Section Ten

     They went back and the concert started a little after nine. By about 11:00 they were heading back to the van to go home. Once they got there, Isaac and Walker retired immediately, they were tuckered out. Taylor tried to stay up, but he was pooped from jumping up and down behind the keyboards. Around one o’clock, Tabitha was the only one up.
     She was having trouble sleeping, first off all because of her arm. Second because of lying to everyone about her arm. She hated lying, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. After all, she knew that Taylor and Zac would probably give Trevor the beating of his life if they knew what had happened. Besides, she still liked Trevor even after some of the things he’d done.
     Zac sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. He was thirsty and kinda hungry. The latter was confirmed when his stomach growled a little. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and grabbed his shirt up from the floor. "I hope Tabitha’s asleep," he said to himself, he didn’t want to have to put pants on too. Then he yawned and rose up and left the room.
     Unfortunately Tabitha was up. Her eyes widened when he walked into the living room headed for the kitchen.
     "Oh, great," he said blushing.
     Tabitha blushed herself and turned her head the other way. "It’s okay, Zac. I won’t look at you."
     "Yeah, okay," Zac agreed. He hurried to the kitchen. When he got there he discovered he wasn’t hungry anymore but he was still thirsty. So, he grabbed himself a can of Dr. Pepper from the fridge and walked back into the living room. He found Tabitha was now lying down on the fold out bed of the couch and she was sort of staring off into space.
     "Hey," he said quietly, despite his half nakedness, he sat down on the fold out bed and looked down at Tabitha.
     She raised her head and turned it to look at Zac. "Hey, what are you up for?"
     He held up the can of Dr. Pepper, "Thirsty," he replied then took a swig of the drink.
     Tabitha nodded. She pulled at the bottom of the nightgown that Walker had retrieved from his wife’s drawer. She tugged the blanket up over her shoulders.
     "What about you?" Zac asked, "Why are you still up?"
     "I couldn’t sleep," she answered truthfully.
     Zac nodded, after taking another drink, he said, "Why not? Feel out of place here?"
     "Oh, no, you ought to know that." She smiled weakly.
     Zac smiled back, "Okay, well, since you’re all right, I think I’m gonna head on back to bed. Since I got my drink and all." He got one leg out of the bed before Tabitha reached out from under the blanket and took hold of his arm.
     "Wait, Zac, I’m not really tired right now. My arm is making it hard to sleep. Do you mind keeping me company until I do get tired?" She looked up at him pleadingly.
     Zac smiled, "Of course, I got all the time in the world to sit here and talk, but what are we gonna talk about?"
     She sighed, "Well, what do you think of me as a person, Zac? Do you think that I’m vulnerable, like I’m easily pushed around?"
     Zac sat back down on the bed, "I don’t think you’re a vulnerable person, what’s brought this on?"
     Tabitha shrugged under the blanket, then she sat up and pulled the covers around her legs. "I don’t know, sometimes I feel like bad things happen to me and in some way I’ve caused them."
     "Oh, now I think I get it," he began thoughtfully, "Are you trying to lead to the fact that you were lying about Trevor being involved with your broken arm?"
     Startled, her eyes widened, she didn’t know how he had figured it out. "How did you...?" she asked stupidly
     Zac shook his head, "I’m not as dense as my brothers, Tabitha. I figured it out as soon as Isaac asked where Trevor had been when you hurt yourself. You went all pale and it took you a minute to answer."
     She looked down into her lap and nodded, "I guess you’re right." She sighed quietly.
     "What made him do that?" Zac asked.
     Tabitha shrugged, "We were arguing."
     "Over what?" Zac sat his can down on the endtable and shifted his legs underneath himself.
     She tilted her head and looked at him thoughtfully, "I guess it was over Taylor. Trevor hated me mentioning him when we were together. We got into quite a few fights over that one. That was when the bad side came out of him, he hit me in our first argument..."
     Zac shook his head again, "He should not have done that."
     Tabitha looked away, "I know that. I don’t think he meant to hurt me though."
     "How did he break your arm that badly?"
     Looking down at her cast, Tabitha replied, "We were walking to his house right after he found out what Taylor had gotten me for the concert. We had it out right there on the sidewalk and then he pushed me away from him, I stumbled and fell down on my arm."
     "That was uncalled for," Zac replied with an angry sigh. He reached over and gently squeezed her shoulder, "Why’d you let him do that?"
     She looked at his hand on her shoulder then laid her own hand over top of it. "I honestly don’t know, Zac. I cared so much for him, I mean, he was my first boyfriend and all. I just don’t understand him."
     Zac nodded and he tenderly squeezed her hand. "I don’t understand him either," he said softly.
     Tabitha looked from him then trailed her eyes over to some of the pictures on the walls; she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye anymore.
     Zac could tell she was pretty much done talking to him. "Well, look, I’m glad you told me this and all. Thanks for telling me the truth, Tabitha."
     She turned back and smiled at him, "You’re welcome, Zac. Thank you for listening to me, too." Tabitha stretched back out on the bed as he stood up.
     Unable to resist, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I’m here whenever you need me. And someone else is there too, though you don’t seem to see it. Sometimes even more so than me."
     She looked up at him, puzzled, but he only smiled and kissed her forehead again. "Night, Tabs. You should really get some sleep." He smiled once more then walked back to his bedroom.

