a bite. “Thanks, Ike,” I smiled, “That was tasty.”
Ike had a look of disbelief, “You guys ate the whole thing!”
“Yes, we did,” I patted his shoulder.
“Your leg is bleeding,” Zac informed me.
“I know,” I responded.
“I’m going to make another sandwich,” Ike said, “and this time you can’t have any.”
I walked into the living room so that I could sit down and mend my knee. “Zac, hun, you wanna get me some perioxide?” I asked, pouting sweetly.
“I guess so,” he shrugged, going back upstairs.
Taylor sat down next to me on the couch, “You really ripped it open,” he luaghed, inspecting my knee, which was pretty shredded.
Until Zac came back, I wasn’t going to put the band aid on, and so I simply held the napkin there to soak up the blood. “That was certainly an interesting evening,” I smiled, leaning back on the couch.
Tay was about to respond when Ike walked in. He handed me a sanwich and said, “Now can I eat mine in peace?”
“Sure,” I said, taking the sandwich fom him. He had napkins for me, too. “Hold this?” I asked Tay, motioning to the napkin on my knee. Tay held it for me as I took the things from Ike. The doorbell rang. Ike left to go get it. “It never quiets down around here, does it?” I laughed, attempting to place the sandwich on a napkin without dropping it on the floor. I was just about to take back from Tay the napkin that was covering me knee when Zac walked in. He looked at me suspiciously, and handed me the perioxide. Tay removed his hand from my knee. “What time is it?” I asked as I fixed my leg.
“Quarter after twelve,” Zac mumbled as he walked out of the room.
“I gotta go home soon.”
“I’ll take you,” Tay offered.
“All right.”
As we walked through the kitchen, Tay asked, “Ike, who’s at the door?”
“Rob,” Ike called.
“Who’s Rob?” I asked.
“Ike’s friend. He’s cool.”
“Oh,” I responded, not overly interested as Tay lead me out the back doors.
“I hope there’s no one hiding in the bushes,” Tay teased. As I looked toward the bushes, just to check, Tay grabbed my arm to scare me. Of course, in spite of myself, I jumped, and he thought he was endlessly funny.
“Shut up,” I said, hitting him.
He kept laughing. “You hit like a girl!”
“I’ll kill you!” I said, hitting him harder. “I’m gonna get you,” I said, running after him around the yard. “You wanna feel me hit like a girl?!” I caught up to him and gave him a good punch, square in the stomach.
“Hey!” he yelled in surprise as I pushed him to the ground, sat on him, and continued to hit him. “Okay, okay, stop!” he yelled.
I stopped hitting him, but I sat on him still, keeping him pinned to the ground, “I win.”
“I let you win,” he smiled, folding his fingers through mine.
“No you didn’t,” I smiled.
“I did.”
“You wish,” I said, climbing off him so that he could stand up.
“I do.”
“I know,” I said, taking his arm and leading him in the direction of my house.
“Where are we going?”
“To my house.”
“Why?”
“My mother’s not home.”
“Hmmmm...”
“Like I don’t know what you’re thinking,” I laughed. Just as we were about to cross the little creek thing, I noticed something, “Tay, why is your brother watching us out the window?”
“What?” Tay said, turning around. Sure enough, he saw Zac’s silhouette in the window of his room. “I have no idea why he’s...” his voice trailed off.
“Why he’s what?”
“Why he’s watching us.”
“He’s a pervert.”
“Yea, but...” Tay seemed unsure if that was a good enough answer.
“Let’s go,” I said, pulling Tay along. When we arrived at my house, I let us in with the key my mother hid under the flower pot. “Your brother scares me,” I informed him.
“He scares me, too.”
“Want something to drink?” I asked, getting out some hot chocolate mix for myself.
“Sure,” he shrugged.
“Go sit in the living room,” I ordered him.
“Yes, ma’am,” he saluted me and went into the living room. I put two mugs with hot chocolate mix and milk into the microwave, and then followed Tay into the living room.
“What do you want to do?” I asked him. He shrugged. “We could watch a movie,” I suggested.
“Sure,” he shrugged again.
