Chapter 9
Isaac could still hear his brother and his best friend babbling on about Kendra's abrupt exit behind him.
"Must have brought back memories she'd been trying to forget." Taylor joked.
They were quite the pair Isaac had to admit. Between Taylor's perfection and Kale's sinister sense of humour it seemed they brought out the worse in each other to bring out the best.
"I gotta bug her about that tonight." Kale laughed as they rounded the corner onto the porch.
Isaac had plunked himself on one of the steps to get a breath of air. The good thing about finishing off the CD in L.A. had been missing a great deal of Tulsa's winter. He smiled as Taylor and Kale took seats just below him. Kale had always hated the band. He hadn't liked the music and didn't like sharing his friends. It seemed like they only came home to leave again, something Kale had never respected.
"So where are you gonna go now?" Was how he had greeted them when they showed up on the Carlos' front porch that morning. The sad thing was, they were planning on going to Germany in two days and there was no sign of being back anytime soon
"Dad wanted us to be home by 12:00 so maybe we should head off now." Isaac suggested standing up. Kale grunted.
"You wanna come?" Isaac asked knowing there was nothing serious about to happen at home.
Kale agreed under the terms that there was to be no talk of Germany at any time. It took a while to get Zac away from Leena but eventually he budged promising to be back for dinner.
~~~*~~~
As it turned out Walker had only wanted to bring the boys out for lunch. He smiled broadly as he took the boys' orders and headed to the cahier's almost skipping. None of the four boys could blame him for being excited. Nowadays the chances they had to enjoy old fashioned Tulsa fast-food together were few and far between. They used to do it every other Saturday.
"So what's up with you and Kendra these days?" Kale snickered.
"Do you think someone should help dad with the orders?" Taylor worried, sitting up from the booth.
"He's fine Taylor. I don't know you're talking about, Kale." Isaac retorted, while pulling Taylor down by the shoulders.
Zac gave Kale a curious stare wanting to be filled in. More that happy to harp on the subject, Kale exaggerated the occurrences of the day,
". . . and then she was all like, 'I've seen you naked!'"
"Oh!" Zac clapped his hands delighted and leaned closer to hear better since Kale was opposite him.
" '. . . so don't talk about weird shaped things on me!'" Kale continued laughing. Isaac rolled his eyes.
"Then Ike stands up, all full of himself and says, 'I like looking at you.'" Kale mimicked in a deep seductive voice. Isaac slapped his hand on the table laughing, "Dude, I so did not say that!"
Kale shrugged and continued. "Something like that, then he goes 'and it's been a while since we've been naked together.'"
Zac and Taylor burst out laughing which only spurred Kale on.
"Then he gives her this 'Hi I'm a sex pot' smile and turns to leave. Oh! You gotta see the walk he did," Kale stood up pushing passed Taylor to the hall. Then, looking over his shoulder he repeated, "it's been a while since we've been naked together." and strutted off, flexing his muscles and puffing out his chest all while swaggering his none existent hips. A table of four girls behind the boys' booth laughed not knowing the whole joke. Taylor covered his face with embarrassment. Kale fed on the attention like sugar. Slapping his butt he swaggered back to the table, "You know you want it." He joked, winking at the girls before he slipped back into the booth.
"Guy, you're insane I did not do that." Isaac said catching his breath from laughing.
"Looked that way to me." Kale smiled as Taylor shoved him playfully but ordered him to stop making a fool of himself.
"What? They liked it." Kale flashed a killer smile at one of the girls in the other booth who was facing them. She waved back as proof. "See guy? It's cool."
Taylor waved at the other girl facing him. She kept staring at him, he was still blushing from Kale's escapade. She looked vaguely familiar but he couldn't place her.
"See guy, that's how you get the girls. You make them laugh. Right buddy." Kale smiled at Zac.
"Don't even get me started with that. Girls are more trouble than they're worth."
"Going gay?" Kale joked.
"No!" Zac defended himself. "I just got girl troubles coming out of my ears."
"Well at least you've been getting some." Taylor interjected.
Kale gasped looking at Zac with new eyes, "You've been getting some?!" Taken aback Zac laughed shaking his head.
"Well not some, some." Taylor corrected, "But some, something. Ikey here hasn't had a date in ages!" Taylor pointed out.
"Last month!" Isaac defended.
"That's pretty pathetic for a 19 year old." Kale acknowledged.
Isaac slouched, shrugging his shoulders. "Whatever, so the girls just aren't biting lately."
"Lately! Guy, you've been going on about two dates a month for a while now." Taylor corrected loudly. "And they've all pretty much sucked. Aren't you supposed to be some big Romeo or something?"
