"Ike, I lost it again!" Taylor said frantically searching his room on New Years Eve.
"Lost what again?" he asked trying to conceal his smile as Taylor slowly went insane.
"My wallet." Taylor said digging around in his pants pockets.
"You should buy a chain so you can clip it onto you." Isaac said helpfully.
"Oh damnit," Taylor complained stomping his foot,"I can't tell mom and dad that I lost another one. That's the fourth wallet in four months!"
"Chill out," Isaac laughed,"it will be in the last place you look."
"Of course it will be in the last place I look, if I found it why would I keep looking?" he asked.
"Wait," Isaac paused,"what happened? Where am I?"
"Imbosil." Taylor muttered under his breath before getting on all fours to search through the rubble that was their closet.
Erica walked into the room,"Where's Tay?" she asked Ike.
Isaac waved his hand through the air,"Somewhere in the closet." he said reading the instructions for a pocket organizer that his parents bought him for Christmas.
"I'm in here!" came a muffled cry from the closet.
"What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.
Taylor emerged and brushed himself off,"I lost my wallet." he pouted, trying to get sympathy from someone.
"No you didn't, you left it at my house." she said holding it out,"I also bought you a chain because you always lose it."
"Thank you!" Taylor cried taking the wallet from her and hugging her quickly before trying to hook the chain on it.
"Aren't you going to make sure that nothing's missing?" she asked raising her eyebrows.
Taylor laughed and looked up at her,"Erica, I highly doubt that you would steal from me. And if you did, the most that you would get is two bucks." he told her before looking down and clasping it.
He walked over to the mirror and looked at it,"How does it loo..." he stopped short when he caught a glimpse of Erica in the mirror holding up the two condoms from his wallet and trying extremely hard not to cry. He lowered his eyes.
"Now are you sure that nothing's missing?" she asked throwing them at Taylor's back.
Isaac lowered his head from his position on the bunk bed.
Taylor didn't answer her. He couldn't even turn around. He just stood there and fiddled with the wallet chain.
"How could you make up all of that bullshit about not until we're both ready when you were carrying condoms around in your fucking wallet!" she yelled. She didn't care who heard, she was far to upset. She walked up to him and pushed him,"How could you?" she yelled.
Taylor turned around,"I would never use them with you!" he yelled.
"So you're using them with someone else?" she asked in disbelief.
"No, I was..." he started.
"Shut-up! You disgust me!" she yelled.
"Erica, I swear I didn't plan anything! It was just incase! I was just trying to be prepared!" he said.
"If that's the way it was why didn't you tell me?" she smacked his arm,"But you had to hide it!" she tried to push him.
He grabbed her wrists,"Erica, just listen." he pleaded.
"No!" she said trying to pull away.
He held her wrists tighter,"Erica please, I've never broken a promise." he pointed out.
She started to cry,"Damn it Taylor! So why do you have them?" she asked trying to pull away. She looked over at Ike,"Tell him to let me go!" she yelled.
Isaac held up his hands and made a quick exit from the room.
"I'm sorry." Taylor whispered trying to wrap his arms around her.
"No." she said trying to push away from him.
"Yes I am. Erica you have to believe me!" he said still holding her wrists.
"No." she repeated slinking to the floor as she tried to squirm away from him.
He got on the floor with her.
She started to cry harder,"How could you try to take something like that away from me without my permission or anything?"
He wrapped his arms around her,"I wouldn't." he said.
"You're a liar." she sobbed as she collapsed into his arms and cried.
Taylor was slightly taken aback. She never let him see her so upset. She always kept it inside and pushed on. He had never seen her cry so hard that her whole body shook and she couldn't even talk. He held her close to him as she cried,"I'm so sorry Erica." he whispered.
Zac passed out all of the noise makers for New Years Eve. He smiled to himself as he could feel the wads of confetti that were in his pocket. He had spent two hours shredding a notebook to shreds for tonight.
Isaac and Stacie were seeming to have somewhat of a heated discussion in the corner of the room. And Taylor and Erica were awkwardly sitting side by side.
Zac shrugged and and plopped next to Kerri, it wasn't going to ruin his evening.
"It's 1999 in fifteen minutes babe." he said putting his arm around her and kissing her forehead.
"I know." she smiled and snuggled next to him.
