"I think we've overstayed our welcome, Avery," Kris said, looking around the table. Taylor and Zac were giving her death looks so they could leave. They'd been wrapped up in this imaginary tea party for an hour now. Avery was having the time of her life, but for some reason her brothers didn't find the whole idea fun at all.
"Yeah, we should be heading back to teenage land," Zac said. Avery looked around.
"Fine. Thanks for doing this." The three got up and left. Right outside the room, Zac and Taylor both smacked Kris in the arm.
"I don't think I've ever been more bored in my life. I get so little free time and I spend it with my sister in imagination land. I ran out of imagination five minutes after we got in there," Taylor said.
"But Taylor, wasn't it fun?" Kris said. He gave her a look. "Okay, whatever. So, Zac, you have an appointment with me now. Dr. Kristina Carter, Ph.D., psychiatrist extraordinaire."
"Oh really?" Taylor said, looking at Kris. "I'd like to see that Ph.D. Do you have it up on your wall or something?" Kris smiled.
"Of course I do. It's right next to my Nobel Peace Prize."
"That I'd like to see. And what am I supposed to do while the two of your have your moment of bonding or whatever."
"Something else." Kris gently pushed Zac into his room. She smiled at Taylor and shut the door behind her. Taylor walked off, leaving the two of them alone. Once again, Zac flopped onto the bed. "You're just a big loaf, aren't you? Get in a room and flop on a bed� I swear."
"There's absolutely nothing wrong with being lazy. It's not like I'm lazy all the time. I'd like to see you live my life and then tell me how you feel. I'm so tired, I'm surprised I've stayed up the long. Usually when we have time off we sleep until we have to go back to work."
"That just sounds so weird. You're fourteen years old and you're working your ass off. I just sit around and do nothing. I personally don't think it's fair." She laid down on the bed next to him again.
"For who? You or me?"
"Both. More so you, but still I need to do something."
"You can be a groupie." She smiled, but shook her head.
"No. It's bad enough I'm taking a week off of school to stay here with you guys. I can't just completely take off to be a Hanson groupie." She snickered. "Are there Hanson groupies?"
"Well, no. But you can't start by being the first one!"
"See I can't imagine myself going home now. I just got here, I'm going to be here for a long time, I just imagine leaving you guys and going home." Zac bit his lip.
"There will be a day when you'll force yourself to imagine that." He turned to her. "Now that I get to talk about all my problems, I have to tell you that I could never picture myself ever walking around without Gwen in my life. I just couldn't picture her with someone else. Whenever I thought about her, she was with me. Then she ended up not being able to handle me being away for so long."
"I guess I can relate with that, but that's really no reason to just cheat on you�" Kris stopped.
"You can't relate with her. When Taylor's gone, you have Brian. Wait until it's just Taylor, then be separated from him and tell me you can relate with her. You are cheating on Taylor. The only difference is he knows about it."
"I don't think it really is considered cheating if he knows about it."
"Trust me, it is. It still hurts the same. It is so weird because when Taylor's with you he gets pretty possessive, I know you can tell, because he doesn't want to end up sharing you with everyone. He doesn't get much time with you; he just wants that back now. That's why he begged on his knees to have you come over here."
"He begged?" Kris asked. "On his knees?" Zac nodded.
"He first suggested the idea a long time ago, and after a while it grew from suggesting to begging. I remember walking in the kitchen and Taylor was on his knees pleading for you to come over. Of course, I helped out. I didn't want to see him like that."
"We're getting off the subject again."
"Yeah, I noticed that." Kris thought of a question. It wasn't all that hard, but she didn't want to venture very far and learn to regret it.
"What was she like?"
"She was hilarious. There wasn't a day gone by that I wasn't dying of laughter because of whatever she said. She really brought out the best in me. She'd joke with me, and I'd just joke right back at her. She had that sarcastic wit that was all her own. You're pretty bad with the sarcasm, but she was so much worse. I guess what first really attracted me to her was her voice. She was so loud; I couldn't take her any place fancy. I had tried that once. We got kicked out cause we were so loud. I guess it had a lot to do with our age and all, but she was still the loudest person I met. Our normal outings were to a McDonald's or something fast-food. She didn't have a lot of money, and she felt bad when we went to restaurants and the prices were high. I just wanted to please her, so we stuck with fast-food and dollar movies. One thing about dollar movies, a lot of ugly people are there. I mean the people I see there fell off the ugly tree and hit a few branches on the way down�"
"Zac, that's mean."
"I know, but I have to comment. Half of them were still trapped in the seventies�or maybe that was because the movies they showed weren't any more recent than then."
"You're horrible. I went to the dollar movies once and I never went back again. Their coke was flat and the candy tasted like rocks."
