“Okay, Sara,” an angry Jessica retorted, “what the heck is wrong with you?” Sara looked blankly at her cousin. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, dear,” she responded. Two seconds earlier, Jessica had dragged Sara into the laundry room to talk, while the rest of the family were busy with the dishes from dinner. Now she was confronting her about the little episode with Taylor.
“Ugh, don’t play dumb with me Sara, you know what I’m talking about! You started everything up again! Now Taylor wants to talk to me in private, what am I supposed to do now?” Jessica huffed. Sara closed her eyes and shook her head. “Jess,” she started, “all I did was get the ball rolling again.” “Bull honkie! You know that the “ball” can’t roll again!” Jessica answered. “Okay, I’m not going to talk to you, unless you stop yelling at me,” Sara said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking serious. Jessica narrowed her eyes, but still took a deep breath and seemed to calm down. “Okay, there, Sar, I’m not yelling...” she said. “Good,” Sara said, uncrossing her arms, “now I can tell you what you need to know.” Jessica’s face turned confused. “I’m totally lost here...you’re in here cause I’m supposed to tell you a thing or two, not the other way around.” Sara sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I know you’re mad. But I was only trying to help, you know,” she said.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, I told you what happened between Taylor and me, that nothing could happen again so why did you do it?” she asked Sara, who in turn bit her lip. “Cause I know something that you don’t,” Sara said. Still confused, Jessica answered, “huh?” Sara took a breath and finally spit out the words. “Taylor’s a jerk.”
Jessica’s mouth dropped. “What? How can you say that, this isn’t Taylor’s fault! Sure, he should have told me, but everybody makes mistakes!” she said, coming to Taylor’s defense. “Yeah, yeah, that’s just it. He didn’t tell you that he couldn’t have a girlfriend because he could in reality. Taylor’s a big boy, Jessica, not to mention a teenage gold mine, he can do anything he wants,” Sara retorted. “Woah, wait, he can have a girlfriend? Mercury allows it?” Jessica asked. Sara blew out a breath. “Jess, no, that’s not what I’m saying. No, Mercury doesn’t allow it, but Mercury owns their business lives, not their personal ones. Sure, the personal might get in the way of their business, but still. It’s their lives...” Sara ended. Jessica sighed. “I’m still confused, why would Taylor lie? And where did you hear all of this?” “Zac. He told me something very interesting yesterday...do you know why Isaac is in California with his dad instead of here with his other family?” “Taylor might have mentioned it, but if he did, I forgot...why?” Jessica asked.
“He’s with his girlfriend. Chelsea. He’s been seeing her for about 3 months now...whenever they are in L.A, which I guess is alot. Sure, the media has no idea, nor the fans, but still. He has one.” Sara responded. Jessica stood in complete shock.
It happened again. She couldn’t believe it. She completely trusted someone with her heart, and yet again, they stomped all over it. Taylor lied to her, and she would have never expected that from him. He could have a girlfriend. She didn’t know what that meant, but she guessed that it meant that he didn’t want her... but why would anyone want her? Especially a person like Taylor Hanson...
“I’m sorry Jess. I did that in the kitchen earlier so you could find out for yourself. I didn’t want to be the one who told you...” Sara said, squeezing her cousins shoulder. Jessica exhaled a breath. “It’s okay...I guess it had to happen sooner or later, it always does. Now I know what to do next time...if there is one,” she said slowly, “now I just have to talk to him. Hopefully, I can...”
“You want me to come?” Sara asked her. “No, no, you go hang out with Zac or something. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Jessica said, her emotions turning angry. Not really at Taylor, cause he was a guy, what could she expect? But at herself. She was too trusting, it was one of her weaknesses. But she sure as heck knew that she was going to stop being that way right then. And she also knew that Taylor was going to hear something about this... ********************************************************
“What are they talking about in there?” Zac whispered to Taylor as they were finishing the dishes. Placing the last plate inside one of the huge wooden cupboards, Taylor shook his head. “I have no idea,” he replied to his brother, “but I think I may find out in a minute.” “What do you mean?” Zac asked him, placing his hands behind him on the counter and leaning back. “Well, I’m hoping on talking to Jess ...I need to tell her something. Speaking of which, I actually need to talk to you first,” Taylor said, lifting himself to sit on the countertop. “Is it about girls? Cause I need to talk about that too...” Zac replied, a look of confusion crossing his features.
Taylor grew interested. Zac rarely talked about girls, unless of course he was complaining about them. Which was often, considering the fact that the only girls Zac knew were either family friends, or their own sisters. And all the regular girls usually screamed in their faces. But obviously, Zac didn’t want to complain this time.