~*~

     Taylor rose bright and early the next morning. He saw Tabitha was sleeping on the fold out bed, she had the blanket pulled up around her shoulders. He smiled as he looked down at her, she looked adorable actually.
     Suddenly she stirred in her sleep; she winced as she turned onto her broken arm then quickly returned to her original position. Taylor decided it would be best for him to let her sleep then. He smiled down at her though before he walked to the kitchen.
     Taylor opened up the top cabinets and thought hard about what he wanted to eat. "I could make breakfast," he suddenly said, his eyes brightened a little and he began pulling things out of the cabinet.
     When he was finished getting stuff out, sitting before him was a box of pancake mix, a carton of eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuit mix, and milk.
     For a moment he stood there and looked at it all. "Now, what am I supposed to do with all this? Jeez, I don’t know how Mom does it..." He sighed, "I’ll just follow the directions and all, gosh, this is too much food!" Shaking his head, he turned the pancake mix box around and began to read the directions. "Okay, a little bit of this in the bowl, then I need a little of this..." and soon breakfast was on its way.
     Walker woke to the smell of bacon and sausage frying; he looked beside him surprised to find his wife still beside him in the bed. Who else would be fixing breakfast?
     He got up and dressed quickly then walked through the living room, Tabitha was still sleeping on the couch and it looked like no one else was up. Then he walked into the kitchen and there was Taylor standing behind the stove busily cooking. "Well, this is certainly a change," he said.
     Taylor turned from the frying pans and looked at his dad, "Oh, morning," he said cheerily.
     "What on earth gave you the notion to cook, Tay?" Walker asked. He pulled up a chair at the table.
     Taylor shrugged as he went back to flipping the pancakes and breakfast meats. "I just thought it would be nice," he replied nonchalantly.
     Walker looked back into the living room, his eyes falling on Tabitha. "No, I think you just wanted to show off," he said smiling.
     "Huh?" Taylor turned around and then turned to see what his father was looking at. "Oh, maybe," he answered when he saw who it was.
     "Not just maybe," Walker replied. "Anyway, what are we having?"
     "Oh, a little of this and a little of that ... there’s something for everyone." He went back to his cooking. "Why don’t you wake everyone else up for me, kay, Dad?"
     Walker nodded. Then he got up to do Taylor’s bidding. Soon everyone had crowded into the small kitchen, even Tabitha who was wearing one of Diana’s housecoats now.
     Breakfast went by quickly, the younger of the Hansons went to play, Isaac went to get on the computer and Jessie and Avie went out back. That left Tabitha with Zac and Taylor.
     "So, what are we gonna do? You have to hurry and decide cuz I have to go home and get a change of clothes before we can do much more." Tabitha looked between the two boys as they were still sitting at the table.
     "Well, you and Tay can do something, I’ve got a little bit of business to tend to. I’m gonna go get some decent clothes on now. I hope you two have fun." He smiled then headed off for his room.
     "Wonder what he has to tend to?" Taylor pondered aloud.
     "I have no idea, but could you please take me home so I can get some clothes?" she said.
     Taylor nodded. "All righty, let me get some clothes for myself and we’ll get going."
     "Okay then." Tabitha nodded too, then she walked into the living room and recovered her dress from the floor in there. She changed in the bathroom and gave back Diana’s nightclothes. A few minutes later, Taylor was ready, dressed in jeans and a bright blue tank top.
     They borrowed Isaac’s car and drove to her house. She sighed with relief when she saw her parents weren’t home, then she quickly went in. Taylor followed, "Do you need any help?" he asked sweetly.
     Tabitha looked back at him. She blushed, "Um ... no, not really. I’ll be okay." She walked up the stairs leaving Taylor at the bottom.
     He waited patiently for her and soon she was finished, she walked down the stairs in a pair of jeans shorts and a gray T-shirt with a pink tank top underneath. She had brushed her hair out and even put on a little lip-gloss. She smiled as she walked down the steps. Taylor thought she looked beautiful despite the slight circles under her eyes and the sling and cast on her arm.
     "Well, what do you want to do?" she asked softly.
     Taylor smiled and shrugged, "Whatever you want to."
     "Hmmm, let’s go back to your place. I wanna hear you play some more." She headed for the door.
     "That sounds good to me," Taylor replied ardently. Then he followed her out.

*One day at a time...*