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Hurricane
skeleton boy by the side of the road
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"Let’s go." He said as he grabbed his sunglasses and an old beat up baseball cap off the table by the door and stepped out into the hall. I actually had to hurry to catch up with Taylor ‘cause he was practically jogging down the hall to the elevators and I had a huge bag of very fragrant clothing to lug.
"You know, putting on your sunglasses inside will do nothing to help you remain anonymous." I said as I entered the elevator.
"Probably not," he said pulling them off and hanging them off one of his many necklaces. "So, really, what were you and Ike doing?"
"None of your business." I said quickly looking away.
"Cleo, why can’t you look me in the eyes?" Taylor asked.
"I can." I said looking at a spot between his eyes. "Why can’t you look me in the eyes. You see they are here on either side of my nose, not below it and these, these are my nipples!" I said pointing to my chest.
"Whatever. Just answer the question."
"No." I said still not looking directly at him. Suddenly, the elevator stopped. My head shot up as I looked over at him with his finger on the stop button.
"That is not an acceptable answer." Taylor said. "Last night after you bolted, I sat there and thought about lots of things."
"Yeah, I’ll bet you had to sit there."
"Cleo don’t be crude. I’m trying to make a serious point here and you’re acting like you want to have a belching contest with Zac." Tay said catching my meaning.
"Sorry," I said rolling my eyes. "Go on, please."
"Okay, as I was saying, while I was sitting there, I came to the conclusion, no matter what, I was not going to allow you to retreat from me again."
"What? What are you even talking about?"
"You don’t talk to me, ‘cause I allow you to be silent. Whenever I ask you a question, you just shrug an answer. From now on, I’m not going to accept it." I glared at him and moved toward the control panel, I was not going to be held hostage in an elevator. And I was not going to answer any question from him. He grabbed me around the waist and pushed me back against the wall of the elevator, he had his leg between my thighs, basically pinning me back. "You will talk to me. You will answer my question before we get out of the elevator."
"I will never answer your question." I said pushing him.
"Oh, yes you will." He said digging his fingers into my sides. I was so ticklish I was practically in convulsions. "I have vays of making you talk." He said in a cheesy German accent as he grabbed my thigh, which he knew was so ticklish I would do almost anything to stop him.
"Stop it! That is so not fair! Tay, I’m warning you! You don’t want to take me on," I said trying to sound threatening as I laughed hysterically. I pushed him away as hard as I could, but he hardly even moved. But really, I was laughing so hard and wiggling so much it was fairly hard to get any strength. "I’m still pretty tough and well, if I remember correctly, I always kicked your ass at full-contact tackle tag."
"Yeah, well, I’m not 11 anymore." He answered not moving an inch despite how hard I was pushing. I even tried to trip him by wrapping my leg around his knees.
"What, are you gonna go all medieval on me like Jarrod?" I said pushing with all my might. He finally lost his balance and began to fall over, but somehow he got his arms around me and pulled me down with him. I thought I was so tough and yet, he had me pinned on my back in a few seconds with both my hands pinned back.
"Tell me, what were you and Ike doing this morning?" He asked again laughing in my face. Both of us were breathing heavily as I struggled against him.
"We were screwing. Is that what you want to hear?" I said. I felt his grasp loosen slightly and I pulled my hands away from him.
"Well, yes. If that’s what you were doing." He said not moving back. He was so close to me I could feel his breath on my cheek. I could feel the weight of his body suspended on his knees and elbows above me although he wasn’t touching me at all.
"Well, don’t worry it wasn’t what we were doing." I said putting both my hands of his chest. "Get off me! Or are you purposely trying to piss me off?"
"I don’t want to make you mad, I just want to get your attention, get you to talk to me. And I’d rather not push you out of a tree house this time." He said sitting back and leaning against the wall of the elevator. I sat up and pushed on him, he gently reached over and tucked my hair that had escaped my barrette behind my ear.
