Suddenly filled with a burst of energy, she ran down the hall and into the living room. "Where is Taylor?" she yelled at the drunken teenagers on the beds and the floor. They stared at her blankly. "Did Tay come through here Ike?" she asked.

"Nooooope," Isaac said in a sing-song voice. "He went....he went to look for somebody. But that was a long time ago. Oh, I know. He went to look for you. Yeah. That's it."

"Thanks Ike," she said sadly, touching his cheek. "You're not helping me at all though. She shivered suddenly, feeling a breeze. A breeze? In a heated hotel room? Then she saw it. The balcony door was opened. Oh no, she thought. She knew that there was a door on the side of the balcony that led to the stairwell. That must have been where Taylor had gone.

"I'll be right back," she said to no one in particular, since the others were laughing hysterically at a rerun of "Boy Meets World". She shook her head and then took off running out the door to the balcony. Sure enough, the door to the stairwell was wide open. She ran through it and debated for a second before going down.

She didn't stop running until she hit the bottom set of stairs. There were two doors in front of her. The one on the left read "To Lobby", and the one on the right read "To Parking Lot". She figured that Taylor wouldn't want to face a lot of people, so she chose the door to the parking lot.

A blinding rain had begun since her time on the balcony, and she was thankful that her thin jacket was hooded. A sudden vision caught her eye in a nearby streetlight. He was standing there, leaning on the pole, looking up into the rain. She knew how much he had to drink, and she knew that he was probably disoriented and trying to sober himself.

"TAYLOR!" she yelled through the deafening sheets of rain. His eyes met hers in a bolt of lightning for a split second. His baby blues flashed angrily before he turned and broke into a run. She was running then, right behind him, with her hair plastered all over her face. They exited the parking lot with Taylor only ten feet ahead of her. He turned left sharply and headed down the crowded main strip of road. This place was probably packed during the day, but at one-thirty in the morning it was deserted.

As Taylor got cocky and pulled farther ahead of Nicole, his foot hit a deep puddle and sent him flying. He went a few feet before flopping into the mud on his stomach, hard.

Oh god, Nicole thought. Please let him be okay! He looked unconscious, but he had apparently only had the wind knocked out of him. Besides a deep-looking cut on his cheek, he appeared fine. His breath was coming in choppy gasps, and he was completely soaked, as was she.

Nicole quickly and swiftly hoisted his body onto her shoulder, ignoring the weight, and pushed him onto the sidewalk. She sat down beside him and gave him a few minutes to recover.

When he seemed to be breathing normally again, she began to gently wipe at his cut cheek with her fingers. He quickly jerked away and turned his face from hers.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" he asked shrilly. "Don't you see how much it hurts when I'm around you. I gave you..." He stopped, catching his ragged breath. He seemed to be less drunk and more focused now. Nicole had no idea how this had happened.

"Taylor, I-," Nicole began.

"SHUT UP!" he yelled. "Shut up and listen to me for once Nicole!" This caused her to shut her mouth and stare silently, shocked again. "I gave you my heart and do you know what you did?" He glared at her for a moment. Afraid to speak, she could only shake her head unknowingly. He continued. "You took it, you threw it on the ground, you spit on it, and you stomped all over it. And when you finished, you just threw it away like it meant nothing. How could you do that Nicole?"

"I...I don't know Tay. I didn't mean to. I didn't know that I was doing it. I'm sorry."

"Just stop," he said, running his hands through his matted hair. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with pain. "Don't apologize to me. Not now." He stood up and began to walk back in the direction of the hotel. He staggered to the right as he walked, and she could see that the alcohol was still affecting him.

"Wait-," she began.

But he kept on walking. Swaying slightly and stumbling every few steps, he made his way back to the hotel. He pulled the plastic key card out of his pocket and slid it swiftly into the lock. The room was neat and untouched, and he could see that Ike had never come back. Zac sat in the floor in front of the bed, playing a gameboy.

"What in the world happened to you?" Zac asked, looking at his brother's upsetting condition. He watched as Taylor silently went into the bathroom, washed and cleaned the cut on his face, and removed all of his clothes but his boxers. He then ran a sink full of warm water and dipped his face and hair in for a few minutes before climbing into his bed. He never said a word the whole time, and this scared Zac more than it would have if Taylor had come in stark raving mad.

Zac sat back down, on his bed this time, and restarted his gameboy. He was engrossed in a game of Donkey Kong Country when the phone rang.

"Hello?" he asked curiously. He had never gotten a phone call at three in the morning before.

"Zac?" a tear-choked voice whispered. It sounded like Nicole.

"Yeah," he said. "Nic, are you all right?"

"No," she said, "but that doesn't matter. Is Tay there?"

"Yep," Zac said. "He's asleep though. Ya want me to wake him up?"

"No no no!" she said, too quickly. "Don't wake him," she said. "I was just making sure that he's okay."

"Well, besides the fact that he came here all wet and dirty, stripped down to his boxers, dunked his head in a sink, and got in bed without saying one word. What's wrong with him Nic?"

"Zac, it's not my place to say," Nicole said. The pain in her voice was enough to stop his curiosities. "He'll tell you if he wants to. Just don't ask him about it, please."

"Okay Nic," Zac said with a sigh. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Zac, I honestly have no idea," Nicole whispered.