Exits and Entrances

"Hey Guys." He shuved his hands into his pocket and waltz over to them.
"Hey," Tay replied gently. "You okay?"
Alex threw her a lazy grin, "Yeah. I'm fine."
"But Tay said that-"
"I'm fine Jack." The "I'll tell you later" look was shared between then as Jack agreed grudgingly.
"I can... Leave you?" Tay said hesidently, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"No, No! It's good, we're good." Alex said, sweeping his head to the side to move his fringe. Tay thought he looked good when he did that, and had to knock herself back into consciousness when she realised that she had been staring.
"I'm sorry, what?" She said, hoping she wasn't blushing at being caught however Jacks amused face and suggestive eyebrows indicated that he had noticed.
"I said are you coming this weekend?"
Tays eyebrows scrunched together. "Coming where?"
Alex laughed. "Weren't you listening at all Jardine?"
She smiled sheepishly, shaking her head. "Sorry."
"She was too busy staring at you." Jack chipped in helpfully.
"I wasn't staring," she said quickly.
"Yes you were! He flicked his hair and-"
"I wasn't staring!"
"Tay, I saw you-"
Alex laughed, "Guys shut the fuck up. I know I'm attractive but no need to fight."
"I wasn't staring," Tay muttered, refusing to make eye contact to the pink haired boy next to her.
"Anyway, getting back to the original question, are you coming this weekend?"
"I don't know, I've not been invited to anything." Tay replied casually , slipping her hands into the pockets of Alexs jumper.
"You're not invited unless you admit to staring- Oi! Alex!" Jack yelled, running the shoulder his best mates hand had just collided with.
"We're all going to Rians Saturday and then going to Oli's party in the evening. We'll crash back at Ri's."
Tay grinned, suprised she'd made good enough friends in the small space she'd been there.
"I don't know, it depends who's going to be there."
Jack butted in, slipping and arm over Tays shoulder. "Alex will be there, isn't that enough?" He teased.
"I don't know," she said back quickly. "Depends if I'm going to have to share him with his bum buddy over here." She winked cheekily.
Alex chuckled, pushing off Jacks arm and slipping between them.
"Quick Jardine. Very quick."
She laughed. "I try Barakat. I try."
"So will you come?!" Alex said, desperate for her to answer.
Tay shrugged, laughing at his pouring face. "I guess, who else will be there though? I'm not sure I'm ready to spend so long with just All Time Low on my own."
After a little prodding Tay found out that Cassadee would also be there, and Lisa and her friend Kate would possibly come down for a bit much to Jacks disgust.
"It's not that I hate Lisa. She just doesn't mush with us. And she hates my dick jokes."
So Tay willingly agreed to come, mentally going through her wardrobe and deciding that she would definitely need the help of the lovely Cassadee Pope. Around half way through the conversation Jack left, trailing off for a detention from Mr Kenton and leaving Tay and Alex on their own.
"So as I missed you this morning, can I drop you home today?" Alex said, sitting in the grassy floor of the field next to her.
"Alex," she laughed. "You don't even go through West End."
He shrugged. "And? It's no problem."
"Still trying to make a good impression on someone are you?"
He made a sheepish face, "They said that?"
"They didn't know that you offered to drive me at the time." She grinned, nudging his shoulder.
"Well there's this new girl, and she's pretty adorable and I'd like to get to her quite well."
Tay smiled. "Oh, I see. I think the new girl quite likes it here you know? She was really worried but this cute guy with pink hair has been really nice and she quite likes him."
"Maybe I should take this new girl out sometime?" He smirked at her.
Tay leant on her hands in her knees. "I think she'd quite like that."
"Depends if she'll let me drive her home I guess."
Tay laughed. "I'm pretty sure that she could be persuaded."
Alex grinned widely, he was finding it quite hard to believe that someone had walked into his life and became so good for him in such a small period of time. He offered her his hand and pulled her up before letting go.
"Come on, Kenton will kill me if I'm late."
Tay followed him, idly chatting about the school as they made their way to the main school block.
