After Jessie gets bored with Barbies, you help her pick them up and she carries them into her room. You help Diana make lunch for the kids and Ike, Tay, Zac, Walker, and yourselves. You put Walker and they guys’ sandwiches in the fridge, wrapped up. Diana and you ate your sandwiches at the table. She asked you questions about Victorville. "So, how long have you lived in Victorville?" "About ten years." "Wow, well we have lived here in Tulsa our whole lives, aside from the time that we spend in South America." "Really. That’s amazing!"
At that moment, the guys walked in the door. You get up and throw away your paper plate. You take the sandwiches out of the refrigerator and hand them out to Zac, Isaac, and Walker. You walk over to Taylor, hand him his sandwich and give him a kiss. He sits down on the couch and pulls you down next to him. You lean against him while he eats his lunch. You watch TV and finally when he’s done he pulls you to your feet and says, "Feel like goin’ on a walk?" "Sure," you say. He takes your hand and says, "Mom, we’re going on a walk. I’m gonna show Kristin around Tulsa." "OK, be back in two hours, you have to practice and play at Rex Boneless Chicken." "OK mom, bye." "Bye, have fun." "Bye Diana." "Bye hon."
You walk out the front door. You follow Tay down the sidewalk and up the street. The first place you stop is the mall. All the stores were way different. You walk in a few stores and then he gets mobbed by a bunch of girls. He sees them coming and hears them screaming, "TAYLOR!!!" He stops you and kisses you forcefully right in the middle of the mall. The girls stop dead in their tracks. You pull away and say, "Taylor!" "I’m sorry," he says. You cross your arms and start walking through the food court, to the nearest exit. You run out the doors and around a cornet. You sit down against a tree and cry.
Taylor runs through the doors of the food court and outside. He sees a pair of blue Vans disappear behind a corner and follows them. He sees you sitting against a tree, crying. His heart breaks seeing that he had hurt you. H sits down next to you and you turn your back to him. "I’m sorry Kristin," he says, touching your hair. You move your head away from his hand. You sniffle. "I’m sorry," he says again.
"Sorry! I must have been really stupid to get involved with you! I thought you cared about me! So was I just some excuse to scare off your fans?!" "No, that’s not it at all!" "Oh, really, then enlighten me, why did you do it?!" "I don’t know. It was stupid. I do care about you and I will regret ever hurting you. I’m sorry, Kristin, please." You turn back, sitting side by side with Taylor but you are staring straight ahead. "I’ve never cared more about anyone the way I care about you," you say, "That’s why it hurt me so bad. I felt like an object and not a person." "I’m so sorry you had to feel that way. I’m even sorrier that I was the cause of it." You wipe your eyes and say, "Do you really mean that?" "Yes, I really do," he says. "Can you forgive me Kristin?" "I guess, " you say, "But you are on trial Mr." "I can live with that," he says, putting his arm around you. You lay your head on his shoulder.
Taylor kisses your head and whispers in your ear, "I’m sorry." You smile and put your hand on top of his and squeeze it. He lets out a sigh of relief. He longed for your touch. He smiles and relaxes again.
You sit there for a while with his arm around you. Finally, you get up and start walking. "Wait!" Tay calls. Your steps slow until you are completely still. He catches up with you and says, "What’s wrong?" "Nothin, your mom said to be back in two hours and we have fifteen minutes to get home. Plus I’m cold." He unzips his sweater and drapes it around your shoulders. "Thanks," you say. "What’s the matter, Kristin?" "I just told you/" "No, something else is the matter, I can feel the tension." "Nothing’s wrong!" you snap. "OK," he says. He pulls his hair back into a pony-tail and jams his hands into his pockets. He walks a few steps ahead of you.
You come to Tay’s backyard and you grab his hand before he can go any farther. He turns around, "What?" You put your hand on the back of his neck and pull him close to you. You kiss him. You put your hands on his back. He takes his hands out of his pockets and puts his arms around you. "I’m sorry," you say. "So, what was wrong?" he asks. "I guess I was hurt more than I thought." "I’m so sorry," he says. "It’s OK, I’ll get over it." He takes your hand and pulls you through the backyard and into the house. When you get inside, Zac says, "Ashley called." "OK," Taylor says. He jumps up on the counter and picks up the phone. He dials the number and asks for Ashley. Ashley gets on the phone and Taylor talks to him. "Hey, what’s up?" "Not much." "Not much here either." "Really, so when is having a girlfriend considered ‘not much’?" "How’d you find out?" "Zac told me." "Ah." "So wanna do something later?" "We gotta do a show at Rex's, wanna go?" "OK cool." "Show starts at 5:30! I gotta get ready for rehearsal, so later!" Taylor hangs up the phone and the speaker phone clicks off.
You pull up to the restaurant and go in through the back. The equipment was already there and the stuff was set up. They all go behind their instruments. Ike was tuning his guitar. Zac was fixing the height of one of his symbols. Taylor was playing some chords on his keyboards. He starts singing some notes. A dark haired guy walks in and Tay jumps off the stage. "Ashley!" They do some weird handshake and Taylor slips his arm around you and says, "Ashley, meet Kristin, my woman!" You elbow him playfully. "Sorry, meet Kristin, my girlfriend," he corrects himself. You shake hands and Zac jumps off the stage and runs up to you guys. "Hey Ash!" "Hey Zac!" Ike waves from the stage, Ashley waves back.
"Guys!" Walker exclaims. Taylor kisses you for a minute and then he and Zac run back to the stage and jump up on it. After the sound check was over, you sit and talk for a while. Then, Zac entertains you by doing…everything. Someone from the newspaper comes in and interviews them.
A FEW WEEKS LATER
You and Angela Ernst are sitting in your front yard. You decided to go to your house after school. You went swimming and had just gotten out. You went out front to wait for Kurt, who was going to come over and should be there any minute now. "I need to do something different with my hair," she says, brushing it. You take her brush from her and tell her to face the top of your street. She does as you say. You start brushing her hair when someone covers your eyes with their hands. Figuring it was Kurt, you continued to brush out Angie’s hair. When you were done, you finally pulled them down. You turned around.