"Well we aren't all built like Brad Pitt." Isaac joked.
"No," Zac built on it, "We don't all look like Taylor Hanson!" He said in a high hysterical voice.
"Funny," Taylor rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying Ikey sure can pick 'em. If you want the only wench in a crowd of 3000 chicks, find the girl Ike's asking out."
Isaac couldn't deny the truth of that statement. He had been interested in five girls since he got out of the hospital in November. Now it was early March and he'd been used twice, slapped once and the other two, only strung him along.
"Yeah, girls are all finks." He complained. "They can all just go and freak themselves for all I care."
Zac played shocked. "Clarke Isaac such language!"
Isaac laughed "Well I'm not letting them make me sware. They suck!"
"You're right!" Kale agreed. "Embrace your gay side."
"What?!" Isaac couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Well, all the little girls suck so why not play with the big boys." Kale was, yet again speaking more for the eavesdropping girls in the next booth.
"No way guy, I could never do that." Isaac shook his head.
"Why not? It'd certainly help out your love life." Taylor added.
"Not even, all the little boys are obsessed with you two." Isaac said pointing to his two brothers.
"Well maybe if you just said you were thinking about being gay." Taylor suggested.
"Then the guys would want to get with me to convert me." Isaac followed. "But that's not a very good way to start a rela. . . wait a minute! I'm not even gay! I don't want guys I want girls!"
"Then say your name is Taylor Hanson." Kale joked.
"But I don't think you're playing the girls right." Taylor continued. "You've always been right there to romance them, but girls always want the unattainable."
"The other man. So why don't you just fake a girlfriend." Kale added. "Then the girls would come flying like flies to shtick."
"The language at this table. Oh my virgin ears!" Zac laughed.
"First of all I'm not dog crap thank you very much, Kale." Isaac corrected. "Second, they'd want to meet my girlfriend and I'm not about to ask some chick to pretend to be my girlfriend 'cuz I don't got one yet."
"Then say you're gay!" Taylor interrupted.
"I am NOT GAY Taylor!"
"No, just say you are. What's a bigger challenge then getting a guy who likes other guys to like girls again." Taylor finished.
"Then you could be all like 'I don't even like you wench, where's your brother?'" Kale again assumed the role of Isaac. "And they'd be like, 'No, no take me! I'm hot! Look at my feminine wiles.' And you can be all like, 'I don't think I'm straight yet show me again.'" Kale laughed.
"Dude, you got issues." Isaac laughed.
"I got issues!" Kale was shocked. "You're the one pretending to be gay to get girls!"
"Oh yeah." Isaac thought for a moment, "Wait, NO! Taylor quite talking to me I'm NOT gay!"
"You're confusing him Taylor." Zac smiled. "But you know it would make family intros so much easier." He joked. "Hi I'm Zac the fat one, that's my brother Tay the good looking one, and that's my brother Ike the gay one."
"WHAT?!!"
Taylor managed to catch the tray of food his father dropped from shock. "What happened?!"
"Ike's gay." Zac helped. Walker's face froze in a look of horror.
"No, we were just saying . . . " Isaac panicked looking at his father. "Cause the girls weren't fetching."
"That's no reason to be gay!" Walker looked as though he was about to either hit Isaac or faint. Taylor played on that,
"So what are we gonna do know? Take him out side of the city and stone him?"
"What?" Walker was confused.
"Isn't that what the bible says to do with men who lye with men?"
Walker waved Taylor off. "That's the mosaic law only Jews follow that, Jesus cancelled it when he came. Isaac what's going on? There will be other girls."
Isaac's jaw had hit the floor making it too hard to speak.
"But didn't Jesus say that too?" Taylor asked.
"Jesus said, 'Love thy neighbour' not stone people." Zac answered.
"So if you were a Jew you'd have to kill him?" Kale was confused.
"I don't know! Ask a Jew!" Mr. Hanson was becoming frightened by Isaac's silence and annoyed with the others.
"But Jesus did say murderers, liars and men who lye with men or horses etcetera would not inherit the kingdom. In other words, god's bad books."
"Taylor you're confused." Zac replied, confused.
"I learned that like last week!"
"Well I'm going to hell." Kale thought out loud. "I lie all the time."
"Taylor are you gay?" Mr. Hanson asked.
"No."
"Then it does not concern you just forget about it." Mr. Hanson then turned to his other son. "Isaac are you gay?"
"No." He relied.
Walker sighed with relief. "Don't joke about such things. What if a reporter overheard?"
"So how do gay people deal with the bible thingy?" Taylor continued.
