Isaac looked down at the phone, he was having a hard time deciding if he should call or not. He’d waited a few days, hoping maybe she’d return to Tulsa, he’d called her home number fourteen times, never getting any answer. I need an answer, I need to hear her voice, Isaac realised miserably, he was lying across the couch looking at the phone. It had been a whole month thinking of what could be, thinking of how much more he wanted to get to know her.

Isaac reached for the phone and picked it up, then put it down. "No," he told himself, deciding there was a possible chance she might not want to hear from him right now. But then again, how would he know if he didn’t call her to find out?

Isaac fretted, he tried to tell himself that the only reason she’d turned him down for the date the last time was because she was leaving for Scotland the next day.

She has to like me, she has no reason not to, I mean, I’ve always treated her okay and stuff, he decided to himself, he reached for the receiver and picked it up again, he held it up for a moment, then placed it back. But what if she’s not interested? He sighed and stared down at the phone, chewing the inside of his cheek.

Go for it, was his final decision.

He reached for the receiver for the final time and he put it to his ear and punched in her number, waited, there was a long ringing tone, and then, her voice.

"Hello?"

Isaac’s heart jumped, "Hi, is this Ashley?" he asked immediately.

"Aye, who is this?" came her voice, her accent ever so much stronger than he had remembered it, and the word aye came up in there almost making him want to smile at how strange that sounded to him.

"It’s Isaac," he said in a very soft voice, he smiled softly, hoping she knew he was smiling.

"Oh…Isaac, hi…" her tone told him she was confused about why he was calling long distance.

He jumped on the chance to explain himself, but the words never did actually get out quite right, "I’m just calling because I wanted to know how you were…"

NOOOOO, that’s not the reason! He thought at himself, the reason I’m calling is because I want you back home and I want you with me! His thoughts even sounded miserable to him.

"Oh…" came her response.

"When are you coming back home?" He asked, wondering if he sounded far too hopeful and desperate.

"I don’t know…" was her response to this, which made his heart sink.

"Why are you there? Is everything okay?" He questioned.

"It’s just some family stuff…to do with Nicky," Ashley gave a quick explanation and left it at that.

Isaac didn’t know why he blurted out what he did, but when it came, he felt himself melt, "I miss you."
She went silent on the phone, not the kind of response he’d hoped for, he waited a few moments, there was no sound, he wondered if she’d hung up.

"Hello?" he asked in a timid voice.

"I’m here," her voice broke through the silence from the other end.

"Oh," He felt a hurt in the fact she hadn’t even mentioned anything about him telling her he missed her. And it was true, he did miss her. He missed the little time they’d shared, practising their guitars and singing, or just talking while Taylor would be tutoring Lauren. God, I should have realised from the moment I saw her… he regretted.

"Isaac, I have to go…it’s really late here," Ashley’s voice was quivering.

"I…okay," he agreed, he felt like rambling, trying to explain, now he was beginning to realise something might be wrong with him, that she didn’t like him for some odd reason he couldn’t pinpoint.

"Bye, Isaac," she said softly.

"Bye," he said softly, and listened as she hung up, he sat there, holding the phone to his ear for several seconds, then he put it down slowly, just as he did, the phone rang, his heart jumped. He picked it up, hoping to god it was Ashley and that she’d maybe changed her mind, "Hello?"

"Hi, this is Lauren, I need Taylor," came Lauren’s voice a second later.

Isaac’s heart dropped, "okay, hold on, I’ll go get him…" Isaac put the phone on the edge of the couch, and went into the hall, stood at the bottom of the stairs and yelled up to Taylor, "TAY!!! PHONE!!"
"WHO IS IT?!" Taylor demanded from the bathroom, from where he was taking a shower.

"LAUREN!" Isaac answered.

"I’M IN THE SHOWER!"

"THEN GET OUT OF THE SHOWER!" Isaac rolled his eyes.

There was a quick silence, then Taylor came trudging down the stairs with only a white towel wrapped around his waist, wet skin and hair dripping all over the place. "Why can’t people just even let me have a simple SHOWER in peace?!" Taylor demanded.

Isaac glanced at Taylor, "Because you deserve that, after the way you’ve treated her, you deserve it," he stated, and then disappeared down to the garage to practise.

Taylor stalked into the living room and grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" he asked in an irritated tone.

"Hi, Tay," Lauren’s tone wasn’t as biting as usual.

"Lauren," Taylor spoke her name as if it were a word to ward off all evil. "What is it?" he asked, knowing she must have had a reason for calling.

"I have a history exam tomorrow, I just remembered about it, I need help, fast," Lauren answered.

Taylor paused, for a moment, he did consider helping her, knowing he’d never hear the end of it from his mother if he didn’t. But he realised, if he even dropped his own studies for a second he could fail in his own exam tomorrow, he had an exam in History and he knew if he failed it he’d just die. He needed to keep his grades up, couldn’t afford to let them drop.

"I can’t," he stated.

"Tay, I can’t do this! I can’t believe you’re being so mean!"
"It’s nothing to do with being mean!" he almost yelled, "I have an Advanced History exam tomorrow! I’m studying my own stuff."

"I can’t do this without you…" she trailed off.

For a moment, Taylor didn’t know what it was, but he suddenly felt his heart flutter, he’d never felt so needed before, yet, he knew in his heart he couldn’t spare this time, he’d worked so hard on his studying lately, how could he just drop it for her?

"I mean…" she sounded very upset, "Can’t I just come over and study with you? I mean, if you’re there and I have a question I can ask, but for gods sake, please, Tay, if I fail this test, my mom and dad are gonna cut off my piano lessons…"

Her voice cut through the line, it sounded like that was one particular thing that bothered her. He realised her love of music was just as deep as his was, maybe deeper, he wasn’t sure, he’d never spent enough time with her to realise these things about her. "I…okay," He gave in, "But I am not promising anything," he added.

"Thanks, Tay, I’ll be over in around fifteen minutes," she stated, and then hung up.

Taylor sighed, and put the phone down and headed upstairs to finish his shower.