When we got back to my house, we both realized how exhausted we were, and how quiet the house was. Then I remembered my dad was doing an art show, my sister said earlier that she was going to be out with friends, Isaac was going to the city for the evening, and we could only assume that Zac was around somewhere with Crista. If they weren’t here, they were most-likely across the street at her house. As we wandered through the house, we found my mom feeding Bella, my yellow lab.

“Hey you two. Where have you been? Everyone else got back before you”

“Yeah we know. We were at the pool with Taylor’s brothers and Crista, and we took a different way home to talk and catch up. We couldn’t really get alone time with everyone around.”

“Right , since when you two aren’t planning plane trips for Taylor to get here, you’re both tying up the phone line for hours on end, I could see where you would need the catch up time since you guys never get to talk” she answered sarcastically.

“Sorry about that Lynn. Your daughter is my best friend. I have to do what I can with the separation. That’s my fault entirely.” Taylor apologized in all sincerity. “It might get worse though since I just asked her to be my girlfriend, if that’s alright with you and Mr. DeA…” I smiled when he shorted my family’s name. He looked at his feet while my eyes grew wide at the realization of what he just admitted to my mother. I was suddenly extremely nervous about her reaction. My parents were always pretty lenient and trusted me with a lot of adult situations. They knew I was responsible when it came to boys and had a decent head on my shoulders. Still, having them know I had a boyfriend now put us in a whole different situation I had never dealt with and it made me extremely uneasy.

“Well, first, he’ll be mad you called him Mr. DeA Taylor, we’ve told you. It’s Lynn and John. You practically live here. No formalities. That is really great though. I was almost wondering when that would happen. You are inseparable, even when you are actually apart. Are you sure you’re going to be able to handle everything? This is different from normal relationships. You guys have to be careful.”

“We’re in this together. We’ll deal with things as best as we can in the moment. I promised Liz I would always keep her safe, protected, and happy”. Taylor shrugged and smiled. “If I’m ever wrong, I’m sure Liz will put me in my place. She can hold her own. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met. I’m really lucky” his smile got wider and his cheeks turned red.

“Yeah, we’re really happy” I added as I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned my head on him. “We’re also really tired. Tay had a long flight, the sun was brutal, plus we did a lot of swimming and walking today. We’re going to take a nap.”

“Alright. I’m going to head to the store and get some stuff for some barbecue and the fire pit if you both are interested. Zac went to Crista’s for awhile and they said they’ll come back across the street for dinner. They requested a lot of marshmallows for the fire. I just dropped Isaac off at the train station for New York, and he said he would be back later tonight as well, and when I get him, I have to go get your sister and a friend of hers too. It’ll be a full house. Get your rest now while it’s quiet” she said as she grabbed her purse and patted Bella on the head.

“Okay. Come on Tay. I’m exhausted” I said pulling him towards the stairs.

“No funny business! Behave yourselves. Just because you’re an official couple now doesn’t mean there’s no rules. Take it slow and be responsible. Don’t give me, your father, or even Taylor’s parents any reason not to trust you guys” she warned. I hung my head for the millionth time that day as we made our way upstairs. I was mortified. Taylor’s flushed cheeks proved that he felt the same. It seemed to be a running theme with us lately, but I guess we had to deal with it sooner rather than later.

When we got upstairs, I apologized for my mother’s mini-lecture. Taylor laughed it off nervously, but admitted she was probably right. Neither of us wanted to be on our families bad sides, and also didn’t want to rush our relationship. In my head, I thought that even though we were so close already, if we were older, we’d probably be married, if not, extremely close to it. However, I was only 15 and he was 17 in reality. I agreed, we’d take it slow and talk about what we would be ready for when a moment presented itself, and we’d talk everything out and decide on things together as they came at us.

We rummaged through our clothes and looked for comfortable and dry things to nap in. We both got changed (separately, of course), and I got back to my bed last. Taylor was already half asleep. The poor guy must have been wiped. I opened my window to let a breeze in and then crawled into bed next to him. He opened his eyes just slightly and smiled.

“Hey you. Come by me..” he held his hand out to me. Even though we were a couple now, sharing a bed was nothing new. We slept together all the time. Ever since the first night we met and we fell asleep talking down on the pull out sofa. We were mature about the situation and were upfront about it with our parents from the start. They trusted us and nothing had ever happened. I guess now there was a potential to, but we promised to be responsible. I accepted his hand as I curled up facing him. I buried my head into his chest as I grabbed at my sheet to pull over us, then wrapped his arm over me too. He kissed the top of my head as I whispered my exhaustion to him. I could feel his breathing growing deeper as our legs intertwined. He moved his fingers up just barely under my shirt and gently stroked the bare skin on my lower back. I did the same to him, and within minutes, we were both in a deep sleep.

I felt myself on the verge of consciousness when I heard the sound of distant voices. My eyes fluttered open just enough to see my room was pitch black. Night time had come. Taylor was still out cold, laying on his back with his arm around me while I rested on his chest. I peeled myself away from his warmth as carefully as I could without waking him and went to look out my window that faced the backyard. Zac, Crista, mom, Ike, Ali, one of the guys’ friends, and a few of Ali’s friends were all sitting outside at our fire pit. Mom was cooking up a storm on the grill, the Christmas lights we had were entwined in our arbor and were lit, so were the tikki torches around the yard, and our patio table was set for dinner. It looked lovely, but not as lovely as the sight of my boyfriend in my bed. Just as that thought crossed my mind, he called to me.

“Liz, you left me. Come back. Laying here alone is unacceptable” he groaned. I went over to the bed and sat next to him as I ran my fingers through his hair.

“Aren’t you hungry? Everyone is over for dinner. Want to change and go outside?”

“Not just yet..” he grabbed my hand and pulled me back down. The second my head hit the pillow and I was in his arms again, I fell right back to sleep, as did Taylor.
More time passed. I’m not sure how much, but this time, Taylor was waking me up.

“Babe I’m hungry. Wake up please…” he whispered in my ear as he touched my face. I rolled away from him onto my other side.

“No.. go’way..” I mumbled. “I’m tired. Don’t want to get up..I was up before and you made me go back to sleep. Now it’s my turn” I grabbed a nearby pillow and cuddled with it away from him. Soon I felt him lay behind me and lightly kiss the back of my shoulder.

“Let’s just go eat my love. Then we can come back up here and sleep. I’m tired too..” he traced his fingers up and down my arm, and placed one more soft kiss on the back of my neck. I knew he won. His insane use of pet names in the short time we had been dating only helped him win as well.

“You keep that up and everything our parents asked of us will go right out the window and we’ll never leave this bed..” I buried deeper into my pillow, which smelled like Taylor.

“As much as I would love that, I would love it even more if we had the perfect time and place, and we were completely away from everyone. I’d also like to be dating more than a day. Right now, everyone is right below your window. They wouldn’t need to know our business. One day, when it’s right. I promise. Come on you, dinner.” He replied pulling on my arm as he got me to sit up.

“Fine…” I groaned as I rubbed my eyes. I grabbed a sweat jacket to throw on over my tank top and shorts, a clip for my hair, and my shoes. I ran to the bathroom to make myself look presentable while I waited for Taylor to change his boxers to cargo shorts and grab his shoes as well. When we were ready, we headed downstairs and out to the yard to join the party that had formed for dinner.

Chapter 7 | Guestbook