"I would prefer not having any more broken limbs."
"So, what were you two doing?" He said standing up and grabbing my hand to haul me back up to my feet.
"You’re not going to give up are you?" He shook his head, how could I answer this question? "We were... we were mostly just talking, really. Talking about Emory, she’s coming to Mobile the day after tomorrow."
"Cool, Ike must be happy." Taylor said after he pulled out the stop button and the elevator rumbled to life. We both watched as the elevator made it’s way to the first floor. "Okay, are you ready?" Tay asked as the doors slid open.
"As ready as I’ll ever be." I said quietly. I reached out and grabbed his and as the elevator doors slid open. "Do you think they’ll notice you?"
As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, the girls out in front of the hotel began to scream. "Um, yeah, I do."
"Man, they must have some sort of Hanson radar." I said laughing as the girls in the lobby all jumped up and rushed over towards us. I continued toward the front desk, but he stopped and wouldn’t let go of my hand. "Tay, I need to take the laundry to the front desk."
"No," he whispered in my ear, slinging his arm around my neck, "stay with me, please?" And then the girls descended. This was the first time I was in the eye of the storm that is Jordan Taylor Hanson’s life. Usually, I’m able to stand far enough away, to walk enough steps behind I’m not one of the central characters to the craziness. It was semi-scary to see all the hands reaching out and definitely confusing to hear so many girls talking at once, each of them demanding attention. He smiled graciously and tried to look at each camera. He answered as many questions as he could. He explained he couldn’t sign anything, not without Zac and Isaac there (and definitely not with the death grip he had on my hand). Then when he thought he’d had enough, he told them that he had to go ‘cause we were on the way to breakfast. He asked if they were going to the show in a couple days. All the girls answered and he said, "Well, I’ll see you there." And with that, he turned around and we continued toward the front desk. I could still hear the girls outside yelling and occasionally shrieking in what sounded like pain.
"Tay, it doesn’t matter how many times I go somewhere with you, I’ll never get used to the screaming." I said as I set my bag of dry cleaning on the counter. The desk clerk quickly pulled it down and had me sign a receipt.
"Okay, this should be back tomorrow," the young girl began. "Do you want us to bring it up to you or do you want to come down and pick it up?"
"Oh, I can come get it." I said.
"Okay," she said marking something on the work order. "Um... can I ask you a quick question?"
"Sure," I said my eyebrows pulling together.
"Actually, Taylor, can I ask you for an autograph?" She said looking very embarrassed and turning a bright pink. "It’s not for me, it’s for my little sister."
"Sure, who should I make it out to?" Taylor said as he took the pen from her.
"Julia." She said then noticed me looking at her badge, which very clearly said: Julia. "Man, I am so embarrassed, I don’t know why I just said that. It’s for me."
"Cool," Taylor said as he quickly wrote something inane and signed his name. "You coming to the show?"
"No, it sold out before I could get through to Ticketmaster," she said taking the pen and the autograph and putting them in her purse. "I really wanted to but..."
"Well, Julia, you just happen to be talking to someone who can not only get you tickets, but really good tickets."
"You can get me tickets?" She asked her eyes aglow.
"No, I can’t, but Cleo can." He said pointing to me.
"Oh yeah, I can get you really, really good seats. Just come up to the room later and let me know how many tickets and passes to the meet and greet you want." I said smiling. I leaned over the counter and whispered. "Also, if you want your own private concert, come up in about 3 hours and they’ll be practicing in the room."
"Really, you’d let me come up?" She asked her eyes getting huge.
"Of course, but you have to promise to be mellow and to blend in with the furniture, do you think you can do that?" Taylor asked. She shook her head, her eyes growing wide. "Hey, where could we go that is really close to get some good coffee?"
"Well, there’s Cool Beans about a block away to the south or a block that way," she said uncertainly pointing out the front doors of the hotel. "But how are you going to get out with the crowd watching you?"
"Is there a back door on this floor?" He asked.
