% CHAPTER 26 %

I wake up to the sound of screaming. I don't even bother putting a t-shirt on as I rush to Taylor's room.

"Taylor are you alright?!" She's sobbing into her pillow, punching it mercilessly over and over. "Taylor!"

She drops her hand and just starts sobbing. "He won't leave me alone! He just won't leave me!"

"Calm down Tay. Just stay calm," I say and give her a small hug. "I want you to go to school today. I'm sure your friends can help and comfort you."

She looks into my eyes. "He's not there, is he?"

I shake my head. "He's gone Tay. He's gone."

She breathes a shaky sigh of relief and slowly gets out of bed. "Get out please."

I listen to her immediately and shut the door behind me. I decide its time for breakfast and head downstairs. Once in the kitchen, I get out the pancake batter and mix it up really fast. Then I slap some butter on a pan and heat the stove up.

While the pancakes do their thing, I go upstairs to change and wash my face. I send Amanda a text letting her know I'm not missing school today.

When I get back down, Taylor is already dressed, flipping the pancakes.

"Oh don't worry about it," I tell her.

She rolls her eyes and motions for me to take a look. I do and immediately grimace. The top of the pancakes are seriously brown because I wasn't watching them.

"Trust me. I know how to make these things. I make them for Lorelei all the time."

I nod. She's right. "Okay."

Once the pancakes are done, Taylor gets two plates and sets them on the table. She puts the two burnt ones on my plate and smirks. "Those are yours."

I pout a little, but take my plate anyway. She is making breakfast. And she didn't burn the other side. Taylor finishes making her pancakes and slowly puts them on her plate. I watch as she eats one bite after the other.

She finally decides to speak. "Let Derek know I only want one week off and not two." She then looks at me and frowns. "Sorry. Is that okay with you?"

I give her a reassuring smile. "It's fine."

She nods. "Okay let's go before we're late. Wait, let's brush our teeth first."

I chuckle. "Yeah let's do that."

She gives me a small smile and we head to the bathroom together. After brushing our teeth, Taylor grabs her school things and steps out. I always leave my stuff at school. Homework basically just becomes schoolwork.

We drive the normal way to school. When we make it, Taylor gives me a tiny wave and is off. I sigh and get out of the car.

"Bret!" I hear a girl scream.

I turn. It's Amanda. Wow she's my girlfriend and I don't even know her voice. I smile anyways.

"Babe! How's it goin?"

She bites her bottom lip like she can pull it off. Damn, she's my girlfriend and I still think Taylor is better at the lip biting thing. "I've missed you."

I give her a quick kiss on the lips. "I did too babe." Okay that's a lie, but I can't tell her that. I'd be dumped in three seconds flat!

"So what did you do?"

"Uh... I-"

"Bret!" I hear Aaron practically yell in my ear.

"Aaron! Dude!" I rub my ear before giving him a bro hug. "What's up?" I look at Amanda. "I'll tell you later okay?"

She nods and I walk off with Aaron. "I'm doing great. Vic and Jake are dating, did you hear? He finally asked her out. Nearly peed his pants when she said yes. What have you been doing these past two days?"

I shrug. "Taylor and I went to the beach to relax and just, you know, get away from it all."

I wait for Aaron's reply, but when I don't hear it I turn, finding his response to be wiggling eyebrows. I slap the back of his head.

"For one last time, she's my cousin!"

"Step cousins right? Only by marriage?"

I roll my eyes. "Related. By blood."

Aaron scoffs. "This has all got to be a charade!"

I gulp. "It is," I mutter.

"What was that?"

"It's not," I lie. He'll understand once I'm on tv.

The bell rings. "Oh classes start in ten minutes! I'm off!"

I wave by and walk into school alone. First period is a bore. Too bad Amanda isn't in this class. I would excuse the both of us to go to the bathroom and waltz out.

"And the outcome of that would be M over C multiplied by pi."

Math. My worst subject. And it just has to be first period. I have no other choice so I fall asleep.

$_$_$_$

Her blonde hair bounces perfectly on her shoulders each time she takes a step. She's in that dress, the one she wore in the pond. Her face is flawless, her lips covered in deep red lipstick.

