I went back to painting my toenails and once I was finished, I wandered downstairs in search of a snack. I opened the fridge and examined the contents. Not much there. Hmmmm. I opened the pantry, only find a nearly empty box of stale crackers and few cans of soup. This was awful! We had no food! Humph. I went to the family room and found my dad watching, yawn, golf.
"Hey Dad."
He looked up and then quickly glanced back at the TV. God forbid he miss a moment of golf. "Hi. What's up?"
"We don't have any food. Can I borrow like five bucks and run to the store?"
"Yeah, sure." My dad got out his wallet and handed me five dollars. "Don't be too long."
"I won't." I seriously doubted he'd notice if I were gone. I grabbed my purse and headed out to the car. Once in the car, I popped in my Britney Spears CD and began belting out "Baby One More Time."
I parked the car and went into the store. Hmmm. What did I feel like getting? I headed for the chip aisle. As I was deciding whether I wanted Doritos or Pringles, someone came barreling down the aisle, running right into me. "What the?" I exclaimed.
"Sorry," came the apologetic reply.
"Zac! What are you doing?"
He glanced at me sheepishly. "Well, Ike's waiting for me in the car. He said that if I wasn't back in two minutes, he'd leave without me. And I don't want to push my luck."
I could only raise my eyebrows. "Um. Okay. Whatever." I turned my attention back to the chips.
"Hey, Abby? Are you ever going to talk to Taylor again?"
"No."
"Why not? He's been really upset." Zac gave me a puppy dog face.
"Yeah, well, he'll just have to get used to it. Besides, it's not like I'm going to be here much longer anyway. He'll have to get used to the idea of not talking to me." I quickly grabbed a can of Pringles and headed toward the checkout line. Zac came along with me, lugging a gallon of milk with him.
"That's even more reason why you should talk to him. He's not going to have anyone, soon. I mean, you're leaving, and then Jenna's going to be leaving at the end of the summer."
I gave Zac a death stare. "I don't care, Zac. Okay? I just friggin' don't care."
He looked taken aback. "Geez. What crawled up your....nevermind." He got in line behind me and followed me out of the grocery store. He stood on the curb and searched the parking lot. "I don't believe it!"
"What?"
"Ike left me!" Zac exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.
I had to laugh. "Oh. Well, sorry." I started to walk away.
"Abby!" Zac whined.
I turned around slowly. "What? You don't expect me to give you a ride, do you?" His only response was to give me a puppy dog face again. "Oh, all right. C'mon." I led Zac over to the car. Once we were heading back to the neighborhood, Zac struck up conversation.
"So, Abby. Are you going to talk to Tay or not?"
I sighed. Sometimes the boy just didn't get it. "I don't know, Zac."
"I don't understand what he did that was so bad! I mean, so, he had his girl friend, mind you a friend that's a girl, spend the night. What's the big deal?"
I didn't know what to say. I was silent for a moment, trying to pull my thoughts together. "Fine. I don't really know what's wrong. I suppose it's just jealousy, that's all."
"So, just get over it and apologize to Tay or whatever you need to do."
I smiled. "Ah, but Zac, there's also the matter of pride that is going to get in the way, too." I pulled up in front of the Hanson's house. "Here you go. Make sure you beat the crap out of Ike for leaving you."
"Oh, I will, believe me. Thanks for the ride." Zac climbed out of the car. As he shut the door, he smiled at me. "Just talk to him, Abby." Then he turned and went inside his house. I drove back to my dad's house and holed up in my room, pigging out on my Pringles. I kept running over my conversation with Zac in my head. Was he right? Should I call Tay?
I didn't call Tay the entire week. I figured it would just make things worse anyway. Why make up if I'd just be leaving in a week? I saw no sense in that. I knew that I'd probably see Tay at Ryan's party, and I was sort of nervous about that. But, if we were surrounded by lots of people, I could make an escape if I needed to.
On Friday night, I got pretty dressed up. I put on my spaghetti strap sparkly pink sundress. I pulled my hair back into a loose bun and carefully applied eyeliner and mascara, adding a touch of lip gloss as well. I put on my pink strappy platform sandals and decided that I was ready. I grabbed my purse and walked down the stairs.
"Hey, dad! I'm leaving!" I called.
Rachel came into the front hall. "Whoa! You look pretty fancy!"
I smiled and twirled around, modeling my outfit. "Thank you!"
"Tay's going to flip out when he sees you."
The mere mention of his name made my balloon of carefreeness deflate. "Yeah, well, this isn't for Tay, believe me."
Rachel nodded knowingly. "Okay. Well, you'd better get going, or you're going to be late."
