Page 4 of Take Care, Taylor

She counted again, and we did the same thing.

“I’ll take what I can get.” She laughed.

“I just got a call from Nicole Calloway’s mom,” her dad said. “She had no idea her daughter’s party was the same day as Audrey’s, so she said we can bring the cake over and make it a joint thing since they have a pool.”

“You can leave now, Taylor.” Audrey frowned. “I’m sure they’re all waiting for you to get there anyway.”

“Probably,” I said. “Nicole hired a DJ and she has four huge inflatable slides.”

“Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

“Yeah…” I walked to the sweets table and picked up a cupcake. “You should open your presents while I’m here, though. I want to see what you got.”

“So you can destroy everything later?”

“I’ll hold off for at least a month. It’s the least I can do since it’s your birthday.”

She rolled her eyes and walked over to the table.

I watched her unwrap dresses, a golden journal with matching glitter pens, a habitat for her ridiculous insect collection, and a new laptop. And then she saved the biggest box for last.

Untying the pearl ribbon, she flipped the top off and revealed the newest PlayStation—the one I’d been begging my parents to buy for months, the one that was still sold out everywhere.

I stared at it, trying not to get jealous.

“Thank you so much!” she hugged her mom before revealing the video game they’d gotten her.

“Is that reallyBlack Ops 7?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “I beat all the others.”

“By yourself?”

“Duh.” She tilted her head. “Did you have to use a team?”

“No.” I lied. “I just wasn’t expecting you to be the type to play video games. At least not ones like that…”

She looked at the game, then at me. “Want to lose to me right quick?”

“I’ll happily beat you if you’d like.”

She rushed to the living room and I followed, helping to set up the game.

Before I knew it, we were deep into our tenth round, and she was actually good.

Okay. More than good, but I refused to admit it.

I also refused to leave.

The doorbell rang just as we started a new round, and I heard a familiar voice.

“The kids are done swimming and it’s not a party without Taylor, I guess,” Nicole’s mom said. “Mind if everyone comes inside?”

Audrey set down her controller and looked at me.

“Don’t say I never did anything for you,” I said.

“One nice day doesn’t take away millions of others,” she said, pointing to a silver bow. “I’m missing half a head of hair.”