Vor 6 Stunden
Okay so I can admit it, I'm a freak. It's official, and I say that only because it's true. Sitting here, waiting for the doorbell to ring again, or to hear some low knock on our heavy wooden door from some costumed children, accompanied by some less than enthusiastic adults who are constantly reminding their kids to say thank you, I had managed to separate all the candy bars in the bowl I held in my lap, by flavor. I mean what kind of head case does that? Me, that's who... and what's worse, I couldn't even decide which one I wanted to eat. What the hell is wrong with me that I can't even choose a piece of candy on Halloween?
I don't know, maybe I was just pissed off that I was stuck here at home on Halloween night, passing out candy to all the neighborhood kids, while my mom took my little brother trick-or-treating. Then again, it's not like I was Mr. Popular at school and I had all sorts of invitations to choose from. In fact, I hadn't been invited anywhere... not to one party, not to hang out with anyone... nothing, I mean, even Ben was going to a party... with a girl no less. Ben! And here I was, sitting on my couch, alone, on Halloween night passing out candy and feeling so sorry for myself, that I couldn't even choose a piece for myself to try and sweeten my mood.
Ben was my best friend, had been since we met in the seventh grade, and all these years later, we were juniors, and were driving, and had sort of made our way through those crappy beginning years of high school and found our niche, although, I'll admit, Ben's niche seemed to come with better parties and more girls, not that I was at all interested in those.. girls that is. Ben was though, and he partied a lot. I was always invited along, and even actually went most of the time too, except tonight when I was stuck at home passing out this bowl of candy for my mom while Ben was out partying without me.
I couldn't even be pissed about it really, because it wasn't Ben's fault my parents decided to continue to reproduce after I was born, and it wouldn't be fair if Max didn't get to go trick-or-treating just because my mom had this insane need to make sure someone was here to pass out candy every year, so, it was either this, or take Max myself. I decided this would be the easier of the two, and besides, I know how this goes down... I ask Max how far he wants to go, and of course, he picks the furthest house possible, so we start heading in that direction, and about halfway there, he starts whining about how he's tired and his legs hurt and then, his bag of candy is getting heavy, so I take some and carry it for him in a separate bag and then, once we are as far from home as we can be, I end up carrying Max, in whatever costume he chose that year, and both bags of candy all the way home.
Not this year though, I opted for the boring couch, with the organized bowl of candy, and the giggling kids, and the moms with strollers, and babies not even old enough to eat candy, and the teenagers too old to dress up but still wanting candy, and indecision. Why was picking a candy bar so damn difficult, I wondered again, as I heard another knock on the door, before I gave up and carefully stood up, not messing up the organization I had going on in my bowl.
I swung the door open to a chorus of 'trick-or-treat', and I was faced with one 'Finding Nemo' fish, one Barbie cheerleader, and right behind them were the kids dressed as a ninja and Anakin Skywalker, and the baby in the classic pumpkin costume. I almost had the door closed when I heard a faint 'trick-or-treat', so I tried not to groan as I pulled the door open once more, only to have a little ladybug with wings and antennae on her head standing there, but it wasn't her outfit that caught my eye, it was her escort, Blake Madsen.
Blake Madsen. Senior, probably the most popular guy in school, and so fucking gorgeous I swear my brain ceases to operate on a normal level whenever he's anywhere within a one-hundred foot vicinity of me. Yeah, that Blake Madsen, the one standing a lot closer than one-hundred feet now though, since he was only a foot in front of me with his little sister and talking to me... talking to ME!
"Huh," I stuttered out so eloquently that I almost instantly hated myself for being such a total loser every time he was around.
"I just said 'hey' Taylor. Looks like you got stuck doing Halloween duty too," he repeated.
"Oh, yeah," I pouted. "I was gonna go to this party with my best friend Ben, but I had to stay and help so, guess that's not happening now."
"Oh yeah? You mean that party at Michelle's?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's the one," I sighed.