"You're right. I'll talk to you later. And tell Dad not to wait up for me, okay?"
"Okay. Have fun!"
I walked over to Ryan's house, since it seemed a waste of gas to just drive a few streets over. The party was already in full swing by the time I got there. I didn't know anyone at the party, so I nervously looked around for Ryan. I finally spotted him over by the stereo in the den.
"Hey!" I yelled, trying to make myself heard over the blasting music.
"Oh, hi! You're here! I'm glad you could make it!" He smiled. "You look great!"
"Thanks! I wanted to make a good impression on all your friends," I teased.
He laughed. "Well, come on. I'm going to introduce you to everybody." He took my hand and led me through the house, introducing me to tons of people, most of whom's name I forgot the second Ryan told me. But, that was all right. I was having fun. Well, until I spotted Taylor over in the corner with Jenna and a few other people. Ryan followed my gaze. "Oh, I forgot to tell you that Tay was here."
I smiled. "No biggie. I don't care."
"You sure?"
I nodded. "I can handle it. Besides, who says I ever have to talk to him? There are so many people here that he probably won't even notice me."
"I suppose. Want something to drink?"
"Sure." I followed Ryan into the kitchen and was quite surprised to see beer sitting out on the counter. "Are your parents here?" I asked suspiciously.
Ryan smiled. "Nope. They went out of town for the weekend. And they took my brothers with them. I told them that was the best birthday present they could give me."
"So, in other words, they know that you're having a party like this?"
"Yup. But they don't know about the alcohol. That's courtesy of some older friends of mine." He pulled the top off two beers and handed one to me. I shrugged and accepted it. What did I have to lose? It's not like I'd never had anything to drink before. As I sipped my beer, I wandered back toward the living room. I could see some people starting to dance to the music. I saw a few people that I remembered being introduced to, but I didn't remember their names.
"Wanna dance?" I whirled around and saw a guy who looked to be about 18 standing there.
"Sure." Suddenly, the music slowed to a romantic beat. The guy pulled me close and we swayed to the music. "I'm Abby," I told him.
"I'm Jake. Are you one of Ryan's friends? I've never seen you at any of his parties before."
"Yeah, well, I'm kind of new here. I'm visiting my dad for a little bit. But, yeah, I'm one of Ryan's friends. Are you?"
Jake smiled. He was hot. "Yeah. I've known him forever and a day."
"Cool." I leaned closer to Jake and put my head on his shoulder. He tightened his grip on my waist. All of a sudden, I heard a familiar voice.
"Can I cut in?"
I groaned to myself. Why did Tay have to do this? Jake looked at me for approval. I finally smiled to let him know it was all right. I had some stuff I needed to say to Tay anyway. Once Jake had gone, I glared at Tay.
"What do you want?" I asked.
He smiled. "I wanted to dance with you."
"Why?"
"Because you look great and because I haven't talked to you in a really long time."
"Did you ever think that maybe there was a reason for that?"
"It crossed my mind." Tay sighed. "Abby, can we please go outside to talk where it's quiet?"
"Fine." I followed Tay outside to the backyard. We sat down on the picnic table. I looked at Taylor. "So....talk."
He looked right back at me silently. I was about to stand up and go back inside when he finally spoke. "Abby...I'm really sorry."
"Is that all?"
"Well, yeah."
"Okay." I stood up and began to walk away.
"What else do you want me to say?" Taylor cried.
I spun around. "I don't know, Taylor. I honestly don't know."
"Well, throw me a friggin bone here, Abby. I know I messed up and I've been trying to make it up, but I don't know what else I can do besides say I'm sorry!" Tay seemed to have been pushed past his boiling point. When I didn't say anything, Taylor sighed. "Fine. Just forget it, okay?" He brushed past me and headed toward the house.
"No! Wait!" I called after him. He stopped but didn't turn around. "I'm sorry, Tay," I said softly.
He slowly turned around. "Is that all?" he asked me, grinning slightly.
I smiled. "Well, yeah."
"Okay." Taylor walked over to me. "Is all forgiven?"
I nodded. "And forgotten." I leaned toward Tay and lightly brushed his lips with mine. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. I tangled my fingers in his hair and kissed him deeply. We were both surprised when someone came barreling out of the house, running into us. We broke apart and the guy giggled, muttered an apology and ran toward the trees behind Ryan's house. Seconds later, two more people ran out of the house and followed him. Tay grabbed my hand and led me into the house. We wandered through the house until we found a relatively empty, quiet room. We settled in the corner of the dining room and began to talk.

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