| "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? HUH?" she roared, frustrated more with herself than Taylor. She wriggled free and shoved him away again. "I just want you to talk to me Jamie." Taylor said, ran his hand through his hair and grabbed the beer he'd set on the short brick wall that enclosed the dumpster out back of the bar. He took a long drink and looked at his feet. "Lemme see your hand.." he said when she remained silent, her arms folded over her chest. He reached his hand toward her when he saw her squeeze the injured hand and wince. "I SAID, lemme see you hand. God. I didn't ask you to talk, I didn't ask you to tell me anything you weren't willing to have me know. God, Jamie just let me look at your hand.." he snapped and grabbed her wrist, yanking her closer to him. "Fuck..would you STOP? PLEASE?" she whined defiantly. "I am NOT a baby. I don't NEED you to take care of me. It's a fucking scrape. No big deal.." Jamie yanked her wrist away from Taylor and folded her arms over her chest. "It'll be sore as hell tomorrow. Big fucking deal. It wouldn't be the first time and I'll live." she said more softly. "You wanna tell me what the hell is wrong now? Or should I just go?" he asked. "You wanna sleep here at the bar? 'Cause no matter what kind of attitude you're copping, you re NOT driving. You can't even stand up straight." he snapped as she weaved slightly. "Taylor, how can I tell you what I don't know? Did you NOT hear me say I DON'T FUCKING KNOW?" she snapped back. "I am frustrated and I feel like I am going to explode. I dunno how to turn it off.." she sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Jamie..." Taylor began, cautiously, not wanting to get her riled enough to hurt herself again. "You have had waaay to much to drink. Hard stuff. And I am not blind. So what did I do to 'inavde your space' huh?" he asked. "Nothing." she sighed after a few moments. "Not a DAMN thing. But you're THERE aren't you?" she snapped, then turned away from him. "Jamie. Will it kill you? Huh? Would you please just talk to me? I dunno what to do. I happen to LIKE hangin' out with you. I happen to think you are an interesting person, with or without your clothes on." he said sarcastically. "If you don't feel the same way about me, then just say so. How hard is that?" he asked and took another pull off his beer. "Jesus. I'll drop your van and your keys off later." he said and started to walk away, when she stayed silent for too long. "Tay...don't.." she started to say, feeling instantly bad, knowing this was all her. "DON'T WHAT?" he snapped, spinning to look at her. "If I could tell you, I would.." she said looking at her feet, unable to bear the hurt registering in his eyes, knowing SHE was the one that put it there. "I don't KNOW.." she said forcefully, hurling his empty bottle at the door and watching it smash into a thousand glittering amber shards. "You wanna know what I know?" he said then and moved toward her. "I know that I," he pointed at his chest, "can't wait to see you again, as soon as I leave you." He grabbed her wrists and pulled her closer. "I know that I think about you all the time, I know that lately, when I am writing, YOU are the one I want to run it past first. And I KNOW that when I saw you hangin' all over Shane like that I wanted to choke YOU. I can handle sharing you with the music, I know better...but I want YOU, Jamie. YOU." he said to a stunned, and terrified Jamie, frozen to the spot she was standing on. "Jade?" Ike asked, tapping her on the shoulder. "Are you all right?" They were seated in the booth next to each other, Zac, Patti and Rae across from them and Tami had a chair pulled up to the end of the table. Everyone was involved in their separate conversations, but Jade had turned suddenly quiet and was picking at her food. "I'm all right, Isaac. Just worryin' about Jameson is all. I've never seen her so..damn. I can't even find words for it." she said, smiling sadly up at him. "Tay won't leave her alone in that condition Jade." Ike tried to reassure her. "I know that, Issac. Shes' acting like that because she's too afraid to feel anything for him, but it's too late. She loves him, and she's gonna ruin it. Think about how great a songwriter she is NOW. Can you imagine how much greater she'd be if she'd let herself FEEL things? Poor Tay." Jade sighed, and pushed her food around on her plate. "I think.." Ike began carefully, "that it will work out all right if we stay out of it, Jade. Just let Tay handle her. He can." he told her and reached for her hand under the table, giving it a squeeze. "Okay. If you think so. But I know Jamie, and her head is hard as a rock..." she smiled brightly when she saw him grinning indulgently at her. "Okay okay. I am out of it..jeez." she laughed. "That's better.." he squeezed her hand again, then kept it in his grasp as they talked about other things. He watched her face as she spoke, totally amazed at how beautiful she was, how her dimples came out and her eyes sparkled when she smiled. He loved how she brushed her curls out of her eyes every time she laughed. He wanted to reach out and stroke her cheek, cup her face in his hands, kiss her again, like he had earlier. he wanted to dig his hands into those silky curls and anchor them there while he tasted her sweet lips over and over. Jade was having trouble keeping her breathing even, and her mind on the conversation. All she was aware of was Isaac's strong warm hand covering hers and the fact that his eyes never left her face as she talked. She desperatly wanted to scoot closer, feel herself surrounded by his strong embrace, her cheek pressed against his chest and breathe his scent in deeply. She wanted him to kiss her again, like he had earlier, and let herself get lost in it, let herself get lost in his warm, brown gaze. She wanted to rake her fingers through his soft gold tinged curls, stroke his cheek, hold him close. She listened as he talked animatedly about some of the new music he'd picked up and grinned widely as he made suggestions as to what he though she'd like. She found herself running the pad of her thumb over the top of his hand as he talked and decided she wanted time to stand still, right then. |