"Well, I guess this is it....again." I said to Taylor as we stood on his front lawn, watching his family pack up to leave for Asia.
"Zac what did you do with my bag of color crayons and Barbies?!" "They're in the trunk!" "No they're not! I know you hid them away from me!" "You don't need them anyway! "Avery, what did you do with my Discman?!" "What Discman, Ikey-mikey-bo-bikey?" "Avie, come back with it or the Tickle Monster will get you!" "Augghh! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Mommy! Ikey's tickling me again!" "Isaac, leave your sister alone and come help us pack up the car!" "She won't give me my Discman back! Avery! Come back! Augh!" "Mrrowww!"
"Oh no! Poor kitty, come here." I cooed to my cat, Checkers, when she came running over to me after Isaac had tripped over her.
"Meow! Hssssssss!" she snapped back and ran away. "Fine, didn't want to see you anyway!" I said.
"Well, speaking of that, I assume your family is having another famous crisis, huh?" I asked.
"Of course, but this is only the beginning." he replied, crossing his arms and tsk-tsking.
"I can only imagine." I commented, setting myself into another daydream of mine.
"Taylor! Get your butt over here and let's go!" Walker called out to him.
"Well, have fun. Oh, and here," I said, and handed him a pisces zodiac symbol charm, "I had this when I won the Spelling Bee and found a fifty-dollar bill at a theme park. Keep it with you." I said. "Thanks." he smiled.
"Oh, and one more thing. Give this to Jessica on her birthday." I said as I handed Taylor a small, girt-wrapped package.
"What is it?" he asked. "It's a music box with a dancing ballerina that plays her favorite song that I play on the piano." "Fur Elise," he said, "she'll love it." "It reminded me of her when she would dance around the house."
"It's very fragile. Take care of it." I warned. "You can count on me." he said.
"Taylor, the plane isn't going to wait for you, and neither will we if you don't get your butt in the car!" Walker yelled out again.
"Well, see you in two weeks." he said. "Bye." I replied. We almost kissed, then we almost kissed on the cheek, then we ended up hugging instead.
"Go, I'll be seeing you." I said, and pushed him away.
And I went into my house, ignoring the car that turned down the street for another big step into their hopes, dreams, and their lives; the lives of the Hansons.
Knock, knock. "Dammit, can't anybody just leave me alone for 10 minutes?" I screamed inside of my head.
"What do you want!?-Oh, hey Daphne." I said, and let her enter my bedroom.
"Did you put the tampon in the wrong place again?" she asked sarcastically.
"Ha, ha, very funny. As a matter of fact, it isn't that time of the month yet."
"No, seriously, if you don't want any guests here, I can easily leave." she back-fired.
"No, stay, I'm sorry, I've just been getting, like, 2 phone calls every 5 minutes, and no one would answer, and my parents keep yelling for me and then they would forget what they were going to say ." I explained.
"So unplug your phone and play your radio's volume up loud." she suggested.
"Well I'll unplug the phone, but don't hold your breath on the radio part. I've been listening to that thing for practically four days straight. I'm sick of it; all they ever play is, "Say You'll Be There," "Foolish Games," "The Difference," "Where's The Love," "Quit Playing Games With My Heart," "Semi-Charmed Life," and, "I Want You." I said out of breath.
"You forgot "Fly." she said. "That too." I replied.
"So, when do you think Taylor's coming back?" she asked.
I was set-adrift. "What? What about Taylor? Why do you want to know?" I asked quickly and chirply.
"Woah, slow down, I just asked a simple question. When is Taylor coming back?"
"Why are you only asking about Taylor? Why don't you ask about the whole family?" I asked defensively.
"Well, I want to ask Taylor out on a date. I mean, besides being gorgeous, he's got one hell of a voice, he never has bad breath, and he knows how to have a good time, unlike David." she explained, referring to her ex-boyfriend.
"I don't see the point of asking him out." I muttered, then quickly regretted saying that.
"How could you say something like that?" she horridly asked.
"Ugh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it by that way. I meant that if you two went out, he would barely have time for you. He'd always be gone and stuff, you know?" I explained.
"Yeah, but still, that doesn't stop me." she defended.
"Well, has he ever showed an interest in you?" "Um, I don't know." "Has he ever called you of stopped by your house?" "No." "Has he ever flirted with you?"
"Woah, what is wrong with you? What is your sudden obsession with protecting me from him?" she asked.
"I'm not protecting you, I'm just asking you if maybe he showed signs of liking you." I fibbed.
"Someone's got a crush, doesn't she?" she asked sneakily.
I turned away. "Whatever do you mean?" I asked.
A sly smile crept up upon her face. "You have a thing for Taylor, don't 'cha?" she asked slyly.
"What makes you think of that?" I asked.
"C'mon Kim, I'm not one of your stupid seven year-olds who would believe that fake honesty." she stated.
