Chapter Two: Late night Visitors

Jordan awoke to the sound of vicious yelling. Her eyes popped open, and she was greeted by darkness. She looked at the digital alarm clock on her dresser, she blinked, it read 2:00 am. She planted her feet firmly on the ground beside her bed and listened for a moment. The voices were muffled she could only make out the words, "I can't take it anymore" and, "divorce". She crept to the door of her bedroom, and cracked it open with tears streaming down her face. She closed her eyes. Her step father was the only father figure in her life, she couldn't bare to see him leave, she loved him more than anything. She had never met her biological father, and from what her mother had told her, she didn't want to. He had been physically abusive and left before she was born. Her brother Andy had known him and told Jordan about an occasion where he slammed Andy's head into a wall in a fit of rage when he was three. Jordan felt anger well up inside of her heart, and without hesitation she stormed down the stairs. She stood at the bottom of the stairway staring convictingly at her parents. They ceased their argument. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?" Jordan screamed. "Jordan" her mother said calmly, "this is between me and your father, this doesn't concern you." This angered her even more, "YOU MAKE IT MY BUSINESS WHEN YOU'RE SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER WHEN NORMAL PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING!!" They were looking at her now as if she had a tree growing out of her head. "Now darling, this doesn't mean we don't love you, it's not your fault." Her step-father said quietly trying not to wake her brother. "Oh sure, use the biggest cliche in the book!!" Her voice had lowered by about a decibel, "When you have a better excuse, would somebody please let me know!" She gestured to herself, and ran up the stairs. Why was this happening, why now when everything appeared to be perfect, why!? She buried her head into her pillow and cried, as if she had endless tears. She finally drifted off into a restless sleep.

She rolled out of bed and walked slowly out of her room and down the stairs to the kitchen. Which was, surprisingly, empty. On an ordinary morning her mother would be preparing breakfast, and her step-father would be sitting at the table with his lap-top finishing up any work he needed to do before he bounded off to work. Andy would be digging through the refridgerator looking for something to snack on before breakfast. But not this morning, it was completely empty. She Opened up the large cabinent above the fridge and pulled out a box of Lucky Charms and pured her self a small bowl and ate it slowly. Her mother finally came into the kitchen. She looked awful. She had dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was knotted into one big ball of fluff ontop of her head. She had black smudges on her cheeks, she probably hadn't bothered to wash her makeup off the evening before. her mother sat down at the table and opened her mouth to speak. Jordan raised her hand, showing that she didn't want to talk about it, she wanted to finish her cereal in silence. As soon as she was done she raced upstairs to get ready for the day ahead of her.

When she arrived at Taylor's house it was 2:00. She felt bad for being late. He didn't seem to mind though. "Sorry I'm late, there's a lot going on right now." She sighed. Taylor looked at her concerned, but he didn't feel it was his place to say anything not yet at least. He invited her inside and she sat down on the couch, he sat next to her. "Where do we go from here?" He asked. "I don't know, what do you want to do?" Jordan replied. "Well..." he he said thoughtfully, "It's a great day out, do you want to go rollerblading to the lake? We could bring some food along and have like...a picnic or something." "That would be wonderful, if I would've known I would've brought something" "Oh don't worry about it, I'll go pack some lunches." He got up and went into the kitchen. "I can't make much," he called, "Is peanut butter and jelly ok?" He laughed. She laughed too, "I like peanut butter and jelly." Jordan answered. When He was finished he mounted a backpack on his back and grabbed his rollerblades as they headed out the door.

