Hey, so I'm sorry I haven't updated in like, well… Forever, but I'm working on it… =) I've been through quite a bit as of late and I really hope you guys haven't lost interest in this story. And if any of you read 'The Flower Called Azalea', Chapter 12 for that is coming next. Well… enjoy!

Recap: I heard someone approaching and looked up to see Taylor. He half-smiled at me and then sat down next to me and pulled me into his arms. He just held me like that until we had to go to our fourth hours and when we stood up, he pulled me back to him in another hug, and kissed the top of my head.

"I'll go with you to your locker after Spanish, and then I'll take you to skating, okay?"

I smiled at him. "Okay. Thanks, Taylor."

He returned my smile easily. "No problem."

As I walked off to the gym, memories from the past entered my head. Memories that one simple hug triggered.

8. Skating and Dancing

True to his word, Taylor met me after 5th hour and walked with me to my locker, then out to his car.

"So, you might need to instruct me on how to get to the rink," he told me as we got seated in his car and he started the engine.

"You go by the turn every time you go to my house. It's just off of Hammond," I replied.

"Okay," he said and we pulled out of the parking lot and we began on our way to the ice rink.

I was actually—secretly—kind of excited. Taylor's never seen me skate before, and so this would be a new, though small, step in our relationship.

After about six minutes of driving, we were at a stop light, and Taylor broke the comfortable silence.

"So what are you going to do about Homecoming now?"

I shrugged. "I'm still going to go, but I'm just going to stick to my original plan of going with a group of friends, and if someone asks me to dance, I'll dance. If I want to, that is."

"Ah," he said contemplatively and didn't speak any more on the matter. "So how long have you been skating? About … four years, right?"

I nodded in confirmation. "Yup, about four years."

"So you must be pretty good, then," he said.

I shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"Can you do, like, triple axels and stuff?" he asked curiously.

I laughed loudly. "No way! I can do a couple doubles, but I'm nowhere near triple axels yet. Or any triple for that matter."

He smiled and looked at me out of the corner of his eye and said, "Oh, I'll bet that you're better than you give yourself credit for."

"Hah! No, I'm not. I'm being completely honest."

"So you can really land doubles?"

"A couple, yeah. Why?"

He grinned. "That is so cool. I wish I had skill on ice skates. But I mainly just watch."

"Figure skating?" I asked, shocked.

"Hockey."

Ah, yup. That made more sense. I laughed with him. "Of course. Oh, uh, turn at the next driveway," I instructed, and he did as he was told. I was tempted to say 'good boy' and pat him on the head, but I didn't want to distract him from the road. I giggled to myself just thinking about it and he flashed his perfect smile at me again, and my heart fluttered. I still wasn't completely sure of my feelings for him, but I was pretty sure they were a little more than friendly.

He pulled up to the ice rink and dropped me off at the front so he could go park. I walked in and headed toward the locker room. I walked in and saw a few of my friends getting ready to get on the ice.

"Hey, Aria," my friend Chloe smiled.

"Hey, Chloe," I returned and gave her a hug. Chloe was like my little sister. She was three years younger than me, so she was in 6th grade.

"Hey," my other friend Emily said as she changed for skating.

"Hey, Em," I smiled.

I put my hair up and got into my skating apparel and then tied my skates and walked out of the locker room with my water bottle. I put on my gloves as I walked to the ice. I stopped at the door of the ice to take off my blade guards before getting on the ice. I warmed up and started working on my spins. I had started off with the same spin every time I skated and today wasn't any different.

I started with a back spin and continued on with a back sit spin and back camel before going on to layback and flying camel. After I finished working on my spins, I went to the boards to get a drink and as I unscrewed the cap from my water bottle, I looked up into the bleachers and saw Taylor's brilliant grin shining down at me. I returned the grin and then went back to work.

Over the duration of the fifty minute practice, I had warmed up all my spins, landed eight axels, five double salchows, twelve double toe-loops, and three double loops. It was the best practice I'd had in a long time. I was starting to think that I would need to bring Taylor to my practice more often.

"That was actually really cool," Taylor told me on the ride back to my house.

I looked over at him. "Thanks," I said dryly. "You sound so shocked."

