Time: Back In The Day, Same Day As #92 / Kinsey: Age 13 / Pre-YIM
Rating: Fun For All
“So Kinsey…anything exciting happen in your life that you didn’t tell us about on the phone?” Isaac asked as they all situated themselves on her floor after dinner. They had only been back in town for a few hours from tour and already they were quizzing her. She shrugged and dropped her head, suddenly finding herself very interested in the carpet right in front of her crossed legs.
“Oh come on, now you have to tell us!” Taylor said.
“I’m sure that my life was incredibly boring compared to what you guys were experiencing,” she said, her voice trailing off.
“You have no idea how much we want to hear about a normal life right now,” Isaac laughed. Kinsey gave them a half-smile and once again began her inspection of the carpet.
“What’s wrong?” Zac asked her, scooting closer to her on her bedroom floor.
“Nothing. It was just a weird school year, that’s all.”
“Uh-oh… I smell boy drama,” Taylor laughed. Her eyes narrowed in his direction.
“Shut up, Taylor,” she spat.
“Yikes, I hit a sore spot. Come on Kinsey, tell us all about it,” he said, trying his hardest to sound genuinely curious.
“Just drop it, okay?”
“No can do. You have to spill. You’ve always told us everything, so, it’s mandatory that you tell us about this.”
“I had my first boyfriend this year, okay?” she said. All three guys looked at each other.
“And that’s worth getting all crabby about because?” Taylor questioned.
“I also had my first break-up, okay? So would you please drop it? I really don’t want to talk about it,” she said, hoping it would be the end of the conversation so she wouldn’t have to divulge the whole truth.
“Sorry, we didn’t know, Kinsey,” Isaac said sincerely, “We’ll drop it.”
“No, come on! We never got to experience junior high relationships. Please, elaborate,” Taylor smiled, loving every second of the torture he was inflicting.
“Yeah, you were too busy having high school girls throwing their bras at you for you to bother yourself with something so childish as a junior high relationship,” she spat, her defensives flying up more and more with every word that came from her mouth.
“Oh would you knock it off? You know that’s not what I meant,” Taylor said.
“Sure it wasn’t, Tay. But you know what? As interesting as my problems are to you, I think I’ll keep this to myself.”
“You want to talk about it, Kinsey. You always want to talk about everything, so just tell us about it,” he continued, not back down.
“Fine! You want to know why he dumped me?” she demanded.
“Gee, because I’m so confused as to what I’ve been trying to get you to tell me this whole time,” Taylor said, but Kinsey continued, ignoring that comment.
“He broke up with me because he was jealous of you!” she yelled. Taylor sat there, his eyes opened wide.
“Me?” he asked incredulously. Immediately, Kinsey realized her error in self-editing.
“Yes, you… all of you,” she hesitated.
“I don’t think I follow,” Isaac said.
“Because a couple of times he asked me to do something, I wouldn’t because you guys were going to be on TV, or because I was expecting a phone call from you, or I knew you were going to get online. He couldn’t take it and he broke up with me,” she explained, trying to tell it breezily as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t the truth, so she wasn’t surprised that she came off sounding pretty believable. If she had told them the real story, her voice would have quavered or she would have done something else that at least Zac would have picked up on.
“Kinsey, we would never want you to neglect your friends or a boyfriend to talk to us-” Isaac started. Kinsey stood up and closed her eyes in frustration.
“Ike, don’t. Nothing on earth could have kept me from talking to you guys when you were gone. If he didn’t understand that, it’s his own problem. I just wish he would have been more understanding, because I really liked him,” she said, leaning against her desk chair with a sigh. The guys shared another glance before nodding.
“Kinsey? Do you know what this calls for?” Zac asked. She shook her head hesitantly, knowing that something was coming.
“Group hug,” Isaac stated.
“Ah guys, come on. You don’t have to-” she said, feeling really awkward that they were going to comfort her when she had just flat out lied to all of them.
“Kinsey, you know the rules. This is clearly a group hug moment,” Isaac said as they all stood and overpowered Kinsey with a crushing hug.
“You guys are so lame,” she laughed as best she could despite her slightly constricted airflow.
“But you missed us,” Zac smiled.
“I really did,” she told them sincerely.
“Sorry about your boyfriend. He’s a jerk if he wouldn’t work it out to be with you,” Isaac said. Kinsey just smiled and nodded at them as they all pulled back. With that, they decided to drop the subject. Kinsey sat there and watched as they had a discussion about how crazy Japan had been. She felt guilty for lying to them about her break-up. It hadn’t been about all of them. It had just been about Taylor. Her boyfriend had been really jealous of Taylor and she hadn’t been able to understand why. She had explained to him over and over that there was nothing there; that they had been friends since birth and fought like cats and dogs, but he wouldn’t hear a word of it. He broke up with her over it and it had in turn broken her heart. She looked at Taylor and shook her head. The reason why didn’t matter now. Nothing did, because they were home.