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Time flew by quickly with the drumming lessons, Zac tended to Nicole while Isaac, Lauren and Ashley spent the day watching movies in the school room. Zac hounded Nicole on every beat, but he taught her well, had her picking up speed, playing beats for long stretches of time without making errors, he was pretty pleased with his own results so far.

But it bugged him that Nicole was so quiet, she never spoke to him, being from a family who never shut up, Zac found this thoroughly mystifying.

After Nicole had gotten the hang of most of the basic drumbeats he’d taught her, he decided to show her something more complex, so he took a seat at his drums, hands poised, sticks ready, and began beating away, glancing out of the corner of his eye to see Nicole’s response. She looked quite impressed. Zac wasn’t even sure why he wanted to impress her. Somehow, for the first time in his life, he actually didn’t want to act as crazy in front of this girl as he had with a lot of other girls. This girl was different.

Zac spoke as he drummed, he looked straight at Nicole, "This is the drumbeat for Mmmbop, its quite easy if you’re already good at drumming, but since you’re just starting out you’re probably gonna need practise on this," he explained.

"It looks….hard," she said very quietly, only now had Zac noticed her accent was very similar to Ashley’s Scottish brogue.
"It is, but you’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure," he promised.

There was a glance, his brown eyes met her dark green ones for a brief moment, and for that brief moment, it was if he could read her, he could see through her shyness, she was funny, chatty, but she had to get through her shyness. How was he going to get her through it? He certainly couldn’t teach her drums much longer if she wouldn’t speak to him like a normal person.

He was about to explain the methods when he heard the door up the stairway creak open and he looked up in time to see Isaac walking into the garage.

"How is the drumming coming along?" Isaac asked.

"Great," Zac answered enthusiastically, "I’ve got her playing four basic beats, I’m gonna teach her ‘Mmmbop’ next, I mean, its not toooooooo complicated, is it?" Zac cocked his head to the side for a moment, thinking about it.

"Me, Lauren and Ashley are talking about going for pizza, you guys wanna tag along?"

"Of course!" Zac nodded eagerly.

"Sure," Nicole answered very quietly, Zac gave her a curious glance, okay, this was only the second day he’d known her, but he’d spent around eight hours of time with her already, surely she must be warming up to him and relaxing a little?

Isaac gave the two a quick glance, sensing something was up, "I’ll go wake up Tay," he said, then he left the room.

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

"Tay, wake up."
Taylor felt himself being shaken roughly, he opened his eyes, and suppressed the urge to sigh that the dirt bike experience had just been a dream, he raised his head, it was getting darker outside, looked like it was evening, he blinked, looking at Isaac, who’d woken him up.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Since noon," Isaac said.

"What time is it?"

"Its nearly seven," Isaac answered.

"Why’d you wake me up?" Taylor demanded, yawning, he still felt exhausted, this was the longest he had slept in a couple of days. He sat up, scratching his head, blinking, he lowered his head, rubbing at the back of his neck, which hurt from the awkward position in which he’d been lying. He didn’t even feel awake yet, every thing felt very bleary to him, his arm ached when he moved it, he felt so weak, he’d rather just go back to sleep.

"Me, Zac, Lauren, Ash and Nicky are going for pizza, mom says we have to ask you to come too," Isaac rolled his eyes, since his parents had offered to pay for everyone to go to dinner, he realise the least he could do was ask Taylor like his parents had ordered him to.

"Oh," Taylor said, personally a bit hurt Isaac wouldn’t want him there, just asked out of orders. That wasn’t even like Isaac.

"Well, are you coming or not?" Isaac asked impatiently, "C’mon, make up your mind."
"Um…well…what’s the point of me going, you don’t want me there, Lauren doesn’t like me, I’m sure Ash and Nicky don’t want me there either," Taylor grumbled, he weakly punched down the cushions he’d been laying his head onto try and put some puff back in them before he planned on laying his head down again for more much needed sleep.
"Look, stop thinking the whole world is against you."

"The whole world is against me," Taylor mumbled and slumped back down into the position he’d been lying, planning on going back to sleep. "Everyone hates me," he added, and gave a sigh and tried to fall asleep.

Isaac grabbed a hold of Taylor’s arm and pulled him up roughly and began dragging him into the hall towards their bedroom. "Just get in there, get some pants and a shirt on and move it, we’re not gonna wait forever, its about time you stopped moping about the house," he muttered, and left him outside their bedroom.

Taylor stumbled into their room in exhaustion, and shut the door. He sighed, he really didn’t feel like going out, he was so tired, he felt as if he closed his eyes right now he’d fall asleep standing up. He couldn’t suppress the constant urge to yawn, and he felt a little queasy, wondered if that was possibly from hunger, he hadn’t really eaten right these last few days.

It took some effort to get himself sorted, he stood for several minutes, trying to remember why he’d come in his room in the first place, he paused and stood looking around, then seemed to recall Isaac telling him to get ready. Feeling stupid for having forgotten something his brother had told him to do just two minutes previously, Taylor began searching through the closet, and when yanking out items of clothing, he felt like his arms were filled with Jello rather than blood, muscle and bones.

I am just not up to this, he thought miserably, he took a seat on his bed – the bottom bunk – and tried to pull himself together, god, why did he feel like he was falling apart at the seams? He let out a heavy hearted sigh, and shook his head in self pity. Taylor, when did you begin to take a nervous breakdown? He asked himself, he put his hands over his eyes – which were stinging and aching from the light. He felt like crying, he’d never felt this terrible in his whole life. It felt as if he would collapse.

But still, he had to remind himself, Isaac was right, he needed to get out, he’d only left the house once in these last few days, needed fresh air and to get something decent to eat. He turned to the full length mirror at his back, and looked into it. But look at me, I look terrible! He thought miserably, he shook his head in disgrace, his reflection stared back at him, eyes smudged with purple and red underneath. He suddenly remembered the dream, like a knife cutting through his thoughts, the feeling of his fall from the bike, and dying or passing out in that dream, what did it mean? The dream had to mean something.

It does mean something, Taylor realised. I was going too fast in the dream, and I wasn’t ready to cope with that ramp…its telling me something, I’m going too fast here, I’m coping with too much or something, he thought.

Just do it, Tay, and quit feelin’ so sorry for yourself, Taylor told himself.

He got up and threw his tanktop to the floor, and as he pulled down his shorts, his underwear accidentally came down as well.

He heard a click and he spun around, gaping as the bedroom door opened and Lauren was stepping in, "Taylor, here’s your shirt and your shorts from the dryer and…oh my god you’re naked…" she stopped halfway across the room, her eyes popping out of her head, her arms holding his clothes had dropped them to the floor.

Taylor managed to cover himself with the shirt just in time before she had a chance to see anything, "Argh! Are you crazy?! You’re supposed to knock before you come in!!" he yelled in an insane tone

Lauren pursed her lips together to stifle her smile. "Mmmm, okay," she answered, she backed her way out of the door, noticing that in the reflection of the full length mirror behind him she could see his bare behind. "By the way, Taylor…nice ass," she remarked smugly, and then dashed out of the bedroom.

Taylor chewed his lip, still blushing. "That girl is sooooo gonna get it," He muttered, and quickly began changing.