"Chad!" His heart started beating a little faster just hearing his name from her lips.
"Tay!" Trying to play it cool, he mimicked her urgency.
"Hey Chad, I need a boy-" He cut her off.
"You have come to the right place Ms McKessie, now what is it you would like me to do for you?" It was easier for him to pretend around her. She was the only girl with the ability to see through his attitude but when it came to his attitude for toward her, she either pretended, or she really didn't notice.
"Don't be gross Danforth. Look, it's Owen's birthday in a couple weeks and I wanna do something, you know, special." She trailed off and his overactive imagination brought multiple scenarios to his mind.
"Uh, define 'special' for me," he asked, trying to hide the mild panic he was feeling. Luckily for him, she either didn't notice or just ignored it.
"Chad! I don't know what I mean by special, I just want things to be good with him this year. I am so over drama." He could see on her face that she was thinking of the cheerleaders who constantly flirted with her boyfriend who wasn't always turning down their attention.
"Yeah, I'm tired of hearing about your drama too," he joked. "What do you need from me?"
"Well, you are a boy. What do boys like?" She looked at him with those big brown eyes and he forced himself to look away.
"Food," he answered her seriously. "Food and sports."
"What am I going to do with that? Cook him dinner in a cheerleading costume then let him watch a sports game?" His mind wandered to that possibility. "I don't think so. And stop imagining it."
Chad laughed at his best friend. "Sorry, I'm trying to imagine you full of school spirit. It's entertaining me."
Taylor pushed him. "I'm always full of school spirit at your games. Go Wildcats!" She started waving her arms in the air and jumping around the school corridor. "What team?"
"You're stealing my chant and I don't like that mocking tone," he managed to keep a straight face as she continued dancing around the almost deserted hallway.
"What team?"
"Taylor Annabelle McKessie, this is rude."
"What team?" She was in his face now, yelling straight at him.
"WILDCATS!"
"Wildcats?"
"Get your head in the game!"
Taylor smirked. "Good. You know for a minute I thought I was gonna have to turn you over to the cheerleaders for some brainwashing. Well at least they'd enjoy themselves."
Chad pulled a face. "Oh great, thanks. Are you still coming over? I need your help for the English homework..." he started pouting at her.
"Fine. But I'm staying for dinner."
"Uh, hello? My mother wouldn't feed me if she thought I'd said you couldn't." Chad was adamant that to his mother, Taylor was the daughter she'd never had. She was at his house more than his older brother; usually helping his younger's with their homework.
"True. I could tell her you almost wouldn't let me and Chaddy wouldn't get to eat..."
"You're evil." He picked her up around her waist and threw her over his shoulder as they exited the school building and headed to the parking lot, her kicking and squealing the entire time.
"Chad! You're all sweaty and stinky and gross!" she whined.
"Wow check out Ms Big Vocabulary there," he teased. "And I'll have you know I showered after practice. You on the other hand, stink of chemicals and brain power."
"Wow aren't we feeling intelligent, 'stinking of brain power'?" she muttered. "Put me down!" she hit his back once more.
"Not until you say 'Chad is the best, with the coolest hair and he doesn't smell one little bit'."
Taylor pretended to consider it. "How about I say 'Chad is okay, his hair is fluffy and he smells like gym'? Does that cover it?"
He shook his head. "No dice McKessie. Try again."
She was silent, which he took as stubbornness.
"Come on, it's not going to kill you."
"Chad." Her voice was so quiet, he could barely hear her. Placing her on the ground, he turned towards her to see what was affecting her. She pointed to a far corner of the parking lot, where Owen's car was parked. He was inside, and not alone. Taylor's boyfriend was making out with a cheerleader in broad daylight.
Suddenly, Chad was fuming. How dare he treat his best friend that way? Didn't his mother ever tell him how to treat a girl? It wasn't by forgetting the important dates and cheating on her. He should be making her laugh; feeling butterflies every time she smiled; letting her rest her head on his shoulder during long movies and putting up with her crazy mood swings. He had no right to treat any girl this way, let alone Taylor. She was special, and he would make him see that. He started towards the car, with every intention of starting a fight with the other boy, when he felt Taylor's hand on his chest.
