Oh, What a Night

"What are you doing here?" I asked Taylor, keeping my eyes on the floor. I didn't want to get trapped into another mind-freezing stare with those beautiful eyes of his. They were like deep, blue black holes, and the last thing I wanted, or needed, was to get sucked into anything else... again.

"Dropping off Ike." He explained to me in a tired voice. Apparently, the evening had been long on all of us.

Some of us more than others, I thought of poor Sarah.

"Do I want to know what happened?"

"Well, he came back. Fifteen minutes later, just like he'd promised." Although I didn't understand the meaning behind the small grin on his face, at the moment I didn't care. I just wanted to go home, crawl into bed, pull my thick comforter around my body, and hide myself from the rest of the world. Just for one night; one night was all I needed.

"By the looks of him, not much happened." I referred to Isaac's normal, unbattered appearance.

"Not exactly," Taylor laughed nervously, sparking my curiosity. I wasn't sure if I'd ever completely know what had happened in Mark's apartment, but for now I just wanted to leave.

"Story for another time, I'm afraid." I closed my eyes briefly and leaned my head back, fighting the drowsiness that made me want to collapse right on the spot and sleep standing up.

"You look exhausted."

"State the obvious, why don't you?" Nevertheless, I opened one eye and cracked a smile at him.

"Let me give you a ride home."

"Thanks for the offer, but.." I started, pulling my keys out of my coat pocket. He surprised me by reaching out and snatching them from my fingers. They jingled, crashing into each other, until he wrapped his hand around the set with a snap of his wrist.

"That wasn't an offer." Looking up at his face for the first time, I smiled at the firmness in his voice and determined look in his eyes.

He's just as stubborn as I am. Even at this insanely early hour in the morning, it was kind of cute.

"All right then."

(Author's note: Mia's perspective)

How stupid are you? I asked myself, staring blankly at the dark night that lie ahead of me through the windshield of my car. After days of mental torment, I'd finally gotten out of the house. However, if I actually made it through what I was planning on doing, I'd be so embarrassed I could never leave my house again.

Or I could die on the spot, I couldn't leave that option out.

How could you have doubted Taylor like you did? I asked another question in my head, scolding myself for what seemed like the thousandth time about my rash decision to end our relationship.

He was one of the sweetest, most considerate guys you've ever dated, as short as that list is.

Closing my eyes briefly, memories of us together flashed through my mind, filled with happy smiles and gales of warm laughter.

Paintball, our first night out, that wondrous day in the park.. I remembered us sitting on the bench, breathless either from the rollerblading or the intimate kisses shared between us, probably more of one than the other.

But then again.. As hard as I tried, the image of my love kissing Maggie, though friend of mine as well, pricked my heart like a thorn. Actually, the kiss itself wasn't as hurtful as what had happened afterwards: slowly lifting his face, Taylor never took his eyes off Maggie's. The adoration, devotion, and even pain I saw in the blink of an eye on his face was more than enough to convince me it was over. Weeks of ignoring him persistently asking about her had worn my patience thin, as well as raising my suspicions, but it had never fully sunk into me until that night. And I'd collapsed under the pressure.

I'd hoped that my split from Taylor would motivate him to pursue her, his token object of affection, unspoken in actual words but explicitly clear to me in his actions. How on earth Maggie could not see it nearly made me question her intelligence, had I not known she was blocking herself from believing the obvious feelings Taylor had for her by a wall of guilt. Although I hadn't witnessed their so-called 'terrible argument,' it was hard for me to understand that something so insignificant in size could weaken the poor girl so much. Had it been me, I would've leapt at the chance to get together with Taylor in the first place.

Then again, I wasn't Maggie.

In this case, I'd die to be her, I thought, tightening my nervous grip on the steering wheel.

Casually following the situation at work through her and Zac, who'd I'd seen more of recently that his own girlfriend, I actually felt disappointed that Taylor hadn't acted as he should've (or, as I expected him to). Although I didn't have a clue as to what he'd been doing recently, more importantly, I had a fairly good picture painted for me of what he hadn't.

So why are you helping him out? I wondered. I guess the only answer I could come up with was a cliche- 'If you truly love something, you let it go free.' It had taken the largest swallow of my pride to drag myself out to my car, even more to drive myself over here. As I set the gear in park, I glanced at my end destination, a place I hadn't been in the longest time.

"Here goes nothing." I stood up and walked toward the Hanson's front door. Surprisingly enough, a light was on inside. That was something nice about this house: if someone was out, there would always be at least a light waiting for them to return. Knocking my knuckles softly on the thick oak of the door, I moved my hand to the handle when no one answered and found it unlocked.

