Kylie grabbed her black GAP hooded sweatshirt off her bed and walked down the stairs. She flipped on the front lights as she was walking outside, closing the door behind her. She slung the sweatshirt around her as soon as the cool summers night air hit her bare shoulders. "Damn its cold." she muttered, "I thought summer was supposed to be warm."

She began her walk across her front yard and over towards the Hanson's. Halfway through her yard she glanced over at the Hanson's driveway. Taylor's black Jetta was parked there, with him standing next to it... kissing someone. "What the... " Kylie's voice trailed off as she realized who he was kissing. "Oh my God." she gasped, "No, please God, no, no. Tell me this isn't real, tell me this isn't real." she prayed. She quickly backed herself behind a huge bush on the side of her yard, peeking her head out so she could still see them. "At least its dark out so they can't see me." she said, her eyes never once leaving the two teenagers. Kylie glanced down at her watch. "Oh seriously! How long is this going to go on?" After waiting another five seconds, she decided she'd had enough. She walked out from behind the bush and trecked the rest of the way over to the Hanson's.

"Taylor!" she called out. "What the hell are you doing making out with some girl on your driveway for at ten o'clock at night?"

He quickly pulled himself away from the girl and looked at Kylie for a moment before responding. "Kylie, what the hell are you doing coming over to my house for at ten o'clock at night?"

"Same reason you come to mine." she said simply

Taylor gave her a questioning look before shaking his head and continuing. "Right, well, I was just about to take Casey home. You can go inside and wait for me I guess if you really want to. I should be back in a few minutes."

Kylie looked over at Casey. "What were you doing over here?" she asked her pointedly.

She smiled. "Taylor invited me over."

Kylie nearly tackled Taylor right then and there. She wanted to scream at him, shake him, knock some kind of sense into him so that he knew what kind of a person Casey really was. But, most of all, she wanted to kiss him. She wasn't sure if it was the dim light from the front lights of the Hanson home, or the moonlight. But whatever it was, it was making him look incredibly irresistable in Kylie's eyes. And, by the looks of it, Casey's too.

"Um, yeah, I'll just go wait for you inside then." She turned and walked inside, leaving Taylor and Casey to themselves again.

"Well if it isn't Kylie the - "

"Shut up Ike." she cut him off, "I'm not in the mood."

Isaac pulled back the curtains on one of the front windows, looking outside. "Ah, Taylor and Casey. Don't like the girl much, do ya?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so."

"She's just too... I'm not quite sure what, but I don't like it, I know that."

"Same here. I don't know what the hell Taylor sees in her. Whenever she's not around all he does is talk shit about her, then the next day he's all, 'I'm going out with Casey.'"

"Stupid asswipe."

"Why aren't you two together yet?" he asked

Kylie stared up at him. "Uh, I don't know. I - I think I'm gonna go wait up in his room for him till he gets back."

"Are you sure? You could always stay and talk to me you know. I'm fun."

She gave him a half smile. "I know you're fun, Ike. Maybe next time I'm over we can sit and have ourselves a nice chat, okay?"

"Sounds good. I'm gonna hold you to it though."

"That's fine, I might forget." She turned and headed up to Taylor's room to wait for him.

______________________

"Ky, come on, wake up." Kylie rolled over and slowly opened her eyes.

"Taylor? What time is it?"

"Midnight."

She sat up, running her fingers through her messed hair. "Did you just get home?"

"Um, yeah."

"What the hell took you so long?"

"I ah, I hung out at Casey's."

"And... "

"And... did some stuff."

Kylie got an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Like what?"

Taylor shrugged his shoulders. "Stuff."

"Please specify."

"Me made out, okay?!"

Kylie felt like all the air had just been sucked out of her. I took her a second to fully comprehend what he had just said. She quickly jumped up off the bed. "You fucking made out with her?! Are you INSANE?!"

Taylor stood up in front of her. "No."

Kylie just shook her head from side to side; no words coming to mind at the moment. She stared up at him, hoping he'd give an explanation for his previous actions with Casey. "Well?" she asked when he didn't say anything.

"Well what?"

"Why'd you do it?"

"Uh, gee, I don't know, maybe because I wanted to?"

