"Well, Rachel, I think I'd better get going to look for Casey now, it was nice talking to you though."
"Ok then, I'll hopefully talk to you soon then," she told him, a small smile on her face.
"Oh, definitely." Tay said, giving her a hug. "Maybe I'll call you later...if Casey forgives me by then."
"Well, whenever." she said, "Your friend is more important, come on, you met me what, 2 hours ago?" she laughed.
"Yeah." Tay smiled at her. "Talk to ya later."
"Bye" she said to him as he walked out of the store.
"Hey Rach!" her friend Kelly came running up to her. "Who were you talking to?"
"Oh, I met this really cool guy, and we talked for a couple hours. I feel bad though, his friend got all mad at him for talking to me, he's going to find her now."
"Cool, guess what I heard?"
"What?"
"Someone said they saw Taylor Hanson at this mall today, isn't that cool?"
Rachel laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm not crazy about them like you though." she said, with an amused look on her face.
"Yeah, and what's so funny?"
"Nothing." Rachel laughed again.
"What?"
"Nothing important, I'll tell you later."
"Casey?" Tay asked her as he walked up to the bench where she was sitting with Kyle.
"Oh, hi Taylor." Kyle said to him. "Casey, I'm going to leave now, OK?"
"But Kyle!" she whined.
"Casey, I'm leaving, you know what I told you."
"I know, I know," she said to him.
"Good." he said, walking away. "See you guys soon."
"Casey?" Tay asked her again, sitting down on the bench.
"What?!" she said to him, bitterly, glaring at him.
"Please don't be mad at me."
"Why shouldn't I be, you were with that girl you met at the CD store for the past 2 hours."
"Look, I'm sorry about that, I knew you wouldn't talk to me, so I waited a little, that's it."
"But you would rather talk to her than me?"
"No Casey, I would rather talk to you any day. She was just someone I met and started a conversation with, OK? No big deal. Actually, the whole time I talked to her, she kept telling me I should go find you to talk to you."
"Really?" Casey smiled a little. "But still..."
"Look, I said I was sorry. I hope you know I really hate it when I do things that make you mad at me. You know I wouldn't intentionally do anything to make you mad or hurt you or anything. Sometimes, I guess, I just don't think something is really anything, but you do. And I'm really sorry about today. You know I care more about you than anyone."
"Thanks Tay." Casey said, smiling at him, her eyes watery. She gave him a huge hug. "I think we should go home now."
"Yeah, let's go."
"Hi, is Rachel home?" Tay asked when someone answered the phone at the number she had given him.
"Um, yeah, hold on a sec..." Rachel's friend Kelly told him. "Rach, some guy's on the phone!" she yelled.
"Oh, it must be that guy I met at the mall." Rachel told her, smiling. "Hi, Taylor?" she asked.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Not much, my friend Kelly is over. You?"
"Oh, I was just chillin with Casey and we were playing some hockey. Do you and your friend want to join us later?" he asked her.
"It depends." she said. "I guess you made up with her, huh?"
"Yeah, it's all good. She would be cool if you could come."
"Well, I guess it's OK. I'm just telling you, I'm not very good at hockey though. Where should I meet you?"
"Well, you should come to Casey's house, say, in a half hour?"
"Ok, we'll be there. Talk to you later, Taylor."
"Bye." Tay hung up the phone.
"I hope you know if this was anyone else I wouldn't be doing this, Taylor Hanson." Casey looked at him with a frown on her face. "You know what happened last time I played hockey with a friend of yours."
"I know." Tay smiled at the thought of last time. "But she's different. You'll like her. She's cool."
"She better be." Casey said. "You know what'll happen if I don't like her."
"I know, I know. She'll end up in the hopsital with some weird hockey injury."
"Good." Casey said. "Let's practice before they come."
"Kelly?" Rachel asked her friend. "Is it OK if we go to see the guy I met at the mall? He wants us to play hockey with him and his friend."
"You know neither of us can play hockey Rach."
"I know, but you'll like this guy." she said, laughing.
"What is so funny about this guy?" Kally asked.
"You'll find out when we get there, OK? You have to promise not to scream or freak out though, OK?"
"You're scaring me Rach, just tell me who it is."
"If I did, you'd never believe me anyway. But hurry up, we have to leave."
