Zac looked at his brother oddly. "Tay," he pointed out, "you're talking to the keys. You realize that, don't you?"
Taylor rolled his eyes and retorted, "Shut up..."
"So where are we going anyway?" Zac inquired.
Taylor looked around at Alisha and Gwen. "Where do you guys want to go?"
"Wherever, I don't care," Gwen carelessly shrugged and smiled.
"Me neither," Alisha replied.
"Umumumum..." Taylor thought, "what's near here?"
"Not much around here, a lot of fast food," Gwen said.
"Oh shit," Alisha muttered under her breath. "Um, Gwen, when was your dad going to pick us up???"
"Whoops. I forgot to call him," Gwen responded sheepishly.
"Welllllll," Taylor slowly suggested, "we could go somewhere and hang out for a bit then we'll drive you home. "
"OK City is 2 hours away from Tulsa, Tay," Zac reminded. He soon got the point that Tay wanted to "get to know" Gwen and Zac played along. "Well, who cares..." he continued, "we're home alone anyway."
"Cool!" Alisha exclaimed.
Taylor kept driving around aimlessly trying to think of somewhere to go. Without taking his eyes off the road he reached under the seat for the cell phone. He handed it to Gwen and said, "Here ya go, tell your dad you're with us."
Gwen smiled. "Thanks," she responded. She dialed her number and impatiently waited for her mom or dad to pick up the phone. "Hey Dad...no, not now...nooo...we're gonna hang out here for a bit....no...no Dad...they'll take us home...yes, Dad, what do you think?!" Finally she said bye and pressed the POWER button on the cell. She rolled her eyes and said, "Damn they're so annoying sometimes!"
"You should have heard what our parents were saying before they left!!!" Zac exclaimed. "They were like, 'No dirty magazines!' and 'Don't mess around with the girls!'".
Gwen eyed Alisha with a smiled. Alisha nudged her in the side and gave her a "shut up" look.
"Ok, so Zac, here's what I'm thinking...when we get home we call everyone and have them come over...Matt was having a bunch of friends over from LA and they're total partiers," .
"Oooh! Oooh! Idea!!!" Zac suddenly shouted. He turned around and faced Alisha and Gwen. "You guys wanna come???"
"Cool, sure!" they exclaimed.
"Will your parents let you?" Tay asked.
Gwen looked at Alisha mischeviously. "This is Alisha's speciality. She'll think of something to make them say it's ok!"
"Hehehe," Alisha giggled gleefully.
"Here ya go," Tay said and tossed the phone back to Gwen.
"Ok, say you ran into a good friend from camp that wants us to stay for the night. Do you think they'll fall for it?" Alisha questioned.
"Probably, my parents are quite dumb sometimes," Gwen laughed. She dialed her number once again and talked to her mom. She explained the so-called situation and finally after 5 minutes was off the phone. "Ok," she said with a smile, "all set."
"Cool!" Taylor said and grinned.
Gwen handed the phone to Alisha and said, "Here, try your luck."
Alisha punched in her number and waited for someone to pick up the phone. "Hey Mom...no...good....yeah, well, remember Erin? My friend from camp? I saw her. Yeah. She wants us to stay with her tonight. Yes, Mom...no...yeah. Yep....bye." Alisha hung up the phone and rolled her eyes. "I'm in," she said with a smiled.
Taylor switched lanes to get off the exit to Tulsa. "Hey Zac," he asked, "let's stop at 7-11 and get food!"
"Yeah, I'm starving," Zac agreed. "How many people are coming to zee party?"
"Um...20?" Tay estimated.
"Damnit, how much money do you have on you?" Zac asked.
"Shit, I'm broke," Taylor sighed exasperatedly.
Alisha and Gwen pulled out their wallets and checks how much they had. "I've got 15 bucks," Alisha offered.
"I have 14," Gwen replied.
"No, that's ok, I don't want to take your money," Tay responded.
"Don't worry about it, just take it," Alisha assured him.
"Ya sure?"
"Yeah, no prob," Gwen agreed.
"Cool!" Zac exclaimed.
************
Two hours passed. It was 11:56 and they had just pulled into the Hanson driveway. The four teenagers hopped out of the car with 7-11 bags in hand. They had stocked up on chips, dip, coke, and whatever else they thought their friends would eat.
Tay handed the bags he was carrying to Zac and said, "I'm gonna page Matt...he'll tell everyone to come over."
"K," Zac replied.
Tay rushed into the empty house and paged his friend, Matt. He hung up the phone and took a seat nearby waiting for Matt to return his call. After about 3 minutes the phone rang making Taylor jump a mile.
"Matt?"
"Hey Tay, want me to bring everyone over now?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, we got food," Tay informed him.
