Taylor and Coralee were nearly at Coralee's house, and both hysterical. They had fallen countless times, sometimes pulling each other down as they went. Both were pretty much drenched with melted snow, and Taylor's blond hair had turned brown from moisture.
Coralee jammed her key in the door, and opened the door. There was still no one home, thank goodness.
Taylor stood in the doorway, taking in his new surroundings curiously. Coralee grinned.
"Well, come in!!" She exclaimed, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside so she could slam the door.
"You like Hawaiian pizza?" Coralee asked as she turned up the central heating as high as it would go.
Taylor smirked.
"Well, yeah, who doesn't?"
"Ok just checking!! You can help me heat it up. I can't use microwaves."
"You what?" Taylor laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Coralee groaned. "But I'm a terrible cook, and I don't want to blow something up just yet."
"Well, hate to disappoint you, but I'm not gonna be much better!!" Taylor grinned.
"Ok, well, maybe two clueless people will make a slightly smarter person, maybe."
Taylor gave her a strange look.
"Ok, forget it!! Let's just try not to end up with a lump of charcoal!!" Coralee exclaimed. Taylor grinned, and followed her into the kitchen.
"Hey, let's heat this up!!" Taylor exclaimed, and began to put a can of soup into the microwave.
"Taylor no!!" Coralee shrieked, and grabbed the can from him.
"I'm kidding!! I'm kidding!!" Taylor laughed. "I'm not that clueless!!"
Coralee smiled incredulously.
"Jeez, you nearly gave me heart failure!!"
"Sorry!!" Taylor giggled, and examined the pizza. "Ok, let's heat this baby up!!"
The pizza actually didn't turn out too bad. They proudly grabbed their creation, and took it to Coralee's room to eat on the floor. Taylor scanned her room curiously, and his eyes fell on a poster of himself and his brothers. He raised his eyebrows, and Coralee caught Taylor staring at himself.
"Yes, I am a fan." Coralee said, answering Taylor's question before he asked it. "You just wait a few more weeks and you won't be able to walk in here without hearing yourself singing Christmas Carols."
"You have 'Snowed In'?" Taylor asked.
"Sure do. I miss Christmas Carols you know. You can only play them for about one month in the whole year. I can't wait till I can play them again."
"I love Christmas." Taylor sighed, smiling.
"Yeah me too. My brother likes birthdays better then Christmas, but I definitely like Christmas."
"Oh yeah definitely!! Because Christmas involves everyone. Everyone gets into the Christmas spirit and for once everyone seems happy. I love it."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Coralee agreed, enjoying this deep and meaningful side of Taylor emerging. "The Christmas holidays are always the happiest."
"Hmm, yeah, that's what I thought until these holidays came along." Taylor mumbled with frustration, and moved position so he was sitting alongside Coralee.
"Why?" Coralee asked.
Taylor gazed up into her eyes. Why not? He asked himself. They always say talking to someone makes things easier. So, Taylor proceeded to tell Coralee everything that had gone wrong in his miserable holidays.
"Nothing seems to have gone right." He finished sadly, pouting.
"You met me." Coralee said, smiling softly.
Taylor looked up, and smiled back shyly.
"Yeah, I did."
Hardly realising what he was doing, Taylor began to lean into Coralee's face. Her reflexes responded, and she did the same.
For a captivating moment, they stared into each other's faces. Then Taylor let his instincts go, lent in, and kissed her. In that single fragment of time, a thousand sparkling, exceptional emotions that neither knew existed flourished from deep within their hearts. Rainbows and sparkling waterfalls and lollypops and icy poles on a hot day and stars on a cloudless night and that feeling when you wake up on Christmas morning all rolled together couldn't start to describe the Elysium beauty of that kiss.
Taylor lent back again, staring at her wondrously, his lips tingling. Coralee gazed back into his eyes in an enchanted daze. Suddenly, Taylor snapped out of it, and smiled before looking away shyly. Coralee smiled, and looked down at her feet. When she looked back at Taylor she was glad to see he was blushing too.
"Coral, can I ask you a question?" Taylor whispered.
"Yeah sure." Coralee answered, glancing up at him.
"Will you be my girlfriend?"
Coralee looked up in shock into Taylor's hopeful eyes. He was dead serious. His words shattered every shred of doubt in Coralee's mind over their relationship, and her heart was filled with glowing, sparkling fragments of heaven.
"Yes." She whispered.
Taylor smiled, and tried to control his thumping heartbeat.
"Wow." He whispered disbelievingly. Coralee smiled at him. He glanced back at her, flashing an absolutely gorgeous smile. "Hey, I guess these holidays aren't going so bad after all." He said.
"I guess not." Coralee agreed, smiling.