He couldn't help but smile. Kerri had become insanely important to him within the last couple of months. Especially since their little exploratory groping session two nights ago. He found it harder every minute to remember what life was like without her.
"I don't care Isaac!" Stacie huffed,"It was not right to give Taylor condoms without Erica's consent."
"Well geez Stacie! He's my little brother and I'd rather have him be safe than sorry! I don't want him to fuck up his life!" he shot back.
"Having sex doesn't have to fuck up anything! It's a beautiful thing between two..."
"Blah blah blah," Isaac snapped,"you are out of line! Who do you think you are, trying to tell me how to help my brother?"
"Don't pull that shit with me!" Stacie warned,"You have no idea what I'm talking about!"
"Well why don't you tell me?" Isaac asked crossing his arms.
Stacie sighed,"Look, let's not ring in the new year like this. Just make the best of this alright?"
Isaac snickered,"I love how you avoid a question."
"Isaac please, this is neither the time nor the place to be having this discussion." she said softly.
"Well when do I get let in on this big secret Stacie? Why does everyone know but me?" he growled before walking across the room and plopping next to Tay.
"Hey buddy, having problems?" Taylor asked him.
"Remind me never to help you again." Isaac muttered while fingering the noise maker that he held in his hand.
"Um, yeah, okay." Taylor said giving him a weird look. He turned to Erica,"He's crabby." he whispered.
Erica nodded. Taylor put his hand on her knee.
Isaac saw this out of the corner of his eye,"Ah, the inevitable question...will they fuck? You guys should be a trashy romance novel. Do they love each other? Yes! Will they ever say it? No! Why? Because they're both idiots!" Isaac put on a stupid face,"Oh gee, well there's a fucking surprise."
Taylor and Erica stared at him in shock.
Isaac raised his voice a few octaves and added a country accent,"Doris, can you believe that Erica didn't leave Taylor yet?"
"No Marge," he said lowering his voice slightly,"if I was her I would have beat that boy! Lord, he'd be on the floor cryin' for his mama!"
"Fuck you!" Taylor said leaping up and dashing out of the room.
"Taylor wait!" Isaac called, but Taylor was already gone.
"5...4..." everyone chanted.
"Ike, you have problems." Erica said getting up from the couch.
"3...2...1...Happy New Year!" they shouted.
Isaac slumped down and pitifully twirled his noise maker as Zac threw shards of paper all over the room and adults and relatives that kissed and sang.
"Happy New Year, Ike." he muttered to himself.
"Taylor..?" Erica said stepping out of the back door.
"Hmm..?" he said. He was leaning on the rail of the deck and staring at the sky.
"Aren't you cold?" she asked hugging her arms to her as she walked over to him.
"No." he replied slightly shaking his head.
She leaned back against the railing next to him. She waited for him to talk.
"I hate Ike." he mumbled looking at the stars.
"You know that's not true." she said softly.
He looked at his hands,"I know." he replied, his voice barely audible.
"Ike gave me those condoms Erica. That doesn't make it right for me to have taken them, but...I don't know." he told her.
"Well," she said pulling herself up onto the railing,"I didn't exactly respond to well to it, that's true. But, it was probably just my feminine tendency to over react to something simple and stupid and insignifigant."
"Well, you were right to yell at me." he shrugged looking back up to the sky.
Erica snickered,"Maybe I should have outbursts more often."
Taylor laughed,"Oh God no."
She nodded,"Okay, maybe not."
"I hate fighting. We get this awful silence between us." he said motioning to the space between them.
"There's no silence, we're talking." she pointed out.
He sighed,"Okay, so it's tension or something."
"Hmm..." she shivered as she thought about it.
"Why did Ike say those things?" he vented to her.
Erica hopped off of the railing and put her hands on Taylor's shoulders. She rested her head by his,"He's just mad about Stacie. It's not your fault, it's Stacie's."
Taylor dropped his head in his hands.
"Come on Tay, I have an idea," she said,"let's forget everything that has happened for the past couple of months. It's the New Year, 1999, the time for a new beginning, a fresh start you know?"
He turned around and leaned against the railing and contemplated this.
"Come on." she persuaded him smiling.
"You're so persistant." he laughed.
She kissed him quickly,"But that's why you care."
He laughed at how she had paraphrased him,"My only weakness." he smiled.
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