four - hey, darling.

When Taylor woke up at around 10 the next morning, it was to an empty bed. He got up groggily and stumbled his way into the bathroom, not really thinking twice about it. Hayley always managed to wake up and leave before he could even get comfortable with her presence.

He washed his face quickly and padded his way back into his room and over to his bedroom door, thoughts of Fruity Pebbles and ice cold milk floating around his head. When he came out, he saw his older brother sitting at the kitchen island, munching away at his own bowl of cereal while he flipped idly through a guitar magazine.

"Where's Mom?" he asked Justin as he reached for the stack of letters on the counter. Bill, bill, junk letter, junk letter. He tossed the pile to the side; nothing new from his dad.

"She went grocery shopping with Hayley," Justin said, tipping his bowl up to his mouth so he could drink the milk. Taylor froze. With Hayley? He hadn't exactly told anyone in his family about the impromptu slumber parties he'd been having with the girl; partly because she was always gone before anyone figure out she had been there and partly because it would have been really awkward.

"By the way, nice job, sneaking a girl in here. I've tried before, and it's nowhere near as easy as you made it look," Justin smirked, getting up to take his bowl over to the sink. As soon as he got up, the front door opened, and Mrs. York stepped in lugging about 4 bags of seemingly heavy groceries.

"A little help, boys," she called. "Two tiny girls can't carry in all the groceries."

Taylor got to his feet and headed towards to door. As he tried to exit, he almost collided with the short girl lugging 3 bags of her own. He reached out to retrieve them from her when he noticed her hair.

The normally yellow-blonde girl stood in front of him with pale orange hair, her now too-long bangs pushed to the side. On anyone else, he would have thought it looked weird, but it just made her green eyes all the more beautiful.

She chuckled a bit and handed him two of the three bags, using her now free hand to pull at a piece of her hair.

"I needed a change," she said.

3 hours later, the two were lounging in Taylor's room, him seated on the bench at the foot of the bed trying to put finishing touches on a song they had been working on, while she laid with her torso hanging off the side of the bed, big Skullcandy headphones framing her face. Every so often, Taylor would look over to her and marvel. Only she could take a risk as big as orange hair and make it look amazing.

The boy shook his head, and set his guitar back on its stand. He'd work on the song later, since Hayley didn't seem to be in any rush to get it done. He opted instead for climbing up onto the bed next to the bottom half of her body and leaning on his elbows to look over the side of the bed. Undoubtedly, all the blood was rushing fast to her brain, but she didn't seem to be making any move to flip herself upright. She had her hands behind her head and was softly humming the lyrics to a Panic! At The Disco song Taylor vaguely recognized.

Taylor was just about to ask her what song when she unexpectedly flipped herself upright. The look in her eyes was a strange one, and Taylor thought maybe she was going to kiss him again, when she suddenly started tickling him.

Now, no one besides his close immediate family and the girl next to him knew that Taylor was incredibly ticklish on his back. And she seemed to be using this knowledge to her advantage, because he was desperately giggling and trying to wriggle away from her within seconds.

He pulled himself up so that he was on his knees, and she was still trying to reach around him to get to his back. "No, you don't," he said, and reached to grab her wrists. He got them and put them together in one of his hands before he reached towards her and began tickling her tummy with the other. She was giggling and writhing before he even touched her, knowing what was coming. Though she was small, she was strong for her size, and she wrestled one of her wrists from the boy's grip and resumed her own tickling.

And just like that, they were in an all out tickling war, both of them nothing but giggles and laughs. It was a relief from the stress and confusion of the previous day. As a matter of fact, it was almost like the events of the day before had been completely forgotten, like they had been washed away down the sink with the dye in the girl's hair.

10 minutes later, the war ended, and the two lay side by side on the floor, panting lightly. Taylor's arm had somehow ended up behind the girl's neck, and she was using it like a cushion of sorts. Taylor lifted the hand up to play with her orange hair.

"Why orange?" he asked. Not that he was complaining; somehow, orange suited the girl. But he'd been wondering since he saw her why she had chosen such an odd color.

The girl simply shrugged and reached up a hand to grab the one of his that was playing in her hair. "I have a feeling the next few months of my life are gonna be really weird. So I needed something weird to match."

She then smiled at him, a smile he thought he might never see again after how sad she had looked the day before. He had to return the smile, and he did, in earnest.

They had been so content, smiling and looking and holding hands, that they hadn't even heard the door open.

"Why are you on the floor?"

Taylor scrambled to stand up, like he had been caught doing something wrong, but then realized that his brother probably already thought Hayley and Taylor had hooked up the night before.

"Is there a reason you're in here?" Taylor asked, looking down to see Hayley sitting cross legged, still on the floor.

Justin shook his head, dismissing his younger brother's weird actions with a wave of his hand.

"I'm just here because Mom wants to head to Chili's for lunch and would like to know if you and your orange haired friend would care to join us."

Taylor rolled his eyes and looked back down at the girl. "You up for some Chili's?"

Hayley looked surprised, like she hadn't expected to be invited along. Taylor remembered that she didn't really get to go out much; her mom still wasn't all right in the head. Most of the time, the girl had to cook for herself. She looked up to Taylor and nodded, with a smile on her face.

"We're coming."