The beeper of the microwave went off. “Pick a movie, they’re in there,” I said, pointing at the drawer under the tv. I went into the kitchen to get out hot chocolate. When I came out, Tay was putting a tape in the VCR. “What movie?” I asked. Tay laughed, but didn’t respond. Before I could insist, the movie came on. It was me. He’d put on one of our old home videos. “Oh, fun,” I said, handing him his drink. The little me on tv started to sing and dance. I think this was one of my auditions for something.
“You’re pretty good,” he laughed.
“Yea, you like that outfit, right?” I rolled my eyes. I was wearing this puffy sleeved dress with like, bright colors and all that great stuff.
“It’s great.”
“You don’t want to watch this whole thing, do you?” I whined.
“Yes.”
For about fifteen minutes we watched me audition for something, my scenes in the school play, and my dance recital. Finally, I was said, “Don’t you find this boring?”
“I find it amusing.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Of course not.”
“I’m going to change my clothes,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“Can I come?”
“No, hun, that’s for the second date.”
“Damn.”
I rolled my eyes as I went into my room to change. I was just about to take my dress off when the phone rang. I raced into my mother’s room to pick it up. “Hello?”
“Hi, is Tay there?”
“Uh... yes, who is this?”
“Zac.”
“What do you want?”
“I mean my brother Tay, not you...”
“Fine,” I said, “Hold on.” I hopped down the stairs. “Taylor, your brother is on the phone. Zac. He sounds grumpy.”
Tay got up off the couch to pick up the phone in the kitchen, “Hello?” I was going to go upstairs to change while they talked, but Taylor grabbed my arm to make me stay. “Tell her I’ll be home in a little while... I don’t know... an hour?...” I leaned up against the wall as he talked. “Yea... yea.. okay...,” Tay rolled his eyes. “F&%# you,” Tay took his hand off my arm as he cursed at his brother. The scowl on his face changed to a look of confusion. “What? How would you know?...Screw you, Zac...” he hung up on Zac.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“He is such an ass... I don’t know what his problem is...” Tay shook his head, still frowning.
“He just gets into these foul moods all the time. I swear the kid gets PMS...” I said, taking Tay’s hand and leading him up the stairs. I made a “wait here” motion with my hand as I entered my room to get dressed. “What did he say that pissed you off?” I talked through the closed door as I looked around the room for my drawstring sweatpants.
“He asked me if we had sex yet.”
“He’s so hormonally driven,” I scoffed as I pulled on a fuzzy sweater.
“Yea...” he said, sounding distracted.
“What?”
“Well... he also said...”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What?” I repeated as I found my sweatpants and pulled them on.
“He said you can’t resist when guys give you the puppy dog face... and then I asked him how he knew, and he laughed and said he learned from experience...” That was the moment I wanted to kill Zac. I opened the door. Tay was leaning against the door post. “What did he mean?” Tay asked. I sighed. I knew Zac wasn’t going to keep our little secret forever. But how to break it it to Tay? Was Zac grumpy because I was paying more attention to Tay? Tay was looking at me, waiting for my answer. I felt pretty stupid. Oh yea, Tay, I just hooked up a couple time with your brother. You don’t mind, right? Damn. I wished he wouldn’t look at me that way. I guess he could see that something was up, because he looked at me more critically. “Robinson?”
“You’re gonna think I’m a skank.”
“Why what did you do?”
“Um...”
“Robinson, what did you do?” he asked, attempting to read it from my face. “Did you have sex with him?” The way he said it was weird. Almost joking, but it seemed he actually though I would do that.
“You think I’d have sex with him?!” I exclaimed, disgusted.
“Well, I don’t know!” Tay yelled back in his own defense.
“What do you think I am, some kind of slut?!”
“He’s asking me if we had sex yet, and then he says he knows from experience... what do you expect me to think?”
I didn’t know what to say. He had a point. Maybe since he though I’d had sex with Zac, telling Tay I’d only kissed his brother wouldn’t be as much of a shock... I decided just to say it. What else matters but the truth, anyway? “I didn’t have sex with him... I just kissed him.” Tay was silent. I looked at my feet, feeling guilty. “Don’t look at me like that...” I said quietly, referring to the way he was staring at me.
“Zac?” he said in disbelief. I nodded. “My little brother, Zac?” I nodded again. He looked frustrated. “Why?!”
“Well, I...” I stammered.
“Wait, no, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know why...” he said, shivering in disgust. He turned to go down the stairs.
I grabbed his arm, “Don’t be mad. Don’t leave.”
