Tay and Zac had finished their lessons early today, and wanted to get out. Poor Isaac was stuck at home, working on Calculus. Taylor and his younger brother were noth about to wait around for Ike to finish his work. They wanted to get out of the house, and go ice skating, with or without their brother. Everybody always went to the lake to skate around this time of year. It wasn't like they didn't expect to see people they knew, but would there be faces that they would just plain regret seeing?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two Hanson boys, Taylor and Zac were at a neighboring frozen over lake. They had left without Isaac to have fun without him.
"Gosh, it's cold out here," shivered Zac, standing next to his brother and talking to no one in particular.
Tay's sarcasm shined through, "Yep, that tends to happen in February in Tulsa, especially when there is snow on the ground and the lake is still frozen over."
"Oh, shutup," Zac finished lacing his ice skates.
"Remember," his brother warned, "you are the one who wanted to come here. I just drove us here. And I can drive you back just as quickly as we parked."
"But, Tay...," Zachary Hanson started to whine, looking desparately at his brother.
"Don't whine, don't complain, don't be annoying, and we don't leave," lectured Taylor, sounding more and more like his mother by the minute.
"Alright, alright," the fourteen-year-old Hanson shrugged, standing up and heading towards the ice.
The two of them swiftly made their way around the chilled pond. Boy, had they missed home.
As they skated along, Zac turned to his brother, Tay, questioning, "How far do you think I can skid the ice?"
Tay squinted over the shiny, glassy ice, "About two feet, I'd say."
"Oh, that's pathethic!" exclaimed Zac, feeling insulted and rolling his eyes. "Here, I bet I can make it a good six or seven feet."
"Good for it," urged Taylor.
Zac hurriedly strided ahead of Taylor. Instead of skating faster to skid, he turned around and faced Tay. Then, he rushed toward him.
"SCRATCH!" the sound of Zac's skates were heard as Zac sent the chopped ice flying in Taylor's direction. Poor Taylor. Could his brother be any more stupid?
"You're gonna get it, now," he warned, making his way in Zac's direction.
The sixteen-year-old Hanson brother grabbed his younger brother by the back of his collar and flung him into the snow. His blonde hair blew in the breeze. As his brother hit the fluffy white snow, Tay laughed, loudly.
"Don't toy with me, youngin'," Tay mocked Zac.
Zac shoved his fist into the snow and patted the snow. He chucked the ball of white at his unsuspecting older brother, Tay's head, leaving him feeling almost frostbitten.
Soon enough, the second eldest Hanson sibling was down in the snow, wailing it every which way in hoping to hit his brother. Tay barely aimed, yet managed to pelt Zachary many times in the head and stomach. All the while, his fourteen-year-old brother returned the favor just as clear. Both of them were laughing, hysterically.
"I hate you!" giggled Zac. "You are so immature, I swear!"
"I'm immature?!" Taylor laughed. "Look who has the gull to talk!"
Following the comments, Tay shoveled the snow with his hands and splattered it onto Zac's face. He even landed some of the icy snow into Zachary's mouth.
"Pfft," Zac spat out the snow. "Ick, that's gross."
Tay shook his head in disgust of himself and his brother, "It's sad, you know that?"
"What is?"
"In a few years," he explained, "Ike, you, and I will all be adults, and we still act like we are three-years-old!"
"We're keeping in touch with our 'inner child'," Zac told Tay, somewhat logically.
"You are crazy, Zac," Taylor started. "You--"
"Hey, Hanson! Is that you?!" an all too familiar voice rang in Tay's ears. It couldn't be, could it? No, there was no way...it was.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh my God," Tay thought, nearly frozen, "it's...it's him."
Skating over toward Taylor and Zac was someone that Tay was alomst positive he'd never had to see, again. All of a sudden, he was just jumping back into his life. How could this be happening to him? It was Steven!
"Hey, Steven," Tay was still in shock.
Steven stopped in front of him, and greeted him, friendly, "How are ya doin'? I heard you finished your CD."
"Yeah, we did, we're finally home," Tay said, plainly.
"Happy to be back in Tulsa?" seeing Steven smile at him was almost gut-wrenching. This type of treatment was not expected, and made Tay, the sixteen-year-old Hanson keyboardist, think that something was up.
