Remember the Old Days?

“Man, she’s heavy,” Taylor groaned as she and Charlie tried to get a very drunk Amber up to her room.

“I love you guys. Like I really really love you guys,” Amber said, looking at each of her friends.

“We love you, too, you drunk girl,” Taylor said, laughing.

“That means so much to me.” Amber started to tear up. “I don’t know what I would do without you guys.” She turned to Charlie and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Taylor couldn’t hold back her laughter. Amber put her head on Charlie’s shoulder, not even trying to walk up the stairs. Her eyes started to flutter and she yawned. Taylor looked at Charlie, knowing what was coming next.

“I’m tired. I think I’m going to go to sleep,” Amber yawned.

“No, Amber, we almost there,” Charlie said but it was no use.
Amber had fallen asleep on him. Charlie picked her up and took her to her room. Taylor stood in the doorway watching Charlie gently put their now snoring friend in her bed. Sighing, Charlie made his way out of the bedroom with Taylor following behind him.

“Why do all the girls fall asleep on me?” Charlie asked with slight laughter in his voice. “First it was you and now Amber.”

“I guess it’s because we all know you’ll take us home and put us to bed,” Taylor said, laughing. “You’re the modern day Prince Charming.” Taylor bumped hips with Charlie as they head to her house.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Charlie said sarcastically.

“You can just sleep over here. It’s really too late for you to go home,” Taylor said as they reached her house.

“You sure?” Charlie asked, not sure himself.

“Yeah, it will be like old times.” Taylor unlocked the door quietly, trying not to wake up her parents.

Charlie followed Taylor to her bedroom. Looking around, he saw that nothing really changed. Her room still held the memories in forms of photographs. He looked at everyone hanging on her wall. He stopped at one of them kissing. Smiling, Charlie remembered how he tricked Taylor into taking that picture. It was their first kiss.

“Taylor come back here,” Charlie screamed, laughing.

“Never,” Taylor screamed over her shoulder, laughing as she ran away from her boyfriend of three weeks.

Charlie chased after her. She had ran out of his house and made her way down the sidewalk. Charlie was not far off from Taylor. He knew exactly where she was going. Taylor ran faster down the sidewalk, laughing only loud enough for Charlie to hear her. Charlie picked up his pace, trying to catch up with her but she had already had a head start. Reaching the pond, Charlie grabbed Taylor skinny waist and pulled her down to the ground with him, making her squeak. Charlie put on his devilish grin and started tickling her, making her and him laugh.

“Charlie, stop,” Taylor said in between giggles. “Charlie, I can’t breathe.” She was still laughing.

Charlie stopped and rolled over to lie on the grass beside her. Turning her head to look at him, Taylor smiled. Charlie looked into her eyes, smiling back. He couldn’t believe the girl that was beside him was his girlfriend. She was beautiful to say the least. He didn’t know how he got her. Charlie reached over and cupped Taylor’s cheek. Closing the space between them, Taylor could feel his breath on her lips. His eye flickered from her eyes to her lips. He gently pressed his lips against hers, closing the last inches between them.

“Can we do that again?” Taylor asked when they broke the kiss.

Charlie laughed. “Only if you take a picture of it,” he answered.

Taylor smiled, reaching in her back pocket. She pulled out a small digital camera she always carried around. She pulled his face closer to hers, smirking. Charlie placed his hand over hers that was holding the camera in front of them.

“Say cheese,” Taylor whispered.

Charlie kissed her as Taylor pressed the button on the camera. Laughing as they broke apart, Taylor looked at the camera.

“I think it’s a keeper,” Taylor said.

“What are you looking at, Charlie?” Taylor asked, making Charlie turn around to look at he and notice that she changed.

“Oh, nothing, just the picture of us kissing,” Charlie answered with a smile, looking at the picture one last time.

“That was a fun day. I believe you threw me in the pool.” Taylor laughed, looking at the picture with Charlie.

