Exhausted and in pain, Taylor stumbled into his house. Mrs. Williams had worked him to the bone, and he was tired. As tired as he was though, he remembered that Hallie wanted to talk to him. Again, he had to get up to do yet another chore in his day. He didn’t understand why she’d come to him all of a sudden. After what she put him through, Taylor convinced himself that they weren’t meant to be together. It took a lot of self-confidence to even think of such a thing, but he knew he had to face the facts. So then, why did she want to talk to him, and why was it so urgent? Tay would just have to find out for himself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tay sighed as he picked up the phone, thinking, “Man, I wonder what happened now. God, she’s probably gonna tell me that she got pregnant by Zac or something.”
Tay was so not in the mood to hear more bad news from Hallie. If what she had to say would hurt him in any way, shape, or form...he didn’t want to know it.
The phone rang, and still no answer from Hallie. Tay gave up, “Forget this.”
As he began to hang up the phone, he heard on the other end, “Hello?”
Tay didn’t bother to answer it, he just hung up the phone. He really did not want to be bothered, and he was extremely beat from all the yard work that he did for Mrs. Williams. Taylor decided he was gonna go take a nap for an hour and then, go to the skate park later.
Opening the door to his room, he found Zac and Chrissy in there, playing with the laptop. They seemed like they were having a lot of fun.
“Atleast someone’s relationship isn’t screwed up in our family,” Tay thought. Then, he said aloud, “Hey guys, I’m gonna take a nap in here. I’m really tired from doing all the yard work. Can you guys go somewhere else?”
“You are doing Mrs. Williams yard work, Tayles?” laughed Chrissy. “Why?”
“Because he wrecked the car, and has to pay for the damage with his own money,” Zac blurted out.
Chrissy laughed again, “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” Tay mumbled, glaring at Zac.
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, I know,” Tay said, putting his hands in his pockets. “Anyway, can you guys go somewhere else?”
“Sure,” Zac replied, folding up the laptop.
“Leave it here, Zac,” Tay monotonously interrupted Zac’s thoughts.
“Aw man,” Zac put the laptop back on the desk, “do we have to?”
“It’s my laptop.”
“Alright, we’ll see ya later,” Zac bid his brother good-bye. ,p>“Bye, Tay!” Chrissy cheerfully said.
“Bye, guys,” Tay concluded, lying himself down on his bed.
Taylor shut his eyes and felt at peace. For the first time all day, he was calm and able to think straight. It felt great.
“Finally,” he thought, “I can sleep.”
Tay spoke too soon because the second he paused in his thoughts, the phone rang loud and clear. The 15 year old Hanson brother slowly opened his tired eyes from his short-lived resting period.
Avery yelled from the kitchen, “Tay, pick up the phone! It’s for you!”
“Alright!” he yelled back.
It seemed painful to stand up and walk, but he continued a journey towards the kitchen.
“Thanks, Avie girl,” Tay said monotonously as she handed him the phone.
“No problem,” Avery said, as she walked away.
Talking into the receiver, Tay answered, “Hello? Taylor speaking.”
“Hey, Tay. This is Hallie,” he heard Hallie’s voice come from the phone. “Did you call me earlier?”
Tay yawned, “Yeah, I did.”
“Oh,” responded Hallie, “I answered the phone, but you hung up when I said, ‘Hello’.”
“Sorry.”
Taylor’s eyes were drooping and he was barely awake. All the words that were falling from Hallie’s lips were subconsciencely registering in his mind. Later, he’d hear the meaning of them.
“Tay?” asked Hallie. “Did I try you at a bad time?”
“No...no...not at all,” Taylor pushed his blond locks of hair behind his ears. He was trying desparately to stay awake for Hallie.
“Well, can I come over, then?” she pleaded. “It’s really important.”
“Since when is something she says to me important to her? My feelings and I have absolutely no meaning to her,” Taylor pondered to himself.
“Yeah, I guess,” Tay confirmed. “I’m warning you, though. Our house is completely a mess.”
“That’s alright.”
Taylor sighed an exhausted sigh. He wanted to just collapse and never wake for a million years. Mrs. Williams was sure a mess and she knew exactly how to keep him busy with all the yard work she put on him.
“So, I’ll see you in a bit?” Hallie inquired.
“Yeah, I’ll be waitin’,” Tay mumbled. “Trust me, I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
Hallie smiled, and concluded, “Okay well, I’ll see ya, Tayles!”
“Okay, Hal. Keep it real,” Tay said, as he hung up the phone. Taylor carefully put the phone back in the holder before he started to clumsily stumble back to his room.
“Gosh, what is this all about?” Taylor’s`curiousity struck him. “She’s probably only going to hurt me again.”
Lying himself back down on his bed, Tay just wanted to escape. Taylor just wanted to escape from the hurt and confusion that Hallie had brought to him. And now, he was graciously letting the hurt and confusion back into his house to talk.
Tay closed his eyes, “Sleep. That’s all I need right now. Just to sleep.”
He buried his face back into his soft, fluffy pillow. For just a second, he forgot about all the pain he’d experienced in the past month over Hallie. It all of a sudden, didn’t matter anymore. All was forgiven and all was forgotten.
All was forgotten until the ring of the doorbell.
“DING-DONG!”
The doorbell chimed in loud and clear. Taylor knew that it was Hallie and got up, once again from his sleep.
“I’ll get it,” Taylor announced, slowly making his way over to the door. He creaked open the door to see Hallie standing before him, “Hey.”
“Hey.”
