It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and the Hanson brothers and their family, had been given the day-off from recording to go explore all of Los Angeles. They, of course, knew most of the hot spots in town from their previous thorough exploration in 1997, while making “Middle Of Nowhere”, but they wanted to revisit it all. Taylor was especially happy to get away from the recording and all his troubles. He hoped that a day out-on-the-town would relax his thoughts about Hallie and Victoria. The Hanson brothers all knew though, that Los Angeles was quite an eventful place to be in broad daylight. Would something out of the ordinary happen today in the crazy city of Los Angeles? To Hanson…yes. To Los Angeles…it’s just the same ol’ thing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Mommy! Mommy!” young Jessica Hanson yelled. “Are we going to be able to go to DisneyLand, again while we’re here?”
Mrs. Hanson turned to her oldest daughter, saying, “Not today, sweetie. Maybe later on in the year, okay?”
“Fine,” Jessie answered, hanging her head.
The Hanson family was walking up and down the streets of Los Angeles, trying to find a good place to settle for the moment. All of a sudden, a store called Hurley Inc. that caught Tay’s attention.
Taylor wandered off in the direction of the store, leaving his family behind. He’d never seen this store before, at least he didn’t remember seeing it the last time he was in Los Angeles. Something about it intrigued him to in and scope it out.
“Tay!” Mr. Hanson called to his son. “Where are you going?”
“Just into…” Tay searched for the name of the store, “…Hurley Inc.”
“Since when are you interested in Hurley clothing?” Ike questioned his younger brother.
Looking up, at the sign of the door, Tay answered, “To tell you the truth, I haven’t even heard of Hurley before.”
“Tay,” Zac rolled his eyes at his brother’s obliviousness, “does Blink-182 ring a bell? Hurley like, sponsors them…remember?”
“Never thought about that. I don’t pay much attention to them.”
“Does he ever pay attention to anything?” Ike thought.
“Anyway,” announced Tay, “I’m going. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
The middle Hanson sibling of the group, Hanson strode right into Hurley Inc. without bothering to hear anyone’s protest against leaving him behind. Today, Taylor needed some time alone and needed to relieve a lot of stress. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taylor was glancing around the store, looking at all of the Hurley merchandise. He had never been in a Hurley store. The closest he came to a store like this was Pacific Sunwear. And the only times that he went there was when he was with Victoria. There, that named entered his mind, again. How he wanted to forget that any of it was happening, a person just couldn’t imagine…yet, he couldn’t.
“Excuse me,” a blonde-headed girl said, politely.
As Taylor stepped back, he continued looked at the green Hurley shirt that he was interested in buying. He thought the logo looked really cool and thought he should buy it. The shirt was a dark lime green with a Hurley sign in the middle and sprawled across the back in large lettering was, “HURLEY!”
“Sorry about that,” he apologized.
“That’s okay, do you skate?” she asked.
“Not really, “ admitted Taylor.
The girl tried, again, “Just like the clothes?”
With both of them laughing, Taylor replied, “Pretty much. I saw the store and something inside me told me to come in.”
“That’s cool,” she smiled. “My dad owns this store, so I’m here almost everyday.”
“I wish my dad owned a store like this one,” Taylor told her, glancing around. “By the way, what’s your name?”
“I’m Heather, what about you?”
“I’m Taylor,” she was informed.
“Do you live here in the city, or are you just visiting?” asked Heather.
Taylor shrugged, trying to explain, “Well, it’s kind of a little bit of both. I’m here recording a CD, so I’m going to be living here for about six to eight months.”
“That’s really awesome. I always wanted to be a singer,” Heather dreamed, as she put some Hurley merchandise on the shelves.
The middle Hanson stepped back so she could put the shirts, and pants on the shelves. Tay, being accident prone, backed up into shelves of Hurley Gurlie mechandise, knocking boxes and boxes over.
Blushing, Tay scurried to up the Hurley Gurlie things, “I’m so sorry. I’m such a klutz sometimes. I swear…By the way, that’s really cool that you want to be singer. Keep on singing, and maybe somethin’ will happen.”
Heather was giggling about Taylor’s clumsiness, “You’re cute, you know that? Thanks for your support with my singing. I’ve got my fingers crossed that somethin’ll happen, soon.”
“I’m sure that something will,” he promised.
Heather began to walk to the other side of the store, leaving Taylor behind. He liked talking to Heather, she felt like a friend that Taylor thought that he could never have in a girl. He only knew her for half an hour, but Heather was normal. She didn’t seem like the type that would be a love interest…
“You coming or not, Taylor?” smiled Heather, looking back.
