"So, this party you're going to, who will be there? What will you do? What things will be there to refresh you?"
"Mom, quit exaggerating. I hate it when you do that. It's makes me feel like a bad person. It'll be okay. Tiffany is smart, not stupid.
"What are you talking about?" "Mom, don't be stupid. Tiffany's parents would allow any "harmful" things at her parties, like alcohol, and her parents wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble, much less get themselves into trouble. My generation is smart. And anyway's, it's just a get-together, you know, something for the people who don't get to go anywhere outside of their town for a summer." I said, pointing something out for myself. It's true, I didn't get to go anywhere that summer. When I saw that MTV was hosting itself at Motel California, I immediately begged my mom to go. Yeah, right. I told her it would be good for me to get out of the house, or state, but she, and I quote, "a waste of money and time. All you will do is watch music videos and do nothing but swim and hang around there," refused. Oh, sure. Mom, there's more to that. Anyway, I settled for second place. Everyday I sat myself in front of the T.V. to watch Motel California for an hour or two, and that was it.
"Anyways, mom, Taylor's going to be here any minute-" Our doorbell chimes rung just then. I looked outside my window, and saw Taylor dressed in a long white shirt with a black lapel, a white tee underneath that, baggy black jeans, and his black sneakers. His hair was left down.
"Well, have fun at the party. Don't be home too late." my mom said. "Okay." "Don't do anything stupid." "Okay." "Don't be pressured into anything that you feel uncomfortable with." "Okay." "Don't-" "Mother! I get your point! Bye, now." I said, losing my patience.
I went downstairs and opened the front door; Taylor waiting on the "Welcome" mat. "Hey, are you ready to go?" he asked. "Hi. Yeah, let's go." I said, shutting the door behind me.
"Well, you look nice tonight." he said, staring at my white pleated skirt that stopped at mid thigh and my white halter top.
"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself." I commented, noting the black and white looked really good on him.
"You're kind of quiet tonight, is something wrong?" I asked. "No, no, why did you ask?" "Well, you just seem kind of distant. Are you sure?" I pushed.
He stopped in his tracks, and stared into my eyes deeply, a serious tone in his eyes. "Tonight is supposed to be fun, and I know that you and I will have a good time. I just, don't ever want to see you get hurt." he said.
Confusion danced around in my head and across my face. "What are you talking about?" I asked.
"It's a premonition. I feel like something is going to happen to you, or me, for that matter, but it's stronger over you, and it will be something that you won't like. If it happens, I just, don't want you to get hurt or deny yourself of what might happen."
"I'm still confused. I'm not going to be sarcastic or anything, but, do you want to go home or something?" I asked, his behavior something I've never seen before.
"No." he said. I started walking again. "You wouldn't understand." he mumbled. I didn't quite catch it. "What?" "Nothing, come on." "No Taylor, I want to know what's going on with you." I said sternly. "Hey, look, I'm sorry, about what I said. Wait, no, I can't be sorry. Kim, what I said, you know, that premonition. Something is going to happen to one of us tonight. All I am saying is that, I want us to have a good time, in case...in case that premonition happens to come by. I'm trying not to act abnormal or anything, it's just that this premonition is a very strong feeling that I have, and it won't go away. So, let's just forget about this, go to the party, and have a good time." he finished.
"Good idea." I said, and we headed off to Tiffany's.
You could tell where she lived from practically a mile away, the music was so loud. Tons of people showed up, more than I expected.
We entered the house and were greeted by many friends and the song from Third Eye Blind, "Semi-Charmed Life."
"Hey, what's going on?" A girl, Robin, asked me as she started dancing. "Everything!" I yelled through the blaring music. "Hey, I heard you and Taylor were going together, am I right?" "Wrong. Jeff and I are going together. Taylor's free." "Oh, okay, well, gotta flirt, see ya!" she said, and ran over to him. I laughed, always knew she liked him.
Songs came and went, and the summer sky turned from bright blue to a pink, purple, and orange mix. I had danced my way around the house trying to find Jeff, but I never found him, and I started to worry more and more.
I felt a tap on my shoulder, and saw Tiffany. "Hey, I have to talk to you." she said, and dragged me into the kitchen.
"What's going on?" I asked. "Your Jeff is a two-timer." "Excuse me?" "Look, if I were you, I'd dump him the second I see him. I saw him at the mall making-out with Naomi." "Oh, get out of here, he wouldn't do that unless I was the girl making-out with him." "Hey, I saw it with my own two eyes. The other day, around noon, he was in the food court with Naomi, making-out. God, I swear, it was them. I would never lie to you. He saw me, and I threatened to tell you, but he made me keep it a secret. Ho hum, he can't trust me now. That's probably why he may have not come here." she explained.
"I'll believe it when I see it." I said, not showing some panickyness, and turned to go dance some more.
