% CHAPTER 14 %

"You ready to go?" Rachel asks and I hop over the door of her convertible before taking a seat. I place my backpack at my feet in front of me. My eyes take one last look at the school before I put on my seatbelt.

"Yeah, let's go."

My second day at school ended up being pretty sweet. I stuck with the guys for the majority of it, but occasionally went over and talked to the girls that obsessed over me. It's only my second day, but half of the girls at my school are already a part of my fan club. Imagine if they knew that I was going to be famous in a few months.

Tomorrow is Taylor's first day at school. To say I'm nervous is an understatement. She could ruin everything I've worked so hard to achieve in less than a second. All she has to do is open her mouth. I don't know if she will though. Yeah, Taylor talks a good game, but would she actually go through with it? Sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. Man, I never know with that girl. Sometimes I wish I could just get into her head and see what she's thinking.

I rock my head to the beat of Will.I.Am's "Scream and Shout" while contemplating just how Taylor and I are going to solve all these arguments. Maybe if we talked things out, like normal people. Wait, hadn't we tried that before? Yeah...we had.

Rachel drops me off at the curb by the driveway. "Remember, I'm not driving you to school tomorrow. The car you'll be driving is waiting for you in the garage. See you!" She revs her engine and speeds off.

I nod. My plan is working so far. Since Rachel won't be dropping me off tomorrow, I'll tell all of those girls that she dumped me because I confessed my feelings for her and she was only looking for a fling. It'll be all over the school by the end of the day.Girls love gossip, but what they love more than that is a man who just got labeled single.

I walk up the driveway and open the door. No sound is coming from inside the house. Then I hear the familiar sneeze and I know she's home.

"Honey I'm home!" I shout just to get on her nerves.

I immediately hear stomps getting closer and closer until I can see her. Her feet are padding noisily through the house towards me. "If you ever call me 'honey' again, I will slit your throat." Her eyes are marked with the fury that I know and lov- am so used to...

"Are you on your period?" I ask with a serious expression. I know she probably isn't. Taylor is always this moody. It can't possibly be because she's on her period.

Her face pales at my words. "No," she lets out in a squeak.

Shit. Talk about awkward. I just walked myself into that one. How could I have know she was actually on her period?!

"Oh, umm...Sorry," I say awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck. Way to go Bret.

She puffs out her cheeks in frustration. "So did you bring any of your friends over today?"

I walk in the house. "No. The guys may be coming over some time tonight though to watch T.V."

She nods as her brain consumes this newfound knowledge. "Well I'm going to watch T.V. right now then. You can join if you want," she says politely. My eyebrows raise in surprise. Really? Wow, when she's on her period, she's really nice. Then she suddenly remembers that horrible act she's supposed to maintain. "But don't hog the blanket! Or the popcorn! Or any of the pillows!"

"Oh what are we going to need a blanket for?" I waggle my eyebrows, hoping to get away with that since she's on her period. Maybe I can get away with more stuff when she's on her period.

Taylor puffs out her cheeks again. That expression is really growing on me. "Stay on your side of the couch."

I agree, knowing I'm going to break every one of those rules just to aggravate her. After I take off my shoes, we make ourselves comfortable on the sofa. I bring my body underneath the blanket. So does she. Our toes touch for the slightest second, causing tiny pulses to go up my foot. She pulls away , but I force her feet back.

"It's just our toes touching," I protest. "Besides, what's the worst I can do with some feet? Tickle you?"

After a few seconds, Taylor sighs and gives in. I smile. We position our feet right under another so I can feel the rhythmic pulses course into my body. While watching the show, she hands me some popcorn that I chomp on right away. She pulls her hand back in disgust as I shrug.

"Hey, ain't nobody got time to eat like you do," I say before shoveling more popcorn into my mouth in an annoyingly loud way. One rule broken. Two more to go.

She grumbles and brings herself under the blanket even more. So do I. After struggling against each other for a few moments, I finally jerk the blanket away from her, causing her to be left uncovered. She shrieks and pounces on me.

"I told you not to take the blanket!" she screams, but all I can do is laugh up at her.

"Whoops. Must have been my super strength." I show off my bicep muscles.

Taylor rolls her eyes. "Oh please. We all know triceps are way more important." She pokes my triceps. "But obviously you've got a lot of work to do in that department."

I ignore the fact that Taylor knows nothing about muscles, let alone which ones are more important, and wink at her. "Anything for you babe."

I don't know why I just called her that. Babe. I only say that to girls I'm dating. Then again, Taylor is pretty much an exception for everything. I'll say and do anything just to annoy her.

"I'm not your babe. Don't call me that."

I rest my hands around her waist in a relaxed position. "Isn't this a free country? Can't I call you whatever I want?"

"Let go of me!" she says, trying to unclasp my hands. Without so much a struggle, I loop my hands around her hands so they are tied behind her back. She puffs out her cheeks. "This is so unfair."

