"So guess what," Mira sighed falling onto Taylor’s unmade bed.
"What?" he asked closing his bedroom door and sitting down in his desk chair.
"I go over to Brian’s last night to try to talk to him," she began.
"Mm hmm," he raised one eyebrow skeptically.
"And turns out, another girl answers his door wearing his dress shirt and that’s about it," she laughed before laying back on his bed.
"Oh no. So you were right?" Taylor asked.
"Well now I know I’m right so that mess is over with."
"Well hopefully you can put it all behind you now and move on."
"Exactly," she said.
"So you wanna know something unbelievable?" Taylor asked.
"Sure," Mira laughed.
"Um, I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this but... Natasha sold the bracelet I gave her to buy drugs."
"What?" Mira shot up with wide eyes. "You’re kidding."
"Nope," Taylor shook his head. "I had no idea she’s been doing drugs ever since like, her senior year in high school."
"Oh my God. That’s terrible," Mira said. "How’d you find out?"
"Well I went over yesterday to leave some flowers in her room and her roommate let me in. I found all this shit laying on her desk and I freaked out."
"Wow. I can’t believe that. Who would’ve thought? So what happened?"
"I talked to her and she told me about it and said if I can’t handle it then I should leave so I broke up with her."
"I’m really sorry. That sucks, man."
"I know," Taylor sighed. After a few seconds of silence their eyes met and they both started laughing at their own misfortunes. "Oh God, Mira," Taylor groaned coming over to the bed. "What are we gonna do with ourselves?" he asked crawling next to her.
"I don’t know," she laughed turning her head to face him.
"We deserve better," he said.
Taylor’s 19th birthday came and went along with a celebration in Preston’s apartment. Things between Preston and Mira returned to normal after Mira explained that it’d be best if they just stayed friends. During the week before midterms, Mira and Taylor hung out in Mira’s room studying.
"You know what?" Taylor asked tapping his pen against the side of his neck.
"What?" Mira asked looking up from her book.
"We should go somewhere cool for Spring Break."
"We should," Mira agreed. "Where do you suggest?"
"Somewhere warm. It can be like a group thing. Like, you, me, Pres, Allison, maybe Kathryn. You know."
"Yeah. I’m all for that. What about Hawaii?" Mira suggested.
Taylor laughed. "Yeah right. It’d be cool if we could go to your parents beach house in the Hamptons, but it’s too cold."
"Yeah. What about my sister’s beach house down in North Carolina?" Mira offered.
"Yeah," Taylor smiled. "You think she’d mind?"
"Nah. Her and her husband won’t be out there."
"Cool. We’ll see what everyone else thinks," Taylor said returning to his physics notes.
"Trina said we could use the beach house," Mira told Taylor over the phone.
"Sweet. I talked to Preston and he’s all for it," he said.
"Awesome. Now just get me through two more midterms and I’ll be able to relax," Mira told him.
"Let’s not study tonight," Taylor suggested sitting down at his computer.
"We have to."
"It’s Saturday night. We studied last night too. Come on," he whined.
"Well what do you wanna do?" She asked.
"Sit around. As long as I’m not looking at a book, I’ll be fine."
"We could get sloppy drunk and pass out," she suggested.
"That’s possible. Where’s Allison?" He asked referring to Mira’s roommate.
"She’s staying over at Cameron’s," she told him.
"Cool. I’m coming over," he said before hanging up the phone.
*************************************
"What do you think of Kathryn?" Mira asked sitting on her floor in front of the couch while Taylor gave her a back rub.
"No," he replied.
"Taylor," she laughed.
"I know what you’re gonna say. I don’t wanna hear it," he told her still focused on the television.
"She likes you."
"I don’t care. I’m through with women," he declared as the timer sounded signifying 10 minutes were up. "My turn," he said sliding off the couch onto the floor resetting the timer.
Mira laughed at him while she sat up on the couch behind him. "Through with women at 19? Something’s wrong with you," she said as she began to massage his shoulders.
"Women are the stupidest creatures and I don’t even care anymore," he said.
"Excuse me?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Well except for you," he explained turning around looking up at her. "You don’t count."
"So I’m not a woman?" She asked resting her arms along the back of the couch.
He averted his eyes to the side. "You’re different."
"How is that?" She asked with an amused smile.
"Okay, I take it back," he told her. "I mean girls, that like, I would date, like.."
"Oh I see," she said replacing her hands on his back. "As opposed to me. Because we never dated."
"Well I’m talking about now. You weren’t a hassle when we dated," he said.
"Aww, how sweet. I tried."
"Like now, the whole meeting girls and dating and getting rejected thing sucks," he explained.
"God forbid Taylor Hanson get rejected," she said moving her hands lower on his back.
"Seriously," he smiled.
