It was Christmas night and the Hansons and the Neilsons were sitting in the living room, drinking hot chocolate. It had gotten colder outside. The temperature dropped to 20 degrees F. Of course, it was snowing outside.
"This is the coldest Christmas in Tulsa I've ever seen, and I've lived here my whole life." Diana remarked. Walker nodded in agreement. They had both gone to a high school around there. They had been high school sweethearts. Soon, Alexis and Bruce had to head home. They gathered there bags of gifts and hurried home.
Once they got inside, they both sat down to watch 'A Christmas Carol' and 'It's A Wonderful Life'.
Alexis loved those movies. They soon heard a knock on the door. "Who could that be, coming this late on Christmas day?" Mr. Neilson said, frowning.
He opened the door. Taylor was standing there, shivering. "Tay, come on in. Hurry, it's freezing outside." He pulled Taylor into the room. Even though Taylor was wearing jeans, a sweater, and a jacket, and he hadn't been outside for more than two minutes, he looked like he was starting to get sick. "I,I,I came to give you this. You left it at our house." He handed them Alexis's overnight bag.
"Tay! You didn't have to do that. You're getting sick now." Alexis exclaimed
She hurried to get a blanket. She listened to her father talked to him.
"You're parents don't know you're here?" he asked
"No, they probably wouldn't have let me if I asked. I just wanted to return that. I should go now." he said, standing up, still shivering.
"Nonsense, you're staying here. It's to cold outside. You don't have enough layers of clothing. You can stay in the guest room." Mr. Neilson insisted.
Alexis quickly returned with the blanket. She wrapped it around Taylor's shoulders and quickly went to make three cups of hot chocolate. They all sat down to finish watching 'It's A Wonderful Life'. When it was time for bed, Mr. Neilson gave Taylor a a tee shirt that was too big so he can sleep in it. Alexis watched as Taylor crawled into bed. "G'night Taylor." she said, and turned off the lights. But he didn't hear her. He was already fast asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Eight--Taylor
Taylor woke up bathed in sweat, even though it was now 30 degrees F. outside. He turned to see Alexis sitting next to him, a worried look on her face. "Are you okay?" she asked him. He nodded, but knew it wasn't true. She sensed it to, because she brought out a thermomiter. She popped it in his mouth. "You have three minutes." she told him. Three minutes later, she took it out. "Oh man, 102.6 . Taylor, lay down. I'm going to call your mom again. We called her last night to tell her where you were, but now we'll have to tell her you have to stay here 'till you're better."
"Why?" Taylor whined. He wanted to get up and mess with the stuff he got for Christmas.
"Because you are very sick." she informed him. She picked up the phone that lie next to his bed and dialed the Hansons' number.
"Mrs. Hanson, Taylor's here and he's not doing so well." she paused.
"Yes, I did. It's 102.6 ." "We'll keep him in bed over here until he's better, 'k" she paused again. "Okay, tell him to come right up. Bye." She turned to Taylor, who was listening to the conversation but didn't quite catch what they were saying.
"Ike is coming over. And, you're going to saty here until you're better. It'll only be a day or so." she assured him.
He nodded and slowly drifted back to sleep. The last thing he saw was Isaac walk into the room.
Chapter Twenty-Nine--Isaac
"How's he doing, Lex?" Isaac asked as he walked into the bedroom where Taylor was staying. He watched as Taylor closed his ees and fell asleep. "He's very tired, but it's no big deal. It's just a little cold, maybe the flu."
They stood there for a minute, watching Taylor. His breathing was irregular, but he was just cold and tired, so Alexis didn't think anything of it.
"Let's go to my room so we can talk without waking him up." Alexis suggested. Isaac nodded and followed her out of the room.
They sat on the bold orange comforter that lay on Alexis's bed. She had decorated her room in wild colors. Orange bedsheets, yellow walls, she painted a white dresser shy blue, her closet doors were red, and there was an assortment of many other colors spread around the room. They sat and talked for a while. Isaac realized that he'd only been in her room once before. He had never really thought about it. He watched Alexis. She was staring out the window. "Hey," she said, interrupting his thoughts, "Let's go on the computer."
Isaac stood up and pulled to beanbag chairs to where the computer was. It sat on a small stand, barely above three inches. They sat down and waited for the computer to boot up.
Since there wasn't much room, they decided to share a beanbag chair so that they could move one away and have more leg space. Especially since Isaac was so tall, they needed more. Soon they logged onto AOL. They went into a chat room. "I made this private chatroom. It's called meLex. I tell all my friends to go into it so we can chat." Alexis explained. Isaac had never used AOL so she told him everything. Soon he was IMing people. "This is pretty cool." he told her and smiled. She smiled back. Isaac meant to turn back to the computer but he couldn't. He couldn't make his eyes leave Alexis's face.
He leaned in closer to kiss her.
Chapter Thirty--Alexis
As Alexis explained how to create a buddy list and other things on AOL, she felt herself growing closer to Isaac. She had never realized how funny and nice he was. He smiled at her and she smiled back. Alexis, like Isaac, couldn't keep her eyes off of Isaac. Warning bells flashed through her head as Isaac leaned his head closer to hers, but she ignored them. He kissed her, and she kissed him right back. A few seconds later, they heard someone coming in the room behind them. They hurried and broke apart. Two seconds later, Taylor walked sleepily into the room. "Guys, can I have some water." His voice sounded horrible. Alexis jumped up and led him back to bed. "I'll get you some. Be right back." and she hurried downstairs.
