Jenni James - Pride and Popularity

This is my eighteenth birthday—I’m finally an adult. There is no reason to feel sad. None at all. I have wonderful friends who are happier than they’ve ever been before. I have a happy family that loves me. I even have happy ballet students. Happy people and happiness are all around me. So what’s the big deal? This should be a very happy birthday for me. Pluck up! Besides, it’s not like eighteen is all that special anyway. I mean, there are plenty of other ages out there that are just as fun like, seventeen and nineteen and . . .

I had just planned to go ahead and let the first tear fall when the doorbell rang. I wasn’t exactly dressed for company. I mean, I still had my ballet clothes on under my jeans, and my hair was up in a poufy ponytail. Thank goodness I hadn’t started crying yet! Heavens knows I’m not pretty when I cry. After a couple of tugs at my shirt, I shrugged my shoulders and answered the door.

There stood Taylor Anderson. His dark hair was slightly tousled, his chest was moving at the rapid pace of his breathing, and his blue eyes smoldered into mine. My heart flip-flopped. It would’ve done more but it didn’t have a chance. Without saying a word Taylor crossed over the threshold, took me in his arms, and kissed me. I was shocked, dazed, and a little breathless. He grinned at my discomposure when he released me slightly, just long enough to whisper in my ear, “That was for being the only girl I’ve ever known that would stand up to Kylie. And this—” he brought me close again and kissed me a second time “—was for handling Blake. And this—this is for you.”

My heart literally stopped beating when I realized he would kiss me again. In an instant my lashes fluttered closed. I felt two gentle fingers tilt my chin up just before his mouth captured mine. The kiss nearly caused me to dissolve into a puddle. Taylor chuckled as he held me tighter to keep me from falling before he continued to kiss me again in the softest, gentlest, most romantic kiss a girl could ever wish for.

When he released me, I thought my insides had turned to jelly. I braced myself on one side of the doorframe and breathed, really breathed for the first time since he had arrived. Taylor chuckled again and braced himself on the other side of the doorframe with the front door still wide open. I relished the cool breeze on my warm skin and glanced up at him. He looked almost as stunned as I did.

Our eyes met and he smiled. “Wow, girl, you can really pack a punch.” He shook his head. “I don’t think my heart has ever beat that fast.”

“Mine actually stopped,” I admitted. We were too close—way too close. I couldn’t stop my eyes from shining into his.

“Well, I promise I won’t move,” Taylor said. “Go ahead then. I’m waiting.”

“Go ahead?” Am I supposed to kiss him again?

“You know, slap me. I know you would’ve had I given you the chance. So go ahead. I’m all yours.”

He’s all mine. “You want me to slap you?” I couldn’t help smiling—he looked so amazingly attractive staring down at me.

“I know I should apologize. You’re probably expecting me to. But I’m not—”

“Taylor Darcy Anderson, if you dare try to apologize for kissing me, I will slap you.” I placed my hands on my hips.

“Are you serious?” His eyes began to glitter into my own.

Okay, is there a hotter guy in the world?

“What?” Taylor matched my smile. “What are you smiling about?”

“So is that why you came over?” I asked.

“To kiss you?” He grinned impishly. “Well, yeah. I’d wanted to for so long. And then—and then, when Kylie came over and said all she did, I couldn’t help myself. I drove straight here. My only thought was to kiss you senseless.”

“Really? You mean she didn’t tell you about it yesterday?”

“No, I was gone yesterday. Today was the first time I’d seen her. Why?”

“So you came to kiss me senseless?” I decided to get back to the good part.

“Yeah, I figured I’d pay for it later.”

“Oh, you’ll pay,” I teased. “Don’t think you can get off that easy.” I stepped back and rested my hand on the door handle.

“Seriously, Chloe, I . . . I can’t, I can’t—” Taylor took a deep breath and steadied himself a moment before he continued on. “I can’t take this any longer. I still love you. If you want me, then the offer stands. If not, I—I promise I’ll never bring it up again.”

Slowly, I stepped toward the doorframe. I placed one hand on his chest—which he immediately covered with his own— and I wound the other up his shoulder and around his neck. I could feel the frantic beating of his heart as I stood on tiptoe and gently lowered his cheek to my lips, and then mischievously whispered, “Only if you take me to prom.”

“Done.” He chuckled and held me in place when I went to pull away. “Are you sure you want to go to prom with me? Sure, I can dance, but not anything like what you’re used to.”

“Don’t worry about that.” I laughed and rested my cheek against his chest. It felt so good to be in his arms. “I’m a dance teacher, remember?”

Taylor laughed and held me tighter. “Hey, do you want to go out to dinner or something? Movie?”

I looked up. “Yes. But I, uh—I can’t.”

“Why? Are you watching your sister or something?”

“Nope. I have the place entirely to myself.”

“Oh, so are you grounded?” he teased.

I laughed. “No. It’s just that you haven’t passed the Dating Ritual yet. My parents would so have a heart attack if they found out I went out with someone they haven’t tested. And uh, I don’t know if you grasp just how much of a highprofile celebrity you are around here. Someone is bound to talk.”

He laughed. “So I guess coming in is out of the question, too?”

“Well, from the looks of Ms. Jenkins’s curtains next door, I’m going to say yes. She’s probably already had an eyeful the way you kissed me with the door wide open. Oh my gosh! I wonder how many people saw us.” I looked up at him.

“Not enough. I want everyone to know you’re mine.”

