Entry tags:

happiness is

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Found & Gagged

Plaything

Title: Found & Gagged (28/??)
Author: so_jayded
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2100
Genre: Hancest



Taylor

After Jill left me at the pinball machine, I played for an hour or so - I usually lost track of time when I was playing - until someone tapped my shoulder. I glanced over my shoulder and stopped playing, shocked. "Ben!" I said, reaching over and clapping him on the back. "It's been forever."

"Yeah," he said, nodding. "Finally graduated. Came back home for a while, you know? Till I find a job and a place somewhere more interesting."

I nodded and leaned against the pinball machine, sipping my beer and listening to Ben chatter about how school had been. He'd gone to the University of Colorado four years ago and we'd lost touch when he moved, so it was nice to be able to hear from him again. We'd been good friends for years, but the distance combined with the strain mine and Zac's relationship had put on our friendship was too much and we hadn't talked.

"So are you and Zac still...?"

I nodded and set my beer down. "Yeah. Ten years on Saturday."

"Oh," he said, scratching his chin. "It's really been that long?"

"How about you? Anyone special?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Still waiting for you to see the light, Hanson," he joked and squeezed my shoulder.

I shook my head and offered him a quarter. "Play a game with me?"

"What's the point? You'll kick my ass. I haven't had much time for pinball, what with all the real work I've been doing."

I pouted. "Please? It's boring to play alone when someone's around that'll play with me."

Ben sighed and nodded, taking the quarter from me. "One game, but then I gotta go. I'm having a party."

"What're you doing here, then?" I asked as he stuck the quarter into the machine and launched the ball.

He bit his lip in concentration and I followed the ball with my eyes. "Party starts at like one. I was heading home when I saw you over here." He slapped the button on the right side and the ball flew back up. "Wanna come over?"

"That'd be great," I replied, laughing when he missed and the pinball drained. "We haven't talked in, like, years."

He checked his watch. "You wanna head out?"

I nodded and finished my beer before following him out of LuLu's.

***

By the time I pried myself away from talking to Ben, I was stumbling into the bathroom to splash water on my face. I went into my bag to get some gum and my phone was blinking at me like crazy, so I checked it blearily. The battery was dying, and I had thirty-seven missed calls. All from Zac. Once I cleared the missed calls, I checked the time and almost choked. I was only supposed to be gone for a few hours and it was four thirty. I killed the battery calling a cab (since I could barely stand up, I didn't trust myself to drive home) and went out to say a hurried goodbye to Ben.

He gave me a quick hug and walked me out to my taxi, and then I was on my way back to the apartment.

The elevator was working for once, and I was so glad, because I probably would've curled up in a ball at the bottom of the stairs and slept there if it wasn't, because I couldn't have walked up the stairs if I wanted to. I would've tripped over myself and died. So I pressed the button hard, rapidly, until the elevator dinged and the door opened. I stabbed the button for the fifth floor and groaned when the elevator started moving - it didn't exactly agree with my stomach.

I stumbled out at the fifth floor and fumbled with my keys trying to figure out which one was supposed to go into the door. Once I finally managed to get it unlocked, I shoved against it so hard that I fell into the foyer and cracked my head on the floor. "Fu-uck," I groaned, grabbing my head and scrambling up onto my knees.

I heard Zac running across the floor and then he was in front of me, kissing me everywhere he could reach. "Oh my God," he said, over and over, running his hands down my arms and up my back, and checking me for damage or something. "God, you're alive. I was so worried. Oh-" He kissed me again, this time on the lips. "Oh, God, where were you?"

"I ran into Ben," I murmured, rubbing the bump that was developing on my head. "He was having a party."

"Why didn't you call me? Answer my calls?" He was still touching me everywhere, like he wasn't sure I was really there.

I leaned forward and rested my forehead against his shoulder, wincing a little when the bump on my head hit his collarbone. "The music was loud. I didn't hear the phone. And I guess I wasn't even. I'm. Pretty drunk."

He sighed and gathered me up into his arms. "Ben's back, then?" he asked, sounding a little apprehensive.

I nodded. "Mmmhmm. Graduated."

"There were. There were other people there, right?"

I nodded again, yawning against his shoulder. "Lisa and Richie and Bob and some people I didn't know." I shifted in his lap. "I'm tired, babe... Can we go to bed?"

"Did you drive home?" he asked me as he stood up. Instead of helping me up, he lifted me into his arms, which was slightly embarrassing because he never used to be able to do that. I clutched onto his neck, a little dizzy. He didn't feel too steady on his feet, and I was afraid he was going to drop me or hurt himself or something.

I shook my head. "Gotta get my car tomorrow. Took a cab."

"Did you remember to pay?" he asked as we went by the living room. Isaac was on the floor gathering up Candy Land and I wondered if maybe I'd passed out at Ben's and this was all some sort of messed up dream.