"Well, I heard it got broken up an hour ago cause her parents came home early, and she is in some deep shit, so no worries right?" he said, apparently trying to cheer me up, or maybe himself.
I considered that as the awkward silence grew between us and his little sister, who was maybe all of nine years old, stood there staring at us, wasting her valuable candy-getting time before she tugged on his sleeve and insisted, "Blakey, come on! We're wasting time."
"Okay, okay," he said in an attempt to calm her down, but it was the way his cheeks flushed, his face almost glowing, as she called this very popular icon in our world, Blakey, that caught my attention.
"Yeah, you should get going so you can get done," I begrudgingly admitted. "I've been there too."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Well, try to have a good night," he offered as he turned and I watched him walk away before I closed the door on one of the hottest boys in school.
It was then that I realized I had managed to have a whole conversation with him and only looked like a complete idiot once... I hoped. Not only that, but it occurred to me as I replayed it in my head, that he knew my name. We weren't exactly friends and we absolutely didn't run in the same circles, that was for sure, but somehow, he knew my name. I was still leaning heavily back against the door when I not only heard, but felt, another knock at my door causing me to come back to reality for the moment. I opened the door once more and standing there was Blake Madsen, this time with a very impatient ladybug waiting down at the end of the walk.
"Hey," he said fidgeting slightly, which was completely abnormal for him, at least in my head. This was Blake after all, then again, what did I know, it's not like we knew each other.
"Hey, are you lost?" I joked.
"Er... no," he said confused.
"Forget something then?" I continued on, looking for the reason he was still standing there with his hands shoved in his pockets, looking totally uncomfortable with the whole situation.
"No," he said almost aggravated. "I came back to ask you..."
"Ask me what?" I asked him as he paused uncomfortably.
"You know what, never mind," he said as he started to turn back toward his ladybug.
"No! Wait!" I insisted, reflexively grabbing him by the arm to stop him before I even realized what I was doing and when he did stop and turned around to look at me again, I was the one that was uncomfortable and at a loss for words.
"Yeah?" he asked me.
"Well, uh..." I stuttered out. "I uh... well, tell me what you were going to say," I requested sheepishly.
"Well, I was going to ask you if you were doing anything later... cause there is this party at Greg Flemming's house. His parents are out of town or something..." he explained casually.
"Oh. Well, I'm not really doing anything at all actually," I told him before I realized that once again, I looked totally lame, with no plans on Friday night, not to mention that it was Halloween night.
"Well, do you wanna go then? With me? I mean... if you aren't doing anything..." he suggested.
Was he serious? Holy fuck! Blake Madsen was asking me... ME, Taylor Brooks, to go with him... to a party... where HIS friends would be... at Greg fucking Flemming's house. Holy shit!
"Well? You wanna go or what?" he asked after I hadn't responded.
"Yes! I mean... yeah, that sounds cool," I answered trying to keep my cool, when in reality, I was beyond excited. Hanging out with Blake and Greg and at a party. I mean he invited me to go... with him, hell yeah!
"Cool," he said casually, his smile as gorgeous as ever. "How about when I get done with Molly, I'll come pick you up? Sound good?"
"Sure, cool, sounds good," I stammered out, looking totally lame.
"Okay, see you in a little while Taylor," he said before he jogged down the walk to meet up with his little sister, while I stood there trying to figure out how in the hell I managed to get to hang out at a party, with Blake, on Halloween, He was picking me up, and... he smiled at me.
"Yeah... later," I mumbled watching him disappear down the street.
A good two or three minutes had passed with me standing there, being held up by the wall, before another group of kids walked up and helped themselves to my neatly arranged bowl of candy before I could get myself to finally go back inside and close the door. That only made it possible to wonder how this all happened in a warmer setting, since the cool autumn air had a way of sending that chill straight through to your bones. I appreciated the warmth that waited for me inside though, as I flopped back down on the couch, excited about the way my night had suddenly turned around.
