Dayna felt her whole body instantly warm up and stop shivering the moment his lips touched hers. Her arms came around his neck, as if they had a mind of their own. He parted her lips with his tongue and plunged in when she intinctively opened her mouth slightly to let him in. He kept a firm grip on the back of her head and around her waist, determined not to let her out of his arms until she knew that he wouldn't let anything stand in their way. He felt her relax as her fingers twisted into the back of his hair and he loosened his grip on her slightly, pulling his coat more firmly around her shoulders. "Day.." he whispered, holding her against him when they had to separtate to breathe. "It's so cold...you still feel cold...let me take you home.." He was caressing her arms underneath his coat and even though she had stopped shivering her skin was like ice. She looked at him then and Taylor's heart started to beat out of his chest. She loved him! He could see it in her eyes, but there was something else there, too. She was afraid, afraid to let herself love him. "Day..come on, baby..." he urged, pulling her with him toward his car. He opened the door and put her in the car, then got in on his side. He started it and turned up the heat, making himself uncomfortable, for the couple of blocks to her place. He looked at her again as he pulled into her driveway and parked behind her car. She was sitting with her knees up and her head down and he knew she was crying again. Taylor got out of the car, went to her side and helped her from the car. He walked her to the door and took her keys when she pulled them from her pocket. He unlocked her door and was about to follow her into the house, but she placed her hands on his chest and stopped him. "Angel...please...I don't want to put you through that. Your music..your career..baby you work so hard.." she whispered. "It hurts so much..please don't make it worse. I do love you angel..I do. That's why we can't....I love you.." she whispered again and started to close the door. "NO!!! DAY!!!" he cried and stuck his body inside before she could lock him out. He was still in shock that she had said the words, words he wanted to hear from her forever, and she was still trying to push him away. "PLEASE ANGEL..." she begged, her voice barely audible. "Please.." tears rolled down her face and she was shaking again. |
| "Please what, Day? Huh? Walk out of here and let the best thing that ever happened to me slip away? And for what? What other people think? NO!! I won't do it Day...all I ever think about is you, where you are when we're not together, wondering if you're thinking about me. Counting minutes until I can see you again..DAY..I LOVE YOU..since I was sixteen I've loved you. Think about it Day..when I was not gone and you were in my house, where was I? And when we were just getting in from wherever we were...I couldn't wait to see you, tell you everything. When my mother would do her Christmas shopping, she'd ask ME, Day..ME what you would like most. Day, she knew before we did..." he said and stopped, searching her face for some kind of signal, to either keep talking and MAKE her see, or to pull her into his arms and make love to her, show her how he felt. Tears streamed down her face as she stood before him, unable to speak. She was still trying to let his revelation soak in, that was so long ago..and he remembered everything. "It's not like I don't know what it's like to be with someone else..you know I've dated, same as you. But Day..it's you I always think of first. Day...I love you...please don't push me away.." Dayna sat down heavily on the couch and put her head in her hands as Taylor stood waiting for her to say something, anything. |
| Dayna's head was reeling and her heart was pounding wildly. All she really wanted to do was take him in her arms and love him, hold him, let him know that she was his. But how could she? Not when she was still working for his parents, and she could see the headlines in the tabloids now. Yes, when he was with her, she would forget that everyone in this blasted town knew him, what he did. She had been working in the house plenty of times when Mr. Hanson, or someone who worked for them, would have to go outside and run off hyper and crazed fans, trying to peek in the windows. There were also a few times that she had to wait to leave, for the same reason. He made it so easy to forget all that, but the world would not. She sobbed even harder into her hands. "No...angel...no..." she whispered, covering her ears and curling into a ball on the couch. He started to speak and she covered her ears more tightly, trying to save herself from the pain of his beautiful words. "DAY!! DON'T!!" he yelled, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. "Don't do this please.." he took her face in his hands, to make her look at him, but she only squeezed her eyes closed more tightly. "Ohgod Angel..I'm so sorry..so sorry.." she sobbed. "I can't do that to you..I can't.." "So break my heart instead? 'Cause that's what you're doing, Day...LOOK AT ME..." he shook her again, and she opened her tear filled eyes. She quickly looked at her hands in her lap, unable to bear the pain she saw in his eyes. "Yeah..and how will you feel when you can't do what you love so much? You will only be sorry later on angelface.." she said. "STOP!" he said angrily, "Don't sit here and call me that when you're ripping my heart to shreds, Day. I need you... stupid tabloid press blows over..this..how I feel about you will NOT." he told her and then let go of her. She shrunk back again and pulled her knees to her chest, buried her face and sobbed. He sat next to her while she cried, not knowing what to do next. "Day...I love you. I'll wait... I told you I'd wait forever and I will. I just hope it doesn't take that long.." he said softly, stood up and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him. Dayna pulled the blanket off the back of the couch around her, suddenly cold and tired. "I'll miss you angel.." she whispered and cried herself to sleep. Taylor sat in his car at a loss, unable to make himself start the car and leave her here, but unable to make himself go back and MAKE her let him in. His heart felt like someone was twisting a knife over and over inside it. He put his head down on the steering wheel and cried, feeling helpless and suddenly very alone. |
| Finally Taylor wiped his eyes and started his car. He drove home a long, roundabout way, not wanting to see anyone when he got in. He got his wish, he thought as he pulled up to the dark house. He parked his car, shoved his wallet and keys in his coat pocket, quietly opened the door and went inside. He was almost to the hallway leading to his room, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see his mother standing there, looking concerned. "Is everything okay, honey?" she asked him. His eyes filled up again and he could only shake his head, no. "Oh honey.." his mother took his hand and pulled him into the family room. "Taylor, she'll get over it..she will.." she said and held him while he cried softly. "I knew you two would end up together, I just didn't think it would happen before she finished school, honey. Just give her some time.." "Mom.." he said quietly. "I'm alright now, I will give her time, I told her I would. But...I just want to go to sleep now, okay?" "Okay honey..and your father feels awful, you know that.." she said. "I know, Mom. If it wasn't him, it would have been something else. She' s scared, but I don't know why. G'night Mom.." "Goodnight, Tay." Taylor fell into bed, still fully dressed, buried his face in his pillow and finally, after what seemed to be an eternity fell asleep. |