"Taylor guess what!" Erica squealed bouncing on his bed.
"What?" he asked laughing. She had been over his house for only a short while and was obviously ecstatic about something. Taylor had no idea what it was.
"My parents gave me the most extraordinary news!" she said glowing.
"Really? What'd they say?" he asked fiddling with one of his chokers in front of his mirror.
"They said..." she paused for dramatic effect,"school starts on Thursday." she awaited his reaction.
Taylor dropped his choker and whirled around,"What?"
"I get to go to school!" she said grinning from ear to ear. She had been homeschooled her entire life so now that she actually got to go to school seemed incredibly exciting and new to her.
Taylor rushed over and sat by her,"You're going to school?" he asked in disbelief.
Erica frowned,"Why don't you seem happy about this?"
"Because, I just...why are you going to school?" he babbled.
"Well, you know how my mom volunteers at the hospital as a nurse in the summer when I don't have to be taught? Well, they offered her a full-time position and she just seemed really happy about it and I have never been to school and so, well I guess I figure that it's just something new to try." she said trying to persuade Taylor to believe that this would be a good thing.
Taylor looked away from her,"Great, that's great."
"Taylor..." Erica said putting her hand on his knee.
Taylor stood up,"I have to find my wallet, I lost it."
"Taylor, what's the..." she started again.
"That's great. I mean about school and all," he swallowed hard,"I mean we might as well be pulled apart even more than we already are. You can go off and form a whole other group of friends and just leave me behind. Forget I even exist. So go ahead. Go to school and fall for some big football player, forget about everything we have together." he said shuffling around his room looking for his wallet.
"Well, geez Taylor, what do you want me to do? I can't homeschool myself now can I? And what do you want me to tell my mom?" she asked him,"Gee mom, I don't think that you should be a nurse, something that you love to do, because Taylor gets jealous and I have to make him happy. Forget about what you want or what I want. Taylor has to be happy." she said sarcastically.
Taylor just shook his head,"I need to find my wallet." he mumbled searching through a drawer.
"Taylor," Erica said,"your wallet is at my house. My brother found it on the couch, it probably fell out of your pocket.
Taylor stopped searching the room and flung a book across the room,"God damnit!"
Erica jumped,"Taylor, calm down! It's in my room at home, I forgot to bring it. You'll get it, don't worry." she assured him.
Taylor nodded,"I'll get it alright. Your brother is going to "give" me a good old-fashioned ass whooping."
"Why would he do that?" Erica asked.
"Gee I don't know. Maybe because he thinks we were messing around stupid!" he yelled.
"Don't call me stupid!" she shot back,"You're just pissed because my whole entire life isn't going to be revolved around you anymore and you can't stand it!"
"That is not..." he started.
Erica stood up,"Shut-up Tay! You're not man enough to tell me how it really is!."
Of all the spots to hit Taylor, she hit the wrong one, and he snapped,"Okay, I'll tell you stuff. You know your birthday? I'm going to miss it. Christmas? I'm going to miss it! Remember that day when Stacie was here? The day that you told her that I was lying to your face? Remember that conversation? Yeah, well Ike and I were hiding in the closet and Zac was under the bed! We heard the whole thing! There is that manly enough for you?" he screamed.
Erica struggled to hold back tears. How could he listen in on her private conversations?
"Are you happy now?" he yelled.
Erica shook her head no. She was shocked and unable to speak.
"No?" he raised his eyebrows,"I thought that's what you wanted to hear." he said sarcastically.
A tear slid own Erica's cheek. The anger inside of Taylor quickly died. What was happening? Had he actually made her cry? Yes, he had. His arms hung limply at his sides,"Erica, I..."
"You asshole." she whispered before running from the room.
Isaac walked in the room to find Taylor ripping it apart,"What's the big idea?" Ike demanded, ducking before a brush hit his head.
"Life sucks!" Taylor screamed.
"Geez Tay, whatever happened can't be that bad." Isaac told him.
"It is that bad!" he shrieked.
"Well stop ripping the room apart and talk to me about it." Ike said calmly.
"Okay, what happened is Erica basically called me gay and I got mad at her." Taylor yelled.
Isaac snickered,"She called you gay?"
Taylor nodded,"Well, in so many words, yes."
Isaac stopped laughing,"What do you mean "in so many words"? How many words are there to say gay?"
"Well, she actually said that I wasn't man enough to tell her anything." Taylor said.
Isaac raised his eyebrows,"And what did you say?"
"Well," Taylor paused,"I basically told her about how I was going to miss her birthday and Christmas, and how we heard hers and Stacie's conversation from the closet.
"What?" Isaac yelled.
"Well, I only said it because I was mad!" Taylor explained, trying to find some way to justify his actions.
Isaac nodded as if he understood,"Oh I see, because you were mad..." then he attatched his hands to Taylor's shirt and threw him to the floor,"I'm going to kill you!"
Isaac leapt onto the floor, grabbed Taylor's shirt again and started shaking him,"She's going to tell Stacie you idiot!"
Taylor grabbed Isaac's wrists and tried to pull them off,"Chill out Ike!"
"Idiot!" he screamed.
"Chill!" Taylor yelled back.
Mrs. Hanson appeared in the doorway,"Boys, please keep it down, I have a headache." she said.
Isaac and Taylor stopped screaming and looked at their mother guiltily,"Sorry mom." they said in unision.
"Wash up, dinner's in five minutes. You can kill each other later." she said walking away.
"Okay mom." they called after her.