'OH MY GOSH! What did I just do? I kissed Isaac! My boyfriend's brother.' she sat down st the kitchen table. Five minutes later, Isaac came down. "Hey, got the water?" he asked. She shook her head. Isaac sensed that she wanted to be alone so he quicly filled a glass with ice and water and hurried upstairs.
'What do I do?' She thought she had really loved Taylor, but then she went and did that. She sighed and rested her head in her hands. Her father went out to go grocery shopping, and with the horrible weather, probably wouldn't be back until much later.
Soon Isaac came back down. "Lex, listen, I..." he trailed off, not knowing what to say. "Ike,I don't know what to do."
Isaac nodded. He knew what she meant.
"Do you want me to go home, or stay here and help you?" he asked her. She thought for a second. "Stay here. I could use someone to help me with Taylor and stuff." They sat there in silence.
Alexis wanted to kiss him again, but knew she couldn't. They just sat there and stared at each other.
Chapter Thirty-One--Taylor
'Ohhhh, my head.' Taylor woke up with a splitting headache. He looked around and noticed that Isaac and Alexis weren't there. He got up and checked Alexis's bedroom, but they weren't there either. He was halfway down the steps when he heard their voices. He saw them but they couldn't see him.
"We should forget about it, right?" he heard Isaac ask.
He started down again. Alexis was about to say something when he walked in. "Tay, what are you doing up?" she cried, hurrying to him.
"What should you forget?" he asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, we were talking about some, uh, problem online."
Taylor knew she was lying. He was hurt that she wouldn't tell him the truth. "I wanna go home now." he said.
Alexis nodded. "I guess, if you want..."
He nodded and grabbed his bag that lay by the door.
"I'll help you." Isaac got up to help him walk, but Taylor hurried ahead. "I can do it by myself." he said angrily. He sensed what they were talking about, but he didn't want to believe it. "Tay, wait!" Alexis called after him. She ran to him. "What are you mad about?" He just glared at her and walked into his house. The pieces fit. They were alone, all by themselves, and something happened that they wanted to forget. Obviously, Alexis had kissed Isaac. It was very clear. He hurried up to his room where Zac was playing Nintendo 64.
"What are you doing home?" he asked Taylor. "I wanted to be in my own bed." "Oh." Zac turned off the sound on the game so Taylor could sleep.
"Zac, I know you're only eleven, but I need to ask you something." Zac nodded and Taylor continued.
"What should a person do when his girlfriend was kissing with his brother?" Zac's mouth dropped open. "Ike kissed Lex?" "I'm not sure, but I think so." "I'll find out for ya." "How? They aren't going to tell you flat out." "Then we'll trick them." Zac simply said. He picked up the reciever of the phone and called Alexis.
"Hi Lex, can you and Ike come over? Me and Tay are bored so we wanted to know if you wanted to hang over here." he paused. "Okay, five minutes. Bye." he hung up the phone. "So what do you plan to do?" Taylor asked curiously. "Well, we both know for a fact that Isaac always picks truth when we play truth or dare, right?" Taylor nodded. "So, we just ask him to name all the other girls he's kissed before."
"My little brother, the genius." Zac grinned."Yup, I'm the smartest guy on Earth." Taylor threw a pillow at him. His head was still throbbing and he wanted to sleep, but he was definately wanted to see what happened.
Chapter Thirty-Two--Isaac
"Maybe he was just moody because he's sick. He probably didn't know what he was doing." Isaac tried to convince Alexis, but was also trying to convince himself. "Maybe." They were walking to the Hanson house. They walked in and went up to the boys' room. Zac was playing video games and Taylor was lying on his bed. "Hi guys." "Hi Zac." Alexis and Isaac said at the same time. Isaac watched as Taylor started staring at them.
"Let's play a game." he said quietly. "Like what?" Zac asked, sounding like he was reading lines. Isaac looked at him suspiciously but Zac just gave him an angelic smile. "How 'bout truth or dare?" Taylor suggested. "I don't know..." Alexis started. "Perfect. Alexis, ask first." Zac cut in. "Uhh, okay, Zac, truth or dare?" "Dare." "I dare you to moon someone out your window." Everyone but Taylor laughed as Zac went to the window and dropped his pants and three teenage girls walked by. They heard laughter and Isaac looked out the window with Zac. One of the girls flashed them. Zac started cracking up. "Okay," he said, calming down, "my turn. Isaac, truth or dare?" "Duh, I always pick truth." Isaac replied. "Okay," Zac grinned at Taylor, "This question isn't really where you answer truth, but it's just a question. Basically, it's not a yes or no question." "Okay Zac, I get your point." "Fine, name every girl you've kissed before. And since this is truth, you have to say every one."
Isaac and Alexis paled. Taylor noticed this.
"Uhh, I gotta go. My dad should be home son and.." "No way, Alexis. You gotta wait for your's. Now, Ike, answer." "Well, there was Chrissy in third grade and.." he mumbled something. "What? I didn't hear you. And, you have to say when you did too. So far, Chrissy in third grade and..." "Alexis" he whispered. Taylor heard it, even though it was barely audible. "When?" Zac asked. "Today." he whispered. Alexis felt her heart in her throat.
"How could you??!! I knew you did. How could you do this?" Taylor yelled. Isaac flinched and Alexis stared at her shoes. "We didn't mean it..." "I hate you both, so why don't leave?!" They got up and left the room.
