Zac carefully watched as his watch ticked away the seconds until four o'clock. "Ten, nine, eight," he counted.
Taylor burst into the bedroom that they shared. "Zac, have you seen my-" He stopped abruptly. "What are you doing?"
"Uh, nothing," Zac answered quickly. "I was just watching my watch. Get it? Watching my...well, I guess it wasn't funny."
Taylor raised his eyebrows. "No. Anyway, have you seen my new gel pen? The blue and silver swirled one that I bought at Inks-n-Things yesterday?"
Zac shook his head, reminded of Taylor's pen obsession. "I seem to remember Ike throwing it out the window this morning after you wrote on his new song."
"That's right," Taylor exclaimed. "It landed on the diving board. I better get it before it falls into the pool." He ran out faster than he had come in.
"It landed in the pool, Tay," Zac mumbled as he picked up the phone. It was now two minutes after four. He was late.
"Hello, this is Sharice's answering machine. Sharice left me on because she hates you people, but you can leave a message anyway. Bye bye," said the sing-song voice on the answering machine.
Zac cleared his throat as the machine beeped. "Hi, Sharice. This is Zac, um, Hanson. You told me to call at four, but I guess you're not there. I'd leave my number, but...anyway, I guess we'll see you tonight."
Just before he hung up, someone picked up. A male voice growled, "Who the hell is this?"
