Chapter Seventeen

"I'll have a strawberry ice cream sundae with extra fuge." Taylor was ordering his ice cream at the Raskin Robin's. I shivered. One thing I could never figure out is why ice cream parlors always have air conditioning. I mean, people already get cold enough with the ice cream!

"Okay, and you miss?" said the person at the counter. I snapped to attention.

"Um, I'll have a chocolate fudge sundae with lots of chocolate chips and extra fudge! Add a few sprinkles while you're at it." Geeze, I eat like a pig.

We grabbed our sundaes and rushed to a booth. I took a huge bite and shivered. Taylor was crazy for wanting to have ice cream when the temperature outside was already below freezing. We were the only other people in there anyway.

Of course, silly old me had to forget my jacket! I'm so stupid sometimes, not that I ever usually were it anyway. I'm always forgetting mine and I've practically learned to live with the cold.

"Back home in good ol' T-town it gets colder than this, Jennifer. Besides, it's not that cold anyways," said Taylor, who was enjoying every bite of his ice cream.

"Well, here in good ol' B-burg any temperature the slightest bit cold is too much!"

I finished my sundae first and ordered some hot chocolate. Taylor finally realized that I was shivering and he handed me his jacket. And no, he did not place it on me. He just handed it to me.

Tay baby sat across from me with hot fudge smeared all over his face. He smiled at me and I laughed. Suddenly I felt something brush against my leg under the table. I looked down and was surprised that Taylor was rubbing his foot against mine.

Oh, so we're gonna play footsie here aren't we, I thought and laughed to myself at Tay's affectionate guestures. I kicked him back, softly. Then he went to throw away his bowl.

"Well, we better stop now before Ike comes in and spots us!" said Tay.

"I thought this wasn't supposed to be a date?" I asked him.

He blushed over at me. "You've got cute red cheeks, Taylor. Is it to cold in here?" I teased him. He threw a spoon at me.

'Honk! Honk!' beeped a horn out in the parking lot. We ran out to Ike waiting in the van for us. Taylor jumped into the front seat and I sat in one in the middle.

Isaac laughed to himself. "What?" I asked him.

"The baseball has been hit!" he said in an announcer's voice. "What will it be? First base, second base, third base, or... ooooo... a home run?" he said rubbing in the last bit.

"Shut up, you pervert!" Tay said and elbowed Ike.

"So, what did you guys do anyway?"

"Hmmm, well, let's see? We went to a rollarblading rink... and what do you do at rollarblading rinks? You rollarblade!" I said sarcastically.

"And..."

"And then we had ice cream," said Taylor.

"Anything else?"

"Not really, unless you'd count Taylor knocking someone out as something else," I said and laughed.

"You knocked someone out, Taylor!? You????"

"Well... yea. He was a huge pain so I got rid of him."

"Imagine that. I wish I'd been there to see it."

When we pulled into the driveway, I spotted Zac looking out at us from the living room window. Ike ran inside and gave him a noogie! I walked inside the door, but felt Taylor tug me back outside on the front stoop.

"What?" I asked him. I wish he'd just let me go inside. It was cold.

"We can't forget the good-night on the door step part of a date, can we?" He asked.

"Tay, this isn't a date, remember? Besides, we're both going into the same house."

"What makes you so sure this hasn't been a date the whole time?" he said leaving me clueless. I smiled at him and suddenly, he kissed me. He just flat off put his lips to mine. I was surprised at first, but kissed him back. Now I knew that it was a date.

He stopped and smiled back at me. "Making up for Wednesday night?" I asked him.

"I guess you could say that," he said. I looked down at my feet and felt myself blush. Tay was a great kisser. I looked back up at him and opened the door to go inside.

I barely put my foot in when I heard Taylor ask, "Now can I have my jacket back?"

* * *

I jumped onto my bed and grabbed my journal. I had to write down every little detail of Hanson's stay at my house. I definetely wanted to remember it all.

I had just gotten to the part about Taylor trying to kiss me when I heard a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" It was Tay.

"Sure Taylor."

He opened the door and came over to sit next to me on my bed. I put away my journal and sat up next to him. He smiled down at me and I smiled back. 'Enough with this sappy love stuff,' I thought to myself. But Taylor's baby blues drilled into me.

It made me wonder what would happen in the future. Did he like me enough? I sure liked him... but it had only been one date, and it barely was a date. I was jumping to conclusions.

"Did you have fun tonight?" asked Taylor, interupting my thoughts.

"Of course I did. I had the most fun I've ever had."

He shook his head and looked down at his feet. "So, the concert's tommorow. How many of your friends will be there?" I could tell our small conversation didn't actually have a main topic.

"Umm, well, let's see. There's Emily, Amy, Jessica, Nancy, Silvia, Samantha of course, Claire... " I started listing as many of my friends as I could. Tay laughed.

"Okay, okay. I get the picture. There are a lot of them."

"Well, we'd better get to bed now, you don't want to get your mom all worked up like last night do you?"

"Umm, no. I guess I'd better got get Ike and Zac."

"Okey Dokey," I agreed. Tay left and I went to lock the door so I could get changed into my pj's without any cute boys walking in on me!

I crawled into my green, comfy sleeping bag and cuddled up with my pillow. A few minutes later I heard footsteps come into the room. Then voices.

"Hey sleepy-head! Don't snooze off yet!" It was Zac-man!

I ignored him and put my pillow over my ears to block out the sound. I waited until they turned out the lights before I relaxed and doze off.