When they got to the lake they were both dripping with sweat. It was about 95 degrees out and muggy. they sat on a bench, panting heavily from the 7 and a half mile workout. Taylor unzipped his backpack and pulled out the lunches, he handed one to Jordan. "Do you want to go sit over there?" He motioned to a grassy spot, shaded by a tree. "Sure!" she replied. Taylor layed out a blanket for them to sit on and they both took off their rollerblades and sat down. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked as he took a bite of his sandwich. "Sure, shoot" "What's bothering you, how come you were late today?" The look in his eyes showed that he was genuinely concerned. Jordan felt her heart skip a beat, "You don't have to answer, I only want to help if you want to tell me." She sat silent for a moment and took a sip of her Mountain Dew before beginning. "Well, my parents are gettting a divorce." She said while smoothing the picnic blanket, she was trying not to look him in the eyes, she didn't want him to see that a tear had slid down her face. "I'm so sorry." He said softly, while touching her arm. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be" She sighed. "Don't be down." he placing his fingers gently under her chin, pulling her head up to meet his unwavering gaze. "Don't cry," He said empathetically, "please don't cry." Jordan bit her lower lip, doing everything in her power to hold the tears back. "Is he your real father?" Taylor asked. "That's what makes it worse, he's not, so therefore he won't get visitation." She she tugged at her shorts, which were sticking to her thigh. "I never met my real dad, my mom left him 2 months before my birth." "If you ever need anyone to talk to I'm always here." He squeezed her shoulder, and smiled warmly. He really cared. "Let's not talk about this anymore, I don't need a damper to my day." Jordan returned his smile. "Hey, I've got an idea." Taylor's eyes were glittering mischeviously. "What's that?" Jordan asked, semi-worriedly. "Wanna go for a swim?" He was grinning. "In what!?" She exclaimed. "Duh! Our clothes silly!" He knew what Jordan was thinking. "Sure, why not!" She said. Suddenly Taylor grabbed her hand, and started running towards the water. He dived right in, pulling Jordan down with him. She came up, and he was splashing her vigorously. So she splashed back. She souldn't believe how much fun they were having. By the time the day was over, she no longer thought of him as a celeberity, but as a real person.

The sun had gone down and all of the people had cleared off the beach about an hour earlier. Taylor and Jordan were lying in the grass on the blanket chatting away. "Do you think there are UFO's out there?" Taylor waved his hand through the air. "I don't know, are you trying to tell me something?" she giggled. "Yes, I'm a purple people eater from outer space!" he said and growled playfully. "What about destiny, do you believe in destiny?" He was hovering over her. He was leaning on one arm and staring intently into her eyes. "Yes, i believe in destiny." She paused for a moment then continued, "I believe that people are meant to be, and everything happens for a reason, even the little things, like if your car breaks down, it's for your own safety...like to avoid a big car accident or something." "Wow, that's exactly how I've always thought of it, everthing happens for a reason." he repeated her, looking at the sky contemplatively. "I should get going!" Jordan said, hesitantly, not wanting to end the moment. "I'll take you home." Taylor said.

"Welcome to my humble home." Jordan said gesturing at the medium sized brown house. "Do you want to come in?" "Can I call my mom?" He asked hopefully. "No of course not!" She replied sarcastically. They went inside and Jordan's brother was sitting at the kitchen table, he was eating, as usual. "Taylor, this is my brother Andy, Andy this is Taylor." Andy's eyes widened, he knew of the group Hanson, and he strongly disliked them. "Nice to meet you Andy." Taylor said, nodding his head. Andy's nose scrunched up with distaste. Jordan threw him "the look". "Hey." was all he said. They went into her room. She had several pictures of Hanson and was a little bit embarrassed. Taylor didn't seem to notice, or at least he pretended not to. He was very humble when it came to the music business. "Can I call my mom?" He asked politely. "Yeah, sure, the phone's over there." She pointed to it. He picked it up and called his mom. After he hung up the phone he frowned. "I have to go home." His face was taut. "oh ok, I'll show you to the door, then." Jordan said carefully, he looked angry. He pulled a slip of paper out of his backpack and wrote something down and handed it to her. It was his phone number. "I suppose I ought to give you mine too, huh?" She wrote it down on a post it note and handed it to him. He smiled, "Thank you." He looked more relaxed now. They went outside. Taylor put his rollerblades back on. Unexpectedly, He wrapped his arms around her, and gave her a quick, gentle peck on the lips. "I'll call you!" he said said then rolled off while waving goodbye.

