“Oh, yeah, Taylor. And I loved that shirt you wore on that retarded Dick Clark show. I think we have pictures of my cousin Heather wearing the same one back in the eighties.”
“Hey!” Taylor laughed and punched my arm playfully. “Are you insulting my buff physique?”
“Who, me? Never!”
It was twenty minutes later, and Taylor and I were seeking refuge in the kitchen of his aunt’s house. We had kept in constant touch via e-mail, but having my best friend back all of a sudden was...different, to say the least. Thankfully, though, nothing had changed too much.
My hazelish eyes turned serious, and I kicked the cabinet door rhythmically from my perch on the counter. “Seriously, though. What’s it like?”
“What?”
I rolled my eyes. “Having blond hair. God, Taylor, whaddaya think? Having a number one song and having a hundred thousand people scream at you when you walk down the street. What’s it like?”
Tay chewed his lip thoughtfully. “Weird. I can’t think of any other word to describe it, really. It’s just strange. Like, one day I’m here and you treat me like I’m just regular-”
I cut in. “Well, dearie, I hope you don’t expect me to roll out the red carpet or anything.”
Taylor smiled. “But then, like, all of a sudden you’re talking to Regis and Kathie Lee- who, by the way, is even more unbelievably annoying in person- and flying all over the place-”
“And meeting Cindy Crawford,” I teased.
Taylor blushed, laughing. “Well, that was definitely one of the perks.”
I shook my head. “Men.”
Taylor’s increasingly pregnant mom walked into the kitchen just in time to hear my last comment, and laughed. “Can’t live with ‘em, huh? Hey, Sweetie!” Diana gave me a hug. “Great haircut.”
I smiled, playing with a strand self-consciously. “Thanks. When’re you due?”
“Four weeks. About time, too.” Diana opened the refrigerator, stuck her head in, and produced Mackenzie’s airplane thermos. “Apple juice. Anyway, how’s school? Taylor said you’re taking classes for sophomores now?”
“Yeah. It’s kinda like skipping a grade without actually skipping it. I do advanced ninth grade stuff in the morning, and take tenth grade classes in the afternoon. They just started offering that, though, so I’m basically one of the lab rats.”
Di laughed. “Keep up the good work. I’ll leave you guys here to chat, but at least try to socialize a little, okay?”
I looked at Diana in mock-horror. “Socialize? You mean, with the people out there? But Diana! That would mean abandoning the antisocial, brooding teen images your son and I have worked so hard to perfect.”
Diana cracked up, as did Tay, and I giggled. As the door swung shut behind Taylor’s mother, he asked, “So how’s Ellie?”
“She’s good. The ambition of the moment is to star on Broadway, and she’s been making me run lines with her- they’re doing Grease at school when we go back.” I checked my watch. “Your aunt told me to ask her if she wanted to come tonight, and she said she might make a guest appearance.”
As if she had been cued from the wings of a Broadway stage, Ellie DiStefano burst into the kitchen. “Well, if it isn’t the newest ‘Big Bopper’ poster boy. I tell you, Taylor, you have some wacked-out fans.” She turned to me. “Remember the girls on the pilgrimage? Taylor, these two crazed teenyboppers and a very indulgent mother camped outside your house for two days. Two days! And it was raining...”
Ellie is a classic fanfic heroine- she moved to Hanson’s hometown last spring because of her father’s job, and she has a huge crush on one of them. Unfortunately, though, she doesn’t have “long blond hair that cascades down her back, gently coiling into curlicues,” she is not a “twig with a chest”, and Isaac has yet to realize she’s alive. Short and skinny with thick dark hair, the girl’s decidedly the most outspoken person I know.
She grabbed a couple of pretzels from the bowl sitting on the table, and asked, “So, how did my dear friend Miss Larkspur end up and this little shindig? I thought you guys called it quits.”
Taylor nodded, and I smiled to myself- I think he gets a little bewildered by Ellie sometimes. “We did. But my parents and her parents are friends, so here she is.”
El nodded. “Imagine our luck.”