"Hello?" I called softly into the front hall, hoping not to disturb anyone sleeping. Hearing the faint hum of a late-night talk show and seeing colored lights flicker across the living room wall, I guessed someone else was having an extended evening.

Possibly someone feeling as lonely and isolated as me? I wondered, walking toward the figure sitting on the couch. I could recognize the back of his head as one of the guys, but which Hanson brother it was was still a guessing game to me.

"Hi Mia," Zac said, not even glancing at me as I tentatively sat down on the couch next to him. His eyes remained fixated on the television, but by the unblinking gaze he held, I could tell his mind was elsewhere.

"Hey.." I watched how the television, the only light source in the room, cast a light greenish tint across his face, shadows dancing from the bridge of his nose across his cheek.

"How are you?"

"Fine.. You?"

Surprised at the weirdness of this conversation, I wanted to reply. What on earth happened to him that me, a person who hasn't stepped foot in this house in weeks after dumping his brother, therefore cutting off any warm welcoming, could just walk right in, sit down next to him, and not be bothered?

"Thoroughly confused." He admitted, shifting his eyes to mine for the first time since my abrupt invasion. At least, that's what it felt like to me, as I settled against the back of the couch.

"Something happen? I need a little more information here, if you don't mind." I smiled sympathetically.

"Why did you break up with Taylor?" He asked instead. It took me a second of hesitation to come up with a suitable answer.

"I realized he wasn't in love with me."

(Maggie)

"So.. " I filled the thick silence between me and Taylor in the car with a meaningless word. As he looked over at me, I smiled nervously.

"Here we are." I felt like an idiot not being able to come up with anything more intelligent than the obvious.

"Yeah.. we are. Together." Apparently the feelings were mutual; Taylor's eyes quickly darted from the road to my face and back to the road. Then back to my face. Then back again.. you get the picture. After a few more minutes of absolutely torturous silence, I sighed loudly.

"Taylor, this is stupid." I said firmly.

"I have to be honest with you. I have no idea why, but I feel like-" my words were cut off as a small animal suddenly ran out in front of the car. Whatever it was, it's eyes glowed greenish-yellow under the headlights as we drove closer.

"Shit!" Taylor stomped his feet down on the brakes. Squeezing my eyes shut, I reached out my arms to brace myself as the car severely lurched forward, grabbing onto the first thing I felt, which turned out to be Taylor's arm. As the car screeched to a halt, I pulled myself to him and kept my face buried in his shoulder, eyes closed, waiting for one of the sides of the car to bounce up horribly as we ran over whatever the heck that was. Surprisingly, nothing of the sorts happened.

"Maggie, it's ok." Taylor spoke softly into my ear, a smile in his voice. Opening my eyes, I saw the tip of a tail disappearing out of the illuminated view from the headlights. Slowly, I raised my eyes to look sheepishly at Taylor. Finding myself still clinging tenaciously to his chest, I quickly pushed myself away and bolted to an upright sitting position back on the passenger's side. Thank heavens it was glad it was dark; he wasn't able to see the blush in my cheeks.

With my luck, the boy's probably got exceptional night vision. I couldn't bear to speak the next words, but I was horrified at what he spoke up with:

"What were you saying?"

"I- oh, I don't remember." I mumbled, still embarrassed. There was no way I could say it all now. Not with a straight face or nervous breakdown, whichever came first.

"Don't remember?" he laughed a little.

"Caught up in the moment or something?" Although he referred to the near hit-and-miss encounter with one of Mother Nature's furry little friends, I realized that he couldn't have been closer to the truth as I stared back at him.

(Mia)

"Did you love him?" Zac asked. I nodded slowly, before clarifying:

"But that didn't matter.."

"Why not? If you love a person, you should be with them, right?" He frowned slightly in confusion, causing shadows to fall over his eyes. My heart went out to the guy.

"If only it worked that simply." I surprised even myself when the words sadly tumbled from my mouth.

"What do you mean?"

"It takes two people to have a relationship. For the longest time, I felt like Taylor was just, ohh.." I searched for the right word to describe how I'd felt.

"Going along with the ride, I guess. Like, he didn't have anyone else at the time, so he settled for me. Something set, something stable, something comfortable.. Make any sense?"

"I'm afraid so." He sighed softly, absently picking at a piece of lint on the couch cushion between us.

"Maybe this is a better question," I started. "Does it sound familiar to you?"

"Painfully."