"Chad, don't."
She was the only one who could have stopped him. He looked over at her. She was subdued now, her eyes slightly too bright as she looked at the ground, obviously close to tears.
"Can we just go please?"
Chad nodded and opened the passenger door to his truck and closed it after her. He walked to the driver's side slowly, pushing his hands against his forehead, trying to calm down. He took a deep breath as he opened the door, before slamming it and putting his seatbelt on.
"You okay?" In those two words he tried to convey so much to her. How angry he was with Owen. How frustrated he was that she continuously let his behaviour slide. How concerned he was with her silence. How he loved her. He had no idea what she would take from them.
A small nod was his reply and he started the engine and began to pull out of the parking lot and away from their school. After few moments of silence between them, Taylor's hand reached out to turn on his radio, just like she usually did, and Chad realised she was going to be all right.
She tuned it to a station that was halfway through a Taylor Swift song. His Taylor was obsessed with her, constantly making him listen to her music, and ignoring his constant pleas of veto, the system they had come up with years ago.
As she began quietly singing along, he realised that this song wasn't bad.
"You got a smile that could light up this whole town, I haven't seen it in a while since she brought you down. You say you're fine, I know you better than that. Hey, whatchya doing with a girl like that?"
She continued singing, oblivious to Chad watching her as closely as he could. He didn't know if he wanted to laugh out loud, or burst into tears. Settling for a sigh of his complete disbelief, he wondered once more if she even knew he felt the exact same way the song was describing, about her.
Shaking his head, he pulled into his driveway and let the song end, before switching off the engine.
"No veto?" she was looking at him with a curious expression.
"Would it have done me any good?" he grinned at her, his smile growing bigger as she shook her head and grinned back.
"Come on McKessie." He grabbed her bag and his own and went to open her door. She'd grown accustomed to his manners; something his mother had drilled into all of her son's when they were young.
"Hey Mom!" he called as he opened the front door for her. "Taylor's here."
"Hi kids!" she called back. "Kitchen!"
The two teenagers wandered through the house to the large kitchen, where Mrs Danforth was busy feeding Chad's youngest brother Jamie as he sat strapped in his high chair.
"Will brought Sammy home, Scott has Matt over and Liam's upstairs. I'm thinking we order Chinese food for dinner. Hi Taylor, is my son treating you well? How was school sweetie? Jamie, stop that. Chad can you feed him?" Mrs Danforth seemed to speak in one long, run on sentence.
"School was school, I always treat her well, sometimes too well, and sure thing. Hi Jamie, enjoy preschool today?" Though Chad denied it constantly, he had inherited his mother's talent.
Taylor made her way to a cupboard. "Tea, Karen?" she offered Chad's mother who accepted, before calling to her son's and their friends to get them in the room.
Half an hour later, Chad found himself on his laptop at his family's dining room table, surrounded by his younger brothers, their friends and Taylor, who were all doing their homework. His mother was a battleship.
He looked over at Taylor and watched her helping his little brother Liam with his math homework and smiled. They'd been friends for years, and she'd become a part of his family. Their relationship managed to be both like brother and sister, and like something more was possible. His mother loved her; his brothers definitely treated her like a sister. How could she not realise that he was perfect for her? Why did he keep going back to that Owen who treated her like crap? How could she not see that she was worth so much more than that?
His mother caught him looking and smiled at him. It was a knowing smile, and he suspected that she realised exactly how he felt about his best friend. He blushed, and looked back at the book report he was typing on Pride and Prejudice.
"Okay guys, I'm off to get dinner. Taylor's in charge." His mom burst out of nowhere some time later. Taylor herself smirked at Chad and stuck her tongue out at him, before he threw a pencil at her in retaliation. He stood and stretched, not caring that his shirt rode above the waistband of his jeans, before going to grab plates and glasses out of the kitchen cupboards.
Taylor and the boys started clearing everything off the table to set places. They didn't talk much, but Taylor started humming the same song that had been playing in Chad's truck, putting the words back into his head. You belong with me. He shook his head to clear it, and then put a jug of water on the table before taking his seat again and grabbing his laptop. At the bottom of what he had just written, were typed the words "CHAD SMELLS" in a bright green cursive script.