"They're cheap, what do you expect? We went there a few times. She loved the beach. We went to the beach all the time. Even though it was a ways away, whenever we had time we went. The beach was like our place to go." Kris looked over his face. Even though he wasn't looking at her, she could feel his eyes penetrating into her. It was a strange feeling that washed over her. Zac had gone through, and refused to speak about until now, the same thing she was putting on Brian. Kris knew that Zac was probably more emotional than Brian, but then again she didn't really know Brian anymore. If Brian was going to take it like this, then she didn't want to hurt him.
"What happened between you and her?" Kris asked.
"I went over there to surprise her. We'd just gotten into town and it was kinda a tradition that whenever we got into town I'd run over there and say hello. We normally didn't do much the first day, it was just a hello and I had to run. I got there and had a conversation with Megan�her mother. Megan and I are still really close. I'll get a call from her now and then to see how I'm doing. Well, I went to go say hi to Gwen and Megan said that she wasn't up to it. I was completely confused but I didn't say anything. After a bit, she just told me to go in the room. I open the door and there's Gwen making out with some other guy. She spotted me before I closed the door again. I ran out of the whole, feeling like shit run over twice, but she ran after me. She said she still loved me and all but I just couldn't do it anymore. I didn't think it'd happen but it did."
Kris put her arms around Zac, hugging him. "So that was just it? You just left and didn't come back?"
"Yeah. There wasn't anything else for me to do there. We broke it off so I just left." Zac sighed. "Do you think I'll get over her?"
"Of course you will. One of these days you're just gonna find someone else that will be so much better to you than Gwen ever was. You'll forget all about her and you won't be able to get your mind off her."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Kris said. Zac looked over to her. "Zac you have so many girls flinging themselves at you all the time, it'll just take time before you find one you can handle."
"One who won't scream if I try to kiss her."
"Or scream when you're in her presence period." Zac nodded, smiling. "Am I helping you at all? I don't know what I'm doing here."
"Yeah, Kris, you helped a lot. I've never told anybody about her before. I had mentioned it once to Taylor but I didn't go into any detail. Thanks, Kris."
"Anytime, Zac. If ever you should decide that you need to let something out, I'll be happy to sit here and listen to you."
"I don't know, Taylor might think that you're starting to like me more than him." She got off the bed.
"Yeah, Zac, cause you know how I am secretly in love with you and all. You know you're just so sexy that I can't resist the temptations�"
"You know it." She smiled and opened the door. The house was bigger than hers, and it took her forever just to find her way around her own home. She wandered aimlessly through the house, looking for Taylor. He had to be around somewhere. When she ventured into a room with Diana in it, she almost regretted going in there.
"You look a little lost," she said.
"Yeah, I'm just really looking for Taylor," Kris answered. "Have you seen him around?"
"I'm a bit surprised you've been looking for him. Since you've been hanging around all day with Zac�"
"He had a problem and he talked to me about it. Taylor understands. Zac just needed to tell me some stuff, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm going to be here for three weeks, you can at least learn to live with me." Kris groaned and walked out of the room. She ran into Taylor almost immediately. "Hey, I've been looking for you."
"Really?" Taylor asked, a slight smile on his face. "It's not like this house is that big."
"Actually, it's bigger than mine and I still get lost there. I'm sorry I spent so much time with Zac, it's just he's got that whole Gwen thing going on and I cold tell he really needed to let some of it out."
"That's okay," Taylor said, taking her hands. "I don't care. He's got a lot of shit to carry so I'm glad he's got it out. He's been a devil since then, maybe now he'll be a bit more hospitable. I don't care what you've done all day, as long as I can have you now."
"Sure."
"You wanna go somewhere? This house is a drag�"
"Are you gonna be driving?" He nodded. "I don't know�I might lose an arm or a leg or something when you run into the other cars on the road."
"I'm a good driver!"
"Sure�" He gave her a look and they went to the car. Kris was surprised when Taylor opened the door for her. "Tell me he at least opens doors for you."
"Uh, no." Taylor just rolled his eyes and walked back over to his side of the car. "So, where are we going?"
"I don't know yet."
"It just might help a little bit if you started driving and knowing where you were going instead of wandering aimlessly through the streets." Taylor pulled out of the garage and into the street. Kris looked through the CDs in the holder, hoping he had something of her interest. "Oh my God, you have Tonic!"
"Yeah�"
"Just judging you, I didn't really expect you to like them. They're my favorite band." She opened up the CD and popped it into the CD player. "This is my favorite song." She switched it immediately to number five and turned up the volume. I wish I'd seen you as a little girl�without your armor to fend of the world� Taylor smiled when he heard Kris begin to sing. I would have kept you underneath my wing�I would protect you from everything�
"I never really pictured you turning up Tonic to a point of deafening and singing." She smiled, seeming as if she was completely lost in the music. He thought he was the only one he knew who could do that. Make way for the lemon parade�make way for my girl�Her eyes closed and she sat back, now just mouthing the words instead of singing them. Make way for the lemon parade�make way for my girl�
He wondered why exactly she loved this song so much. She opened her eyes and looked out the window. Did the boys all tease you when they had the chance� She nodded. Always left standing when it came time to dance� She nodded again. Taylor noticed this. That must have been why she loved it so much. She connected with it in a way he probably couldn't understand. Did you hide behind your books girl�Did you find your secret friends�
"I love this song so much but it always makes me cry," Kris admitted. Taylor bit his lip. There really was more to her than she let on. Always I'll want you�Always till the end� "I'd always had a connection with it that I don't let other people really know about." Make way for the lemon parade�make way for my girl�
"Will you tell me about it?" Taylor asked.
