Merry Go 'Round

The morning before my trip to the city I must have changed my dress a million times. I just couldn't pick anything out that I liked. I really wanted to wear the pants and t-shirt I had hidden in my closet. My brother had got them for me the one and only time he came to visit after he moved away. I guess I forgot to mention I had a brother. He had all the same traits as me except I had blonde hair and he had light brown hair.

Anyway he gave them to me and told me that they were in style in the city. I could never wear them to school though, it would cause a great controversy. I stared at the dresses on my bed, standing there in my bra and underwear. I looked into the mirror wishing I had something a little more sexy. I had on a plain tan bra and those boy short underwear. I guess they would have to work, I mean it wasn't like I planned on anyone taking my clothes off, but it would still be nice to feel sexy.

I turned my attention back to the dress's and decided on my yellow summer dress. It was the lowest one I had, and I had begged my mother to let me have it. It showed a reasonable amount of cleavage. I tied the shiny ribbon behind my back then looked in the mirror. I had decided to let my hair curly naturally. It was all over the place in kinky blonde curls. My cheeks were rosy with excitement and my green eyes were alight with mischief.

I ran my hands over my dress before I grabbed my bag and walked out of my room. My mother was sitting in a chair drinking tea. She never drank coffee because it was unladylike, but I had tried it a few times and it was my favorite. She looked up from the cup and let her eyes drift over her daughter.

"What is the occasion?" she asked, raising her eye brows.

"Nothing, I am just going to Jessie's house after school, but I told you that already." I give her a quick smile before looking away.

"That is quite a fancy dress to be just going to Jessica's house." She noted, sipping at the tea. I just shrugged and headed towards the door.

"Yeah well that's it. I need some girl time." I say reaching for the door nob, "Bye mamma, love you." I all but ran out of the door. I decided to walk to school instead of driving my old baby blue mustang because I didn't want to leave it at school over night. It was only about a mile away anyway.

When I got to school I went strait to my first period class. Every one was already in their seats and the bell rang right as I walked through the door.

"Just on time, Miss Holbrooke, please take a seat." Mr Kenith told me, his old wrinkled eyes narrowed as I walked towards my normal seat. I slid into it and Mr. Kenith began to talk in his droning voice.

"You look very nice today." A voice whispered in my ear. I jumped a little, my heart racing. I turned to see Tyler behind me. I blushed and smiled,

"Thanks." I whispered back, turning around to face the teacher. As I was turning around I caught sight of Kale's face. His expression was neutral, but his eyes burned with anger and something else, could it be jealousy? I looked away from him focusing on the teacher.

The day dragged by slowly. Finally the end of the day rolled around. I jumped out of my seat excitedly and hurried out the door. Tyler was already waiting for me, leaning against the door frame casually. The butterflies fluttered in my stomach again as he smiled at me.

"All set?" He asked as he started to walk towards the exit. I nodded, maybe a little too vigorously and he laughed, a deep throaty chuckle. As we walked out of the door together I swore I could feel eyes boring into my back. I turned to see Kale staring at me with the same expression as before. I gave him a small timid smile and shrugged as to say sorry before turning back around and walking out the door.

Tyler lead me out to his old white pick up and opened the door for me. I clambered up into it, almost falling as I did so. I blushed again, wishing I was more graceful.

When I was in the truck he shut my door and went around to the other side. He got in and started up the truck. We traveled in silence until we were out of town. I suddenly had the urge to tell him about me and Kale. he had to know, I had to give him the chance to run. I bit my lip worriedly. Tyler gave me a sideways glance.

"Ok what is on you mind?" He asked, turning his eyes back to the road.

"Oh nothing.." I tried to brush it off, but my voice shook.

"Taylor you are an open book, I can tell something is wrong with you. Now spill before I pull over." He told me

"Ugh fine. So by now you must have figured out our town was a little different." He just nodded, "So we are old school, girls aren't aloud to date, or wear pants. I mean there is no law against it, but these are the rules of the parents." I took a deep breath before continuing. "At the age of eighteen the kids are old enough to marry. So the parents arrange for their kids to be married. On any teen's seventeenth birthday we are introduced to the boy, or man, we will be marrying. Sometimes we know him and sometimes we don't." I stop and wait for him to reply. He just stared blankly out the windshield for a few moments before cracking a smile.

"So you are telling me that I have been fraternizing with a engaged woman?" he asked laughing. I smiled a little.

"Its not funny, and yeah I guess you have been."

"Well, who is it? Which ugly mug are you engaged to?" he asked, his smile fading away.

"Kale White." I whisper, looking at my hands.

"He is like the worst of them all!" he exclaimed, "Why would your parents choose him?" He asked. I could tell he was trying to be nice, but he was a little shocked.

"I don't know." I say.

"Well you will be eighteen, you can just leave, right?" he asked, "There is no rule against you leaving."

"I could leave, but they are my parents, and I don't know if I can go the rest of my life being ignored by them. My brother left when he was eighteen. He came back once to visit and I was the only person that talked to him. He wasn't even aloud to stay in our house, he slept in his car." I bit my lip, tears coming to my eyes.

"If they think they are doing right by doing this to you then they are crazy, and you shouldn't mind never seeing them again." he growled. I could tell that he was angry now.

