"Well, last night sure was fun, huh Tay?" Ike asked him the next morning at breakfast.
"Oh, yeah, a blast," Taylor said, shoving his mouth full of Cornflakes.
"You know you had fun," Zac said.
"Actually, for your information, I did not have fun. In fact, it was probably one of the worst nights of my life. I have never met such shallow, superfical girls as those stupid Detweiler sisters. And furthermore, I have no respect for you guys after seeing you flirt with other girls when you have perfectly wonderful girls back in, er, London," Taylor stated.
"Yeah, that's just it, Tay," said Ike. "They're in London."
"It's kinda far away," Zac piped up.
"So? Tulsa is too," Taylor argued.
"Well, at least your girlfriend is in America," Ike replied. "Besides, it was harmless fun. We'll probably never see them again anyway."
"Ike, you invited them to the studio with us!" Tay protested.
"So? We're on a break. They'll forget all about it."
Taylor just shook his head and was finishing his cereal when the phone rang.
"Hello?" Ike picked it up. "Tracie! Hey, what's up?"
"You gave them our phone number!?" shrieked Taylor.
Ike gave him a look that said Be Quiet. "Surfing? Well, we've never actually tried it, but yeah, we'll come. It'll be fun. Okay, sounds good. See ya there," he said as he hung up the phone.
"What was that about?" Taylor demanded to know.
"Oh, nothing," Ike said nonchalontly. "So, Zac, you wanna go surfing today?"
"Wait, why can't I can't come?" Taylor asked.
"Well, I didn't think that you would like to spend the day with Tracie, Mindie and Sylvie again."
"Of course I wouldn't," scoffed Tay.
"Well, then me and Zac will just go."
"But what am I supposed to do all day by myself?"
"I don't know- that's your problem," Ike said. "Zac, get ready! We leave in 10 minutes."
Zac ran to his room to get his swim stuff and was back in a couple of minutes. Taylor watched them get ready helplessly. "Well, what am I gonna do?" he whined.
"We'll see you in a few hours, Tay," Ike said, grabbing his car keys. "Try to write a few songs." And with that, he and Zac were out the door.
Taylor watched them pull out of the driveway and he went to his room, feeling very abandoned. He tried to watch T.V, but nothing was on except Days of Our Lives and Sally. He tried to listen to the radio, but all that was playing was A*Teens and Limp Bizkit. He tried to sit down at his keyboard and write a song but the only lyrics he could think of was anti-siblings and suicidal songs. He was even so bored he volunteered to change Zoe's diaper. That was the last time he volunteered to do that.
"Geez, you reek child!" he said to Zoe, who was playing with her feet happily.
"Smelly," she said seriously.
"Yes, very," he agreed, putting a fresh diaper on her. "So, do you want to hear a song I wrote?" he asked her, desperate for company.
"No, you're boring," she said and walked over to her Barney doll.
He stared afer her. He had just gotten rejected by a one and a half year old. He went outside to the pool, where his mom was sunning with Jess and Avery.
"Where's Mackenzie?" he asked.
"Your father took him to this fair in the next town. They'll be back in a couple hours."
"So there's no cars here?" he asked.
"Nope," she said, flipping the pages in her magazine. "Why didn't you go with Ike and Zac?"
"Because they're stupid," he mumbled, walking back inside. He turned around and yelled to his mom. "Hey, I think I'm gonna go down to the studio."
"On your day off?"
"Well, I have nothing better to do," he said.
"How are you gonna get there?" she asked.
"I guess I'll call a cab."
"How are you going to pay for it?"
"Well, I was kinda thinking you could maybe lend me 20 bucks?" he smiled sheepishly.
"Oh, I see. I guess so, if you really want to go. My purse is in the kitchen."
"Thank you," he said, going inside. He found the number of a cab company and called them. He got some money out of his mom's purse and sat outside to wait for the cab.
After about 15 minutes, the cab came and they were driving along the L.A Turnpike. I can't believe this is what I'm doing on my day off,he thought. I'm pathetic.
"Thanks," he said to the cabbie as he dropped him off at the studio. "Hey, you wanna come inside and hear my new song?"
The cabbie looked at him strangly. "I no speak English," he said as he drove off.
"Okay," Tay said as he watched him drive away. "I'm so cool."
