They had made it back safe and sound to their hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma. It felt good to be home, again. Once again, the faces, the places, the time zones, the sounds would all be familiar to the family of nine. Zac especially couldn’t wait to get home. He had been worried sick about Chrissy, and wanted to see her and to know if those guys had bothered her sister, Hallie and her again. He thought that there might be something that Taylor and he could do to help them. While Zac could wait to see his girlfriend, Ike and Tay were dreading seeing theirs. Taylor would have to face Hallie and Victoria, and Isaac would have to confront Kat about her so-called ‘tutor’. He couldn’t take it anymore he had to know. And he had to know now. But, could wanting to know the truth, ruin their relationship? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Ike, Tay, and Zac entered the airport they heard three shrieking screams. The boys looked up in unison to see their girlfriends, Hallie, Kat, and of course, Chrissy.
Zac, dropping all of his suitcases to the ground, he rushed over to Chrissy, hugging her, “Chrissy!! I’ve missed you soo much!”
“I’ve missed you, too, Zaccie!” she screamed, nearly crying.
Glancing over at Ike, Tay mumbled to his brother, “We better do the same before Hallie and Kat feel bad.”
“True.”
The two eldest brothers of the Hanson family threw their bags to the floor, and rushed over to their excited girlfriends, throwing their arms around them, tightly.
“Oh, Tay,” Hallie flung her arms around Taylor’s strong shoulders, “I can’t believe you are back! This month has been the longest month of me life!”
“Mine too, sweetie,” he could say honestly, as he held her. It truthfully had been. It seemed like everyday something extreme happened Zac tell you what happened with those two boys?” asked Hallie, looking into Taylor’s eyes.
“Yeah,” he nodded, “he told me. I couldn’t believe it. Are they still bothering you?”
“I don’t know,” Hallie’s eyes had become wet with teardrops now. “I try not to think about it.”
“Aww, honey,” Taylor wiped Hallie’s eyes for her, “don’t cry. It’ll be okay.”
“I’m not crying because of that,” she sniffled. “I’m crying because I’m so happy that you’re home.”
Meanwhile, Isaac had been talking to Kat, “Can you believe we’ve actually been gone only a month? It seems like a year since I’ve seen you.”
“Yeah, I know,” she hugged him. “Time’s going slower around here, too with you gone.”
Ike smiled, “See what happens when you’re gone? Time goes slower, I go mentally insane, and to top it off, I got sick!”
“You were sick?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what I had,” he explained. “I think that it was from exhaustion, though. I was really sick for two weeks, so thy pushing back the release date for our CD.”
“Does that mean you gotta stay in California longer?” Kat questioned, hoping it wouldn’t.
Ike felt bad to tell her, “Yeah, actually I think it does.”
“C’mon, guys, let’s go home!” yelled Mr. Hanson to his sons.
After they all hugged, and kissed their girlfriends ‘good-bye’, they lifted their bags and began to follow their father.
Mrs. Hanson turned and waved to them all, “We’ll see you all this afternoon, right?”
“You bet, Mrs. Hanson!” Kat waved.
Chrissy, Hallie, and Kat had all been invited to come over for dinner and to spend the evening with the Hanson brothers. They had so much catching up to do that they weren’t sure if everything could possibly said all in one night. But, they would try. Isaac though planned to be talking in a different tone tonight. There was straightening out to be made things to be said. He just had to keep his fingers crossed that things would turn out for the best. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Oh, shut up!” Chrissy yelled at Isaac, chucking a pillow at him.
Isaac trying to block the air born pillow, remarked, laughing, “But, it’s true! Leo is gay! I swear on everything that he is!”
Chrissy was fighting with a eighteen year old immature boy on whether Leonardo DiCaprio was gay or not. She refused to believe it, and he refused to deny it. It was the stupidest conversation that they had held all night long.
“God, Ike, you are fighting with someone who is five years younger than you whether a twenty-three year old man is gay or not. Could you get any more immature? It doesn’t matter anyway, if he is or not,” Tay rolled his eyes.
“It does matter, though!” Ike corrected. “He lives in L.A! What if we met him? I wouldn’t want some ugly 23-year old man hittin’ on me, would you?”
“Not really, but…”
“Be quiet,” Ike commanded, “my point’s made.”
“Kids, dinner!” yelled Mrs. Hanson into the living room.
Almost in unison, all of the teenagers arose and headed toward the kitchen to get their dinners. Tonight, they were having spaghetti and meatballs, the boys’ favorite dinner.
“This looks great, Mom. Thanks so much,” Tay thanked his mom, smiling.
“Thanks, honey.”
They all piled their food onto their plates, and continued on to get their drinks when Zac asked, “Are we eating at the table tonight, Mom? Or can we all go eat somewhere else?”
“You ready, Ike?” Kat interrupted his thoughts.
“Yeah,” he smiled, weakly, “where do you want to go sit?”
“How about the playroom?” she suggested.