Taylor looked up to the window, watching the fluffy white flakes floating down.
"Man, it's still snowing." Taylor exclaimed.
"Good. Snow's my second most favourite thing in the world." Coralee sighed, putting her hands behind her head, and leaning back on the floor.
"What's your favourite?"
"The stars." She whispered, getting up and touching a crystal star on a string, which was hanging from her roof.
"When I was seven, I made a wish on a star that one day Ike, Zac and I would become famous, and be able to play music for people all around the world." Taylor said dreamily, gazing at the crystal star twisting on its string.
Coralee looked at Taylor in fascination.
"Wow, that's so cool. Do you believe in wishing on stars?"
"Yeah, I guess I do."
"I think I do too." Coralee said softly, looking up at her star again.
Her thoughts were harshly interrupted by the front door of the house opening, and slamming shut.
Coralee frowned, and stuck her head out of the door, looking down the stairs.
"Lleyton?" Coralee exclaimed. He looked up in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Lleyton frowned.
"I live here, stupid."
With that, he began to come up the stairs. Coralee turned, and raced back to her room. Taylor was standing curiously in the doorway.
"Get in." Coralee hissed, grabbed his hand and pulling him into her room.
She closed the door, and put her finger to her lips.
"Why?" Taylor whispered.
"Because my brother hates you."
"Why?"
"That's what I'd like to know. He hasn't met you, and you can't hate someone you haven't met."
"But Coral, he's gonna have to meet me sooner or later. Might as well be now."
Coralee glanced at Taylor, and sighed.
"Ok, but anything he says or does is not my responsibility in any way, ok?"
"Ok."
Coralee took a deep breath, and opened the door. Lleyton had his back to her, and was half way down the stairs.
"Lley?" She called.
Lleyton turned around, and his mouth dropped open when he saw who was standing beside his sister.
"This is Taylor. Tay, this is my brother, Lleyton."
"Hey!!" Taylor smiled, and gave him a little wave.
Lleyton's mouth closed, and he frowned.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, nothing much really."
Lleyton scowled, and walked away.
"It was nice to meet you." Taylor called after him.
"Eat my shorts!!" Lleyton yelled back, quoting his hero Bart Simpson, and ran off.
Taylor couldn't help giggling.
"He's funny." He said.
Coralee rolled her eyes, knowing she was lucky that nothing more evil had spilled from Lleyton's lips.
"Why must I have such an obnoxious creation as a brother?"
Taylor smiled, and shrugged.
"Ok, let's go back in here before he says something else." Coralee sighed, and walked back into her room.
Coralee and Taylor locked themselves in, and talked for over two hours. Taylor insisted on kissing her between conversations, much to Coralee's surprise and delight.
The phone rang, and Lleyton answered it downstairs.
"Hello?"
"Uh, hi!! This is Diana Hanson. Is Taylor there?"
"Um..." Lleyton stalled. "Yeah I think. Do you want me to get him?"
"Oh no, that's fine. Could you just tell him that he needs to come home, because we're going out for dinner."
"Uh, yeah, sure."
"Thankyou!! Bye."
"Bye."
Lleyton hung up the phone, and smirked. Give Taylor Hanson a message from his mum? As if!!
An hour later, Taylor decided that he'd better get in contact with his family. Coralee led him to the phone, and slumped on the couch as she listened to Taylor's phone call.
"Hey Ike, its Tay." The emotions in Taylor's voice changed, and Coralee turned to watch his facial expressions. "Huh? Why? No, of course not!! Let me talk to her." Taylor turned to Coralee, his expression worried. "Mum's mad at me for something." Coralee frowned. Taylor looked back to the phone. "Oh mum? Well…no, I…no!! No I didn't!! No I'm not!! No I just left early. But no, I didn't know. Um, yeah, ok. Bye."
Taylor put down the phone, and stared up at Coralee a confused expression on his face.
"What?" She asked.
"You know, my Mum said..."
At that moment, Lleyton walked through the room.
"Hi Tay." He said casually.
Taylor's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Lleyton, did you..."
"Oh yeah, your mum rang ages ago, and she wanted you to come home straight away. Sorry, I must have forgotten." Lleyton said, putting on an innocent face, and then smirking.
"Lleyton!!" Coralee yelled furiously. "You little bastard!!"
Lleyton shrugged, and ran up the stairs before his sister could declare war on him. Coralee turned to Taylor.
"Oh Tay, I'm so sorry about that." She said.
Taylor shrugged it off.
"Hey, you said anything he does isn't your responsibility, right? So don't apologise for him."
Coralee sighed.
"He is such a little prick. I can't believe he did that. Now your parents are going to hate me."
"No they're not!!" Taylor exclaimed, walking over and hugging her.
