The Night You Took Away a Little More Than Just My Breath

"Dude, have you talked to Kennedy lately?" Jared asked as he walked into my basement with equipment.

"I haven't really talked to him since the wedding." I mumbled.

Pat was setting up his drums, Garrett was setting up the amps and Jared was just arriving. I was sitting on the couch staring at the floor. We were about to have a horrible band practice to get ready for a show that some important people would be at. This opportunity could have came at a better time. I was a wreck, and Kennedy hated my guts,

It has been three days since Jamie and I had spoken. On my way home from the gas station, I felt worse than I did before. I regretted treating her the same way she treated me and saying those horrible words to her. I wish I could go back and take the advice that old man gave me.

I haven't talked to Taylor either. She wasn't answering my phone calls and she hasn't been working. I stopped by work a few times to see her, and to get out of my lonely house. I haven't been this alone in my entire life. Even though my dad and Casey are supposed to be getting home in two days or so, I'll still feel alone.

Ten minutes later Kennedy came walking down my steps and into the practice room where he sat down his guitar. "Dude, where were you?" Jared asked him.

"Late." He simply said. "Lets do this." I heard him sigh as I got off the couch and went back into the practice room.

I picked up my mic, not even glancing at Kennedy and turned to the other guys. "Which song?"

"I'm feelin' Shake it." Garrett said as he shook his body slightly like an idiot. I chuckled and released some tension between Kennedy and I.

"Shake It it is." I said as the band began to play the song.

The band was playing fine, but as for the lyrics... they weren't so good. I kept messing up the words and singing them too fast. I guess all the things on my mind were getting to me.

I took a little break from the lyrics as the band kept playing the song. I looked back at them as they looked at me confused. I closed my eyes for a second and sighed as I heard a guitar cut out.

I began to sing again after I got myself together but I heard someone screaming over the music. As the band stopped playing, I heard their words. "I can't do this. You need to either learn the words to your own songs or you're out of the band." Kennedy said.

I looked at him, stunned at what he was saying to me. "You- you can''t kick me out of the band." I said.

"What's going on?" Jared asked as I noticed everyones confused faces.

"I'll... I'll tell you later." I said as I gripped my mic a little harder.

"When you say that, you never get around to telling us." Pat added.

"Yeah so, tell us now." Garrett said.

Kennedy sat on the love seat in the corner and prepared to hear the whole story all over again. I turned off my mic and sat it on the stand as I looked to the floor thinking of where to start.

"You know why Jamie hasn't been here?" I said, not really looking for an answer from them. "Well that night, the night of the party..." I trailed off, crossing my legs as I leaned against the wall and stared at the floor. I sighed and began again. "Well, as I said, the night of the party... we had a little intoxicated mistake."

"A little?" Kennedy added.

"A huge," I corrected myself. "A huge mistake." I said.

"I knew something was up." Pat said.

"Yeah." I said, getting the hint that everyone knew what the mistake was. "Just, just don't talk about it." I sighed.

Everyone sat there quietly for a few minutes before someone finally spoke up. "Is the- is the show still on for Saturday night?" Garrett asked.

I glanced over at Kennedy and he gave me a small smirk, which made me smile. I turned and looked back at all the guys. "Of course." I said, as Kennedy stood up with his guitar.

"Great." Garrett said. "Now which song?"

"Count 'em." Kennedy said.

"Alright." I said, as I turned on my mic and began to sing. "You count 'em one, two, three..."

- - - - - - -

"How was it?!" I asked cheerfully, putting on a huge act for my parents as I helped them with their bags.

"It was great!" Casey replied with a smile. "Where's Jamie?"

I took another bag from Casey as I walked towards the steps. "She went to Alexis'. She said she might spend the night."

"Aw." Casey frowned. "I was excited to see her!"

I began taking bags up to their room as I realized they had no idea how much happened in this house when they were away for so little time. It was Friday night, and I haven't seen or heard from Jamie since that gas station incident. I was hoping she'd come back soon, but not so I could see her. But so her mom wouldn't get worried.

"Guess what, dad!" I exclaimed as I sat their bags down by their door.

"What?" He asked as he opened his bedroom door to reveal a clean, untouched room.

"We have a show tomorrow night." I said. "And there's gonna be some important people there. We might get signed!"

"Yeah, yeah." My dad laughed. "That's what you said last time."

"Yeah, I know." I said. "But I have to go to work real soon." I told them.

"Alright." My dad said. "We can unpack, you go get ready."

I took my dads words and got ready for work within 5 minutes. I headed out to my car, and drove towards work. I was hoping Taylor would be there. I haven't seen her or spoken to her longer than I have to Jamie. I really missed her. And if I didn't get all my feelings out soon, I'll explode.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I scanned it for Taylors car. It was kind of hard to see because it was night, but I couldn't find it. Saddened by seeing that it wasn't in the lot, I parked behind the building. I clocked in after I entered the restaurant and put my little hat on. "Hey, has Taylor been in lately?" I asked the chef.

He shook his head. "She hasn't been here in a week."

