“Come on, you’ll be home soon,” Taylor lifted his glasses to his forehead and looked down at Keryn, sprawled on the dock.
“Where are the others?” Keryn inquired.
Taylor let his sunglasses slide back down his nose as he eyed the mass of people. He pointed into the distance. “There they are.”
Keryn followed his gaze and let out a yawn. “Tay, I want to go home.”
Taylor sat down on the ground, next to Keryn. “Yeah, I think it will be nice to sleep on a bed that’s not influenced by water.”
Keryn laughed, “Yeah, you got it.” They looked up at the people racing around them. They were probably sitting in the way of everyone, but they didn’t seem to care at the moment. They just needed some rest.
Kayla emerged from the crowd. “Why the heck are you people sitting down?” Kayla asked, “We would’ve left without you,” she said.
“Oh, sure you would’ve,” Keryn smiled. “Where were you?”
“We forgot most of our luggage, so we had to make our way back through everyone and into the room.”
Keryn nodded, she didn’t understand how someone could forget luggage. But that was Ike and Kayla.
“Can we get going now?” Keryn asked Ike, as she squinted at the sun.
“Everyone ready?” He adjusted the bag strapped to his back.
“Sure. . .” Taylor started, pulling himself from the ground. “I think I need sleep.”
“So does everyone,” Kayla groaned. “It’s going to be a real lazy afternoon.”
“No arguments from me,” Keryn stated, still sitting on her suitcase.
“Nor me,” Ike announced.
“Carry my bags for me, Tay?” Keryn asked.
“Not on your life,” Taylor laughed. “You have arms and legs just like me.”
Keryn jumped up from the suitcase. “You’re so harsh,” she laughed. “I would do it for you.”
Taylor pondered the thought for a moment. “No, Keryn, you wouldn’t.”
“You wouldn’t know,” Keryn laughed and looked the other way. The water was crashing up against the side of the ship. She couldn’t believe that she had been living out in the ocean for the past week. It was amazing. But, despite the beauty of it all, it would be great to get home again.
“Yes I would,” Taylor called, his voice seemed distant.
Keryn looked down to her feet to see a large suitcase and backpack in front of her. “Oh, you.” She called out to the carefree Taylor, walking behind Ike and Kayla. Keryn sighed and looked down at the bags. She was going to crash straight into bed when she got home.
“It’s nice,” Taylor unlocked the front door of Keryn and Kayla’s place. He had an easy time all the way home. He had nothing to carry but a set of keys and a wallet in his pocket. He looked over at Keryn, who was struggling up the front path with two backpacks on her back and a suitcase pulling at each arm.
“I could hate you for this, Jordan Hanson,” Keryn cried.
“You offered Keryn,” Taylor chuckled. He shook his head and let Ike and Kayla through the front door. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Let me take the bags.”
Keryn laughed and gave him the heavy suitcases. “Next time, you are carrying my stuff.”
“No, I think you’ve learned your lesson.” Taylor laughed. “And. . .”
She stopped him. “Yes, I know. I have arms and legs.”
Ike yawned and looked blankly at the television. “Why do we have to watch this?” He looked over at Taylor and Kayla, who were engrossed in a program.
“Because it’s interesting,” Kayla murmured, keeping her eyes glued to the screen.
“I’m bored,” he insisted.
“Go to sleep,” Taylor looked at his brother, frustrated.
“I just slept for six hours,” Ike threw his head back onto the lounge. “If I go back to sleep I might just never get to sleep again in my entire life.”
“Well then,” Taylor looked back at the screen. “Shut up.”
Ike sighed and tried to interest himself in the movie. Grease. It wasn’t the fact that he’d seen it sixty times that annoyed him. It was because he wanted to spend the last of his hours with Kayla productively.
“Kayla honey, get me a drink,” Ike asked, loudly. A smirk appeared on his face as he asked the question. He knew that it would more than annoy Kayla.
Nothing.
“Taylor, your hair looks really nice today.”
Nothing.
“Kayla, do you think that I should go for a swim in the kitchen sink?”
Still nothing.
The dark living room beamed back into life as the commercials set in. “What Ike?” Kayla asked.
“Huh?” Taylor looked as his brother with a confused look on his face.
“Never mind. . .” Ike groaned, flicking pieces of fluff of the couch.
Kayla leaped up from her position and started to walk towards the kitchen. “Anyone want a drink?”
“Sure,” Taylor called.
“No thanks,” Ike yawned, lying across the position Kayla had just jumped from.