It wasn't long before Mom showed up, carrying Max of course, and his bag of candy, but the part of the night that I always find amusing was about to unfold. Max, who had been too tired to go on, too exhausted to take even one more step, to venture forth to even one more door, even with the promise of some treat to coax him, was suddenly revived and demanding to start enjoying those same treats he had worked so hard to collect, as Mom flopped down in a chair in an attempt to recuperate from her latest weightlifting activities, and then it happens, like it does every year.
"Max, we have to check your candy first before you can have any, just give me a minute," my mom said, exasperated by Max's sudden burst of energy. "Maybe Tay will help you," she suggested, her eyes begging me to lend a hand.
"Will you, please Tay?" Max asked, practically bounding over to where I had been snickering silently from my seat on the sofa, watching the tradition of what Halloween had become in the Brooks household play out in front of me predictably, as if it were scripted and rehearsed, everything happening just as it should, right on cue.
"Alright twerp," I sighed, "but it's gonna cost you," I said teasingly.
"But I don't have any money," Max insisted, pouting as Mom and I exchanged a silent chuckle.
"Hmmm, well what do you have then? You must have something..." I said suggestively.
"Ummm, well..." he said glancing at his bag of candy and then back at me again. "What if... I give you some... of my candy?" he suggested painfully.
"I don't know, how much is some?" I questioned him as his little foot started tapping impatiently.
"Tay! Please!" he whined.
"Alright, alright," I absolved. "Grab your bag of candy."
Max proudly grabbed his rather large and bulging bag of candy and hefted it over to where I was sitting, before dropping it at my feet. I couldn't decide if it was more comical watching him struggle to hoist the bag to a level that would be easier for him to handle, or the way he was trying so hard to seem patient and unaffected by my lack of comparable enthusiasm over all this.
"Okay, here it is," he announced redundantly.
Slowly I sat up from where I had been leaning back against the back of the couch and as I grabbed the sack of candy and Max's eyes widened in anticipation. I glanced over at my mom and she winked at me, silently laughing at the way Max seemed to act like this was some precious treasure to be guarded and protected. It wasn't more than another second though, before I had the bag sitting in front of me on the coffee table and as I grabbed the bottom corners of it, lifting them upwards, all the candy poured out onto the large surface in front of us.
"Wow Max, you really made out this year," I noted as I scanned the pile of candy that was way too much for any one child to eat. "Did you leave any for the other kids?"
Max giggled, proud of his collection of goodies, "I don't know," he answered wide eyed.
"Okay, well, I guess we better get started," I sighed knowing this was going to take a while.
"Yep," Max readily agreed.
"So let's sort this stuff out first okay, then we'll check it to make sure it's safe," I said, thinking out loud, while Max just looked confused. Candy was candy... wasn't it?
"What do you mean 'sort it'?" Max asked.
"Well, like... put all the lollipops in that corner and all the gum in that corner over there, and the candy bars over here," I gestured as I started separating the candy into various piles.
"Okay, but how come Tay?" Max asked me as he reluctantly followed my lead, pushing pieces of candy in different directions.
"Because Max," my mom started to say, "Taylor is... overly organized."
"I am not," I insisted. "I just like to know what I have and know where it's at. Is there something wrong with that?"
"Not at all honey," my mom answered as her hands gently squeezed my shoulders.
The doorbell rang, echoing through the house. "It's pretty late for trick-or-treating," my mom said out loud as she made her way toward the front door. "Do we even have any candy left to pass out Tay?" she asked as she swung the door open.
"Hi, is Taylor home?" Blake asked her as I momentarily freaked out; temporarily forgetting that he was coming to pick me up in the midst of all this candy sorting.
"Oh, yes, he is. Come on in Blake," my mom said, and then Blake Madsen was standing in my living room seeing me and my compulsions with his own eyes.
"Dude, what are you doing?" he asked as he observed me in all of my freakishness.
