The Way She Wears My Clothes

I avoided Taylor Jardine for a week, successfully, like she was the Black Death incarnated into one single body. It’s not that hard. All I had to do was be the least sociable person I had ever met, which was hard for me. I interacted with the kids, the crew and my bandmates. I kept my dealings with other bands to a minimum, and it was helpful. It was also extraordinarily boring and tiring. By the end of the week, I felt depressed and had begun to hate being around myself. It’s an awful feeling.

I decided to rejoin tour merely out of boredom. It was one of our days off, thankfully. We had already arrived at our next date so we were staying in the parking lot of the venue. I got dressed, in a pair of loose jeans and my last clean shirt, my black cassette tape JAGK shirt. I ruffled Alex’s hair on my way out of the bus, since he was staring intently at the screen where he was playing the latest Madden game. He swatted and cursed at me in response. I jogged down the steps and out into the bright early afternoon sunshine. I started towards the exit to the parking lot when I ran straight into Taylor, almost literally. She just came out of nowhere.

“Jack!” she exclaimed, backpedalling slightly so she didn’t tip.

“Hi Tay,” I replied, trying for civil. I was such an asshole to her last time. I’d thought a lot about it, going over the scene in my head a thousand times. We’d just been mini-golfing. She hadn’t flirted with me or anything. She was being friendly because that’s who Tay is! It had been unnecessary to treat her like that.

“Nice shirt,” she giggled. I looked down and then at her. She was wearing the same exact shirt at me, a grin stretching almost the entire width of her face. She had a fantastic smile. I smiled back, and she continued, “I was just heading out to grab something to eat. Want to join?”

I nodded and she started off, me following along slightly behind her. She took small steps but she was fast. I kept falling behind.

“Listen, Tay, can we talk?” I asked as she turned yet another corner. I wondered briefly if she even knew where she was going or if she was just going whichever way she turned. She slowly so we were walking together, at a slow pace.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I wanted to apologize for the other day. I was being such an asshole to you, on the golf course. It wasn’t called for. I was just having a rough day. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s alright, Jack. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, I didn’t want you to think that I hated you or you did something wrong.”

“I didn’t think that. Promise. I understand bad days. If it weren’t for you being here, I’d be having one myself.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, nudging her in the arm gently with my elbow. She grabbed onto my forearm and held it as we walked.

“I don’t really know. It’s just been one crappy thing after another. I had a horrible dream and I fell out of my bunk and the guys were being assholes. I just, I’ve had a pretty tough day.”

“That’s pretty much like the other day for me,” I sympathized. She smiled and rested her head on my arm.

“Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about? There seemed to be more.”

I thought about it. Should I tell her how great she looked in that shirt? Because, damn, she pulls of my clothes well. I mean, yeah, it would look even better on my floor but she was looking drop dead fucking gorgeous in that outfit.

“Nah, I’m hungry though. How close are we? Do you even know where we’re going?”

She pulled me around a corner and voila, we were in the business district, restaurants and cafes lining the streets between bookshops and insurance offices.

“Have you been here before?” I asked.

“I wander off a lot during tours, without maps. You learn when you’ve moving away from the city and when you’re heading towards it. It’s quite a trick. Maybe I’ll teach you, Young Skywalker.”

My heart fluttered unsafely in my chest.

“I don’t think you’re Obi Wan in this situation, Miss Jardine.”

She guided me into a small coffeeshop and up to the counter before she replied, “Watch out, Barakat, I may just have to show you who is the Jedi Master in this situation.”

The way she said it sent chills of excitement racing down my spine. I bit my lip and held in my whimper. An image of her shirt flying across the room and landing on my floor appeared once again rather prominently in my mind. I turned my attention to the menu board and tried to focus on everything but her latched onto my arm. It was going to be a very long lunch.