Kayla rummaged through the cupboards in the kitchen. The place had become slightly dusty over the past week. Cleaning starts tomorrow. She found a glass for Taylor and herself and started to pour orange juice. The cab driver had dropped them off at the store before they arrived home so that they could pick up some groceries that would last them through the night.
Kayla sighed and looked out the window.
“Go figure!” Taylor’s voice echoed through all of the rooms. “Keryn owns Tae Bo tapes!”
“It looked fun on Oprah!” Keryn’s voice called from her bedroom a few seconds later. Kayla smiled.
Keryn was back to her routine. Her days for the next few weeks would be made up of sleep slash study.
It was almost dark, but something outside the window caught Kayla’s attention. She looked down and realised she was pouring the juice directly into the sink.
“Damn,” she croaked. Allowing her eyes to scan the view outside the window once again. This was the last thing anyone needed at the moment.
She placed the juice back onto the counter again and slid out the kitchen door, trying to be quiet as she padded down the hallway.
Before the sound of the knock circled though the house, she found the doorknob and pulled the door towards her.
“Did you have fun?” The person on the other side simply asked.
“Justin. What are you doing here?”
“How long does it take Kayla to pour a drink?” Taylor popped his head around Keryn’s door. “I mean, I only lied to her so that she would leave the room and I could freely get up and find you.” Kayla had insisted that Keryn have one hour study time before she could socialise with the others again.
“Oh, you’re just too sneaky,” Keryn laughed, getting up from the bed. “I only left you guys ten minutes ago.”
“That’s just too long in my books,” Taylor pulled her in, kissing her lightly, before pulling back and scanning the room. “So, this is it?”
Keryn took her place with the books again and looked up at the walls and furniture she called home.
“Yep, this is it.”
Taylor walked over to her cupboard and started pulling at the small collection of books stashed on the dresser. “Baby-sitters club?” Taylor laughed as he started to read the back cover.
“That thing is seriously old. Do I still have them up there?”
Taylor scanned the collection again. “You have Sea City, here we come! and some Mary-Anne story.”
Keryn giggled. “Those books are so funny. Those two were my favourites,” Keryn sighed. “Oh, the young teenage years.”
Taylor laughed as he started to go through the shoe box on top of the dresser. “Letters, hey?” Taylor inquired, sitting on the floor with the box still in his hands.
“Yeah, every single one.” Keryn thought about all the letters she received from Taylor when she moved away. She wrote back to every single one. Probably even more. Any random thought she had it would go into a letter and posted to Tulsa within the hour.
Taylor held a letter up to Keryn, pointing at the date. “One year ago today. Remember Anny?” Taylor inquired. Keryn remembered Anny as a girlfriend Taylor talked about for seven letters.
“Whatever happened to Anny?” Keryn asked.
“Who knows,” Taylor smirked. “I kind of made her up.”
Keryn went wide eyed. “Taylor! That wasn’t very nice.”
“Well, I didn’t know what I was thinking at the time. . . I just kind of wrote it.”
“Well, that’s fine. . . I mean. . .” Keryn was cut off by Kayla, frantically knocking at the door.
Keryn crinkled her eyebrows and looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Keryn, there’s someone here to see you.”
“Who?” Keryn asked, looking at Taylor. He was concentrating on the box of letters. “Justin. . .” Kayla mouthed and pointed towards the living room.
“No,” Keryn gasped.
“I’ll be back Tay.” Keryn jumped up and started toward the living room. This was a disaster, waiting to happen.
Ike looked up at the tall figure in the doorway. He looked familiar, even though Ike had never seen him before. Perhaps he felt familiar. There was a presence in the room. Ike knew full well, by the way Kayla disappeared, that this person standing in the room had to be Justin.
Ike glanced at him. There were still no words spoken. His strong features and powerful being stood out.
Ike closed his eyes in realisation of what could happen next. Taylor was here. From what Ike had heard, this Justin fellow was not the number one person in his brothers book. He sighed and let his head fall back onto the couch.
“I suppose I should introduce myself,” Justin spoke.
Ike uneasily turned around and forced a smile. “Hey,” he muttered, trying to be assertive.
“I’m Justin, it’s nice to meet you.” Justin reached out and shook Ike’s hand.
“I’m Isaac.”
Justin nodded, also feeling uncomfortable about the situation. He felt as if he needed to come over. He thought that if he apologised to Keryn again, after a little time, she will have gotten over it. Perhaps she would give him a second chance.
He stepped back to his position in the doorway. It was going to be hard to achieve anything with these guys here. It would be like four against one. He ran his hand through his hair. If he could just speak to Keryn alone, maybe she would realise how he felt about her.
“Hmmm?” Justin was broken out of his trance by her voice.
