Isaac sat quietly thinking in his dorm room the next morning. He didn’t understand why Nora didn’t say I Love you back. It hurt. Bad. He is willing to give her his ALL and she obviously didn’t see it.
The ringing phone made him jump.
“Hello?” Isaac said after he picked up the phone.
“Isaac honey, How are you?” The sound of Diana’s voice calmed his
nerves.
“Hey Mom. I’m okay I guess. How’s everyone there?”
“Oh everything’s.. same old, same old. Taylor and Abby left yesterday. So everyone is kind of getting used to not being around him for a little while again.
“Abby? Who’s Abby? Another Taylor obsession?” Isaac laughed. There was a break of silence for a minute.
“Oh? No one told you! This should be good!” Diana said surprised.
“Well?! who is she?”
“An old friend.. that’s all I’m going to say. I’ll have Taylor tell you himself.”
“Mom! no! come one! tell me!” Isaac wined.
He heard his mom talking to someone in the background then another voice picked up the phone.
“Ike! hey man.”
“Zac, buddy! sup?. Now don’t be stupid like mom and tell me about
Taylor’s new girl.”
“Oh my gosh I can’t believe you haven’t heard! Haha. You are seriously NOT going to believe it!.” Zac shouted.
“Freakin A! Just tell me!”
“Her name is Abby.”
“Dah Zac, I picked that much up already!” Isaac said rolling his eyes.
“Come on Ike. Guess. What Abby’s do we know?” Zac questioned.
“Uh, let’s see. Abby Lorraine, Abby Brin, Abbie Little.. MUST I GO ON?!” By this time Isaac was about annoyed.
“Haha. okay so we know a few. Wrong question. But this one is special.
This one is different..” Zac sat down on the sofa.
“I have no clue Zac.” Isaac said giving up. He grabbed his can of coke and took a drink.
“Abby... Abby Dalton.” Zac said slowly.
Isaac choked and spit out his soda. “GET OUT!! Your lying! ABBY?! Where did he meet up with her?!”
“Florida, at college. Who would have thought huh?”
“This is amazing! How is she? I mean, Oh my gosh!” Isaac ran his hand through his short hair. This was beyond surprising! ‘Abby Dalton! this is so great!’ Isaac thought. He knew how much Taylor liked her while on tour. And now, them being together. How perfect is that?!
“I know. Isn’t it so bizarre.” Zac said.
“Hell yeah it is! whoa. I should give him a call.”
“Don’t even bother. He’s never home. At Abby’s twenty-four seven.” Zac laughed.
“Do you have Abby’s number?” He asked grabbing a pen and paper off
the small coffee table.
“Yeah one sec.”
Zac gave Isaac the number and they said their good-byes. Now all he had to do is track down his younger brother. He wanted to talk to that boy.

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

Zac pulled up to Kari’s house later that night. Her parents were due back Sunday morning. So he was still in the clear about coming over this time of the night and seeing her without calling first.
He walked up the front porch and rung the door bell. Soon enough Kari was unlocking the door and let him in.
“Hey.” Kari said bringing him into a hug.
“How are you doing?” Zac asked eyeing her, not letting his arms loosen from around her waist.
Kari sighed. “I’m okay. Had the most BORING day after you left so early this morning. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I just got up.”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to call off work but I just couldn’t. I need the money for my car. My alignment is getting jacked up.”
“Well don’t drive it so hard. Then maybe you won’t have these expenses.”
Kari laughed. She turned and walked into the laundry room.
“Guess who called when I got home from your house to get ready for
work!” Zac said as he leaned against the door frame. He sounded a little too excited.
“Who?” Kari said from halfway into the dryer. She pulled the rest of her clothes out and looked at Zac.
“Isaac. Haha. We completely forgot to tell him about Abby. Taylor’s Abby! He was like freaking out on me!” Kari laughed. “I can just imagine.”
“Man I would have paid money to see the look on his face when I told him.” Zac and Kari were now at the top of the stairs making their way to her room.
Once inside Kari set the basket of clothes on her bed and turned to face Zac. Then she spoke.
“Baby, I’m sorry about last night.. I didn’t get to even talk to you about it this morning since I was still aslee-”
Zac cut her off. “Shh. No, I don’t want to talk about it. You were right. I need to quit thinking with my.. you know..” Zac gestured down. “And start thinking with my head.” He pulled his hands up to either side of her face. “We’re ganna take it slow from here on out. okay? Sound good to you?”
“Yeah. I would like that.” Kari leaned in an gave him a kiss. Zac deepened it. Kari stopped and looked at him.
“I don’t mean we can’t full around Zac. It’s just... there’s a limit.”
“I understand.” He smiled.
“Now help me get these clothes folded.” Kari said turning back to her bed.
“Oh Kari! Wear this tonight.” Zac held up a black mini skirt and a cute fuzzy red sweater.
“Zac..” Kari wined at the thought of wearing a skirt on an occasion where she didn’t HAVE too.
“Oh come on. Only for two hours.” He flashed her a pathetic smile.
“Your awful!” She gave in, grabbing the outfit and setting it aside.

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

Warren walked slowly along the sidewalk. Zac wasn’t home, Mike wasn’t home and Dale was on vacation.
“This sucks.” He said out loud. The old man across the street walking his dog looked at him funny.
“Great now he thinks I’m a retard... standing here talking to myself.”
Warren muttered under his breath.
Just then he saw Zac’s car turning down the road, heading towards Kari’s house.
He ran to the other side of the street and caught up just as they were getting out.
“Hey!” Warren yelled.
“Oh, hey dude. What’s up?” Zac asked as he made his way around the
other side of the car to let Kari out. Warren gave the two of them a once over.
“Where may I ask, are you guys coming from?” The khakis pants and
button down green shirt Taylor wore told Warren that they definitely went somewhere nice.
“Oh I treated my beautiful girlfriend here to a romantic dinner on the river front.” Zac said in a cheesy English accent. Kari burst out laughing.
“Your such a dork, you know that!” She smacked him on the chest.
“Well any ways. I just wanted to see if you would want to come over
tomorrow afternoon and jam or something?” Warren asked shoving his cold hands into his pockets.
“Sure. That would be awesome. I’ll tell Mike about it tomorrow morning at work.”
“All right. I’ll talk to you then. You two have a nice night.” Warren smiled and winked at Zac.
“Get out of here.” Zac punched him. Warren walked off laughing.