Okay, this is my first attempt at a Rylor. I kinda hate it, but I'll let you all decide. The title is from a Motion CIty Soundtrack song called 'The Future Freaks Me Out'.
This obnoxious one-shot is dedicated to Danny Phantom SG-1 and mzdarkstar for babbling about Rylor for so long I was compelled to write my own. Lessthanthree you both!!
hearts,
Karina
"We'll be home by eleven. Lola needs to practice piano for twenty minutes before she watches Hannah Montana, but that should be it. She finished her homework already, and she's eating dinner now." Mrs. Evans was pacing the front foyer as she explained everything to the teenager in front of her. "Sharpay and Ryan will be in and out all night, but mostly out. Sharpay will be at her friend Jamie's house, and Ryan will be leaving in a few minutes and should be home some time between ten-thirty and eleven." The girl nodded and covered her ears as Mrs. Evans yelled up the stairs for her husband. She dropped her hands just in time to hear a small girl yell her name.
"Taylor!" A small blond girl dressed in jeans, a white tee shirt, Tinkerbell costume, and a stethoscope came running into the room.
"Hello Miss Lola!" The teenager smiled, crouching down and hugging the girl. "Are you a princess tonight?"
"No!" Lola pouted, her face smeared with her older sister's make-up. "You ought to realize I'm a wild animal veterinarian fairy!" She pointed to the Teacup Yorkie sound asleep on the small pink dog bed just inside the kitchen and added in a low voice. "That's Mr. Finkelstein's prize mountain lion, and if he doesn't get better soon, we may have to put him down."
"Oh well that is cause for concern." Taylor nodded gravely, trying desperately not to crack a smile. Sensing Mrs. Evans' real concern, she continued. "But the poor mountain lion has no chance of recovery if his doctor is malnourished."
"Fine, I'll go finish." She shook her head in a slightly irritated manner. "But then I have to check on the patient. His heart rate has been irregular all afternoon."
Taylor didn't stand up or smile until she heard the scrape of the chair legs against the floor. As she straightened up, Mrs. Evans studied her with a mixture of concern and pity on her face.
"Are you sure you are up to it tonight?" She asked softly. Taylor sent her a quizzical look, and she continued. "I heard all about what happened this afternoon. At lunch." She added after Taylor raised an eyebrow.
"Oh." She said, her face darkening. "That." Of course she knows. Taylor mentally scolded herself. She lives with Sharpay.
"I'm sorry." The older woman continued. "It happens to us all."
"Yeah." Taylor nodded along, but realized that she wasn't upset. Not like she should have been. "I'll get over it." She shrugged, meeting the blond woman's eyes.
There was a moment of understanding between them, though it was quickly interrupted by thundering feet on the stairs.
"Oh finally." Mrs. Evans rolled her eyes. "Vance, we are nearly twenty minutes late already!" She turned and found not her husband but her son, blond hair tucked under a new East High baseball cap and a sleek black bag tucked under his arm. Rolling her eyes, she shouted. "Ryan, where is your father?"
"Fighting with his cufflinks." He shrugged. "I offered to help him, but he refused. Apparently he can get them on his own." A mischievous grin broke over his face as he spoke.
"Oh….that fool." She began muttering under her breath as she climbed the stairs, stopping only to yell back, "Make Taylor feel at home, Ry!!"
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because you haven't been baby-sitting Lola since she was two or anything."
"Be polite young man!!" She yelled back. "She's had a very trying day!!"
His sarcastic expression turned confused. "What is she…?" He began, but quickly realized exactly who was standing in front of him. "Oh. Yeah."
"Yeah." Taylor shuffled around anxiously. Of course, Ryan had a front-row view of the disaster that had been fifth period lunch. Even now, she wasn't exactly sure how it had all gotten started. However, it ended in several foul names being yelled and accusations involving innocent bystanders. "So…have you made up with Chad yet?"
"What?" Ryan asked, clearly not paying attention. "Oh, yeah. Well, kind of." He shrugged. "As much as that guy will actually make up with someone. He's more into acting like it never happened."
"He shouldn't have brought you into it." She shook her head. "I mean, you obviously haven't…I mean, we haven't been…you know." She shrugged lamely. "There's been nothing going on that he doesn't know about."
