Here's a little flashback to where Taylor and Edward first got their start! I had a little help from my Best Buddy, she's amazing! Please review with any suggestions.
"Don't. You. Dare."." Seth Clearwater wasn't exactly my type. He was...how you say...different? Life to him was a big bowl of Fruit Loops. I sort of admired him for that. No worries. I could be like that. It was hard and sometimes required a few sedatives, but I could if I put my mind to it.
"Sure you don't, but he likes you." Taylor gave me her I-know-what-you're-thinking-I-think-and-it-involves-Seth-and-the-fact-you-like-him looks. It usually involved a few nudges to the closest body part in proximity to her, a slight tilt of the head, and what she thought to be a guilt trip smile.
"Doesn't work." I flatly said and gave her my version of the I'm-going-to-get-you-back-and-it's-not-going-to-be-pretty looks. Much the same as hers, minus the shoves, plus a twist of my own only someone who saw it could describe. Most people reacted to my looks. I had mastered almost every look imaginable, mystery, guilt, anger, (Especially anger, it was something that came naturally to me.) haven't gotten the completely nice one down yet, but I could do innocent.
"Okay then, whatever you say." She added with a Taylor signature, nervous laugh.
"He's going to come over here with all of what you say is gorgeous, I don't see it, but we all have our preferences." I shrugged her implicating look and winced, I knew what I set myself up for.
Taylor smiled, catching it. "And your preference is…SETH!" She yelled.
"Do you want to walk out of here on both limbs?" I hissed.
"Sure do...Got it, shutting up now." She closed her mouth and acted like she locked it.
That'll last long.
She unlocked herself. "He's not coming over here, shut up, I know what you're thinking, and you love Seth!" She spat out at me faster then anyone but me could find legible, and locked her mouth again.
"You're right I take all my precious time and fantasize about Granddaddy Long Legs over there." I motioned over to the group of huddled guys around a diagram of a plot to take over the world. Waffles. Huh, who would have thought it?
She unlocked herself once more.
"Would you stop doing that, we all know you're going to talk again?" I demanded. She was going to develop carpal tunnel soon if she kept that up.
Taylor took her already red face and pouted once more. "Fine, I'll never talk to you again Best Buddy, just for that. You'll regret it. And I was going to say you're taking a true remark and layering it with sarcasm to make it seem fake. I got you all figured out." She waved her finger in my face, like she knew what she was talking about.
Let her think. She hasn't done that in a while, it can't hurt...what about last time? Paper clips. A bad time in our lives. A typical teenage time where she thought she was a know it all. "You're right."
I interrupted her victory dance. "I know. What?"
"You're right."
"You're just saying that so I'll shut up."
"You're right."
I looked around the cafeteria while Taylor scanned my face. The arising body caught my attention from the table I had been checking on for Taylor. Edward.
"He's coming over here." I calmly said. She was sort of like a puppy, if you started to freak out, she would, too. But mostly she'd freak out anyway.
"Stop changing the subject. I am on to something big, extraordinary, astronomical—"
"He's coming." I hissed, quieter so maybe he couldn't hear.
"Will you stop interrupting me?" She said from between her teeth.
Taylor finally took the time to look at me and hear Edward speak. "Hey, Taylor.
She looked like a deer in headlights. I knew her mind had to blank. She just stared at me then scanned the lunchroom. What are you doing, Taylor? Come on, this is what we've discussed. Remember Tyler, what you went through. You learned how to use your words! Speak! You can do this! I tried to telepathically convey to her.
"Er...hey?" It didn't work. Work on telepathy skills. I made a mental note to do. Our closeness usually came in handy. We had a pretty good indication of what the other was thinking. It worked one way this time. I knew exactly what she was thinking. Oh, Lord, what do I do? While I think she was oblivious to what I was thinking. Play it cool. Act like this doesn't bother you. You like him. He likes you, no biggie! Taylor attempted a wave but it was more like shooing away a fly.
"How was your day?" Edward cautiously sat down beside me, in font of Taylor. Did I say you could sit there? Just because breathing the same air as you do turns Taylor into your little marionette doll does not give you the right to trounce…. Stop it! This is Taylor's moment.
"Fine?" She answered more like a question. Please say something intelligent! Please. Don't tell me all those long nights spent giving you advice were in vain!
"Are you okay?" Edward asked. He looked genuinely concerned. I could tell genuine looks from a fake one, I had mastered those as well.
