Chapter Sixteen
Taylor
I turned from my computer to see Dylan standing in my doorway. I’d thought I’d heard a knock, but wasn’t sure. He’d only taken a few days to recover from his concussion and was back at school by the time Friday rolled around.
“Hi.”
I’d enjoyed my time hanging with him with week. He was smart, funny, and nothing like what I thought he’d be from what he looked like. He wasn’t dangerous, at all. No, he was a sweet guy and I was beginning to have feelings for him. That was bad. He was so amazingly off-limits to me.
We lived in the same house. If I got involved with Dylan, my father might kick him out. So, I’d decided that I had to avoid him.
But he was so cute and had been so sweet to me. Even with his concussion, he was still helping me with math. I might even get a B this quarter.
“Hi,” I said back.
He shuffled his feet, looking nervous, which made him even cuter. The boy was asking me something that was important to him. I gave him my full attention.
“Uh, it seems that I’m going to compete in this weekend’s mathlete tournament.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah, one of the other guys is sick so they asked me. I’m not sure I’m prepared, but I’ll do what I can.”
“That’s great, Dylan. Good luck.”
He grimaced. “The thing is, I wondered if you would come watch?”
Watch a mathlete tournament. I hoped my face didn’t show that I wasn’t interested, but then again, this was important to Dylan. Even if I didn’t love the idea, I should go. I planted a smile on my face. “I’d love to. Where is it?”
“It’s at our high school this time,” he said. “This morning. I’m on my way there right now, but it doesn’t start until ten.”
“I can do that, Dylan. I’ll be there. Do I need tickets?”
“No, it’s free.”
“I’ll bring Helena.”
His face lit up. “It’ll be nice to have people other than parents in the audience,” he said.
Oh. Brother.
I called Helena, who was still the only friend talking to me. As if everyone hadn’t been mad enough before, now with Greg getting charged with assault, they were all even more pissed. Though, his friends had squealed on him to get reduced charges.
Whatever.
“Hey, home girl,” Helena said.
“You want to go to a mathlete event this morning at the high school?”
“Sure. I got nothing going on.”
“Good. I have the car back, so I’ll pick you up at 9:30. I can’t imagine we’ll have trouble getting seats.”
Boy, was I wrong. The auditorium was packed. I glanced at Helena. “Who knew this was a big deal?”
She laughed. “Well, I’ve been to one of these before. I just never asked you because I figured you’d laugh. Then Dylan came into your life and you’ve loosened up a bit.”
I had to laugh. “Between most of my so called friends being mad at me, I’ve had to expand my horizons.”
“Andm you get to spend more time with me.”
We found two seats in the middle and sat in them. “I know I’ve been a horrible friend to you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Just don’t throw me over when Bailey and Barbie come back.”
“I won’t. In fact, I hope they don’t come back. I still have to see them at cheerleading, but that’s it.” I laughed. “The best part is that they have to listen to me since I’m captain.”
She laughed. “You are probably enjoying that too much.”
The house lights dimmed and the competition started. The crowd cheered like it was a football game. I looked at Helena, who seemed to be just as excited as everyone else. This was too weird – even for the new me.
I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn’t know any of the kids on the stage besides Dylan. I also didn’t know anyone in the audience. Helena and I were in a sea of strangers and I wasn’t sure I liked it.
Finally, there was an intermission. I hadn’t cheered once. I probably should have gotten into it more, but this was not my crowd.
Helena and I purchased, sodas then went back to our seats. “I don’t really get the excitement in it,” I commented.
“You don’t get it? Or you don’t understand the questions?”
“Either. I don’t even know why the answers are right, so how can I get excited?” I said.
This wasn’t my thing. I just had to admit it. I wasn’t this smart, and I wasn’t comfortable around people this smart. Who knew Dylan could kick such academic ass.
I looked for him, but the mathletes didn’t come out into the lobby. At half time, the coach gave the football team a pep talk. Did the mathletes have a coach, too? I had no idea about any of this, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
Give me a good athletic event and I could tell you all about it. I had to know when to cheer, so our faculty advisor had taught us about the various sports. Each year, the new cheerleaders had to go through it.
It would be embarrassing if they cheered for the wrong team.
“Uh, I don’t think I want to stay for the second half,” I said.
“You aren’t having a good time? Not even watching Dylan?”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I was uncomfortable with how smart he was. Maybe we wouldn’t make a good pair.
As much as he’d been sweet to me, he probably knew that I wasn’t very smart. Not just in math, but overall.
“Not even watching Dylan.”
“I’ll find a ride home, Taylor.”
“You mad that I’m ditching you?”
“As long as it isn’t for the B girls, then no.”