"Do you like her or something? If you say yes I swear I'll kill you."

"You know what Ky? Right now I have absolutly no fucking clue what I want. One minute its you, then the next Casey calls or something, and its her I want."

Kylie sat down, proping herself back up against his bed. "Taylor I don't know what's wrong with me. I keep telling myself not to get jealous of her because I mean, its not like we're together or anything, but I still seem to get jealous. I hate myself for it too. Its obvious I've done more with you than she has... well, maybe not after tonight... but anyway, I've um, I've been doing some thinking and ah... I think that I'm... " she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "I think I'm ready to take the next step." She opened her eyes and looked up at him. His face held a look of shere confusion.

"What do you mean, take the next step?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"I mean, getting together. You know, you and me... a couple... boyfriend and girlfri - "

He held his hand up, "I get it."

"Oh... so... what do you think?"

"I think we'd be better off seeing other people."

Kylie stared at him. "So, you want to be with Casey, is that it?"

"I don't know if SHE'S the one I want to be with, but I want to get out and start dating more. Don't you?"

"No, I'd rather lock myself in my room for a month straight."

"Come on, Ky, don't be so bitter. You've always been open to new things."

"Exactly! Which is why I think we should try being together!"

"Okay, you're not getting this, are you?"

"Aparently not Taylor."

Taylor sighed, figuring it was no use trying to explain this to her now. "I think you should go." He stood up and opened the door to his room.

"Why do you always do this?! Everytime we start talking about something its like you freak out and say you have to go somewhere or that I should leave. This issue of what's going on between us never seems to get resolved."

"I promise we'll finish this tomorrow. Its just that its late and I don't know about you, but I'm tired."

"I don't care if you're fucking tired! We need to resolve this!"

"Shh, keep it down, will ya?" Taylor closed the door to his room. "People are trying to sleep."

"Listen Taylor, I'm tired too, okay? Lets just... try to figure something out here."

"Fine. Kylie, I want to date other people." he stated

"And Taylor, I want to date you." Kylie stopped to think for a minute. "That doesn't sound right." she said, "I don't know why, it just doesn't."

"That doesn't sound right because it isn't right. Ky," he grabbed her hand and made her sit down on his bed with him, "you know I love you, right?" she nodded. "So can you please try to understand where I'm coming from? Please?"

"I have tried Taylor, believe me. Its just... I wanna be with you." she whimpered, "I can't explain it, I'm sorry. All I can say is that I love you very, very much and right now, and I want nothing more than to be with you." Taylor didn't say anything, only stared down at her. "Do you think you can do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

"Well I know that you want to date other people, but could you just... I don't know... take me out... on a date? It can be just as friends, I swear, but I just want you to take me out. Just once." Kylie looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

Taylor sighed and removed his hands from hers, standing up and begining to pace his room. "Kylie..." he ran his hands through his short hair and shook his head. "Why do you do this to me?"

"Do what?"

"You look at me sometimes... and I don't know how you do it, but you do it."

"Do what?" she asked again

Taylor stopped pacing and knelt down in front of her, looking her square in the eye. "You make me want you." he whispered

Kylie never in a million years expected him to say that right then. Never. Especially after some of the things he had just said a few minutes prior.

"Um..."

"You make me want to... to kiss you,"

Kylie held his strong gaze, almost breaking it and throwing her arms around him. But she held off, and let him continue.

"...and to love you," he leaned in close to her, "and to show you how much I love you." He finished off his confession with a light kiss on her lips.

Kylie hated him for doing this to her. Playing with her emotions like this. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"You're the one who started it it all."

"By what, by looking at you a certain way? Taylor you have to stop this! You need to figure out who you want. You can't keep going back and forth between me and some other girl whenever you feel like it."

"I know Ky, and I'm sorry okay? I don't mean to do this to you, I swear."

"Yeah? Well, you do."

Taylor looked down at the floor. "I'll take you out." he said quietly

Kylie stared at him, waiting for him to raise his head up and look at her. "You will?"

Taylor finally raised his head to look at her. "Yes."

Kylie couldn't help the small smile that crept onto her face. "So its a date? You and me?"
"Its a date." he confirmed