Taylor looked in the mirror at his cheek, her handprint was there, for being small she packed a hell of a slap. He gingerly poked at the raw area of skin, wincing in pain. Sighing he soaked a washcloth and pressed it to his stinging skin.

God, how could she do that? He tried to warn her that it wasn’t right for her and Isaac to go out with each other. He wasn’t even sure how he knew that it wasn’t right – that they weren’t meant to be together – but he just knew, it was this feeling deep inside of him. Not that he cared. He couldn’t give a damn, he had to remind himself she needed him, and he was going to make it hell for her. Oh, yeah, she’d pay for slapping him like that. He was going to make sure of that.

Zac watched Nicole Watson as she picked up the easy ‘1 and 2 and’ beat he’d decided would be the best to teach her first. He stood watching from where he was in the corner, leaning in between the two walls. Nicole was very quiet, she hardly spoke at all, and when she did it was to say "okay" or "oh right," to any thing Zac said. She was a very frail looking girl, with shiny brown hair, and dark green eyes, very clear olive skin, and she dressed very casually in plaid shirts, jeans and Caterpillar boots. Zac figured she was around his age, maybe a year older, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was she was far too quiet for his liking.

Nicole skipped a beat, and frowned, she shook her head at her own mistake and she tried again, seeming to forget the beat.

Zac walked over, "having trouble?"

Nicole only nodded to his question.

He moved over in a limp – due to his injured ankle – to her left and held her left hand with the drumstick in it, "Okay, just stomp your foot on the bass peddle when you hit the 1, and only on the ‘and’ and keep it going that way," he explained, "you had it a minute ago, you just got to get into the rhythm…"

He watched with much interest as she tried again. How would he get her to talk to him more, so he could find out what she was like?

I know what she’s like, Zac thought. She’s too quiet.

"You’re doing it wrong," Zac then said softly, "You gotta keep your fingers curled around the drumsticks," he explained, "your liable to hurt your index fingers if you don’t," he explained.

"Oh," she murmured.

Isaac returned from his venture upstairs, Lauren at his back, Lauren looked a little annoyed, Isaac seemed a little edgy.

"Hey," Lauren said to Zac.

"Hey," Zac said.

Lauren walked over to one of Taylor’s keyboards, "how much did Taylor pay for this thing?" she asked out of wonderment, she brushed her fingers against the keys of the expensive looking instrument.

"Too damn much," Isaac stated, "his keyboards are like his babies," he rolled his eyes.

Ashley, who’d remained quiet up until this point, smiled, "Like Lauren, she’d never part with her keyboards."

Isaac looked at Lauren and Ashley, "what kind of music do you do anyway?" he asked, he leaned against the wall with one hand.

"A lot, ballads, pop…anything," Lauren shrugged.

Zac looked at them, "why don’t you play us something…let us see what you can do."

"I don’t think so," Ashley shook her head, "It would be embarrassing playing in front of a couple of major celebrities who’ve had more training than we have," she didn’t speak much, Isaac noticed when she did she had a thick accent and her r’s rolled off her tongue and a jerking tone of voice.
"Nah, we insist," Isaac smiled, he pulled out his acoustic guitar and passed it over to Ashley, "I mean, it would help to find out what kinda music you can do, then, if you like, we can help write you some drum beats for the songs you have to fill in," he explained, "so let us see what you can do."
Lauren and Ashley looked at each other and shrugged, "Okay, um…we need microphones," Lauren stated.

Isaac went about setting the microphone stands up for them both, and when this was done, Lauren set the keyboard to a sharp piano mode, and put it on sustain for an echo, "Okay, um…are we ready?" she asked Ashley.

"Yeah," Ashley nodded, she gave Isaac’s guitar a quick strum to test, then she braced herself. "Okay, um…what are we playing?" she asked, she looked at Lauren.

"How about ‘All I Did To You’?" Lauren asked, leaning on the keyboard.

"Well…okay, but its not gonna sound too good…" Ashley seemed doubtful about the song, "we only wrote it last night," she explained to Isaac and Zac.

