Love Will Keep You Up All Night

I had to wake up early the next morning to say goodbye to Grandma, grandma, and Gigi and I also wanted to have breakfast with mom and dad before I left. Sidney had told me that he was coming to get me at eleven and it was now nine thirty.

“Here you go Taylor, another part of your graduation present. My dad said handing me an envelope. I opened it and notice that it was a check card

“Wow, thank you.” I finally had my own checking account which meant that I had money to blow!

“You’re eighteen now and you’re going to be living on your own, well sort of.” My mom said.

“Guys, I promise that I won’t do anything wrong. I know you wanted to spend the summer with me, but thank you so much for letting me spend it with Sidney. I know we haven’t been together long, but this was the only way that we can spend time together.”

“We know sweetie. We realized when we said yes that there was something more between you and him. I think this relationship will last a while and I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks mom, there is something there with him. I just feel like I can be myself totally and not have to worry about anything. I also still get nervous when I see him and the chills when he touches me.” I smiled

“Honey, that’s because you’re in love and if you are really meant to be then that will never go away.” She smiled

“I hope not, I kinda like the feeling.” I smiled

“I really don’t want to think about my little girl moving in with her boyfriend.” My dad groaned

“Dad, it’s only for a couple of months. I’ll be home in August.”

“Then you’re going to college.”

“But I’ll be closer than Pittsburgh.”

“True.”

Mandy walked out of her bed room, rubbing her eyes. I have never seen her up this early on the weekends and I knew the only reason she was up was because my parents made her get up. We talked for about twenty more minutes, when the door bell rang. I pushed through my dogs to pull open the door. Sidney was standing there is jeans and a simple t-shirt, he smiled when I finally got the door open.

“Well good morning to you. You seem very awake this morning.” He laughed when I pulled him into a hug.

“Well I’m very excited and a little sleep deprived.”

“Didn’t sleep last night?”

“Nope.”

“Me either.” He laughed and kissed the top of my head.

“So Sidney, are you ready for this?” My dad asked walking into the living room.

“Yes sir. I couldn’t be any more excited right now.”

“Well just make sure you take good care of my little girl.”

“Dad.” I groaned. “It’s not like we are moving in permanently. It’s just for the summer.”

“I know, I know. But the last time you were away for a long time is when you went to Puerto Rico for five weeks. This is like triple that.”

“Daddy, I’ll call tons of times and we have other ways to communicate. Plus, you guys are bound to come up some time during the summer and we will meet up then. I won’t be gone forever.” I said giving him a hug and then my mom. “I love you guys and I’ll call when we get there.”

“Okay dear, are you sure you have everything?”

“Yes, I checked before I walked out of my room.”

“All righty then, are you ready to go?” Sidney asked picking up my suitcase.

“Yep.” I smiled and was followed out the door by mom and dad. They stood in the driveway and waved as we drove away. When the house was out of view I pumped my fists in the air.

“I’m free!” I giggled

“Did you have coffee this morning?” Sidney asked laughing at me

“No. Yes. Just a little.”

“Oh this is going to be fun.”

“You know it will, but as the summer goes on it might get boring.”

“Why do you say that?” He asked merging onto the highway.

“Because things will get boring fairly quickly and plus I can’t drink, so you’re going to have to just get drunk with your friends.” I laughed

“Don’t worry about that, it will still be fun with you there.”

“Oh this could get interesting.” I mused myself.

“So what do you want to do when we get there?” Sidney asked after a couple of minutes of comfortable silence.

“Um, I have no idea. Honestly I’ve never been to Pittsburgh except for the one time when I surprised the team over that one weekend.”

“Okay well we don’t have to do anything tonight. We can just chill at the apartment and watch movies.”

“That actually sounds like a very wonderful idea.” I smiled

Sidney smiled back at me and grabbed my hand, kissing it before placing our entwined fingers on the center console. We listened to the radio and talked about nothing really. Within ten minutes of driving down the interstate I was asleep.

****
Taylor was asleep in the seat next to him, still holding his hand. He looked over and smiled at her, she had her head leaning against the window. She looked so beautiful, some of her hair was falling in her face and Sidney badly wanted to push it out of the way. As he watched Taylor sleep from the corner of his eyes, he felt a smile spread across his face. He could most deflintly get used to having her around all the time. He really wanted to make this summer a special one for both of them. His phone rang and he sighed and let go of Taylor’s hand to grab it out of the cup holder.

“Hello?” He said not looking at the caller ID

“Sidney, how are you dear.” A familiar voice asked

“I’m good mom, how are you?” he asked smiling

“Good, good. We were wondering when you were planning on coming home because Taylor has a few games coming up and she would really like for you to be there.”

“Um, well I’m not sure mom. I’m on my way back to Pittsburgh right now.” He figured he was going to have to tell his parents about Taylor sooner or later.

“Oh? You’re not there? Where are you then?”

Sidney sighed. “I’m in Washington DC.”

“Why on earth are you there?”

“To visit my girlfriend.” He said quietly.

“Girlfriend?” Sidney could hear the smile in her voice. “What’s her name?”

“Taylor.” He smiled.

“Where did you meet her?”

“Um, it’s kind of a complicated story. I actually met her friends and they invited me to her party and I decided to check it out.” He smiled remembering that day. “I have to say that was the best choice ever. Mom, you would really like her, she’s really easy to talk to and she doesn’t put up with my shit.” His mom chuckled.

