"Casey?" Tay asked her later that day, knocking on the door to her room, "Can I come in?"
"Yeah Tay." she told him. He walked into the room and over to Casey, who was sitting in her bed, watching TV.
"You OK?" he asked.
"Yeah." she told him. "I still feel a little sick from the party, but better than before."
"Oh." he said. "That was stupid of you to drink so much. That's kinda why I wanted to talk to you."
"Don't worry about me, Tay. I got a little carried away at the party and had too much to drink. I'm fine now, I was just having a little bit of fun. Did you have fun at the party?"
"Casey," Tay said, knowing he wasn't going to win and just answered her questions first, "The party was OK, I had fun."
"Did you have anything to drink?" she asked.
"Not nearly as much as you, but yeah, I had a couple beers."
"Good." Casey smiled at him, "Did you meet any girls?"
"Not really Casey, I spent the whole time worrying about you, but I did talk to some people."
"Tay," Casey frowned. "Please don't worry about me, I was fine, and I will be fine at parties. All I did was have some drinks, and have a little fun."
"Fun meaning with Kyle?" Tay asked her, a little bit bitterly.
"Yeah Tay." she told him. "It's no big deal, so I fooled around with him a little bit. It's nothing, we were both drunk and both having a little fun, that's it!"
"Casey, you shouldn't do that though." Tay told her, "You don't understand how much I worry about you when you do things like that."
"It wasn't a big deal. It's not like I fucked him or anything. We just fooled around a little. And it's not like I was cheating on my boyfriend or anything, because you know I don't have a boyfriend." Casey smiled at Tay.
"I know," he said, "but please don't do stuff like that at every party you go to?"
"Don't worry Tay, I won't." she told him. "You care way to much, but I gotta love you for that." she laughed, and hugged Tay.
"OK, good." he said.
"Hey, you want to go to the mall or something?" she asked him.
"Well, I guess..." he said.
"Good, well, I guess I'm going to get ready now, so I'll see you downstairs in a few minutes after I get dressed."
"Bye." Tay told her as he shut the door and walked downstairs. Casey was just something else.
"Bye mom, I'll call you later." Casey told her mom as she and Tay got out of the car at the mall.
"Bye." Tay said to her. The two of them walked into the mall and started looking around in the CD store.
"Tay, I'll be over there if you want me." Casey told him as she walked over to a section of the store.
"OK." Tay replied. He started looking around at some CD's he thought were cool.
About 20 minutes later, Casey looked at her watch and realized how much time had gone by. She wondered why Tay hadn't come and gotten her because he was bored. She looked around for him in the store for a few minutes until she spotted him. He was with some really pretty girl and was flirting with her. Casey walked up to them and said, "C'mon Tay, let's go now."
"Casey, just a few more minutes, can't you see I'm busy?" he asked. The girl he was with eyed Casey. "Oh yeah, Rachel, this is my friend Casey.
"Fine, Tay," Casey said as an angry look came over her face, "Be with some girl you just met rather than me. I see how it is, I understand. Don't worry about explaining anything. I'll see you later." With that, Casey stormed out of the store.
"Shit." Tay said out loud. I did it again. he thought, I got Casey mad at me for something stupid.
"Well, you friend was a little, um..." Rachel trailed off.
"I know," Tay said. "She hates it when I hang out with other people when I'm visiting her, especially girls, she's always had this thing about it. Now she's probably not going to talk to me until I have to leave in 2 days."
"Oh." Rachel said to him, "I know how it is. Maybe you should go find her and I'll see you later."
"No, it's OK." Tay told her. "It's not like she'll talk to me even if I do find her. At least you're being really nice about it and not calling her a bitch or anything."
"I wouldn't do that, besides, I don't even know her. She's probably a nice person who's just in an, um..., bad mood."
"Definitely." Tay told her as they contuiued talking.
I can't believe him, Casey thought as she stormed through the mall, Why does he do this to me, he has to be talking to some girl he meets and would rather stay with her than me. casey didn't think of her behavior as being jealous, she just wanted to spend time with Tay, and also she didn't want him to end up with the wrong type of girl, like he had done more than one time before, like with Angela.
"Hey Casey!" a familiar voice broke her train of thought.
"Hi Kyle!" she said to him as she looked up.
"What's wrong?" he asked, "You don't look happy."
"Taylor's with some girl and he'd rather stay with her than to be with me."
"That's nothing to be bummed about. Cheer up Casey." Kyle smiled at her. "You know he's never going to see her again probably."
"I know, but still, I hate seeing him with other girls." she said.
"You can't always be like that." he said to her. "He doesn't get mad when you hang out with guys, does he?"
"He was mad about last night." she said.
"Casey, you have to admit that was a little different. Fun, but different."
"I know," Casey laughed. "But still..." she trailed off.
"Why don't we just sit here and wait for him, OK? Then you two can just have a nice talk."