"Look, lets just forget about it." I mumbled, trying to keep the tears out of my voice. I glanced out the window as a few fell.

The truck began to slow down as he pulled it off to the side of the road. Before I could ask what he was doing he unbuckled my seat belt and pulled me over the seat until I was sitting on his lap, my head on his shoulder. I didn't complain, I just buried my face into his shirt.

"What do you want?" He asked me quietly. I wanted so badly to say you, but that would be the most cheesy and cliche thing in the world.

"I want to have the freedom to date and marry who I want." I told him, the words muffled by his shirt.

"That is all I need to hear then." He told me. I lifted my face from his shoulder to ask him what he was talking about and his lips were on mine.

I had never kissed anyone before, nor had I wanted to kiss anyone until Tyler came along, then I wanted to kiss him almost every day. I had let my imagination run wild sometimes when I thought of kissing him, and let me tell you, this was ten times better then in my imagination. I lifted my hands, placing one on either side of his neck, kissing him back.

I broke away first, gasping for air. He placed his forehead against mine and cracked on of his smiles.

"I have wanted to do that since I first met you." he told me, his eyes looking into mine. I just looked back at him, my arms still around his neck, I didn't want to move them. He lifted his hand placing it on the side of my face, his thumb traced the edge of my lips and I closed my eyes, lips parting.

"You have no idea how bad I have wanted you to do that." I whispered. I opened my eyes to see that his smile had broadened.

"I think," he started looking at me with those eyes, "That we'd better get back on the road before someone stops and asks us what is wrong." He pressed his lips to mine one more time, just a quick peck before sliding me off his lap back onto the seat of the truck. I didn't bother moving back over to the passenger seat, I just buckled my self into the middle seat. Tyler pulled back onto the road and we drove in silence for a moment. He was the one to break it.

"So wait if your not aloud to date, then what do your parents think you are doing tonight?" He asked quizzically.

"Staying at a friends house. I even cleared it with my friend.." I smiled at my cover story, "Now I just need a place to sleep for the night." I told him.

"Well you can stay at my place. I can sleep on the couch, or the floor." He suggested and I smiled.

"Sounds good to me!" I replied, a little giddily.

The rest of the trip to the city was quiet. He played a little bit of ACDC, something I had never heard before, and I loved it. When we were a few minutes out we came over a hill and I got my first sighting of the city. It was huge, unlike anything I had ever seen. The sun had gone down about 10 minutes ago so I could see all the bright lights. I sat in awe, staring at the buildings. Everything was so big. The biggest building we had back home was the school, closely followed by the chapel.

"Its pretty amazing, huh?" Tyler asked, breaking the silence. I turned to him, noticing that his eyes were on me. I wondered how long he had been looking at me.

"Yeah, its beautiful." I told him, my eyes wide as I turned back to the view, trying to take it all in at once. I thought the country was beautiful, but this was beautiful on a whole new level.

We drove through the town until we reached a little shopping center. He pulled into the parking lot and parked by a building that said 'Panda Express' I looked at him curiously.

"So I am guessing you have never had Chinese food or fast food where you live. So I am combining both and taking you the god of all fast food restaurants." He told me turning off the car. I smiled at him. He was right I had never had either of those things.

He opened his door and hopped out, offering his hand for me. I slid over int the seat and took his hand. I jumped from the cab, landing on my feet next to Tyler.

"Ready?" He asked, shutting the door behind me then taking my hand. I nodded and we headed into the building.

About forty minutes later we left, I was so stuffed. The food had been amazing and they had served so much of it. I hadn't understood how Tyler had eaten all of his when I could only finish about half of mine. We climbed back in the truck and headed further into the town. Tyler stopped at a park. It was totally deserted except for a few stray cats. We climbed out of the car again and he took my hand as we walked through the park.

"Oh my gosh, swings!" I exclaimed dropping his hand and running over to the swing set. I hadn't been on a swing in years, and they were my favorite. I sat down on one and pushed off, pumping my legs. Tyler walked over slowly and stood on the ground by the other swing.

"So I take it you like swings?" He asks, a smile in his voice.

"Yes, they are my favorite." I tell him. He sat down on the swing next to mine while I just swung back and forth for what seemed like forever. Finally he stood up and walked to stand behind me. When I swung backwards towards him he grabbed onto the chains and jerked me to a stop. I stayed in my seat, but barely.

"Hey." I complained turning my head to look at him. He smiled and spun me around so I was facing him.

"Your so cute." he told me, leaning in close to kiss me again. I met him half way, not letting go of the chains for fear of falling. I lost myself in the kiss, wrapping my legs around his waist. He grabbed my fingers, making me let go of the swing so he was just holding me now, his hands on my waist. I placed both of my hands flat on his chest, marveling at the hardness of it. He broke away this time, and looked at me, his eyes alight with something I had never seen before. I smiled at him as we both tried to catch our breath. Even after we caught our breath he didn't put me down he just continued to hold onto me and look at me wonderingly. I blushed, something about the way he looked at me made me do that a lot.

"Um we should probably start heading back home." I mumbled, stumbling over the words. He laughed, putting me down.

"I guess so." Tyler ran his fingers through his hair and then reached down and took my hand. We walked back to the truck. I sat in the middle seat again because I didn't want to put any space between us. I laid my head on his shoulder as he started the drive back home.