"So I'll meet you out the front after History."
Tay nodded, "You really don't have to Alex."
He rolled his eyes, "I'll meet you out here after history." He repeated, walking away from her. Tay smiled as she watched him walk away.
"So there's three of you? Are you sure?" Alex said, tapping along to the music on the steering wheel.
"Yes!" Tay laughed exasperated. "I'm a triplet, that means there's three of us!"
"But, you were all born at the same time...?"
Tay nodded, "that's what triplets are." She said sarcastically slow.
"So where are the others?"
"Lindsey is at some snobby boarding school and Devin wanted to finish in NYC."
"And you didn't?"
Tay shrugged uncomfortably, "I had some... Stuff going on that I needed to get away from."
"What kind of stuff?" He pressed gently.
"Nothing," she smiled at him emptily. "Nothing to worry about."
He raised his eyebrows but didn't press further.
"So what about you? What's an interesting fact about Alex Gaskarth?"
"Well I had my mothers womb all to myself," he said throwing her a cheeky smile. "But Umm... I was born in England."
She gaped slightly, sitting up straighter. "That's so cool! How long did you live there?"
"I moved when I was about 7."
She raised her eyebrows, "You sound really American considering you've spent that long in England."
He shrugged and threw her a wink. "I'll take that as a compliment." He said, pulling onto the pavement of the Hurleys house.
Tays hand gripped the door handle bit she turned back to speak to him. "Thanks Alex. Really."
"It's no problem, I like driving around." She rolled her eyes fondly and climbed out of the car, strolling towards the house.
"Oi Tay," Alex called out after here. "Make sure you warn the new girl about our little agreement."
Tay laughed, nodding. "Definitely." She waved to him.
Tays room in the Hurley household was rather bland and empty. The room contained the nessesary items such as a bed, a mirror, a hair dryer and one Green Day poster above her head. However Tay didn't really mind as the room was spacious enough to through her music stuff around the room and the bed felt like a cloud.
It was on said bed that Tay stared at her phone for a few minutes before deciding too call her Mother back after the 4 missed calls. She rolled onto her back, staring at Billie Joe Armstrongs face as the the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey Mom, it's Tay."
"Tay Darling! Hello, are you okay? How's the new school? Is everything okay at the Hurleys? Have you made some new friends?" Tay laughed, a smile spreading across her face at the voice.
"Slow down Mom, one question at a time."
"Oh, of course. Sorry sweetie. So is everything fine?"
"Everything's great, the Hurleys are lovely, the schools great. I'm really fine."
"I'm so glad! It's so strange not having you here."
"It's strange not being there!"
"So school, how was it? Have you made any friends?"
"Schools itself was fine. Some of the people are awful Mom, there was this one girl who told me to stop looking for my friends because I wasn't cool enough but Alex came along and then she's avoided me since."
"That was nice of Alice."
Tay laughed. "Alex, not Alice. He's this guy I met at the grill last week and he's at my school."
"Alex? As in a boy?"
"Yes," she rolled her eyes, "Alex is a boy. But I've also got girl friends don't worry. I have Cassadee and Lisa." Maybe saying Lisa and her were friends had been a bit loose.
Tay could hear her Mom sigh over the phone, "Okay darling. Just be careful. How's Cam doing?"
The mother and daughter idly chatted for a while longer before a delicate situation was brought up.
"So how's stuff at home?"
"The usual. Lindz wants to go on a school trip to LA for her film class, but I'm not sure we can afford it. Dev is working hard as usual, he got a girlfriends you know? Eliza, lovely pretty little thing."
Tay swallowed, "and how's Dad?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
"Mom?"
"Nothing Taylor. Nothing's changed."
"But nothing's worse?" Tay asked hopefully.
"But nothing's worse." Her mother said. "Tay I'm so sorry Darling, but I have to be at the hospital in 20 minutes."
"Sure Mom, I'll speak to you soon?"
"I'll speak to you soon. I love you." The line went dead.
"I love you too."