Taylor moaned and fell out of his bed. He looked at the clock radio.

6:30 AM.

He sighed and made his way across the dark gray carpet into the bathroom. He closed the door slowly listening as it clicked into its frame. He switched the light on and then turned the lock. He stared at the white bathroom and sighed turning to his left, the bathroom mirrors shined brightly the bulbs surrounding the frame seemed to be flickering.

He turned on the faucet and cupped his hands underneath. The cool water ran through his fingers and he leaned down splashing his face repeatedly. He looked up reaching for a towel while trying to turn the faucet off at the same time. He spotted the longhaired young man staring back at him in the reflection.

"Why are you haunting me?" The dark haired boy just smiled back at him and then faded away...

*          *          *          *          *

"Tay, are you okay?" I opened the door to see Ike and Zac.

"Damn, you look like shit." Zac muttered as I pushed by them tripping over a pair of Zac's shoes that were lying in the middle of the floor.

"It's so hard to look like you, Zac." I snapped as I fell into my bed. I felt Isaac come and sit beside me.

"Taylor, what's up with you? I've never seen you this, well, out of it." He commented.

"I'm sorry, Ike. It's just…I can't stop thinking about him." I whispered.

"Who?" Isaac asked concerned.

"Will ... " was all I could reply. My heart surged in pain and I moaned again. I could hear my heart pumping so hard that it was about to burst. Why can't I forget him?

Why can't I? A part of me keeps screaming that there's more.

*          *          *          *          *

I stood there, it was a hot summer day. Late August two thousand one. The Florida sun beamed down. The heat waves pulsed off of the black top parking lot. There was a mass of fans standing in the distance.

The distortions from the rising heat almost made the fans look alien, and they might as well have been. At least no humans I know act that crazy. We walked toward the mall. Security was at a minimum. The crowds here weren't as threatening as they had been at other venues.

I walked through the glass doors of the department store the ice-cold air blasted across me. Off to the left was a red velvet rope. A few people milled around in the isle. I caught sight of a tall slender boy. Maybe a few years older than me, not by much though.

He was gorgeous, heart stopping gorgeous. Tall, slender, long brown hair, and what I thought were the most beautiful green eyes with puddles of hazel near the center. That smile, something about that smile. A part of me tingled and sparked. While another part tried to tell me he was no one. My mind scrambled.

We sat at the table, signing autographs. I almost didn't look up a few times. But I forced myself to smile. I didn't want our fans to hate me. I wasn't mad at them, or tired of them. I was just not in a great mood.

"Why is it Zac can be such an ass, and get away with it, but if I act like anything other than the blond angel everyone goes insane," I asked myself.

"Hi," his soft warm voice snapped me out of my space travels.

"Oh, uh, hi," I stuttered looking up at him.

My heart jumped in my throat. My head went dizzy, and my stomach flopped.

"Is this how they feel," I wondered to myself.

"It's really nice to meet you," he said quietly.

"You too, what's your name," I asked trying to remain cool and as 'straight' as possible.

"Well, my name is Taylor," he kind of laughed.

"No shit," I caught myself and slightly covered my mouth. He laughed.

"Yeah, weird meeting another Taylor," he asked.

"No, actually it's kind of cool," I smiled brightly.

"I'm being so obvious," I mentally scolded myself.

"I've wanted to meet you guys since you came out, I mean started out," he smiled.

His face flushed, he was so adorably nervous.

"That's cool," I smiled.

"Taylor, there are other fans," Jammer tapped me on the shoulder.

"God can't that freak ever just leave me alone," I growled to myself.

"Yeah, ok," I said signing the promo poster he handed me.

"I wish we could talk more," he replied to me as I handed him the poster.

"Hang around over there," I whispered. Realizing that Zac had heard me he made a strange face. Ike was still trying to get the girl at the end of the table to let go of his hand.

"Oh, ok," he smiled.

I shook his hand. Oh my God it was so soft and warm. I winked at him. My God, I winked?! What was I doing?! I thought I heard him suck a breath of air in as his eyes seemed to widen, then sparkle at the same time. My stomach felt all fluttery again.

Suddenly his face and presence was replaced with a chunky, sweaty, red-faced blond girl in a eye burning pink halter-top. I suppressed a wince and the urge to vomit as her perfume permeated the air. I smiled as best as possible and signed her photo.

The rest of the session went smoothly. Only once or twice did Jammer give me a dirty look for getting too personal with fans. His idea of 'personal' is asking their name and being nice. I swear he's such an ass.

"Let's blow this joint," Zac muttered as the last fan walked away.

"I'm hungry," I muttered.

"Me too," both Ike and Zac replied.

"We don't have time," Jammer snapped.

"Tommy, I think we've got plenty of time, we don't have to be in Melbourne until tomorrow morning," Dad said smiling at us.

At least he still remembered that this was supposed to be fun.

I walked down the side where Ash and mom had been standing earlier. That's when I saw Taylor. He was talking to mom, and they seemed to be getting along really well.

"Hi," I said walking up.

"Hey, honey," mom smiled at me.

"What's up," he asked.

"Well, me and the guys were gonna go to the food court and get something to eat, wanted to know if you two wanted to tag along," I asked. Including mom was a great cover. I grinned to myself.

