The Tempest Tossed

The following Wednesday when I walked into my first period class I heard someone say my name. I turned around to see Evie Sanders waving at me. Evie was one of Melissa’s friends, beautiful, and well-liked. She’d always been nice to me so I didn’t hesitate to walk over to her.

“How are you, Gabrielle? I feel like I haven’t actually talked to you in ages,” she smiled.

We never actually talked. We said “hi” when passing in the hallway and we’d been matched up together for a science project once, but other than that I couldn’t remember a real conversation I’d had with her.

“I’m pretty good… how about you?”

“Good. Okay, so can I ask you about a little gossip? Do you mind?”

“I don’t really know much about school gossip…”

“Well, it’s actually about you,” she stated, licked her lips, and then continued. “Where did you get your car?”

What? How could that possibly be gossip worthy? Just because I Was driving a new SUV to school, people were actually interested in where I got it? I suppose my impoverished reputation wasn’t exactly a secret.

“It was a birthday gift,” I said, not feeling the need to brag about the fact that my gorgeous, rich, generous boyfriend had given it to me. Oh, how badly I wanted to though.

“Did your mom get it for you?” She frowned.

“Why does… why does everyone care…?” I said, looking around at the girls sitting near her who were listening in on the conversation.

“Oh! I don’t know. I guess everyone is just curious. It’s not a big deal if you don’t want to explain…”

“My boyfriend gave it to me,” I said, clearing my throat.

“Okay well… that’s sort of why we’re asking, I guess. Melissa wants to know if you’re dating Taylor Hanson. He never calls her back.”

Ah. So Melissa wanted to know. This was all about Melissa’s own insecurities and competitive nature. I should have gloated and raised my chin high when I told them that yes, I was in fact dating Taylor. But an interesting thought struck me as I stood there before them in the back of the classroom. Why was I dating Taylor and Melissa not? What did he like about me? Would it have been like me, or like Melissa for me to stand there and rub it in their faces? I was not the kind of person to do that.

“Yeah, I am,” I nodded. “I’m actually living with the Hanson’s right now. I nanny for the younger ones.”

“Oh! Okay. Awesome,” she smiled, and then paused. “Okay well… I just have a question. I’m not trying to accuse you or anything, I just think… don’t you think that’s sort of… mean to Melissa?”

“What?” I frowned. “Why would it be mean to Melissa…?”

“Well it was no secret she was interested in Taylor. They went out once and he went to a party with her… you know all of that right?”

I did know all of it, but this was such a different situation. Taylor liked me, and I hadn’t asked him too. He wouldn’t have been interested in Melissa anyway. He’d practically admitted to me that he just pursued her to bother me.

“I just… I…” I was frozen. Too many people were looking at me. I began to wonder if I had actually done something wrong. It certainly didn’t feel like it, but with all the angry eyes on me I wondered if perhaps I had been out of line. I didn’t like Melissa- not a single bit. But did she at least deserve my respect, and had I neglected to consider that?

“Gabrielle, don’t get upset about it,” Evie smiled. “It’s not like… don’t worry. Melissa will get over it. I just wanted to know if you were aware that Melissa liked Taylor and for awhile Taylor liked Melissa.”

Taylor didn’t even go to high school and he was smack dab in the middle of my high school drama. He was certainly going to enjoy hearing that later in the evening.

“Yes. I knew,” I said quietly.

“So you understand that it wasn’t very nice of you to take Taylor from her?”

It wasn’t as simple as taking Taylor! I just hadn’t been. I was close with Taylor on a completely different spectrum than Melissa had been! And I resisted Taylor and he was the one pursuing me for so long and!

“I’m sorry if that’s how Melissa sees it,” I replied. “I never meant to. Taylor and I… we just got really close because I baby sit for his family… and I honestly didn’t even know that Melissa was still interested…”

“It’s not a big deal,” Evie smiled. A part of me believed her. A part of me believed she was really the sweet, thoughtful girl I had always thought of her as. Sure she was a little full of herself and a little caddy, but a part of me believed she really was being genuine to me.

“Thanks,” I said quietly. “Okay well… I’m going to sit down…”

“Sorry to bother you,” she smiled, and I turned to go and sit back down at my desk in the front of the room. “And in the future, I hope you have to experience what it feels like to have someone you really like ripped away from you by someone else.”

