Isaac stepped into the bedroom he shared with Taylor and Zac silently, Taylor was still studying, hadn’t seemed to have moved, when Isaac came in the room, he gave all his attentions, and sat up from where he was lying reading.

"What’s up?" Taylor asked, sensing Isaac’s distress.

"I got turned down big time," Isaac whined, he sat down on the floor, folded legged and sighed.

"By who?" Taylor questioned, putting his book down, and giving Isaac his full attention.

"Ashley," Isaac said with another dramatic sigh.

"I thought you didn’t like Ashley that way," Taylor straightened up, wondering why it had taken Isaac so long to realise Ashley was perfect for him. Then again, Taylor couldn’t quite comprehend why Ashley had turned Isaac down.

"I do…I realised it around two weeks ago, been thinking about it ever since," Isaac’s dark eyes glanced down to the floor, "I don’t get it, Tay, she didn’t even give me a reason for turning me down, it was just ‘I can’t’ and nothing more, and when I said I’d see her later, she told me she was going back to Scotland."
"Scotland?! She’s from there?" Taylor asked, "and she’s going back for good…?"

"Not for good, but…for a while I guess…" Isaac shrugged, "I didn’t stick around to find out, I felt so out of place…" he explained, "I really…I mean, I wanted her to say yes so bad, and she just totally blew me off," he grumped, he held his breath and counted to ten, trying to calm himself down.

Taylor rolled his eyes, if he could he’d call Lauren and make sure she got in touch with Ashley for Isaac to find out what was going on, but then he couldn’t, he wasn’t really in her good-books and she wasn’t in his. He decided, with no doubt in his mind, that he’d probably never see her again.

"Life sucks, doesn’t it?" Taylor asked, lying down on his bed and picking up his book.

"When you’re us, it does," Isaac decided.

A month passed, falling on the end of October, life went on, unfortunately. Isaac, Taylor and Zac were called to the set of Melrose Place to make an appearance, and this happened on Zac’s birthday. Taylor was too engulfed in his studies to notice much going on around him, Zac felt miserably, though he wasn’t sure why, and Isaac was busy constantly phoning his cousins in Tulsa to find out information on Ashley. His older cousin at the employment agency in Tulsa had given him faint details that she was eighteen, from Scotland, and had worked since she was sixteen. On the other hand, his other cousin, Amanda, knew Ashley, and said that Ashley had gone to Edinburgh in Scotland to deal with "family matters". Taylor didn’t think much about Lauren during that month, he was so wrapped up in passing a series of important exams.

On Zac’s birthday, stuck in a hotel, a phone his only companion, Isaac decided to take a plunge and ask the only person on the world he knew could help him. Okay, yes it meant calling Lauren up and telling her he was sorry, and he regretted hurting her -–he did – and it would seem so insensitive to apologise about using a girl that way then ask her for her best friend’s address or phone number or something. Sighing, he picked up the phone, and dialed Lauren’s number, which he’d found in his mothers address book.

He waited, until the phone was answered, "Hello?"

Isaac sucked in a breath, "Can I speak to Lauren please?" he asked in a polite manner.

"Speaking," Lauren’s voice was curious.

"This is Isaac…" Isaac paused, "I…"

"What do you want?" Lauren asked coldly.

"To apologise," Isaac answered carefully, "I’m really, really sorry about what I did," He made his voice sincere, more sincere than it was.

"That doesn’t make it better, Ike," Lauren said in a tone of apathy, quite frankly she’d grown to forget it, but didn’t want Isaac to know she’d already considered the situation history.

Isaac sighed.

Lauren paused, "You’re phoning about Ashley," she said knowingly.

Isaac stuttered, "H-h-how?"

"Lucky guess," Lauren gave another dramatic pause, just for effect, "you asked her out."

"She told you?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah…" Lauren answered.

"Oh…" Isaac replied softly, not knowing what else to say.

Lauren’s confusion could be heard on the other end, "I take it from that tone of voice you got turned down?"

