Taco Bell & Talyor Swift

Humming along quietly to the music playing from my laptop, which sat atop the coffee table that was in front of the comfy blue couch that stood in the middle of the living room, I dusted the picture frames that hung on the wall.

It was a quiet, rather dull Sunday afternoon, so I had decided to straighten up the house that I lived in with my cousin. After spending an hour in my room, sorting through old notes from my friends and various knick knacks, I had gotten restless, after making an even bigger mess of the room than it already was, and moved on to the living room.

Just as I picked up a pile of CDs that were sitting on the floor near the entertainment center, there was banging and shouting from the front door.

“Kim! Kim, hey, Kim! Lemme in! Kimmy!”

The sudden commotion caused me to flinch in surprise, which made me drop the CDs. They fell to the floor with a crash, several of them cracking, no doubt.

Cursing under my breath, I stepped over the mess and jogged to the front door. When I yanked open the door, I was greeted by a take-out bag from Taco Bell.

“I got your favorite,” Jordan sang as he swung the paper bag in my face. “Chipotle’s still better, though.”

“Don’t even try to start another debate about that. I’ve already proven Taco Bell wins, hands down, and don’t want to have to show you up twice.” I grinned teasingly before taking the bag from Jordan and ushering him into the house. “C’mon in.”

He wandered into the living room, sipping noisily from the large cup he was holding and nodding his head along with the song that my laptop was playing.

After closing the front door, I walked back into the living room, only to find Jordan singing along to Taylor Swift.

"You say that you’d take it all back, given once chance. It was a moment of weakness and you said yes.”

Joining in on the singing, I set the Taco Bell bag down on the coffee table and started dancing around goofily. Joran danced along with me and I’m sure we both looked ridiculous.

"You should’ve said no, baby, and you might still have me.”

As the song faded out and another one started up, I realized that Jordan was watching me with an odd look on his face. His brown eyes, which had an extra light behind them, were gazing down at me and there was a smile on his face - and not his usual cheeky grin. Instead, his mouth was set in a small, relaxed smile.

Confused and a little uncomfortable, I took a few steps away from him while chuckling nervously. “We should probably eat this before it gets cold,” I suggested as I reached for the Taco Bell bag.

“Yeah, we probably should,” he agreed, then gave one of his usual cheeky grins. “The only thing worse than hot Taco Bell is cold Taco Bell.”

“Oh hush, Taco Bell is delicious and you know it!” Plopping down on the floor by the coffee table, I peeked in the bag to see what Jordan brought me. “You got both of my favorites? What’s the special occasion?” I asked as I took out a hard shell taco and a nacho supreme.

Jordan ruffled my hair before he sat down next to me on the floor. “Just wanted to do something nice for Kimmy.”

I scowled and shooed Jordan’s hands away from my hair, my scowl deepening when I heard him laughing. Kimmy was a nickname that I absolutely hated and Jordan was well-aware of the hatred, yet he still chose to inflict me with the childish-sounding name. The only reason I didn’t punch him in the face for doing so was that...well, he was Jordan.

“You’re hilarious, Jordan, really,” I grumbled before popping a nacho in my mouth and crunching down on it. “I’m laughing on the inside.”

“Of course you are! No one can resist my witty charm.”

I tried to remain serious and unamused, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at the face Jordan was making; his eyes were crossed and his cheeks were puffed up while his tongue was poking out from the side of his mouth.

“You’re too goofy for your own good,” I said between deep breaths to calm my laughter.

Jordan shrugged in response while he took his meal of two soft shell tacos out of the bag.

Amicable chatter was exchanged while we ate with music still playing quietly from laptop in the background. In the middle of our discussion about the possibility of me doing something with TWLOHA during the upcoming summer’s Warped Tour, iTunes decided to embarrass the hell out of me.

"I’ll take you home if you don’t leave me at the front door.”

Jordan froze in the middle of a particularly large bite of his taco as I cleared my throat loudly and reached over to click the skip button on iTunes.

“Are you serious?” Jordan asked me.

“It’s a catchy song!” I argued and pointed an accusing finger at him. “We’ve all danced along to it at some point, even you.”

While I was defending my choice in music, Jordan had resumed his eating, so when he burst into laughter, I got an unpleasant view of chewed up taco.

“Close your mouth! That's gross!” I squealed while covering my eyes.

My girlish squeals made Jordan laugh even harder, so when he started sputtering and coughing, I wasn’t surprised.

“Serves you right for laughing at me and Metro Station,” I said matter-of-factly as I patted his back to help stop his choking.

“Eww! Close your mouth! That’s sooo gross, Jordan, ew!” he mimicked in an exaggerated teeny bopper voice whilst flailing his arms around crazily.

I tossed a tortilla chip at him and it hit his cheek before falling in his lap. So fast that I didn’t even have time to stop it, the chip pelted me in the neck.