Let me retract that statement. She was nothing more than a snide, petty little girl with something very large mounted up her ass. I just ignored her and sat down. There was one thing bad about living at the Hanson’s house. When I still lived in my little shack with my mother I hated going home; school was a sanctuary. Now that I lived with the Hanson family, I loved being home and it made school so much harder to endure.

The second week at the Hanson’s was almost as crazy as the first for me, but fortunately Taylor was just as busy. The record company finally called late Sunday night to tell them that the demos they sent in weren’t “upbeat” enough and the boys were asked to rework the material. They weren’t happy about it. All three of them just laid around the house all Sunday evening in quiet, disillusioned moods, but Monday afternoon they were downstairs in the basement studio working straight through dinner. They’d been on a creative streak since.

I was fortunate that I had finally settled into a routine at the Hanson’s. After school I went straight home unless Diana had asked me to pick up some groceries for her in the morning. When I arrived home I helped the younger Hanson kids finish up their homework (and often looked over the English papers that Taylor was making up for his college class). Then I started dinner with Diana, did some homework while it was cooking, and sat down with everyone to eat. The schedule was tiring, and yet relaxing all at once. There were no last-minute loop holes like there were when I was living with my mother. I could predict my day when I woke up, and that felt nice.

“I haven’t seen you all day,” Taylor said when the boys emerged from the studio Wednesday evening for dinner. He wrapped his arms around me, gave me a quick kiss, and looked down at me. “We’ve been working all day on this new song. I have a feeling it’s going to be one that moves this album along. I really do.”

“Good,” I smiled, returning his kiss and then pulling away before anyone in the kitchen felt awkward about the public display of affection- including myself. “I’ve been really busy myself.”

“We need to do something just by ourselves this weekend,” he said, getting the milk and pouring himself a glass. “Like outside of the house… we need to go on a date. Have we ever officially gone on a date?”

“We went to the movies once…?”

“That doesn’t count. That was before we were together and that was with other people. We just need to go out… just the two of us,” he decided, sitting down at the table with his drink. “Saturday night. Okay? Pencil me in.”

“Consider yourself penciled.”

Saturday evening couldn’t come soon enough. Thursday and Friday at school were stressful because I had to deliver a project on Friday for my history class about the death of JFk. Taylor was trying to convince me all week to walk in there and call the CIA lying bastards, as he was convinced they were. He gave me a 10 minute long conspiracy theory speech about his reasoning, and after 10 minutes I was no closer to believing a word he said.

Mackenzie and Zoe were difficult to say the least on Friday. Mackenzie was so comfortable with me at that point that he no longer was excited about spending time with me. He’d developed an attitude that I found anything but endearing. All Friday evening he was set on convincing me to actually drive him and Zoe out to see a movie, but I simply didn’t have the energy to do so. He really flipped when I told him that in addition to my exhaustion, I didn’t feel his behavior deserved it. He hid downstairs in his brother’s studio, laying on a couch and sulking for most of the night.

Zoe took her cues from Mackenzie when I said no to the movie theater and was completely uncooperative all evening. I almost gave in and just agreed to the field trip, but I knew it would be a result of them wearing me down and Taylor insisted I be firm. It was easy for him to say. He spent the evening sitting around the living room eating Chex mix with his brothers and strumming on guitars, being 100 perfect unhelpful.

At 8 o’clock, an hour before their usual weekend bedtime, I finally dragged Mackenzie out of the basement and firmly brought him to his bedroom. It was easy to be tough when I was exhausted and moody. He screamed at me a few times, cried, and threw his covers off when I put him into bed, but as long as he was in bed I was happy. Zoe wasn’t so easy. I placed her in bed 3 times and each and every time she ran downstairs. She’d run over to her brothers who were still working on music, crawl into one of their laps, and they would just shrug and continue playing their guitars- completely oblivious to the fact that I was trying to get her in bed.

After the third time I just left her there, told Taylor to put her to bed when he decided to care, and scooped myself a huge bowl of chocolate ice-cream that I found in the freezer. I was starting to see what Diana meant about her sons not taking an active role in helping out.