***
I went home to do some homework and laundry. I’d been doing my own laundry for years. I think my mother was ready to be done being a mother. Sad, really.
I hoped that if I had kids, I wouldn’t be finished before the kids were.
I sat in the laundry room reading the latest by Christina Paul on my Kindle. I loved historical romances. My phone rang – Dylan. What was I going to say to him? I couldn’t ignore him. He knew that I always kept my phone with me.
“Hi, Dylan.”
“Hey, Taylor. I’m sorry you left.”
“Yeah.”
I could hear cheering in the back. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was a at a basketball game.
“We won.”
“That’s great, Dylan. Congratulations.”
“It is. I answered the winning question.”
Wow. He was that smart. “That’s great.”
“You don’t sound excited.”
“I’m sorry. I just can’t get that excited.”
“If I’d made the winning touchdown, you’d be screaming. In fact, if it had been a sport, you would have stayed for the whole thing.”
He wasn’t wrong. I was a terrible person. Most of it was because I wasn’t smart. I never would be. I was good at science, but not genius good. Just good. “I guess I’m just more into that than this.”
“I thought you were different, Taylor.”
“I thought I was, too. At least, I did go. Don’t I get credit for that?”
“There are no points in life, Taylor. It’s about feelings.”
He’s talking about feelings? What the hell? How was I supposed to handle that? “I don’t know what you want me to say, Dylan.”
It isn’t like I was actually his girlfriend or anything. I was just some girl he lived with, some girl whose dad took him in. I didn’t want to fight with him, but I didn’t understand what he wanted from me.
“I want you to be happy for me.”
“I am.”
“You don’t sound it. You sound bored. As if my accomplishment isn’t good enough for you.”
I wanted to scream. This conversation was getting out of hand. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“I’m not good enough am I? I won’t ever be,” he said.
He sounded angry now. Now I’d done it and I didn’t know how to fix it. I’d made him mad. “I’m sorry, Dylan. I just don’t get it. I don’t know.”
“Thanks, Taylor. Thanks for putting a damper on one of the best days of my life.”
I wanted to reach through the phone and hug him. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“No, you’re not, Taylor. If it doesn’t fit into your idea of the world, then you aren’t interested in it. I get it. I won’t bother you with my stuff anymore.”
“Don’t be mad, Dylan.”
The phone went dead. He probably didn’t hang up, but my battery died. I raced upstairs to get my charger. I plugged in my phone and called Dylan back. He didn’t answer. It didn’t go right to voicemail, though, so I knew it was still on.
I left a message. “Dylan, I didn’t hang up. My battery died. Please, call me back.”
Worst case scenario, I would wait until he came home and I could talk to him, but this situation seemed more urgent than that. Maybe he needed a ride home.
I sent him a text. “Please, call me. My battery died. I didn’t hang up.”
No answer. I stared at my phone, but Dylan didn’t call back. I’d really done it this time. How was I going to fix this?
Normally, I would have talked to Daddy, but I didn’t want him to suspect that I had feelings for Dylan. He’d make him go away and everything was going so well for him. I couldn’t risk him going back to the trailer.
I sniffed. Tears had started to form and a lump in my chest made it hard to breathe.
I called Helena.
“They won,” she said.
“Dylan called me. And, I wasn’t excited for him.”
“You’re a bitch, Taylor.”
“I know. How do I fix this?”
“I don’t know that you can. It was a pretty big win for him. You should have tried to be more excited. His face fell when I told him that you left.”
I fell onto my bed. “I’m the worst.”
“Well, yes. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. You are.”
“That’s why you’re my best friend. You always tell me the truth.”
“You’re going to have to do a lot of groveling. Why aren’t you excited?”
“I hate to admit it, but I’m jealous.”
“That you aren’t the center of attention for once?”
“No, that I’m not as smart as he is.”
“Why does that bother you?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. It never did before, but I’ve never known anyone as smart as Dylan. Other than my father.”
“I think you’re going to have to do some grand gesture to make up for this.”
“I will figure this out, Helena,” I said.
“I know you will. The team is going out afterwards. You have a little time.”
“Thanks, Helena.”
I disconnected then went to Dylan’s room. Maybe something in there would give me an idea of what to do for him. On his desk, I found a wish list. He wanted to build his own computer, it looked like.
I took a picture of it with my phone. I just had to figure out what some of those things were and buy him something. Maybe if I got him closer to his dream computer, he’d forgive me.
It seemed important to him and he was good at programming, so maybe this would work. I still didn’t know what the items on the list did, but I could go to a store and I’m sure someone could tell me which one was important.
Meanwhile, I’d let Dylan calm down.