I was the last one awake in the morning, as I usually am. It took me a moment to realize where I was. I had that lost and confused feeling. Then it all came back to me. The bus wasn’t' moving, and I could smell the scents of breakfast as it made my stomach rumble. I sat up and rummaged through my nap sac in hopes of finding, at least, a clean shirt. I got dressed, which proved to be difficult in the space provided. 'Even if we did get to stay, I have no clothes' I thought to my-self as I struggled to zip my fly up. I quickly made my-self look some-what descent, and crawled into the hallway. Diana almost tripped over me and I looked up at her embarrassed and startled.
"Good Morning sleeping beauty!" She said cheerily as she dried her incredibly long blond hair with a towel. It seemed even longer when it was wet. I stood up quickly. I replied to her good-morning with a bit of shock in my voice. I figured she must be one of those morning people. She smiled at me and walked over to Jessica who was holding Zoë in her lap and looking at me oddly with her jaw hanging open. I smiled at her and she closed her jaw with a snap and cringed her eyebrows. She then handed Zoë to her mother, and they left the bus together. I looked over to Taylors' bunk. He was leaning with his head in what must have been an incredibly uncomfortable position against the wall, staring blankly at the television set, the remote in hand.
"What are you watching?" I asked, approaching him slowly. He looked at me and then returned his gaze to the TV.
"I'm just flipping through channels. Everything’s in French." I watched the television as he flipped through a whole lot of blabbering. I was desperately searching my mind for something intelligent to say.
"Are we at the Hotel?" Not quite intelligent, as it was quite obvious we were at the hotel. He nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the French speaking man on the sports channel. I needed a back up question. "Um, what time is it?" Oh God, why don't you just ad a Mr. Wolf, make your-self look even more like an idiot. He picked up his wrist, like there was a ton of bricks weighing it down.
"3 minutes to 10." He replied, quickly dropping his arm.
I responded with a "hmm". I was now trying to decide whether to walk away, to avoid any further embarrassment, or ask another one. I was on a roll, so I figured I might as well. "Do you know what's happening, I mean with Johanna and I?" I wanted to hit my-self in the head. How the hell was he supposed to know, or better yet, why would he care!
"I have no idea" He glanced over my shoulder for a short moment. "There's the man to ask". I turned to see Isaac walking towards me from the front of the bus with a huge grin spread across his face.
"You're up finally" he said, casually putting his arm around my shoulder. A friendly gesture, but I felt my face turning red. I just hoped it wasn't showing. I noticed Taylor's eyes follow Ike's arm, from around my neck, to around my waist.
"Good morning" I said looking up at him. He smiled down at Me.
"Are you hungry? Let’s go and eat" he said placing his hands on my hips and guiding me to the kitchen. 'Getting a little to close' I thought. Taylor gave me a look as if to say, what's going on here. I just turned my head away. 4 steps later and Ike and I entered the kitchen. The bus door was open and it revealed a sunny day. There were people standing around out-side talking. Zac and Johanna were sitting across from each other at the table, and to my surprise, laughing hysterically. Johanna looked up at me, still beaming and told me to sit down. We all said good morning to each other. Ike plopped two pieces of toast on a paper plate in front of me and slid in next to Zac. There was an assortment of condiments on the table. I watched Ike sloppily spread a mixture of peanut butter and honey, with butter, and a bit of jam on his toast.
"When did everyone get up?" I asked, slowly dipping a knife into the peanut-butter container.
"Around 8 and 9" Ike replied.
11:30 rolled around, and I started to wonder why we hadn't gone INTO the hotel. Johanna explained to me that we were just waiting for our rooms to vacate. That didn't happen until 12. We sat in the lobby, where Walker had asked us to, as he talked to a lady at the desk. Everyone had already gone up to the rooms. Walker finally came back to us and passed Johanna a key card. We looked at it puzzled.
"What’s' this for" I asked.
"For your room" He said, as if I should have known.
"What do we need a room for?" Johanna asked him as we stood up.