"Umm... " I paused, looking for a way to explain my oddities to one of the coolest guys in school, the one that was currently standing in my living room, waiting for me, to take me to hang out for the night with his friends. "Never mind. I just need to grab a jacket," I told him.
"Okay, cool," he agreed.
"But Tay! You said you'd help me!" Max insisted, pouting.
"Go on Taylor, I'll finish up here," my mom said. "I didn't know you had plans tonight or I never would have let you get started with this. I'll help you finish up Max," she told him.
I ran up to my room and grabbed a sweatshirt and glanced at myself in the mirror before looking completely horrified at what I saw staring back at me. My hair was everywhere! I quickly ran into the bathroom to try and sort it out, and on my way into the bathroom, I was in such a frenzy, that I smashed my knee into the bathroom counter and yelled out in pain.
It didn't take but a second for my mom to be right there next to me, wondering what happened and if I was okay. I really just needed to calm down and I might actually be fine I thought, as I rubbed my sore knee and then fixed my hair. Mom and I walked back downstairs only to find Blake helping Max sort his candy.
"So why are we sorting out like this again?" Blake asked Max who was trying really hard to look like he hadn't just been crying.
"Because," Max sniffled slightly, "Tay says we have to."
Blake looked up at us as we entered the room again as he said, "Well, then I guess we should... I mean, Tay is the expert at candy sorting right?" He smiled in my direction as Max nodded.
My mom walked over and gently said, " Maxxie, Tay and Blake are leaving now so say goodnight and then I'll help you finish up here okay."
"Okay. Good night Tay," he said hugging me and then Blake. "Thanks for helping," he added before he turned back around to where my mom was waiting for him.
"You guys have a good night," she called over her shoulder, "and Blake, tell your mom I said hello, it's been way too long since I've seen her."
"I will Mrs. Brooks," he said.
Blake and I walked out to where his jeep was parked alongside the curb in front of my house. I had seen the black jeep drive past me at least a million times when I was walking to, or home from, school, but I had never actually been in it, or even this close to it, I realized, as he unlocked the doors and we climbed in. It was fairly neat inside, which for some reason totally surprised me. I'm not sure why, but I had always assumed that most teenagers cars would be the graveyard for the fast food remnants and long since forgotten beach towels and soccer balls, but not Blake's.
"Nice car," I said, still somewhat in awe as we pulled away from the curb.
I don't know, maybe I was just pissed off that I was stuck here at home on Halloween night, passing out candy to all the neighborhood kids, while my mom took my little brother trick-or-treating. Then again, it's not like I was Mr. Popular at school and I had all sorts of invitations to choose from. In fact, I hadn't been invited anywhere... not to one party, not to hang out with anyone... nothing, I mean, even Ben was going to a party... with a girl no less. Ben! And here I was, sitting on my couch, alone, on Halloween night passing out candy and feeling so sorry for myself, that I couldn't even choose a piece for myself to try and sweeten my mood.
Ben was my best friend, had been since we met in the seventh grade, and all these years later, we were juniors, and were driving, and had sort of made our way through those crappy beginning years of high school and found our niche, although, I'll admit, Ben's niche seemed to come with better parties and more girls, not that I was at all interested in those.. girls that is. Ben was though, and he partied a lot. I was always invited along, and even actually went most of the time too, except tonight when I was stuck at home passing out this bowl of candy for my mom while Ben was out partying without me.
I couldn't even be pissed about it really, because it wasn't Ben's fault my parents decided to continue to reproduce after I was born, and it wouldn't be fair if Max didn't get to go trick-or-treating just because my mom had this insane need to make sure someone was here to pass out candy every year, so, it was either this, or take Max myself. I decided this would be the easier of the two, and besides, I know how this goes down... I ask Max how far he wants to go, and of course, he picks the furthest house possible, so we start heading in that direction, and about halfway there, he starts whining about how he's tired and his legs hurt and then, his bag of candy is getting heavy, so I take some and carry it for him in a separate bag and then, once we are as far from home as we can be, I end up carrying Max, in whatever costume he chose that year, and both bags of candy all the way home.