He went inside the A&M Studios for what seemed like the millionth time that week. It was dark and no lights were on. He searched for the switch and found it. It was weird being there all by himself, no noise, no people running around. I guess they gave everybody a couple days off, he thought.
He went down to Studio A and found the track that they had been working on. They were each recording their separate vocal parts on a song called 'Save Me' and he had been having some trouble on his starting verse. It went pretty high and he couldn't seem to get it just right. He went to the mixing board and turned it to the levels he wanted it to be. He had been watching the engineers closly the last few days because he wanted to learn how to do it himself. He put the music track in the first deck and turned on the microphone. Then he went back into the recording cell and stood at the mic. It was really strange being in there all alone. There was nobody staring at him, no one telling him what to do and no annoying brothers messing him up.
"Maybe I should go solo!" he said outloud, cringing when he realized that he just recorded himself saying that. "Oops." The music started then and he closed his eyes, trying to visualize the notes.
"Loving you...like I never had before. I'm needing you to open up the door. If begging you might somehow turn the tides. Then tell me to I've got to get this off my mind." He stopped and opened his eyes. He had just done it perfectly. Wow, maybe I should do all of my parts by myself. Then I'd have no problem getting this album done, he thought bitterly. "My brothers are really slowing things down," he said as he walked back to the sound board. He replayed it and it sounded perfect. Since everything was going so well, he finished all of his parts on the song in two hours. By the time he finally left the studio, it was dark outside. He decided to take the bus home, since he didn't have enough money for a taxi. As he was waiting at the bus stop, he started reading the covers of the tabloids for fun. Something caught his eye that made his stomach churn. On the cover of The Esquirer there was a caption that read Hanson brothers at club with new girlfriends! He frantically turned to the article and saw pictures of him and his brothers with the members of 3-D on their arms. Taylor remembered that there had been photographers at the club, but he hadn't even thought about this being in the tabloids. They had been trying to be pretty low-key lately. His palms started to sweat as he read what was under the picture of him and Mindie.
Taylor Hanson, 16, dances the night away with blonde bombshell Mindie Detweiler. Witness claim they saw the couple kissing later that night.
He gasped and dropped the magazine back onto the rack. That wasn't true! He had hardly even touched her, let alone danced and kissed her! He saw another tabloid that claimed it had pictures of him and Mindie "dancing dirty" at the club. He felt sick. I knew something like this would happen! These girls are nothing but trouble... he thought. He quickly bought copies of the tabloid to bring home and show his brothers. The bus pulled up a second later and he was home in about 20 minutes. He burst through the door angrily.
"Ike! Zac!" he yelled as he looked for them in the house. He thought he heard their voices coming from the patio outside, so he headed out there, tabloids in hand. "Look what you've done!" he said, holding up the magazine in front of him. "These stupid girls are doing nothing but using us to get famous and it's working! Look what I found at the bus stop!" He looked up to see his brothers faces.
"Uh, Tay?" Ike said, looking embarrassed. Taylor looked at who was sitting behind him. It was none other that Tracie and her sisters, sipping ice tea by the pool, acting like they owned the place! Taylor look one look at them and stormed back inside the house.
He ran up to his room, feeling like a loser more and more every second. These girls had no right to barge in their lives like this and try to ruin everything. He looked at the picture of him in the tabloid. The photographers had made him look like he was having the time of his life, when he knew that when that picture was taken he was actually miserable. "Tamara!" he said outloud all of a sudden. What if she saw these pictures? What would she think of him then? He knew that she was already worried about him and other girls and he didn't blame her after all he had done to her. He picked up the phone and dialed her number. Nobody answered and the voice mail machine picked up.
"Hi, you have reached the Souder's. We cannot come to the phone at this time, so if you would please leave your name and number, we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you."
"Tamara, it's me, Tay," he said breathlessly into the phone. "If you're there and you're mad at me, please pick up. Okay, I just want you to know that whatever you read, it's not true. Trust me. When you get this message, please call me. Okay, see ya later. Bye." He hung it up and down his window at his brothers and the girls. They were all sitting in the hot tub, under the lights, drinking soda and tea, laughing and having a good time. It wasn't fair that he had to be the sensible one all the time and miss out on everything.
He sat down at his keyboard and tried to think. He just hoped his brothers didn't screw up anything with him and Tamara. There just wasn't anything he could do to try and talk some sense into his brothers.