As The Hanson Turns
After our late night, Zac and I slept in, missing our morning classes and not caring at all. We were past midterms but not yet into the horrors of final exams, so it wasn’t like we were missing anything terribly important. And, if I allowed myself to be that cheesy, spending more time lying in bed with him felt way more important than my sociology class and his statistics class. Especially the statistics class.
Of course, we had to leave my bed eventually. We parted ways so that Zac could go back to his room, shower and change clothes; at least that way we wouldn’t look too obvious walking in together in the same clothes we had worn the day before. I supposed, though, that it didn’t really matter now that we were dating.
I was relieved, when I walked into the student center alone, to see that Taylor had gone back to his own apartment to change clothes, too. I was pretty sure he had slept in our suite, but I didn’t really want to know if that suspicion was correct. It had been so late when we got back from IHOP, dead on our feet and full of pancakes, that I really didn’t know what anyone else had done aside from myself and Zac.
But Taylor, damn him, looked clean and refreshed, and like the night before hadn’t happened at all. Seriously, damn him.
I grabbed a quick slice of pizza and sat down at the table, noticing that Taylor and Molly’s chairs were just a little closer together than I normally would have expected. Then again, I never would have expected either of one of us to sleep with him.
“Well, aren’t you two cute?” I said in the most sickly sweet tone of voice I could manage.
Elijah glanced back and forth between the three of us. “Did I miss something here?”
“Only the newest Hanson hookup,” I replied. “I forgot; you weren’t in our suite to witness the blessed union last night. By the way, have you seen Zac?”
“Passed him headed to the showers while I was on my way here,” Elijah replied. “But wait a minute. I think I need to diagram this shit. You slept with Taylor. Then with Zac. And now Molly and Taylor…?”
“Don’t forget Zac and Bella,” Taylor added, not at all helpfully.
“I wish I could,” Zac said, suddenly appearing next to me and plopping down into the seat I had left empty for him.
“I think we all wish we could,” I shot back. “Anyway, yeah it’s all a big clusterfuck—pun intended—but what’s your point, Lij?”
“Well, aside from the fact that I’m feeling a little left out of the soap opera your love lives seem to be? I mean, I’m not complaining or anything. I don’t know how you’re all sane at this point.”
“Who said we were?” Taylor smirked.
We all laughed at that, but everyone fell silent when Kenley walked up to the table. Obviously trying to ignore the awkwardness, she slid into the last free chair and smiled. “What’s up, guys?”
“Just catching up on the latest episode of As the Hanson Turns,” Peyton replied, but didn’t elaborate any further than that.
“Everyone is very amused by the game of musical chairs we’ve been playing,” I said. “Or musical beds, I guess you’d say.”
“Oh,” Kenley replied. She glanced at Taylor and Molly, and it was like a light bulb going off over her head. “Oh. Oh. Wow, okay.”
“Feeling left out?” Elijah said, but his flirtatious smile didn’t reach all the way to his eyes.
Kenley laughed, but the table fell back into an awkward silence then. I knew I would probably end up putting my foot in my mouth if I spoke, but this was getting really frustrating. I didn’t know why they were all so hesitant to get close to Kenley. I wasn’t asking them to be best friends with her, but given that she was going to be in our suite for the rest of the year, we needed to at least try to get along.
“Look, guys,” I said. “I know we’re all weird about opening up our group to someone new, but need I point out that Peyton and Elijah weren’t part of our inner circle until last year? I think we’ve got room to be nice to someone else, too. Maybe prove that geeks aren’t as clique-ish as the popular crowd, huh?”
“Speak for yourself,” Taylor replied. “I’m not a geek. Just… geek adjacent.”
I stared him down. “You’re related to one and you’re fucking another, so close enough.”
Taylor winked at me before turning his attention to Kenley. “Well, anyway, I don’t have any problems with you, Ken. Allow me to apologize for the rest of their bad manners.”
Kenley shrugged. “Look, I get it. I was in the same sorority with Bella, and I know more than I’d like to about what she did to you guys. And she’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how bad sorores can be, trust me. So if it’s going to take a while to convince you that I’m not like that, I understand. But for what it’s worth, I’m not. I was just like you guys in high school. College seemed like a good time to reinvent myself. Turns out I can dress the part, but I’ll never really be like them. Being that mean and judgmental is just tiring.”
The table fell silent again. Of course, everyone would still have to take Kenley at her word, but I hoped that in time they would see her as I did.
Finally, Zac cleared his throat. “Alright, if you promise never to speak of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named again, then I suppose we can let you into the group.”
Kenley smiled. “Look, I’m not taking an Unbreakable Vow or anything, but sure. I want to talk about her sad, bitchy ass just as much as the rest of you do, trust me.”