“That could’ve sliced my jugular and I could have died!” I joked while clutching my neck. “You tried to kill me!”

“That happening is about as possible as Taco Bell ever being better than Chipotle.”

“You try to kill me, then you insult Taco Bell! You’re gonna get it now!”

I grabbed one of the decorative pillows that my cousin insisted on keeping on the couch and whacked Jordan with it. He remained unresponsive, aside from a surprised “omph” for a few moments, during which I stood by him with the pillow raised over my head, ready to attack again, if need be. In a split second, Jordan snatched up another one of the pillows and swung at me.

“I’m gonna get you, Kimmy!” he threatened as he chased me around the living room, swinging his pillow like a madman and missing me every time

“You’ll have to find me first!” I laughed and ran into the kitchen to hide from Jordan and his crazy pillow swinging. To camouflage myself and get a chance to catch my breath, I hid behind the pantry door. It was quiet - a bit too quiet - and I started to wonder what Jordan was doing.

“Boo!” he yelled right in my ear, causing me to jump and squeak. “I found you.”

“And scared me half to death,” I added before breathing deeply to calm my racing heart.

“Yeah, well, just to let you know, you suck at hide and seek.”

“I doubt you’re much better,” I shot back quickly, sticking my tongue out at him. “It’s almost impossible not to see you; you’re so damn tall.”

“Oh, low blow!” Jordan cried out, covering his face with his hands and pretending to sob. “I can’t believe you said that, Kimmy. You know how sensitive I am!”

I expected him to stop faux sobbing and and continue to swing pillows around like a coordination-lacking fool, but his loud cries didn’t cease. When I didn’t do or say anything to stop his crying, he peeked at me through his fingers, most likely to find out if I was even still in the room with him.

“While you stand here and pretend to cry, I’m going to go finish up my food,” I told him before turning to leave the room.

“Aw, Kimmy, you’re no fun!” he complained as he chased after me. “I couldn’t even get a hug?”

As we got closer to my laptop, I could hear one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs playing, so I reached down to turn up the volume before holding out my hand to Jordan. “I’ll offer you something even better. Dance with me?”

He grinned, taking hold of my offered hand, and pulled me close. “You know I can’t say no to you or Taylor.”

As Taylor crooned, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. Usually, it was difficult for me to find a dance partner who wasn’t the same height as me or, in some cases, shorter than me, but Jordan’s impressive height of 6’5 made him the perfect size for me to be able to rest my head on his chest.

While we stood in the middle of the room, swaying to the music, I came to the realization that this moment was damn near perfect. Jordan was my best friend and one of the most important people in my life, but I had always had a tiny voice in the back of my head telling that maybe he was even more than that. And then there were times like these that made me question just how far our relationship was supposed to go. Were we just supposed to be best friends who slow-danced to cute, romantic Taylor Swift songs or were we supposed to be more?

“Hey Jordan,” I said quietly as I lifted my head from his chest to look up at him. “Do you...um, nevermind.”

Feeling my cheeks heat up, I rested my head on Jordan’s chest again and resisted the urge to kick myself for being afraid to bring up my thoughts and questions to him. I was acting as though he was going to bite my head off if I told him that I was questioning whether or not we could be more than best friends.

We could be more than best friends, in my opinion.

“Hey Kimmy,” Jordan murmured. “I’ve been thinking about some stuff lately...”

Intrigued, I lifted my head from his chest and looked up at him once again. “Oh yeah, what kind of stuff?”

“Stuff and about me and...this girl I know. She’s a friend of mine, but a lot of the time I’m wishing that we could be more than friends, y’know? I don’t know if she feels the same way, so I don’t want to ruin what we already have by telling her and finding out that she doesn’t feel the same way...but I really want to tell her. What do you think I should do?”

My breath caught in my throat and my heartbeat sped up. I desperately hoped that Jordan and I were thinking about the same relationship - ours. To know that my feelings and thoughts were being shared with him would be perfect.

“I think that you should make a move. Show her how you feel,” I advised, hoping that what I said wasn’t going to backfire on me and make Jordan go run after another a girl.

He didn’t go run after another girl because, as it turns out, the girl he was talking about was already in his arms. Taking advantage of that fact, Jordan pressed his lips against mine. The sensation of having his lips on mine felt like Christmas and Fourth of July combined; I felt warm and fuzzy and there was fireworks going off inside of me.

When we pulled away, Jordan rested his forehead against mine and grinned. “So, Kimmy, please don’t be in love with someone else...”

“You’re such a cheeseball!” I laughed and stuck my tongue out at him. “But what the hell, we’ll be cheeseballs together. I was enchanted to meet you, Jordan.”

Jordan’s smile grew as he leaned in to kiss me again.