He sighed and got up, and crept down to the garage.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Taylor stayed up into the night, didn’t sleep, most of the night he’d been writing lyrics, which, at the end of it all, had been crumpled up and thrown into a wastepaper basket in Taylor’s distress. At five thirty he’d sat and watched a Wildlife programme on the 24 hour national geographic channel on Cable. At six thirty he poured himself cereal and sat at the kitchen table flicking through yesterdays newspaper. When his mother came down at seven he was still wide awake, he helped her with breakfast the rest of the day went as normal.

It wasn’t until around three thirty PM that he began to feel the weight of fatigue pulling him down, everyone commented on how tired he looked, his mother fretted but Taylor assured her he was fine.

At four, Taylor found himself sitting in the living room watching cartoons with Avery, he was curled up on the couch with Avery snuggled beside him, giggling about the antics of Timon & Pumbaa. He heard the door bell. Deciding it was time he answered, he got up out of his seat, disturbing his little sister in the process, and he left the room, staggering a little due to exhaustion. He opened the door and peered out.

Lauren and two other girls were at the door, the oldest looking girl, Taylor reckoned, was about Isaac’s age, with thick dark blonde hair cut to below her shoulders which curled a little at the ends, dark green eyes peered out from beneath long bangs. The younger girl was maybe an inch shorter than Lauren, she was olive skinned, with dark brown hair cut to halfway down her back, and she too, had dark green eyes, Taylor knew instantly it was obvious the two new girls were related, their eyes were identically the same.

"Hey," Lauren said, "Tay, this is Ash and Nicole," she said.

"Hi," Taylor said quietly, feeling that if he strained his voice any louder, he’d hurt his throat somehow. At that moment, Isaac appeared, Lauren instantly smiled as she looked over Taylor’s shoulder at him. "Ike!" She said brightly.

"Hi," Isaac said smiling, he moved Taylor out of the way so the girls could enter the house, "These must be the friends you were telling me about," he said, then politely introduced himself to Ashley and Nicole.

Lauren looked at Ike, "Okay, um…I guess, you could take Ash and Nicole down to the garage or something, and I can start my work with Tay…"

"That’s fine," Isaac nodded, he brushed his hand against her arm in a friendly – or much more than friendly gesture. "It’s this way," He said, leading Ashley and Nicole down the hall, "Zac is down there preparing some basic beats for ya," he said to Nicole.

Lauren watched as Isaac, Ash and Nicole disappeared down the garage, then she turned to Taylor. Taylor looked quite exhausted, the area below his eyes were smudged with purple from lack of sleep, his eyes were drooping, he had a fatigue blotch on his left cheek, the rest of him was more pale than usual. She wanted to tell him he looked like shit, but held it in for some reason, and followed him as he wordlessly led her to the living room.

Avery raised her eyes to Lauren, "Hi, Lauren," she said sweetly.

"Hi," Lauren said.

Taylor noticed Timon & Pumbaa had finished on the TV, which gave him and Lauren time to study in here – that was if he could get rid of Avery.

"Avie, why don’t you go outside and play with Jessie?" Taylor suggested.

"But Home Improvement is on…" Avery trailed off.

Taylor failed to understand how a six year old girl could even understand that show and think it was funny. "It’ll be repeated later, you can watch it then," he said, he took her by the shoulders and began leading her out of the room.

He returned to Lauren a moment later, realising everything suddenly seemed a lot hazier than it had before, and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. "Okay…lets…um…" he had trouble thinking for a moment, "start where we left off," he said.

Lauren could see he was tired, she glanced slightly at him for a moment, then began studying, today she was a lot more determined to do this and not have Taylor yell at her. Still, she had to admit, since she’d been studying with Taylor her grades had gone up slightly.

Along the way, Taylor was explaining things with great difficulty, and he talked slowly, and let out slight yawns here and there.

Taylor promised himself he would only close his eyes for a moment, he didn’t realise he was too tired to let that moment last less than he wanted it to.

Lauren was about to ask Taylor a question, when she turned, she noticed he was fast asleep, his head tipped at the back of the couch, his eyes closed lightly. She laughed and turned back to her studies, she felt him slump and his head landed on her shoulder. She was surprised at this, and no matter how hard she pushed him, he wouldn’t move. "Tay," she groaned.

Taylor didn’t stir, he remained there.

At that moment, Isaac entered the room, Lauren blushed, this must have looked pretty incriminating, at least to this guy who seemed to like her a lot.

"He’s been tired all day," Isaac commented.

"He’s kinda heavy," Lauren commented, "can you get him off of me?"

