Zac had now officially caught my attention and was now holding it firmly in his hands. I looked Zac straight in the eyes, searching for what exactly he was asking me. Did he liked Rayma just as much as she liked him? If that was the case, then I knew right there that they were the perfect couple.
"Alright Zac, start at the beginning here, okay? What exactly do you want to know about Rayma?" I asked him. He looked down at the floor and grabbed another pillow to hug close.
He was nervous. Definitely nervous.
"Well, I told you. I need your advice!"
"It would help if you told me exactly what you needed advice on," I said.
I folded my arms across my chest and waited patiently.
"I need advice on Rayma," Zac said simply as if there was nothing more to it than that.
I sighed loudly. "Yeah, I know. You told me that already too. What advice?"
Zac paused and sat there, expressionless. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. I never had been able to before either.
"Taylor, you're the lady's man here! How do you get girls?" Zac managed to spit out. I noticed that Zac was blushing.
The corners of my mouth turned up into a mischeivious grin.
"Could it be? Is my little brother finally going for girls here?" I teased him playfully by standing up and doing a stupid dance on the bed. "Is it girls tht we're talking about here or are we talking bout a certain girl named Rayma?!"
Maybe I was just being a tad too loud. My little brother stared up at me with an accusing look of shock. In a flash, he was up on his feet and trying to get me to shut up by grabbing me by the hair and pulling me back down on to the bed.
"Taylor! Shut up!" he squealed. "Someone is gonna hear you!"
"Zac, that's the whole point!"
He tugged a little harder and I suddenly regretted making a big deal out of everything. "Ow! Ouch ouch Ow! Let go!"
I was yelling and making an idiot of myself. The small fight didn't last long. I knew that it was over when I felt Zac's strong hands pin me to the bed.
I started laughing all over again as soon as I saw the look that he was giving me.
"Now, can we get back on with it or do I have to tie you to the bed and make you eat moldy bread for the rest of the night?" he threatened.
"Oh come on Zac-Man! Can't you take a joke?" I protested.
He didn't respond for a second. Instead he just kept giving me that same death look. "I'm serious here!"
"Alright, okay, I surrender! Now let me up."
"Not until you promise that you won't laugh!"
"Fine, I promise! There, are you happy?"
He slowly backed away and returned to his spot on the bed. I started to gather myself together and stand up when I came face to face with a flying pillow. It knocked me right in the nose and sent me sprawling back on the bed.
Zac's giggling made my fists clench up. "Zac, what in the-? What was that for?"
He just shrugged.
"Fine, whatever. Let's get back to what you were saying," I gave in sadly.
This time, I kept a close watch on Zac just to make sure he didn't decide to use one of his pillows against me a second time.
It was Zac's turn to sigh loudly. "Taylor, if you promise not to laugh or tell anyone else something... well, can I trust you on that if I told you something? Like, a big secret."
I shrugged. "I guess so. It's not like I have anyone to tell."
"Okay, well, what do you think about Rayma?"
"She's okay. I mean, she's cute and all, but I've got Jen right now. Why?" I decided to play dumb because it was obvious what his reasons were.
"Really? Well, I think she's hot!" the sudden burst of energy almost scared me. Zac went from the serious mood to complete and total swoon mode. "I know I've only known her for, like, what, a few hours, but I was talking with her and she's just really cool. She's really nice too! I just can't believe that I was lucky enough to have met her. Thank God that she and Jen are friends!"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing as I sat there with my mouth hanging open. No, this wasn't the same person that had just hit me with a pillow a seconds before. Zac never acted like this. He had never once spilled out to me a billion reasons why he was in love with a girl. Now suddenly, he decided to change? I couldn't believe it.
"Rayma! The name itself is just... just.. wow! Okay, okay, so maybe she's a little older than I am, but what the hell. There isn't that much of a difference there," he continued on.
I thought for a moment. Yes, I had to admit that Zac and Rayma would make a pretty cute couple, but if Zac didn't stop rambling anytime soon, he wouldn't be around to share his first kiss with her!
"Zac! Calm down!" I yelled at him.
Zac froze in the middle of what he was saying and blushed a dark pink.
"Sorry."
His voice came out in a soft whisper which I had to strain to undersand. I couldn't help but smile. My little Zaccy getting to be so big!
"What is it that you need advice on? It sounds to me that you pretty much know exactly what you're talking about."
He shook his head in response.
"Well, then what do you need advice on?" I asked, getting confused.
"See, I like Rayma, a lot, but I don't know if she likes me. We did meet just a while ago and she could just feel like I'm a complete stranger! If I ask her out and she says no, I'll be... I'll be..."
"Crushed?" I added for him.
"Exactly. I'll be crushed. What I want to know is how I can get her to notice me. How did you get Jennifer to notice you and then like you?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. I guess the two of us had it sort of simple really. It was just one of those cases where I just already happened to like her and she liked me back, we just weren't willing to admit it."
Zac scrunched up his nose and let out a laugh. "I don't think so!" he declared, complete with a valley girl style accent. "You and Jen went through that whole fighting incident, remember?"
"I was being stupid, Zac! Stupid, okay? I made stupid mistakes!"
Just the thought of the memory of that made the same tightness in my stomach come back. It was just one of my millions of memories that I wished I could let go of and forget about completely.
I started playing with the silver ring on my finger, spinning it around to pass time by. We were quiet for a few moments. I could sense Zac's regret of bringing up the subject.
"Remember Jennifer's journal entry that Ike told us about a long time ago?" I said suddenly, breaking the dead silence.
Zac nodded.
"Well, she wrote that she liked me a lot, remember? That was before I had said anything to anyone about the small crush that I was going through. Well, see, it turned out that she was going through the same thing. She liked me, but she just wouldn't admit it."
"And how does that help me here?" Zac asked.
I smiled in that way that anyone can tell you're keeping a secret that you're not about to tell anyone anytime soon. He noticed it right away.
"Well, what if I were to tell you that there's a small chance that Rayma might like you, but she's just too afraid to say anything?" I teased.
Zac made a noise that sounded like a pig snorting. "Yeah right! Whatever," he declared, complete with a "W" that he formed with his hands.
I laughed. "Hey, you never know. Anything's possible when concerning l-o-v-e!"
Zac returned my laughter. "No kidding there! I mean, after all, it was a miracle that Jennifer could ever like anyone like you!"
That's it! I thought. I am not going to take anymore of this abuse! "Pillow fight!!!" I screamed and snatched up the nearest fluffy, goose feather pillow and whacked it in Zac's direction. He went flying back onto the bed and quickly reached for his own weapon.
Zac's hit smacked me hard on the side of my head. With a whoosh my pillow was back in action and swinging in all directions, hitting a body and causing him to mutter a small noise. It was funny.
I stood up on the bed and started whamming the sack of goose feathers right on top of the little boy that lay helplessly before me. I smuthered him and enjoyed every minute of it. I was laughing so hard that I felt tears begin to form at the corners of my eyes bye the time that Zac let out muffled cry of surrender.
After a long while, things calmed down. Jennifer ended up being the one to break up the fight. she walked into the room and smiled sweetly before she accused us of being naughty little boys. She smiled and dragged me out of the room for a small talk, which actually ended up being a friendly hug and a kiss good-night. She told me it was time for her to hit the sack and get a night's rest.
When all the lights had been turned out and people began to settle down for the night, Zac and I clicked on a flashlight and locked our doors so no on could barge in and hear a few secrets.
It was time to quiz Zac on exactly how serious he was about the whole Rayma story. And then it was time to do some planning...