"Stealthy, McKessie," he muttered, before deleting the words. He then realised that in the few minutes he had taken, she had read through his report and edited it for him, correcting his typos and grammar.
The front door opened as his mother entered the house again, with his father following closely. Chad closed his laptop before being reprimanded, before his family sat at the same table to eat.
After a mostly uneventful meal, where Liam had made the mistake of asking for girl advice from Taylor and had been interrogated by both her and his mother for the next twenty minutes, Chad and Taylor were sitting in his bedroom together listening to her the same Taylor Swift song on her iPod.
"Don't you ever get sick of this stuff?" he asked Taylor, who was sprawled across the foot of his bed and shook her head.
"How?" he wondered aloud. "It's all the same."
"Only to the untrained ear," she laughed. "This is a song about a girl who is in love with her best friend and has to see him date a girl who's completely wrong for him. He doesn't see her as anything more than a friend, but she and him are so close, he doesn't see it." She said it to matter of factly, he couldn't believe it. How did she not realise that it was them?
And I stare at the phone,
He still hasn't called,
And you feel so low you can't feel nothing at all,
And you flashback to when he said 'Forever and always'
Were you just kidding?
"What is it with you and this girl?" Chad joked to Taylor as she scrambled for her phone.
"It's Owen. Um, can I use your bathroom?" Taylor asked, Chad nodded, knowing she wanted privacy, a sick feeling in his stomach.
Chad heard the murmurs of conversation float through the closed door, along with noises he knew meant Taylor was crying. After what seemed like an age to him, she opened the door back into his bedroom, eyes red and quiet again.
"Well?" he looked into her eyes, knowing already what she was about to say.
"Well what?" she challenged him, looking back at him defiant.
"What's happening with you two?" Chad asked her gently, hoping she wouldn't explode.
"Nothing's happening, everything's fine with us two," she sounded sarcastic, but angry enough for Chad to know that what he had to say next would be a mistake.
" Nothing is fine with you and Owen!" He couldn't stop himself; the words were already halfway out before he realised what he was saying. "He treats you like crap! He's cheating on you and he is breaking you apart! And the only reason I can see that, is because I am the one picking up the pieces day after day and I am sick of it Taylor. You're a smart, beautiful, incredible person and you deserve more than him and you can't even see it! I love you, so much, but I can't always be here to pick up what's left of you and I can't keep seeing you with him, it makes me want to kill him."
Taylor remained where she stood, shocked into silence.
"For a year I have seen the way he treats you and he's not worth you crying over him. But you know that too, I know you do. I don't know why you just sit back and let it happen. It makes me sick seeing you moon over him and hearing you make excuses for him and I am done with it. I'm not picking up the pieces this time Taylor. I can't do that anymore."
As he finished his speech, Chad was suddenly breathless, realising the weight of what he'd just told his best friend. Releasing all his anger and frustration, but telling her he loved her at the same time. He waited for her to respond, but nothing came.
"Tay, look I-"
"You have no idea. You have NO idea!" she shouted at him before grabbing her belongings and running from his room, slamming the door behind her.
Chad sighed. His mother knocked on his door a few moments later. "Everything okay, honey?"
"No," he answered her honestly. She took that as a cue to come in and sat on the edge of his bed.
"I heard what you said," she said it simply.
"I was horrible to her." At that moment, Chad wanted nothing more than to be five again and be able to run to his mom with a scraped knee for her to fix up.
"Listen to me baby and you listen good." Chad looked his mother in the eye. "You were honest with her. You were a good friend to her. Yes, she'll be mad for a while, but she'll know where you're coming from. I think part of the reason she was so upset was because you hit home with something. I know how you feel about her, and I know that seeing her with that boy has been hard for you, but you are a good kid and a good friend and you want what's best for her. She'll see that." She kissed him on the forehead.
"Why don't you grab a shower and head to bed, it's getting late and I know you'll be thinking for a while."
Chad smiled at her briefly and nodded. As he stood, his mother grabbed him in a hug, squeezing him tightly. "I love you baby boy. You're my favourite son."