“Yeah, I remember. Man that seemed like a simpler time didn’t it? We didn’t have to worry about a thing.” Charlie sighed, wishing he could go back to that day. A day that he still had Taylor.

Smiling, Taylor nodded her head in agreement. “We should get to bed. It’s really late as it is. We’ll be up all night if we remember all the good days we had together.”

≈

“So he spent the night over here?” Amber asked for the 20th time.

“Amber for the last time, yes Charlie indeed sleep over here,” Taylor said, groaning at the repeated question.

“I was just making sure. No need to get snappy over it. But you do know what this means right?” Amber looked at Taylor seriously. Taylor swallowed the hard lump that was no forming in her throat. Amber rarely got this serious.

“No,” Taylor barely whispered.

“It means y’all are going to get back together.”

All the girls looked at Amber like she was crazy. Taylor was in shock. She didn’t saw anything or moved at all. She just stared at Amber. She wanted to come off like she didn’t need Charlie. She left him right. But deep down inside, Taylor secretly wanted it to be true.

“No, it doesn’t, Amber. You’re being crazy,” Taylor said after she managed to compose herself.

“Oh, come on, I’m so not alone here.” Amber looked to each of the girls. “Y’all don’t think so, do ya?”

“Sorry, Amber, he has Carly now. He seems happy with her. I think him and Taylor are nothing more than friends,” Jackie said, all the girl agreeing with her.

Nothing more than friends; that rang in Taylor’s head. It did seem like that was what they would be, now and forever. It was Taylor’s fault though. She left him. Tricia tried to hide her smile because she knew something none of them did. Charlie still loves Taylor, whether or not he wanted to admit it. Tricia knew Charlie was stubborn but when it came to Taylor she thought he was over it.

Coming back to her surroundings, Taylor could hear Amber argue with Jackie and Anna about how Charlie and Taylor belonged together. Taylor sighed. It was too much for her. She couldn’t take it anymore. Taylor grabbed her keys and ran out of the house. She ignored the calls behind her. Taylor ran until she didn’t know where she was. This was exactly what she needed. She needed to get away from everything. Breathless, Taylor sat down on a bench, putting her head in hands. She closed her eyes, letting memories rush back to her.

Taylor was all dressed up in a nice cardigan and jeans. She even was wearing flats instead of the old torn up Vans she usually wore. Taylor stood next to Charlie, who had dressed up, too. It was their first date and somehow their parents talked them into taking pictures before they went out. Taylor forced a smile as well as Charlie even though they both wanted to get out of there and on with their date.

“Finally,” Taylor said, sighing in relief. “I thought my cheeks were going to fall off from all that smiling.”

Charlie laughed as he walked with his date for the evening. He swung the picnic basket between them. “Me, too,” he said.

“So what do you have plan for our date tonight?”

“It’s surprise.”

“But I’m guessing it has something to do with that picnic basket.” Taylor pointed to it, smirking.

“Hey, don’t ruin the surprise.” Charlie pouted, making Taylor laugh.

“Sorry,” she said, bumping into him.

“Here we are,” Charlie said as they reached the pond. “I think this is a good place to have our picnic.”

He sat down the picnic basket, taking out the blanket. He spread it out, refusing to let Taylor help. She stood off watching him, feeling useless but also happy that Charlie wanted to do all the work. She watched as he carefully took out the food. Taylor smiled as she saw her favorites.

“You brought my favorites,” Taylor said, smiling from ear to ear.

“What kind of a date would I be if I didn’t?” Charlie retorted, smiling back. “Here come sit.” He patted a place beside him.

Taylor sat down, grabbing her food. She took a bite of her favorite out of all them. Smiling she turned to Charlie and said, “This is really good.”

“Thank you. I made all of this myself.” He was proud that he did.

“You did?” Taylor asked, shocked. Charlie nodded. “Well, I have to say Charlie; you are the modern day Prince Charming.”