Eeeh! I’m Taylor Anderson’s. I can’t believe it. I began to giggle. I knew I was totally acting like all of the other girls, but I didn’t care. And I have to say, it was really good to be thought of as his.

“Okay, then, how about the park?” he said. “It’s not a date, right? And we won’t be in the house alone with Ms. Jenkins’s dirty mind inventing stuff. What do ya say?”

“Actually, yeah. Let’s go to the park. Hang on.” I ran into the kitchen and got the house key, then grabbed the ice cream cake and slipped a couple of spoons into my pocket. “What’s that?” Taylor asked as he shut the door behind us.

I locked the door. “Oh, just a silly cake my mom bought for me.”

Taylor pulled the package out of my arms. “Really? And that’s why it says ‘Happy Birthday’ on it?”

Dang. “What?” I leaned over his arm and looked through the cellophane top. “Sheez.”

Taylor chuckled and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, his other hand clutching the cake. I turned and waved at Ms. Jenkins’s window and watched the curtain fall. Taylor and I waited for a couple of cars to pass before we headed across the street. My feet began to sink into the soft sand.

“You know, I’ve never thanked you for what you’ve done for Georgia.”

“Georgia?” I grinned as we made our way over to the swings.

“I don’t know if you knew this, but Georgia used to be really shy.”

I pulled away a little to see him. “Georgia? Shy?”

Taylor stopped about three feet from the swings. “Yes. She was really shy. We were actually worried about it. She was so afraid of people that she would hardly even talk to anyone outside of the family. If she hadn’t improved when she did, my parents would’ve been forced to hold her back from attending kindergarten next school year. Georgia’s therapist recommended that she try ballet. It was really a last-ditch effort on my parents’ part to see if she would improve.

“She did, almost immediately. All it took was watching you dance. And she loved you. You were like a storybook ballerina come to life. I couldn’t help but spoil her when she wanted to bring something to your class. It was the first time we had ever seen her share with anyone besides us before. My mom cried the first day she overheard Georgia chatter about her new friends. Up until ballet, all the friends Georgia would ever talk to or about were her dolls. My parents and I owe you so much.”

I stepped away from him. “Taylor, I had no idea, none at all. I honestly thought Georgia was one of the most outgoing little girls I had ever met.” I laughed quietly to myself. “I’ve had a hard time getting her to be quiet long enough to teach the next move or step to her. She is such a sweetheart.” I paused a moment. “Which reminds me, since we are on the subject of sisters, I have a not quite-so-sweetheart sister I need to thank you for.”

“Me? All I did was follow a hunch to check Blake’s Facebook profile. I freaked out when I saw that Cassidy had left a comment saying she planned on meeting Blake that day.”

“You were freaked? You have no idea how disturbed I was when he showed up for my sister. I lost it. Seriously, I have never been so mad in my entire life. I don’t know what I would’ve done to the loser if you hadn’t shown up when you did. It would probably have been me in jail and him off for self-defense—if he lived.”

Taylor laughed and opened his arms wide, cake and all. “That’s my girl.”

His girl. I stepped back into his arms again, knowing I could cheerfully be held by him all day long.

“So when were you going to tell me it was your birthday?” Taylor playfully nudged me.

I smiled into his shirt. “Oh, I don’t know. I was going to wait and see if you were worthy enough to know. Maybe in about six months.”

“Six months, huh? That’s too bad.”

I pulled back. “What do you mean?”

“I guess you don’t want the present I got you, then.”

“What? You got me a present?” My jaw dropped. “No, you didn’t. You’re just giving me a hard time. Besides, you wouldn’t have. You thought I was going to slap you earlier.”

“True. False. And true. I didn’t, really. It was supposed to be a Valentine’s present. I got it around Christmastime.”

“You’re kidding me.” Taylor got me a present back in December?

“Nope. Here.” He set the cake on the ground and then put his hand in his pocket. “You’ve gotta close your eyes, okay?”

“Fine.” A bit skeptical, I agreed and closed my eyes. I felt Taylor’s hand as it slid down my forearm and clasped mine.

He chuckled as he tried to pry my fingers open. “It won’t bite, I promise.”

I grinned and reluctantly allowed my hand to release. Taylor placed something on my palm. It felt like soft fabric with a hard object wrapped inside.

“Okay, you can open them now.”

It was a velvet drawstring bag. I looked up at Taylor, then opened the bag and pulled out a really pretty charm bracelet. “Wow! I’ve always wanted one of these.” I watched as it glistened and sparkled in the setting sun.

“Do you like it? Each charm represents something.” He leaned over me. “See, this one is a heart, because every time I see a heart I think of you. My Chloe Hart. This is a basketball, because that was what I was playing when I first fell for you. Oh! Here’s a little mask for all of the Halloween parties you host. Here’s a paintbrush and palette to represent art class. Here’s a Bible, because I know how much you love church, and here’s—”

I couldn’t help it. I turned and stopped him with a kiss. I had no idea he knew me as well as he did, or remembered all of those things. It was the most thoughtful gift I had ever been given. “Thank you, Taylor. Really, thank you.”

“So you like it?”

“Are you kidding? This is the best gift anyone has ever given me.” Seriously, is there a sweeter guy in the world? 

“Chloe, you look incredible,” Cassidy exclaimed as she walked into my room. Kate had just zipped up my new prom dress. I had told my parents not to worry about buying me a new one—I would just wear my old one from last year. But my dad wouldn’t hear of it. He was adamant that no daughter of his would wear a used dress when she was going on the arm of an Anderson.