JTH_77: so...did you say 2 seconds?
Taylor’s hands were shaking as he typed in the last words to Jessica. He had decided to tell her what he had discovered as soon as he had gotten the glass cleaned up. And after working warp speed on that one, he ran upstairs to get dressed, and grabbed his computer on his way out. He had thought maybe they would have more privacy if they met away from everybody. That said, the deck would be the farthest away.
Taylor looked back at the sliding glass doors behind him. He was sitting at the round table taking up about half of the screened in deck with his laptop in front of him. Suddenly, Jessica’s screenname burned out as she logged off of the machine. Seeing this, Taylor instantly took some much needed air into his lungs. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Happening so fast. How could he had been so stupid than to think that these were two different people? He had always known somewhere deep inside that if he ever saw Jessica, he would know her instantly. Is that what that strange feeling was when he touched her?
Again, he looked back at the glass doors. “Why isn’t she coming?” he whispered softly. Surely, she could get down there in this amount of time. Gradually, his anxious fingers wound up tapping endlessly on the glass countertop. A minute passed by, and Taylor removed himself from his chair and started pacing the length of the deck. “One more minute, and I’m going up there myself,” he stated to the empty room.
Sure enough, that minute passed by, and Taylor started to look at other things to keep him busy...not to mention calm his nerves. Looking out into the vast horizon, he noticed the before pink and blue sunset turn into a bright yellow as the sun came up gradually. Staring at the ground for awhile, he noticed a trail of ants on their way to collect the watermelon seeds that he was sure Mackie had spit on the deck floor the other day. And not before long, the 2 seconds that Jessica had promised had turned into 5 minutes. Surely something had to be wrong.
But as Taylor turned around to go inside and up the stairs himself, he was stopped by Jessica’s face in the window staring back at him. He stopped for a minute, not sure what she was doing, and searched her face questionly. On it was a look that he had seen many times before. It wasn’t exactly the look he had wanted to see.
As he looked at her, he noticed that she had changed into jeans and a shirt, just like himself. That in itself would account for some of the time, but Taylor was practically sure that she had been in that position for most. The look on her face was nothing but happy, and wanting to know why, he took some steps toward her so they could talk. But then a clicking noise went off as Jessica’s hand twisted the lock on the door. Taylor stopped dead as soon as he saw what she did. “Jessica?” he called to her through the door. He then saw her swallow and take a deep breath.
“I’m scared,” she replied softly through the glass. Taylor had made his way over to the door by this time and stared at Jessica straight on. “Of me?” he asked her. She shook her head. He could tell that she was trying not to cry by the way her throat muscles were moving up and down. “Jessica, open the door,” he said to her calmly. “I can’t,” was the response. Taylor took another deep breath, and started again. “Jessica, it’s me. Why are you afraid of me?” “I’m not!” Jessica cried, letting a tear run down her cheek, “it’s him! He’s doing it again...” “Jess, the only way I can help you is if you open the door,” he told her firmly, “do you want me to help you?” She nodded her head up and down vigorously. “Then open the door,” he said slowly. Taylor watched as Jessica’s now shaking hands moved towards the latch to the door. A second later he heard the clicking noise as she unlocked it, and then she proceeded to back away from the door as Taylor grabbed the wooden handle and swung it open. Taylor watched her cautiously the whole time, awaiting her reaction. But all Jessica could do was look at him openly, and cry. Bringing a hand toward her slowly, he reached out and grabbed her gently by the shoulder, causing her to jump at his touch. “Jess, I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her, his hand still on her arm. Suddenly, something in Jessica’s eyes changed. “I know,” she murmured, placing her hand on his. For a brief moment, she looked at him without crying, and Taylor then knew that it wasn’t him. It was something else.
“Jessica, what happened?” he asked her gently, taking her hand and bringing it down between the two, but still holding on tight. She squeezed her hand back, and her tears started welling up again. “I was hurrying to get down...here, and...the phone rang...” she tried to explain during her shortened breaths. “So that’s why it took so long...” Taylor thought to himself. He told her with his eyes to keep talking. “Taylor, he’s doing it...a-again,” she whispered. “Who? Who’s doing it again?” he asked her grabbing her other hand. “Brenden,” she finally spat out, her shaking getting worse, “Samantha just called, and she was...” Jessica was cut off as footsteps sounded in the den just beyond the kitchen. Taylor could hear both of their mother’s talking as they headed for the kitchen. Jessica immediately started rubbing at her tear stained eyes. “Allergies,” she told him, “nothing else, k?” Taylor understood that Jessica didn’t want anyone to know, so he immediately dropped her hands as both of their mother’s stepped foot in the room.