He laughed, "Well not really. I'm just shocked that I've missed so much. I've missed a lot more of your life than you have of mine."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, you knew I was an actor, you've seen me in the few things I've done, and you know basically everything about me. I haven't really changed much since I moved from Grand Rapids. But you… you moved from Grand Rapids, started figure skating, got into cars…" he paused and laughed before starting again. "You befriended the craziest people I've ever met and you are taking on some crazy traits yourself—which is definitely a good thing."

I laughed along with him at the last fact. "Well thank you."

The next week passed by in a blur. Between skating, hanging out with Taylor, and rehearsals for our Theater play, it's easy to see why. We had done a few read-throughs of the play, and we've acted out a few scenes, but we haven't done any of the romantic scenes yet. So, no. We haven't kissed.

Just thinking about it made my heart beat faster.

Our student director, Kate, said that we would get to those scenes after Homecoming, which was this Saturday. Tomorrow. The Homecoming football game was tonight, and Taylor, Mia, Justine, and I were all going together. Taylor was also bringing his little sister, Makena.

Mia and Justine were over at my house getting ready for the game with me and they were going to spend the night so we could get ready for the dance together. We had just put black and gold streaks on our cheeks when my mom called down to us.

"Aria! Taylor and Makena are here!"

"Okay!" I yelled back. I smiled at my friends and then ran upstairs to see them. Mia and Justine followed closely behind me. "Makena!" I shouted happily as I engulfed her in a hug.

"Aria!" She smiled and squeezed me back.

I pulled back and grinned down at her. "You and me so need to go shopping soon. We haven't actually hung out in forever."

"I know!" she agreed. "It's been way too long!"

We laughed and I hugged her again. "Kena, this is Mia," I gestured to Mia, "and Justine," I gestured to Justine. "They're my best friends."

"Hi," she smiled and waved to both of them. And then she looked up to me hastily. "But I'm still your little sister, right?"

I laughed. "Of course! No one will ever replace you as my little sister."

"Good," she sighed.

Taylor just stood there smiling at us and then he spoke for the first time since they'd arrived. "Well, it's quarter after six, we should get going."

"Yeah," I agreed, and we all started out of the house.

"Be careful! Have fun!" my mom called out to us as we were retreating.

I waved her off and she laughed.

We got to the field, and the parking lot was packed. We all piled out of Taylor's car and walked over to the gate to pay for our tickets and go inside. We each were going to pay for ourselves, but Taylor cut us off and ended up paying for all of us. When I scowled at him, he laughed at me, put his arm around my shoulders, and led us into the field's risers.

We wound up sitting about halfway up in the middle section of the bleachers, so we had a really good view of the game. Makena and Taylor were sitting on either side of me, and Justine and Mia were sitting on the other side of Makena. I'm sure we looked like a bunch of dorks with black and gold war paint on our cheeks, but we didn't care. And we weren't the biggest freaks there. There was a group of shirtless guys with their chests painted black and gold, so we were okay.

By halftime, we were winning, 14-7, but it was only the first half. We all stood up from our seats to stretch and get something to eat. We got to the hot dog vendor and the young girl volunteering there eyed Taylor appreciatively. He smiled at her and she visibly melted. He continued to smile at her, and I felt an unexplained pang of jealousy.

"What'll it be, hun?" she asked while batting her eyelashes.

I stifled a gag and looked down at Makena. She was pretending to choke on something, and it made me, Justine, and Mia all laugh. Taylor turned around in confusion, and we all stopped, acting like there was nothing going on. His eyes tightened infinitesimally before he turned back to the girl to order his food.

"Five hot dogs, please," he said and the girl finally looked behind him and noticed us there. She glared at me before smiling sweetly back at him.

"Coming right up," she said, attempting to act sultry.

Taylor turned back to us. "What?" he asked suspiciously.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied innocently.

"Sure…" he muttered and took the hot dogs from the girl who was undressing him with her eyes. He paid her no attention as he gave us our hot dogs and led us all back to our seats among the risers.

The game started back up and soon enough, the crowd was cheering loudly for our team again. When there was only five seconds left to go, everyone stood up as our team's running back was headed toward the end zone. The cheering crescendoed to a loud reverberating roar and #18 ran into the end zone, scoring the winning touchdown.

