On Sunday morning Taylor stepped into the kitchen, feeling very relaxed, alert, almost as good as new, most of his fatigue had washed away, he looked a lot better and what fatigue blotches hadn’t faded away from his skin, he’d been able to conceal with a blemish stick his mother had in her makeup case. When he’d come home last night he’d went straight to bed and slept until eight that morning, it, being Sunday, everyone was sleeping in like usual, but he was full awake and feeling very good about himself today

He poured himself something to eat and headed somewhere comfortable. He sat in the living room, folded legged on the floor watching MTV, a bowl of Coco-Pops in one hand, spoon in the other, eating in between singing along to a song he could nod his head to.

(***Authors Note: The above song is "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop***)

Isaac walked into the room, he, as always looked bright and cheerful and well-slept, "Jesus Christ," he faked in a shocked tone, putting a hand to his chest as if he were about to take a heart-attack, "You’re in a good mood!!"

"Its not a good mood," Taylor shrugged, he took a huge spoon full of his chocolate cereal and he turned to look at his big brother, "I’m just feeling a lot better."

"How come you never said anything to us about the insomnia?"

"Hmmm, what insomnia?" Taylor turned back to the TV and grinned as Chumbawamba flickered onto the screen. "I love this song," he said to himself.

"The insomnia, Tay, don’t act like a complete dildo and just tell me about it," Isaac ordered, he sat down on the floor next to Taylor.

"I resent being called a dildo!" Taylor remarked.

"Okay, whatever," Isaac rolled his eyes, "Look, Tay, we haven’t been talking right for days, I know you’re mad at me for something, but…I dunno what it is, and I know you’ve been in a bad mood lately…Lauren told me that last night you got into an argument…and you slipped about the insomnia…"

"Its not insomnia," Taylor said, "I just…missed a couple of hours sleep a night…" he shrugged, "its not important."
"Tay, why couldn’t you sleep, have you been O.D.-ing on coffee or something?" Isaac demanded worriedly.

"Look, I wasn’t O.D.-ing on coffee," it was Taylor’s turn to roll his eyes now, "I just have some problems sleeping lately…"

Isaac sighed, lately Taylor wasn’t being as open as he was, then again, Taylor had always had to be the kind of person you had to prod in the right places to get him to confess the right words to understand him. "Tay, c’mon…"

Taylor turned away, "Ike, d’you ever feel like…I don’t know, the moment you slow down to take a breather, everything catches up with you, but like…if you keep running and keep going, you feel right on track?"

Isaac understood, this was about the vacation, "is that what this is about? The free time?"

"I don’t know, its just, I wanted the free time, now that I have it, I’m spending it writing a stupid song I can’t finish, tutoring Lauren, I have my own studies to do…I mean, hell, Ike, this is really bringing me down. We spent the whole of our summer vacation on tour, never had a free moment to ourselves, now summer vacation is over, I have to spend it working on my studies and songs for the next album…"

"Tay, we don’t have to write songs for the next album, we have at least two hundred and fifty songs no one has heard…" Isaac reminded, "I’m not weighing myself down with studies, responsibilities, I’m enjoying this free time, you should be doing the same. And you should relax around Lauren, I know you don’t like her, but you always get tense and stuff. You’d like her if you got to know her…"

Taylor sighed, a familiar song came on the TV screen, he raised his eyes to the music video, "I Can’t Tell You Why," he announced the title of the song, "the Eagles."

Taylor paused, remembering the dream about Lauren, the smell of her hair – like Watermelons – and the feel of the softness of her lips against his own. He smiled slightly, that had been nice, but then again, he thought about it with the same attitude he had before – that was Lauren he was thinking about. The same Lauren who he couldn’t stand - Lauren who was flirting shamelessly with Isaac all the time. Why am I even thinking about her? I can’t stand her!

"What is it?" Isaac asked, "What were you smiling at?"

"Nothing, just thinking about something," Taylor said.

Isaac leaned his arms on his knees, "Lauren, Ashley and Nicole are gonna be here at midday, you’re gonna be tutoring Lauren for a couple of hours, then me, Zac, Nicole, Lauren and Ashley are all gonna practise the song they wrote together and see how it sounds."
Taylor sighed, "Sunday? My day off."

"Just for a couple of hours?" Isaac asked, "if she flunks her history test on Monday, she’s gonna be really pissed."
"I’ll be pissed too cos I’m teaching her all I know and she’s still failing," Taylor mumbled, shaking his head.

"She’d pay attention if you weren’t so nasty. God, I’d tutor her myself only I’m helping Zac coach Nicole…"

"You wouldn’t tutor her, you’d make out with her," Taylor snorted.

"So, what’s wrong with that?"

"Geez, you know you’re only going out with her cos she’s available, geez, why don’t you go for someone closer to your age…like Ashley or something."

"I like Lauren."

"You like her cos she’s there," Taylor got up, "I’m gonna go practise in the garage, so leave me alone until the terrible trio get here," he stated, then quietly left the room.