Practice Makes Perfect

Anna ate quietly at the marble-tiled island that stood in the center of the impressively enormous kitchen. Ashley was rambling on about nuggets or something, never pausing to breathe. Anna nodded and asked generic questions, but couldn’t concentrate on what Ashley was saying. So Anna just let her continue talking, while she snuck glances at Taylor who was sitting silently across from her, playing with his omelet and bacon. The atmosphere was awkward and uncomfortable after the little incident the night before. Anna silently cursed at herself for how pathetic she acted. Seriously, who runs away from a movie star? Anna was interrupted in her current self-loathing by Ashley. Her big, brown eyes glanced back and forth between Anna and Taylor.

She raised an eyebrow before stating, “What’s wrong with you guys? You’ve barely said a word.” It was then that Taylor and Anna’s eyes simultaneously glanced up. Their eyes locked when they met, and although Anna’s brain was yelling at her to look away, she found that she couldn’t. Ashley watched them for a few seconds before finally rising out of her chair and putting her dish in the sink.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” she said right before disappearing behind the golden sliding door.

It wasn’t until the door made a loud resounding ‘click’ that Anna managed to break their eye contact. The two looked in opposite directions before glancing back at each other, blushing in the process. Anna thought Taylor looked cute this way. Sweet. Innocent. Normal. But she knew he was anything but. He was one of the most famous teenage actors in the world. Suddenly she felt insecure and inferior. She was nothing. Nothing special at least. Anna was constantly reminded by classmates how untalented she was. She could never measure up to him. She was attracted to him, that much she knew. But he was a billion light-years out of her league.
“I’m sorry,” she sputtered out. Anna instantly wished she would of stayed quiet, because Taylor’s shy smile morphed into the conceited one she’d recognized from earlier.

“For what?” he asked.

“You know, for running away from you like you were an axe murderer or something. I acted like an idiot.” Taylor chuckled and scratched the back of his head. A habit most likely, she thought.

“Well, that’s not usually the reaction I get from girls.” Anna scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s more like, ‘Taylor I love you! Let’s do dirty things! I’m not scared of the big bad wolf!’ Things like that.” He smirked and lounged back on his chair. They were now sitting in the middle of the living room, on possibly the only cheap looking chairs in the entire house. They were foldouts with, guess what, a New Moon promotional poster conveniently designed into the chair. Is that even possible?

Anna stood up and on impulse pushed Taylor’s chair over, causing him to fall. She bent down over his crumpled form and said, “Now listen here Lautner.” The closeness of their faces almost made her shiver, but she shoved the feeling aside and locked her eyes on his. She needed to, if she wanted to get her point across.

“I’ll have you know, I’m nothing like your precious little fans. All I wanna say to you is, 'Taylor, you annoy me,' 'Let's stay far away from each other,' and 'No way in hell am I scared of the big ego maniac.” As she stalked away Taylor took the privilege of checking out her butt. Nice ass, he thought grinning. She was a feisty one. Her words came out like rapid fire and it seemed as if his fame and success didn't phase her one bit. She treated him like any other overconfident teenage guy. He loved it. Taylor had gotten up off of the floor and set the chair back in its proper place. He sprawled himself over the comfortable red couch that was located just across the heavily decorated room and placed his hands behind head.

“She digs me.”