"Tay, you're stalking the damn chick! Leave her alone!" Isaac admonished his brother. Taylor blushed.
"I am not stalking her! I was just waiting in line in the same stores as her! Excuse me all to high hell!"
Isaac nodded.
"Un-hunh...right, little brother. Whatever."
Taylor turned red again, but didn't stay red long. That girl - that gorgeous girl - was already gone, and he wished he'd at least gotten her name. Goddamnit, he thought. Ya damn idiot. His thoughts were broken by Zac when he bounced into the picture, a candy store bag on one arm and the bookstore bag on the other.
"Magazines," he said knowingly, answering his brother's unasked questions. Taylor nodded, understanding at this point. Zac looked hungry. He was gnawing on his arm.
"Zac, you're gonna hurt yourself doing that one of these days," Isaac observed. Zac looked up sheepishly.
"Can we get some dinner before we go back? I don't want to stay here, but I don't want room service, either," he said. Ike reached into his back pocket and pulled a wallet out. He looked through it, found a couple twenty dollar bills, and nodded.
"Where to, Zac?"
Zac thought carefully, eyes squeezed shut with the most adorable look of contemplation across his face. He looked up brightly.
"William's?"
Ike shrugged, and Taylor nodded.
"I can go for that," he agreed, and they started to leave.
August was ready to kick her own ass at this point. She sat in a lone booth in the corner of the William's Coffee Pub, absent-mindedly chewing on a mouthful of lettuce and seasoned chicken. She poked small holes in the pita with her fork, and sipped unconsciously at a bottle of iced tea. She shouldn't have been such a freaking ice princess. She knew she shouldn't have.
"But, goddamnit, what was I supposed to do?" She whispered to herself. "Scream like those goddamn freaks and bounce up and down like an idiot?" Her thought was cut off when the door swung open.
Zac took a flying leap and slid into the restaurant on his knees, hopping up upon stopping in front of a cashier thing. Tay rolled his eyes, and Ike just chuckled to himself. They stepped up to the counter to order, but Tay turned around first, looking around for potentially dangerous Hanson fans that would cause a rumble in a town that obviously didn't get much attention.Upon noticing August sitting by herself in the corner, he tore away, saying after him,
"I'm going to find us a seat, guys...you know what I want..."
As soon as he said it, Ike took the opportunity to turn to the now speechless cashier and say,
"We'll just take whatever you've got in that kitchen back there...I'm sure it'll feed him until dinner."
August jumped when a shadow fell across her table, and looked up...and up..and up, until her eyes locked with...Taylor's? What up with that? She looked around to make sure no one else was looking, then emitted a sort of squeaking noise, a mix of a mouse being stepped on and that screeching sound from Poltergeist. (A note to those who care: those screeching sounds in Poltergeist were made by strangling a pig) Taylor grinned.
"Now all you have to do is let your head rise from your shoulders and do a 360 spin every five minutes, and you're the poster child for Exorcist 15," he remarked, turning slightly red at his ears with embarrassment and amusement. She glared at him playfully.
"You're a buttmonkey," she replied. He clutched at his chest, croaking and gasping for air. He collapsed on the bench across from her, letting his eyes roll up in their sockets and allowing his tongue to hang limply from his mouth. It was, in all essences, not a picture she'd ever get out of an All-Stars magazine. She burst into laughter, and found she couldn't stop...until another shadow fell across her. Taylor sat up, and looked up nervously at the extremely tall male creature standing in the light.
Isaac groaned.
"Come on, Tay! Of all places to run into her again, you had to be here? How cheap is that?"
Zac appeared.
"Cheap...just Tay's style," he quipped, knowing what kind of ice he was treading on.
"How does a skater on thin ice get into hot water?" Taylor remarked to him, smiling sweetly. Zac just shook his head and sat down. He looked at August.
"We can sit here, can't we?"
She nodded quickly, and watched silently (and rather stupidly, to be perfectly frank) as Isaac sat down on Taylor, who instantly made a gagging noise, and shoved him off.
"Okay! I'll get up!"
He promptly sat down beside August, and started stuffing his own face. She started eating again, extremely shocked at herself. This was going to prove rather INTERESTING, that was for sure...
"Shit happens."
-Forrest Gump
Author's note: I slurred the original chapters two and three together for this...it sounds better and it's a smidge longer.