"I bet you say that to all your sons. But I love you too mom."
"You're right, I do say that. Go take a shower honey."
She left and he did what she said. She was right; Taylor would forgive him in a few days, right?
More than a week had passed and it was the longest time in his life Chad had gone without speaking to his best friend. She was avoiding him in classes and hallways, sitting with Gabriella at lunch and walking home from school. There were rumours circulating East High that she was pregnant, on drugs or had an eating disorder, as well as one that said she and Owen had broken up. He'd tried talking to Gabriella about it, but she had simply smiled at him sadly and said he needed to ask Taylor. He tried. So many times over that week he tried to talk to her but she had walked away every single time.
It was 2am on a Thursday morning and he was listening to the rain pour down outside. He needed to talk to her. He needed to hear what she had to say.
Chad was the first person to admit that he could be impulsive, but it seemed like a great idea at the time. He had to go to her house now, make her see him and make her talk to him. Opening his window and grabbing his car keys, Chad began to climb down the tree outside in the warm rain. He got to his truck and began the familiar drive to Taylor's house, a thousand thoughts running through his head. Memories of their friendship and all the possible outcomes of his actions.
He thought back to the day Taylor received her first grade that was less than an A. They were in fifth grade and he had run over to her house as soon as he was allowed to, like now, he just needed to talk to her. He'd always been able to make her laugh and make her forget about the worst of her problems.
He wondered if she'd tell him she wanted to end their friendship.
He remembered another night, when he had driven to her house in the middle of the night when she was home alone and freaked out. He'd held her until she'd been able to sleep; it had been the best night of his life.
Inside of him, there was a glimmer of hope. Maybe she'd realised she wanted more from him.
Chad pulled into the McKessie's driveway and saw that all the windows were dark. Slowly and quietly, he opened the gate to the backyard to where he knew her bedroom was with its balcony. From the yard he could see the light of a computer keeping the room bright.
Now that he was here, he had no idea what he was going to do. Should he wait outside until the morning? Or climb the tree to the balcony like he had so many times before? He needed to see her, to explain how he felt to her, which he needed to do now. With that thought in his head, Chad began to climb the huge oak tree in the teeming rain.
He paused when he reached her balcony, thoughts of her reaction running through his head. After a moment of watching her sitting at her desk, face bathed in light from her laptop, he tapped gently on the glass of her balcony door.
She jumped a mile into the air, managing not to scream at the surprise. Quietly, she came over to the door and opened it, still blocking his entrance to the room.
"What do you want?" she asked him quietly.
Chad took a deep breath. Now was his time.
"Tay, I miss you. I can't apologise for what I said because I meant every word of it, but," he continued quickly, seeing her face darken. "I am incredibly sorry for the way I told you. You deserve so much more than him you deserve-"
She cut him off. "I deserve someone who will treat me well? Who will let me cry on their shoulder? Who lets me listen to my music, even when he doesn't like it?"
"Yes! You deserve someone like that! You have always deserved someone who knows just how lucky he is to be with you!" Chad forced himself not to shout at her in exasperation.
Taylor rolled her eyes and turned her face away from him, making him unable to read the expression in her eyes.
"Taylor, I," he sighed. "I love you."
She turned back to him, shock obvious one her face.
"I have loved you for so long. I hate seeing you with Owen. I had to tell you, I'm sorry."
She stayed silent for a few minutes.
"Taylor, say something." The panic was returning.
He ducked in time, barely, to avoid the blow that was coming to his head. He didn't manage to miss the next one that was aimed at his stomach, or the one after, that went for his head again.
"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Chad was stunned. He stopped listening to her, standing still as she kept swinging at him, before one sentence dragged him out of his freeze.
"Why did you wait so long?!"
He grabbed her hands as she started to hit him again. "What did you say?"
"I said, why did you wait so long? What the hell is your problem?! You are such a moron Chad! I can't believe you-"
He cut her off, kissing her on the mouth.
"I love you," he whispered when he pulled away.
Tears were streaming down her face. "Someone like you." She laughed at his confused expression. "You were saying I deserve someone like you. I want you. I love you."
He grinned at her, she smiled back, and then he kissed her again.