"Does everybody have everything?" yelled Walker, as they unloaded the buses at the airport in Philadelphia. "This is the last check!"
Tay checked his bags one more time and made sure he had all his stuff. Well, this is it, the Albertane tour is finally over. After four months of touring, Hanson had finished the tour in Philadelphia after two sold out shows at the First Union Center. They were now at the Philly airport, ready to catch a plane back to Tulsa. It was late September and when they got back they would have a nice long break before they had to do some smaller appearences on late night shows and movie premiers. Taylor was even looking forward to starting homeschool again and seeing his friends. He didn't know what was going to happen with Tamara, he had tried to call her, but she never called him back. The last time he had talked to her was almost two weeks ago when she had called when he was outside with Haley. His face blushed with shame. He couldn't believe what a fool he was. Luckily his brothers had forgiven him and the fans seemed to take the news of him having a girlfriend pretty well. Hopefully they wouldn't ask about Zac and Ike having girlfriends. He didn't think they could deal with finding out that all three of them had steady girlfriends.
"Okay gang, let's go!" Walker said as he led the way to the flight terminal. The Hanson's boarded the plane and settled down for a six hour flight back to Tulsa.
"Yeah, okay. I'll call you later, okay Justin?" Tamara said into the phone. "See ya," she said and then hung up.
"Was that Justin again?" asked Phoebe as she walked into Tamara's bedroom. She was followed by her older sister, Mia.
"Yeah, he keeps calling me," said Tamara. "Not that I'm complaining! He's hot, and really nice too."
"Tamara, you can't go out with him!" said Mia. "You're my only connection to Isaac!" Mia had had a crush on Isaac forever, but she had never done anything about it, she had just admired him from afar.
"Oh please, Mia, you've hardly ever said even two words to the boy. Besides, doesn't he like that Carmen girl that visited a while ago?"
"Oh, don't say that!" Mia said. "He can't like her." Tamara didn't even say anything, she didn't want to break Mia's heart. "Tamara, tell me that you and Taylor are still going out."
"I don't know," Tamara sighed. "I guess I'll see when they get back tonight. But I'm kinda interested in Justin and I don't know..." Tamara had met Justin that night when Phoebe and her had gone to a club downtown and they had been hanging out ever since. She was definitly interested in him, he was so different than Taylor and she enjoyed the change. But there was still something in her heart that made her miss Taylor. She was very confused but was enjoying being confused with Justin. He was 16 and goes to Thomas A. Edison High School, where he plays soccer for the Eagles, the team mascot. Tamara had even gone to one of his games. She really enjoyed it, because she had been homeschooled her whole life and had never got to do the normal school things. Plus, through Justin, she had met a lot of really cool people and that felt really good. When Taylor had hated her, he had always said that she had no friends. Well, he was right, she didn't have any except Phoebe and sort of Mia. And they went to Wright Christian Acadamy, so they weren't around as much. Luckily they lived right down the street. Then there was the Hanson's, who she had never really been friends with before her and Taylor had started going out. She definitly didn't want to lose them as friends, but she didn't want to lose the friends she had made at Edison. She was even working on a plan to get her mom to let her go to the high school halfway through the year.
"Don't break up with Taylor, Tamara, we all know you liked him forever. It was so obvious," said Phoebe.
"It was not!" exclaimed Tamara. "And I only liked him for...eight years, so it's not like it was a big deal anyway."
Mia and Phoebe glanced at each other. "Well, okay. We gotta go, we got homework and stuff, so we'll see you sometime," Phoebe said as they left the room.
"Okay, see ya." Once they left, Tamara took out her photo album and opened it. She flipped to the pictures from the Albertane Tour, which was now just a memory. There was a picture of her and the whole Hanson family at the Washington D.C Zoo, standing in front of the zebra field. Then there was a pic of her and Taylor eating at a picnic table outside of the tour buses. Another pic showed Avery, Jessica, Mackenizie and Zoe playing backstage. Another picture showed the Hanson's on stage, doing a sound check. The last pic was a shot that Zac had captured when Sierra had jumped off the bridge when Tay had dumped her. Taylor and Tamara were embraced and were laughing at what Zac and Ike had said. Tamara felt a lump in her throught. She wondered what would happen when she asked Tay about that Haley chick. It was about 5:30 and the Hanson's would be home any minute. As she put her album away, a van pulled into the driveway across the street. They were home.
"We're home!" yelled Zac at the top of his lungs.
"Wahoo!" Ike joined in. Taylor looked around the house. Suddenly, Jessie, Avery, Mackenzie came running to the door, followed by Diana and Zoe.
"Welcome home guys," said Diana, as she gave Walker a kiss.
"Hi!" said Mackenzie. "Zac, guess what? We were bad! We buried Mrs. Fluck's cat under a pile of leaves and she couldn't find her! He he he!"
"You what?" asked Diana.
Mackie had forgotton that his mother was standing right there. "Oops."
The house was back to it's normal chaos. The Hanson's lugged their suitcases up to their room and then ran outside to say hi to their friends. Taylor crossed the street to Tamara's house and nervously rang her doorbell. Tamara saw him coming from her bedroom window and she took a deep breath and went to answer it. She opened the door and looked at Taylor standing there; he looked as nervous as she felt.
"Hi," she said quietly.
"Hi." They stood there silently for a few seconds and then Tamara spoke.
"Oh... come in."
"Are your parents home?" Taylor wasn't allowed in the house if no parents were home.
"Yeah, my mom's somewhere and my dad's still at work. We can go sit on the back porch." Tamara led the way to the porch and neither of them spoke.
"So, how's it going?" asked Taylor.
"Alright. How about you?"
"Good."
"How was the rest of the tour?"
"It was fine."
"How was Haley Adiela?"
Taylor sighed and looked at his watch. "Well, that took three minutes and twenty four seconds."
"I have to know, Taylor."
"You saw the TRL." Tamara nodded.
"It was nothing, Tamara, honestly. She just made it up..."
"Taylor, I can tell when you're lying and you're doing it right now. Just tell me the truth, I can handle it."
"Okay...well, I kinda hooked up with her on the tour..."
Tamara slumped in her seat and tears welled up in her eyes. "Oh."
"It didn't mean anything, Tamara, you mean everything."
"Yeah right Taylor. Yeah right," she whispered.
"Tamara..."
"Taylor, it's over. I can't have you playing me like this anymore. You did it with Sierra and you did it with Haley. Do I mean nothing to you?"
"No! Haley meant nothing, I love you Tamara," Taylor said softly.
"Come on Taylor. Not now. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of you! How many times did you kiss her, Taylor?"
"Only once...or twice... I don't know, I didn't count!"
"Taylor, go home. I don't want to see you right now."
"Look, you have a right to be mad...but Tam, I am so sorry. I promise it will never happen again. Never. I love you..."
"Don't say that. It's not true. Go!" She yelled. He got up and went over to her.
"Please, Tamara, I need you. Can't you see we're perfect for each other?" he said as he knelt beside her.
She didn't look at him. "Please go, Taylor," she whispered. He sighed and got up.
"I'm not going to give up, Tamara," Tay said as he left the room.
"I think I already did," she said when he was gone.