Isaac craned his neck and watched his mother descend down the stairs, then he looked at Taylor and shrugged, tightened his grip on his shirt, and started shaking him again,"Idiot!"
"Chill!"
Ring...Ring...Ring...
Pick up the phone Ike thought, the little thing that's ringing.
Ring...Ring...
"Hi this Erica," the machine started.
"Damnit." Ike muttered.
"I'm not in right now, but if you leave a message I'll get back to you later...unless you're Taylor Hanson, the asshole, who I hope gets some strange, painful disease and rots in the firey depths of hell!"
Isaac pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it and then put it back to his ear in time to hear the beep end,"Uh, hi Erica, this is Isaac..."
Click, click.
"Isaac?" Erica asked picking up the phone.
"Oh, you're home." he said.
"Yeah, what's up?" she asked.
Isaac felt bad about what he was going to ask her because she sounded so depressed and worn out,"Okay, I feel bad about asking this, but..."
She cut him off,"I have no intention of telling Stacie, Ike."
Isaac let out a breath of relief,"Good, because I wasn't sure if you would."
"Is that all?" Erica asked through a yawn.
"Well," Isaac paused. He was going to say yes but, he felt bad that he only called her for his own personal benefit and not to help her with her problem,"how are you holding up? Do you need someone to talk to?" he asked.
"No, no I think I'll live." she said.
"Well okay but, the offer remains open." he told her.
"Thanks Ike. Goodbye." she said.
"Bye."
"Hey Taybear, pay attention!" Avery commanded snapping her fingers in Taylor's face.
"What?" Taylor asked snapping back to reality.
This totally sucked. This week was supposed to be fun for him and Erica but, they were fighting. Here it was, a beautiful Saturday afternoon, perfect for a walk in the park or anything else Taylor's romantic genius would have thought up. But, Erica was still mad at him. For two days he tried to call and apologize only to be met, not so fondly, by her answering machine or dial tone. Everytime he went to her house, she was mysteriously not there. And he had to tried to tag along on one of Isaac's and Stacie's outings but, they wanted to be left alone and Stacie barely looked at him, save for the occassional evil eye. So there was no way to relay a message to Erica. So here he was, one week from the trip, and sitting in at Avery's tea party.
"Taybear, Mr. Floppy says you should wear the flowery hat." she said clutching the woven hat with plastic flowers on it.
"Oh come on Avery..." he started to protest but cut off when she gave him her puppy dog eyes,"fine but, I'm beginning to feel over-dressed." he said snatching the hat from her and plopping it on his head.
He already had on a set of pink, plastic pearls, clip on earings and a plastic ring from a cracker jacks box. He wasn't going to feel any sillier than he already did.
Avery clapped her hands and sat across from Taylor at her play table. She fit right under it while Taylor sat in the too short chair with his knees near his ears.
"Would you like some more tea?" she asked sweetly.
"Yeah sure." he said watching as Avery poured her imaginary tea into the little plastic white cup with the rose on it. Then she poured some for herself and picked up her cup.
"Pinkies up." she commanded.
Taylor did as he was told and just as the tiny cup reached his lips a bright flash blinded him. He looked up to see Zac in the doorway holding a polaroid.
"Excellent blackmail." he said laughing.
Taylor leapt up,"Give me that picture!"
Zac took off in a mad dash down the hall. Taylor took off after him.
"Tay!" Avery shrieked,"You're wrecking the tea party!"
"Another day, we'll play another day Avie!" he called over his shoulder.
He followed Zac down the stairs where everyone was putting coats on,"What's going on?" Tay asked, stopping in his tracks.
"You look good in pink." Isaac laughed flicking at the pearls with his hand.
Taylor gave him the evil eye.
"Is Avery upstairs?" Mrs. Hanson asked amidst the busle.
"What's going on?" he asked again.
"Avery!" his mother called upstairs.
"Mackie, please wear your coat." Mr. Hanson pleaded with his youngest son.
"No!" Mackie shrieked.
"What's going on!?" Taylor yelled.
Eveyone turned to look at him,"We're going for ice cream Tay." Isaac informed him.
Avery came bounding down the stairs and into her jacket,"Yeah ice cream Taybear." she agreed.
"Hurry up!" Zac said impatiently,"Kerri's probably waiting."
"Chill out Zac!" Jessica said shoving her hand in his face.
"Kerri's going?" Tay asked over Jessica screaming as Zac twisted her arm and told her he'd break it if she ever shoved her hand in his face again.
Isaac nodded,"Stacie too."
"Mackie please!" his father said exasperated.
Zac let go of Jessica and rolled his eyes,"Hey Mack-truck," he said to his little brother,"if you don't have your jacket you can't be like me, Ike and Tay."
Mackie's eyes widened at the thought of not being able to be exactly like his brothers.
"Guess you're not cool enough. You can out the jacket away dad." Zac said.
Mr. Hanson hid his smile as he started to stand up,"No!" Mackie shrieked grabbing the jacket.
"Come on Tay, get your jacket." his mother said.
"Nah, I'm not up to it." Tay said pulling off his tea party costume.
"Are you feeling okay hon?" his mother asked suddenley concerned.
"Yeah, I'm just, not in an ice cream mood." he sighed,"I mean listening to evryone fight over ice cream, in a crowded place is just not where I want to be right now."
"You'll be home alone though." his mother pointed out.
Tay snickered as he sauntered into the living room,"I think I can handle peace and quiet for an hour or so."
Back
Back Home
Go To Chapter 26