"Do you know what's up?" I asked.

"No, I think she's coming in tonight." Another worker said.

I checked the time, and I was 10 minutes early. "Alright, thanks guys." I smiled, realizing that we had the same shifts tonight. As I waited on my first table of a few teenagers, I kept checking the parking lot for headlights. Five minutes later, I saw someone park by the front door.

Just in case it was Taylor, I slipped out the front door for a second. "Johno!" I heard a girls voice. I couldn't see who it was because their headlights were still blinding me.

"Taylor?" I questioned, just as the headlights dimmed. She was walking up to me. Happy to see her, I gave her a huge hug. "Where have you been?!"

"Ugh, I don't want to talk about it." She said.

"Oh," I frowned. "I think I'm getting better now." I told her.

"Oh, yeah?" Taylor asked as she walked into the restaurant.

"Yeah." I said. "I haven't really seen Jamie. Well, I haven't seen Jamie." I told her as she clocked it.

"Ever since the morning after?" She asked.

"Yeah, well no." I said and followed her as she went to go put on her apron. "After you left I laid around the house, but then got bored out of my mind. So I hopped in my car and drove to the nearest beach."

"Oh yeah?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah, and some old man gave me really good advice. He told me to talk to Jamie first and then she'll feel better..." Taylors smiled faded as I trailed off. "...what's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing," She said. "Continue."

I paused, trying to find what was wrong in her eyes, but she looked down. "You okay?"

"Yeah yeah." She said. "What did the old man say?" She asked.

"...He told me to talk to her, and she wouldn't be as pissed at me." I said. "So I took his advice and went to the nearest gas station to get directions back home cause I didn't know where the hell I was." I said as she got her little note pad out. "When I was in the gas station, I saw Jamie and Alexis looking at pregnancy tests."

Taylor sighed as if she had her mind on something else, so I paused again. "I'm sorry," She said. "I'm listening, I'm just... stressed."

"You alright?" I asked. "You wanna talk about it, babe?"

Taylor shook her head no and closed her eyes. "But I'm listening to you." She said.

"Okay.." I said, worried. She wasn't acting like herself at all. But I continued anyway, "So I got a drink and at the register Jamie tried to talk to me. And of course it aggravated me to see her so all that mans advice just flew outta my mind!"

"So what happened?" Taylor asked.

"I told her to call me when she finds out she's pregnant, and then I was like 'until then, fuck you!'"

"Oh, whoa." Taylor chuckled as a few customers looked my way. "Didn't she say that to you earlier?"

"Exactly." I said. "So tell me, why haven't I heard from you in months?!"

Taylors smile faded away again. "It's nothing." She said.

"It's something." I told her. She just shook her head and walked away to wait on a table. So I went back to mine and asked if everything was alright.

"Can I have some more coke please?" The teenage, buff guy asked me.

"Yeah, sure." I said, taking his cup from him. "Anything else?" I asked them. They all shook their head no so I left to go get the guy some more coke. I ran into Taylor as she was getting drinks for her table. "Babe, you have to tell me whats wrong."

"Nothings wrong." She said, quietly. "Can you please not call me that?"

"Call you what?" I asked, confused.

"Babe." She said.

"Oh, I didn't even realize I was calling you that!" I blushed. "Sorry."

"Mmhm." Taylor mumbled as she walked away with two drinks.

I watched her walk away, trying to figure out what her problem was. I couldn't find any reasons. I didn't do anything wrong to her, and from what I hear, things at home are going smoothly for her. So I had no idea what was going through her mind, but it looked like there was a lot.

Even though it killed me to do so, I left her alone to work for the rest of the night. It was 11:30 at night and the last customers were just leaving, same as the workers. Ironically enough, the boss left Taylor and I to close up the restaurant. I wasn't going to speak to her until we both left, and said our goodbyes.

But as she cleaned off the last table and as I got ready to set the alarm, she spoke. "The reason why I haven't talked to you in a while is because..." She trailed off, putting all her cleaning supplies away and turning off the lights. Only the moonlight and the back light from the kitchen came into the dinning area. "The reason is because... I really, really like you, Johno." She said, making my heart stop. "And I don't-"

Confused by her words and my reaction, I did nothing but kiss her. I put both of my hands on her face and kissed her lips roughly. Taylor just kissed me back, and began pushing me through the front doors.

I was pushed on the hood of my own car as Taylor started to kiss my neck. I caught up on my breath and thought. Did I have feelings for Taylor as well? If not, why was I doing this? But I continued.

I lead her to the back seat of my car as she shut the door and crawled on top of me, unbuttoning each button of my uniform. I smirked as she unbuttoned the last button and I slid it off my arms. I helped her by taking off my vneck t-shirt that I wore under it and she began kissing my chest.

Tired of just laying around and letting her do everything, I rolled on top of her. I kicked off my shoes as I unbuttoned her shirt. When her undershirt was thrown on the floor, I went for her bra. Taylor laughed as I slipped it off her body and began to kiss her chest. Her hands ran through my thin hair and mine ran down her body to the button of her pants.