Chapter 25: The Mediator
The only thing I could think as Taylor was hugging that girl was, Look how much my boyfriend cares for people. A lot of people probably would have thought that I should have been jealous and threw a fit. The fact was, I knew that if Taylor wanted to leave me, he had every right. He put up with me and my problems for so long already, I was kind of surprised that he still wanted to be with me. I sighed as I munched on my tater-tots.
Being his girlfriend was so fun, but at times I knew it would be hard. Not to kiss him in public places, not to let him do what he wanted to do to me. Not to tell people he was mine. I couldn't imagine how hard that would be for the rest of our relationship. So far, this was the first person we had encountered that had asked us that question. Taylor handled it very gracefully, I thought. We both finished our meal, making small chitchat, trying to steer away from me telling him how wonderful he was.
Once outside, Taylor quickly stole a kiss from me. I smiled as we walked down the street towards the strip mall we had seen on the way. Taylor had on a pair of sunglasses and I had on mine as well, to keep out the bright sun and to sheild him from fans. Not like the sunglasses made a whole heck of a lot of difference, but they were a barrier, nonetheless. We soon came to the mall and went into a novelty store. It was filled with knickknacks and other things of that sort. I stopped to look at the key chains while Taylor continued to the back of the store. I laughed at the different types of sayings printed on them. Suddenly I found one that Taylor would love. It read, "Music isn't just my life, it's now also my family. I fired the previous occupants." Lately Taylor, Isaac and Zac weren't the best of friends. They were all having troubles.
I took the keychain from its position on the turning rack and went to find Taylor in the back of the store. When I found him, his back was turned. I couldn't see what he was doing with his hands, so I snuck up on him and placed my head on his shoulder. He jumped as I did this, knocking his head against mine. I grabbed the sore spot that began to form, laughing.
"Ow," I laughed through the pain.
"Sorry," he laughed, taking my head in his hands to kiss the sore spot.
"What were you doing, goober?" I asked, still laughing.
"Well, it wasn't done, but here," he handed me a paper with a lot of words scribbled on it. I began to read the words and noticed they formed a song. After reading the song, I thought about it a moment, still staring at the words. I understood them, but they were confusing and familiiar and strange to me. It was the weirdest feeling. They were talking about how life could really be good and be bad and be wonderful and be everything you wanted but not everything you needed. I handed back the lyrics, now thinking about them.
"Taylor, how do you come up with such profound things so quickly?" I asked, forgetting about the reason I came back to see him.
"I don't know. It's usually something that is happening at the moment and I just try to write them out in a different form. It's hard to describe, but easy to do. Like for example in 'Weird,' when we say 'you feel like you're all alone in a faceless crowd,' we were trying to say everyone else had conformed to this acceptable standard, but one person was all alone, not fitting in with any standards. You see?" he asked.
"Well, kind of, but I'm more of a story writer," I admitted.
"Well, whenever you're writing a story, do you say 'he said, she said' all the time?"
"No, I try to vary it, or it gets really repetitive and boring," I told him.
"That's how writing lyrics is. I have the same thing a hundred people have said, but I try to put it in different words. You want to find something that people can relate to-that they can compare your feelings with. It's...you want to be different. You don't want to say, 'I didn't fit in' because that's been said a hundred times or a thousand times before and it seems to make everything boring. You see?" he asked again. This time, I actually understood what he was saying.
"Actually, yes," I admitted.
"What's that?" Taylor asked, gesturing towards my hand.
"Oh! I forgot. I found this. It just reminded me of you right now," I laughed and handed it to him. He read it and laughed. I had just spotted a rose candle, so I went over and looked at it. I was involved in reading the outside of the box when I felt his arms encircle me. His lips found their way to my neck and I slowly exhaled as they seared their place into my skin. His lips worked up to my ear and then he turned me around and kissed my waiting lips. I felt waves of emotions hitting me like water against the shoreline. I felt Taylor's hands go around to my back and find their way up the back of my shirt. I stuck mine in his back pockets, trying to keep them from wandering anywhere else. Suddenly, a tap on my shoulder startled me. I turned around to see something I wish upon no other teenager on a date. My mother.
Two weeks of our last few weeks were now gone. We now had three weeks left. Zac and I had done everything we could think of to make our time more special. We had gone to Oklahoma City with my church to go to Frontier City where we had the greatest time. We went to Big Splash where our first experience took place and started a tradition there, if you know what I mean. We had gone to a game at OSU with his uncle and Isaac. It was so much fun. We even went to this company picnic with my mother. I kept apologizing for wasting our first week together but he insisted we could forget about it.
I noticed Taylor and Joey spent most of their time going on normal dates and spending a lot of alone time. When it came time to practice, Taylor and Joey were always the last ones to appear. They would always be wrapped around one another. It's so ironic. Before, I was worried because they didn't show affection in public and now they sickened me when they did.
One day, practice seemed very hectic as all three guys showed the immense amount of stress that was placed on them. Joey ended playing referee pretty often. I wasn't sure how to handle sibling rivalry because, well, I didn't have siblings, but Joey was like a mother. She could quiet them down and at least try to solve the problems going on. I would easily calm down Zac, she would be able to calm down Taylor and she and Isaac had some sort of friendship going. I was glad. I hated to see them fight.