She lets her head droop onto my chest for a moment before realizing she's not on her side anymore. She's actually all over me and if the blanket weren't separating us, this would look way more awkward than it had seemed a minute ago. Then again it probably still looks awkward now.

Taylor perks her head up and I immediately let go of her hands. She's too close. If she gets any closer, I'll do something I'll regret. My heartbeat accelerates and her eyes catch mine. Her blue staring down into my brown ones. Her hair hangs down around my face, like a shield from the outside world. My nose breathes in the scent of her perfume. Is it perfume or is that her natural scent? Damn it. I need to get away.

Right before I'm about to move away from her, her hand comes up along the edge of my jaw before disappearing into my hair. I close my eyes, enjoying the moment of her massaging her fingers through my hair. My hands travel down to her waist. When I open my eyes, she's even closer than before. She looks like she's coming in for a ki-

Taylor gasps and backs away from me so fast, she loses her balance and falls off of the couch. I'm too dazed to save her. Was she about to kiss me just now? If I would have kept my eyes closed for a few seconds longer, would her lips have been on mine?

I sit up and look at her down on the floor. "Taylor? Are you okay?"

She rubs at her shoulder for a little before looking over at me. I don't know what I expected from her gaze, but I definitely didn't expect this one. She seems to have mustered so much hatred for me, it's seeping out of her shaking shoulders and narrowed eyes.

"Arghh!" she yells, taking her hands and putting them out in front of her in a way that made it look like she was strangling me. "You!" Taylor seethes.

My eyes widen. "What the hell? What did I do?"

"Don't act like you don't know! What the hell was that?!"

"What was what?" I'm honestly clueless as to what she's accusing me of.

"You wanted something to happen!" she yells. "Between us! Well that's never happening buddy!"

I shake my head at her. Okay, so maybe I did, but I never acted on it. "Uhh, no. You were the one who made the first move!"

"What? I did no such thing! It was you!"

In a rage, she stands up, her eyes glowing. I get off of the couch and stand up in front of her, looking down at her angrily. "You have no right to accuse me of the first move. I wasn't the one who had their hands all up in my hair."

"That wasn't a move! You were the one who put your hands on me!"

"You didn't try to stop me! Besides, I wasn't the one who was leaning down to kiss me."

Taylor grabs onto her hair in frustration. It really isn't a good idea to think about how hot she looks when she does that, but I can't help myself.

"Kiss you?! You thought I was going to kiss you?!" She scoffs, but it sounds so fake that I immediately see through her façade.

Oh my god. She was going to kiss me. I didn't just make that up in my head! She had been planning on kissing me. The realization of that just adds more to my ego than I intend. Yes, she finally gives in!

I shrug. "Hey, I don't mind. You don't have to keep it a secret that you want me more than you let on."

Taylor groans. "Oh my god, and I thought that was as big as your ego could get! Get this through your thick skull. I don't like you. I never will."

My hands rest on her shoulders forcefully, making her stand in front of me and look me in the eyes as she speaks.

"Then why were you going to kiss me?" I ask, determined to get to the bottom of this.

She scowls at me. "I will never forgive you for this. Not only are you making false statements, but I fell off of the couch because of you! I can not believe you made me fall and now you're saying I wanted to kiss you on top of it. Like I'd ever want to kiss you unless it's for our roles in the movie. Kissing you on set is enough."

We stand in front of each other aggressively, neither one of us making a move to leave. "If I wanted to kiss you, I'd have done it by now," Taylor states, her eyes boring into mine.

"Well if I wanted to kiss you, I would have done it by now too," I state back. My eyes lower to catch a glimpse of her lips and when I look back up, I see she's looking back at mine too. No, she must be looking at something else.

Taylor's teeth dig into her bottom lip and she continues looking somewhere below my eyes. I contemplate on claiming her lips right then and there, but she just said she didn't want me to kiss her. I can't kiss her if she doesn't want me to. It would be wrong.

Taylor looks back up into my eyes before she starts talking. "I-"

Ring.

Taylor quickly gets out of my grip and runs to the front of the house to get the door. This gives me the opportunity to think over what just happened. I let out a frustrated breath. I'm so stupid. I can't believe I started a fight over if she wanted to kiss me or not. Of course she didn't. I don't know what she was doing, but she definitely wasn't leaning down to kiss me. Maybe she was trying to get my hands off. How could I have thought she wanted me?

On top of that, I thought these feelings for Taylor were gone. I should have left it alone and let her win the argument. Ugh, feelings. Can I even call them that? I hate talking about how I feel. It's too nerve wracking.

Slowly, I stand up from the couch and make my way over to the door. I've got to find out who is at the door. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Why is it so hard to walk all of a sudden? I feel like my feet are made out of lead. My head hurts too. I hate that Taylor makes me think so much. Using my brain this often to find out if I have feelings for this girl is really damaging my system.

I balance my weight on the front door Taylor left open and peer outside. She's talking to three guys.

"Hey guys!" I hear her say.

I catch my breath and fix my hair. Damn it. My friends are here.