"Of course, at the end of each hallway there are exits, but..."
"Shh, we’re leaving, but don’t tell anyone where we’re going." He said as he grabbed my hand again and started towards one of the hallways.
"Tay, I don’t know if it’s such a good idea for us to go out without Jason or someone knowing where we are." I said pulling back on his hand.
"No, I’ve done this before. All the girls are so focused on the elevators they won’t even notice us." He said beginning to run and dragging me behind. We burst through a side door of the hotel and basically sprinted across the parking lot.
"The girl in the hotel said the coffee shop was down a block from the front doors of the hotel, so if we go down this block and turn left at the next corner, we should be there in no time." He said as we both stood trying to get our breath back. It was a fairly hot day and that little run had really taken a lot of effort.
"When have you done this before?" I asked as we wandered down a quaint little street lined with fun shops.
"Remember Kate?" He asked. Ah yes, Kate. Kate had been the girl he had met on the last tour; she had been quite interesting to say the least. Short with blonde hair and blue eyes and the meanest tongue in captivity. I remember when I went to the final US show in Norman, OK how she’d let me know in no uncertain terms she did not like me and I could just keep my grubby hands off of her boyfriend. Not that I could get close enough to him to touch with Jarrod sticking to me like glue the entire night. Boy, do I remember that night. It’s the night Jarrod threw me down the stairs when we got home for making eyes at Taylor. "Well, on the last tour, we would sneak out in almost every city and go shopping or for coffee or something random."
"Man,
you are definitely lucky to still be alive." I said as we strolled along
looking in the windows of the little shops. For the next hour, we wandered
in and out of little boutiques. So far, Taylor had bought several necklaces
and bracelets for himself and 5 little silver rings for me. I’d gotten
my Tragus pierced (the little flap of skin on the ear right in front of
the opening of the ear). We now stood in front of an open-air tattoo parlor
contemplating the possibility of a tattoo. I wondered why Taylor and I
had never done anything just the two of us, ‘cause I was having so much
fun with him.
"So,
if you were going to get a tattoo, what would it be?" I asked as he flipped
through the book showing pictures of the tattoo artists’ work.
"I don’t know, maybe a Hanson logo on my left arm..." He said pointing to a particularly disgusting photo. Really, I cannot believe any woman would want a tattoo where this woman was tattooed, but then again she had also pierced her clitoris, so it really wasn’t that big a shocker. "What about you?"
"Hmm… Probably a Hanson logo, right on my ass." I said trying to keep a straight face.
"Great idea!" He said putting his arm around my neck and pulling me away from the front of the studio. "And on our next album, we can put you in a g-string and put your butt on the cover. We could call it "Cleo Burton’s ass." You know in the tradition of Bette Davis eyes."
"Well, I don’t know. My ass is so pretty no one would even look at you again." I said wrapping my arms around his waist. This felt so good, why had I never done it before. He was the perfect height for me to put my arms around.
"Let’s go in here," he said stopping in front of funky thrift store. If there was one thing I can say about Taylor, it is: the boy knows how to shop. He shops like someone who has never had to ever worry about money. He wasn’t totally irresponsible, but his theory was if he wanted it, then why shouldn’t he have it. He had earned his own money and he spent it how he saw fit. He had picked out about 20 shirts and 4 pairs of pants for himself and had grabbed about 10 dresses and skirts for me. He pulled me into a dressing room and we proceeded to try on everything.
"So, have you ever been in love?" I asked as I pulled a hideous polyester shift dress that had been so popular in the early 80’s (you know the one, the one that Diane Von Furstenburg had designed and it only looked good on really, really skinny women with no breasts?). "I mean: Did you love Kate?"
"No, not really. She was really fun and funny, but I didn’t love her."
"So, you didn’t love Kate, but have you ever been in love?"
"Well, I love lots of things, so first you must define love for me." He said rifling through a stack of very cool, but very polyester shirts. "Do you mean romantic love or just run of the mill glad to see you love?"