They were finally playing a song pretty well when Taylor forgot to switch to a different key in his playing. He continued to play off-key for a while, trying to find his place again when Isaac suddenly stopped playing guitar.
"Taylor! You're so off-key it's hurting my ears!" Isaac yelled.
"Sorry, I forgot. We haven't played this song in forever guys," Taylor apologized quietly.
"You always forget! When are you going to remember that there are more people in this band than you? Taylor, this band is three guys, and we all three forget things now and then, but you expect that since you have the most fans and you're the best looking, you should be let off right away. Well, I'm sick of it! I quit!" Isaac threw his music off his stand and dropped his guitar to the floor. Taylor ran his hands through his hair and grabbed pieces and pulled on them.
"I swear! He's been in such a mood lately! He's going to drive me insane! I give up!" he shouted.
"Taylor," I approached him and laid a hand on his arm, "go talk to him. He needs your support to get through this." I sighed, wishing he could be as smooth as he was the other day when my mother came. He was so suave, my mother was practically praising him before we left the store. Now, his temper had a hold on him, and it wasn't letting go any time soon.
"No! No, I've talked to him so much, it feels like I'm going to explode. He doesn't listen to me, Joey. Will you talk to him? He listens to you. Go be his voice of reason for me, please?" Taylor begged me. I rolled my eyes and sighed.
"Fine, but next time, you really need to confront him with your own feelings..." I sighed, leaving the room to search for Isaac.
I found him sitting in a corner, his elbows on his knees and his head down. I kneeled down and sat on my feet in front of him.
"Isaac," I said quietly. He looked up slowly into my eyes. "Isaac, I know you're under a lot of stress, but-"
"But what? I mean, Taylor's being a total jackass, Zac's being impossible and you're the only one who cares," Isaac leaned his head back against the wall and looked at the ceiling.
"Isaac, that's not true. Taylor is just as mad as you are. You are all frustrated right now. Taylor is venting it off on Zac and Kat right now. I'll deal with him later. If he had come to talk to you like that, someone probably would have ended up with one less appendage," I pointed out.
"True. Wait, why did you come to me first?" Isaac inquired, looking kind of amused.
"Because, you just seemed more...."
"More what?" he smiled a little and put his legs down and looked me closer in the eyes.
"More...I don't know...." I was at a loss for words as his eyes penetrated mine. Before I knew what was happening his lips were on mine. I kissed him softly and let him move closer to me. I soon realized what was happening, but at about that time, the worst thing that could happen happened.
"Joey! NO!" I heard Taylor scream. Then he ran out the door before I could blink.
"Taylor!!!!!" I screamed.
Chapter 26: E.S.P.
Isaac was in another bad mood, for something else this time, Taylor wouldn't get along with anyone, especiallly Joey, which was terribly wrong. I wanted to ask him about it, but I was afraid to ask. And, the peacemaker of all, Joey wasn't getting along with anyone, even Kat. That fact scared the crap out of me. The only ones who were getting along these days were Kat and I. We were having the best few weeks. She was suppose to be here any second now. I was waiting by the door. The bell rang and I swung open the door.
"Wow! That was your record Zac, a split second. You're getting quicker, you're training is paying off." she smiled.
"I know...I've practiced running up and down the stairs, just like you said." I grinned.
"You are sincerely cute, did you know that?"
"Nope."
"Are you going to let me in, or am I gonna stand here?" I let her in. My mom just happened to be sitting in the living room.
"Hi Diana." Kat waved.
"Hi Kat." she waved back. "How are you today?"
"I'm fine thank you, and you?" I never realized what a suck-up Kat was to my mom.
"Great. Busy, but great."
"Good, well, good that you are great, not that you're busy. If you need help with the kids, Jo and I are always here."
"I know." my mom smiled at her. I then took Kat's hand and led her up to my room.
"Did we get a new toy Zac?" she picked up the paintball gun off the floor.
"Yeah, how did you know?" I asked. No one else had time to notice, she cares.
"Well, I have E.S.P, not that that has anything to do with this, I just know." she gave me one of those mysterious looks.
"What am I thinking then, Ms. E.S.P?" I asked smartly.
"This..." she walked over to me and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.
"Wow! You're good, that is exactally what I was thinking."
"Now you're thinking this." she kissed me again, this time it was a little harder, maybe more desperate, I'm not sure. I responded, slipping my arm around her waist and running my hand through her hair. Caught up in the commotion, she sat on my bed, and I slowly lowered her onto her back. NO! You promised Taylor and Joey you would slow down. But, it's been awhile, we know what we are doing! NO! YES! ....My mind continued battling itself until I gave up and pulled away, right before I layed down on top of her.
"What's wrong Zac?" she sat up on her elbows. She was breathing hard, it was getting a little deep.
"My conscience won't let me go any further." I frowned.
"Aww...my poor baby, tell it to leave you alone and lets go into the treehouse." she got up, and we walked into the backyard.
Chapters 27-28
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