"Shut up." I remarked.
"Admit it. You like him." she pushed.
"No." "Ah, so you do like him. You just said that you wouldn't admit it, but that always means you'll admit it in the next minute or so."
"Not."
"Do."
"Not."
"Do."
"Not." "Do." "Not." "Do." "Not." "Do." "Not." "Do." "Okay! You get me. I do, have a "thing" for him." "See. I told you you'd admit it in the next minute or so."
"Well, is that a big deal, or something? I mean, big whoop, he's cute." I confided.
"Oh, do tell me more." she begged smiling.
"No." I said smirkly.
"Well, fine. I'm gonna leave. But call me when he gets back." she said, leaving.
"Fine." I said back to her. When I heard her leave, I said to myself, "Don't hold your breath," and laughed.
"All around the world, statues crumble for me. Who knows...how long...I've loved you." I sang as I put clean dishes from the dishwasher away.
"I-i-i-i-i-i-i-i just want to fly. Put your arms around me baby, put your arms around me baby." I sang some more.
Just then, I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist, encircling me.
My heart just about stopped, and I turned around to see who the intruder was. Standing face to face, I found my chocolate brown eyes staring into the most gorgeous pair of crystal blue eyes, the only pair of eyes that belonged to him.
"I'm back." Taylor said, smiling. A major sigh escaped my held-back breath "How did you get into my house?" I asked, breathless. "Your front door was unlocked, and I decided to surprise you." he replied. "Oh, god. You made my heart stop for a second there." I was both scared and excited it was you. I thought.
I looked down at where his arms were, still wrapped around my waist. He looked down too, and then immediately shoved his hands in his pockets, uncomfortable laughs escaping our voices.
"So, I'm back for awhile." he said walking over to the couch and sitting down.
"How long?" I asked, sitting next to him. "A good three weeks then we go to New York for about 5 days or so." he said. "Oh, that's not so bad. Five days goes by fast." "Yeah."
"So, did you miss me?" he asked curiously. "Well, of course. Who else is there to beat at basketball around here?" I said sarcastically.
"C'mon, be for real, did you?" he pushed.
I thought. "Yeah, sure, why not?" I said meaningfully.
"I missed you and home." he said.
I looked at him questioningly. God, why is he acting so weird? Oh well, I guess this is the time to go in for the kill. I thought.
"Um, Taylor?" "Yeah?" "Um, can I....um....Can I kiss you?" I asked.
His pale complexion suddenly turned a ruddy color, flushing with semi-embarrassment.
"Look, don't play stupid with me. I know that you like me. You've been hanging out with me a lot more than I ever thought of, and that day when we were playing basketball when you kissed me aggressively, that was a dead giveaway. But when you kissed me, I didn't feel anything. I mean, I didn't feel the emotion that you were probably feeling, the...love, that is. But, now that I want to kiss you, that is because..I, I'm feeling some sort of emotional attraction towards you, and I want to kiss you to see if I feel anything to see if I really like you, knowing that you like me. So, would that be alright if we kissed?" I explained as logically as I could.
"Do you like me only because I like you?" he questioned, confused.
"No! No, I want to see if I feel more than just a plain old kiss. I want to see if my feelings match the way that I would feel through a kiss." I explained more easily.
"Um, okay sure." As I leaned over for a kiss, I could feel him shake slightly.
"Taylor, you're trembling." I said.
"I know, I wasn't prepared for this. I mean, you just asked if you could kiss me to determine if you really are attracted to me, and I was kind of startled. Usually, or whenever I'd kiss you, it was an out of the blue, quick moment kind of thing. But now that it's a sit-down, be prepared thing, I guess it's something I'm not used to." he finished.
I barely listened to his babbling. Just after he finished talking, I took his neck and cradled it in my hand and leaned over once again to kiss him. As our lips touched, he took my cheek in his hand and held it there, and gradually deepened the kiss.
I let go, and just kind of stared at him, at his eyes, and at his body language, him shifting around.
At the same time, he silently prayed in his head, "Please let her feel something, please let her feel something, please let her feel something, please-"
"I felt it," I said, interrupting his thoughts, "It felt like that was a more emotional, love type of thing kiss to me." I said, smiling.
Yes! he thought, "Really?" "Yeah." "Well," he said, putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer, "do you want to go out, then?" "Of course. Now that we're going to, I want to take things slowly." "I can deal with that."
A minute of silence passed by. "Excuse me, I have to go finish putting the dishes away." I said, and walked into the kitchen.
15 seconds later, "You know what," I asked casually, walking back over to him and sat down on the couch, "those dishes can wait." And with that, I put my arms around him and began kissing him ever so sweetly and tenderly.
"Woah, what about taking things slowly?" he asked. "That can start Monday." I replied. And yet again, we resumed making-out.
