“Sure,” Taylor said, looking up at her. His blue eyes were dark and full of confusion. She offered Isaac her hand but he refused it, pushing himself up off of the ground and following her out of the room. They went down the hall until they reached Meredith’s bedroom; her parents’ room was upstairs, thankfully, and they hadn’t heard anything that had been going on.

All of Isaac’s anger seemed to have dissolved in the short walk to Meredith’s room. He sat quietly on the bed and looked sadly up into Nicole’s eyes. “I’m sorry Nic,” he whispered. “I can’t help it though.”

“I’m sorry too,” Nicole said. “I swear I didn’t know Ike. I had no idea what was going on with you.”

“Well, I did a pretty good job of hiding it,” Isaac said. “Tay always picks up on stuff like that, you know?” She nodded. “Well, even he didn’t notice anything was wrong. But maybe he was so caught up with you.....Can I ask you something Nicole?”

“Go for it,” Nicole said. “The game isn’t over yet.”

“Okay,” he said. “Then you still have to play by the rules. You accepted, so you have to answer it.” He paused for a moment, giving her a chance to back out. But she stood firm and nodded for him to continue. “Nicole, tell me exactly what you want.”

Nicole sat down on the bed beside him and fell back, staring straight up at the ceiling. “What do I want?” she repeated. Isaac nodded. “Well, up until a little while ago,” she continued, “I would have said Taylor. I was sure that he was the perfect one for me. We’ve been friends for so long, and he’s liked me for so long, how could it be wrong? But now I see that it was. I was horrible to dump you like that, and you’ll never know just how sorry I am. But you and I did need some time apart. I don’t know what told me that; either Tay’s provocation or my own emotions. But everything was just going wrong, no matter what you blame it on.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me Nic?” Isaac asked, still sitting up. “We could have worked it out. We could still....” he trailed off, afraid to complete the sentence.

“How could we?” Nicole asked. “How could we work it out without betraying Taylor?”

“We probably couldn’t,” Isaac sighed. “But that’s a chance I’m willing to take. If you’ll just answer the question.”

“I don’t deserve either one of you,” Nicole said. “All I do is mess things up. You should have gotten rid of me a long time ago. Don’t you regret that all of this had to happen?”

“Nic, the only thing that I regret is walking out that door when you told me it was over. I should have been on my knees begging you to reconsider. Everything else was perfect. Can’t you see that I don’t give a damn about the situation, as long as I’m with you? So what if we have some things we have to work out; who doesn’t? I just can’t believe that a person like you, who never leaves things unfinished, would just walk out of this relationship and leave me hanging on. That’s not like you, and it’s not like Tay to ask you to do something like that. He liked you so much when we were younger. But at some point he began to grow out of that. But he wouldn’t let himself see that he didn’t need you anymore, not to love. He needs your friendship more than anything, but he thought that the only way to keep you was to make you fall in love with him. I don’t know why, and I don’t know why I didn’t notice that before. But in the past few weeks I’ve began to see.”

“What do you mean?” Nicole asked. “Are you saying that Taylor doesn’t really like me?”

“No, he likes you. He loves you. But it’s only as a friend. And he can’t tell the difference between the two types of love, because he’s never been in love before. See what I’m talking about now?”

“I guess so,” Nicole said. “But how are you going to tell him that?”

“I already did,” Isaac said. “Ever since you guys started going out, I’ve asked him over and over how much he cares for you. And he really does. He wants you by his side no matter what. So I asked him what he would do if you two ever broke up, and he said that he would do everything in his power to keep you as his best friend.”

“Oh my god....,” Nicole said, her eyes filling up with tears.

“What’s wrong?” Isaac asked.

“I can’t believe I did this to you,” Nicole whispered. “I really thought that I belonged with Taylor, when it was you I wanted all along. I’m so sorry. I know I can’t take any of this shit back, but you have to see that-”

“Nic,” Isaac whispered, leaning over her and tracing his fingertip along her chin. “Hush. You just answered my question. You don’t have to talk anymore.”

“I did?” she asked. Isaac nodded. Then Nicole knew exactly what she had said. “I wanted you all along,” she repeated, the sound soft and sweet to both of them. “Ike,” she began.

“Shhhh...,” he said, gently touching his fingertip to her lips. He removed it and stared down at her, his chocolate brown eyes deep with emotion. His lips slowly brushed hers, and then he turned away. Nicole put one hand behind his neck and pulled him back down, pressing their lips together in a heart-stopping kiss. “I have to tell Tay now,” Nicole said when they broke apart.