Later that day, no one in the Hanson family had even mentioned the incident from the night before, or rather earlier that morning. Taylor was completely ignoring his father. No one really spoke a word the whole day, except for Mackie's daily chore of running around singing 'Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose'. It wasn't until dinner that night when Taylor finally uttered some kind of communication with the rest of the family.
"Can you pass the peas, please," Taylor asked Zac who was sitting beside him.
"Yep," said Zac, reaching for the bowl of peas and passing it to Taylor.
"So, what did everyone get up to today?" asked Diana trying to strike up some sort of conversation.
"Me and Katie had a picnic in her back yard," said Jessica.
"Ooh, a picnic, how exciting," Zac teased.
"Shut up," said Jessica. Zac just laughed."We made sandwiches and made punch," Jessica continued. "I accidently spilled my punch on the carpet though, but Mrs Sampson didn't mind".
"You're lucky her dad didn't kick you out," commented Taylor keeping his gaze on his plate of food.
"Taylor," said Diana.
"What? I'm just saying she's lucky that Katie's dad is nice enough to understand it was an accident. Another dad, who shall remain nameless, would shove her out the door and slam it in her face".
"All right, that's enough of that," stated Walker firmly.
"Well that's what you did wasn't it dad? Or are you gonna deny it now?"
"I'm not denying anything".
"No you wouldn't, would you? You'd probably just sit there and fucking gloat about it".
"Taylor Hanson! You apologise to your father right now," said Diana, horrified at her son's remark.
"I'll apologise to him when he deserves an apology," said Taylor.
"I'm not going to allow this kind of behaviour Taylor, especially while we're eating dinner," said Walker.
"What? Are you gonna kick me out too?"
"That is enough!" Walker yelled.
"Yeah, it is," said Taylor shoving his plate away from him as he stood up.
"You sit back down and eat your dinner, thank you," said Diana.
"I'm not hungry," Taylor shot back walking out of the dining room and heading towards the front door. Once again the family listened to Taylor slamming the door shut.
Outside in the fresh air, Taylor sat down on the front steps that led up to the house. He sighed, "Shit!" and burried his face in his knees. Behind him he heard the door open and then click closed. Then he heard tiny footsteps coming towards him. He felt a tiny hand rest upon his shoulder. When he looked up he saw Avery staring back at him, with a cute and concerned look on her face.
"Hello," she said.
"Hi," Taylor said back, a tiny smile forming on his face. Taylor lent forward and gave his little sister a kiss on the nose. She giggled. When she tilted her head back to laugh, Taylor noticed the bruise Sarah had left on Avery's face, just below her eye.
"Does that hurt?" he asked sympathetically. Avery shook her head.
"I'm sorry Avie," said Taylor.
"Tay?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"Does Sarah hate me?" Taylor felt a horrible pang in his stomach.
"No," he assured.
"Then why did she hit me?" Taylor tried to think of an answer to tell his little sister, but he couldn't think of one.
"I don't know. But I promise you that she doesn't hate you".
"You promise?"
"Yep. It was an accident Avie, she didn't mean to. She just wasn't feeling well".
"Is she sick?"
Taylor paused before answering, "Yeah, she's sick".
"I hope she gets better soon". Taylor smiled,
"Yeah, me too". Avery lent forward and gave her big brother a kiss on the nose in return. Taylor laughed, causing Avery to giggle.
"How can anyone hate you?" he asked laughing. She shrugged her shoulders and answered
"I don't know". Taylor laughed again.
"Can I have a hug?" he asked.
"Yep!" she said and threw her arms around Taylor.
"Thank you," he said.
"That's ok, Tay," she replied smiling. "You wanna go inside?"
"Yeah, ok," said Taylor. They both stood up and turned around and walked back into the house, hand in hand.
