Impulse

I slowly pushed the apartment door open, completely exhausted after a long day of exams. I shed my outerwear, before slumping onto the couch, and shifting around until I got completely comfortable. I flipped on to the PVR screen, and checked for the episode of New Girl. I furrowed my eyebrows as I checked all the saved shoes, and couldn’t find any of the shows I regularly watched. Vampire Diaries, Glee, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family… I quickly searched for the original show, and clicked the info.

You aren’t currently set to record this program.

I felt a major headache coming on, and just laid back on the couch, shutting my eyes, and myself, away from the world.

“Who’s that girl? Who’s that girl? It’s Jess.” Taylor sang as he entered the living room, sending me a grin from his side of the duct-tape line. I opened my eyes slowly, and narrowed my eyes at the blonde. He gave me his ‘lady killer’ smile, and followed his path towards the fridge, grabbing a Gatorade, before taking a seat on the far end of the couch.

“You didn’t.” I said, staring into his eyes in a completely platonic way. He gave me a wink, before reclining his seat.

“Oh, your shows? You see, I figured since you really wanted me to take you to that Earth movie, that you had really taken a liking to nature, so I am recording the Discovery Channel and National Geographic all day, every day.” He replied, raising his arms, and cradling his head in his hands, using a make-shift pillow.

“THAT’S IT!” I yelled, before bolting up from the couch, and launching myself at Taylor. I let out wild shrieks, and used my nails to claw at him. I punched him in the arm, and flailed whenever he tried to contain me.

“Hey, GUYS. Fuck!” Jordan yelled, before wrapping his arms around my waist, and literally dragging me away from my boyfriend. I stopped wriggling after I decided escape was futile. Maddie came down the hallway, and gawked at the sight before her eyes. I tried once more to rip myself from Jordan’s grasp, but was declined again.

“You are on our side, Jordan.” Maddie stated her voice eerily calm. Jordan rolled his eyes, and turned back to Taylor, trying to defuse the situation. I was completely ready to give up, when a force from behind caused Jordan to stumble, and release his grip on me. I turned, to see that Maddie had taken a running jump onto his back, and was now lightly hitting his head and shoulders. “I. Told. You. Not. To Cross. THE LINE!” She yelled, continuing her assault on her boyfriend.

“This is stupid, guys, just chill.” Taylor said, getting up from the couch. In the heat of action, I completely forgot why I had snapped the first time. I slowly turned my head to face my own boyfriend, before running and using my body weight to drag him to the floor. I quickly straddled his waist, before pounding his chest with pent-up fury.

“YOU DELETED MY SHOWS YOU ASSHOLE!” I screamed, before grabbing a pillow and smacking Taylor right in his smug face.

----

From then on, things got tensely quiet. Taylor was the only one who occupied the couch, pretending to be interested in the umpteen hours of animals in their natural habitats. Emma had disappeared to an undisclosed location, but I thought I’d heard her mumbling something about finding her shows on Hulu as she stomped off. Jordan retreated to his room, determined to work his way through an unread stack of ESPN magazines and still pouting about my ‘cheap shots.’

So I went for the kitchen; all of the fighting and yelling had made me jumpy. And right now, a nice big glass of seasonal eggnog sounded like a cup of heaven. I opened the Subzero fridge and reached to the top shelf for my-

“What?” I hissed to myself, ducking down to see if my carton of bliss had been hid behind a container. Nothing. No eggnog. No Christmas cheer.

“Okay, everyone in the kitchen - NOW!” I called, loud enough for everyone to hear. Door squeaked open from the hall, Emma and Jordan appearing at the mouth of it. Both looked very distressed and still very pissed.

I pointed a finger at all of them. “No one’s leaving this apartment until I find out who took my-” I paused as my finger landed on Taylor, who grinned up at me beneath his eggnog mustache. A crumpled carton lay on its side on the coffee table in front of him. My crumpled carton.

“Emma!” I screeched, thrusting my finger at Taylor, “Your boyfriend- Taylor- I- He-…MY EGGNOG!”

I felt Jordan’s arms close securely around my waist before I got the chance to launch myself at Taylor. “Maddie, please don’t. Not again. I’ll buy you some more eggnog from the store. Just…calm yourself.” I glared at him, but nonetheless went limp in his arms. That didn’t stop me from grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter and hurling it in Taylor direction.

He ducked out of its line of fire, making it explode into tiny pieces against the wall behind him. He turned back at me with wide eyes; if he hadn’t have moved, he’d have been suffering from a hell of a headache right now.

“Junior leagues,” I spat at his questioning face, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Maddie!” Emma scolded, eyebrows knit together at the chunks of apple still sticking to the wall. “That’s a mess!”

I shifted my gaze from Taylor to the even larger apple chunks sprinkling the back of the sofa. And I frowned, both from anger and from embarrassment.

“C’mon,” Jordan suggested, tugging me in the direction of the hallway. “Let’s just go lay down for a while, kay?”

