“So...you live on the North side...how’s that goin for ya?” I murmured to Taylor, trying a stir up a decent conversation again. I just knew that we had about 15 minutes left of the ride. The North side of Haskell lake is known to be huge.
“Uh. Okay, I guess,” Taylor responded, with a hint of amusement in his voice, “how’s the South side goin for ya?”
I didn’t have the nerve to glare at him. I mean, he was completely making me self-conscience with all of his staring, and I swore if I looked at him my coloring would suddenly turn lobster.
“Are you mocking me again?” I simply asked him, my eyes on the road.
“Why do you think the whole world is mocking you?”
“I don’t...I just think youare.” I shot back.
“Am I that bad of a guy, Alexandria?”
I grinned. “You don’t have to call me Alexandria, ya know...it sounds too long, and it feels like I’m being scolded.”
“Nice way to avoid the question, Alex,” he said. I could just feel him smiling.
“What question?” I asked him, playing dumb.
“You’re a piece of work.”
“I hate that phrase.”
“And why is that?”
I shrugged. “Why so many questions, Mr. Hanson?”
He shrugged back. “You just bring it out of me, I guess.”
“Bring what out of you?” This time I actually sneaked a peek at him.
He laughed. “I don’t know. But I’ve seen my older brother act like this many times, and it always made me want to throw up...”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “You’re making no sense.”
“Yes I am.”
“Not to me, you aren’t.”
“Well to me, I am.”
I shook my head. This was getting a little confusing. “Well, sorry dude, when you’re talking to someone, usually you try to get them to understand, not you. So please. Share the knowlege.”
“I can’t.”
“That’s not fair, come on...” I urged him. I hate it when people keep stuff from me.
Taylor sighed from the seat next to me. “You’ll throw me out of the car, no way.”
“You suck, ya know that?”
“I suck? Just because I won’t tell you...well, Alex, you don’t want to know, you’ll probably ruin your car.”
“Nothing you can say will make me ruin my car, now out with it Taylor!”
“Rrrrr...geez, settle down. I’m telling you, you don’t want to know.”
“Yes I do.”
“Nope.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“YES!”
“You’re sure?”
“YES!!”
“Fine then. I want to kiss you. Happy now?” Taylor murmured, shifting in his seat.
I couldn’t believe my ears. I actually thought he was going to make fun of me in some way, but he says he wants to kiss me? What kind of blunt pyscho is he?
“That’s crazy, please shut up.”
Taylor laughed. “Okay, let me get this straight. For about a minute you tried to get me to tell you what I was thinking, and now you want me to shut up?”
“Well...I hate liars.”
“So that’s what it is...you think I’m lying, am I correct?” he asked me, shifting around in his seat so he could stare directly at me.
“Y-yes...” I couldn’t believe we were having this conversation.
“What if I showed you, I wasn’t?”
“Did I mention that I know Taikwondo...and did I also mention that I don’t kiss strange guys in a moving vehicle?”
Taylor smiled. “That’s not what I meant. That would only apply if I were one of my ‘jock friends’ as you so lovingly called them. Are we straight on the fact that I’m not?”
I looked over at him. His eyes seemed to mystify me, and I found myself nodding. This is crazy...
“Turn left,” he said softly, still staring at me.
I jumped out of my stupor, and looked ahead at the road. The street sign “Lakeview” seemed to peer out at me. Turning on my blinker, I pulled into the next street. Taylor instructed me to go halfway down the street and look for the two story red-brick house. Doing so, I stopped my car and put it in park.
I watched Taylor as his hands found his bookbag, and slowly found the door handle. Before turning the knob, he looked back at me.
“Thanks for the ride...see you tomorrow?” he said.
I swallowed. “Yeah, sure.”
“K...c-ya.” And with that, he opened the car door and started up his front walk. Before he had even gotten to his front stoop, I was at the end of his street.
Two minutes later at a red light about 5 blocks away, I placed my head in my hands and laid on the steering wheel. “I do not understand that boy...” I thought to myself.
*************************************************************************
“Hey, Tay, someone called for you like twice man…” Isaac said to his younger brother who had come into their room and thrown himself on his bed.
“Who was it?” Taylor’s muffled voice replied. His arm was thrown over his face as he rested from the school day.
“Somebody named Josh…” Isaac replied, crumpling up the piece of paper that he had written the name down on. “He said he would call back.”
With the name “Josh” springing to his ears, Taylor immediately sat up in his bed and looked at his brother.
“So he didn’t say anything?”
Isaac peered at his brother. “No…just that he would call back. Something wrong?”
Taylor shook his head. “No, nothing.”
Isaac was still looking him over. “This guy a friend?”
“Why so many questions, man?”
Isaac shrugged. “No reason…it’s just that you never get phone calls from friends. Only from girls. Must be something important.”
Taylor heaved a sigh. Leave it to his brother to immediately know something was up. “Listen Ike, just stay –“
The telephone ringing beside his bed cut his sentence short. Clearing his throat, he answered it.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, this Taylor?”
“Yeah…Josh?”
“Yup. So how’d it go man?”
Taylor eyed his brother sitting on the opposite side of the room. He cleared his throat again.
“How’d what go?”
“Dude, don’t play dumb. Did you do it yet?”
Taylor rolled his eyes. “No, idiot, I can’t do it that quick, alright? It was just one car ride. Believe me though, it’ll happen soon.”
“It better man, I have a lot going on this.”
Taylor swallowed. “Really.”
“Yeah…so don’t be chicken and back out, you hear? Cause these guys can make your life a living hell this year man. I sure wouldn’t want to be you if that happened.”
