"Hey Greg, are you home?" Chris asked as he walked into the door of his apartment.
"Yeah, I'm here." he told his boyfriend, coming over and giving him a kiss.
"Where's Taylor?"
"I don't know, he wasn't here when I got home."
"Do you think he went back to Casey's?"
"For some reason, I doubt it."
"Did anyone leave a message?"
"I don't know, I didn't check."
The two walked to the kitchenette and checked the answering machine. There were two new messages, the fist being one to Greg from a friend about a lunch at work. The second message was from Taylor. "Hey guys, it's Tay. Sorry I'm not going to be at the apartment when you get home. I'm going out to a club with Ian tonight. I guess I'll crash at his place tonight so I don't wake you up when I come home, cuz I know you guys have work tomorrow. I'll be back at your place after you get home tomorrow, OK? Ian called Casey and Kyle is still there, so I can't go back. I'll call you later!"
Chris and Greg looked at each other and laughed. "What are we going to do with him," Chris rolled his eyes and grinned. "Taylor Hanson is something else.
"Have you ever been to this club, Tay?" Ian asked him.
"Nope, never. I usually don't go to clubs, only those parties with Casey every weekend."
"What do you do every day?"
"Watch TV, go to the park,just chill. I don't get out very much anymore. Not since I moved in with Casey anyway."
"Oh, that sucks." Ian told him.
"No, it doesn't bother me that much, I'll have more to do when I start working."
"Would you ever sing again?"
"I don't know. I haven't even seen my family lately. They're all busy with their own lives in Oklahoma. I think I'm going to visit them soon though, that'll be nice."
"Yeah, but a nice thing now is that we're gonna meet some girls at this club, right?"
"Yeah," Tay laughed. "There's gonna be a lot of hot girls here."
"That's the way to look on the bright side." Ian grinned as they went into the club.
"Hey," some girl came up to Ian and Tay in the club. "Come here baby." she told Ian, smiling.
Taylot laughed. "You'd better go with her, Ian, I'll see you later!"
"Have fun tonight, Tay, have fun." Ian told him, walking away with the girl on his arm.
Taylor sat at a table, drinking some beer and watching everyone have fun. It made him bummed again about the whole Casey thing. He was surprised that he forgot his problems at all for a little while.
"Hey, can I sit down here?" a voice asked him sweetly.
"Yeah." he replied, breaking out of his thoughts. He looked over at the girl who had talked to him. She looked pretty young, about his age. She was short and had long light brown hair and blue eyes. The girl was wearing a halter top and leather skirt and Taylor thought she was angelic looking. She had a tattoo around her belly button of a thorny vine, and had her eyebrow pierced.
"Thanks, I couldn't help but notice you looked a little bummed."
"Yeah," he replied.
"Oh, by the way, my name's Kristi."
"I'm Taylor."
"So, what's wrong?"
"Nothing much, just worried about a friend."
"Oh, that sucks." she told him. "I wish I could do something to make you happier."
"It's OK. The only thing that would make me happy is for Kyle to leave so Casey isn't a bitch anymore." he mumbled bitterly.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Kristi answered him. "I know how you feel, it blows."
"Yeah, no kidding." Kristi smiled at Tay. "Oh sorry, if I'm getting you down," he mumbled.
"No, it's OK." she told him. "If I thought you would get me down, I wouldn't have come over to talk to you in the first place."
"Thanks." Tay told her. He wondered why someone he didn't even know would be so nice to him, especially at a place like a club. He thought she looked oddly familiar though.
"Come on Taylor Hanson, you know you like to party.""Not like this." he told her.
"Are you telling me that you don't like to drink?" she grinned at him. "Everyone likes to drink, come on."
"I didn't say that," he replied. "It's just that I don't know anyone here or anything."
"Tay, loosen up!" Casey told him, butting in the conversation.
"Yeah," the girl added. "Listen to her, she knows what she's talking about."
"Hey Casey!" Kyle called to her, "Come over here!"
"I gotta go guys, bye!" Casey told them. "Come on Tay, get a drink or something. Kristi'll take care of you, right hun?"
"Of course I will." she replied.
"Ciao!" Casey called, walking over to Kyle.
"Come on now, Taylor," Kristi told him. "I know you like to party, let's go get a drink."
"Fine," he told her, sighing. He was at a party, he might as well have fun.
Nah, Taylor thought to himself, It couldn't be. "Hey Kristi," he asked, where are you from?"
"Oh, New York." she told him. "What about you?"
"Oklahoma, but I live here now, with my friend."
"The guy you were with before?"
"Ian, no," Tay replied. "I don't think I could stand living with Ian, but I am now, just for a little while, till I can go back to my apartment."
"Why can't you go there now?" she asked.
"Well, it's not really my apartment." he replied. "I live with my friend Casey, I've known her forever, and see, I got into an accident a while back, and instead of going home, everyone thought it was best if I stayed here in New York and lived with her, because she has an apartment here."
"What's her last name?" Kristi asked him.
"Oh, it's Macaluso." Taylor informed her.
"Oh..." Kristi trailed off.
"What?" Taylor asked.
"I knew a girl named Casey Macaluso in high school, she's probably not the same one though."
"Are you sure?" Tay asked, "Because when I saw you, you looked kind of familiar, and I couldn't figure out why."
"I dunno," she replied, "But anyway, why can't you go back to her apartment?"
"Do you remember a guy named Kyle, he looks kinda like Superman?" Tay asked her.
"Kyle, as in, really popular kid that liked Casey in high school? Yeah, how could anyone forget that asshole." she said, disgustedly.
"Well, he's why I can't go back. We went to a party, cuz he came up to visit for the weekend, and he's still there, and I hate him!" Tay sighed with frustration.
"Now I definitely know how you feel." Kristi told him. "That kid was always bad news."
"Yeah," Tay trailed off.