That seemed to finally break the ice. Peyton gave her a smile and asked, “So, when are you officially moving in anyway?”
“They’re letting me stay in the sorority house until Thanksgiving. So I’ll be back that Sunday to start packing up and moving.”
“We can help,” Taylor said, making it clear with a pointed stare that he was including Zac in that. “These girls love making us big strong men do their dirty work for them.”
Kenley giggled. “That would be great. I’ll probably still be in a turkey coma by Sunday anyway.”
“Ah, Thanksgiving with the family. Does yours try to stuff you full of food every time you visit, like they think the college doesn’t feed you, too?” Taylor asked.
“Something like that,” Kenley replied.
“Where are you from anyway?” Molly asked. “I don’t remember if you’ve said.”
“Nebraska,” Kenley said. “So I have a pretty long drive home.”
“Too bad. You’ll miss out on the world famous Hanson family Thanksgiving, too,” Elijah said. “I get to hear about it every year, but my Mom would kill me if I didn’t come home for the holiday.”
“Hanson family Thanksgiving?” Kenley asked.
“Believe it or not, there are five more Hanson kids,” I replied. “Not to mention aunts, uncles, cousins—you name it. So every holiday in their family is massive. We only live two streets over, so since my brother moved out and we don’t have any other family around, we started just taking a few dishes over there and joining in with their party, too.”
“You’re coming this year, right?” Taylor asked Molly, his tone oddly tender.
“I’ll try to stop by while my Mom and Grandma are cooking,” Molly replied, smiling up at him.
I had joked about them dating, rather than just fucking, but maybe they really were. Had Taylor ever had an actual girlfriend? I couldn’t remember. Maybe when we were in high school, I supposed, but he didn’t hang out with us as much back then.
When I really thought about it, I realized that Taylor had sort of done the opposite of Kenley, and maybe that was why he was the first of us to open up to her. He had been part of the popular crowd in high school, and arguably still was really popular. But he did it on his own terms now; he hung out with us geeks and didn’t care what people thought of that. Likewise, he didn’t care what people thought of his manwhore reputation. He had always been like that, in a way, but he really opened up in college and stopped caring about conforming to anyone’s standards.
The thought that we could all learn an important lesson from Taylor Hanson, of all people, made me almost laugh out loud.
“You’re coming, too, right?” Zac asked, nudging me to draw my attention back to our conversation.
“Of course,” I replied. “I wouldn’t miss your mom’s homemade pumpkin pie for anything in the world.”
“What I’m hearing here is that her pumpkin pie is more important than my company.” Zac pretended to look hurt.
I giggled. “Have you eaten that pie? It’s more important than just about anything else in the world. But I guess your company is alright.”
“Well, I see where I rank,” Zac replied, pouting so much that I couldn’t resist giggling even more.
I leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Hmm, almost as sweet as pumpkin pie…”
“Okay,” Elijah cut in, glancing at Peyton and Kenley. “Anyone else feeling like third wheels here?”
Kenley tilted her head to the side. “Technically, we’d be fifth, sixth and seventh wheels, wouldn’t we?”
“Whatever it is, it’s starting to get seriously awkward. You guys are going to need to cut down on the PDA or hook me up with someone fast.”
“Don’t look at me,” Peyton said, laughing. “No offense, but Kenley’s more my type than you are.”
“Looks like we just have a seventh wheel, then,” Kenley replied, blowing Peyton an exaggerated kiss and batting her eyelashes.
Elijah’s face lit up at that. “Hey, at least that’s kinda hot. Can I watch?”
“Oh, god,” Peyton groaned. “I think that’s my cue to leave for class. Kenley, you’re on your own now.”
“I’ve been fighting off fraternity jerks all semester,” Kenley replied, giggling. “I think I can handle him.”
“He’s not usually this bad,” Zac said. “He’s really not. The fact that the rest of us dorks are actually having successful—or existent at all—love lives this semester is just getting to him.”
“Well, my love life isn’t anything to write home about either. I mean, you’d think these popular guys with girls falling all over them would be halfway decent, right? It’s like the hotter they are, they less they even try to flirt or anything. They just expect you to hop in bed the second they look at you, and they spend more time admiring their own muscles than anything else.”
“See, geek love is where it’s at,” I remarked. “We’re not going to take anything for granted.”
“I know I’m definitely not,” Zac replied.
Elijah groaned, and even I had to admit that was a cheesy line. Still, it earned him another peck on the cheek. From there, the conversation turned to general mocking of fraternity and sorority types, and I was sure then that Kenley was going to find her place in our group. The dynamics of our group had definitely changed over the semester, but things were finally starting to feel right.