He stood up straight and started to walk over to Keryn, who was standing at the other side of the room. Closely behind her was Kayla. “Well, what do you want?” Keryn demanded.
“I wanted to know how the trip was,” Justin mumbled. He felt like a small child. He was almost scared of what she could do to him with her words.
Keryn nodded and dropped her hands from her hips. “It was great,” she forced a smile. “Nothing better.”
“Well,” Justin started. “That’s good to hear.”
Keryn stared up at him. He had deeper reasons for being here. He must’ve. Justin wasn’t one to take random drives across town when there was a phone sitting there. Keryn couldn’t take him at the moment. Her life was finally back on track.
“Thanks Justin,” Keryn started to turn around. “I have a lot of study to get done. Call by some time.” She closed her eyes tightly as she rounded the corner. She blew him off. Just like that.
Just looking dissolved all of the feelings she held for him. In time, he could become a good friend to her again. But that would have to wait. It would have to wait until she truly knew that he was sorry for what he did. No matter how serious it was, he had no right, and it scared her.
She felt Ike’s eyes from the couch. Then she thought about Taylor. She hoped that he hadn’t heard what was going on in the living room.
Keryn clutched her stomach at the thought and ran back to the room.
“Taylor?” He was now stretched out on the floor, with the box of letters next to him.
“Yeah?”
“Want to help me study or something?” Keryn asked. She needed something to distract him.
“Come on, you don’t need my help. You don’t even need to study,” he pulled himself up from the floor and sat on her bed. “I’ll help you study something else,” he grinned, suggestively.
“Taylor!” Keryn squealed. “I don’t have time for this,” she opened her book and tried to concentrate.
Taylor crinkled up his eyebrows. “You don’t care about me, do you?” He pouted. Keryn read through the same paragraph six times in her book, trying to ignore Taylor. “See, I think I might just go out and try and chat up Kayla. She cares,” he tried her again. This time it got her attention. The last thing he needed to do was go out to the living room.
“You’re staying here. . . I need to spend some non-friend time with you before you jet off across the country.”
“Oh, life’s a bitch,” Taylor laughed. “Dang.” He closed her book and took her hands, pulling them towards him and gently kissing her forehead.
Kayla stood in the living room, rocking on her feet. “Justin,” she looked up at him. “What on earth did you truly expect her to do?”
“Show a little affection,” Justin rolled his eyes. “We were together.”
“Hence. . . were,” Kayla tried to get through to him.
He tried to push past Kayla again. He wanted to get down the hall, to her room, and reason with her. “C’mon.”
“No, Justin” Kayla forced him away.
Ike emerged from his position on the couch. He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t just keep out of the entire situation. “Leave her alone,” he said, remaining calm.
“Don’t tell me what to do. . . Keryn’s my girlfriend,” Justin bit back.
“No, Justin, she’s not your girlfriend,” Ike was getting angry.
“We’ll just see about that,” he, again, pushed the struggling Kayla back up against the wall. She kept her defence alive. There was no way that he was going to get down to that room. For everyone’s sake.
“Look,” Kayla tried to calm him down. “Why don’t you just sit on the couch and wait till she’s ready to come out and talk to you?”
Justin thought for a moment. “What difference will that make?!”
Kayla sighed and looked down towards Keryn’s room. This was going to be hard.
Margo nervously picked at the grass on the front lawn, allowing the wind to sweep it down the street. It was a cold day in Tulsa. Zac was ignoring her and Taylor still wasn’t home.
She shuffled back down into the grass as an uncomfortable feeling sprung to life in her stomach. “Why me?” she whispered, clutching the grief, worry and pain that she was feeling inside.
She flinched as the queasy feeling disappeared. She didn’t understand why she suffered morning sickness well after lunch time. But that was what happened to her. She always felt fine in the mornings. . . then after lunch, it hit her.
Margo sighed when she saw a figure walking down the street, towards her.
“Zac, I’m not in the mood,” she groaned. “I am just not in the mood.”
She truly wasn’t. Any other day she would’ve been all over Zac. . . any other day she wouldn’t be pregnant with someone’s baby. Someone that didn’t appear to care. Someone that didn’t care at all about her. Just someone.
Margo lifted herself from the ground. She hated to let her mind register and realise what it would be like when she actually started showing. Everything would be heavier. People would notice. People would hate her even more. She felt like she would be even more of a burden than she already is.
“Margo,” Zac started. “I’m not here to annoy you.” He moved closer to her. “I was talking to mom, and, well,” Zac hesitated. “You’ve been calling our house an awful lot you know. Is there anything wrong?”