"Just in case." We left it at that. We stepped off the elevator onto the eleventh floor and followed Walker around a corner. He told us to keep going in that direction and we'd find our room. Johanna and I discovered that a member of the entourage occupied every room on that floor. There were about 70 of them in total. Walker knocked on our door about 15 minutes after we entered it. He told us he needed to talk to us with the rest of the people it concerned (what ever that meant) and we followed him to another room. Isaac, Taylor, Zac and Diana were sitting and waiting for us in a room that looked almost identical to ours. They all watched in silence as we nervously took a seat on the couch.
"Okay, now that we have everyone, we can talk about this." Walker said, standing in front of us like a teacher in a classroom. "What has happened is, it turns out that the train station is booked until Wednesday."
"The concerts on Wednesday" Isaac informed, even though it was information that everyone in the room already knew
"We are fully aware of this Isaac, let your father finish please." Diana said. There was a short pause, and Walker continued his speech.
"We can do one of two things, we can get a taxi, or you can just stay and we will drop you off on our way back through Ontario on Thursday." There was a mixture of facial expressions spreading across the room. Johanna and I fought desperately not to start gasping. Ike was smiling mischievously. Zac looked like he was not even paying attention. Diana was contented. Taylor looked confused. Walker waited for some sort of response.
"I think it's the least we could do for this inconvenience, Isaac, what do you think" Diana said. The aim was probably to make Ike feel guilty. But the word inconvenience ran through my head over and over. Like hell this was an inconvenience. Try a dream come true.
"I think that would be a good idea" Ike said.
"We will need to discuss certain things with our publicist, but I guess all that's left now is calling your parents. As long as this is fine with you two." Walker said, with a tone of relief in his voice.
"Wait" Taylor piped in. "What if the fans see them, then what are we going to do?" Oh great, he did not want us to stay at all. Why was I not suprised.
"They can be cousins, or friends of the family or something. It doesn't really matter Taylor." Ike said. Taylor looked at him with disgust.
"Well, it's settled then" Walker said, as if to tell his sons to shut-up.
"Uh, hold on" I said. Johanna looked at me startled. "We don't have clothes, or tooth brushes and we're very short on money."
"I guess I'll have to take care of that." Diana said. When then the phone calls ended, so did the meeting. I was just waiting for some one to pinch me and wake me up. It was too good to be true. I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach, like something was going to go wrong. But when everyone left the room and Zac told us to stay, the feeling vanished for awhile. It was time to make friends.
"I'm sort of glad you guy's get to stay. This could be fun" He said. We all settled on the bed. Johanna was beaming.
"Well that makes two of you" I said. He looked at me puzzled.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
"I just mean Taylor, he isn't seeming to thrilled about the whole situation." I said, trying not to sound to devastated by it.
"Oh, he's just in a crappy mood. He has been since we left Tulsa. Don't worry about it. The best thing to do would probably be to just stay out of his way." He said.
"Why is he in a bad mood?" Johanna asked.
"I probably shouldn't tell you" He said with grin, signifying he was gonna anyway.
"Oh come on, if we're just staying out of his way, it won't matter." Johanna pleaded.
"We can keep our mouths shut" I added.
"Okay, okay, calm down, I was gonna tell you." He giggled. "It's really not that big of a deal." He stopped.
"Well, what is it!" Johanna urged.
He smiled, as if this game he was playing amused him quite a bit. "Here it is, are you ready, I bet you can hardly wait..." He teased. Johanna and I looked at him frustrated.
"There was a girl..."
"Yes..." I said
"And Taylor really liked her..."
"uh-huh..." Johanna said.
"He liked her so much that he broke up with the girl he was seeing..."
My heart sunk.
"And then she let him down... really hard". He was still smiling. I became aware that my jaw was hanging open. I felt terrible for him and jealous of her at the same time. "I think Ike likes you Christa" He said, causing me to come out of my daze. Zac was nodding. Johanna looked at me. Noticing that I was incapable of responding she replied,
"Christa likes Taylor though."