“Is this something about Sara?” Taylor asked him. Zac rolled his eyes and nodded. “Well?...” Taylor questioned. “Well, I kinda told her something yesterday. Before, I told her that I couldn’t have a girlfriend...and that worked for awhile, but then I realized something. Ike has a girlfriend. Why have I always thought that I couldn’t, you know? I’m no different that Ike, I mean-” “Woah. Wait a minute, what exactly did you tell Sara yesterday?” Taylor interrupted, becoming nervous. “Uhhh...that I actually could have a girlfriend in a sense, I guess. Cause my older brother had one in California, and-”
“Oh, man!” Taylor exclaimed, gritting his teeth, “I can’t believe this!” Zac was confused. “What did I do? I mean, it isthe truth...right?” “Yeah,” Taylor said, closing his eyes, thinking ahead to when Jessica found out, “it’s the truth. But let me ask you something...do you really agree with what Ike is doing?”
*author’s note: I’m changing format right now...just thought I would like to tell you that=) *
“What do you mean? Like with him and Chelsea?” Zac asked.
“Yeah. Do you think hiding her from the public and everything is really the right thing to do? I mean, think about it Zac, that’s just like saying you’re ashamed of her or something...” Taylor replied, hopping off the counter and starting to pace. For some reason, he felt that every nerve in his body was about to explode. He was almost certain that Sara was telling Jessica about all of this in the closed off room. He hadn’t exactly seen Jess’s bad side yet...and he didn’t think he wanted to.
“Well, yeah, Tay, I guess your right...” Zac said, apparently thinking hard about the issue, “I never thought about it like that before. But what else are we supposed to do about it? Man, this sucks! Mercury needs a swift kick in the as-”
“Zac, settle down,” Taylor cut in. “I should be telling that to myself...” Taylor thoughts echoed. He sighed and stopped pacing, leaning across the island in the middle of the kitchen to look at Zac. “Okay, listen...we both know what the consequences are if we do actually have girlfriends.” His voice grew quieter. “How important is that to you?”
Zac’s eyes grew wide. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Dang it Tay, we can’t tell the public we have girlfriends! That’s going to screw everything up! And what about Mercury?? They’ll skin us alive, not to mention our contract!”
“Wow, Zac, aren’t you the sensitive one?” Taylor said angrily. He couldn’t believe how stupid his brother was being. Didn’t he care for Sara at all? Obviously, if he did, he wouldn’t give a flip what Mercury or anything else thought for that matter. He knew he didn’t...but that was the problem. If he was the only one willing to stand up for this, it wouldn’t work. Plus, he wouldn’t risk his brother’s careers in the process. No matter how much he loved Jessica. But just thinking about leaving her and never seeing her again made him want to rip his heart out of his chest so he didn’t have to deal with the pain.
“Look, Tay, I don’t even know Sara that much, I mean, we’ve only been here for a month or something, you know? And you and Jessica...” Zac must have seen his brother’s face turn down, cause he immediately stopped speaking. Zac sighed. “I’m being an moron...” he thought to himself.
“It’s okay, Zac, forget I mentioned it. It’s just that sometimes I wish this never happened...” Taylor trailed off.
Zac eyebrows shot up high. “What? I can’t believe you just said that!”
Taylor exhaled a breath loudly. “Yeah, well it’s true...and don’t even begin to say you never once thought about it, cause I know you have!”
Zac couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His brother, Taylor Hanson, just said he wished that he wasn’t a huge star. Was he on something? Ever since Zac could remember, all Tay ever talked about was being in a band. And being famous. And he was probably the one out of the three who worked his butt off the most trying to get where they were. And now he wanted to quit? Obviously, Jessica wasn’t just a crush...his brother was in love. Zac shuddered at the thought, but still understood that this was a big thing for Taylor. And come to think of it...he never saw him this happy in a long time.
Zac blew out a deep breath. “Okay, man, I’m in...but don’t ever say that I don’t do anything for ya.”
Taylor’s head shot up. He was busy staring at the ivory countertop, completely out of it. “What?! What do you mean?” he asked Zac.
Zac shrugged. “I’m in. I’ll back you up on this. If both of us do, then I guess we could beat this thing, huh?
Taylor shook his head, completely confused. “Woah, woah, woah. Two seconds ago you were freaking out about this, and now it’s okay?!”
Zac tilted his head. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I’m not doing it for your benefit or nothin, your not worth it. But think about it...if you go out with Sara’s cousin, then that would give me more time with Sara, right? To get to know her a little better?”
Taylor grinned. “Yeah, I guess so...you moron. But do you think Ike will go for this? I mean, he’s the one who’s been hiding his girlfriend for the past 3 months. If he spent all that time trying to cover it up, I doubt he would like it.”
Zac sighed. “Do you love Jessica?”
A blush crept up in Taylor’s cheeks. “Yeah...why?”