“Hey guys! What are you doing up so early?” Kelly, Jessica’s mom asked the two, going to a wooden desk in the corner, and picking up her purse. Diana already had hers over her shoulder. “Oh, nothing, I guess we both couldn’t sleep,” Jessica said almost cheerfully, causing Taylor to stare at her in wonder. Diana noticed her son’s act, but pretended not to as both women headed toward the door. “Okay, well, we’re going to the flea market in town before the heat gets too bad, k?” Kelly told them, grasping the door handle, “oh, and Jess, I think Kara’s coming down with something so please don’t let her go outside until I get home, okay? We’ll probably be home by lunch.” “Okay, no problem,” Jessica replied to her mother. “Bye guys,” Diana smiled as both mothers went through the door. And as soon as the door closed, Taylor heard Jessica heave a huge sigh of relief. Taylor then turned to look at her. She was grasping at the wooden chair at the kitchen table with a death grip. He slowly moved his hands over hers and squeezed gently. “Jessica?” he said to her. She released her hands from the back of the chair, and grabbed firmly at Taylors. She didn’t say anything for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry I freaked out like that and locked the door on you,” she said barely audible, “sometimes I do that.” She turned towards Taylor and shrugged her shoulders. She seemed to have a much better approach on things now. Taylor just stared at her for a minute. “You do that a lot? Okay, wait, you just came down here and said something about a phone call...” he told her, very confused. “Yeah, yeah, I know, I did...” Jessica responded looking uncomfortable. “So...were you kidding or something? Cause I kinda remember you crying hysterically for a minute, or do you do that a lot too?” he asked her, kinda miffed by the fact that she obviously was upset over something and wouldn’t tell him. Taylor was instantly sorry about his snappy attitude when he saw the look on Jessica’s face. “I-I’m sorry Jess, it’s just that...” “No, I’m sorry,” she interrupted him, “I do want to tell you about the um...the ph-phone call but I didn’t come down here to make you feel sorry for me. I came down here because of...” her voice trailed off as she now realized what she, and he, had both planned on doing as soon as they met. Jessica bent her head and Taylor could see pink start to rise in her cheeks, which was nothing compared to the scorching heat Taylor could feel in his. “Later,” Taylor thought to himself firmly. Right now he had to figure out what was bothering her so much.
Taylor, whose hands were being squished by Jessica’s at the moment, slowly unwound them from her grip, but only to grab them again and intertwine their fingers loosely. He looked up at her and saw her staring down at their hands. All the pain and frustration from earlier seemed to have drained from her face altogether. All that was left were the tear stains. Suddenly, something inside Taylor told him that later wasn’t good enough. He had waited two years for this, and he wasn’t about to screw it up now.
Taking a hand away from hers seemed to startle Jessica for a moment, cause when he did, she instantly looked up, but only to look down again as his fingertips brushed away the stray hair that was slightly blocking her eyes from him. The past couple of days, Taylor had to catch himself from pushing that same wandering piece of hair back himself. It was almost driving him crazy...until now.
Placing a hand on her chin gently, he tilted his hand up so that they were looking eye to eye. Obviously, her shy qualities had her wanting to hide away, but he wasn’t about to let that happen. Gradually, he let his fingers slid up from her chin, trailing a path from her nose, to her eyes, and then finally landed on her lips. He watched her close her eyes, and he felt one of her hands brushing against his neck. He found himself wondering how long it was ago that he had kissed a girl...and instantly regretted it. The only thing he could remember, besides the single shirt-tearing fans of his, was the night of his fifteenth birthday. His friend for about 5 years, Lisa, decided that she wanted to become more than friends. Of course, Taylor knew the real reason...his instant fame and for that, the night was ruined. He would rather be given crap than that for his birthday.
But that wasn’t a real kiss. The only kiss that would ever be real to him would be with Jessica, and he knew that. Jessica’s eyes fluttered open in one brief moment, and looked at Taylor expectedly. He moved his fingertips slowly to the base of Jessica’s neck, and reached his head forward, as once again, Jessica’s eyes popped shut. In about two seconds, their lips touched and instantly Taylor felt a wave of sensation hitting him through every single vein in his body. He didn’t even know how long they had been standing there, until pretty soon he thought his lungs were about to collapse from lack of air. Pulling his face away from hers, he hardly had the strength to open his eyes. But as soon as he did, a whole new wave hit him as he found her staring straight back at him with a wistful look in her eyes. He smiled softly at her, and managed to place his hand at the small of her back, not only to steady her, but him as well. Jessica placed both of her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. Taylor wrapped his own arms around her tight, not wanting to ever let her go. Somehow, just the sound of her breathing made everything okay.
“Taylor?” Jessica whispered to him, still in the hug. “Yeah,” he whispered back, starting to rub circles in the middle of her back. “I’ll tell you...” she said. Her head changed positions on his shoulder. Taylor’s hand stopped moving. “You don’t have to...I understand...” he told her squeezing her a little tighter. “No you don’t...but I want you too,” she told him, moving so she could look him in the face. As serious as her face was, Taylor could still see it. He could still see the hurt. “Will it take away the pain from your face that I’ve been seeing since I met you?” he asked her quietly, “or will it make it worse?” “You’ve already taken most of it away,” she responded to him, touching the scar under his left eye, and placing her head back on his shoulder. And oddly enough, Taylor believed her.
****I am in no way associated with Hanson or Mercury Records. What you are reading is purely fiction. F-I-C-T-I-O-N.****