Isaac chuckled and he walked over, he somehow managed to move Taylor to the other side of the couch so he himself could sit beside her. "How’s the studying going?"

"Well, my tutor just fell asleep on me, what does that tell you?" Lauren questioned.

"It tells me…that you need help," Isaac took her book and smiled, "What are you working on?" he asked.

"Page forty-five," she answered.

Isaac looked at the page, studied over it briefly, he understood it simply, "ah, you gotta read this…all the answers to these questions here…" he motioned to page forty-six, "see, if you read this paragraph here, you’ll find out the answers to questions two, six and nine. Then, once you’ve did that, go back onto page…forty-three, brief over it, and you’ll find the answers to the rest," he said, "its really easy, and if you need help, just ask…I know most of this stuff, I did it around two year ago," he explained.

"Cool," Lauren smiled, "thanks, Isaac…god, you’re a lot better at tutoring than Taylor is," she confessed, "Taylor just told me to ‘go over this and answer these’ she explained, "I was taking lucky guesses in answering these questions, I didn’t know the answers were in there…"

"Yeah, its kinda a cheat," Isaac chuckled, "But it’s the surest way to get the answers right, if you wanted you could figure them out, but this way, by studying the notes on the page, you’re sure to get it right…" he explained.

Lauren looked at him, finding his dark brown eyes, "like I said…you’re better than Taylor, he wouldn’t explain this, just expected me to know it…at least you take time to explain…Taylor just…acts like he doesn’t want me around or something…"

Isaac rolled his eyes, "Taylor doesn’t know what he’s missing," Isaac then announced.

Lauren raised an eyebrow. "What is he missing?"

"He’s missing out on a lot of things…a lot of good things…" Isaac said quietly, his voice slight.

"Like?" Lauren asked, she felt her heart thud at the moment she asked it.

Isaac leaned forward a little, "Like this," he whispered and he placed his lips on hers, the kiss was soft, gentle, as she’d expected it to be with Isaac, he buried one hand into her hair, tipped her head back a little and leaned over her that way, she held onto his shoulders. Soon the kiss deepened, the thought to stop in case someone walked in on them did occur to both of them, but they didn’t care. Isaac’s tongue protruded her mouth, and she responded the same, their embrace became a little more intimate and closer, the kiss became deeper.

Taylor snapped his eyes open, he’d heard a little of their conversation, he’d woken up not long after Isaac had moved him, but he’d kept his eyes closed, wanted to find out what was going on, couldn’t believe that Isaac was making out with this girl – with him there.

Cheesy creep, Taylor thought about his brother, he kicked Isaac hard in the back, Isaac, shocked, fell off the sofa and Taylor quickly closed his eyes pretending to be asleep. Lauren had fallen with Isaac and she leaned up, "What the hell happened?" she asked, wondering how they’d fallen.

Isaac frowned a little, and he looked at Taylor, realising he was awake.

Seeing a slight smirk force its way into Taylor’s expression, Lauren fumed, she got up, and grabbed Taylor by the shirt, and dragged him up with all the strength her little body could muster, "I’ve had just about ENOUGH!" she yelled at him, she dragged him out into the hallway and closed the door, much to Isaac’s surprise.

Taylor looked at her, tired, but happy he’d managed to get on her nerves somehow.

"Look, Taylor Hanson, I am sick of your stupid antics, god, do you know your little sister Avery is more mature than you are?!" she demanded.

He looked at her, "God, you can’t even see through Isaac, he’ll just take you ‘cos you’re there, ‘cos he’s desperate, he doesn’t even like you that way," Taylor muttered.

Lauren didn’t know why she got that mad when he said that Isaac would only take her because he was desperate, but her anger rose instantly, she lashed out with her hand and slapped him hard on the left side of his cheek.

Taylor clutched his cheek, his eyes holding back tears, he gaped at her.

"If you took as many piano lessons as you took to learn to be asshole, you’d be a better pianist than Beethoven. And you’re so cold that every time you open your mouth a light comes on! I wish I’d never met you, you immature nasty little shit!" she yelled at him, then she turned and stomped off back into the living room, Isaac was standing there.

"What did you say to him?" Isaac asked worriedly.

"I told him I was sick of his antics," Lauren muttered.

"You didn’t have you yell at him, god, Taylor is sensitive, he doesn’t take too well to being yelled at…"
"I don’t care, god, what he said about you was enough to make me mad…" Lauren folded her arms shaking her head.

Isaac sighed, "Well…just to let you know, when you make an enemy with Taylor…um…its not very pleasant…and you have to study with him."

Lauren had forgotten about that, but still, she’d endured this much, she decided she could take anything. "We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it…" she said.