Not this year though, I opted for the boring couch, with the organized bowl of candy, and the giggling kids, and the moms with strollers, and babies not even old enough to eat candy, and the teenagers too old to dress up but still wanting candy, and indecision. Why was picking a candy bar so damn difficult, I wondered again, as I heard another knock on the door, before I gave up and carefully stood up, not messing up the organization I had going on in my bowl.
I swung the door open to a chorus of 'trick-or-treat', and I was faced with one 'Finding Nemo' fish, one Barbie cheerleader, and right behind them were the kids dressed as a ninja and Anakin Skywalker, and the baby in the classic pumpkin costume. I almost had the door closed when I heard a faint 'trick-or-treat', so I tried not to groan as I pulled the door open once more, only to have a little ladybug with wings and antennae on her head standing there, but it wasn't her outfit that caught my eye, it was her escort, Blake Madsen.
Blake Madsen. Senior, probably the most popular guy in school, and so fucking gorgeous I swear my brain ceases to operate on a normal level whenever he's anywhere within a one-hundred foot vicinity of me. Yeah, that Blake Madsen, the one standing a lot closer than one-hundred feet now though, since he was only a foot in front of me with his little sister and talking to me... talking to ME!
"Huh," I stuttered out so eloquently that I almost instantly hated myself for being such a total loser every time he was around.
"I just said 'hey' Taylor. Looks like you got stuck doing Halloween duty too," he repeated.
"Oh, yeah," I pouted. "I was gonna go to this party with my best friend Ben, but I had to stay and help so, guess that's not happening now."
"Oh yeah? You mean that party at Michelle's?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's the one," I sighed.
"Well, I heard it got broken up an hour ago cause her parents came home early, and she is in some deep shit, so no worries right?" he said, apparently trying to cheer me up, or maybe himself.
I considered that as the awkward silence grew between us and his little sister, who was maybe all of nine years old, stood there staring at us, wasting her valuable candy-getting time before she tugged on his sleeve and insisted, "Blakey, come on! We're wasting time."
"Okay, okay," he said in an attempt to calm her down, but it was the way his cheeks flushed, his face almost glowing, as she called this very popular icon in our world, Blakey, that caught my attention.
"Yeah, you should get going so you can get done," I begrudgingly admitted. "I've been there too."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Well, try to have a good night," he offered as he turned and I watched him walk away before I closed the door on one of the hottest boys in school.
It was then that I realized I had managed to have a whole conversation with him and only looked like a complete idiot once... I hoped. Not only that, but it occurred to me as I replayed it in my head, that he knew my name. We weren't exactly friends and we absolutely didn't run in the same circles, that was for sure, but somehow, he knew my name. I was still leaning heavily back against the door when I not only heard, but felt, another knock at my door causing me to come back to reality for the moment. I opened the door once more and standing there was Blake Madsen, this time with a very impatient ladybug waiting down at the end of the walk.
"Hey," he said fidgeting slightly, which was completely abnormal for him, at least in my head. This was Blake after all, then again, what did I know, it's not like we knew each other.
"Hey, are you lost?" I joked.
"Er... no," he said confused.
"Forget something then?" I continued on, looking for the reason he was still standing there with his hands shoved in his pockets, looking totally uncomfortable with the whole situation.
"No," he said almost aggravated. "I came back to ask you..."
"Ask me what?" I asked him as he paused uncomfortably.
"You know what, never mind," he said as he started to turn back toward his ladybug.
"No! Wait!" I insisted, reflexively grabbing him by the arm to stop him before I even realized what I was doing and when he did stop and turned around to look at me again, I was the one that was uncomfortable and at a loss for words.
"Yeah?" he asked me.
"Well, uh..." I stuttered out. "I uh... well, tell me what you were going to say," I requested sheepishly.
"Well, I was going to ask you if you were doing anything later... cause there is this party at Greg Flemming's house. His parents are out of town or something..." he explained casually.
