As Long As You Love Me
Chapter Forty-Eight
Who would've thought that the Hanson family was a barrel of fun waiting to spill open? I always wanted to find out what it was like to have little siblings and after ten minutes with Isaac, Taylor, Zac, Avery, and Jessica, I was beginning to understand how their family operated. They were tight knit and very fun-loving. I enjoyed their company so much.
We all loaded into a blue van (better than your traditional white, which is so incredibly easy to pick out) and headed out for the closest McDonald's. I blamed them for being the main reason I would gain weight while I was out of dancing, getting me back into the bad-for-you fast food. The six of us decided to eat it in the van, so, after receiving the order through the drive-thru and saying a quick prayer, we dug into our Mcburgers.
"Tell us about the Backstreet Boys!" Jessica begged, in between bites. I giggled, put down my burger, and began.
"Nick is a punk and a half part of the time, but you get used to it," I started.
"Oh you mean like Zac," Avery teased. Zac elbowed her arm as the siblings all laughed a little.
"Hehe anyways, Nick is so into video games and arcade games and stuff, that they have to set up a game room with all this stuff so that the boy can play between sound checks and stuff," I explained.
"Oh, hey, that sounds like Zac too," Jessica told her sister. The two giggled.
"Howie is a sweetheart. He's so nice it will make you noxious. And Kevin is a sweetie but he can be really serious and sometimes it drives me nuts. But that guy has a really sweet heart. Brian is a goofball beyond all goofballs. He is really sweet too, but he's always joking around--"
"ISAAC!!" Zac, Taylor, Avery, and Jessica all cried out.
"Yeah that's what I thought too. But I think Howie is more like Ike. Brian is more Zac. Oh you'll just have to wait till tomorrow night to figure it out. And AJ....he is so crazy and outgoing, but very trendy and suave. He's really funny too, but not as funny as Brian and Nick like to be," I finished.
"Taylor!!!" Avery declared.
"If you say so," Taylor mumbled, before stuffing a fry in his mouth. I smiled at him, causing the somewhat shy boy to blush. He looked soooo good every time he aged even just a little bit. Zac was looking incredibly handsome too, at that ripe stage of maturity when boys are just beginning to get their manly features. Isaac just kept growing up, his curly mane making him look cherubically gorgeous.
"Episode five thousand sixty-four. Taylor falls in love...again," Zac announced. Both Taylor and I turned our head sharply to look at him. "Did you ever watch the show, the Monkees, Steph?"
"I loved that show. Why?" I wanted to know.
"Cuz that's what our life is like. Play a few gigs, goof off a little in the house, Taylor falls in love everyday...your typical band. I think it's the tamborine," Zac hinted. I laughed. "Well, hey, at least I got your eyes off him for a chance!" I blushed.
"You know, it's a funny thing. Just a half hour ago, I was sitting on our bus,
taping pictures of you guys up all around the walls of my bunk...." I sighed.
"Yeah we know how it goes. So are you in any magazines? Did any dance magazine do a photo shoot with you...one that we can buy and cut out pictures so Taylor can hang them all over his bunk?" Zac continued. Isaac gave him a stern look, sending a silent message to his younger brother to shut up and get off the topic. Zac got the message. "You guys ready to get out of here? I wanna go down to the mall!" Everyone hollered out yeses, so the van driver pulled out of the parking space and headed for the mall.
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When we got to the mall, it wasn't too bad, even though it was a Sunday and families usually do all their family shopping on Sundays, if they aren't going to church. I grabbed my hat and sunglasses, as did the guys, and we headed out with Jack, their bodyguard, trailing not too far behind.
"Okay. Where to first?" I asked. Zac decided he was in the mood for a little Hot Topic, so we headed for the rather flashy, dark...different store. I immediately went over to the wall of hats and began to admire them. Taylor followed close behind.
"Ya like hats?" he asked.
"Like you wouldn't believe!" I replied. "But I already have the ones that are up here. They need to buy some new merchandise."
"That'll take forever. Most people wouldn't buy those hats unless they were feeling spontaneous or something," he pointed out. "Halloween..." I turned around to face him, then found myself looking up as if I were talking to Kevin or Nick.
"Are you calling me weird?" I asked, squinting at him in a joking way.
"Isn't it weird? Isn't it strange?" he spoke.
"Even though we're just too strangers on this run away train," I continued, speaking the lyrics as if I was making some ironic statement. "Both trying to find...a place in the sun...see we live in the shadows...but doesn't everyone?" Taylor chuckled and gave me a little smile. "Come on, let's go see if there's anything in here that's not in any way, shape, or form related to the devil." Tay laughed.