Coralee realised then what a simple hug can do to your emotions. She felt incredibly comforted being that close to Taylor.
"My mum is coming to pick me up now, so she'll be here any minute." Taylor sighed.
"Oh." Coralee said, unable to hide her disappointment.
Taylor giggled, loving the attention he was receiving from her.
"Hey, I'll see you tomorrow won't I?" He said happily.
"Really?" Coralee asked hopefully, gazing into his happy blue eyes.
"Yeah!! You can come to my house. You, know, I live five minutes from here, in Sinclair St."
"Sinclair St?" Coralee questioned thoughtfully, searching her memory.
"Yeah, it's really near here. I'll ring you tomorrow morning ok?"
"Ok!!"
Taylor and Coralee looked up as a car horn honked outside.
"That's mum." Taylor sighed, gazing into Coralee's eyes.
"Ok, well, bye." She replied.
Taylor smiled, and kissed her softly.
"I'll miss you." He stated gently.
Coralee smiled, his words lighting the candle of her heart.
"Hey, me too."
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"
"Ok bye."
"Bye Coral."
With that, Taylor closed the door, and was gone. Coralee sprinted to her room, and pressed her nose to her window. Taylor limped out to the car over the snow in his socks, hugging his rollerblades to his chest. He hopped into the car with a glorious cheerful smile on his face, and slammed the door. Coralee stared out at the fluffy snowflakes as Taylor's car pulled away out of view. Suddenly, Coralee's stunned face broke into a wide smile.
"Oh my gosh, I think I'm in loooove!!" She exclaimed loudly, falling back on her bed in bliss.
Lleyton stuck his head into her room.
"Ah, go stick you head in elephant crap." He said.
Coralee grinned, and stuck her tongue out. There was nothing anyone could do to dampen her spirits at this point in time. She was going out with the finest, most fantastically wonderful guy in the world as she knew it, and millions of girls would give anything to be in her place. She had never felt better in her life.
It had been five days since Taylor asked Coralee to be his girlfriend. Every single day the couple had travelled around Tulsa together, becoming more and more adoring of each other every minute. It had been an enchanting few days that were so special that both knew they would remember them for the rest of their lives. Now, they were currently sitting through their third movie together, and for the first time in five days Taylor was feeling horrible. He hadn't felt 100% that morning either, but there was no way he was missing a day with Coralee, so he ignored his feelings. But now, judging from the dizzy spells and the splitting headache, Taylor knew something was wrong. He sighed, and wriggled down further in his seat, resting his head in his hand and frowning. Coralee glanced at him, taking in his body language and expression.
"What's up Tay?" She asked softly.
"I don't feel so good." Taylor complained, glancing up at her with his best puppy dogface.
Coralee bit her lip sympathetically and pulled his rats tail affectionately. "Uh oh. You ok?"
"Yeah. I'll be ok." He answered, and turned back to the movie. It was nearly finished anyway.
Coralee reached over and took Taylor's hand gently. He smiled, and lent his head against her shoulder. One thing he was getting out of this was attention from Coralee, and he treasured that greatly. It wasn't that he didn't get attention from her. Coralee wanted to spend every hour of every day with him, and he knew that. It was just that Taylor had known no greater feeling of contentment then when Coralee fussed over him.
The movie finished, and the credits starting rolling.
"Do you want to go home?" Coralee asked, squeezing Taylor's hand.
Taylor nodded, running his hand through his hair feverishly.
"Ok, let's go." Coralee said.
Taylor allowed her to lead him out of the cinema. Coralee turned to her boyfriend and looked him over in concern. Taylor's cheeks were flushed, and his usually bright blue eyes were dull and tired.
"Oh Tay, you look really sick." She said, gazing into his eyes.
"Really?" He asked sadly.
"Yeah. Come on, I'm gonna get dad to drive us home."
Coralee rang her father, and Taylor lent against the phone, watching her sadly. He hated getting sick, it was such a waste of life. And if he really was sick he was going to miss some precious time with Coralee. After New Years Eve it would be a matter of days until they were off on international tour. After Coralee had organised everything, she turned to Taylor, and hugged him. Taylor rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. Coralee stroked his back.
"Oh, don't get sick Tayles." She said softly.
Taylor pulled back and gazed into her eyes.
"I don't want to, believe me. And I don't want you to get sick either, so I'm going over here now." With that, Taylor walked about four meters away, and stared at her plaintively from a distance. Coralee grinned.
"That's real sweet Angel Tay, but I don't intend to let you get away that easily." She walked over to him, and took his hand.
"Come on, dad will be here soon." Coralee smiled, and walked off, leading Taylor behind her.
© 1997 imaginehanson@hotmail.com
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