I woke up the next afternoon, tangled up in my bed sheets, with my clothes from last night still on. I had stayed on the phone with Taylor almost all night. Until my mother came into my room at about five a.m., and commanded me to get off the phone. Stretching, I looked over at my clock. It was two in the afternoon. I loved weekends. I always stay up late and sleep late into the afternoons. Plus, I didn’t have to worry about school or all that junk.

Padding downstairs to the kitchen, I found a note on the refrigerator from Mom saying that she had gone to a meeting and had dropped Toby off at his friends house. There was a number at the bottom where she could be reached in an emergency. And it said I could do whatever I wanted to, and that I didn’t have to call her to tell her where I was going. She was going to be too busy. Wadding up the note in my fist, I opened the fridge and pulled out a jug of milk, popping it open. Then I drank from it, closed it, and put it back in the fridge. The phone rang.

“Hello?” I said, picking it up.

“Hey, Rayne. It’s Taylor,” a male voice responded.

“Hey, you,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Not much. I was wondering if you’d like to come over to the hotel and go swimming,” Taylor replied.

“Sure, I guess so,” I answered.

“Great. I’ll be over in about fifteen minutes,” Taylor replied.

“Alright. I’ll see you then,” I responded.

“Bye,” Taylor said. I hung up the phone and began hopping around the room. I was going to get to see Taylor again!

I ran upstairs to my room and opened my closet, riffling through it, looking for my bathing suit. Finally, I found it, towards the back of my closet. I undressed and pulled my one piece, blue bathing suit on. Then I put a pair of shorts and a T-shirt on over it. I threw a tube of sunscreen, my sunglasses, and a towel into a straw bag, along with a change of underwear. There was no way I was riding home in a wet bathing suit. Way too uncomforable. Then I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t look gorgeous, but it didn’t really matter, since we were just going to swim anyway. The doorbell rang, and I ran downstairs, after grabbing my house keys off of my dresser. Patting down my hair, I opened the door.

“Taylor! Hi!” I said, acting like I was surprised to see him. He was standing on the doorstep wearing pair of black shorts and an unbuttoned, Hawaiian patterned shirt that brought out the blue in his eyes. I stepped out the door, locking it first, then shutting it behind me.

“Hey, you,” he said, giving me a hug. “Ready to go?”

“Yep,” I replied. “I have everything I’m going to need.”

“Alright, then. Let’s go,” he said. We walked down the driveway to the car. A 1967 royal blue Camaro. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets, I was staring at the car so hard. Taylor must have noticed, because he placed his finger under my chin, closing my mouth. “It’s my brother’s. Or it is for the time being anyway. He’s going to sell it to me when I turn 18.”

“Wow . . . it’s nice. And 1967 Camaro’s are hard to find. Especially one in mint condition,” I said., still in awe.

“Well, actually, Isaac bought it for practically nothing. It looked horrible, and he did a really good job of fixing it up,” Taylor responded. “You know about cars?”

“Sort of. My grandfather collects vintage cars and fixes them up. I used to help him when I was little,” I said. “He’s got a huge collection. An original Jaguar Roadster, a 1969 Cadillac, lots more.”

“Sounds like he’s pretty cool. I’d love to meet him sometime,” Taylor said, smiling at me. I just nodded. Taylor opened the car door for me, and I got in, careful not to mess up the leather interior. Then Taylor got in, and we left.

About two hours later, I was lying on my stomach on a lawn chair, making a sorry attempt to get a tan, while Taylor had gone to go get a couple of Cokes for us. His family was gone for the day, Isaac and Zac at the mall, and the rest at some museum. So it was just me and Taylor. I was in hog heaven.

Taylor came back outside and sat down in the lawn chair beside me. I rolled over to face him. A strand of hair was hanging in his face, which he reached up and shoved behind his ear. He handed me a Coke, then popped his open. The sun had already begun to set in the east, and suddenly the pool lights came on. A mother was trying to herd her children together to go inside. A little blonde haired girl ran between Taylor and me, hiding behind my chair.

“Sunny, will you please come here? Right now, Sunny!” her mother yelled.

“No! I don’t wanna go inside! I wanna swim!” the little girl exclaimed.

“Sunny, we will come back tomorrow and swim again. Right now, it’s time to go inside. Now come here!” her mother yelled, becoming exasperated. The woman was holding a little blond haired boy in her arms, and he was asleep with his head on her shoulder. I turned to the little girl.

“Why don’t you go with your mommy? I think she has somewhere special for you to go,” I said to her.

