“Good news, Robinson, Gabriela Van Nye is having a nice little bash,” Ike smiled, hanging up the phone.
“Great! Wait, who the hell is Gabriela Van Nye?”
“This girl that we remotely know through some people. She’s like Hunter’s sister’s friend or something.”
“Cool,” I said, grabbing my crutches and hoisting myself off the floor. “I’ll go get dressed.
“Do you want help going up the stairs?” Zac asked.
“You could get dressed in the laundry room,” Tay offered, “That way you don’t actually have to go upstairs.”
“You could get dressed right here, that way you don’t even have to move,” Zac teased.
“Yea, okay,” I rolled my eyes to follow Tay.
“Tay, she would have to go down those three stairs to get to the laundry room. She could change in the dining room.”
“The dining room doesn’t have a door,” Tay pointed out.
“Guys, stop stressing. I’ll get dressed in the dining room. Just don’t look.”
“Damn,” Zac teased again.
“Or go ahead and look if you want, I don’t care, just let me party!”
Laughing, Taylor lead me into the dining room and turned on the light. “Here ya go,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets.
“There’s definitely no door,” I pointed out. “Are you planning on leaving?” and then I added in a breathy, whispery voice, “or watching?”
“Well, since you offered-”
“Get out of here,” I laughed, pushing him out.
I transferred myself as quickly as I could (crutches made it interesting) into my little party outfit, black pleather pants and a red glitter shirt with three-quarter sleeves. When I entered the living room, Ike let out a teasing howl, “Damn, you’re sexy! Tay, you’d better do something, cuz I’m about to jump on your chick.”
Laughing, I gave Ike a shove, “Go get dressed or something.”
“So, Zac, are you coming with us?” I asked, tapping the boy on the shoulder. He was thoroughly absorbed in a video game.
“I guess so,” he responded, not tearing himself away from the screen.
“Come on then,” I nudged him.
“Uh huh,” he said distractedly. Rolling my eyes, I leaned my crutches on the side of the couch, walked on my knees to the spot on the floor where he sat, and plopped myself across his lap. “You’re in my way,” he pushed my head out of the way so that he could still see the screen.
“Ew,” I said, leaning back on my elbows.
“I’m almost gonna beat this level,” he informed me.
I looked up at Tay and asked, “Is he serious?”
“I think so,” Tay sat down on the couch. “Sad, isn’t it?”
“Dude, I’m in your lap,” I pointed out.
“Dude, your my brother’s girlfriend,” he was still transfixed on the screen.
“You’re no fun,” I slid off his lap.
“Neither are you.”
“Yes I am.”
“Not anymore.”
“Why not?”
Ike descended the stairs and said, “I’m ready.”
“Come on, Zac,” I shoved him.
“But, I-”
“Come on!”
“All right,” he flicked off the TV.
We finally got ourselves together and loaded into the car. Ike drove us to the place where the party was. This place was humongous... I’m talking mansion. It had a fountain in front. There were like five thousand cars there, and so Ike just parked in the street. Upon entering, I noticed a few familiar faces.
“Hey guys!” Aaron (the boy who was the football captain that time when we played football) called, descending a huge marble staircase in the foyer.
I waved as Ike high fived him. Looking around, I realized I recognized a lot more people than I thought. There was Tiffany (that giggly cheerleader), Hunter, Frank, and (I moved slightly behind Tay to hide) James. “Tay,” I whispered.
“Hey, Taylor!” someone called out. It was Brett.
“Hi,” Tay waved, not very enthusiastically.
“You still hanging around with that thing?” he pointed to me.
“Yea, I think it’s about time you got that removed,” James laughed.
“Hey, give her a break,” Tay replied.
“What happened to you?” Brett called out, referring to my crutches.
“Shut up,” I spit back, following Tay into a huge, dark, plush living room filled with about fifty dancing kids.
Resting my crutches on a wall somewhere, I joined everyone in the center of the floor, breaking it down to DMX and Britney Spears songs. It felt so great. I could barely remember the last time I’d danced. I really wanted to just keep going and going, but after about four songs, I felt a familiar tightening in my foot and knew that I was going to have one of those cramp attacks. Not wanting to cause a big scene, I mumbled something to Tay about the bathroom, grabbed up my crutches, and slipped out the back door. Almost as soon as I was out doors, my nerves seized, and I was almost knocked over by the pain. I kept moving, more slowly, of course, until I came to the pool house. Sitting on a bench in there, I grabbed my ankle, and let out a muffled moan. It’s hard to describe how it felt, except for the word painful. It’s like a cramp, only more acute. Anyway, so I sat there in the pool house, whimpering in pain and wishing for Advil for about ten minutes. After the attack subsided, my entire leg was achy and numb, and so I simply curled up in the corner. I don’t know how much time actually passed, but sooner or later I heard footsteps outside the pool house. As I looked up, Tay bent down in front of me.
“Are you all right?” he sounded really concerned.
I nodded in response, my leg still aching.
“Where did you go? I was worried.”
I looked up at him apologetically, and attempted to stand. I crumpled back down however, when another wave of tension pierced through my foot.
“Robinson?” he put his hands on my shoulders.
“My leg...”
“Do you want me to go get someone?”
“No,” I gasped as it shot through me, “There’s nothing anyone can do... Sorry I left.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he pushed my hair away from my face, running his fingers down my cheek.
“There’s no need for you to worry since there’s nothing you could do about it,” I sighed as the pain subsided again.
“I thought James was raping you or something,” he was being serious.
“I’ll be all right.”
“Wanna go home?” he asked, tenderly putting his hand over mine.
“You’re such a sweetheart,” I smiled, crossing my fingers through his, “we don’t have to leave.”
“Well it sucks that you should have to stay here if you’re in pain.”
“I’m not making you leave the party. Once it stops hurting, I’ll go back in there with you.”
“I came here because you wanted to. I’m not going to party without you,” he informed me, caressing my hand with his index finger.
“Stop being so good to me,” I blushed, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.
Tay sat down next to me, and then shifted so that he was laying across my chest and his head was on my shoulder, basically sitting in between my legs. “So what’s up Robinson?” he asked, resting his cheek on my chin.
“Not too much. My mom didn’t let me go out for a long time, and so nothing much has happened. What about you?”
“We had a great time recording. After our break we’re touring. I’m rewally looking forward to it.”
“That rocks,” I tilted my head back to look out the skylight of the poolhouse up at the stars.
“I wish you could come with me,” he kissed under my chin, and then that ticklish spot where your jaw and neck come together.
“Me too,” I sighed. “Since that’s never going to happen, I guess we can just enjoy the time we have together.”
“The way you talk it sounds like one of us is dying,” he laughed.
“Might as well... It’ll be eternity before I see you again,” I frowned.
“Hey, we have a month,” he informed me.
“I guess...”
“You know, your shirt doesn’t make a very good pillow,” he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck, which had indentations from the sequins on my shirt.
“And just how do you suppose we solve that problem?”