"FOOD!!!" Matt exclaimed.
"Yeah, and," Taylor hushed to a whisper before continuing, "two girls."
"You guys got hookers?! Whoa, buddy, I'm impressed!!!"
"Nooo, you retard, we met these girls at the concert!"
"Ohh, I gotcha, how old?" Matt asked sounding interested.
"14 and 15," Tay responded.
"Bet Zackie's happy 'bout that after Jenna dumped him!"
"Yeah, he told me in the store that-" Tay stopped abrubtly when Zac entered the kitchen.
"Told ya what?" Matt asked wanting Tay to continue.
"Forget it, just bring everyone over, ok?"
"Will do, see ya," Matt said and hung up.
"Ok," Tay said facing Gwen, Alisha, and Zac, "Matt's comin' over with some of his LA friends, ok?" "Cool," Alisha responded.
"Do you guys want us to put the chips and crap in bowls or something?" Gwen asked.
"No, that's ok, the other guys will probably inhale everything in 5 seconds anyway," Tay replied with a laugh.
Just then the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!!!" Zac shouted. He ran over to the door and opened, facing about 12 people.
"Hey Zac," his friend Alex said. "You mind that I brought a few people?"
Zac looked over the crowd and what Alex called a "few". "Um...no, it's ok."
"Great," Alex said and led everyone into the Hanson house.
Zac started to shut the door but a strong hand stopped it. "Hey Zac," Matt said.
"Hey," he replied. Zac looked down at Matt's hand and noticed he was gripping two cases of beer.
"I don't think so Zackie, you're under the age limit," Matt said smiling.
Zac laughed. "And 17 is over the limit, huh?"
Matt walked in the house with 9 people trailing behind. Zac started to say something but the music blasted, startling him, and making him jump.
"Tay!" Matt said and handed him a Molsen.
Tay looked at the beer bottle and looked back up at Matt with a confused look.
"C'mon Tay, don't tell me you've never had a drink before," Matt laughed.
"Well...um..."
"Just try it," Matt encouraged. Taylor took a sip of the beer and made a bitter face.
"This tastes like horse shit," Tay managed to say through laughs.
Matt patted him on the back and said, "You'll get used to it."
Tay continued to sip the beer slowly. Matt walked out of the kitchen and Zac walked in with Alisha and Gwen. Zac gave Tay a weird look.
"Tay...?" he asked slowly.
Taylor just shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. He reached behind him and tossed Zac, Alisha, and Gwen a beer. "Here ya go," he said.
They all studied the beer for a second, then Zac said, "But Tay-"
"Zac, it's not a big deal," Tay told him.
They were all drinking the beer slowly and carefully. "Alisha, let's go outside," Zac said and motioned to the door.
"K," Alisha replied.
They walked towards the door and Zac opened it for her. "Thanks," she said with a smile.
Zac smiled back but didn't say anything at first. "So do you have a boyfriend?" he asked breaking the ice.
Alisha looked down at her feet for a second. "Nope, you? I mean, do you have a girlfriend?"
"Nah, got dumped two weeks ago," he replied.
"That sucks," Alisha said sympathetically.
"Yeah," Zac said. Inside his mind he was debating over whether he should hold her hand or not. Damnit Zac, he thought to himself, just hold her hand. He slowly stretched out his hand but then quickely pulled back. He noticed that Alisha was shivering in her tank top and shorts. "Ya cold?"
"Yeah, a bit," Alisha responded.
"Wanna go inside?"
"Sure," she said as he opened the door for her and they walked in the loud house.
************
Gwen walked towards Tay and sat on the counter next to him.
"I wonder what Zac and Alisha are doing," Tay said while laughing. "Knowing Zac, they're probably already making out!"
Gwen laughed in reply. "Yep, Alisha wouldn't mind!"
Tay gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Alisha really really really likes Zac! She has for almost two years or something like that!"
"Are you serious?!"
"Yeah, it's really quite funny sometimes," Gwen said with a grin.
Tay just laughed. Ok, just do it, he said to himself. He reached out his hand for hers and rested his fingers on her palm. She looked at him and smiled. Just then they heard footsteps coming into the kitchen.
"Man, it's cold out there," Zac said. Taylor and Gwen looked over at the two teenagers and noticed they were holding hands. Geez, Taylor said in his mind, I guess I am a lot like Zac. "Hey guys," Matt said while running into the kitchen, "Sarah brought wine coolers!"
"Who the hell is Sarah?" Zac asked.
"Oh," Matt replied, "she's one of my friends from LA."
"Oh, um," Tay slowly said, "ok."
"You guys want one?" Matt asked.
"Sure," Zac slowly responded.
The five kids walked out of the kitchen and into the living room feeling like adults.