"Um…er…um." Taylor sputtered and finally let out a defeated sigh. If she wasn't entrapped in his bile-colored eyes she would have put her head down on the table and secretly hoped he went away.
I had to jump in. I let out a howl of laughter that only Taylor and I knew was false. I laughed had for about ten seconds and started clapping my hands, making a mini scene in the cafeteria. "Bravo! Bravo! And the crowd goes wild. You were amazing." I turned to Edward who peered to my side like he thought I was having a breakdown right there. Yeah, that's right Bozo, you're involved with a couple of nutcases so why don't we all go our separate ways? The thought brought more laughter, real this time. I couldn't say that, Taylor would kill me. "She's rehearsing for this play where she has to pretend to be hypnotized." I pinched her leg under the table as I "slapped my knee in laughter."
She jumped and snapped her head to me in thanks.
I think it worked because Edward let out a sound that was I think a chuckle for him. He was superman to every other girl, but to me, he was a turn off with his "I'm better than you attitude." I was the only person allowed to think like that.
"So…I was wondering, since we have science together, and we have to work with a partner, would you want to work with me?" He smiled a crooked, slightly disfigured smile. In my eyes, it wasn't anything important, she blushed at the sheer thought of his smile.
"You, a partner with…me?" Taylor squealed. Her face got redder by the minute. Do it! Say yes. Y-e-s, it's not that hard, three letters.
"If you don't want to, I'll understand. I didn't mean to intrude, I just thought—"
Taylor's mouth hit the floor.
"Yes. She means yes. She was clarifying your response." I jumped in. Taylor didn't look like she was going to be up for speaking for a while. "Right, Taylor?" I urged.
"Right. I would love to be with you." She took in a deep breath like she was kicked in the stomach and her eyes shifted and she rubbed her neck, a nervous twitch. "I mean uh…well you know…work with you on the assignment is all. You know, lab partners or whatever. Not like dating or anything. Pfft. Right. Like we would date. Ha ha, funny." I took the foot closest to her and kicked her, not hard, but enough to get my point across for her to shut her Jabber jaws.
"Why didn't she say so herself?" Edward asked me, a little annoyance in his voice.
"Does it look like she has the capacity to talk right now? You came up to her, dropped the A bomb of all A bombs, which," I turned to Taylor, "I told you so, just saying." I motioned back to Edward, "She doesn't know what to say and I know exactly what she wants and needs to say, so I say it like a good friend should, and you ask me why? I'll tell you why, because we're buddies. Hear that, buddies. Better than friends, and I am able to honestly answer for her and she doesn't mind. Especially not now because she mostly soaking it all in. Okay?" Edward never got on my bad side, mostly because he never talked to me, but this flew all over me.
"I said yes." Taylor finally answered, barely more than a whisper.
"What?" Edward asked. He was giving me his impression of a death ray look. Didn't scare me.
"Yes!" Taylor and I said in unison.
"Fine!" He said as close to my face as my bubble would allow. "Okay, good, Taylor. I guess I'll see you later, in class I mean." He stuttered.
"Okay." Taylor agreed. She looked at me, her face beaming. "Wasn't that great?"
"Yeah, except for the fact you babbled the day away. I was thinking about telling him about your mystery allergy to tomatoes and whenever you ate them you turned as red as one of them. Or saying that was a side effect of your medication, but that wouldn't have worked out so well for you."
"Thank you." She breathlessly answered.
"Were you holding your breath?"
"I was seeing if this was real or not. It is!" She shook me until the point of dizziness.
I grabbed her shoulders to stop her and shrieked in a pitch only dogs could hear. "I told you!"
"Yes, you can do the 'I told you so dance.'"
"I was going to whether you wanted me to or not. I'm doing it in my head." I said with a smirk.
"I thought so." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "How'd you know he was coming?"
I looked around cautiously and scooted closer so she could hear me. "There's something I need to tell you. My spidey senses told me." I tried to be as serious as I could muster up.
"No way! Seriously." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm serious. I get this tingling in my wrists and in my head and then sometimes, when evil comes around, a web will shoot out and I swing around like a monkey."
"Hilarious. You'll have to show me sometime." Her face looked like it was trying to correct the coloration so it changed from bright red, to pink, peachy, and all over again.
"I will." I promised.
Soo.....Good? Bad? Ugly? Ideas? Review please. -gives pleading look no one on their right mind can ignore-