Hallie stepped in, and Taylor shut the door behind them both. Sudden tension arose between the two of them. Well, atleast Taylor felt the tension, he wasn’t too sure if Hallie felt the same.
“So,” Tay started, shoving his hands in his pockets, “what did you want to talk about?”
“Where can we go to talk alone? It’s kind of private...” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two teenagers had made their way into the boys’ room for their “important talk”. Taylor still had no clue about what was going on nor could he follow what she was trying to say due to the fact that he was beyond tired.
“Tay, I want to say something,” Hallie started, finally.
“Okay,” Tay again, was lying on his bed with his eyes closed.
“Tay,” she stated a little more firmly, “look at me.”
The labored Hanson brother opened his eyes and faced in the direction of Hallie, the girl he’d given all his love and affection to, only to have her break his heart. He couldn’t exactly see the importance in this meeting of the two of them.
Hallie averted her eyes from Tay, “I’m sorry.”
“Is that all you came to say?” questioned Taylor, beginning to close his eyes again.
“Tay, I’m sorry. For everything. Everything I’ve ever done! You have to believe me,” her eyes began to well slightly.
“Okay, Hallie...” Taylor rolled away from Hallie so that he wasn’t facing her anymore.
“You don’t have to look at me,” she whispered. “I understand. Just please listen to me.”
Tay gave her no response of any kind. No movement nor words came from Taylor. He just didn’t pay any attention to her.
“Anyway,” she started, unconfidently, “I just came to say this. I just came to say that what happened between me and Steven, wasn’t meant to happen. I didn’t want it to happen. One of my friends set us up. It was one of those things where I didn’t really have a choice, Tayles...”
Taylor’s ears perked up like a dog and he started to listen to her. Yet, he could never forget the way he looked at him. The love in her eyes when she gazed into Steven’s brown eyes. The love that he thought she had specially reserved for him.
Hallie continued, “You know Jessica? She said that Steven and I would be perfect for each other. I told her that I was already interested in you and that I couldn’t. She convinced me to go on just one date with him. Unfortunately, that was the date you saw. I figured it couldn’t hurt since you were going to be out with the guys and it would only be one date. I thought I’d never see him again. It evolved into more though...”
Taylor sighed as he recollected the day at McDonalds. He remembered how he had at first felt excited on seeing her there. Then, feeling destroyed when he saw who she was with. He remembered nearly dropping his food right in the middle of the restraunt. He remembered feeling like his heart had literally broke in half. It was a day he’d never forget.
“Tay,” she whispered, “I didn’t want this to happen. You gotta believe me. I came here looking for another chance, another opportunity for you and me. You mean more to me than Steven or anyone ever will! Tayles, look at me, please!”
Hallie was nearly pleading and begging for his forgiveness and for his love to return to her.
Taylor rolled back over, facing her. He just looked at her. Usually, Tay could read her like a book. Right now, he was looking at Hallie and saw all the emotions she was expressing to him. She was just as confused as he had been, but he knew where he was headed now. Tay just didn’t know where they were headed now.
Taylor averted his eyes, sighing, “Hal, how can you say this? How can you say this?”
“Because I mean it,” she was looking him directly in the eyes, hoping he would see her sincerity.
“No you don’t,” he said, plainly.
“Huh?”
“You heard me,” Tay told her. “You don’t mean anything you said. If you meant it, you would’ve meant it the first time you told me that you loved me.”
“Tay, you don’t understand. I didn’t have a choice! I was pressured into it,” Hallie tried desparately to explain.
“You did too have a choice,” Tay’s eyes were still averted. “You are your own person. You can make your own decisions. You don’t let other people make them for you. You could’ve stood up for yourself.”
Now it was Hallie’s turn to avert her eyes, “Tay, I couldn’t.”
“Whatever,” Tay looked up, his eyes were slightly wetted by small tears. “I don’t know how you can sit here and tell me this when I can’t even look at you the same!”
She sighed, “I know...I know...”
“You literally took my heart and tore it in half. I can’t think of a time that I’ve felt any worse than the day I saw you at McDonalds with Steven,” Tay shook his head as he told her.
“Tay, I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. You’d do it again if you had the chance,” Tay snapped.
Hallie slid over so she was sitting closer to Taylor, “No, I wouldn’t. I couldn’t do it again.”
Taylor looked away from Hallie. Something in his heart was starting to tell him though, that she wasn’t truthfully lying to him. Something seemed strangely sincere about her voice and the words that she chose when she spoke to him.
“Maybe there is some truth to all of this,” Tay began to wonder. “Maybe I should be just a little bit easier on her....”
“Look, Tay...” she started.
This time, to her amazement, Taylor looked her in the eyes. He looked as if he was willing to listen. He was willing to listen to what she had to say for the first time in the whole conversation.
“Hallie smiled, “Look, Tay. How about you think about what I said? Please? You don’t have to answer right away. You can answer when you are ready. Whenever you are ready to answer just call me, okay?”
“Alright,” this time, Tay smiled back at her.
“Bye, Tayles...” Hallie got up and shut the door behind her, letting heself out the door.
Taylor wondered whether she was telling the truth or not. He couldn’t exactly tell, but there seemed to be atleast a partial bit of truth to what she was telling Taylor. He decided he was going to take her seriously this time, and actually think about what she had said. Taylor would sort out the pros and cons of everything and decide what he thought was the best for the both of them. How long it would take to decide this sort of thing? Taylor could only hope that he’d see the end of it.
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Chapter 21-Pay The Price
Chapter 23-Leaving Home For L.A.
Tulsa's Long Road Home