All the Central fans jumped up and down and screamed in joy. Taylor grabbed me into a strong embrace and we all grinned at each other. This was amazing. My first homecoming game, and we won. Granted, it was just a high school football game, but it didn't matter to me. It was fun. I got to hang out with Taylor and Makena and my two best friends, so I was happy.

"Aria! Let's go!" Mia huffed.

"Okay! Just one more minute!" I finished applying my mascara and looked in the mirror. My makeup looked decent. I'd never really been one to wear much makeup. My hair was half pulled back and it was… as curled as it could get. My hair is very stubborn. It doesn't like to be straight, and it won't curl no matter how much hairspray I use.

My dress was a long, sparkly, teal-blue halter gown. I got it from JC Penney and it was gorgeous.

"Aria!"

I quickly grabbed my bag and ran to the stairs where Mia and Justine were standing. "I'm ready. Let's go."

We all quickly started joking and we were laughing hysterically by the time we reached the top of the staircase to the main floor. We rounded the corner to the kitchen and were met with my parents holding the cameras. My dad was recording, and my mom was snapping off pictures like it was nobody's business.

"Mom! What are you guys doing?" I asked, trying to block my face with my arms and I noticed Mia and Justine doing the same.

"It's your first Homecoming dance. We have to commemorate," my mom answered and took more pictures.

"Knock, knock," a voice said from the doorway. I looked up and there was Taylor, looking as gorgeous as ever. He took in the sight before him and started laughing. Soon enough, we were all laughing with him. My parents put the cameras down and we put our arms down. "Am I late?" Taylor asked, smiling at me.

"Nope, you're just in time, actually," Justine said.

He raised his eyebrows.

"We just came upstairs," Mia clarified.

"Ah, okay," he smiled.

"Well, we should get going," I said, and tried to rush everybody out the door.

"Nah-ah-ah! Not before a good picture!" my mom exclaimed.

Us girls all sighed a collective huff and complied. Taylor stood to my left with his arm around my waist, Mia was to my right, and Justine was on Taylor's left. We all grinned as my dad made funny faces behind my mom and she snapped the picture.

"Okay, you got one! Time to go!" I rushed out and we all made quickly for the door. My parents laughed at us as they watched us leave.

We all piled into Taylor's BMW and went to the dance.

Such. Horrible. Music.

All loud, bass-filled rap, pop, and hip-hop songs, and absolutely no slow dances. I'm not saying it wasn't fun, I'm just saying that the music sucked. It wasn't dancing music, it was jumping music. After a couple hours, Mia, Justine and the rest of my friends were all content to keep jumping, but I was getting thirsty and my feet hurt. Even barefoot.

"Hey, I'm gonna go get a drink!" I told Taylor over the loud music.

"I'll come with you," he replied. I smiled at him and we walked out of the gym to the water fountain.

We both quenched our thirst and sat down on the stairs for a bit to catch our breath.

"Are you having fun?" Taylor asked me after a few minutes had passed.

"Yeah, I am," I smiled. "It's not everything I thought it would be, but I am having fun. Even if the music sucks."

He laughed and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, the music sucks." He hesitated for a moment before quietly speaking again. "Aria?"

"Yeah?" I asked and turned to face him. He said nothing, but he didn't have to. I wouldn't have heard it anyway. I was too lost in his eyes. They'd always been so expressive and I loved looking into them. Even if I'd wanted to, I could not have looked away this time, though.

He held my gaze as his face moved toward mine slowly and our eyes closed of their own accord shortly before his soft lips touched mine.

Wow. My first actual kiss and it was with Taylor Lautner. Famous actor. My best friend. And the weirdest part, it wasn't weird at all. I kissed him back and we each put a little more force into the kiss, but not so much as to start a peep show for all the perverted high school kids.

It didn't last long, but that didn't make it any less amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better first kiss.

We pulled away and looked at each other for a moment, smiling, before he stood up, held out his hand, and pulled me up. "Want to dance?"

I grinned. "I would love to."

We may not have been dancing to the music pounding out of the speakers, but we were dancing to music that we could both hear in our minds. We slow-danced for the rest of the night, ignoring the rest of the world.