"Uh-oh" Zac remarked. "A love triangle."
"No, not quite. Taylor couldn’t care less about me" I said. Johanna and Zac looked at each other. "What!?" I said. They knew SOMETHING.
"Well," Zac said. "Ike asked Taylor this morning if he thought you were hot and he said 'yeah, she's good looking..."
"Then what happened." My heart began to mend.
"Ike said 'she's mine'." Zac continued.
"Oh," I said. "What did Taylor say about that". They looked at each other again, this time with a worried expression crossing Johanna's face.
"He said 'you can have her if you really want her Ike, I don't give a crap'" Johanna said quietly.
"But he's just in a pissy mood, remember, that doesn't mean anything."
"It doesn't matter. I don't really care." I lied.
"We have 4 and a half whole days to get him to like you" Johanna said comfortingly. <--(I don't know if that's a word! but it works!)
"We just have to figure out a way to tell him that you like him" Zac said.
"I think it's kind of pointless, don't you? He's obviously still hung up on that girl. I don't want to be the one who gets in the way. Besides, how would Ike feel if he likes me?" I said.
"Ike will find some-one else. He's really good at that now." Zac said. I didn't bother asking what that meant.
"That doesn't mean Taylor will like me" I said. I couldn't figure out why I was arguing this so much. I just couldn't believe I was having this conversation for real.
"I think he might, he just needs someone to open his eyes." Zac said nodding.
"Wow Zac, that was pretty deep" Johanna said jokingly.
"I know, remember, I told you, I'm the next Jerry Springer." He said.
"You said Howie Mandel yesterday." Johanna corrected.
"Yeah, and tomorrow I might be Oprah, wait, no, I guess that wouldn't work would it?" The three of us broke into laughter. Zac and Johanna laughing louder then me, as this was obviously a joke they had previously played with. The door opened and Ike walked in with an acoustic guitar strapped around his shoulder.
"Hey guy's" He said sitting next to me on the bed.
"Hey Ike!" Johanna said cheerily.
"Hi, what are you doing?" He said taking his pic out of his mouth.
"We're plotting your death" Zac remarked in a viscous voice.
"Oh really," Ike said calmly. "Care to inform me when this murder is gonna take place?"
"No! It's going to be a surprise attack." Zac said, continuing his murderous voice. Johanna and I were giggling at the comical scene. Ike started strumming his guitar and made up a song about his brother and two girls killing him in his sleep. Zac was singing back up in a perfect impression of Marilyn Manson, wailing death threats. We were soon all laughing uncontrollably. Walker came in the open door way holding a yellow piece of paper. He looked at us strangely and shook his head, which made us laugh even harder.
"mmmk... we're ordering McDonalds for a late lunch if anyone is interested, I'm taking orders."
Ike strummed his guitar. "Death byyiyiyi.... a big mac"
And Zac in his Manson voice again, "AHHHHHH, mc nuggets with knives, killlllll."
"I'm not even going to ask" Walker said.
Johanna and I opened the door to our room and stepped in. Lunch was going to take about 20 minutes.
"Did you and Zac stay up late last night or something?" I asked Johanna as she flopped down on one of the beds.
"Yeah, well, no, only for like an hour." She responded. I raised my eyebrows.
"Only an hour, that's pretty lucky. What on earth did you talk about for so long?"
"Nothing and everything. He's so cute." She said dreamily. "He was flirting, I think."
"Really. That's fun. What was he doing?"
"I don't know, maybe he wasn't flirting, maybe that's just how he is." We both shrugged. I opened my wallet and counted my money. We decided to pay Walker for lunch. After all, we didn't want to be an 'inconvenience'. We talked about how we thought this next week was going to be until Diana knocked on our door for lunch. We walked into the hall and there were people sitting on the floor eating, and doors were open to reveal more people in rooms talking and eating loudly. We made our way past the crew to Walker and Diana's room where Walker was holding the yellow piece of paper and calling out orders. We handed him 5 dollars each and he refused to take it.