“Alright, alright…” Tay made his way throughout Hurley Inc. to catch up to Heather. "I thought you just didn’t want to talk to me, and were leaving.”
“No!” she laughed at the thought, comforting him. “I couldn’t do that! I’m not that mean! You seem really nice!”
“Thanks.”
“I just wanted to show you something, Taylor,” Heather told him. “You gotta follow me, though, silly.”
Her long, blonde hair fell loosely about her shoulders as she gazed at Taylor. Heather gave him a bright smile, and revealed her perfectly white teeth. As she turned back around to continue her journey toward her destination, her blonde hair swung around her shoulders in a flawless rhythm.
Suddenly, Heather stopped walking in front of the backroom of the store, “Look at this.”
“The backroom?” he asked, confused.
“Yeah,” stated Heather, “look at all of this. It’s so empty back here. Since I am here all day, this is where I go when I don’t want to work, and when I want to be alone. Isn’t it great?”
“I guess…” shrugged Tay.
Heather led him into the backroom, showing him the place where she’d go to think and to be alone. This place was special to her and she wanted to show him.
Sitting in the corner of the room, she gasped, “I love it in here.”
Taylor sat down by her side, “I could see how you could lose yourself in here. No one comes in here, I bet. It seems really quiet and peaceful in here.”
“It is.”
Looking at Tay, Heather felt a sudden surge of security being next to him. She didn’t even know him, but she had a feeling deep inside like she had known him, her entire life.
Taylor glanced at his watch, saying, “Where do you go to sch-“
Taylor, stop,” he was interrupted by the voice of Heather.
Heather leaned forward and pressed her lips softly to Taylor’s. It completely took Taylor by surprise. He didn’t know how to react, in fact, he panicked inside. Taylor didn’t show it to Heather, though. He hadn’t told her that he had a girlfriend back in Tulsa, let alone two of them. The friendship that he expected to have with Heather, sudden took a nosedive in the opposite direction.
When both Heather and Taylor pulled away from each other, Taylor felt an extreme amount of discomfort and guilt. He wanted to bolt from Hurley Inc., as fast as his feet would carry him. How could he just leave Heather after what just happened, though without hurting her feelings, or embarrassing her?
“You’re a sweetie, Taylor,” she told him.
“Call me ‘Tay’, please,” he asked her. “Everyone does. And thank you, you’re pretty sweet, too.”
“Alright,” agreed Heather. “What time is it, Tay?”
Taylor looked at his watch, checking the time, “It’s 3:41, Heather.”
“Thanks, Tay,” she thanked him, as she took out a brush to fix her hair.
“Wait a minute!” Tay pretended to be shocked, even though he was just finding a reason to leave Hurley Inc. “It’s 3:41! I was supposed to meet my parents at 3:30! I really gotta go!”
Heather seemed disappointed to hear that Tay had to make a quick departure, “Do you really have to go?”
“Seriously!” Taylor made it sound like if he didn’t leave that second, his parents would ground him for eternity.
“Alright, hey, do you have a pen a could borrow?” she questioned Tay.
“Nope, sorry.”
“Never mind,” Heather assured him, “I found one.”
Heather was writing on the back of an old receipt with a Clinque lip liner pencil. Tay couldn’t see what she was writing, but she was writing with makeup, which quite distracted him.
She handed him the receipt, “I know it’s written in makeup, but it’s all that I could find. So, please bare with me, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Call me later, Tay?” she pleaded.
“You bet,” Tay smiled at her, as he stood up.
“Well, I’ll see you later, Tay. Stop by again, soon,” she told him, as she bid him good bye.
“I will,” Taylor opened the door to the store, stepping out of the door. Taylor looked at Heather, wondering what he was going to do about her, not wanting to break her heart. It was just another hole he was digging himself into, and he was already deep enough with Hallie and Victoria.
With the door shutting behind him, Taylor began walking down the street, thinking, “Tell me that didn’t happen to me, please, God!”
What had just occurred in Hurley Inc. with Heather, Tay wished he could take back. He wished he could rearrange the past and make it so it didn’t happen. Not only did he have to cover up his problems with Hallie and Victoria, now he had Heather to deal, and didn’t want to hurt her. Taylor would admit any day that he thought she was cool, and a nice person, but the main thing was…he didn’t love her. How could he? He just met her. Inside, Taylor wondered if this sticky situation he’d got himself into would ever end. Would it?
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