Taylor didn't particularly LIKE the stuff, but if Raychel liked it, he could get drinking it into his daily routine.
Raychel set her purse down on the table. She turned around to look at Taylor, but he was standing in front of a case she had, which held many glass figurines.
"My sister gets those for me." Raychel came up beside Taylor. "She plays flute in an orchestra, and she travels around the world. She knows that I like these, so she gets one from every country."
"What's your sister's name?" Taylor asked.
"Well, this sister is Brittney. She's two years younger than me, but somehow she managed to become more successful at such a young age." Raychel sighed, wishing she could've done as much.
But she was stuck in boring ol' Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"What's your other sister's name?" Taylor said, gesturing for her to sit down next to him on the light blue couch.
"Oh, that's Alex. She's two years older than me. She's a cheerleader for the Lakers."
Taylor did a little fox whistle, and Raychel swatted him on the arm. "Hey, stop that."
Taylor leaned over and kissed her softly. "You know I'm just joking." he said softly.
Raychel smiled. "I know. I'm just kinda jealous."
"Why?" Taylor questioned. "You're beautiful, smart....you've got the best looking man on earth sitting next to you...."
Raychel notcied Taylor's cat-like grin. "Soooooo modest!" she remarked.
"Yeah, well....." he trailed off. "So why WOULD you be jealous?"
"Well, here I am, stuck in Oklahoma, where I've lived my whole life, and my sisters are off, seeing the world. When we were young, Brittney was the one that wanted to stay here and settle down."
Raychel looked into Taylor's eyes. "I just find life here kinda boring." she said. "But not you," she hurriedly added, seeing the look of hurt on his face, "I mean, like, I want a job that's exciting."
Taylor stared at his hands for a moment.
"I just dream we could go off and do something exciting. "Both of us."
"Well," Taylor started, "Maybe we can make that dream come true."
"Um, Heather, what are you doing here?" Jessica asked quietly.
"Mark and I live here now. In a neighborhood a few minutes away from here."
"Oh. Well, uh, these are my friends. Mike," she said, gesturing to the biy that had knocked Heather over. He gave her a sheepish grin. "Hi."
"Jackie," she pointed to the girl w/long black hair. "That's Danielle, John, the other Heather, um, that's Laura, John's girlfriend, Joey, and that's Ben and Tiffany." she finished, pointing to a couple who's lips seemed permanently fused together.
Jessica cleared her throat. "Ahem!". Ben and Tiffany broke apart long enough for a breath of air and a quick "hi" and soon were busy again.
Mike laughed. "Hey, they're always like that."
Heather turned to Jessica. "Now, I have a feeling you're going to be doing a lot of explaining."
"Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do!" John joked. That broke the developing sour mood.
"John, shut up." the younger Heather said in between laughs. "You'll have to excuse him, he's not so smart."
"Huh?" was John's reply.
Jessica's face went from smiling to serious. "Okay, can I explain later?"
"Yes, but you'll be coming to our house tonight. We're going to call your family. They've been worried sick."
Jessica's face was downcast, but there was a hint of a smile on her lips. "Listen guys, I'll have to call you later, okay?"
Everyone nodded, and Jessica waved goodbye as she, Mark, and Heather left.
The ride home was silent. When they opened the front door, the first words out of Jessica's mouth were "Do we have to call them NOW?"
"I'm dead serious. We can move to Boston, California, Minnesota, anywhere you're happy." he said.
"Taylor, no offense, but we just started going out. Do YOU really want to be tied down so quickly?" Raychel asked.
"I'm positive that I love you. We don't have to get married yet, if you don't really want to. I mean, we can move somewhere for a few years and then, if we still want to get married, we can."
That seemed like a MUCH better idea to Raychel. She knew she loved Taylor, but she wanted to make sure it would last before she got into anything serious.
They started to list a few places that they'd want to live.
"We went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when we were touring a while back. It's really pretty there, and the winters are great." Taylor remarked.
"Do you like really cold winters?" Raychel asked. Taylor nodded. This was perfect.
After an hour or two, they glanced at the clock. It was 3 in the morning.
"Well, it's too late for you to go home." Raychel remarked.
Taylor smiled at her. "Really? Okay." he stood up. "Where should I sleep?"