"Taylor you're confusing me." Kale rubbing his head.
"I don't know, just ignore that part." Walker was tired.
"We're allowed to ignore parts of the bible!" Zac piped up.
"Why do we waste so much time in Sunday school if you're just going to tell us to forget things?" Taylor accused.
"I'm going to go get the second tray of food." Walker sighed, walking away without a trace of a skip.
"First thing I'm gonna do next MTV awards is ignore that 'no murdering' part and wack off Carson Daily and Mandy Moore in the same swipe." Zac laughed. Suddenly as if a dark cloud had descended, Zac's smile faded and his face darkened. Quickly he turned to look out the window. Taylor watched as the girls in the other booth passed to go to the washroom. Zac hid his face with his long hair. The blond girl looked at him then squeezed Kale's right bicep as she passed. It only fed Kale's inflated ego. The other girl, who Taylor still could not place, beckoned for him to follow her. Something about the girl lured him. He pushed Kale out of his way and followed her down the hall.
"Now where's he going?" Mr. Hanson asked placing the drink cups on the table.
~~~*~~~
The girl had features like that of a porcelain doll. Naturally fare skin, blue eyes, red lips and long dark curls. Trying his hardest to be a gentlemen, Taylor tried to ignore the way her body curved as she walked. He couldn't help but think that Kale would have gotten more out of watching her, he could have perfected his 'I'm a sex pot' walk. She turned to make sure Taylor was still on her heels, she smiled seeing he was more on her hips then anything else, though he seemed to be trying to look away. She chuckled, flipping her hair.
Taylor followed her to the bathrooms where, to his surprise she separated from her friends and walked straight into the boys' room. He opened the bathroom door curious as to what he might find, and found himself being pulled dangerously close to the bold girl. She held him less than an inch from her face an arm wrapped around the back of his neck and the other around lowest part of his thin waist. She could feel the boy's muscles go tense in her arms.
"You react to women just like yo' baby bro." She spoke with a deep urban dialect than Taylor was unable to forget. This was the same girl he had met outside of the mall the day Zac had been beat up. She was playing around his waist in a way he wasn't comfortable with.
"What do you know about my little brother?" Was the first question of many swimming inside his head. The girl laughed and rubbed her hand up his back.
"You go'n ask me dat every time we meet Yo!"
How many meanings can the word yo have? Taylor thought. A man came out of one of the stalls and frowned at them. Taylor wanted to explained that this wasn't what it looked like.
"Oh that's just nasty!" The girl declared as the man left without washing his hands.
"Joelle." He made half an effort to push her away as he remembered her name. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm talking with you." She answered with a smile and blew him a kiss so close he could actually feel her lips near his.
"What do you want?"
"You." She whispered in his ear. She felt every muscle in his body freeze just before he pushed her a way in a panic. She tried not to laugh knowing she was too much for him. "You never called me."
"I didn't need you." He replied in a cool voice trying to clam down.
She laughed, "Dat's not jus' my business number boy." She went to embrace him again. He practically jumped into one of the urinals.
"You said to call you if I wanted to get those guys who beat up my brother, killed, put in jail or just scared. Now I don't want anything to do with them."
Accepting that, Joelle looked Taylor in the eyes. "And you told me dat if there's go'n be mo' trouble to tell you."
Taylor tried to understand her. "Is there going to be more trouble Joelle?" Taylor asked suspiciously.
She stared him down and walked up to him. "I hear you leaving the country. Dat true?"
Taylor nodded.
"You're better off then. Until dat happens though, you go'n need someone to watch dat sweetie brother of your's back."
Taylor looked at her blankly. "I don't understand."
Feeling the need to touch his cheeks she did so and pulled his face to hers once more, so that she could speak in the lowest of whispers,
"Zacy messed with the wrong chick. He didn't know he was doin' it 'til he did it." She explained. "Now he's got a rumble with her boyfriend and his pod and Zac's been doin' not'in but running. He gotta fix this before he get's his baby face smashed through. Got it?!"
Taylor was scared but did not get it.
"Get out of the country sweetie. And don't come back 'til a few of us girls can sweet talk the other man's mob, ok?" She tried being frank. He still looked confused. "Taylor honey, you too innocent to be mixed up in this." She whined out loud.
"Look," she was clear again. "Get yo' body guards in Tulsa 'til you leave and this time call me when you're in Germany. I'll let you know what's up."
Taylor accepted her phone number again. She kissed his ear and headed out of the boys room and into the girls. Taylor wished he had never met her as he left. He was too preoccupied to see the two red sneakers step off of the last stall's toilet and follow him out.