“Then why do you give a crap what he thinks?”
Taylor laughed. “Your right. I guess I should start to listen to you more often, huh?”
“Umm, yeah!! I must admit, I am a moron sometimes, but I’m very intellectual for my age! I mean, everybody thinks so...it’s posted in all of those teenybopper magazines.”
“Hmmm...yeah, but I think they confused you with me, Zac,” Taylor teased, “or else they really do think your a nerd.”
“Oh, bite me!” Zac said, pushing himself off the counter, “oh, wait! Save if for Jess...she might actually like it.”
Taylor narrowed his eyes, but still laughed. “Dork...” he muttered.
“Loser...” Zac shot back, walking out of the room.
“As-” Taylor started to reply to him, but just then the door to the laundry room behind him opened loudly. Instantly, Taylor tensed, not sure of what was going to happen. He prayed to God that there
weren’t any kinds of weapons in the room with Jessica. Cause he knew that if there were, she would take advantage.
Slowly turning around, he came face to face with Jessica. Not normal Jessica, in fact, Taylor hardly recognized her without her friendly guard on. Her hands were placed on her hips, and the look on her face meant that he could either run and survive, or stay and die. The only thing that kept him from running were her words: “I need to talk to you.”
Knowing that they needed to, Taylor made no excuse as Jessica grabbed his hand sharply and dragged him down the hall into the game room on the other side of the house. Stepping inside the cold atmosphere, Taylor instantly became nervous. Especially when Jessica turned the lock in her hand after she slammed the door. Well, now he had seen her mad side, but for some unknown reason, he found it incredibly adorable. Actually, a little too adorable.
That’s why he pasted a grin on his face and retorted, “you’re cute when your mad, you know that? Slam the door again, that was sexy!”
**************************************************** ****
Jessica’s jaw dropped to the floor. She couldn’t believe that he just said that! First, he lied to her, breaking her heart. And now he was teasing her about it? The little...
“What the hell did you just say??” she shouted at him.
“Woah, and now your using cuss words...who’d a thunk it?” Taylor replied, an evil glint in his eyes. She saw him lean against the back of the leather couch in the middle of the room and cross his arms.
He was making himself comfortable. When he knew that she was mad. Blood boiled in her veins...never had she been so angry. Or hurt for that matter. Instantly, her throat tightened, as tears threatened to spill over. Ever since she could remember, whenever she was overly mad or just plain frustrated, she would cry. Sure, she could be strong when she wanted to, but most of the time her body wouldn’t let her. She hated this part of herself and she hated to be around anybody when it happened. But right now, she almost wanted Taylor to see how hurt and angry she was. So she didn’t run away like she always did.
Tears making their way down her face, Jessica had to make herself talk. “Isa- Isaac has a girlfriend. You told me you couldn’t have one Taylor, how could you do that to me? For two years I trusted you with everything and I even told you the one thing I wouldn’t tell anyone else, and you still lied to me! Well, you know what Taylor?” she said, having to take a deep breath, feeling herself start to shake. When she did this though, Taylor pushed himself off of the couch and made his way toward her. She took a step back, and put her hand out.
“Don’t!” she yelled at him. Instantly, Taylor stopped in his tracks. She could tell that he wasn’t going to tease anymore, but still, she kept on going.
“I’m going to be blunt with you Taylor. Know why? Cause I learned that keeping something inside of you for a freaking long time can rip your heart out, so I’m going to tell you the truth Taylor Hanson. I know you don’t want me. You never wanted me, you just used me for an escape. But that’s fine with me, cause I’m used to being used, and I actually know how to deal with it now. And you know what? I’m going to forgive you, instead of years from now when I can finally let go. I’m not going to do that crap again for as long as I live. And I’m going to tell you the truth now too. I still love you, and I probably always will. It hurts cause I know you don’t love me, and you never did. But I had to tell you cause I know that keeping something like that is never going to help me. So there ya go,” Jessica ended, her breath coming in short gasps. “You leave here in a month, and never come back and be a freaking happy Hanson boy. And you know what? I heard “Mmmbop.” It sucks. I would rather listen to Britney “boob job” Spears for 24 hours at a time.”
Concentrating on her words, Jessica didn’t notice that Taylor was slowly making his way towards her...and in turn, she didn’t notice that she was inching her way towards the door. Feeling out with her hand, she caught the knob and tried opening the lock. But her hands were shaking so bad that she took double the time to open it...giving Taylor the chance to reach out and pull Jessica away from the still locked door.
Stumbling a little, she fell into him and tried to pull herself away but Taylor’s strength held her there. Confusion filled her. What was he doing? Not exactly scared, but incredibly curious, Jessica lifted her tear stained face up to his. The next thing she new, Taylor’s lips were pressed against hers, and being so startled, the feeling in her legs went out. She felt his arm wrap around her waist to catch her, all the while kissing her. She wanted to push him off, but another part wanted to stay where she was. Deciding which feeling to impose on, she found herself kissing him back unconsciencly.