Taylor found me an hour later passed out in the living room after I fell asleep to Nick at Night. He woke me up by tickling me and kissing me and being adorable in general. Damn him.

*****“Where are we going?” I asked Taylor Saturday night as we got into his car. He’d insisted I dress “sorta nice” and wear make up. He said my eyes looked especially beautiful with mascara, and I was undecided about how to take that. Did they look ugly when natural?

“The Royal Dragon Chinese Buffet.”

“You made me dress all up for the filthy, cheap Chinese buffet?”

He let out a laugh as we pulled out of the driveway and glanced over at me. “I’m just kidding. That would be funny though, eh?”

“Hilarious,” I couldn’t help but smile.

It was strange how I’d known Taylor for just a month and a half and I already had higher standards. I would have been happy just to go out to eat period before I met him, and now I was spoiled. I vowed not to let myself get too emerged in the upper-middle class culture to the point that I couldn’t appreciate things anymore.

“I honestly hadn’t decided where we should go. I was sort of wanting The Olive Garden.”

“I’ve never been there.”

His mouth dropped. “You’ve never been to The Olive Garden?! It’s the most Americanized, and most amazing, Italian restaurant you can find.”

I laughed. “How cultured.”

When we arrived the line was long and Taylor cursed himself more than once for not calling ahead and making a reservation. We ended up with a 30 minute wait and the benches in the waiting area were thoroughly cramped. Taylor found a spot to squeeze his tiny hips into though and briskly pulled me onto his lap. I enjoyed being close to him more than I felt self-conscious about it, so I just rested my head against him and whispered about the various people walking in and out of the restaurant. We laughed the most at an obese, Italian man who walked out a beautiful woman on each arm.

“If another couple were people watching us… like we’re people watching everyone else, what do you think they’d say about it?” He asked at one point.

“Is that the chick who sings MMMBop? I didn’t know she was a lesbian!”

He gave me a shocked, hurt expression but then laughed, hitting me lightly.

“You hit like a girl,” I smirked. “Are you sure you aren’t a chick?”

He bounced his knees beneath me and smirked, “You’re sitting on my lap. I don’t know, am I?”

I gave him the same shocked look he’d given me moments before and silenced him in a kiss. It was strange to watch myself transform. It was like there were two Gabrielles… the Gabrielle kissing Taylor and loving the way he held me, and then the Gabrielle looking in on it all and saying, “You sap!”

“I think they would say- look. Those people look like they’re in love,” he said, raising an eyebrow at me. He was trying to get me to say the scary “L word”. He’d been trying since his birthday, but I simply wasn’t ready. The truth was I had never, ever told anyone that I loved them. I had never uttered the words before in my life. They were so unknown- foreign. And yet I knew I loved Taylor. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with him, but perhaps that was because I had never had anyone treat me the way he did. I loved him, but somehow saying it felt too scary.

“They might think that,” I shrugged, and then lowered my voice to point out an adorable, elderly couple walking out of the restaurant holding hands.

Taylor, of course, being the romantic that he is, only used it as an opportunity to confess his love to me for what was probably the 5th time that day.

“That’ll be us in 50 years,” he nodded. “Still in love.”

I rolled my eyes at his persistence but squeezed his hand to he knew I wasn’t rejecting him; I was just rejecting the word.

*****Let it be known that Taylor Hanson is an innately clumsy person. He is also an innately expressive person when he talks, and wildly gesticulates when he gets excited about something. This is not a good mix.

He was sitting there across from me finishing off his chicken parmesan (I found it mildly amusing that he ordered chicken of all things) explaining to me a new song he and his brothers were working on. He was talking about how the drums came in during a certain part, and although I didn’t really understand what he was talking about, his enthusiasm was contagious. As he explained, his hands began to wildly flail and in one rapid movement he’d knocked his full drink over, which knocked my soda over, which poured onto my lap.

“Shit!” he muttered as soon as it happened, springing to his feet and grabbing the emptied cups. He stood there above me, looking down at me sheepishly, a blush starting to rise to his cheeks. “I am so sorry! I am really…”

He took his napkin and put it in my lap, pressing it down and trying to absorb some of the soda from my khakis. I probably should have had some sympathy for the embarrassed guy, but I couldn’t help but laugh. Only Taylor would do something that stupid.