I went along before I could do any further damage to the already stressful situation.

---

I let out a huff of frustration, before grabbing a dishcloth and removing the apple from the couch. I almost jumped out of my skin as his hands found their way to my hips, and I was soon backed up into Taylor’s muscular chest. I sighed, before leaning back and getting comfortable, never feeling safer then when I was in Taylor’s arms.

“I’m sorry about your shows.” Taylor mumbled into my shoulder, before he started placing light kisses up my neck. I tugged at my bottom lip with my orthodonticly-straightened teeth. I tugged myself of out Taylor’s grip, I felt a gentle tug at my wrist, and brought my eyes to meet Taylor’s.

“I’m know you are sorry Tay, I just really think this has gotten out of control. Plus, you’re a little shit. No offence.” I replied, before pulling from his grasp again, and making my way to the kitchen, before I came to a stand-still as I heard something loud crash to the floor, before shattering into pieces.

“What was tha-” Jordan started, opening the door to his bedroom, Maddie slowly appearing from behind him, as the both stared at the mess on the floor. I watched as Maddie quickly secured herself to Jordan’s arm, but even I knew that wasn’t going to stop him. I stepped carefully into the mess, acting as a final barrier between Jordan and Taylor.

“Jordan, man, it was a total accident. I didn’t even mean to…” Taylor trailed off, just looking at what he has mistakenly done. I bit my lip, before staring Jordan down.

“Jordan, it was a mistake, calm down.” I stated, but could already see him shaking with fury.

“THAT WAS MY FIRST GOAL PUCK YOU ASSHOLE! I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!” Jordan yelled, before dragging himself and Maddie down the hall, a look of pure rage on his face. I closed my eyes, and bit my lip as I heard them get closer, and Jordan softly pushed me out of the way. I stumbled over my own feet, and went crashing down into the mess of glass.

Jordan quickly tackled Taylor, as Maddie attempted to help me up. I could feel the multiple cuts already forming, and by the blood on the carpet, Maddie had stepped on her fair share of glass just trying to get me back on my feet.

“You take Taylor, I know how to calm down Jordan.” I told her, to which she nodded whole-heartedly. I groaned a bit, before jumping up onto Jordan’s back, trying to pull him away from my boyfriend.

“SWIMSUIT MODELS!” Maddie yelled, trying to distract the guys, but only earned a giggle from myself. Finally we pried the guys apart, Taylor already having a slight black-eye forming, and Jordan had got a good punch to the gut. I pulled Jordan behind the island and into the kitchen using my hands to turn his face to my own.

“Grow the fuck up.” I said, before pulling my hand back, and slapping him right across the face. Maddie looked over shocked, but Taylor gave me a knowing look, before walking into our bedroom, and giving Jordan some space. Even with Taylor gone, the tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

----

Supper that night was awkward, to say the least. We eached slurped our spaghetti in an absolute silence, neither one of us daring to look at eachother lest we spurt curses in their direction. It wasn't even a case of figuring out what to say; there was no words. So, in silence we sat.

Emma sat down her fork, like she were about to get up from the table, but she didn't. Instead, she cleared her throat; everyone turned their wary-eyed gazes in her direction. "I am deathly terrified of public restrooms because I think the vampires live in the ventilation systems..."

My fork clattered to my plate; Jordan snorted into his noodles. Taylor just stared at his girlfriend in disbelief. "Excuse me," he said calmly, like he hadn't heard her right, "what?"

She opened her mouth, cheeks blushing, to repeat her question, but I cut her off.

"I broke my toe trying to kick a bowling ball down the lane," I confessed, absently wiggling the said toe inside of my fuzzy sock.

While Taylor was still glancing wildly around the table through his black-eye, trying to figure what was going on, Jordan caught on. "I threw my dog down the stairs once to see if my dog-catching contraption would work." He paused. "It did, luckily."

Emma was next. "In preschool, I drew a mustache on my best friend's Barbie because she called my brand new shoes ugly."

"I never wore underwear in elementary school," I added sheepishly, "And I wore dresses. A lot."

Taylor finally cleared his throat to add to the impromptu situaion. "I pissed myself during that first Harry Potter movie. The part where Hagrid bursts into the shack to save Harry from the Dursleys? Scared the shit out of me..."

The entire table fell silent again, but for a separate reason. Emma wore a shocked expression as she adressed her boyfriend. "Babe - I didn't know you watch Harry Potter?"

"I didn't after that," he answered with a frown.

I tried to compose my face. "How old were you?" I asked, unable to resist.

His frowned deepened. "Ten."

And the whole table was laughing again. The deep-cackles-that-make-your-gut-hurt kind. We were all in tears by the end of it, spaghetti sitting long forgotten on the table. It was safe to assume that whatever hostility had been going on between us all day was gone, and that - after revealing the spontaneous childhood secrets - things could finally return back to normal.

We were back.