"Yes, well." Ryan suddenly didn't know what to do with his hands. Shoving them into the pockets of his jeans, he cleared his throat. "Welcome to the mind of Chad Danforth. 'Tutoring' means making out and helping with a lab means hours of mindless sex." Mentally he gasped in horror at what he had just said. Taylor laughed weakly. "I mean…well, he just…blows things out of proportion." He finished lamely.
"He really does." Taylor nodded in thoughtful agreement. "And he's not very trusting. I mean, it's been nearly a year. You'd think he would trust me not to…you know."
"Yeah." He shrugged, completely lost as to what to say next. Luckily, his little sister saved them.
"I'm all done, Taylor." She stomped into the foyer, showing her empty plate to the world. Boi picked his tiny head up, and she promptly dropped the plate to inspect her patient. "Oh no!!" She exclaimed. "His heart rate has skyrocketed!! He needs 20 cc of Sali…scala…stuff, STAT!!!" She rushed off to find her medical team. Boi just laid his head back down and fell asleep again.
"She's been hanging around with Sharpay too much." Ryan laughed, shaking his head. "And you." He nodded to the giggling girl in front of him.
"What do you mean?" Taylor pretended to be offended.
"20cc? STAT??" He asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "She certainly didn't learn that from Sharpay."
"Okay, so maybe I get a little carried away while playing wild animal veterinarian fairy with her." She smiled sheepishly. Ryan continued to give her the look. "And inner-city ER surgeon tap-dancing princess." He grinned. "It's all in good fun. And it's not like she has actual drugs to pump into him."
"Sharpay would kill her." He nodded in agreement.
The thundering of footsteps sounded again, and this time it was both Evans parents.
"I think we're ready now." Mrs. Evans smiled, though glared angrily at her husband. "Thank you again, Taylor."
"No problem, Mrs. Evans." She smiled as they slammed the door shut. Not ten seconds later, a small blond head peeked around a door frame.
"Are they gone?" Lola stage-whispered.
"I think so." Ryan returned in the same tone. "Coast clear."
"Why are you still here?" She stomped he small feet and placed her hands on her hips.
"I didn't realize I wasn't welcome." Ryan held his hands up in mock offense. "But obviously I am being kicked out of my own home."
Lola giggled, enjoying the play. "You most certainly are not welcome, Master Ryan!!" She huffed in a spot-on British accent. "I demand that leave right this moment!!"
"Fine then, Lady Lola!" Ryan's own accent was also perfect. "I shall leave these hallowed halls and never darken your doorway again!" He wrenched open the door and stepped out. Giggling, the six year old ran away. Rolling his eyes, Ryan smiled to Taylor.
"Thank you, Tay." He said softly. "I should be back before Mom and Dad get home."
"We'll be fine." She smiled, going to close the door. In a casual move, Ryan took her hand and gave it a quick kiss before bounding down the driveway to his car.
Closing the door, Taylor let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She shook her head as though to clear her thoughts. No wonder Chad suspected we were up to something. She thought. Ryan is rather friendly.
"Dr. McKessie!" The high, clear voice of the girl drifted down from her bedroom. "We have a pus-filled penguin that needs immediate surgery!!"
Laughing softly, Taylor bounded up the stairs. "Coming, Dr. Evans."
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
At exactly ten thirty, the front door opened. Taylor noticed, but did not look up from her calculus homework. She snuggled deeper into the large sofa and bopped her head to the beat being played on a rare block of music videos on MTV.
"She went to sleep okay?" Ryan asked, setting his bag on the floor and flopping down next to Taylor.
"Of course." Taylor smiled slightly. "After all, wild animal veterinarian fairies need their rest after a long day of saving animals and granting wishes."
"Oh, of course." Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Because they lead such busy lives in their second grade classrooms."
"Naturally." Taylor shook her head, laughing softly. The room fell into a prickly silence as Taylor finished her last math problem, checking her answer before closing the cover. She slid her notebook into her trusty roller bag, carefully zipping up the main compartment.
"So how are you really feeling?" Ryan asked suddenly. Taylor threw him a curious look. "Well, you told both me and my mother that you were fine, but no one is fine after hearing all Chad had to say."
