EPISODE TWO – It’s Just a Little Crush ("Crush", Jennifer Paige.)

Two days passed. Life tried to go on its way, as per usual, but Isaac was always in his miserable strop, and Taylor was trying to avoid his family, he was afraid they’d notice how thin he was getting lately, he looked like he hadn’t eaten for weeks.

Taylor and Lauren were studying, together, without any argument so far, and up in the bedroom Taylor shared with his brothers at his house. Normally Diana would have never let any of her sons have a girl up there, but since she’d been doubting Taylor’s sexuality for a couple of months now, she had no problem with it. It wasn’t like they were going to do anything, was it?

Lauren was stretched out on Taylor’s bed and Taylor was sitting at the Lego table, doing some light homework, a few things for English. Lauren was on French Homework, and Taylor was giving occasional help.

Lauren seemed distant every so often, there was a mirror on the wall Taylor was facing, and behind him, he could see Lauren staring into space. He could see she had that thoughtful expression on her face, a questioning ‘what if’ of some kind of situation she could be facing. Taylor realised the girl was mooning about some boy, probably this Jon guy he’d heard of two days ago. He didn’t know Lauren to probe deep enough into her personal life. Her personal life was as much a mystery to him as he himself was to her. He wondered if she even had a personal life, obviously, she must have one, he realised.

Lauren laughed softly to herself, and smiled.

Taylor turned, looking at her. Yes, she was definitely mooning.

Again, she was giggling to herself like an idiot, and he tried to ignore it, but it was still there, some secret amusement burning within her and she probably wasn’t even aware that she was laughing at it.

"What’s so funny?" he questioned, he ran his fingers through his hair to comb it back from his eyes.

"Huh?" she asked stupidly.

"You were laughing…" Taylor trailed off.

"Was I?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"What was funny?

"Ohh, nothin’," she barely seemed to notice his presence, she giggled, it was a sickly sweet giggle, so girlish, so…unlike her. Almost more like something from Clueless or something.

"Oh, come on, what the hell was that all about?" Taylor asked, pointing out to her laughing.

"Just…" she giggled, "some joke Jon told me, that’s all…" she shrugged, "Its not important anyway," she added, she continued with what she was doing, then paused, "do you think Ike would mind if I brought him to his party?"
"Probably, Ike doesn’t really want people he doesn’t know at this party…" Taylor lied, he just didn’t want to ever meet Jon, the way Lauren talked and smiled about Jon was bad enough. Taylor hated this guy already, and he couldn’t figure out why.

"Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to find some other way to ask him out," she decided in a flat tone, she propped her chin up on her hand.

Oh, yeah, she’s got it bad, Taylor rolled his eyes, he rubbed out a mistake in his homework and wrote in another answer. "Do you think he likes you?"
Lauren smiled, "I think so…I hope so…" she then blushed and sat up, "But what am I telling you this for, you’re a guy, you don’t wanna hear all about my…" she trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"Crush," he interrupted, "That’s all it is, in a couple of weeks, you’ll be wishing you’d never even met him," Taylor rolled his eyes, he knew how these crushes went, thank god he’d never ever had one of his own.

"I will not wish I’d never met him!" Lauren said, she say up, smiling to herself, "He’s funny, sweet, he’s so cute…" she got that dreamy look in her eyes that disgusted Taylor, she turned to look at him, "You know what your problem is?"

"What?"
"You’re such a sourpuss you can’t stand anyone else to be happy," Lauren commented, she held her head up high, nose to the air.

He threw a pair of discarded sweat socks from the floor directly at her, "oh, shut up," he faked a posh English accent.

She yelped and moved away from the socks as they fell on Taylor’s bed, "that is gross! They’re still damp!!!" she held her nose.

Taylor grinned, "Yup."
"You’re a sicko."

"Yup."

Lauren got up from the bed and walked over to the window, "do you ever do anything but study?" she questioned suddenly, she looked out into the woods out back which was part of the Hanson property.

"Yeah, I play music…" Taylor answered, not looking up from his homework.

"I mean like…see movies, or…um…go bowling or go rollerblading…"
"I used to do those things…before I started getting stalked by thousands of girls every time I tried to leave the house," Taylor’s voice was quite sullen. His eyes raised to hers. "Why are you asking anyway?"

"I’ve only ever seen you leave this house on very few occasions, and never unless you absolutely had to," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, now you know why," Taylor mumbled and turned away from her, pretending to continue with his homework. He rather wished she hadn’t brought that subject up, he felt very imprisoned in this house. He just wanted to get out, steal his parents van and drive – if he knew how to drive – and get as far away as possible, out of the way of fans and family, and reporters. Out of the way of life and just sit and think and be free to do so.

Lauren uttered under her breath, "I’d hate to be you, Tay…you have it so good, yet, with such shitty sacrifices to be made because of it," she moved over to the table.

"Yeah, well…life is full of sacrifice, I suppose a personal life and imprisonment are just a few of those sacrifices I have to endure to get through it."
He sounded so composed, as if he’d been asked this question before, and he’d answered the exact same words. It was as if he’d accepted his life would forever be like this, being stuck at home without a social life, forever being involved in advanced studies, and relying on his brothers and sisters for company. It wasn’t a very interesting life at the moment.

Lauren was looking at him, his back, his T-shirt being of a thinner lighter material than usual, clung to his body showing through all of his curves. She could see how strikingly thin the boy was. She couldn’t remember him being that thin when she’d first met him. He was getting thin, losing weight rapidly. Not good for a boy who already had seemed underweight. "Tay, are you—" she wanted to ask if he was eating alright lately, but he caught her off guard, "Wanna play Tekken3?" he asked.

She wasn’t sure if he’d sensed her question or what, but she agreed to it, knowing there’d be a lot more time to ask that question, later.