"Hey, come on, dance with me." Taylor said, as Bush's song, "Swallowed" played. "Okay." I said, thinking I could take my mind off of Tiffany's confession.
Even though the song was kind of fast, it was slow enough to slow dance to. I wrapped my arms around Taylor's neck as he held me close in his presence, arms encircled my waist.
"Tay, have you seen Jeff here?" I asked. "No, not yet anyways, why?" "Well, he told me that he was going to be here, but I haven't seen him yet." "Well, this is a big house. Maybe he's ducked out somewhere." "Yeah."
"Hey, I don't know if this is true, but I overheard that Jeff was with Naomi at the mall making-out." he said. "I heard that from Tiffany, but I don't believe it." I said, and rested my head on Taylor's shoulder, thinking. Now I was getting seriously worried.
Long after our dance, I wandered around the house, going upstairs, ignoring some couples who were going at it on the stairs.
I ducked into some bedrooms and bathrooms, searching for Jeff. As I was looking, a guy, Jason, stopped me.
"Jeff's your boyfriend, right?" he asked. "Yeah, have you seen him?" I asked. "Unfortunately, yes." "What do you mean?" "That's all there is to it. I'm sorry it had to happen." he said, and walked away.
Strange things are going on, and everyone keeps mentioning something bad about Jeff. I had to find out something once and for all.
I searched more rooms, determined to find Jeff.
One room remained unsearched, a guest bedroom, at the end of the hall. WIth caution, I opened the door...
"AAUUGGHHH! Oh, shit! What the fuck are you doing!?" a yell came from upstairs, a cry Taylor recognized immediately.
"You stupid asshole!" I yelled at Jeff. "What the hell?" he asked, yanking his boxers back on. "I should ask you that! Here you are, this whole time, in a bedroom, fucking this slut, Naomi!" "Hey, no, it's not what you think." "Is that all you can say? It's not what I think? All I saw was you on top of her on that bed, fucking her! And if that's not true, I would certainly like an explanation." I bursted, on the verge of breaking out into tears.
Taylor ran up the stairs, following the screams of rage that could be heard from Timbuktu. Immediately, he recognized the first one. Ah, memories.
Scared that the "premonition" had happened, he rushed through the sea of teenagers to reach the end of the hall where the guest room was, and found me, blowing up like a volcano spewing lava over an innocent city.
"Dammit, you know what? I don't even know what brought you to this Jeff, or anything else. All those times when we were supposed to be together, you were with your so-called "friends," when you really were with this whore. Shit, how could I have been so damn stupid," I said, then I saw Taylor, but I ignored him, "I mean, it was all in front of me. Even Tiffany's confession made it unbelieveable. But, damn, how could you sink so low, Jeff?"
He was silent, and speechless. "I'm sorry," he said, and reached over to embrace me.
"Don't touch me," I said, and stepped away, "Sorry? You're sorry? One thing, you wouldn't be sorry. Seven months, Jeff. Seven. If you wanted to break up, why didn't you say so? And even if you really were sorry, I wouldn't forgive you. I would and never will forgive you. If you gave me the world, I would never forgive you."
"No, don't do this." he pleaded. "Too bad, Jeff. I thought we cared about each other, but you only screwed things up for yourself. It's over." "No." "All I have to say is, you can fuck that slut all you want, now that I'm out of the picture. Too late." I said, coldly, giving him an icy stare, and jogged out of the house onto the driveway.
"That was harsh." Taylor said to him, and followed me outside.
"Kim! Kim!" Taylor yelled. I stood there right in the middle of the driveway, and looked up at the stars, trying to stop crying, singing a tune, "Wake me up before you go-go" from Wham! that always made my problems go away, but this time it didn't work.
"Wake me up before you go-go, don't leave me hanging alongside the road-" I sang. "Kim, he was a jerk from the beginning." Taylor said, putting his hands on my shoulders.
I turned around, my tear-stained face stared back into his. "No, I was the jerk. I mean, it was all in front of me, and I let it surpass me because I was too blind to actually see it." "No, don't say that, I mean, you could still be dating him and he'd still be cheating on you." he comforted.
I thought. "You're right. But what an asshole! The least he couldv'e done was tell me he wanted to break it off. Seven months, Tay. Seven. And look where it ended up."
He pulled me close for a long, sympathetic hug. Just what I needed from a best friend right then and there. Granted it wasn't Jeff.
We were still hugging when, "As Long As You Love Me," from the Backstreet Boys was played on the sound system. Taylor and I started moving to the music, and before we knew it, we were dancing, not realizing it.
"Taylor, you hate the Backstreet Boys." I whispered into his ear.
"I know, but that doesn't matter now, does it?" he said and asked.
I hugged him tight as we danced underneath the moon and the stars. And for the first time after my break-up, I was smiling, as I thought earlier that I would never smile again.