"I want to make it perfectly clear that either of you will be paying for anything during your visit" he said as he passed each a greasy bag containing our burgers.
I didn't know what to say. I managed to blurt out "Oh, thank-you Walker, thank-you so..." before he started calling out more names and orders. We slowly entered room 1108 where Ike and Zac were eating with some crewmembers and one of the back-up musicians. It was very loud in that room. Music was playing and everyone was talking over it with his or her mouths almost always full. Lots of laughter. Johanna and I sat down with out a word, or a look from anyone. We ate quietly and watched in amusement. I had no idea where Taylor was, but I figured I had better get used to that. Ike invited me to go for a walk when we were done eating and people started heading back to their rooms, or going out. He introduced me to about 15 people on the way to the elevator, but I forgot most of their names by the time we got to the main floor. We looked in the gift shops for a bit, then headed to the activity rooms. We passed a huge window that overlooked a massive pool and hot-tub area. There were 5 or so families swimming and lounging. He noticed me staring with wide eyes at the big orange slide that wrapped around the deck with loops and turns. He grinned.
"I don't suppose you guy's brought bathing suits?" He said. I shook my head no. "Then I guess we'll have to get you one." I shook my head again.
"No, that's okay" I said looking at him. He nodded.
"Yeah, we go swimming quite a bit, and it's fun now cause we all go, like the whole crew and everyone. You don't wanna miss it."
We returned to our floor after an hour or so. Most of the doors were shut and the hall was empty now. Ike knocked on a door with the number 1107 on it. Taylor swung it open and actually smiled. That was a first. He was holding a bag of jube jubes in his hand.
"Hey guy's" He chirped, obviously happier than before. "Come in, we're just playing card's". Ike and I passed him and he shut the door. Two older guy's and an older girl, probably in their mid twenties were sitting on the bed and looking at me confused. Taylor walked up behind me and placed his hand on the small of my back. The butterflies entered my stomach quickly.
"Christa, this is Pat, Carl, and Amber." He pointed a finger at each of them.
"Do you know how to play butt hole?" Amber asked me.
"No." I replied, feeling rather stupid.
"Well you're gonna learn" pat said. Ike, Taylor and I sat down.
"Christa and I will play a few hands together, until she gets the hang of it." Ike informed us. Carl started explaining the rules and regulations of the game while Amber shuffled and dealt the cards. The game started off pretty slow, but I soon started to get 'the hang of it'.
"Do you want some?" Taylor asked me holding out the bag of jube jubes. We were sitting next to each other, pretty close to. Isaac was on the other side of me, and the other three were sitting across from us. I said 'thank-you' and took a couple. He set the bag between us and told me to help my-self. He made his move and it was me and Ikes turn again. I caught onto the game pretty fast and I played the third hand on my own. To everyone’s amazement, I actually won. We continued to play, and I continued to win. Taylor and I were having little side conversations about jube jubes. He asked what my favorite kind was and I told him red. Then I noticed he stopped eating the red ones, and soon he started passing them to me. After winning four more times Ike jokingly suggested we become partners again. I joined him, and we lost. In the midst of our laughing over this there was a knock at the door. Carl jumped up and answered it. He pointed into the room and Walker poked his head in.
"Oh good, you're in here too Ike. Come on guy's, it's after 4" He said.
"Yeah yeah" Taylor said getting up and tossing the bag of jube jubes beside me. Ike passed his cards to Amber who took them and returned them to the deck.
"We'll be done in a bit" He said to me.
"Bye guy's" Taylor said as he shut the door behind him.
"Done what?" I asked turning to face Pat, Carl and Amber.
"School work" Amber replied. I nodded.
"So what exactly are you doing here?" Pat asked.
"Yeah, and who are you?" Carl added.
"I'm just a fan" I said without thinking.
"Oh, did you win something?" Amber asked, obviously shocked by my response.
"I guess you haven't heard" I said. They all shook their heads. I told them the story quite comically and they found the whole thing rather humorous.
