“No way!” Sánchez exclaimed. “I found Taylor first.”
“Actually,shedid,” Taylor laughed. “I’ve known her since eighth grade. You’re one year too late, hermano.”
None of the guys were really dancers, least of all Taylor. Corinna dragged Emogen and Katherine out into the crowd of people to dance while Taylor stayed to chat with Douglas and Sánchez. Off to the corner of the roof, Fletcher had his hands glued to a girl’s waist and his tongue down her throat. Her name was Ava or something, but Taylor didn’t really bother memorizing their names.
He couldn’t help but steal occasional glances at the two of them. The girl had her arms thrown loosely around his neck as he leaned down to kiss her. His hands felt their way down to her ass, and Taylor choked on his beer when he watched him squeeze it.
“Everything okay, bud?”
Taylor’s face must’ve flushed with embarrassment. “All good,” he answered. “Just forgot how to swallow.”
“Do you guys think we will beat Dallas on Friday?” Douglas asked. He had been with Dallas for a majority of his rookie season before being traded to Seattle. Taylor knew there was an incident of some kind where a player on the team had been accused of sexual assault, but the league had kept it all very hush. Douglas had gotten into it with the player, and he was traded that same evening. The player was still on the team,but Douglas hadn’t told them who it was. Anytime they played Dallas, Douglas ended up in a bad headspace. Taylor wondered if the girl was someone close to him.
“Totally, brother. We are going to absolutely fuck them and send them home running.”
“Fuck yeah we are,” Sánchez chimed in. “They’ve literally lost their last six games, I think. Something around there. You’ve got nothing to worry about,compa.” Sanchez patted him on the back reassuringly.
“Taylor, come dance!” Emogen beckoned from afar.
“No, Emogen!” Taylor shouted back in a playful tone.
Emogen walked over to Taylor and grabbed him by the arm. “I came all this way to visit you.We are dancing!”
After experiencing first-hand the tragic aftermath of drunk driving, Taylor had rarely surpassed more than three drinks during a night out. He was extremely serious about making sure he and his friends were all drinking responsibly.
On nights like these, surrounded by the people he knew he could trust, Taylor felt comfortable enough to let loose. He had grown close enough to Douglas and Sánchez to tell them about his dad’s accident. Since then, he noticed they were a lot more careful about monitoring their own drinking. He would never ask them to change their ways, but it meant the world to him that they were a lot more mindful about it.
Taylor jokingly threw his arms over Emogen’s shoulders while Emogen planted her hands on his hips. Like Taylor was the girl and she was the guy. It was pretty silly considering the way he towered over her, but he and Emogen had always joked around like this. They were very comfortable with one another, even while they had broken up a handful of times during the span of their relationship.
* **
One day in the tenth grade, Emogen had invited Taylor over to work on an ecology project for their AP Biology class. They had to create an ecosystem inside of a 2-liter bottle that could sustain life without unscrewing the lid. Taylor had been looking forward to the terrarium project because it gave him an excuse to have a pet fish.
They were in the middle of a period of being broken up because Taylor needed to focus on hockey.
“We need to put the gravel rocks down first, I think,” she said.
“Okay, grab the funnel and I’ll pour.”
“We don’t need a funnel for rocks,” she laughed. “And it’s the first layer so they’ll fall straight to the bottom.”
Taylor grabbed their bag of rocks they had in their kit and dropped them down the hole.
“Are we doing the barrier thing next?” he asked.
“Uhh, probably? Is that what the mesh is for?”
“Should we just google it?” Taylor asked seriously.
Emogen pulled up a step list on her computer, and they used it to assemble their terrarium. They stuffed a piece of mesh down the hole, using the eraser from a pencil to push it down and spread it out. Emogen took over and made Taylor hold the funnel while she poured the different layers. She claimed the terrarium needed a “woman’s touch” as an excuse to steamroll over the entire project. Emogen was the top of their class, so she cared a little too much about making sure it was perfect.
Later, after they finished, they sat together on Emogen’s bed. Taylor sat up against the headboard while Emogen laid on her stomach facing the end of the bed. “Do you think NylissaCortez is pretty?” She had asked him.
“Not as pretty as you, Em,” he joked. Knowing Emogen, it was probably some stupid trap to test him and his loyalty.
“No, seriously,” she asked again. She rolled over and sat up to face him, crossing her legs. “I think I’m kind of into her.”
“Romantically?”