"Good luck!" he joked as I grabbed his arm and pulled him along. We found Zac
and Avery looking at a pair of slippers Avery was really liking.
"Dude, Ave, you can get those everywhere," Taylor told his little sister. She scrunched her nose at him and set the slippers back down. "Who's ready to get out of here?" Ike and Jess came walking toward us and declared that they were ready to get going. So we left the store and made our way down the shopping mall. Suddenly, I spotted mine and J's store...Lids.
"AH! Gotta go there!" I declared, dragging everyone into the small store with me. I found my favorite Lids hat and pointed it out to the guys. My footprints hat. "This hat...the only reason I bought it was because of the foot. I have this thing for footprints cuz of that poem."
"You like that poem?! I love that thing!" Taylor cried. I laughed.
"Suuuuuurrrrrrrreeeee..." I sarcastically replied. He gave me a 'you wanna bet?' look, which caused me to laugh. "Okay okay you win," I sighed. He smiled smuggly and victoriously at me, receiving a glare in return.
"Steph?!"
"Huh?" I turned around when I heard my name. "Bone! What are you doing here man?" I cried when I saw my friend. I went over and greeted him.
"Just shoppin. We're all out before we head to the arena. Brian and Amanda are over at some jewelry shop. I dunno where D is. Nick and Amy are at the sports shop I think. Emily is next door at Victoria's Secret," he nudged me excitedly after that comment, "and Kevin and Danielle are off at the music store."
"Don't you just love how Victoria's Secret and Lids are right beside each other," I sighed, shaking my head in disgrace.
"Well since I can't get Emily to model anything for me, I thought I'd just spare the embarrassment and run over here to see if there were any good hats in here that I could use," AJ told me. I laughed.
"Well, I'm here with Ike, Tay, and Zac, and their two sisters. Since y'all left me alone and stranded, I thought I'd chill with my new friends," I explained. "Avery and Jessica are going to the concert tomorrow night." I motioned for the two suddenly shy girls to come over. They timidly followed their brothers over to where J and I were. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac shook hands and introduced themselves to AJ. Then they moved out of the way and I introduced Avery and Jessica to him. AJ turned on his Backstreet charm for those two. I sighed, listening to him. What a ham. Suddenly, I felt a hat being put on my head. I waited until it was on and turned around to look at whomever was doing it.
"TAYLOR! Don't make me beat you up boy!" I cried. He laughed at me. I looked at J, who had an expression on his face that showed a little disappointment. I blushed a little and tried to ignore it, knowing I was in for a big talking to later on. AJ would get on me so bad...but how could I help it? This guy was my age. As opposed to being ten years older than me. Just then, another familiar face popped up.
"Hey...Jordyn right?" I asked. She smiled and told me that was her name. I gave the girl a hug and asked her what she was doing in New York.
"Just out on a business trip. The company is thinking about investing in a putting a boutique in NYC. So I've been checkin out the shopping places, seein' if our place would be worth the money. I think I might do it," Jordyn told me.
"OOOOOO While you're at it, can you please put one in Florida? AJ and I would love ya!" I exclaimed. Jordyn giggled.
"We'll see what we can do," she assured me.
"Tight," AJ spoke up. "Well my dear friends, I am on my way to see if Emily is done with her shopping. Talk to y'all later!"
"Bye AJ!" Avery and Jessica called out as Bone walked out of the store, waving.
"So you out and about with the Hanson kids today?" Jordyn wanted to know.
"Yeah. We're just chillin for a little bit. We came down to take the girls to the Backstreet concert," Taylor explained.
"How sweet of you guys!" she cried. "Well hey, I've got some scouting to do so I'll talk to you guys later okay? Oh and Steph gimme a call sometime soon. I want you and AJ to do some modeling for the catalogue I'm gunna put together!"
"No way! That would be awesome!!! I'd love to! Bye Jordyn!"
"Nice meeting you!" Isaac called out as Jordyn walked out of the store.
"Where to now?" Taylor asked his little sisters.
"Spencer's!" Zac exclaimed.
"Aw man Zac why the hell do we gotta go there?!" Taylor whined.
"Tay you know you wanna go there," Ike told him.
"The stuff in that place is a riot!" I replied.