“You want me to go get you some paper towels from the bathroom?” he mumbled as a bus boy rushed over and began blotting up the spilled drink from the table. Now Taylor was standing above me, I was laughing, and a bus boy was frantically cleaning up the table. We had caused a scene, and people were watching. Taylor looked around and blushed deeper. I loved to see him knocked off his pedestal. It was always so endearing, although I didn’t dare tell him.

“I’m really sorry,” he said again, his voice genuine and apologetic.

“Tay,” I laughed, motioning for him to sit down. “It’s not a big deal. You just got a little carried away talking about those drums there.”

He smiled and hesitantly sat back down. “That’s really embarrassing,” he finally confessed, comfortable enough with me to admit his humiliation. “I don’t even want to know how much more embarrassing it would be if it had happened with anyone but you.”

“Picture if you did that to Melissa,” I smirked, trying my best to dry off my pants and throw the napkins on the table.

“Oh god. She would probably whine to me about spilling soda on her… I don’t know… Gucci pants or something ridiculous like that. My ex-girlfriend would have been annoyed too.”

“Speaking of Melissa, she’s mad at me about you. In fact, I’ve never been involved with school drama all my years in public school, and suddenly now because of you I seem to the center of high school gossip.”

“What did I do?” He said as if he really had no clue. Surely he knew it was cat fighting over him. He just wanted to hear me say it. Perhaps I would give him the ego inflation just once.

“I guess all of her cronies are mad because I supposedly stole you from Melissa,” I rolled my eyes.

“You really need to stop stealing me from girls I have no interest in, Gabrielle. I’m serious,” he said, looking me in the eye and then cracking a smile- little wrinkles forming around his eyes.

“I couldn’t resist. Look at you,” I said, sounding like I was joking but meaning it completely. He was gorgeous. It hit me at least a few times a day how perfect looking he was. “You want to know the best part of it though?”

“Hm?”

“One of Melissa’s friends muttered to me when I walked away something about how she can’t wait to see me hurt one day by someone stealing the person I like… or something like that!”

“What a bitch…” he rolled his eyes. “I never liked Melissa anyway. And no one will ever steal me away from you…” he hesitated and then added, “Like you stole me.”

I threw a wet napkin at his face in return.

When we were walking out to the car Taylor decided it would be funny to make fun of the wet stain on my pants that he himself had caused.

“Gabrielle peed her pants… ooo… “ he snickered in his most childish tone.

“You are so stupid,” was the best I could come up with in return.

“You are so gross,” he teased back. “Peeing in your pants and everything…”

In a moment of utter vengeance, I eyed a sprinkler we were walking next to and launched myself into his skinny body. He went flying into the water and was trapped before the sprinkler just long enough to get slightly damped.

He jumped out of the stream of water, composed himself, and then looked up at me with a mischievous, ruthless smile. I knew better than to stand there. I took off running in the black stilettos that Jessica had given me a few weeks earlier.

He was fast though- faster than me and far faster than me wearing stilettos. Within moments I felt his arms wrap around my waist and grab me. I screamed as he hauled me over a shoulder and began trudging back over to the sprinkler.

“This is not fair!” I screamed, kicking violently at his chest. “I was just getting you back for what you did inside! It’s even now! It’s already even!”

My screams did no good. He was on a mission, and he was out to see it finished. I screamed as he stepped over to the sprinkler and stood away from it so the sprinkler sprayed my head that was hanging over his back, and his backside.

“Taylor Hanson! Get me out of here right now!” I screamed, closing my eyes and trying to avoid the water shooting up out of the ground.

He snickered and finally stepped away, setting me down on the sidewalk and looking at me with a smug smile on his face. I pushed my wet hair out of my face and placed my hands on my hips.

“Was that really necessary?” I said seriously.

“Completely,” he replied, holding out his hand. “Shall we go?”

Instead of taking his hand, I couldn’t help but wrap him into a tight, wet hug. We were both damp. Where had he been all of my life, and why had it taken so long for him to show up at my front steps that afternoon?

“Better late than never,” I mumbled into his chest- thinking out loud.

“What?”

“I said I love you too.”

chapter 24