Arizona Part 2

Taylor brought me home and introduced me to her mom and her step dad. She bluntly told her mom I'd thrown up on the plane and concerns were voiced. I shrugged saying I was probably better, that I'd be happy to try to nibble. I quickly lost a small amount of pretzels to the toilet and gave up on eating. Taylor's 16yr old brother had a track meet which we were going to attend. After making the rounds of introductions we meandered behind the bleachers. Her hand slipped into mine and then slid away again as we saw someone was already there on his phone. We took a seat, watching him. "What do you think his deal is?" she asked me. I'm nearsighted. To me he was a portly man, middle aged with dark hair. His shirt was very white, and his pants were black. I considered him. "He's a Catholic priest, he's on the phone with his lover, who's concerned his wife knows about him." She laughed and opened her mouth to reply when he hung up and turned to walk past where we were sitting and I got a closer look at him. I turned to her as he passed us. "I take it back. Totally wrong." She laughed and asked why the change of heart. "Was it the way he walked?" "No," I said, "it was the goatee. No catholic priest has a goatee."



To start the meet off they played the national anthem. But apparently no one wanted to sing for them, so they'd procured a terrible recorded copy. Each syllable was twice as long as it needed to be, and each word dripped with misplaced soulfulness. Taylor and I were in stitches, dramatically reenacting single words stretched to fill several minutes.
After a while I felt the lack of sleep and no food. We went together to the back of her moms car and curled up to nap. With no family or friends around she ran her fingers through my hair and sang me to sleep. Her legs followed the line of the seat and trailed off over the edge and I was lying between her legs, head pillowed on her thigh, hugging her leg to me. 

After a while she admitted she had to go to the bathroom. I made sleepy unhappy noises while she coaxed me off her. I woke up a little while she was gone. When the door opened I sat up and let her squeeze back in. When she had situated herself I waited a moment. She said something I can't remember and I leaned forward and kissed her.

At least I didn't taste like bile but as far as kisses go it was somewhat lacking finesse and I'd clearly caught her off guard. Before she could respond I flopped back down and buried my face in her side. "Sorry. I'll go die of embarrassment now." She assured me it wasn't the worst first kiss she'd ever had. I remain skeptical on that.

We napped for a few hours then roused to get protein drinks for me and wander the track meet. One of her younger brothers friends harassed us and we ignored him as best we could. He kept trying to guess my name when after feeling particularly stubborn I refused to tell him. He kept asking Taylor's brother who it seemed had also forgotten. After putting up with them a while we went to help Taylor's mom set the concession stand to rights and after an awkward moment it became clear she'd also forgotten my name. I laughingly assured her I wasn't offended and reminded both her and Taylor's brother.  When it got cold and dark we headed home, singing along to Good Feeling and Fall Out Boy with her brother and mom.

I was surprised when Taylor reached over to hold my hand. I looked nervously at her mom and brother in the front seat, but relaxed after it seemed clear they weren't paying us attention. But then the song ended and her brother turned around to address her, and our linked hands were in the seat between us



I quickly disengaged my fingers from hers and she sat up to enthusiastically exclaim a point so we could pull our hands away from each other. He glanced at me before he turned back around and me and Taylor shared a panicked look.

After a not terribly restful night we got up and lounged around her room cuddling. There were several hours to kill before the main event which was a Postal Service concert at eight. We got showered and watched Sherlock which I was skeptical of. Having read the original stories I find I hate the more actiony revamps but I was delighted by the incorporation of twists to the original story. 



Her mom insisted that as we'd be riding her moped to the concert she needed to practice driving with a passenger. She demanded to know if I was the least uncomfortable with the situation and I laughed and said I rode behind my parents on their Harley's all the time as a kid. So we went for a spin around the block. I'm not a huge fan of deserts, but it was lovely. There had just been rain so the cacti were blooming, and it was warm as we sped along. Each time she had to stop our helmets would click together like clumsy birds, making us laugh.



We finally headed out for real. The drive started to get a little chilly so I wrapped myself around her nominally for warmth. We stopped to grab a bite to eat at a little vegan restaurant. We were looking for parking and were about to head out when a motorcyclist headed out of the restaurant. "You can have my space, give me a sec." She was tall (I admit, everyone seems tall to me) and black, with dreadlocks, wearing all black riding leathers. I hopped off Taylor's moped and scooted behind the motorcyclist to wait. She fitted her helmet on and swung her leg over her bike. As she leaned forward her jacket lifted to reveal a bright vibrantly red thong unselfconsciously displayed well above her pants. I mentioned it to Taylor and we both marveled and then laughed.