Then she turns directions. She's with another guy. She's with Isaac. I see her smile up at him genuinely. I only just started getting that smile out of her. She comes closer towards him and bites her lip, the way she does when she's nervous. My stomach flutters when I see her do that, but then my heart drops as I realize it's not for me. This is all for him.

I swallow the lump in my throat. I swear if they kiss in front of me I'm going to be sick. Isaac leans down. Taylor gets on her tippy toes just to kiss him. He has always been a bit tall. I want to close my eyes to stop myself from seeing this, but they're already closed. All I can do is open them.

That's what I do. Just in time too. The bell rings in a minute. I pack my things and wait for the bell.

What a weird dream. I can't shake it out of my head. It scares me for some reason. As much as I know I can't like Taylor, I don't like when she's with someone else. Maybe it's because the Mr. Hemley thing. That horrible teacher. I can't believe he actually tried to get in Taylor's pants.

As soon as the bell rings, I get out of my seat and walk out. Then I realize I have Taylor next period. I can't see her, not after that dream. As soon as I see my brunette, I grab her.

"You wanna skip this period?"

She smiles. "Anything for you."

I smile back before dragging her out of the school using the side exit. We walk under the bleachers and I kiss her hard. She responds rather quickly. We kiss some more, but I never let her tongue enter my mouth. I want to keep that toothpaste breath. I could already hear Taylor congratulating me for keeping my mouth clean of bacteria.

I almost snort. Now I'm imagining Taylor advertising for a toothpaste company. What does she use? Colgate? Pronamel?

The kiss ends just as abruptly as it starts.

"I really missed doing that," I say.

She smiles. "So what have you been doing these past two days?"

"I did a couple things with my cousin. Her parent's anniversary is coming up so we wanted to do something special for them."

She frowns a little. "Oh." She then cuddles into my side. "So can I sit at your table today?"

I nod. "Sure."

The rest of the time Amanda talks about clothes and shoes. I don't blame her. Girls love talking their boyfriend's ears off. When the bell rings, we give each other a parting kiss and leave the bleachers. School is getting bland.

After a couple more periods, lunch finally comes around. As I walk to the cafeteria, I hear an interesting conversation in the halls.

"I don't want you hanging out with him anymore."

I peek around the corner just as Taylor frowns and crosses her arms. "I'm his cousin."

"Still," Amanda says. "You're taking my spotlight. I'm his girlfriend. He talks about you more than he does me. He hasn't even taken me on a date because he says he's busy hanging out with you!"

"Well I'm his family bitch. And FYI, Bret doesn't like clingy girls."

Amanda composes herself. "I'm not clingy! I'm just...concerned."

Taylor rolls her eyes. "You keep telling yourself that." Then she leaves without another word.

I wait a couple seconds before I come out from behind the wall as if I didn't hear anything. "Babe!" She pouts. "What's wrong?"

She looks me in the eyes. "Am I clingy?" She asks.

Yes. "No! What makes you think that?"

She grins. "Nothing."

We walk into the cafeteria together and Amanda immediately goes to sit herself down.

"You're not going to eat?"

She shakes her head. "I never eat lunch."

I nod my head slowly. Okay then. I hate when girls starve themselves. "I'll just join you then." She laughs.

Amanda plops herself into Taylor's seat, which is next to me. Everyone sort of just looks at her.

"Is there something on my face?" She asks cluelessly.

Gwen clears her throat. "Umm, no its just... Usually Taylor sits there."

"Oh its okay," Taylor says, popping out of nowhere. "I'll just share a seat with Connie."

$_$_$_$

"I'll be in my room waiting for the girls to pick me up," Taylor says.

I nod. "Okay."

I dial Luca's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Luca! You got time to come over?"

"Anything for you bud."

"Okay bring Glenda."

"Sure."

While waiting for their return, I reflect upon my week. There was the thing with that teacher, the small vacation, finding out my father's a douche, and of course the kiss. I really don't want to dwell on any of that. It's just been a horrible week.

Just then the doorbell rings. I run to the front door and open it.

"Hey Glenda!" I smile at her.

Her eyes are squinted at me. "You're having problems and need my help."

My eyes widen. "Wow. How'd you know?"

