Kylie sighed and placed her hand on her hip. "Taylor, come on, there's no reason you have to take this long to pick out a card."

Taylor bent over, searching through the bottom racks of cards. "I want to find the perfect one."

"I don't get you." Kylie stated, turning around and leaning her back up against the long row of cards. "You've just recently started talking to the girl and as soon as you find out her birthdays coming up, you drag me to the store to find the 'perfect gift and perfect card'. Oh please, Taylor. That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time."

"Will you shut up already? I can't concentrate with you yapping away over there." He picked up a card and read it. "What's with all these stupid generic ones?" he asked, putting it back.

Kylie closed her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath. "Taylor, please, we've been in this store for," she paused and glanced down at her watch, "over an hour. And we've been in the card isle for fourty of those minutes. Just grab a card and lets go." She backed away from the rack she had been leaning up against and looked around at all the cards. "Here." she said, picking up a card and handing it to him.

"Wishing you the best on your 40th birthday?" He looked over at her, placing the card back in her hands. "I don't think so."

"What? Its a card isn't it?"

"For someone who's turning 40! Not 18!"

"40, 18, what's the difference?"

"Just... go walk around for twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes?! Are you crazy?"

"Go, will ya?" Taylor gave her a little shove in the other direction.

"If I go and come back in twenty minutes do you promise to have a card picked out?"

"Yes!"

"Lets make it ten minutes. Days is on soon and I want to watch it. Shawn D is hot, I don't care what you say. Although, in some scenes his hair could stand to be more, what's the word... gelly? No, that's not it, maybe gelled... yeah, that sounds better. Oh, but the other day he - "

"Who the hell are you talking to over there?" Taylor asked, interrupting her

"You, of course."

He picked up another random card. "Okay, that's nice."

Kylie sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm going now Taylor! Be ready to go in ten minutes!" she called over her shoulder as she walked off to look through the cd's.

______________________

"Please tell me you've picked out a card." Kylie said, fifteen minutes later as she walked back to the card isle, where he still stood.

"Almost." he confirmed

"Almost? I gave you fifteen more minutes!"

"Yeah, and I said twenty."

"Ugh, you've had an hour now!"

"Ky, I told you I was trying to find - "

"The prefect card, I know." she inturrupted him "But seriously Taylor, can't you just pick one out that says happy birthday or something?"

Taylor kept his eyes focused on the card that was in his hands. "Here, this'll do."

"Oh thank God." Kylie said "Now lets get out of here before you change your mind."

As they were standing in line, waiting to check-out, they heard a voice call out from behind them.

"Taylor, hi!"

Both Taylor and Kylie turned around, coming face to face with Casey Latham herself. "Oh, uhh, hi." Taylor studdered. He glanced over at Kylie and shoved the present and card in her hands, pushing her closer to the check-out. Taylor stayed back to talk to Casey. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm here with my mom, pointing out things I want for my birthday. Its in two days you know."

"Yeah, I herad that. The big 1-8, huh?"

"Yep, I'm legal now! Haha." she laughed at her own joke. "Anyways, what are you and Kristin doing here?"

"Kylie and I were just here uhh... shopping is all, really."

"For what? Anything in particular?"

Taylor turned around and saw Kylie handing the man some money. "No, just looking. I better go though. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Sure! Call me!"

"Yeah, I'll do that." he said.

As soon as Kylie and Taylor were out of the store and walking over towards Taylor's car in the parking lot, Kylie spoke up.

"You owe me 38.50." she said

Taylor unlocked the doors. "It cost that much?" he asked

"Yeah. The 'perfect gift and perfect card' cost a lot more than you thought, huh?"

"That's enough about the present and card already, Ky." They both climbed in next to eachother and Taylor started the engine, backing out of the parking spot.

"So what were you and Casey talking about while I was paying for her present? Which, by the way, you still owe me 38.50 for."

"I know! You told me just a minute ago!"

"I did, didn't I? Hmm, well, anyway, what were you talking about?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

Kylie looked out the window. "I would never worry about anything you guys said, believe me." she turned and looked at the clock. "Ahh!"

"What?!" Taylor asked in a panic, "What's wrong?!"

"Days is on in two minutes and we're at least ten minutes away!"

Taylor stopped at a red light and turned to look at her. "That's it? That's what you got me all freaked out over? God, Kylie, I thought something was wrong."

"Something is wrong! Now, thanks to you having to pick out the 'perfect card' for and hour, I'm gonna miss the first fifteen minutes of the show!"

"Oh no, not that. Please God, anything but that." Taylor drawled sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Tay, go, the lights green." she announced, as if he wouldn't be able to tell by the surrounding cars honking their horns at him.

