After Lacey found the stars on her ceiling she couldn't think of absolutely anything but Taylor. She wanted to call him, to hear his voice, but decided against it. If she did she knew she might make a fool of herself....who knew, maybe Taylor was just trying to be nice and make it up to her for not calling or writing over the year and a half that the Hansons were away on promotional tours.
That night Lacey finished her homework, ate dinner, watched Dawson's Creek, and finally at 11:00 she turned her CD on low to Natalie Imbruglia, crawled in bed, and started humming softly to "Torn". She couldn't close her eyes, all she wanted to do was stare at the stars on her ceiling. Lacey started listening carefully to the words of the song and almost started to cry because she didn't want her and Taylor's relationship to end up like that song...
"...there's nothing where he used to lie, my conversation has run dry, that's what's going on, nothing's fine, I'm torn..." she sang softly. It finally depressed her too much and she got up and took the CD out and replaced it with MON. Hours went by and she still couldn't fall asleep, she felt like she had drank 10 glasses of pure sugar and caffeine that day :oÞ
After what seemed to be a lifetime, Lacey turned over and looked at her alarm clock- it said 2:30.
'Ohhhh my god, i don't believe this...' she thought to herself. 'I'm going to have to live on 4 hours of sleep tomorrow...at this rate it'll be much less than 4....'
The next time she turned over the clock said 3:30...she couldn't take it anymore, she decided either she called Taylor or she died from exhaustion. She let out a quiet laugh to herself...
'I know what I need to do,' she thought, 'I just can't take it anymore...'
Without even giving it another thought, she swung her feet over the side of her bed and made her way through the dark over to her desk. Holding the phone up to the moonlight in her window, she dialed Taylor's number in his room and prayed that it wouldn't wake up the rest of the family.
"Come on....Tay, pick up the phoooone..." she whispered to herself, looking out her window and all the way over at his house. Finally she heard the other line pick up.
"H-Hello?" Taylor whispered in a very groggy voice.
"Taylor!" Lacey said a little too loud, caught up in her excitement of hearing his voice.
"Lacey? What's up, it's...3:30?!" he said, sounding like he'd been in hibernation for an entire winter. But Lacey could hear the pleased tone in his voice when he realized it was her...
"I know...I'm sorry, but I really need to talk to you..." she drifted off.
"Um, ok sure, where?" Taylor asked. Most guys would have said 'Oh yeah right, at this time in the morning?' or simply asked 'Why???' but Tay wasn't like that. He was a great friend that way...he never asked too many questions, he just did whatever he needed to for his friends.
Lacey thought for a second. "Hm...I don't know..."
"Well how about I meet you in front of your house in a bout 5 minutes? We can take a walk to the lake...remember our lake?" he asked.
"Of course I remember. Ok, and bring a flashlight."
"Ok, see you in 5 minutes Lace."
Lacey hung up the phone and slumped down on the back of her desk chair. She couldn't believe she was actually going to tell him what was up...and at 3:30 am, at the lake, of all times and places! She let out a big sigh then got up and quietly changed into warmer clothes, went into the bathroom and rinsed her face and hands, then quietly tip-toed down the stairs and out the front door. Taylor was waiting for her by the mailbox, and when he saw her he smiled and turned his flashlight towards her.
"Yo, Tay, stop shining that thing in my eye!" Lacey laughed. She reached Taylor and they started walking together down the street. They didn't really say much to eachother except little things like "Whoa, it's freezing."
When they finally reached their lake, Taylor put down the blanket he brought- the snow had cleared up and the ground was almost totally dry, but it was still freezing.
He looked out into the darkness at the moon shining on the lake. "Wow...we had some really awesome memories here..." he said quietly.
Lacey smiled. "Yeah, I can't wait for the summer, we can hang here all the time again..."
Taylor got a serious look on his face and turned to Lacey. "So what's up? What did you need to talk about?"
Lacey let out her breath and looked up at the sky. "Taylor I want to know what's going to happen with us...to tell you the truth you're all I've thought about since you've gotten home, I can't sleep, I can't eat...those flowers, and the stars on my ceiling...what did you mean by them? I need to know because I need to know where I stand. This is absolutely killing me inside because I've totally fallen for you but you're my best friend in the entire world and I'm just so confused and-"
"-Shhh..." Taylor quieted her. Without saying anything else he leaned over and gave her the softest kiss on her lips. It spoke for itself, Taylor didn't even have to tell Lacey what he was was feeling.
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Chapter 6 (not done yet)