"Kay let's go then," Taylor changed his mind. Before I knew it, the boy had thrown his arm loosely across my shoulder as we walked around. We got to Spencer's safely, minus the few girls who showed up every so often to get autographs. At Spencer's, we played around with the toys and checked out all the sex enhancers and what not. Just as we were walking out, we ran into Amy and Nick. The two of them were about to play around in Nick's current favorite store (dirty bastard!), and Nick was shocked to see me out with Hanson. They definitely weren't a band he liked, but he was cool with them. Avery nearly fell unconscious when she ran into Nick. He laughed. Sometimes he got a little snobby about it, but Amy's job was to keep him in gear and away from that attitude. If he got on the bad end, she'd smack him in the stomach or pound the small of his back to make him stop. She was good at disciplining him. As we walked away, Nick whispered into my ear, "wait till Howie finds out...." I looked back at him, my face flushed, trying not to feel incredibly guilty. By now, I had walked the pain out and Jack was holding my crutches.
The next stop was a photo booth. We couldn't cram five people into one booth, so I took one strip with the boys, then one with the girls. Then Avery wanted one with Zac, so while she and Zac did one, Tay pulled me into another to get a strip of just me and him. As we got out of the booth, Zac, Isaac, Avery, and Jessica all stood waiting for us, kind of expecting this all to be going on. Taylor knew he was cute. He knew girls liked him. And he llllllooooooovvvvveeeeddd to flirt. So this was just what he was doing. I was pretty petrified that Howie would run into us and get extremely angered at me. Thank goodness when I ran into Brian and Amanda, they were on their way out to the van so they could get to the venue on time. With his arms still slung loosely over my shoulder, Taylor walked out with me, Jessica, Avery, Ike, Zac, and Jack toward the blue van. We had spent almost all day at the mall and all of us were pretty tired of it.
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When we got back to the hotel, the Hansons all wanted to check out a movie. So we went up to the room and ended up buying the most recent Star Wars movie, which I had never seen, but the Hansons apparently loved it. So we ordered some popcorn and sodas, turned out the lights, and watched the movie in their suite. I brought Chachi in with me. Avie and Jess thought he was the cutest thing ever and played with him constantly, until he fell asleep in Zac's lap, safely away from the girls.
"So what's so great about Jar Jar again?" I asked, halfway through the movie.
"Nothing. He's hella annoying," Zac informed me. "That thing pisses me off. He's the one major flaw in the movie."
"I see...thanks for pointing that out," I said, winking at Zac. He laughed and rolled his eyes.
When the movie was over with, we sat around and talked. The guys told me about their upcoming album and let me hear some of the music they had been working on. It sounded so great. I had missed them a ton, but told them how much I loved the Christmas album and the live album and stuff. The girls hit the sack, cuz they wanted the next day to happen a lot faster, sooner, than it would if they were to stay up.
"So what's the schedule for you guys tomorrow?" I wanted to know.
"Well the girls want to get to the venue early so we can get our seats as soon as possible. We're attempting to stay out of the crowd but we promised Mom and Dad we wouldn't leave them," Isaac explained.
"Maybe I can get you guys to come backstage an hour or so before the concert and you can all hang out with me backstage," I suggested.
"That would be tight. We could stay away from chaotic fans," Tay replied, his blue eyes twinkling. I smiled.
"Well it's getting late. I'm sure Howie's back by now, so I'm sure he's curious as to where the hell I am," I noted, gathering my things and beginning to get up. Taylor instantly got up, lent me a hand, and pulled me to my feet. I thanked him, then said goodbye to them. Of course, Tay decided he wanted to walk me to my room, since I had dropped the crutches off in my room. I thanked Isaac and Zac once again for the fun day, said goodbye, and walked out of the room while leaning on Tay's arm.
"Today has been so awesome. I'm so glad we got to run into you. Our sisters are going to love us forever, you know," Taylor told me. I laughed.
"But of course! This has been one of the most fun days since I started the tour. I have always wanted to meet you guys. Never thought we'd cross paths. But you guys really cheered me up considering I can't dance at the moment. Y'all are the best. By the way, nice haircut. Tell Ike the same. I love the new dos!" I complimented him. Taylor blushed. As we stopped at my door and I dug out my keycard, I felt a hat being placed on my head. After it was stuck there, I pulled it off and looked at it. An olive green baseball cap that had the Hanson symbol on the front. I gave him a 'you shouldn't have' look and thanked him. Just then, I began to realize something. Ut oh....connection...locking eyes....about to lean in...I blinked to cut the gaze and smiled again and gave Taylor a hug.
"See ya tomorrow! Thanks again!" I cried, before sneaking into the room. Tay said goodbye then walked back to his room.