"Oh, right, I knew that."

______________________

Kylie stepped through her front door later that afternoon, planning on going straight to her room to sleep. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw both her parents sitting on the couch in the living room, reading the newspaper.

"Mom, Dad, what are you still doing here?" They had returned home from Hawaii a couple days prior, and Kylie forsure thought that they would be gone by the time she returned home from Taylor's.

"We don't leave for another twenty minutes, sweetheart." her Dad said, never once bothering to look up from the paper.

Kylie stood there and stared at them, waiting for at least one of them to look up at her and ask her where she was, what she did, if she had fun, anything. Her Mom reached over to the coffee table to grab her cup which held some kind of a drink and took a sip, her eyes still fixed on some article in the business section.

"Nice to see you too." Kylie said before heading upstairs, wanting nothing more than to burry herself under her covers and cry. As soon as she got to her room the closed the door and leaned herself back up against it. She threw her head back, causing a loud 'thud' to sound. As much as she didn't want to, she couldn't stop the tears from coming. It had been so long since she had cried over her parents. Mainly because she was used to them acting this way by now. But a small part of her had wished that they were going to be staying in town for another couple days when she came home to find them sitting in the living room, casually reading the paper. Nope, no such luck. We don't leave for another twenty minutes. Her Dad's words echoed in her mind. "Fuck them." she said aloud. "If they want nothing to do with me, then I want nothing to do with them." She stood there for another minute, letting all the pain of her last sentence sink in. "They want nothing to do with me." she said again. "My own fucking parents want nothing to do with me!" She slammed her fists against her door, falling to the floor in a heap and crying.

Hours had passed and Kylie somehow managed to move herself over to her bed. She layed on the floor for a good hour before deciding it would be best if she moved over to a more comfortable spot. Her parents were long gone. She vaguely remembered her mom knocking on her door, telling her they were leaving for the airport and would be gone for at least a week. I love you. she had said before walking back down the stairs. Bullshit Kylie thought.

She reached over and grabbed her cordless phone from its cradle and dialed the number.

"Hello?"

Kylie felt like crying at the sound of his voice. "Hey, its me."

"Ky? Something wrong?" he asked, concerned. "You want me to come over?"

Kylie swiped a fallen tear half way down her cheek. "If you don't mind... "

"I'll be right there."

No more than two minutes later, Taylor threw open the door to her room and rushed over to her on the bed. "What happened, babe?"

Kylie closed her eyes as his hand stroked her hair gently, lovingly. "Same old, same old." she muttered. "Parents don't give a damn about me. They think that leaving for a week here and two weeks there is a good example of parenting."

Taylor sighed and leaned over to give her a light kiss. "I'm so sorry, Ky."

"No, Taylor, I've told you a thousand times, you don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything."

"I know, but I just feel like someone has to say it. It should be them, but since they're not... " he trailed off. Kylie felt the tears coming once again and tried with all her might to hold them back. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a brief moment. "Lets change the subject." she said, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Nothing, why?"

"I wanted to go get my hair highlighted but I need someone to come with me."

"You're a big girl, you can go by yourself."

"Moral support, Taylor."

"Oh, right. I forgot you need that when you go do something drasitc to yourself."

"Yeah, but I don't know if they'll have time to do it tomorrow. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday."

"Uhh, I can't go on Tuesday. Wednesday probably."

"Why can't you go on Tuesday?"

"I'm ah, I'm taking Casey out for her birthday." Taylor looked away from her. He knew the look she was going to give him.

"You're what?!"

"I'm just taking her on a picnic in the park, Ky, its nothing big." Taylor said

"No, nothing big, of course not. Just a nice romantic picnic in the park." Kylie said sarcastically. "What the HELL are you thinking?!"

"Why are you getting so upset over this?"

"Because the girl is nothing but trouble! I'm serious Taylor, stay away from her."

"All I'm doing is going out to celebrate her birthday with her. I'm being a friend."

"Since when are you two friends?"

"We've always been friends!"

Kylie rolled her eyes. "Right, which I guess would explain why you didn't talk for all those years."

"Look, I thought we were talking about you getting your hair highlighted here, not me and Casey."

"Well we WERE until you had to let that little fact slip past your lips."

"Kylie, honestly, I don't know why you're getting so mad at me."

Kylie stopped to think. Why was she getting mad at him? Well, she didn't like Casey, that much was true. Maybe it was because she knew Taylor could do better. A lot better. With someone who was pretty, smart, funny, and actually knew him. Someone who cared for him and loved him like no other. Someone like... her?