Jen was bored out of her mind. It was 3 o ‘clock on a Tuesday afternoon, and she had absolutely nothing to do. Madeline was still a little mad at her and refused to talk to her for more than 10 minutes, and she had already called Taylor’s house three times with no avail.

Sighing, she repositioned herself on her bed. She couldn’t help but wonder about her friend’s absence. When she’d called, no one had picked up. Jen knew that Taylor’s mom worked in the afternoon, but Taylor was usually home. And even if she wasn’t, Morgan was. It just didn’t make any sense.

Jen sat up and picked up the cordless phone lying on the floor. She dialed Taylor’s number once more. It rang six times, and Jen was about to hang up when someone answered.

“Hello?”

The voice shocked Jen. It sounded as if the person were in pain. She shook her head, mentally scolding herself for being silly. “Hi. May I speak to Taylor?”

“This is Taylor.”

Again, Jen was speechless. It certainly didn’t sound like Taylor.

“Jen? You there?”

“Tay, are you okay? Do you want me to come over?”

“No! I’m fine.”

“Where have you been all day?”

“Look, I gotta go…Tim’s here.” Taylor hung up before Jen could say another word.

Jen stared at the phone, even more puzzled than before. Slowly, she put the phone down on the bed. She let her gaze wander to the window. She stared out the window, not seeing anything.

Tim’s here…

Taylor’s voice rang in Jen’s ears. Tim was there…why was he there? Did Taylor’s mom get off work early? But, if she did, then why would Taylor have to get off the phone just because Tim was there?

Dinner that night was pretty quiet. Jen was still wondering about Taylor, Madeline was still mad at Jen, and Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley had no clue what was going on.

“So, Jen, what have you been doing today?”

Jen looked up from her plate. “What? Oh, nothing much. Just lying around.”

“Well, have you talked to Taylor?” Mrs. O’Malley was bound and determined to have a conversation with Jen.

“Yeah, for a little bit.”

“What did she have to say?”

“Not much…she had to get off.” Jen bit her lip and let her mind drift back to Taylor.

Mrs. O’Malley saw the far-away look that Jen’s eyes took and knew that talking with her anymore would be near impossible. She turned to Madeline. “How about you? What did you do?”

“Oh, you know. The usual.”

Mrs. O’Malley sighed, and turned to her husband. “I don’t think they’re going to talk to us tonight; how about you?”

“I agree. Jen’s got that look on her face, and you know how Maddie is. If she doesn’t want to talk, she won’t.”

“I’m sorry, I just…I’m thinking about something Taylor said today. I can’t figure it out.”

“Well, maybe it would help if you talked about it with us.”

Jen sighed. “I don’t know…okay, well, we were talking and we hadn’t even said ten sentences to each other, and she says-”

The ringing phone cut Jen off.

“I got it,” Madeline said, sliding out of her chair and walking over to the phone. “Hello? Oh, hi. Yeah, hold on a minute.” She turned to Jen. “It’s Taylor.”

Jen looked at her mom, who nodded for her to take it. She took the phone from Madeline, smiling at her briefly, and walked into the living room for privacy. “Hello?”

“Hi, Jen. How are you?”

“I’m fine. We’re eating supper right now.”

“Oh, want me to call back?”

“No, that’s okay. What are you doin?”

“Not much, just sitting around, waiting for mom to get home.”

“Your mom’s not home yet?”

“No, she had to work late. Why? Why do you sound so weird?”

Jen tried to sound breezy. “Do I? I don’t know.”

“Okay…anyway, the reason I’m calling is because the concert’s tomorrow.”

“I know; how could I forget?”

“What time should I pick you up? It starts at seven, and it’s a few hours’ drive.”

“I don’t know…you could pick me up in the morning, and I could go to your house and chill until it’s time to get ready.”

“Okay, that sounds good to me. I’ll be there at ten. See ya then!”

“Yep.” Jen hung up and walked slowly back to the table. So Taylor’s mom was working late…so why had Tim been there alone with the twins?

Jen heard a familiar horn sound outside. “Bye, Mom, Dad. Bye, Mad! Love you all!” Jen dropped a kiss on her mother’s cheek and dashed out to Taylor’s car. “Hey, Tay.”

“Hey.” Taylor adjusted the rear view mirror and started to pull out of the driveway.

Jen was dying to ask Taylor why Tim had been over the day before, but knew better. She studied Taylor for a moment. She did have a black eye, but it was fading. She wondered how bad it had been when she got it.

“Will you quit staring at me? Yes, it’s a black eye. Haven’t you ever seen one before?”

“Sorry.”

Taylor reached forward and flipped on the radio. When all she could find were commercials, she switched it to ‘CD’ and turned up the volume as the first track on her Hanson “Middle of Nowhere” CD started.

Jen sighed and looked out the window. She knew that was Taylor’s way to end the conversation before it even began. She wondered how long of a day it was going to be.

Taylor finally pulled into her driveway and shut off the car. “Come on, let’s go.”

Jen got out of the car and followed Taylor into the house. “Where’s Morgan?”

“I don’t know…come to think of it, I haven’t really seen her at all today…” Taylor said, a puzzled look on her face. “Morgan?” she called. “Yo, Morg, where are ya?”

The only answer was the echo of Taylor’s voice.

“I don’t know where she is. Here, sit down and I’ll go see if she’s in our room. I’ll be right back.”

Jen sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. She flipped through the channels before settling on “Good Morning America.” She watched about 15 minutes before realizing that Taylor wasn’t back yet. She got up and walked slowly to the twin’s room.

Taylor was sitting cross-legged on Morgan’s bed, clutching Morgan’s teddy bear to her chest. She was biting her lip, and appeared to be deep in thought.

“Tay? What’s up?”

Taylor looked up. “I don’t know where Morgan is.”

Just then the front door slammed. Taylor and Jen looked at each other before running into the living room.

“Morgan! Where have you been?”

Morgan shrugged. “I went to the park.”

“Before 8 in the morning?”

“What can I say? I wanted to take a walk.”

Taylor sighed. “Okay, but don’t do that again. I was worried.”

“Sorry, Tay, I wasn’t thinking.”

Jen watched in wonder as the two hugged each other. So Morgan went for a walk. Big deal. Yeah, she should have told someone, but she’d done it before. So why had Taylor been so worried?

“Jen, hurry up! We have to get going!” Taylor paced.

Jen watched her in the mirror. “Will you relax? I’m almost done…” Jen finished pinning up her hair. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

“Finally!” Taylor grabbed her purse and walked into the living room, Jen right behind her. “You gonna be okay by yourself?”

Morgan looked up from where she was reading on the couch. “Yeah, of course. Have fun you guys!”

Taylor gave Morgan one last look. “All right. We will. Bye Morgan.”

Jen waved to Morgan and followed Taylor out to the car.