"Romantic love. Has there ever been someone you’d die for? Have you ever had one person you thought you’d go crazy if you didn’t hear their voice right that minute?" I asked, watching as he pulled on an impossibly tight pair of bell-bottoms. "Have you ever wanted to be near someone so bad your skin crawled?"
He held up a "Hanson Sucks" t-shirt. "Yes." He answered after what felt like a long time. I mean, he had tried on at least 4 shirts while thinking about how to answer.
"Oh man, you’ve got to get that!" I said as he threw the "Hanson Sucks" t-shirt on the keep pile (which I might add all the clothes he’d brought into the dressing room were in that pile). "Now who have you been in love with? No, no, don’t tell me; let me guess, Marcy McGrady? Ella Williams? Kesh? Ashley?" He shook his head at each name; I really had no idea who it could be. "Who?"
"You really don’t know, do you?" I shook my head. "Zac told you yesterday, weren’t you listening."
"Zac said lots of things yesterday I didn’t want to hear." I said as I pulled off a barely there plaid mini-skirt and handed it to him. He added it to the pile of clothing we were going to get.
"You."
"What about me?" I asked pulling my cut-offs back on.
"Cleo, I know for a fact you’re not stupid. And I told you last night in the bus." He said shaking his head and moving away from me his arms full of clothing. "It’s you. I’m in love with you."
"Taylor, whatever it is you feel for me, it isn’t love." I said as I followed him through the store toward the cashier. "You cannot possibly be in love with me."
"Why not?" He asked as we deposited a huge pile of clothes on the counter. He pulled out his wallet and handed the cashier his credit card as she rang up the sale. "Why is it so impossible that I’m in love with you?"
"Because..." I stood there unable to think of any good reason, other than he was so perfect. Too perfect. "Because..."
"Now that’s a good argument." He said taking the bags of clothing off the counter and grabbing my hand again. "It’s okay. I’ve loved you for as long as both Zac and Ike."
"Why didn’t I ever know this?" I asked as he pulled me along the street towards the coffee shop that had been our original destination. "I always knew how Isaac and Zachary felt about me, but never you."
"Maybe it’s because they love you like they love Jess, Avie and Zo. And that kind of love is easy to confess, but they aren’t truly in love with you."
"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked my eyes narrowing.
"Because, now is the time. I’ve decided I’m tired of waiting for you to notice me, so I thought maybe I’d take things in hand." He said grabbing his double tall cappuccino off the counter and my frozen Mochaccino. "We’d better head back to the hotel. I’ve found 90 minutes is about the longest I can stay away without anyone noticing."
"Oh, okay." I said as he led me up the block toward the front of the hotel. I guess I should have been thinking about what he’d just confessed to me (boy, was he full of confessions the last couple of days). But for the life of me the only thing I was thinking was how badly the group of girls in front of the hotel could hurt me. As we got nearer, I stopped short. "Tay, we can’t go back in through the front doors."
"Why not?" He said smiling. "They won’t know it’s me until we get through the doors. I promise." I smiled back, but didn’t really believe him. But, true to his word, we managed to push our way through the crowd and were at the front doors before any of the girls began shrieking. Once the screaming started, we took off running for the elevators ‘cause one was open and if we could get in it, then we were home free. We both skidded in just as the doors began to shut. He turned to me and smiled the most heartrendingly perfect smile, his blue eyes sparkling, his nose crinkled. "See, I told you I’m an expert at escape. Did you at least have fun?"
"That was so much fun, probably the most fun I’ve had since we left Tulsa." I said smiling back, basking in the glow of his smile. The next words out of my mouth, I really can’t tell you where they came from or why I couldn’t stop them, but much like the force of a storm, I was powerless before them. And, if I had known the heartbreak those five little words would bring me, then maybe I would have bit my tongue. But, I didn’t. "Taylor, I love you, too."
And really, I did.