I was startled by the sound of the studio door being slammed shut. I dropped the stack of papers I had been reading in the process. "Dammit all to hell." I cursed under my breath. I looked up. "Ah-ha. Taylor. I should've known."

"Whats that supposed to mean?" He asked over the rim of his coffee cup.

"This wasn't the first time you've slammed that door, causing me to drop all my papers. Thank you."

"Sorry." He said sheepishly, "I didn't know you were in here."

"S'ok." I shrugged, acting as though is wasn't a big deal. But really, it was starting to get on my nerves. I know he never meant to slam doors, he just... did.

"So what brings you in here anyway?" He inquired, taking a seat next to me. He placed his coffee cup down on the small round table in front of us.

"Peace and quiet." I answered, bending over to pick up all the papers I had dropped moments earlier.

"Here, I got 'em." He leaned over and grabbed my hands, halting my process. "It's the least I can do. Now sit back."

I obliged, leaning back against the small love seat, crossing my arms over my chest. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Hey um... I'm not doing anything tonight and I was wondering if you'd want to come over to keep me and Baby company?" I stared at the back of his head, waiting for an answer.

"Tonight?"

"Yeah... unless you've got plans... in which case I'll ask Ike or Zac."

"No tonights fine. What time?"

"7:30?" I suggested

"7:30 sounds great." He sat up again and placed the neat pile of papers in my lap. "Here you go."

"Thanks... again."

"You're welcome... again." He smiled. "So how about I bring pizza and you bring the movie?"

"I think I can handle that."

"Yeah? Cause you know, I wouldn't want you to over-do it or something."

"Not funny."

"I thought it was."

"It doesn't count if you're the only one who thinks your joke was funny." He reached for his coffee cup and brought it to his lips, taking a sip. "And coffee stains your teeth, buddy. It also gives you bad breath, can possibly stunt your growth... though I'm not sure you really need to worry about that... "

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you used to drink a lot of coffee... well, judging from your height anyway."

"Ah!" My mouth dropped open in shock. "You little... " I punched his arm as hard as I could.

"Hey, watch it. I'd rather not walk around with a coffee stain on my shirt or pants, thank you."

"You'd deserve it."

His cell phone interrupted us then. "Oh." He said, reaching into his jeans pocket and pulling it out. "Hold on." He told me, flipping the top up, opening the line. "Hello? Oh hey, babe." He smiled and nodded his head to what his girlfriend was saying, taking another sip of his coffee. "Yeah, so what are you up to this afternoon? You got classes or something?"

I busied myself by putting my papers back in order. It was sweet of Taylor to pick them all up for me, but now they weren't in order and I hated that.

"Oh, poor thing." Taylor cooed, "Wish I was there to help you relax... " He stopped suddenly and looked over at me.

I saw this out of the corner of my eye and looked up at him as well, raising my eyebrow in question. I smirked and turned back to the task at hand. Taylor responded to that by giving me a good push, causing me to fall off the couch onto the floor. "Ah! Taylor!" I screeched

He started laughing so hard. "What?" He asked his girlfriend between laughs, "No, I just pushed Mya and she landed on the floor... yeah she was sitting next to me here on the couch. Oh... " He grabbed his stomach as he continued to laugh. "...Man. Okay. I'm done now. Hey, sorry Mya."

I rolled my eyes, knowing he wasn't really sorry, and lifted my body back up to the couch. I sat as far away from him as I could possibly get on the small loveseat, and even then it wasn't enough.

"Okay I'll let you go then, it sounds like you've got some big papers to write... yeah... sure... I love you too... bye." He shut his phone and placed it back in his pocket.

"You asshole." Were the first words out of my mouth.

He chuckled. "You loved it."

"I did not! That hurt!"

"That really hurt!" He mocked me in a very bad sounding British accent.

"Well then, so much for peace and quiet." I stood up and prepared to leave to room, but Taylor's hand reached out and stopped me.

"Are you mad at me? Cause if you are, I swear I never meant to hurt you, it was just a joke."

"No I'm not mad. I just need to be somewhere quiet when I'm reading these." I held up the stack of papers. "So 7:30 then?"

"Yeah. What kind of pizza do you like?"

"Anything without mushrooms and anchovies." I started walking towards the door, but stopped halfway. "Oh yeah," I suddenly remembered. I turned back around to face him. "And no olives. Or onions. Or green peppers."

"Should I write this down?" He asked, reaching for a small tablet of paper on the table.

"No, you've got a good memory. I'll see ya."

"Bye Sweat Pea."

I laughed to myself as I heard him call me by the nickname he gave me after only knowing each other a week. It seemed a little childish, sure, but it was still cute.


[ chapter 2 ]

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