"I wouldn't put it past Ike to do something like that" Amber said.
"That was pretty lucky for you and your friend though" Pat inquired. I agreed.
"You seem to be getting along with Taylor, if ya know what I mean" Amber said with a wink.
"Actually," I responded, "that's like the first time he's talked to me since the whole thing happened. I feel really ridiculous. I mean, think about it, you guy's are stuck with these strangers for the next five days. It's not like we got a chance to get to know each other, we're just suddenly staying with you for no reason. I've been getting some pretty funny looks from people. They probably think we're psychotic fans that snuck on the bus and..." I noticed I was rambling so I stopped. I had really wanted to get that out though. They looked at me, waiting for me to finish. Amber picked up that I wasn't saying any more and smiled.
"Well, you seem like one of the more 'normal' fans. And it's not like this is your fault. Just blame it on Ike if anyone gives you a hard time."
"Yeah" Pat continued, "Whether you're fans or not, I'm sure every one will accept you."
"One big happy family, that's what we try to be here, any visitors welcome." Carl added.
"Fans or not" Amber finished. That made me feel a lot better. We talked for awhile longer and I found out that Amber was married to Pat. Carl had a girlfriend in San Francisco that he met on their way through there. He wrote to her everyday, and Pat thought that was really girlish. We, no doubt, laughed quite a bit.
"I've been looking for a girl for Taylor for a while now, to get him over that whole Theresa thing." Carl told me. Amber then made a dreamy face.
"Taylor would be so good to a girl." Her facial expression changed suddenly. "If he would stop hunting down the bitches and heart breakers."
"Oh," was all I could manage to say.
"You're not a bitch are you Christa?" Pat said.
"I hope not!" I grinned.
"Well I think we need to play a little matchmaker." Carl said.
"Like I said, he doesn't acknowledge that I exist, and he hasn't since the first time we were in the same room... besides, I'm pretty sure, well, I've heard that Ike likes me" I said.
"Oooh, Ike, stud man" Carl giggled.
"Do you even like either of them, cause I mean, this is a perfect chance to start something." Amber said.
"I've always sort of had a thing for Taylor." I said.
"All I can say really, and I don't care how cheesy this is cause it's true... follow your heart." Amber said, looking deep into Pat’s eyes.
I walked around the corner to our room. Out on the balcony I saw a couple of crewmembers standing around smoking. I really wanted to join them, but there was no way I was going to let anyone here know I was a smoker. Johanna was lying on the bed and watching TV. I joined her until Diana came and told us it was time to go. It shocked me, but Johanna told me as we put our shoes on that we were going to get what we needed for the week. Diana took us out for dinner, and then shopping. She spent more on us then we wanted her to, but she insisted. Every time we took our wallets out she shook her head and told us to put them away, flashing her plastic money in front of our face. I was trying so hard to find cheap shirts, but then she would say, 'no no, try this one on, yes, I like this one' and spend more and more money. I felt really, I mean really guilty. But she just wouldn't stop. She was obviously a kid at heart. Jessica, and Avery and Zoë were lucky to have a mother like this to shop with. It was almost 10 when we found ourselves drinking coffee and surrounded in shopping bags. Even Diana had picked up a few things for her-self. She looked at her watch and jumped up quickly. We jumped up startled.
"Oh my, the time flew. We should get back. I think the boys wanted to take you two swimming tonight."
Johanna and I walked into the huge recreation room that smelled of chlorine and buzzed with the noise of 30 or so people splashing in the pool or wading in the hot-tub. My eyes wandered around the room to locate Taylor. He was sitting on the edge of the pool with Carl and waving his legs around in the water. He glanced at me and our eyes locked for a short moment, then he returned to his conversation. I put my towel down on a chair and removed my shoes. Johanna sat down.
"Are you sure you don't want to come in?" I asked her as she opened a magazine and crossed her legs. She looked up at me.
"Yeah, as if I'm letting them see me in a bathing suit." She shook her head at me. Zac happened to be walking by.
