Julie stopped.

Isaac snapped into reality soberly. "I really mean it. Come back to me. Please. Everything feels so right in the world when you're in my arms."

"Isaac, stop this. You don't even know me. We have not seen each other for five years. You don't even know who I am anymore. I don't know who you are anymore." Julie said slowly, holding Isaac's hand in both her hands as they walked to her friend's car.

"I do know you. I know this much is true." He pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed the back of her palm.

"No, you don't. Things are very different now." Julie said softly.

"Things can change." Isaac replied confidently.

"And they did." Julie answered. "Now, let's go."

Julie took his hand in hers again confidently and then pulled him along with her towards the car full of waving girls.

Los Angeles. City of Angels. It was a beautiful city and Julie knew it. She embraced the racy subtitles of the urban life, she loved the tragically hip people. She loved the smeared red lips of the drag queens on the corner of Sunset and the spiked pink hair of the ravers. She loved the fishnets on the hookers and the men holding hands going into wedding boutiques. She loved seeing Jennifer Lopez clubbing alongside the guy she saw at the supermarket earlier that day. She loved the diversity. She loved the 'been there, done that' attitude. She loved the arrogance and the romance of Los Angeles. She was Los Angeles.

Isaac smiled to himself as he watched Julie lift her arms and closed her eyes as the wind whipped through her hair in the topless Mustang.

"You're beautiful." He shouted towards her, just loudly enough so that she could hear over the roaring sound of the wind.

Julie just turned and smiled at him.

He couldn't stop staring at her as she laughed and talked with her friends.

"Isaac?"

"Yes?" Isaac snapped back into reality and looked at the girl driving the Mustang.

She giggled.

"Lacey asked you about three times where you were staying," Julie told Isaac as she laughed.

"Somebody has a low tolerance level for a rock star…" The girl in the front passenger seat giggled.

"Susan, stop it, he's Christian." Julie replied, grinning.

Isaac just smiled dopily, since there was nothing else he could do. "Just drop me off at the Hilton on Beverly, thanks."

The girls giggled. "He's so polite." He heard one of them say. He didn't know which one, the world was a blur of glittering lights as himself roll with the wind.

"Alrighty honey, here you go." Lacey pulled into the Hilton drive before they knew it.

"Thanks, I really appreciated the ride." Isaac said as he got out of the car.

"Is this your stop tonight too, Julie?" Lacey asked.

Julie glanced at Isaac standing outside looking slightly awkward. She felt that warm fuzzy feeling inside her chest. "Yeah. I'll see you girls tomorrow." She said as she followed Isaac out and slammed the door shut.

Isaac was surprised. Julie saw the look on his face, and shrugged. She headed into the Hilton. "You said you had a room here."

"Yeah, I do…but why are you here too?"

"I can't walk you to your door?"

"My hotel room door?"

"Stop thinking, Mr. Hanson. I don't want in your pants."

"Of course not, I didn't think -"

"You're so silly." Julie laughed at Isaac as she pressed up on the elevator button.

"Where do you…uh…live?"

"I have a place."

"I know you have a place, but…uh…"

"Don't worry so much, Mr. Hanson." Julie just pursed her lips amusingly.

"Alright, I won't." Isaac just stopped talking. He felt stupid in her presence, which was something he didn't feel around anybody. She challenged him like nobody else would.

They rode the elevator in silence. Isaac would steal glances at Julie while they were in the elevator. Julie was looking around the decorative elevator curiously. "This is very elegant." She commented. He didn't respond.

They walked down the hallway in silence. Isaac was hoping it would evoke some type of sympathetic reaction from Julie. Some type of reaction that wasn't laced with sarcasm or abstruse. But Julie seemed unaffected by their silence.

"Here we are." Isaac stopped in front of the door. He made no gesture to open it.

"Well what are you waiting for? Let's go in." Julie gestured.

"Okay." Isaac said confusedly. He opened the door, mind still muddled.

"Nice." Julie commented, walking into the spacious suite. There were two bedrooms - one for Taylor and one for himself. The center of the room was small living space with chair and couch set. A few steps led up to a wide arched balcony beyond glass doors. There was a gorgeous view of Los Angeles outside the windows.

"Do you want a drink?" Isaac asked, unsure what Julie was really here for.

"No. We just got back from a club, Isaac. I don't want anything else to drink. To tell you the truth, I don't like drinking." Julie confided, taking off her heels and tossing them on the chair. She climbed up a couple steps and opened the glass door. She stepped out into the night air, barefoot. Isaac followed.

"Then why do you?" He asked, leaning on the balcony ledge, peering at her.

"Because it's fun. It's just something to do." She caught the disapproving look on Isaac's face. "You take everything so seriously. When do you ever have fun?" "I have fun all the time. It doesn't involve having to get smashed every time." Isaac snapped.