"Oh." Taylor said, ducking her head down. It was times like these that she wished she didn't wear headbands so often; then she would be able to hide her burning cheeks from the blond who had been growing more and more attractive in her eyes as time went on. "I'll be fine." She shrugged. "I mean, he didn't say anything that I hadn't heard before. And it's been going downhill for a while now. If it wasn't today, it would certainly be before Christmas break." She quickly began yanking off her sweater, the room now uncomftably warm. "And he totally knew that there was something going on. I mean, we weren't very good at keeping secrets. And it's pretty obvious when his girlfriend and his best friend go missing at once. It wasn't very descreet that's for sure. And he always did say that he couldn't see me dating Troy, but with you- I mean, even he admitted that we were a more likely couple than him and me."
"Taylor-" Confusion was written all over Ryan's face, but she was on a roll.
"And he knew how jealous I got whenever he brought up Sharpay. I mean, he was always saying how pretty she was, and how she had really changed and whatever and he knew it made me crazy, so of course he would expect me to act out somehow."
"Taylor." He raised his voice a bit this time, inching closer to the teenager, but she was nearly in hysterics.
"And what better way to exact revenge than by fooling around with his best friend?! I mean, really, that's how his mind works. He would never believe it had anything to do with him, but of course he'd think I was growing distant because I was fucking you!!"
"Taylor!" Ryan yelled over her. Instantly, the surge of emotion died within Taylor, leaving her drained of all feeling, save for embarrassment. Studying the dark girl, Ryan sat down next to her, gathering her shaking hands in his own. "Taylor…why would Chad think we were…" Here, he swallowed hard, looking for an alternate word. "…dating?"
"I don't know." She shook her head, truthfully unsure.
"There's nothing you said, nothing you did that might make him think that?" He asked gently. She shook her head again, but stopped mid-shake.
"Well…I did blow him off a couple of times, because you said you needed some extra help." She said sheepishly. Ryan winced internally. "And I told him once that your education was more important than our anniversary." Ryan winced physically with each new error in Taylor's ways. "And then one time, he said that we looked cute together, and I agreed. And there was the time I told him that we were going to run away and get married by a crazy Frenchman. Oh, and I almost forgot when-"
"Just stop now." Ryan shook his head, his eyes closed as he imagined Chad's reaction to each statement. "And you wonder why he said those things, Tay? For such a smart girl, you're very stupid sometimes."
"I am not stupid!!" She squealed. Taylor McKessie had been called many things in her life, but stupid certainly wasn't one of them. "I made a few mistakes, certainly, but I most certainly am not stupid!"
"Mistakes?" Ryan glanced at her, mildly confused. He then broke into a delicate pink blush, his eyes on the floor in embarrassment. "Oh, right." He cleared his throat, and in an oddly business-like manner, continued. "Well then, you know what to do to get him back. Just go over and tell him that you were joking and that you're sorry. He'll be over it by then."
"But I'm not sorry." She blurted out. Again, the confused look graced Ryan's face. "I'm not. I mean, if he gets upset over those little things, think of everything else he will get upset over. I'm not upset." A sudden thought crossed her mind, but she ignored it. "I'm just better off with you." So much for ignoring that thought.
Ryan's head suddenly shot back up, his blue eyes wide. "What?" He asked softly, his eyebrows furrowing together.
"I didn't say anything." Taylor instantly responded, knowing it was a lost cause. Ryan Evans could hear a pin drop in the cafeteria during first lunch.
"No, you did." Ryan argued. "You said…" He trailed off. An awkward silence followed, only to be broken again by the blonde boy. "Did you mean it?"
"I…" Taylor found herself unable to answer. Taking a breath, she nodded. "Yes. I did." She looked back into those endless blue eyes. "I knew there was a reason I was saying those thing all along, I just didn't know what it was. But now I do. It's because they were true. Well, okay, maybe not the bit with the Frenchman, but the rest of it was true. I really did want to spend time with you rather than him. So I did. And I still want to." She lowered her eyes, adding "If you want to."
"Taylor." He said softly. She looked up. He gently ran his fingers through the ends of her hair, choosing his words carefully. "I'll waste my time with you any day."