“When am I going to get to meet her?”

Sidney sighed again. “Um, I don’t know. We just started things seriously and I don’t know if having her meet you guys right now is a great idea.” He needed to tell his mom about Taylor for real. “Mom, there is something you should know about Taylor.”

“She’s not pregnant, is she?”

“Oh God no we’ve only been dating for about a month and a half now and she’s kinda young.”

“What do you mean young?”

“Um she’s only eighteen.” He said softly.

“Well that is young. Do you really like her?”

“Yes I do. Actually she’s coming to Pittsburgh with me. She’s staying for the summer, until she goes to college.”

“Well Sidney, if I didn’t know you any better I’d say that you have a pretty strong relationship going on here.”

“Yeah I think I do mom.” Sidney looked over at Taylor’s still sleeping figure. “There’s just something about her that I’m crazy about.” He reached over and moved the hair out of her face.

“Well than I will let you go. Call me later this week and we can talk about visiting. I love you Sidney.”

“I love you too mom. I will be sure to call. Tell dad and Taylor I say hi.”

“I will dear. Bye.”

“Bye, mom.”

****
Sidney’s phone rang and it woke me up. He sighed and removed his hand from mine to answer it. I had no idea it was, but my curiosity was curbed when he said ‘mom’. I held my breath and waited to see what he was going to say. From this end of the conversation it sounded like his mom wanted him to come home and visit. I suddenly felt bad because he wasn’t going to get to see him family, but this was his idea mostly. I just decided not to react and just listen to what he had to say to her.

He told his mom about me and I desperately wanted to hear what she said. I wanted to know if she approved of me and then he went and told her about my age and again I was holding my breath. Again I was straining to hear what she had to say.

“’Yeah I think I do mom…there’s just something about her that I’m crazy about.” Then he surprised me by touching my forehead. I stopped breathing and my heart rate sped up. I really wanted to give him a hug right now. He said goodbye to his mom and shut his phone sighing. I decided that I was going to be awake now. I yawned and looked over at Sidney.

“Who was that?” I asked

“Oh my mom. She wanted to know when I was coming home.” He said

“Oh and what did you tell her?” I asked. I wanted to see if he’d tell me what I overheard.

“I told her that I wasn’t sure I was coming to visit because I was on my way to Pittsburgh and that my girlfriend was coming with me.” He smiled at me.

“So you told your mom about me?”

“Yes and she seemed quiet thrilled actually. She wants to meet you, but I told her it might be a little early for that.”

“I feel bad.” I whispered

“Why do you feel bad? I just told you that my mom is thrilled that I have a girlfriend and that I’m living with her. Most girlfriends would be thrilled to hear that."

“You won't get to go see your family because of me.”

“Well we could always go up there for a week or two. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about going to Canada let alone meet my family.”

“Well you’ve met my parents, so why not I meet your?”

“Seriously? You wouldn’t mind spending a week or two with my family?” He asked with a huge smile.

“No I don’t mind. I think it would be a really cool experience to get out of the country.” I laughed. “Now I know why mom made sure I had my passport. You’ve talked to my parents about this haven’t you?”

He nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, I wanted their permission before I took you out of the country. They really had no problem with it. I’m giving you the final vote though. If you don’t want to go it won’t break my heart, but if you want to go that’s just make me happier.”

“Did you seriously think that I wouldn’t want to meet your parents?”

“You were so set on spending the summer in Pitt that I wasn’t sure how you’d take a question like that.” He pulled into the car rental place and turned off the engine.

“Sidney I just want to spend the summer with you. I don’t care where it is.” I leaned over the console to kiss him on the cheek.

We got out of the car and grabbed our bags out of the trunk and headed for the shuttle to take us to the terminal. We were meeting the rest of the guys because we were all catching a charted flight back home. When we reached the terminal we were greeted by Vero, Marc, Kris, and Max. Geno was standing off to the side on the phone and Jordan was no where to be found.

“Where’s Staalsy?” I asked looked around

“Bathroom.” Vero said.

Twenty minutes later the eight of us were loaded onto the plane and getting ready for take off. The flight wasn’t that long, but I was planning on sleeping. Yeah that idea was shot once Kris, Sid, Jordan, and Marc all pulled out there PSPs and began battling each other. Vero and Marc were sitting behind us, so I turned around to talk to Vero but she was so engrossed in her book that she didn’t notice me. I grabbed my Ipod out of my bag and put on the one movie that I had on it. No matter how loud I turned up the volume I could still hear the guys.

Surprisingly I ended up falling asleep, like I planned on. I woke up to Sidney kissing my forehead lightly. I smiled up at him, groggy.

He removed my headphones and then spoke. “We’ve landed.” He said kissing my forehead again

I got up and stretched, that was the one thing I hated about planes was how cramped you got. After we grabbed our bags, Sidney and I said good bye to the guys and I made them promise that they would keep in touch with me throughout the summer and when I go back to school. They all promised and told me that we’d probably see each other before the summer was over. I talked to Vero for about twenty minutes before Sidney was pulling me towards the doors.

“Come on.” He whined. “I want to go home.”

I chuckled. “I want to go home too, I want to see what the apartment looks like.” I smiled and so did Sidney. When we got to the car Sidney grabbed my hand and didn’t let go the entire ride. He pulled out of the parking spot and headed in the direction of the apartment-our home-well for at least two months and our summer together.