"I thought she’d told you…"
"She told me you asked her out the night before she left, she didn’t tell me if she gave you a reply or not and I wasn’t going to nose in."

"Oh," Isaac replied again, he paused, "She…just turned me down, then told me she was leaving for Scotland of all places…I didn’t know how to get in touch or anything, she was gone a day later…"
"Yeah, she had to go back home," Lauren explained.

"Why?"

"Family stuff, she won’t even tell me, its something do with Nicole or something," Lauren shrugged, "I’m not sure if Nicole is coming back though, so maybe you better tell Zac the drum lessons might be cancelled," Lauren suggested.

"He doesn’t need to hear that right now, right now Nicole was about the nearest he had to a friend his own age, his only friend," Isaac explained, but paused, "Lauren…is Ashley coming back?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes…definitely," Lauren answered.

"When?" Isaac asked desperately.

Zac stepped into the room, looking for Isaac. Isaac lifted his hand to motion for Zac to wait a moment.

Lauren faltered on the phone, "I…don’t know, I mean, she didn’t even tell me, she just said she’d be back when he was done, she didn’t know how long it was gonna take, whatever ‘it’ is," she explained.

Isaac frowned at the thought, Lauren didn’t even seem to know anything either. Maybe that was one of the mysteries of Ashley. He wanted to find out more. The first moment he’d seen her, seen her eyes, there had been something about her, almost like a secret, it was there, lurking, waiting to be discovered. Now, he wanted to know that secret more than anything. The secret that was her. "Lauren…I need…I mean…please…help me find her…"
Lauren paused, "Ike…" she sounded a little reluctant, "0131 467 1108," she sighed.

Isaac paused, a number, a phone number, his heart jumped and he grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil to write this down.

"Phone an international dialler and ask for Scotland," Lauren stated.

"Thanks," Isaac smiled.

"Just…Ike…I swear to god, if you do to her what you did to me…" she trailed off.

"I won’t…that was a mistake I never meant," Isaac sighed, feeling guilt sweep over him for a moment.

"I understand," Lauren accepted.

"Okay…I have to go…"
"Oh, one more thing…"Lauren paused. "How’s Tay?"

Isaac was kind of taken aback by that, "He’s tired…heavily involved in his studies. Why?"

Lauren took a moment to think, "Well, the last time I saw him, he was really upset, said a lot of stuff about being alone and stuff…and your mom pressuring him to tutor me."

"My mom didn’t pressure him bad, she just decided she’d lighten off the load of his homework and stuff if he taught you, however, she let him think that if he didn’t teach you, she’d be giving him more work. Just a ploy…"

"Oh, okay…" Lauren sighed, "I’ll see ya later, Ike, Bye," Lauren responded quickly and hung up before he could ask anything else.

Isaac hung up, looking at Zac, "What is it?" he asked.

"What were you calling Lauren for?"

"I need to talk to Ashley," Isaac said quietly, not quite wanting Zac to know that he had feelings for Ashley, he decided to go to another truth, sighing, "Zac…Nicole…went back to Scotland with Ashley…"

"SCOTLAND?!" Zac demanded kind of surprised about this, he hadn’t known about this.

"Yeah…Lauren reckons she might not be coming back," Isaac said, "I thought you should know."

"Oh," Zac pretended to look not bothered, but it somehow made him feel more miserable than he had before, what a birthday.

"Look, cheer up," Isaac patted Zac’s shoulder.

"I’ll try," Zac said, sounding very un-optimistic.

"Not Every guy gets to celebrate their birthday with Heather Locklear," Isaac reminded.

Zac’s voice was bitter as he left the room, "But that wasn’t who I wanted to spend my birthday with."

Isaac wasn’t sure what to make out of that comment, so he left it be, deciding that Zac was probably just feeling glum and miserable about being away from home, or maybe lonely because he wasn’t teaching Nicole drums right now.

Isaac sighed, seemed everyone was depressed lately.