"Okay, 1-2-3," Lauren counted softly, then she began playing after Ashley’s impressive guitar intro, and soon, they were harmonising together, the harmony missed a third voice, Isaac decided, but that wasn’t to be helped.

I can’t believe you’re here after all I did to you

I don’t know why you want to stay after the hell I put you through

Please go baby, ‘cause I don’t deserve someone like you

You need someone honest, babe, someone who can be true

So leave me now, baby, and I’ll live with all my lies

Run away and leave me, don’t even say goodbye

And I’ll think of how I hurt you, and inside I’ll surely die

And when I remember how much I loved you, I’ll cry

(***Authors note: The above is from a song I (Radge) wrote, its titled ‘All I Did To You’.***)

Taylor had entered the garage hearing the music from the house, he watched with curiosity as Ashley and Lauren played and sang in sweet harmony, the song very sad. He leaned against the banister, his head cocked to one side. The song missed a few elements, it was obvious it still needed work, and the girls needed a third vocal to fill in, Lauren’s high voice and Ashley’s softer barely audible tones would have benefited with something inbetween the two.

With a drummer and another vocalist those girls would make a hell of a band, he thought bitterly, he snuck out before he could be seen.

He shook his head, his face was still stinging, god, he was going to have to make Lauren pay for doing that to him. Okay, so maybe he had opened his mouth and deserved to be yelled at but she had no right to go slapping him around.

Maybe he’d help her on the wrong subjects in his tutoring, or maybe something else, something far worse, something that would really teach her a lesson.

I can be creative, he thought to himself as he entered the living room and flung himself down on the couch, the feeling of fatigue beginning to crash down onto him again. I’ll get her back for that, I swear it, were his final thoughts, before he closed his eyes, and felt himself drifting off peacefully.

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

Isaac and Zac applauded the girls as they finished their song, "That was great!" they both agreed.

"Thanks," Lauren said, she turned the keyboard off.

"You obviously don’t have many limits," Isaac admitted, "You’re good…you could make it…" he said, "I mean, like big time…but you need a drummer…" he admitted, "not that you aren’t already good, but you need the beat to fill in along the background…"
"Yeah, that’s why we’re here," Ashley reminded him.

"Yeah, well, me and Zac would be glad to help in any way we can," Isaac promised, he smiled.

Lauren looked at her watch, "we should go right now," she realised, "I have a ton of homework to do, Ash has her night job at the dry cleaners," she said.

Nicole stood up slowly, and put the drumsticks down on the stool, she gave Zac a quick glance, didn’t smile, but she had a thankful look in her expression.

Zac looked at Nicole, "just keep practising…" he stated to her quietly, "You’ll get the hang of it."

She gave a quick nod, understanding, her green eyes averted from his.

"Will you be over this weekend," Isaac asked hopefully, giving Lauren an almost desperate look.

"Maybe tomorrow, if that’s okay by you," Lauren said.

"Yeah, sure, come around late morning maybe?" Isaac suggested.

"Great, that would be fine…" Lauren nodded, "We’ll see you then," she said.

Lauren shot up from her bed, gasping in shock, she frowned, just a dream, she told herself sternly, just a stupid, stupid dream. Doesn’t mean anything, she promised herself, she laid her head down on the pillow, sighing in relief that a dream was all it had been. Thinking about Taylor that way was certainly not in the picture.

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

Taylor was looking at Lauren and she was looking at him back, there was a glimmer in her eyes, one he couldn’t place, it was as if she suddenly liked him for who he was despite all he’d done. He certainly couldn’t understand that, but he didn’t care. They were in his living room, on his couch. The dimmer light was down as far as it could go creating an almost illusion of candle light. MTV was on the television, the video they were watching – November Rain by Guns ‘n Roses – had just finished, and the next song was already playing onto the end of the song then morphed into the next video which happened to be a very familiar romantic song..

(***Authors Note: the above song is by The Eagles, its called "I Can’t Tell You Why"***)

"Shit," he sighed. He lay back, closed his eyes, tried to focus on falling back asleep, but his mind was whirring about the dream and about the song he’d been trying to write for the past couple of days, just about everything, his mind wouldn’t shut off and wind down.

He realised this was going to be another sleepless night.