Taylor’s left hand reached up to smooth away her tears, and at this, Jessica wanted to cry more. She was so confused. Two minutes before, she told him to go screw himself, but here she was kissing him like he was her lifeline.
Just then, Taylor deepened the kiss even more, and she lost all sort of brain power. She gave in completely then, finding strength in her knees and pushed herself against him even more. But just as soon as she gave in, Taylor pulled his lips away and took her head in his hands.
“Don’t you ever say that again, you hear me?” he practically shouted at her.
Before, her eyelids didn’t seem to be working, but then they quickly flipped open at him incredulously. “What?” she whispered.
Taylor’s eyes softened. “That I don’t love you,” he explained, “you know that that’s not true. The only reason I lied to you is because I loved you so much.”
His eyes never left her face. “I don’t understand,” Jessica said trying to get her bearings.
Taylor sighed. “I lied to you. Yes, I admit that. But you would have done the same thing, I swear.”
Suddenly, a little bit of the anger that she felt before came back. “That’s your answer? That you did lie to me? Right after you kiss me and make me go senseless, what kind of person are you?” she said, trying to push away from him now.
But his strength still held her. “Jess, listen to me...please!”
Seeing that she couldn’t possibly get away, she sighed and looked away. “Fine, I’m listening.”
“Yes, Isaac does have a girlfriend. Her name is Chelsea...she lives in California. They met at one of the concert shows backstage, and they hit it off. And yes, that’s where he is now. But you know what? No one knows about it. He’s hiding her like he’s ashamed of her, and she’s actually going along with it. Jessica, they can’t go out anywhere. I talked to him the other day, and he told me that he hadn’t been out of her house for about 5 days straight due to all the rumors going on that he has a girlfriend. Mercury agreed with it though...they don’t care that we have girlfriends. Yes, that’s true. But no one can know about it. Not even our closest friends. So that’s what Isaac is doing. He’s hiding her from the public. But I’m sorry Jess, I’m not going to hide you like I’m ashamed to call you my girlfriend, it isn’t going to happen. And I guess I could tell everyone that I have one, but that’s what Mercury doesn’t allow. I would be challenging my whole family’s future, and I couldn’t do that. If it was only my future we were talking about, then I would do it cause you would be in it. But...” he trailed off. It seemed as though he was out of words.
Jessica didn’t know what to say for a minute. Taylor lied to her for a good reason...to protect both of their feelings. She immediately became sorry for her actions.
“Don’t even think about it, babe,” Taylor said, noticing her facial expression, “if you say sorry I’m going to get mad. The only person that should be saying that is me. Even if I had a good reason, I should have told you.” He shrugged. “I guess I didn’t cause I knew I couldn’t have you and I couldn’t take that. So...I broke it off, I didn’t want to hurt anymore. I should have been thinking about you too...”
“You were, Tay. What happened was the best thing to do...” Jessica said softly, immediately stepping back from his warmth.
“No, Jess, wait, it wasn’t. I can’t do this anymore! I can’t just pretend like I don’t love you and go on with my life, I can’t...” Taylor said, pulling her towards him again.
“But I thought you said-” Jessica started. But loud, heavy footsteps sounding on the ceramic tile outside caused them both to look away from each other.
“Taylor!” Zac’s voice sounded from the other side of the locked door, “open up!”
Jessica looked at Taylor’s face in confusion. Didn’t Zac know that when a door is locked, not to interrupt? She was almost annoyed...at least until Taylor unlocked the door and looked at Zac’s face. She thought she would never see Zac as serious as he was right then.
“What, Zac?” Taylor was demanding.
“Mark just called,” Zac said slowly, “we have some problems...”
“What kind of problems?” Taylor asked carefully, sneaking a peek at Jessica behind her.
“Um, well, actually it’s kinda big. Something about Mercury being sold or something, I dunno. Mark wasn’t making sense to me, he just said that he wanted to talk to you as soon as possible...before we leave in the morning...” Zac ended.
Jessica’s breath caught in her throat. “Taylor’s leaving...” was the phrase that was kept repeated in her head. Her heart clenched as a shocked Taylor turned to stare at her.
“I’ll be right back,” Taylor whispered to her.
“K,” Jessica spit out.
With one final long stare, Taylor left the room and closed the door behind him.
***Okay, I would like to take this time to say I’m sorry for all those people who feel like they are about to puke after reading this chapter. I know...it’s cheesy. But aren’t all my chapters?? Oh, yeah, and sorry about the cussing. “Bad Amy!” =)***
