Ding Dong
Taylor glanced across the couch at everyone. Isaac, Zac and Mackie showed no sign of moving. Not that Mackie could answer the door, but that never stopped him from trying before. Instead of moving they all looked more interested in the television.
Ding Dong
"No really you guys," Taylor sighed,"I got it. Don't move, I'll get it." he said sarcastically as he pulled himself off of the couch.
"Okay." Zac laughed as he tossed his brother a grin.
"What an asshole." Taylor muttered to himself as he went to answer the door. When he pulled open the door, he began to desperately wish that he hadn't.
"Hi." Samantha said quietly while avoiding eye contact with Taylor.
"What?" Taylor snapped at her. He didn't want to see her right now. Basically because he still didn't know what to say to her or how to deal with the situation.
"I have to talk to you." she said as she wrung her hands.
"About the baby?" Taylor asked bitterly as he stepped onto the front porch and shut the door behind him.
"How did you know?" she asked as her eyes finally left the pavement beneath her.
"I don't remember, it is rather amazing because I don't remember the conception either." he sneered.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." she muttered.
"Oh, you just thought you'd drop by and tell me that you took advantage of me while I was drunk and then merrily go along your way, huh?" he asked harshly.
"I didn't..." she began as her eyes filled with tears.
Taylor held up his hand,"Save it okay? Spare me the explanation and the fake tears. I woke up and my one-eyed, purple yogurt slinger was hanging out."
"Huh? Your what?" she sniffed.
He raised his eyebrows,"Captain Winky."
"What are you trying to say?" she asked slowly as she squinted her eyes in an effort to understand.
"My dick!" Taylor yelled.
Samantha recoiled,"Oh. Well, I never touched you." she retorted.
Taylor cocked an eyebrow,"Now I'm confused."
She stared at him, her eyes rimmed with red and her face tangled in distraught,"The baby is Mike's."
Taylor let out a breath of relief,"Oh thank God. So you and I never..."
"We never." she interrupted.
"Well, that's great." Tay smiled.
Samantha lowered her eyes,"Yeah, well I have to be going." she mumbled as she turned around and stepped down a stair.
Taylor lowered his eyes now. He couldn't turn his back on her now, right? He might be the only one she will ever get to really talk to.
Samantha felt a hand grab her elbow. She whirled around to find a pair of crystal clear blue eyes burning into hers.
"I was going to make some hot chocolate. The kind with the mini marshmellows. So, would you like to join me?" he offered as he smiled at her warmly.
She smiled back wearily as tears started to flood over her cheeks,"Thank you, I'd love to."
He took her hand and ushered her into the house,"No problem."
Taylor smiled? He was smiling at Samantha? When did my life become the Twilight Zone? Erica thought as she backed away from her window. She plopped down at her desk and stared at her reflection in the tiny mirror on the desk. Am I so wretched that no guy wants me? Am I so repulsive that I can't be loved? she thought as tears sprung to her eyes.
She leaned forward onto her elbows to get a closer look at herself. Her elbow hit the edge of her notebook. Her eyes shot over to the tiny composition book with 'Poems' scrawled across it. She numbly picked it up and leafed through the pages. She took notice that there was one blank page left for one last poem.
She rose from her chair and layed the open notebook on her bed, face-up. She had a headache so the first thing that she was going to do was get some Tylenol.
She padded quietly into the bathroom. She then gingerly opened up the medicine cabinet in search of the beloved pain-killer. Her eyes rested on a prescription bottle. She snatched the bottle from the cabinet, barely even noticing that she did so. She read the label, Percocet. It was the pain medication left over from her mothers' back surgery a year or two ago. She remembered her mother saying that it was strong stuff.
I wonder if I would die if I took these? she thought staring at herself. She recalled all of those corny movies on Lifetime where girls tried to kill themselves by taking a whole bottle of some type of medication. Duh, of course I would. she told herself. She shook her head as she realized she was contemplating suicide. She grabbed the Tylenol and popped the two pills in her mouth. She filled up a tiny bathroom cup and swallowed the water and pills. She was staring at the Percocet bottle the entire time. It seemed to be beckoning to her.