“Zac, you wouldn’t understand,” Margo threw her arms into the air. “It’s just me. You don’t care anyway.”
“Marg, I just wanted to know what was wrong.”
“Zac, it’s got nothing to do with you. . . Go find yourself another one to use.” Her attention caught a plane that was passing above. She wished she could escape. “Zac. Just go.”
Zac stared at Margo in complete frustration and anger. Tears started to roll from her eyes. He felt like reaching out to her. Despite all, he had known her a long time. And, whatever it was, she probably needed someone.
He didn’t understand her and he never would.
Zac turned around and kicked stones along the path until he was back at his house.
Kayla was suprised by the high pitched ringing sound that flooded in from the hallway. “Ike, make sure he doesn’t move,” Kayla asked, scowling at Justin as she left her severely squashed position on the hallway wall.
“Hello?” She asked into the phone.
“Is Tay there?”
“Oh, hey Zac,” Kayla smiled. “Is it urgent?”
Zac thought for a moment. “Well, kinda.”
Kayla nodded at the phone. “Well, I’ll just see if I can get him.”
Kayla slipped down the hallway, slightly further and into Keryn’s room. Taylor was sprawled out on the bed, reading a magazine as Keryn sat on the floor studying.
Taylor looked up.
“Phone Taylor. . .” Kayla tried in her most natural Justin’s-not-out-there voice.
Taylor crinkled his forehead. “Who’s ringing me?”
“It’s Zac.”
Taylor put the magazine down and pulled himself from the bed. He didn’t understand why Zac would be ringing him. They had only talked to each other that previous night. Taylor reached the end of the corridor and took the phone from where Kayla had placed it.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hey Tay.” Zac said in a casual voice.
“Hey Zac, what’s up?”
“Have you spoken to Margo about anything in particular yet?” Zac questioned. He figured that this could be the reason Margo was acting so strange when they had their little encounter.
“No,” Taylor said flatly. “What we had wasn’t all that serious.”
“Tay, don’t be harsh. I know I hate the girl and all, but give her a break. . .”
“Zac. . .” Taylor interrupted.
“No, let me finish,” Zac waited and then continued. “She is acting really weird Tay. And when I say weird, I mean no flirting, no talking in her suggestive tones. Nothing.”
“It’s probably nothing Zac. That time of the month. I just don’t know Zac.”
“Ike?!” Kayla asked when she was back in the room.
“What?” Was all Ike could say in an angered tone as he paced back and forth.
Kayla looked at the living room. Justin was nowhere to be seen. Not even any clues were left as to where he might be now. “Where is he?” Kayla said slowly.
“Don’t even ask Kayla. Just don’t bother asking.”
Keryn flicked through the pages of her math’s book, wondering what was going on out the door. She wished that she could just spend a carefree evening with Taylor. Relaxing on his last night. But no. That would be impossible now. Something was going to happen. . . nothing was ever perfect when it involved her life.
“Hey again.” Keryn looked up and sighed. It was Justin. She wanted to dismiss anything that she’d ever had with him and at the moment. She really didn’t want to even be in the same room as him.
“Um. . . Hello” was all Keryn could invent.
“Sorry” Justin hung his head low and whimpered.
“I forgive you. But I am going to have to learn to forget you” Keryn thought for a moment. “There’s probably something you should know,” she hesitated. “I mean, it’s got nothing to do with you. But you have every right to know.”
“What?” Justin removed his eyes from the carpet and looked towards her.
“I’m seeing Taylor.”
Justin’s eyes went wide and he just stared at her for a few moments. “I thought you two were just friends?” He demanded.
“So did I,” Keryn sighed and flicked her math’s book closed. “I was more than wrong.”
Justin was almost speechless. He ran his hand through his tanned coloured hair and let out a gasp of disbelief. “I have nothing to say about this information right now. But you should be so glad that Taylor isn’t here.”
Keryn clutched her stomach as it lurched in pain. She felt for Taylor. She had to keep them apart. She didn’t understand what it was that Justin felt about her, and why it was so powerful. She didn’t understand why Taylor had to be brought into it. Taylor was for her now. Taylor had always been for her. The way he sends butterflies racing through her system every time he walks into a room and the way he is. Taylor just is. Keryn leaped off the bed and ran out of the door. Leaving Justin to dwell on whatever it was he had to dwell on this week.
She found Taylor at the phone. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “Never leave me,” she whispered as Justin rounded the corner.
Taylor terminated his phone call with Zac and returned her hug.
“You make me sick,” Taylor heard someone spit from behind him.
Keryn loosened the embrace and looked at the scary, strong looking figure that stood before her.