"What's this?" he said from behind her. She looked back startled. "You aren't coming in the pool" He said in a whining voice. She grinned and shook her head. "Um, I think you are. Don't make me drag you in, come on, let’s go." He said. She looked at him without moving, or changing her expression. "Come on, stand up and take off your clothes." He said. Her facial expression changed, and a few heads turned. He just smiled nervously and gave her an impatient look. I left it to Zac and turned toward the pool in time to see Isaac jump in. I soon found my-self staring at Taylor. I looked up to his face and saw him looking right back at me. I felt a bit embarrassed, but I decided to just keep looking. His eyes detached first. I suddenly felt very alone. Standing there looking at him still, as Zac and Johanna argued playfully behind me. I wasn't going to leave it at that. I waited until he looked at me again, and I took my shirt from the bottom and pulled it slowly over my head. I glanced back quickly, just in time to see Carl elbow him in the arm. I remembered that he was on my side. He nodded in my direction and grinned at Taylor. I pretended that I didn't see them watching me, and I undid my jeans and pulled them off. I put my hair back in a low bun and looked at him again. He was still looking. A good thing. Carl elbowed him again and he looked at him. Taylor grinned and that was the end. I didn't know what to think by it, but I decided not to think of it too much. Zac walked by me and slid into the pool. I followed after.
"Ahhhh," he said tauntingly to Johanna. "It's so nice and warm and watery".
"You don't know what you're missing" I said. She just shrugged her shoulders. Back in the elevator I was shivering like an idiot while Johanna was dry and warm.
Nighttime was quiet in the hotel. Everyone retrieved to their rooms and watched TV or listened to music. Johanna and I joined Ike as we went door to door saying goodnight to people.
"This is a new thing that I do, it's pretty fun" He said. Taylor was sharing a room with Carl. It happened to be Carl who answered the door. Taylor was in the shower. After our goodnights we headed down the hall. Carl called after us
"By the way Christa, nice show. I think it had an effect." I looked back at him and he grinned. When I turned back to Ike and Johanna they were ahead of me a bit. Johanna nodded and disappeared around the corner. I found this to be odd.
"She said she wanted to take a shower or something" He said when I caught up to him. We said goodnight at a few more doors and found our way to mine and Johanna's. It was at the end of the hall, next to the balcony.
"Well... good-night" I said. I had my back to the door, and he was standing directly in front of me. He leaned forward and I stood in shock as he kissed me on the lips. It caught me completely of guard. I pulled away leaving us both feeling very stupid and foolish. A deafening silence filled the hall. He put his head down to hide his red cheeks.
"Sorry" he said shaking his head.
"Uh, me too, I just wasn't expecting it that's all."
"Goodnight Christa" He said and started down the hall.
"Ike, wait" I called after him. But he just kept walking. When he was out of sight I turned around and banged on the door. Johanna opened it with a grin on her face and I brushed past her. She shut the door and crouched behind me as I rummaged through my nap-sac.
"God, what happened?" She said touching my shoulder.
"Urg" I mumbled, frustrated, "This is going all wrong". I stood up quickly and turned around leaving Johanna looking up at me confused.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"He kissed me that's what I mean. Isaac kissed me right on the lips. Now explain to me why that’s a bad thing, because it isn't, it's a very good thing. Isaac Hanson kissed me, good right?!" I must have sounded like such an idiot, but being my best friend, Johanna was used to these sorts of outbursts. She stood up cautiously.
"It's not a good thing cause you love Taylor, not Ike."
"No Johanna, I do not love Taylor. Being here is making me realize how stupid it is to love him. Why? Why bother? Why waste my time? He will never like me. He will never think about me like I think about him. It's stupid, and childish, and meeting them didn't change anything. Why can't I just like Ike, why!"
"Calm down, it will work out" She said with a comforting grin. I took a deep breath.
"Yeah, well, it better work out and pretty friggen fast, cause we have to leave in a few days and this will all be over. We will never see them again. This will be a memory we will cherish forever, and they will more than likely forget by the next venue. We will be referred to as Isaac's stupid stunt."