"Okay, I deserved that." Julie admitted. She sat down on the cold stone floor and peered through the beams of the balcony ledge. Isaac followed.

He felt his heart leap as he watched at her look at the city. The lights glittered in her eyes. Her curls were loose and flat now. Her makeup looked warn and smeared. But she looked so real. For once she looked like someone who wasn't above everyone else.

"Tell me about your life." Isaac broke the silence.

"Isaac, Isaac, Isaac," Julie smiled slyly.

"What?" He replied defensively.

"You never learn. You never change." Julie sighed.

"Just because I asked you about your lifestyle -"

"Why don't you just cut to the chase? You just want to know how I've survived, who I've dated, who I've kissed, what and who I did since I left that day, right?" Julie pushed harshly.

Isaac was taken back a little, but grinning on the inside because this was still the no bull girl he knew and loved. "Yeah."

"Well. Where do you want me to begin?" She asked poignantly.

"How about the day you left?"

"I caught a Greyhound to Oklahoma City, then bus hopped my way to Tinsel Town. Met all sorts of people on the way, people you'd never meet in Tulsa. It was during that period I truly realized how big this world is and how small I was. I suddenly became aware of so many realities…hunger, poverty, madness; time and my own mortality. I didn't feel so bulletproof anymore." Julie stared into the city blankly as she talked.

"Why?"

"I felt every minute I was alive when I had to provide for myself. I felt by running away, a blindfold had been lifted from my eyes. I was no longer sheltered and I saw life."

"What does it look like?"

She laughs, "Nothing like you've ever seen."

"What did you do then?"

"Well first I slept at the bus station for a few days and applied at coffee shops. But they didn't hire anyone homeless. Then one day I met this guy and he offered me a part in a movie he was making…thus started my career as a porn star."

Isaac was speechless.

Julie wiggled her eyebrows. "You didn't believe I got all that money from bartending, did you?"

Isaac was still speechless. One million thoughts raced through his head, but there was nothing at the same time.

Julie laughed. "I'm shitting you, Isaac!"

A few moments later, Isaac made a face at her and stuck out his tongue.

"That was a delayed reaction!" Julie giggled.

"It's three in the morning, what do you want from me?" Isaac replied. Julie laughed. Isaac smiled. Her laugh was still the same dorky laugh it had been five years ago. "Now really, what did you do?"

"I called a high school friend that I knew had moved to L.A. I stayed with her for a few months. I found work at a coffee shop and took college classes at night at a local community college. My English teacher referred me to an internship at a magazine…and then they hired me as a regular writer. And here I am now."

"And…" Isaac raised his eyebrow.

"And?" Julie furred her brows together, confused. "Oh." She laughed. "You mean, who did I date, kiss, sleep with?"

Isaac looked away.

Julie reached out and pulled Isaac's head between her slim, cool hands. She turned his head towards her and looked him in the eyes. He looked away. "Isaac, look at me. Look at me."

He couldn't. He knew he didn't want to hear what she had to say, but he just had to find out. He just had to know.

"If you don't look at me, I'm not going to tell you. There's no point in talking to your eyebrows." Julie said stubbornly, still clutching onto his head.

Isaac turned his glare on to Julie. "Fine. Tell me, so you can see how much it hurts me inside, so you can see how much you keep on hurting me, how much I can't let go of you, and how much it will hurt me to know for sure that you've moved on. Please, tell me about the guys you fucked while you were here, how many of them were there, Julie? How many jobs did you give? How many of them were there?" She looked away. He knocked away her hands. "Go ahead, please make it hurt more."

His head told him to get up and walk away, to walk away from hurting again. But his heart told him to stay, to stay and listen to what she had to say.

She got up and shook her head angrily. She went inside.

"Julie…wait, I'm sorry." Isaac quickly followed her, apologizing. He bit his lip, he realized he let his anger and resentment out on her.

She grabbed her coat and her shoes, heading for the door. Isaac grabbed her arm. "Please, don't go." She turned and looked at him. Her mascara was running from her tears.

"Let me go." She said calmly.

"If I do, please don't leave." Isaac softened his grip. Julie yanked her arm away.

"I need to." She replied, storming out the door. Isaac ran after her as she stormed all the way to the elevators.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry I lost it back there, I had no right to -"

"Isaac, just shut up. It was what you really felt, don't ever be sorry for what you really felt." The elevator lit up as the doors opened. Julie stepped in, wiping away her tears. "And to answer your question, none. I dated no other guys, I saw no other guys, I kissed no other guys. Because I loved you and I still do. Running away wasn't because of you. And that's your problem. You think everything is about you."

The elevator doors closed, and Isaac stood speechless in the hall.