"Oh. Well, I'm not really doing anything at all actually," I told him before I realized that once again, I looked totally lame, with no plans on Friday night, not to mention that it was Halloween night.
"Well, do you wanna go then? With me? I mean... if you aren't doing anything..." he suggested.
Was he serious? Holy fuck! Blake Madsen was asking me... ME, Taylor Brooks, to go with him... to a party... where HIS friends would be... at Greg fucking Flemming's house. Holy shit!
"Well? You wanna go or what?" he asked after I hadn't responded.
"Yes! I mean... yeah, that sounds cool," I answered trying to keep my cool, when in reality, I was beyond excited. Hanging out with Blake and Greg and at a party. I mean he invited me to go... with him, hell yeah!
"Cool," he said casually, his smile as gorgeous as ever. "How about when I get done with Molly, I'll come pick you up? Sound good?"
"Sure, cool, sounds good," I stammered out, looking totally lame.
"Okay, see you in a little while Taylor," he said before he jogged down the walk to meet up with his little sister, while I stood there trying to figure out how in the hell I managed to get to hang out at a party, with Blake, on Halloween, He was picking me up, and... he smiled at me.
"Yeah... later," I mumbled watching him disappear down the street.
A good two or three minutes had passed with me standing there, being held up by the wall, before another group of kids walked up and helped themselves to my neatly arranged bowl of candy before I could get myself to finally go back inside and close the door. That only made it possible to wonder how this all happened in a warmer setting, since the cool autumn air had a way of sending that chill straight through to your bones. I appreciated the warmth that waited for me inside though, as I flopped back down on the couch, excited about the way my night had suddenly turned around.
It wasn't long before Mom showed up, carrying Max of course, and his bag of candy, but the part of the night that I always find amusing was about to unfold. Max, who had been too tired to go on, too exhausted to take even one more step, to venture forth to even one more door, even with the promise of some treat to coax him, was suddenly revived and demanding to start enjoying those same treats he had worked so hard to collect, as Mom flopped down in a chair in an attempt to recuperate from her latest weightlifting activities, and then it happens, like it does every year.
"Max, we have to check your candy first before you can have any, just give me a minute," my mom said, exasperated by Max's sudden burst of energy. "Maybe Tay will help you," she suggested, her eyes begging me to lend a hand.
"Will you, please Tay?" Max asked, practically bounding over to where I had been snickering silently from my seat on the sofa, watching the tradition of what Halloween had become in the Brooks household play out in front of me predictably, as if it were scripted and rehearsed, everything happening just as it should, right on cue.
"Alright twerp," I sighed, "but it's gonna cost you," I said teasingly.
"But I don't have any money," Max insisted, pouting as Mom and I exchanged a silent chuckle.
"Hmmm, well what do you have then? You must have something..." I said suggestively.
"Ummm, well..." he said glancing at his bag of candy and then back at me again. "What if... I give you some... of my candy?" he suggested painfully.
"I don't know, how much is some?" I questioned him as his little foot started tapping impatiently.
"Tay! Please!" he whined.
"Alright, alright," I absolved. "Grab your bag of candy."
Max proudly grabbed his rather large and bulging bag of candy and hefted it over to where I was sitting, before dropping it at my feet. I couldn't decide if it was more comical watching him struggle to hoist the bag to a level that would be easier for him to handle, or the way he was trying so hard to seem patient and unaffected by my lack of comparable enthusiasm over all this.
"Okay, here it is," he announced redundantly.
Slowly I sat up from where I had been leaning back against the back of the couch and as I grabbed the sack of candy and Max's eyes widened in anticipation. I glanced over at my mom and she winked at me, silently laughing at the way Max seemed to act like this was some precious treasure to be guarded and protected. It wasn't more than another second though, before I had the bag sitting in front of me on the coffee table and as I grabbed the bottom corners of it, lifting them upwards, all the candy poured out onto the large surface in front of us.