She smirks. "That's the secret."

Luca comes popping out of nowhere. "Hey Bret. What up?"

I give him a halfway smile. "Not too good." I look upstairs and then look back to him before whispering, "I'm having girl problems."

Luca and Glenda come in and then look upstairs as well.

"She's ignoring you again?" Luca asks.

Glenda shakes her head. "No, he likes her."

My eyes widen at her again. "I don't like her. I just seem to like kissing her and want to protect her and stuff..." I try reasoning.

Glenda rolls her eyes. "That's liking her Bret. Does she feel the same way?"

I motion them towards the couch. "That's what I want to talk about. I need someone I can trust right now so I've chosen you two."

"So she's still in the house?"

I pause before saying, "Well yeah. She's leaving in a bit though to hang out with her friends."

"Then let's play games until she leaves because if she hears anything, you're screwed bud."

I nod and turn on the Xbox.

"What the hell is that?!" Glenda points to Taylor's avatar.

Luca bursts out laughing. "You never erased it?!"

"I swore not to," I say sheepishly.

"Until the next game! It's the next game now so you can delete it."

I shake my head. "I want to keep it. It's a good memory."

Glenda cracks a smile. "He's really in love when he wants to keep the girl's ugly avatar on his Xbox."

I frown to keep myself from blushing. "Whatever."

There's a padding of feet coming down the stairs. "Well I'm out Bret!" She then sees Luca and Glenda. "Oh hi guys. I hope its okay I'm leaving."

Glenda smiles. "It's okay. Go ahead and have some fun with your friends. We'll chat next time," Glenda says as she clamps Luca's mouth shut.

Taylor smiles back, unaware that Glenda is trying to keep Luca shut so he doesn't ruin her nice charade. She then walks out the door and leaves.

The two siblings instantly drop their controllers. "Tell us everything," Glenda says.

"Well..." I tell them everything that's happened since Taylor and I started school.

"So you told your friends you guys were cousins." I nod. "And Taylor nearly got..." My eyes darken as I nod. "You have a girlfriend." I nod again. Glenda laughs. "Wow. I think you should dump her. She's too... clingy. I mean she told Taylor to back off, knowing Taylor is supposedly your cousin. That's...desperate. Why did you even ask her? It was before you realized how much Taylor meant to you huh?"

That was all from Glenda. "Sort of," I answer. "I've been feeling those sparks ever since I first touched her. I was her first kiss, you know?"

Glenda gawks at me. "You were her first kiss?! And you feel sparks when you touch her? Like, really, or are you just shitting me?"

"I really feel sparks."

"Wait, going back to that kiss, Saturday was it?" I nod. "How do you know she wanted to?"

"Because she's never kissed me that way before Glenda! It was perfect! And then I sat on my bed and then she just pushed me off of her and told me the kiss never happened."

"She's scared Bret," Glenda says as if its the most obvious thing in the world.

"How do you know that?"

"Because she nearly got raped last week! She's not going to get over that quickly. You can help her, but I don't know how she is going to act towards you. She likes you deep inside, but she's confused. She doesn't want anything to happen to her. I say dump that bitch of a girlfriend you have and show Taylor how you feel. Get your flirt on!" She gives a quick wink. "If she only wants a week off, then you're going to have to work hard because once acting starts again, you won't have as much time."

My head hangs low. "Why can't I just forget her? How am I going to explain flirting with my cousin?"

Luca smiles triumphantly, looking like he's finally going to make himself useful. "I'm a good judge of character. Let me meet all your friends and I'll see if you can trust them with the secret."

I shake my head. "I thank you guys for trying to help, but I want to do this in my own."

Glenda nods slowly. "Okay, but if you decide you need our help, let us know."

"Yeah I will."

I realize something. My dad has been my role model these past 16 years. I'm pretty sure I've picked up some of his moves involuntarily. Wasn't I willing to cheat on Amanda since I already had? Shit I probably got that from him, but there's a slight difference. I'm not married to her. During a wedding, you make a lifelong commitment to stay with that person. I never did any of that, but he did.

After Glenda and Luca leave, I text Derek about the week change. Right before I put my phone down though, I get a text from Taylor.

I set down my phone and fall asleep on the couch.