"That's good, that's good."
"I guess," the blonde Hanson shrugged.
"I don't think I've ever met your little brother," Steven added, almost awkwardly.
"Okay," started Taylor, "Zac..."
The fourteen-year-old boy looked up from his fun in the snow, "Hm?"
"Zac," Tay sighed, averting his eyes from both his brother and from Steven, "this is Steven, Hallie's ex-boyfriend. Steven, this is Zac, my brother."
"Nice to meet you, Zac," Steven extended his his hand to Zac, which Zac never touched.
"So, you're the infamous Steven?" questioned Zac, looking the boy up and down.
"I guess," he responded, casually, "you heard a lot about me?"
"Tons."
"Like, what?"
"Trust me," Zac assured him, "you don't wanna know..."
"Zac!" Tay snapped, talking through his teeth.
"Nah," Steven chuckled, "it's okay, Tay. I deserve it after what happened between you, me, and Hallie. Speaking of which, how is she? I heard you guys were going back out, again."
"She's good, but we broke up," Tay explained, with a sigh.
Steven was probably one of the last people on this earth that Taylor wanted to talk to. I mean, Steven had his friends hunt Taylor down and stalk him. It was completely unnerving how sweet Steven was being to Taylor.
"Awww, I'm sorry," Hallie's ex apologized. It seemed fake. Why would he be sincere about such a thing?
"It's cool, I got a new girlfriend, now," the middle blonde member pf Hanson smiled. "Her name is Victoria."
"By the way, Tay," Steven put an uncomforting and awkward arm around Taylor, "I'm really sorry about the whole thing between me and Hallie, and you. I really am. I think we all kind of overreacted."
"He's got to be kidding me?" Tay thought to himself before saying aloud, "It's cool. it's cool...it's in the past."
"That's good," Steven seemed relieved," I mean, I don't want things to be awkward between us, ya know? I thought we could even possibly be friends. Since I'm already friends with Shane. He told me that you two have known each other for years."
"Yeah, we have," shoving his hands in his pockets, he still couldn't believe that he was hearing this. This was nearly appalling to him.
"That's cool, that's cool," Steven looked away, unsurprisingly.
"Tay, I wanna skate," Zac jumped inm trying to end such an uncomfortable moment.
"K, in a sec, Zac," Tay responded.
"But," Zac started to fake whining, it was a talent he was brillant at, "I wanna go, now, Tay!"
Tay laughed, uneasily, "Little brothers, sheesh..."
"Well, I don't wanna hold you guys up any longer," Steven told them. "But, Tay, maybe we can do something later this week? Or the next, if it's better for you to do something, then."
"Yeah, sure, why not?" he shrugged. "I don't know my schedule off the top of my head so call me, and we'll work something out."
"Alright, then, that's cool. I'll see you later, Taylor!"
As Steven skated off, both of the brothers were in shock. They didn't quite understand what just happened.
"Tell me," pleaded Zac, "that you aren't actually gonna do something with him. I mean, have we forgotten he shoved you up against a wall at SkateWorld?!"
"No, no," Tay assured his panicky little brother, "I haven't forgotten that. I'm not gonna do anything with Steven."
Zac let out a sigh of relief, "And let's remember fondly, your stalkers he sent after you."
Tay laughed, loudly, reassuring his brother, "I'm not gonna do anything with him, Zac. If he actually calls, we won't answer the phone. Remember? That's what caller ID is for. Besides, something doesn't seem right about this. I think somethin's up."
Tay glared into the direction of the sun, over the glassy surface of the pond. He watched Steven as he skated. Poor Tay still didn't know what to make of all this. It just didn't make sense. Why would Steven want to be friends with Tay after what happened? If anything, Steven should hate Tay, and vice versa. Something was just strangely odd about Steven wanting to be best friends with the guy who stole his girlfriend. Something was definitely up, but Tay couldn't put his finger on what it was.
Main Page
Chapter 1- "It Gets On Everybody's Nerves"
Chapter 3- Making The Video
Tulsa's Long Road Home
I Thought I Could Trust You
Silent Tears