“No, she doesn’t,” the little girl said defiantly.

“I bet she does. Are you here with your daddy?” I asked.

“Uh-huh,” she said, nodding her head fervently.

“And I bet you want to see him, huh?” I asked. She nodded again. “Then you need to go with your mommy. I bet your daddy is waiting in the hotel to see you and your brother right now.” The little girl came out from behind the chair and walked over to her mother.

“Alright, Mommy. But only if I get to go see Daddy,” the little girl said. Her mother smiled thankfully at me. They walked into the hotel, leaving Taylor and I by ourselves at the pool.

“Good job,” Taylor said. “You’re good with little kids.”

“Well, when your little brother is the devil incarnate, you get good at working with kids and bribing them,” I said. “But thanks anyway.” I stood up and walked over to the deep end of the pool, jumping in. I swam to the other end, then back to the deep end again. When I emerged, Taylor was sitting at the deep end of the pool. He slid off the edge, into the water, to where he was beside me. We were both treading water as best as we could.

“Do you have any idea how absolutely incredible you are?” Taylor whispered. With the pool lights on, his eyes glistened, as the water danced in the moonlight. “You absolutely amaze me. You’re like this huge jig-saw puzzle, that I’m attempting to put together, and all the pieces are mixed up and look alike. I can’t even begin to understand you.” His compliment took me aback, startling me. I wasn’t quite sure how to take it.

“I don’t know whether to say thank you, or to tell you that you’re wrong,” I replied. “I’m really not as complex as I seem, or atleast, I don’t think I am. I don’t even know what you see in me.” I backed away from him, as I suddenly became aware of his closeness. We were almost touching noses. I could feel his breath against my skin, warm and wet. It felt wonderful, but at the same time, it made me incredibly uncomfortable. This all seemed so surreal and unreal to me. The thought of someone this famous, someone that I admired so greatly, liking me over all the other girls that were fawning over him, was mind boggling. If anyone was complex, it was him. I didn’t understand how someone could make me feel this way, least of all, him. He had this huge capacity for affection, and he could make me feel comfortable, but at the same time, uneasy.

“You are beautiful, for starters. And you have a great sense of humor, and your wonderful with kids. You’re very humble, and very modest, as well as being semi-self conscious. You don’t treat me like I’m some alien, just because I’m famous. What’s not to like about you?” Taylor asked.

“I screamed in your face and passed out the first time I met you,” I answered. “And you call that not treating you like an alien?”

“I call that fate,” Taylor stated simply. “If it had been any ordinary girl who had fainted in front of me, sure, I would have made sure she was okay, but there was just something about you. When I saw you . . . and after you fainted, there was just something inside of me, telling me to make sure you were alright and to talk to you. You’re different, and I just had a feeling we would cross paths again.” He shrugged his shoulders, then he dipped under the water, swimming to the other side of the pool. I followed suit, and made it to the other end before he did. He emerged from the water, surprised by the fact that I had beaten him there. “You’re a really good swimmer. Any reason?”

“I work at the community pool as a life guard during the summer,” I replied. I dunked back under the water, then came up again, pushing my hair away from my face.

“You work as a life guard, even though you have asthma?” he said. “Wow . . . you’re certainly brave to do that.”

“It’s not that bad. I don’t have asthma attacks that often anymore. I’m on this new medicine that prevents them,” I said. “For the most part, I only get them when I get extremely excited or upset about something. Like meeting you.”

“Oh,” he said. He looked into the water, as if he were in deep thought about something, his lips pursed in silent contemplation. “Close your eyes.”

“Huh?” I looked at him strangely.

“Just close your eyes. I have a surprise for you,” he said. I closed my eyes, still trying to figure out what he wanted. I could hear him moving in the water a little bit, and I could vaguely smell his cologne. Suddenly, I felt his lips against mine. My eyes flew open, as I was a little shocked. At first I didn’t really kiss him back, until he put his arms around my waist, pulling me to him. I put my arms around his neck, running my fingers through his soft hair as we kissed. Finally, we stopped, and he stepped back, looking at me.

“Whoa . . . ,” I mumbled, looking down at my feet, which were magnified by the water. That was my first real kiss, which alone made it truly incredible, but coming from him, it was spectacular. “Wow . . . um . . . ” For once in my life, I was completely speechless. I looked up at him. He had the strangest look on his face, almost giddy. I leaned forward and kissed him again, this time, more passionately. I thought last night with him had been Heaven, but this couldn’t even begin to compare. I was falling for him, really and truly falling for him.