"Wow Max, you really made out this year," I noted as I scanned the pile of candy that was way too much for any one child to eat. "Did you leave any for the other kids?"
Max giggled, proud of his collection of goodies, "I don't know," he answered wide eyed.
"Okay, well, I guess we better get started," I sighed knowing this was going to take a while.
"Yep," Max readily agreed.
"So let's sort this stuff out first okay, then we'll check it to make sure it's safe," I said, thinking out loud, while Max just looked confused. Candy was candy... wasn't it?
"What do you mean 'sort it'?" Max asked.
"Well, like... put all the lollipops in that corner and all the gum in that corner over there, and the candy bars over here," I gestured as I started separating the candy into various piles.
"Okay, but how come Tay?" Max asked me as he reluctantly followed my lead, pushing pieces of candy in different directions.
"Because Max," my mom started to say, "Taylor is... overly organized."
"I am not," I insisted. "I just like to know what I have and know where it's at. Is there something wrong with that?"
"Not at all honey," my mom answered as her hands gently squeezed my shoulders.
The doorbell rang, echoing through the house. "It's pretty late for trick-or-treating," my mom said out loud as she made her way toward the front door. "Do we even have any candy left to pass out Tay?" she asked as she swung the door open.
"Hi, is Taylor home?" Blake asked her as I momentarily freaked out; temporarily forgetting that he was coming to pick me up in the midst of all this candy sorting.
"Oh, yes, he is. Come on in Blake," my mom said, and then Blake Madsen was standing in my living room seeing me and my compulsions with his own eyes.
"Dude, what are you doing?" he asked as he observed me in all of my freakishness.
"Umm... " I paused, looking for a way to explain my oddities to one of the coolest guys in school, the one that was currently standing in my living room, waiting for me, to take me to hang out for the night with his friends. "Never mind. I just need to grab a jacket," I told him.
"Okay, cool," he agreed.
"But Tay! You said you'd help me!" Max insisted, pouting.
"Go on Taylor, I'll finish up here," my mom said. "I didn't know you had plans tonight or I never would have let you get started with this. I'll help you finish up Max," she told him.
I ran up to my room and grabbed a sweatshirt and glanced at myself in the mirror before looking completely horrified at what I saw staring back at me. My hair was everywhere! I quickly ran into the bathroom to try and sort it out, and on my way into the bathroom, I was in such a frenzy, that I smashed my knee into the bathroom counter and yelled out in pain.
It didn't take but a second for my mom to be right there next to me, wondering what happened and if I was okay. I really just needed to calm down and I might actually be fine I thought, as I rubbed my sore knee and then fixed my hair. Mom and I walked back downstairs only to find Blake helping Max sort his candy.
"So why are we sorting out like this again?" Blake asked Max who was trying really hard to look like he hadn't just been crying.
"Because," Max sniffled slightly, "Tay says we have to."
Blake looked up at us as we entered the room again as he said, "Well, then I guess we should... I mean, Tay is the expert at candy sorting right?" He smiled in my direction as Max nodded.
My mom walked over and gently said, " Maxxie, Tay and Blake are leaving now so say goodnight and then I'll help you finish up here okay."
"Okay. Good night Tay," he said hugging me and then Blake. "Thanks for helping," he added before he turned back around to where my mom was waiting for him.
"You guys have a good night," she called over her shoulder, "and Blake, tell your mom I said hello, it's been way too long since I've seen her."
"I will Mrs. Brooks," he said.
Blake and I walked out to where his jeep was parked alongside the curb in front of my house. I had seen the black jeep drive past me at least a million times when I was walking to, or home from, school, but I had never actually been in it, or even this close to it, I realized, as he unlocked the doors and we climbed in. It was fairly neat inside, which for some reason totally surprised me. I'm not sure why, but I had always assumed that most teenagers cars would be the graveyard for the fast food remnants and long since forgotten beach towels and soccer balls, but not Blake's.
"Nice car," I said, still somewhat in awe as we pulled away from the curb.