"Oh, no, I'm fine I ate already, but you two go on and catch up with the guys," she smiled.

"Sweet," he smiled as he walked along side me.

"This really is too cool," he bubbled as we walked down the hall.

"Well you know," I smiled as my mind scrambled to figure out how to continue the sentence.

I was having a rough time keeping cool myself.

"I really didn't expect anything like this to happen," he smiled, he must not have noticed that I wasn't making much sense.

"Well, you never know," I grinned, wondering how I was managing to make no sense but still get my point across.

"Ike, Zac, this is, well his name is Taylor," I smiled introducing him.

"Hey man, nice to meet you, uh again," Zac laughed, I wondered if he was mocking us.

"You gonna eat with us," Ike asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Tay invited me and all," he grinned.

Zac shot me a puzzled look. Ike just looked oblivious to everything.

"So where to," Ike asked.

"Is there a pizza joint around here," Zac asked glancing around.

"Yeah, there's a Sabarros just around the corner," he smiled at me.

This guy was giving me chills. I looked away, blushing. I knew I was being so obvious. I felt my knees knock together slightly.

"Cool," Zac smiled.

We ordered, sat and began to eat. We all had decided to start calling him Will since it was really putting a hamper on our conversation with two Taylors.

Will and I picked at our slices while Ike and Zac nearly swallowed theirs whole.

It wasn't until Zac burped that I realized they had been sitting there waiting for us to finish for a few minutes.

"Hey, you guys finish, Zac and I are gonna swing by that cigar shop," Ike said standing up pointing to a shop we didn't break our gazes to look at.

Will glanced up and smiled as they walked away.

"You know," he started.

"What," I asked leaning in, waiting for him to continue. His voice was just amazing, it made my heart jump, and my breath catch in my chest.

"This really turned out to be the best day of my life," he smiled quietly.

"I'm glad," I grinned, I caught myself winking again.

My heart jumped again when he winked back. Then he reached out and squeezed my hand.

I heard myself gasp a little bit that time. I looked down at his hand. He had such delicate long slender fingers, perfect fingernails. I smiled as I noticed his thumb and index had polish on them.

Black and silver polish, which complimented the coolest set of rings I had ever seen. I lost track of everything for a moment staring at the intricate detail of every ring on his hand. Not one of them was simple, each had a design that caught my eye. Rings that gave my collection of necklaces and chokers a real run for their money.

"I think we'd better hurry back," I said noticing I had been staring at him for a few minutes and that the space between us had slowly become smaller and smaller.

He walked beside me all the way to the bus. Amazingly enough no one had bothered us. I kept wanting to put my hand in his, to wrap my arm around his waist, but I fought off the urge. I knew Jammer would shit a brick if he saw me doing that. Not to mention the rumors I'd start. The closer we got to the bus, the faster my heart thumped in my chest.

"It was really ... cool dude," he said as we approached the bus door. His voice was sad. I could hear it, almost trembling. In fact, it was trembling.

"I really enjoyed it," I smiled at him. I swallowed hard, the knot in my throat was huge.

"Let's move," I heard Jammer call out from inside the bus.

"Bye," my voice cracked.

He blinked, I watched a tear drop from his eye. My eyes welled up, my heart banged in my chest. I jumped off the last step, threw my arms around his neck and hugged him. I didn't care if anyone saw. I wanted to feel him so bad, his body against mine. I squeezed with all my might, his long brown hair covering my face. The smell was amazing.

I felt his arms slide up around my body, squeezing me tightly. His soft neck against mine, my mind went dizzy my knees began to go weak. I fought back the urge to cry and parted. His soft cheek against mine for a brief moment that felt like forever.

"I'd really better go," I whispered into his ear, unable to bring anything more than that from my throat. My lips brushing against his soft cheek.

"I know, Taylor, I lo-" he started but Jammer started yelling again.

"I know," I smiled.

He sighed, as he traced his fingers across my cheek..

"If only," he smiled tears on his cheeks as his hand dropped and the door closed. I smiled and winked again as we rolled away.

My stomach turned, my head spun, I felt the pizza rising up in my stomach as my heart felt like it was splitting in two.

*          *          *          *          *

I watched Taylor writhe around the bed in pain.

"Why can't I forget him," he muttered over and over again as Isaac just shot me a look like I should know what to do. I just couldn't stand not having an answer.

"I'll be back," I mumbled reaching down to grab some shoes as I ran out the door.

I stood in the hallway of the hotel. What the heck was I thinking? And why the hell out of the all the things I could possibly grab did I decide to bring a friggin' pair of shoes? I crept across the hallway past the elevators my bare feet hitting the tough hotel carpet. I turned and walked into the little room with the vending machines. The linoleum floor was a relief on my poor feet.

You'd think with all the money we're paying for the damn room that the carpets would at least be semi-comfortable to walk on. I sighed and sat down in-between the vending machine and the ice machine. I rested my head against the wall and closed my eyes. I knew I could deliver Will to Taylor, as corny as that sounded, but I'd have to make that phone call and something about making that call was making me uneasy.


On to Chapter Three

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Memories ... Of A Forgotten Past is Copyright © 2000 by Taylor W. Quest.
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