She looked at me and gave me a hug. I hugged her back, glad to have her as a friend.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take this out on you. I'm going out for a cigarette now, and you know what, I don't give a flying fuck who sees me." We smiled at each other, and I left the room.
I lit my cigarette and looked out over the city lights. I couldn’t believe the thought that was actually going through my head. I wanted to go home. It had finally happened like every fans dream, and I wanted it to be over. I felt confused, stupid, and I dreaded seeing Isaac in the morning.
"You shouldn’t smoke, it's bad for you" A male voice said from behind me. I turned around.
"Zac..." I said relieved. He walked over to me. "You scared the crap out of me, you know this right" I said. He smiled.
"Clever." He said. "I can't believe you smoke." I took a drag of my cigarette and blew it out casually.
"Well, shhhh, it'll be out little secret." He leaned on the railing with me and looked at the city.
"The cities are all starting to look the same." He said. I smiled warmly.
"What are you doing up?" I asked. This was the one and only Hanson I felt comfortable talking to.
"Ike's playing his guitar, and I just left, cause, well, I don't really know."
"Um, okay... " I said. There was a short pause.
"What happened, you guy's both look upset." I looked at him, and he looked right back. I spilt it.
"Zac, shit, he kissed me. I've only been here for not even two days and he kisses me, which just fucks everything up when it should be great right?"
"My goodness, you smoke and you've got a mouth on you..." I just smiled. He looked at me and frowned. "That's how Ike is. He doesn't waste any time"
"Yeah obviously" I said.
"And it shouldn't be great, cause you don't like him. I'm not an expert at relationships or anything, but I do know you are at least supposed to like the person."
"It's not like I don't find Ike attractive, cause I do. I just don't like him the way I think he wants me to like him."
"And he wants you to like him the way you like Tay."
"Yeah, basically." I took a breath. "So where does that leave me." We looked at each other for a second. "Oh great, you're not going to kiss me now too are you." I think it shocked him, cause he suddenly looked embarrassed.
"No!" He emphasized. I decided to change the subject.
"Zac, even if I did tell Taylor that I like him, I just don't think he'd take it seriously." I said.
"What are you talking about. I saw him gawking over you at the pool."
"I wouldn't call it gawking" I for some reason didn't want to believe it.
"Well what would you call it then, he was definitely staring. We all were." He grinned.
I smiled and shook my head. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Well, anyway, no, I'm not going to tell him. He still likes what’s her face."
"No, he doesn't" he said.
"How do you figure?" I asked him, surprised.
"I talked to him about it tonight. He told me he doesn't care anymore. Which either means he got over the... bitch finally, or someone took his mind off her. Meaning someone he just met."
"Oh God Zac, this is way to confusing. I don't even know what I'm getting into here. Two days ago none of you knew I existed, now I'm fucking around with Isaac AND Taylor's lives. It's all happened so fast."
"So does that mean you don't like Taylor anymore." I paused. I had to think about it, for the first time in 2 and a half years.
"I still like him." I said quietly.
"Okay then, let me talk to him. I'll just make it sound like guy talk. It's worth a shot." he said. I didn't want Zac to get sick of my complaining, so I gave in.
"Fine" I said. "I still don't think it'll do anything, but go ahead."
"Okay, good. I'll do it tomorrow." I butted out my cigarette and we headed towards the hall. At the door Zac turned to me and patted my head. I grinned.
"Thanks Zac."
He shook his head. "no problem".
"I feel really stupid looking up to a 14 year old when I'm 18" I said.
"Well, I guess you better get used to it." He smiled. We said our goodnights and I got the key out. He started to walk away and then turned back.
"Hey, say good-night to Johanna for me, if she's still awake."
I grinned. "I will" I said. I walked into the room. 'You better get used to it' played with my head until I fell asleep. Meaning Zac felt it wasn't going to be over at the end of the week. A very good thing.