* * * *

Jordan walked slowly into her house. Her brother who was reading a magazine peered over at her, "Why did you have that little fag over here!?" He said disapprovingly. "ANDY!" Jordan scolded, "You don't even know him!" He shook his head and smiled, he was ver amused by the whole thing, Jordan however, was not. "Phone's ringing." He said while continuing to flip through his magazine. "UGH!!!!!!" Jordan screamed as she ran briskly up the stairs. "Hello!?" She said breathlessly into the reciever. "Jordan." The voice on the other end was tense and full of resentment. "Who is this?" She said slowly, pronouncing every word carefully. "Jason...your boyfriend." He said flatly. and before giving her time to say anything he started to raise his voice, "Where were you today, I called your house about 20 times!" Jordan sighed. "Why are you interrogating me!? It's none of your business where I was, I don't know if you realize this but, you don't own me." There was a beep on the line, signalling that there was a call coming in, "Look I have to go, I have a call on the other line." She hit the flash button without hesitation. "Hello?" She said cheerfully, she was proud that she stood up to Jason, she had never had the strength to do it before. "Hi Jordan, this is Tay." "Hi Tay!" She exclaimed, her problems slowly drifted away as they talked. He seemed to do that to her. They talked until two in the morning. Taylor got really funny late at night. Jordan was giggling uncontrollably when she heard something hit her window, something heavy. "Omigod, hold on!" She ran to her window, and looked out. It was pitch black, the only thing that she could see was a large shadow of the oak tree by her window, illuminated by the streetlight several yards away. She was about to turn around when she say a hand reach up and grasp the ledge of her window sill. Her eyes grew wide with fear. She ran back to her phone, "Tay, there's someone outside my window trying to get in." She was whispering harshly, scared out of her mind. She turned around to see a person standing in the far corner of her room staring coldly at her. She gripped the phone. "Jordan, Jordan, JORDAN!! ARE YOU OK!? ANSWER ME!!!" Taylor felt helpless on the other end, he coldn't do anything. "Jordan, if you can hear me, I'm coming over right now, I'm going to call the police." Jordan just swallowed, she could feel a tight lump grow in her throat. It was Jason. He was now walking towards her, slowly. She dropped the phone. "Who were you talking to." He whispered, he had a psycotic look in his eye. Jordan thought she should call for her brother whose room was just down the hall, but she stopped herself, Jason was capable of hurting her. "I was...um...Karin." She stumbled over her words. "No you weren't!" He gripped her shoulder tightly, "I could hear you outside, you were talking to a boy, Taylor." He said bitterly, tightening his grasp on her shoulder. Just then she heard a large thump and Taylor was standing behind Jason. Jason spun around to face Taylor, who was taller than him. "Who is this?" Jason said staring Taylor down. "My name is Taylor, who are you?" "Jordan's my girlfriend" Jason answered matter of factly. "Not anymore." Jordan said boldly. "I think it will be a while before you see daylight again." A different, unfamiliar voice said. It was a man in a dark uniform. He grabbed Jason's arms and handcuffed them behind his back. He read him his rights and took him out the front door. Jordan's brother was the only other person home, so he had to explain that their parents weren't home and he didn't know where they were. The officer gave us a number where we were to have our parents reach him. Taylor embraced Jordan, "It's ok, he won't bother you again." he said solemnly. Jordan nodded gratefully.

Jordan walked slowly back to her bedroom. "Jordie?" her brother tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to nearly hit the cieling. "Yes Andy." She closed her eyes, she was extrememly aggrivated. "It's gonna be ok." He whispered, bowing his head for extra reassurance. "I hope so." Jordan decided that she couldn't sleep so she decided to write in her journal.