"When the song's over." Make way for the lemon parade�make way for my girl� Taylor waited in silence for the rest of the song to finish. It was maybe a minute left of lingering, but Kris enjoyed every second of it. Everything about the song just appealed to her in a way no other song did. The song finished, and Kris turned the radio off. "I was kind of an outcast before I finally found my group of friends. People didn't like me, people thought I was weird because, well, I live in a basically all-white part of town. There's not many Hispanics around. Sure, my dad's name is Carter, which seems to me as white as I can get, but even he was half Cuban. My mother is pure Cuban. She was born in Cuba, lived in Miami for a little while until her family was sent to Chicago because of her parent's jobs. Her and my father moved into a white part of town, only because there wasn't any other place to go. So I went to an all-white school and everyone gave me weird looks because I happened to be a lot darker than them. Before I started school I thought that that kind of discrimination was outlawed already. I was wrong."
"So you were excluded because of the color of your skin?"
"And when I was just starting school I didn't know much English. My parents spoke Spanish at home, and that was my first language. They realized I needed English when I was four and started trying to teach it to me. I had a thick Spanish accent and I spoke broken English with children who didn't know any better."
"Didn't that grow out as you got older?" Taylor asked. He knew from the second he met her that she had to be almost completely pure Hispanic, but he never thought anything of it.
"No. I went to a kindergarten thru eighth grade school. I was there for nine years, with the same people. Some people came in and some left, but basically it was the same people. It wasn't really until high school that I developed some truly lasting friendships."
"Weren't you friends with Brian all that time?"
"Yeah, his parents and my parents knew each other and we were kinda stuck together. We didn't go to the same school until high school, so it wasn't that much I could do about it. I went through grade school as the spick." Taylor made a face. He hated that word.
"I just don't understand it. I went to school in South America and I was the only white boy there but they didn't treat me any different."
"Yeah, well, Americans are bastards." Taylor laughed.
"Do you still speak a lot of Spanish or have you forgotten a lot of it?"
"No, me and mom still speak a lot of it all the time. When I'm with my sisters and their children aren't around then I'll speak it with them. Then one of their kids will walk in and kinda go, huh? Considering they all married white boys, I'm not surprised the kids don't know Spanish. Usted entiende espa�ol?" (Do you understand spanish?)
"S�, un poco. De cuando est� lo amos en Suramerica." (Yeah, a little. From when we were in South America.)
"Buena para usted." (Good for you.)
"I'm taking you're flying off the subject of your life�"
"I just got sidetracked. I told the gist of it, there's not much more to say. I don't wanna say any of the things they did to me cause I'll just get all emotional and start crying. They did some pretty bad stuff to me. High school was a big change for me, cause there was a more multi-cultural atmosphere. I'd never had an African-American in my class until high school when I was first introduced to them."
"So you like it more now?"
"Yeah. I still have my little group of friends there, the people that came there from my school chose to ignore me and spread rumors, but it really doesn't affect me as much as it did before. I remember coming home from school almost every day in Kindergarten in tears because the kids were so mean. I swear, five and six year olds are brutal."
"Oh really?"
"Yes! They're horrible!" Kris looked out the window. "Taylor, there's absolutely nothing here. If I didn't know better, I'd think that you lived in a log cabin as a farmer and went cow tipping for fun. You know, with the piece of grass sticking out of your one-toothed mouth wearing torn overalls and checkered shirts."
"Hey! Don't dis the cow tipping�"
"Okay," she said, making a face. "But seriously, what do you do here for fun? It's like one endless corn field."
"Hey, there's wheat fields too." She groaned. "Why do you think we started playing music? I was trying to keep myself amused. There really isn't much to do here, especially since you come from a large city. We're more laid back than you city folk."
"City folk? Oh my God you really are a hick."
"I am not a hick, I just happen to talk like one every once in a while. I do remember you saying the world y'all once. That's a hick thing to say. So you're just as much a hick as I am."
"Taylor I live in Chicago, Illinois. You live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You're pure white cracker boy, I am Cuban. Don't start with me, I will win."
"What makes you think that?"
"I will win, Taylor, don't try it. I'm not an expert on debate for nothing." He made a face and looked back out to the road. She looked around. "How many people live here? I haven't seen another car since we pulled out onto the road."
"They're all slopping the pigs and milking the cows."
"Please tell me you're joking."
"Yeah, I am."
"So where are we going?"
"Nowhere."
Musical Credit goes to Tonic (Lemon Parade)