Taylor felt eyes on him. Looking up he caught his brother staring at him. He gritted his teeth and turned himself around on the bed.
“Listen man, when do you think I have to do this by?” Taylor asked his new friend.
“Probably by the end of the month, dude…if it takes too long, they might think you’re backing out or something,” Josh told him.
Taylor sighed. “I’m not backing out, alright? I always come through.”
Josh laughed. “Dude, if you actually do this, it’s going to be the talk of the entire school. Alexandria, ‘Ice Queen’ herself being tricked by new guy….I can see the headlines of the Gazette now.”
Taylor bit his lip. “What? You mean this is going to get out?”
“Uh, yeah! That’s the whole point. Ryan really wants to nail her…something about an old English assignment. Lucky for you that you think she’s hot. Let me give you some advice, don’t tell them that you think a girl is hot in the future…”
“Well, she is hot…but I didn’t think it would go this far…” Taylor admitted, running a hand through his hair. Why was he so worried? He’s done this plenty of times before. Because she’s getting to you, that’s why…
“Hey, listen, my girl’s here…drop me a line when you actually do it, alright?” Josh said.
“Sure…c-ya,” Taylor ended and dropped the phone back down on the hook. He proceeded to again lay down on his bed, but as soon as he turned around he came face to face with Isaac.
“What was that all about?” Isaac asked, looking serious. Something about the phone conversation seemed all too familiar.
Taylor glared at him. “Nothing that should concern you big brother…” he responded. “Wanna bet? I’m about two seconds from throwing you down the stairs and breaking your legs in 17 different places…now out with it.”
Taylor stood up and looked Isaac in the eye. “Ike, this does not concern you, okay? Just stay out of it…”
“Is it about that girl who dropped you home? Taylor, I swear, if you begin all this crap again…” Isaac began.
“Would you just shut up? You know nothing about it.”
Isaac crossed his arms. “Oh really…well, here’s a nice scenario for ya….you take a poor innocent girl that you want absolutely nothing to do with and make her fall for you just for the hell of it. Am I on target?”
Taylor said absolutely nothing, but couldn’t even look him in the eye.
“I can’t believe it man, I thought you left all that stuff in Tulsa…you can’t control girls anymore man…not even for a freaking bet, you understand me?” Isaac practically screamed at his brother.
“Ike, shut up! I’m not making her fall for me, I just have to kiss her, got it? It’s not the end of the world. At the pace I’m going right now, it’ll all be over in a week.”
Isaac just stared at him. “Why?”
Taylor shrugged. “I told some guys that I thought she was hot and like an hour later, they came up with this plan…”
“And you had to partake in it?!”
“No! I didn’t have to…but these guys made me belong, okay? It’s not like you know what this whole move is doing to me…you’re done with high school, man.”
“Okay…so just because you’re home sick gives you the right to hurt another human being? We’ve been over and over this Tay…you’ve been grounded for weeks over stuff like this, and you want to do it again?”
“I don’t care, alright?! Just leave me alone…I’m a big boy Isaac, when are you going to stop acting like dad here?”
“When you start to grow up! How do you think you are ever –“
A knock sounding at the bedroom door interrupted Isaac and caused them both to glance over.
“What?” Taylor shouted.
“Uh, it’s Alex, Taylor…you left your wallet in the car, and I figured you would want it, so your mom left me in, and –“
The opening of the bedroom door cut off her voice. Taylor had jumped over his bed and caught the handle before Alex could finish her sentence. She was now standing outside the door with a black wallet in her hands. Her face was red and she seemed embarrassed.
“Sorry to bother you,” she muttered, thrusting the wallet into his hands, “I just figured that since it had your license in it and everything you would want it before tomorrow so…”
“Uh, thanks! You didn’t have to do that…” Taylor started, looking down at his wallet. Had she heard Isaac and him fighting?
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and shifted. “It’s okay, I was only a few blocks away…”
“Oh, okay…” Taylor said, “ well, thanks.”
“Uh, welcome. C-ya tomorrow at school, k?” Alex ended, turning around and hurrying toward the steps.
“Hey, wait, I’ll walk you out…” Taylor called to her, and watched her stop at the top of the stairs. He turned around to shut the bedroom door and caught the eye of his brother. A very angry looking brother. Breaking the contact he shut the door and caught up with Alex.
Walking down the stairs and into the front hall in silence, Taylor watched her face. It seemed a little drawn, but still beautiful. He still had no idea why the guys wanted to do this to her. If it were him, he wouldn’t even think about it.
Finally reaching the door, Alex turned around and smiled forcefully. “C-ya,” she murmured, and grasped the knob with her hand.
“Bye,” Taylor responded, and propped the door wider so she could walk through. He watched her walk down the long steps to her car, and closed the door behind her. He then stepped over to the right and smoothed the curtains out of the front window so he could look at her leave. He soon realized that his heart was pumping fast…and that it wasn’t because he was worried about what she heard.
“It’s different with this one, isn’t it, Taylor?” a voice sounded behind him.
Taylor twirled around and saw Isaac standing at the end of the stairwell. His face almost looked amused.
“Why do you say that?” Taylor asked him, putting the curtains back into place.
“Cause you like her…and you know that she doesn’t take any bull…and you like her even more because of it.”
Taylor swallowed. “You’re crazy,” he retorted, and proceeded to walk into the kitchen to the left.
Isaac clucked his tongue and watched his brother walk from the front hall. “Finally…he’s going to learn his lesson,” Isaac said to himself grinning, and hopped back up the stairs.