“I’m not mad,” he said softly, removing my arm from his, “but I am leaving.” He turned and went down the stairs.
“Why?” I asked, following.
“Because I can’t look at you the same way any more.”
“Oh come on, Tay,” I pouted as he started for the back door. “It wasn’t like that...”
“Well just what was it like then?” he spun around before he opened the door.
“I don’t know...”
“Oh, good,” Tay shook his head and opened the door.
“But Tay,” I whined as he took a step out the door.
“You think whining is going to make me like you more?”
“I- I-” all I could do was stammer. Taylor walked into the woods. “Tay, wait,” I called, going after him. It was cold out. I stopped him, “I know you think I’m gross now, and I know I’m like the last person in the world you want to be seeing or talking to right now. Please don’t hate me.”
“I don’t,” he admitted unwillingly. There was a pause and then he asked, “When did you kiss him?”
“Which time?” I asked, knowing he would shudder at the fact that I’d kissed his brother more than once.
“Which time?!” Tay was as disgusted as I’d thought he’d be. “Which time?!”
To calm him I said, “This first time was the day before Ike’s birthday. You know, that day before we went rollerblading?”
Tay sighed. “I have to go home and beat the living sh&$ out of Zac now,” he stepped out of my way and walked toward his home.
“Tay!” I called after him. I stopped him in his tracks again.
He seemed to be getting impatient, “You’re going to freeze you ass off.”
“Taylor, don’t beat Zac up.”
“But he deserves to be beaten up. You don’t know the half of it,” he stepped out of my way a second time and continued on his way.
“Can I just tell you everything then?” I asked, feeling brave for the moment.
“Uh huh,” he turned to listen.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to say it all at once, “I kissed Zac three times. The second time on Ike’s birthday, and the third time in New York at the hotel in the stairwell after the fight I had with him. We decided that we were just friends. I like you now and I really really don’t want you to think I’m gross,” I blurted it all out and then took a deep breath.
Tay kind of shook his head and gave a half smile, “Call me tomorrow.” He disappeared into the woods.
Sighing, I turned to go back in my house. As I entered the back door, I remembered the day that I kissed Zac. Then I remembered something that made me very angry. I went back outside and slammed the door behind me. Annoyed, I stormed over to the Hansons. I knocked on the door.
Tay answered the door, “Robinson?” He seemed a little impatient.
“I’m not here for you, Tay,” I pushed past him into the house, “I have to talk to Zac.”
Seeing I was angry, he said, “Yea, sure, he’s in his room.”
I stormed up the stairs and knocked on Zac’s door. “Zac?” I asked.
“Come in,” he said from inside.
I opened the door to find Zac sitting on the floor of his bedroom, watching tv, “What the f&$% is your problem?” I asked, getting riled and impatient.
“Shh, my mother will hear you!”
I closed the bedroom door. “What the hell is your problem?”
“What?” he asked, standing up.
I pushed him, “You promised that you wouldn’t say anything to your brothers! You f&#$ing promised!”
“What are you talking about?” he seemed confused.
“Why did you say that to Tay?” Zac was quiet. “Huh?” I pushed him again.
“Don’t push me,” he said, losing patience.
“I’ll push you if I want to push you,” I said indignantly.
“Robinson,” Zac tried to stay calm, “I said-”
“No, Zac, you know what? I don’t care why you said it. You’re just a little a@#hole. I thought you were like, my best friend in the world. You’re just a selfish little... little... I don’t know what!” I turned to leave, but Zac grabbed my arm. “Don’t touch me!”
“Robinson, I’m sorry... I just was feeling left out because-”
“You’re so damn selfish! God, didn’t you even think for like, a second what would happen when you said that?”
“No.”
“Stay away from me, Zac,” I said, leaving the room.
Zac followed me into the hallway. “But, Robinson-”
“Leave me alone.”
“I just-”
“Don’t talk to me,” I said as we descended the stairs.
“Let me-”
“Don’t follow me, either,” I tried to keep my voice from quavering with anger. I passed Tay as I went through the kitchen. “Goodbye, Zac,” I half-laughed as I exited the room. I didn’t care if he was sorry, or why he said anything. He had broken a promise and my trust. I walked home in the darkness, stewing in my anger. Upon entering my house, I yelled loudly to release some tension. Then I jogged upstairs to call Heidi.
