"Ugh... I feel awful”
“Oh? Your not feeling good?” Tay asked bringing his hand to my
cheek and lightly stroking it.
It was mid-October and the kewl breeze filled the air.
“No, not like that... It’s just that I haven’t talked to my mom ever since like the first week I got here.”
“Are you serious? Why haven’t you called her babe?” Taylor asked
looking down at me.
We were laying down on the lawn right outside my deck. My head
resting on his chest.
“I don’t know. My mom.. I guess I was always closer to my Dad then my
mom. It hurts.. because my dad never left a number. Never left any
communication for me to get a hold of him.”
“Oh.” Taylor didn’t know what to say. He waited for a minute. “I don’t know what my mom would do if I didn’t call her every other day...or at least someone in my family. She’d probably think I was dead or something.
“I wish my parents cared that much.. I mean.. I feel like Katie’s the only person in this world who actually cares about me. I swear!”
“What are you talking about?!” He said propping himself up just
enough to look me in the eyes. “Since when did I NOT care about you?”
“I didn’t mean it that way Tay... I just, Ugh.. I don’t know.” I turned my head away from him. I hated this. Why couldn’t my family be so close and together like his always was? Why couldn’t my sisters have such an awesome bond like his siblings did? It made me so upset that I was so different. Yet we were together. It didn’t make any since. The trembling my body gave out let Taylor know that I was crying.
“Ab.. come here.” He brought his arms around me.
“I’m sorry Taylor. I’m sorry you have to sit her and take all this shit I give out.”
“I don’t think of it as shit Abby. Now listen to me for a second. I think you should be around people who I know WILL care about you. You
need to keep your mind off of your problems back home for a little
while.”
“What are you talking about?” I was definitely confused.
“Well I was thinking we could make a trip to Tulsa this weekend.” Tay
said with a smile.
“WHAT? How the heck do you plan on doing that?” He got my attention now. I was sitting straight up. “We have to be back to college bye Tuesday! We’d never make it! We’d be lucky if we got to spend a whole day in Tulsa. That’s out of the question Tay. I can’t afford to
miss any classes.”
“Abby, there are other ways of transpiration besides driving you
know.” Taylor said laughing. “We’ll fly.”
“What! I don’t have the money to fly! You know that Tay!”
“I know. That’s why I’M taking you... It’s taken care of. I already bought the tickets. We leave tonight.”

**********

“Walker!”
Diana shouted from the bottom of the stairs. She had just gotten off
the phone with Taylor. He had informed her of his trip. Diana couldn’t wait to see him. Tay was so spontaneous, definitely more then Zac or Isaac ever were. She missed her son. She hadn’t seen him in over two months. Tay had moved into his apartment early so he could get settled and used to the area.

“Yeah hun?” Walker said walking down the stairs, meanwhile flipping
through some papers in his hand.
“I just got off the phone with Tay. He’s coming home tonight!” Diana said excitedly.
“Really. Great! I’ll page Zac at work and let him know.” Walker took of towards the kitchen.
“Here. Give Zac this information. It’s his flight number and everything. He’s ganna have to pick him up.” She handed her husband a little note card. Walker turned and headed in the other room.
“Honey..” Diana started. “When your done with that can you help me
fix up the guest bedroom?”
“The guest bedroom? Why?”
“He’s bringing a friend home.”
“Any idea who it is?” Walker asked.
“Not a clue, he said just and old friend.” Diana laughed and walked up the stairs.
“Leave it up to Taylor to suprise us..” He yelled after her. A couple
laughs could be heard from the top of the stairs.

“Mack! Avery?” Diana called from the spare bedroom.
“Yeah mom?” Came a soft voice a minute later. She turned to see Avery standing in the doorway.
“Could you clean up a little downstairs. Tay’s coming home tonight and he’s bringing a friend. Also call Morgan’s house and get Jesse home when you can.” Diana said stripping the bed.
Avery’s face lit up. “AHH! Tay’s coming home!” Screamed the 12 year
old girl taking off down the hall.
‘Looks like she’s just a excited as I am!’ Diana thought smiling.

***********

Zac had stopped what he was doing as soon as he had gotten the message his father had left him at work. He was happy Taylor was coming home. Zac didn’t think he’s see him till November for
Thanksgiving.
He was driving home to grab some clean clothes before heading to the
airport. Tay’s plane was landing at 6:35pm. That gave him a little over two hours.
“Delta?! Why the hell would he take Delta?!” Zac laughed reading over the stuff his Dad gave him to jot down. “He hated flying Delta!” Zac remembered Tay always complaining when they flew that airline. He never knew why Tay disliked it. His brother was so moronic, if that’s such a word, when he was tired and stressed out.
Zac rounded the corner and came to a stop beside the keypad. He
quickly punched in the code and the gate open and closed after him.
Soon enough he pulled up in front of the house.

“Mom!” Zac’s voice echoed through the huge foyer as the door shut.
Two sets of staircases ran up along the wall on either side of him. An arched opening in the middle led into a big family room. A good size sunroom lay through a short hallway to the right of that. He loved the new house. It wasn’t exactly new anymore, a little over 2 years. But it still had that new paint smell when you walked through the door, along
with Sunflowers. Diana loved sunflowers. The whole house was done up with them. Sunflower wallpaper, Sunflower pictures, Sunflower couches, dishes, bathroom towels, and anything else you can think of.
Zac didn’t mind.. his mom deserved this house. And she deserved it her
way.

“I’m in here honey!” He heard him mom shout from the kitchen. He
turned around and walked back to the foyer and through the dinning
room to the kitchen.
“Hey..” Zac walked up to Diana and gave her a quick kiss. “Whatcha
makin?” He asked lifting up the lids of the cooking pans on the stove.
“I’m getting a head start on supper for tonight.” She picked up a cucumber and started slicing it into the salad bowl in front of her.
Zac reached over and grabbed a piece throwing it into him mouth.
“Okay, I have to go take a shower real quick.”
“What! Zac, your never going to make it on time if you do that!” Diana said stopping him.
“Mom I stink, I’m not ganna pick up Tay smelling like dog shit!” He said laughing and took off up the back stairs.
“Zachary..” Diana scowled over his choice of words.

************

The crowd parted and the terminal Zac was searching for came
into view.
“Shit..” He muttered. The passengers were already unloading off the plane. He took off running and came to a stop beside the information desk trying to look back as far as possible into the long terminal.
“Zac!” Yelled a voice from behind him. He whirled around to see Taylor heading towards him.
“Hey man!” He walked up to Tay and gave him a small hug. “Great to
have you home.”
“Boy, you can say that again.” Tay shifted his backpack.
“Here let me get that for you.” Zac grabbed the heavy carry-on from
Taylor. He noticed a girl standing behind Taylor. Not thinking anything of it.. then he stopped what he was doing. “Wha-...” Zac’s eyes widened. “Ohmigod!”
“Hahaha.” Abby laughed and brought Zac into a hug. “How ya doing Cheese Boy?” Zac’s nickname. She couldn’t remember the last time She had called him that.
“Whoa! Abby, How? wh-” Zac turned to Tay for an explanation.
“Where’d you find her?!”
Taylor bust out laughing. “College.. Mom didn’t tell you I was bringing home a suprise?”
“No... she just had Dad call me at work and give me your flight info to come pick you up!” Zac was beyond suprised. This was unbelievable.
“Wow!” Zac looked over at Abby. “It’s great to see you again Ab!”
“You too hun.”
“Now lets get out of here!” Taylor said smiling. “I’m dieing to get
home!” He grabbed Abby’s hand and started walking along side Zac
towards the baggage claim.
Zac noticed it right away.