Taylor wants to chase after her dreams but her father disapproves. Finally he pushes her to her wits end and she decides to disobey him and chase her dreams anyway. She then runs into two men who change her life forever. Will Taylor ever achieve her...
I woke up to a soft knock on my door. “Come in.” I said loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear. “Hey, were leaving in an hour Sailor. Glenn and I are almost finished fixing breakfast. Make sure you get dressed quickly so your food doesn’t get cold.” He said softly before closing the door. I nodded smiling at the nickname, it rhymed with my real name. Taylor the sailor, I thought giggling. I got up and quickly got dressed into some street clothes. I decided if I really had to look rich then I should play the part well.
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I finished getting myself together and headed downstairs where both men stared at me in shock. “What?” I asked confused. “What are you wearing?” Mark asked after a moment.
“Clothes?” I said in response. “Yeah, but where’s the rest of your shirt?” Glenn then responded.
“It’s a crop top, what’s wrong with it? The only thing you see is my stomach.” I said looking down.
“Yeah, and that’s too much. You’re not going out like that, find a longer shirt.” Glenn said. I sighed, rolling my eyes as I went back upstairs to find a longer shirt.
“Drop the attitude while your up there too.” Mark said.
Once I got upstairs, I decided on a complete outfit change because I couldn’t find a longer shirt.
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I headed back downstairs and both men smiled approvingly. “See that wasn’t too hard now was it.” Mark said. I sighed, giving no response as I sat down and ate my breakfast. They only chuckled at me and sat down as well.
“Why are we up so early?” I asked once I saw it was still dark outside. “So that we can get into the mall early. Shopping is going to take a while and I’d rather not be bumping into people everywhere I turn.” Glenn responded. “Don’t the malls open at 11? What time is it?” I went on once again.
“They do, but we know a guy, so we’re going to be in the mall by 4 AM until it fully opens to the public. I would like to be done by time other people are coming in.” Mark chimed in.
I cringed slightly hearing 4AM, so many flashbacks of my father yelling for me to practice correctly, or he’d double the soccer drills. I nodded silently, not saying a word. Mark studied me for a moment, but I refused to meet his thoughtful gaze. It was then that I remembered he has a degree in psychology. This made me squirm even more, I hate it when people can read me easily. His silence is what unsettled me the most. It reminds me of when my father just got through yelling at me, and just stared at me expecting a response. I never had one to give that would satisfy him. When I didn’t give a response, he’d just yell some more, and started to throw things.
I got up from the table quickly and ran back upstairs to the safety of my bedroom. I went into the connecting arcade room and started to play arcade basketball in hopes it would get my mind off things.
It had only been about 30 minutes before a knock sounded on my door. I yelled to come in, even though I honestly didn’t feel like talking right now. Mark and Glenn watched for a minute as I made sinker after sinker. Finally, one of the two men spoke over the noise of all the games in the room. “Tay, can we talk for a minute?” Glenn asked. I sighed, unsure if I honestly wanted to. I didn’t really want to remember as of right now.
“Sure.” I mumbled anyways. We walked over to the hangout room and sat down. There was silence once again, making me squirm. Mark saw this and decided to start talking, which I was grateful for. “Listen Sailor, we know you’ve only known us for a day and some hours. But if you want to talk to us, we’re always here and we’ll lend an ear. I don’t know what happened for you to end up sleeping in your car. However, I do know I don’t want you to ever have to do that again. You can stay with us until you get back on your feet.” Mark said. He cringed at that last sentence though. I knew he wanted me to stay longer than me just getting back on my feet. Honestly, they were slowly starting to become like fathers to me and I don’t know if I could bare leaving. I should probably leave before we get too close. I made up my mind that I would do my job and leave. I decided to just tell them what was going on, I would be leaving as soon as I finished here anyways; I’d likely never be seeing them again.
“For the past 11 years of my life, my father has forced me to play soccer. I was 10 years old when I started playing, and all my friends said I had natural talent. My old coach even said I’d dominate on the field if I ever decided to play. He even said that I was a freak athlete and any sport I played, he knew I’d be good at. My father saw this as his chance to set himself up for life, so he forced me to play. He yelled at me when I did something wrong or was too tired for practice. I explained repeatedly that I wanted to play basketball and it’s what I really enjoy. However, he told me no and that soccer is where the real money is. His argument was always, ‘I worked all my life to take care of you and now its time for you to take care of me.’ However, I finally decided to leave when he burned all my basketball equipment that I saved up for and told me he would probably be better off with a son. That’s when I decided to chase my dreams and move to Dallas to start my career. He…. called me 87 times last night” I said. I told the whole story with pretty much no emotion. Both men blinked in bewilderment, but I could also tell there was a bit of anger there.
“He called you 87 times?” Glenn asked to be sure he heard correctly. I nodded with a slight smile. They were shocked but that behavior was normal to me back then.
“Boy is your old man dumb. Basketball is the highest paid sport in the world. You’d be making more than a soccer player. I know you don’t care about that though. I didn’t either, I just loved the game for what it was back then. If you do something for the money it will feel more like a job rather than something you love to do. Listen Sailor, Glenn and I will support you in whatever you choose to do.” Mark said.
“As long as it’s a self-respecting and smart career.” Glenn chimed in. Mark nodded in agreement before standing up, and then helped me up.
“Let’s get shopping before it gets too late.” Glenn said once we were all standing up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for reading 💙 I hope you enjoyed.