"Zac.." I reached out and touched his shoulder lightly. Feeling that any words I had to give would fall on deaf ears, I tugged on his arm until pulling him into a warm embrace. We sat for a few seconds in silence, before he wrapped his arms around my back. It anything, it was immensely comforting to me. Remembering why I'd come back here, to grovel for forgiveness, I found tears springing to my eyes.

"Hey.. " He said softly, pulling away as I shuddered slightly. "Are you ok?"

"F-fine," I sniffled, trying to cover it up with an apologetic smile. I blinked quickly, trying to clear the blurred view of him I saw behind a wall of tears building up before my eyes.

"Could've fooled me." He reached over to the coffee table next to the couch and grabbed the box of Kleenex sitting on it. Setting it between the two of us, he took one out and softly brushed it up against the corner of my right eye, staining it with the tears that threatened to spill over. I watched in silence as he slowly moved his hand to my other eye, before stroking my cheek with the back of his index finger.

"Taylor's an idiot."

It wasn't even a direct compliment, but certainly stirred something inside of me. Perhaps it was the emptiness, the urge to be held, touched, appreciated. Whatever it was, Zac must've felt it too, because the next second his lips were on mine. At first it was just a tentative touch, as if asking permission to give me more. I answered by placing my hands around his face and pulling me back toward me, kissing him deeply.

My heart began racing as I instinctively opened my mouth at the urges of his tongue, warm and moist against mine. It all felt like a dream as I slowly lowered myself onto the couch, my lips desperately searching for his in the dark, feeling practically starved until I found them again. Hearing a soft crunch under my shoulder as he positioned himself on top of me, I stopped for a second to toss the cardboard Kleenex box off the couch.

Any earlier hesitation on his part was dissolved in the passion of the moment, as he ran his hands gently around my waist. I moaned slightly when they traveled up the back of my shirt, touching my skin so tenderly I barely felt anything at first. The achy, pulsing sensation in my chest increased as one of his hands cupped around my breast, rubbing it softly at first before more firmly. Needless to say, the Kleenex box on the floor didn't stay lonely for long; my shirt was soon removed and landed in a jumbled heap next to it.

Zac's was soon to follow as neither one of us gave a thought to our actions. At the moment, for the both of us, thinking hurt too much. Neither one of us heard the car pull up in the driveway, either..

(Maggie- no more switching after this, I promise :o)

"Thanks for the ride, Taylor." I smiled at him as we stepped onto the smooth pavement of their driveway.

"Not a problem. Like I said, you're in no shape for driving." Glancing me over, he noted,

"And you're still not. Why don't you stay the night?"

"Oh, I couldn't impose.." My voice trailed off. It was the half-truth: I really didn't want to get into a discussion with Zac about what had happened at the hospital tomorrow morning when he found me here.

"Aww, Mom won't care if you camp out on the living room couch." Taylor insisted.

"I don't know," I pretended to think about it, lifting my index finger to my mouth over of a smile.

"Why the heck am I asking you? You have to stay here." He teased.

"Why?" I demanded.

"I have your car keys, that's why." He dangled them in front of my face for a second.

"Hey," As soon as I reached for them, he snatched them away and stuck them in his pocket.

"That's not fair," I complained as he jogged up to the front door. After he'd opened it, I clenched my fists and charged him playfully, wrapping my arms around his waist and shoving him into the front hallway. Taylor joined in my loud laughter as I ran my fingers over his sides, tickling him and looking for my keys. It felt wonderful to be able to relax around him, joke around again like old times, not to worry about who's feeling what.

However, all that stopped when we realized we weren't alone. Noticing the television on, not to mention hearing gasps and pants coming from the living room, I was afraid someone might've left the television on for some trashy phone sex commercial. I quickly stopped laughing and dropped my arms from Taylor's waist. He seemed to understand though. As he hung up his coat on the rack, I walked into the living room. Reaching over and flicking on the lights, I was horrified to discover the trash wasn't on television like I'd thought: Zac's head instantly lifted into the air above the couch. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, the naive little girl that I am, my first thought was he'd been waiting up for Taylor and fallen asleep on the couch.

"Hey Zac." I mumbled, feeling a little guilty for messing around with Taylor when we'd come in, waking him up. Then I saw the shock in his eyes, the sweat on his brow.. then the same appearance on Mia's face as she slowly lifted hers next to his. My eyes traveled slowly to the floor, littered with their shirts.

"Zac.." As my hand flew to my mouth, I could feel the color draining from my face.

"Mia?" Taylor came into the room, sounding more surprised than anything.. until he got a better look around the room. He did a pretty good job of summarizing how I felt at the moment though:

"What the hell is going on here!?"