The Elevator Tales

Chapter #2:

Taylor's POV:

People might think that it is weird that I am still friends with Tyler. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why as well. Tyler is Mr.Popular as he is the quarterback and captain of the highest winning football team this school ever had. However, at the same time he was still able to be right there for me my entire life either way.

I love that he isn't a stereotypical jock that is always so full of himself. I mean right now he is literally wearing fake plastic glasses while drinking with a bendy straw at our favourite hangout, the arcade. We always come here because this is the place we first talked to each other.

For some reason, Tyler believes that we first met at the beach just because that was the first time we laid eyes on each other and the first time we ever said a word to each other. I remember I was 8 years old and was reading the newest Archie comic and questioning who he will end up with Betty or Veronica.

Though I hated a lot of parts of the book, like the fact that the book acted like they were only 2 types of people: blondes and black hairs. They completely act like there are no coloured people. I always liked people with a little more colour on their skin though, not only because Tyler is graced with beautiful tanned skin, because this was before I met him. But in general I feel like beautiful coloured people are always ignored for equally beautiful white people.

Also, despite this book being about a guy trying to decide between 2 girls, I always hoped that he would end up with a boy. That was a secret that I was hiding for a long time, but whenever I see Tyler in boxers or in his football jersey with sweat pouring off of him, I was having a hard time doing it. Either way, I have always loved romance stories.

Back to the story, at the beach, I was just about to sit down on my beach chair and get enthralled into yet another edition of Archie's story of hopeful revelation when I heard someone scream something close to me and  felt a ball hit me straight in my head. I was upset that my reading was stalled by some annoying popular boys, until the sexiest boy I have ever seen in my 8 years of life came up to me. He had dark green eyes, brown hair and tanned skin. He also had small muscles and even at a young age I knew he would grow up well.

He came close to me, grabbed the ball that landed a couple of feet away from me and threw it back to his friends warning them to be more careful next time. Then he turned to face me, grabbed my hair and started checking around my head for injuries. "I don't think that you have any injuries. But I'm sorry anyways." He said as he pouted.

I really wanted to thank him for helping me but I felt anxiety rise inside me and had no idea how to proceed in breathing. He started laughing at my state and despite finish looking at my injuries a while back, he still has yet to let go of my hair and just continued to stare at me.

"Hey, Tyler! Are you coming?" Tyler's friends asked. I saw a group of boys a couple of feet away from us calling him over. I knew right from the start that he would be one of the popular ones, but as he stared at me, looking torn, I knew that he wouldn't be a typical popular boy.

After his friends called him several times, he ended up leaving me, looking upset. I was equally upset knowing that this would be the last time I see him. I am not around this area, I just came here to visit my grand parents and from the group of friends that seem to flock around him, I could tell that he was a local.

However, I was so happy to find out I was wrong.

A couple of years later when I was 12, I went to the arcade with my little sister Jackie. She really wanted to play games, and despite my fear of crowded places with teenagers who could bully me for being nerdy and awkward, I went with her. We were playing skeeball when I heard the door open and a couple of boys my age come storming in. Despite them being a couple of feet away, I could definitely see and hear everything they do. After years of being bullied, I had to pick up these type of signals to survive.

One of the boys stood out to me. He was wearing a football jacket and cut his beautiful brown locks, but either way I could tell that he was the same boy I saw all those years back. As I got enthralled in the look of him, I saw him look up, look toward me and stare at me with a predatory glance. Despite him acting differently than other jocks at the beach, I felt that he was completely different now. He was giving me the look that jocks usually give me before they pummelled me. As I look behind him to see his friends I realized that I was utterly and completely screwed.

I tried to grab my sister's arm and tell her that we had to leave, but she was way too focused in the game and ignored me. I kept looking back at Tyler and saw him speed walking closer to me. I tried to grab my sister's arm stronger but she wasn't cooperating. I had no idea what to do, and before I was able to make a choice, I felt Tyler grab my arm and start pulling me to a table right beside my sister's playing figure.

"There you are!" Tyler said as he embraced me right in the middle of the arcade. "I really wanted to see you again but I couldn't find you in the hallways and we didn't have any of the same classes, so I was starting to lose hope. But here you are." He said as he breathed in my hair and laid his head on my shoulder.

"What do you mean? You don't live around here?" I asked him completely confused.  I knew for a fact that he lived at the beach, I mean he couldn't so easily find friends everywhere he went, when I couldn't find one friend. I mean could he?

"Yes I do live around here. We went to school together for years. I was at the beach visiting some family members with a bunch of my friends and then there was the first time I saw you. I thought that I would never see you again but then at the first day of school the following year I saw you being dropped off by your parents. I wanted to come and talk to you but my friends got in the way. Then we didn't have the same class, none of my friends knew about you, I could not find you in the hallways or at lunch so I thought I made you up. But I didn't you are right here." He said as he embraced me further and brought me to sit down at the booth and we spent the entire afternoon talking.

I asked him if he should go back to his friends but he kept saying that they wouldn't miss him and that he would rather be here with me. We ended up realizing that despite us being total opposites, we had great chemistry and that we got along really well. And just like that the rest was history.

I stood by him and supported him through all his successes such as being the youngest starting quarterback at our school and winning the championship. While he stood by me through all my rough time such as when my mom got cancer and when she died. He stood by me through all my crying, my depression, my panic attacks and even my dreaded emo phase. I was his greatest supporter and he was my rock.

However, I always wondered why did he stand by me? He could have anyone around him that he wanted to. More beautiful, more popular and less complicated people around him. However despite all that, he stood by me even when he didn't have to, and I loved him for it. I really do.