“Alright.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kat and Isaac were sitting the playroom, eating their spaghetti and meatballs, talking. Isaac was going to tell her later on in the conversation what he thought about this Matt character, and see her reaction, and maybe even get a final, truthful answer about him.
“So,” Kat started, “what songs have you recorded so far?”
“We’ve recorded almost 15 songs in the past month, and are still recording. Only about 13 songs out of the 60 some songs we are going to end up recording, will make it onto the actual CD,” he explained.
“Wow,” she was pretty surprised he’d recorded that much. “any songs right now that you think will end up on the CD?”
“Well, my favorite so far, is a song called, ‘This Time Around’. Both my brothers and I think that it’ll end up on the CD. We all really like it,” Isaac told Kat.
“Can you sing me a part of it?” pleaded Kat, batting her eyelashes.
“Sure, do you want me to sing my part, or Taylor’s? He has most of the lines. You would get a more gist of the song through his words,” said Ike.
“Alright, sing Tay’s part, then,” she told him. “But first, what is the song about, so I understand what you all mean.”
Ike exhaled, “Well, it’s a very strong song. It’s about breakin’ free of depression, and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about becoming a stronger person.”
“Wow,” Kat smiled, “anyway, sing it for me.”
Isaac asked her, “Can you count off for me?”
“Sure, Ike. One, and…two, and…three…”
Isaac began singing, “It’s getting colder, in this ditch where I lie…I’m feelin’ older, and I’m wonderin’ why…I heard they told her, it was tell and live or die…I didn’t know her, but I know why she lied…I didn’t know her, but I know why she died!”
Isaac stopped singing to see what she thought, “Wow, Isaac, that’s really good. Sing another verse, please?”
“Alright, one more, count me off again,” he commanded her.
“One, and…two, and…three…,” Kat counted.
“I heard him say dreams belong in your head…Well, I feel ashamed of the things I’ve said…Put on these chains, and we can all live a free life…Well, I rather be dust, just to know why I died!” Ike sang.
“That’s really good, Ike,” smiled Kat. “I think it should go on the new CD. Have you thought about what you are going to call it yet?”
“No, we haven’t decided yet. We’ll decide when we get our song list in order, though,” spoke Ike. “But, off the subject of our record, how’s your tutoring going in Math?”
This was where Isaac dropped the bomb on Kat. He either caught her cheating on him, or he caught himself acting like a complete jerk. All of this relied on her response to his simple question.
“Just great, I made an ‘A’ for the year because of the tutoring!” she exclaimed happily.
“That’s fantastic! Good job, Kat! I’m proud of you,” he smiled at her. “How’s Matt?”
“Matt quit.”
“Matt quit?” he thought. “I wonder why, maybe he found out that she was going out with me…”
“Why’d he quit?” questioned Isaac. “He seemed like a good tutor.”
“He was, believe me,” promised Kat. “But, why the sudden interest in Matt?”
“You want the real reason?” asked Ike.
“No, I want the fake one,” Kat blurted out, sarcastically. “Of course, I want the ‘real’ reason.”
“Okay, then,” Ike started, ‘I’ll give you the real reason. Kat, I don’t like Matt at all.”
Kat seemed shocked, “Why not? He’s such a sweetheart! How could you not?”
“That’s how,” he pointed out. “You seem crazy for him. You talk about him like you are going out with him, when you insist that he’ll only ever be just a friend to you. Kat, you are going out with him just tell me.”
“I can’t believe you actually think that,” her mouth nearly hit the ground.
“I do.”
“How could you accuse me of such a thing? You know I’d like, die for you! I know we’ve been through some tough times, but that’s all over now! I love you, Isaac…”Kat nearly screamed.
“I’m not so sure of that,” Ike shot back.
“I can’t believe this,” Kat shook her head. ‘It only your first day back, and we’re already fighting.”
“I didn’t want to fight,” he explained. “I just want the truth, that’s all. If what you’re telling me is the truth, prove it to me! I mean, I’ve gone through a lot because of Matt! You canceled one of our dates because you supposedly ‘forgot’, and Matt was over. Then, for the last month, all I heard from you on the phone was how much Matt was helping you! If you wanted help in your Math, why didn’t you ask me?”
She knew Isaac had her on that one, but she didn’t know how to explain. Kat didn’t know what to say to him, or how to respond. She was just in shock. She felt like she couldn’t move, and her thoughts were frozen inside of her.
“Can we talk about this later, please, Isaac? We shouldn’t ruin the moment tonight. I mean, you just got back from L.A, and you are only here a week and a half. Please, Isaac?” she begged.
“Alright,” he agreed, averting his eyes. “We’ll talk about it later.”
Well, Isaac certainly got what he was thinking off his chest, a little too harshly maybe. So, they would talk about it later, but would ‘later’ be too late to save their relationship. Things seemed rocky right now, and deep inside, they were trying to find each other. Trying to find a way to honestly connect with each other. They needed to reconnect the missing link in both of their lives before they ran out of time. Whether that included each other in each other’s lives, was the problem.
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