"Why is Isaac here?" I asked, craning my neck to look into the living room. "Is Tabby here?" I tried to get down, but he clutched onto my knees tighter.

"Tay, she's asleep and you're drunk, OK? You're gonna go to bed. You don't want her to see you like this. She'll think something's wrong."

I sighed against his shoulder. "She gonna be here in the morning?" I asked.

He shrugged as best as he could. "I don't know. If Ike doesn't want to wake her up, then yeah."

"I love you," I murmured against his neck. "Wanna touch you."

Zac kicked open the door to our bedroom and set me down on the bed. I grabbed his collar before he could straighten up, though, and pulled him down on top of me. "Tay?" he asked, looking down at me, sort of confused.

"You told me you wanted to spend some time with me in this," I whispered, wrapping my legs around his and lacing my fingers through his hair. "Ike knows how to pull out the couch..."

He laughed and shook his head. "You're drunk, Tay."

"So? I can still make decisions. And I want you."

He looked down at me for a minute and I pouted, looking up at him and thinking about how much I wanted him naked right at that moment. "Lemme close the door," he mumbled, scrambling up and across the room. "Don't you dare move an inch."

***

"Uncle Tay! Zac!" Tabby had burst through the door at nine in the morning and I groaned, hiding my head in the crook of Zac's neck before I realized we hadn't gotten dressed the night before. I clutched the blanket around my waist tightly, yanked it up almost to my armpits, and peeked one eye open.

"What's up, Tabby, baby?" I asked groggily.

"Daddy says it's time to wake up! He maked pancakes!" She jumped on the bed excitedly, grinning in her nightgown and then collapsing on top of Zac and me. Zac groaned into the pillow. "Uncle Za-ac," she whined, smacking his leg through the blanket. "Wake up!"

"Why don't you go wait in the kitchen, Tabs? Uncle Zac and me will be out in a couple minutes, OK? We have to get dressed and brush our teeth."

She nodded and climbed off the bed. "Hurry or they'll get a-cold," she reminded me, closing the door with a slam and racing down the hall to the kitchen.

Zac laughed into his pillow next to me and I kissed his hair. "C'mon. Apparently Isaac made us breakfast." I kicked the blanket off and stretched.

He reached over and ran his hand down my spine. "I love you," he said. "I found a few places we could look at today, if you're feeling up to it."

I nodded and pulled out a pair of sweatpants. The bed rustled as Zac got up and came over to pull his own pair of sweats out. He gently tugged on my ponytail after we'd both put our pants on. "Hey, are you OK? You're awful quiet this morning."

I yawned and squeezed one of his hands. "A little hungover, I think. Nothing a few Tylenol won't cure. Plus, I'm anxious to see these places you picked out."

"I printed out the information for you. If you don't like them, we don't have to go." Zac ducked into the bathroom and I wandered down the hall, into the kitchen.

"I told you we'd only be a minute, Tabs," I said, lifting her up and kissing her hair. "You helping Daddy cook?"

She nodded against my shoulder and then jumped down, scurrying back to the table where she was setting out plates carefully. "What're you guys doing here?" I asked Isaac, stealing a piece of toast from the plate by the toaster.

"Zac called last night, frantic because you weren't home. We decided he needed company."

I nodded and sighed. "Accident. I didn't mean to stay out that late. Ben got back from school last week, and he was at LuLu's, and so we went back to his place... caught up, you know? It's been years since we talked."

Isaac 'mmm'd and went back to flipping pancakes. "There's some stuff for you over there," he told me, motioning with the spatula. "Stuff about houses. Are you guys going to finally buy a place?"

"Jill said we should," I replied, gathering up the papers stacked neatly on the counter with my name scrawled at the top. "Where you live is apparently really important, and I guess an apartment downtown won't look as good for me as a house in the 'burbs, so..." I waved the papers. "We're starting a house-hunt today."

I sat down at the table with the papers and flipped through them, checking off pros and crossing off cons on every listing. When Zac ambled in, I'd already had my heart set on one of the four because it looked perfect for us. It was set back on a large piece of land, surrounded by trees, and the pictures of the interior were gorgeous. The back of the house had floor to ceiling windows in the family room and a cute-looking patio - plus the back yard would be perfect for a swing-set and more than enough space for a barbecue and a picnic table and...

"Tay? You in there?"

Looking up, I grinned at Zac and he dropped his hands onto my shoulders. "I like this one," I said, motioning down at the print-out in front of me. "I mean. A lot."

He smiled at me and leaned down, looking at the notes I'd scribbled on the paper. I hoped he would ignore my little stick figure family I'd drawn off to the side, because it was slightly embarrassing and I didn't even remember doing it. "Do you wanna go see that one first? I mean, if we like it enough it might be the shortest house-hunt in the history of the world."

I turned my head slightly and kissed him, not caring that Tabby and Ike were both watching intently, and then I nodded. "Yeah," I told him, clasping his right hand between mine. "Let's start with this one."

NEXT