She discarded the paper cup in the wastebasket and headed from the bathroom. Halfway back to her room she quickly turned around, ran into the bathroom and grabbed the bottle. She shoved it in her pocket and headed back to her room without so much as a second thought.
"So," Taylor sighed as he stirred around the mini marshmellows in his hot chocolate,"does Mike know that you're pregnant?"
Samantha shrugged as she slowly stirred her hot chocolate,"Who knows. By tomorrow the entire school will have heard some sort of twisted version of the truth. That's the power of gossip for you." she informed him as she sunk further down in her chair.
Taylor nodded as he submerged the mini marshmellows beneath the surface of the hot chocolate with the back of his spoon,"I guess you just found out how it feels to be on the other side of the story." he added quietly.
Her cheeks flushed as embarassment overcame her,"I never knew how it could make a person feel." she admitted. She paused in a moment of deep thought,"I think," she began unsurly,"that I was never really that kind of person. Everyone just kind of embraced that one side of my personality. No one bothered to know that there was a person underneath that who was actually capable of constructing a sentence without the word 'whatever' in it. Well, almost everyone thought that." she said glancing at Taylor.
Now Taylor's cheeks turned red and he shifted uncomfortably,"I was just taught not to judge a book by it's cover and that everyone deserves a fair chance."
Samantha took a sip from her mug of hot chocolate. As soon as the cup hit the table she announced,"You're something special, Taylor. That's probably why Erica loves you so much."
Her comment cause Taylor to lock her eyes in a stare,"She what?"
Mrs. Hanson, Jessica and Avery came bursting through the back door just then,"Hi honey." she said warmly to Taylor over her shopping bags. Then her gaze fell upon Samantha,"Oh, I see you have a friend over."
"Yeah, I was just about to go." Samantha said nervously as she stood up and grabbed her coat while trying to ignore the evil glares coming from Avery.
"Yeah." Taylor agreed as he stood up to walk her to the door.
"Oh, well okay then." Mrs. Hanson replied trying to hide the satisfation in her voice.
They both walked from the room and to the front door. Taylor opened the door and followed Samantha out onto the doorstep,"Feel free to call me if you ever need something. Or, you know, stop by." he offered.
She gave him a small smile,"Okay." she replied as she trotted down the stairs and gave him a small wave.
He turned back inside and shut the front door. Deep down, they both knew that she would probably never see him again.
Mrs. Hanson walked into the front hall. She took notice of Taylor standing in front of the door,"Is everything okay hon?" she asked cautiously.
He forced a smile,"Yeah, I just have a weird feeling that that is the last you will see of Samantha."
Erica gently closed her journal. She leaned back in her desk chair and stared at the journal full of poems that reflected her life. It was as if her life had drawn to a close. She felt the tears well up in her eyes as they fell upon the bottle of pills. This was it, her life was going to end.
She sadly removed the cap from the bottle and let the pills scatter across her desk. She stood up, gripping the empty bottle and walked over to her window. She sat on the window seat and stared at Taylor's house.
Well Taylor, she thought, I've come to this. I've reached the end. No matter how much you wanted to protect me from everything, you couldn't save me from myself. I wish there was some way for me to tell you all that I have to say. To tell you to forget me and to live your life. To succeed and fight for everything you believe in. To never let anyone discourage you and never let them take from you what they have so joyfully taken from me. If there was only a way... she let her thoughts wander as her eyes fell upon the pile of pills on her journal. Her journal.
She walked back across the room. She let the empty pill bottle fall from her fingers. It bounced once and then rolled over to the side of her bed. It was partially hidden by the bedskirt.
She quickly flipped through the pages of the journal. This will let him know. she thought, And perhaps a note to go with it.
She pulled out a drawer from her desk and removed a blank sheet of paper. Taylor... she began.
An hour or so later the room was unbelievably still. Erica lay asleep on her desk on top of an unsigned letter and her journal. Death would have to wait another day.
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