Liz watched from the side of the stage as Hanson played one of the songs off of their very first record, Middle of Nowhere. She remembered this one. They were in the process of writing it before they abandoned her.
She closed her eyes and listened to the melody. The brothers’ perfect harmonies were intoxicating and the sound sent her into a time warp.
After the Hanson trio was picked up by a major record label, Liz was ecstatic at first. She hadn’t totally let it sink in that they were never coming back for her so she became a regular fan. She bought all of their albums and CD singles. She purchased every magazine and clipped out every newspaper article she came across. Not only that, she used to have a notebook filled with snippets of song lyrics and poems and art she had created just for Taylor. Liz couldn’t help it. He was always on her mind and she wanted to support her best friends. It became an obsession.
Of course, that was when they still kept in contact with her. They came back only once that she knew of and that was right before she really felt the distance begin to force its way into their friendship.
That day playing hide and seek was the first time Taylor had kissed Liz, but it wasn’t their last encounter.
There was one other time. Liz smiled dreamily as she reminisced about that weekend where the brothers came home to pack up their stuff in between touring.
At this point, all of their fans knew who she was and they gossiped about her being someone’s girlfriend. No one could say whose, but it was a well known fact that she used to spend a lot of time with them.
When Liz called them their dad, Walker was hesitant to let her come over, but he finally agreed. She snuck through the back way to their house but was still spotted by the group of fans and photographers that surrounded their home. The cameras flashed as she ran inside.
The boys welcomed her but were busy gathering more clothes for the next leg of their tour. She had to sit in the living room and wait for them to finish before any of them could acknowledge her presence.
Taylor finally took her hand and led her out the back door. They somehow managed to sneak past the curious fans without being seen. When they made it to the “Grotto” they knew they were safe and began to talk. Liz never mentioned feeling left out or her feelings for him, but instead just asked how the band was doing.
After several minutes of Taylor rambling on and on about Hanson’s adventures, he stopped and smiled at her. Liz felt that nervous anticipation begin to build in her stomach again. She knew he had to feel something for her by now! He had plenty of time to contemplate it, but on the other hand, what if he had found another girlfriend while on tour? There were a million things running through her mind at this point, but she sat there quietly.
“Liz, you’re awesome for understanding all of this,” he explained. “It’s been a whirlwind of craziness since we got signed and released our record. Now with this tour we probably won’t see very much of each other.”
“Thanks,” Liz replied shyly. “I know you guys have always dreamed about this and I’ll be here for you no matter what.”
“You’re truly the coolest person I know!” Taylor told her but then he got somewhat serious. “Could you do us a favor?”
“Sure. Anything!”
“Try not to talk to our fans. They gossip a lot and we don’t want anything getting out of hand,” he explained and Liz frowned in return.
“Why would I do that?”
“I know, you’re better than them, but still you know what I mean.” Taylor blushed trying to sound nice about the situation. “Look, I’ll really miss you while we’re gone. I don’t know when we’ll be back to Tulsa.”
Liz grinned happily at those words but was sad at the same time. She was just glad that he even cared about her. There was still a chance!
“I’ll miss you too. Keep in touch all right?”
“I will.” Taylor nodded.
“Promise?”
“Of course,” but that was a lie. He never kept his promise.
After sitting in silence, Taylor then took her hand in his and they ran back to his house. She left shortly after but with a big smile on her face. Taylor did care about her and he was probably just waiting for everything to blow over so they could be together!
At least, that was what she thought at the time. She was crushed when they moved away and stopped answering her phone calls and writing her back, but somehow she still kept the faith. Then, the California trip happened where Taylor completely smashed her heart into pieces.
Now here they were, all three of the boys she once knew as the kids next door completely at her disposal. Her plans for revenge were going well especially since the Chelsey’s made it incredibly easy. This whole ordeal would be her ultimate payback for the utter hell that Taylor put her through and the sadness she felt when Isaac and Zac didn’t bother to see how she was doing. Why? Why couldn’t they write? What was their reason? They act as if nothing had happened.
It took years for Liz to stop driving herself insane with these questions. She even went to therapy over it once she got back from California. They instantly prescribed her to Xanax and a mild anti-depressant. Her nerves were shot and her mind was exploding. Going back down memory lane was not such a good idea.
Shaking her head, Liz came back down to reality and reached into her purse. Hanson was on their last song and she would get to head onto their next destination soon, but she needed relief from the headache that was now pulsing in her temples. She popped a little blue pill into her mouth and swallowed hard. That’s when the music stopped and the crowd roared.
She stared out at the odd mixture of people. The multicolored punks and the hyper teenyboppers littered the floor. Regardless of their differences, both groups seemed to be enjoying both of the bands. Liz grinned. She would have to put a stop to that ASAP.
Isaac and Zac walked by her after taking a bow, but Taylor stopped.
“This next hotel better be a lot cleaner than the previous one,” he snarled with a roll of his eyes.
Liz sighed and followed the boys out of the venue.
* * *
Both bands packed up and drove onto their next destination before they could stop again. The entourage drove through the night and got to Atlanta, GA sometime the next afternoon. Taylor hopped up and out of his seat just as the bus pulled in to a rather fancy Hilton hotel.
It’s about time Liz got it right. Taylor thought to himself. He had no more energy to complain out loud after the last couple of nights with no sleep. It was decided he was going to need a nap before the show.
Taylor, Isaac, and Zac stood by the tour bus and waited for Liz to come out of the lobby with their room keys. The Chelsey’s did the same standing next to their looming, pink monstrosity. Taylor couldn’t believe this was happening to him. This tour. These girls. Liz back in their lives and being ultra weird. Zac deciding to get crazy drunk before going on stage. It was almost too much. He got out his half empty pack of cigarettes and slipped one into his mouth. He lit the end and looked up to see that the three girls had made their way over to where he and his brothers stood.
“How are you feeling?” Blake asked Zac sincerely.
“Could be better,” he shrugged with a grin. “That was the hardest show I’ve ever had to play. Remind me not to play a drinking game with you ladies again!”
“We told you bro!” Faith replied. “We can out-drink most guys. It’s part of our charm.”
The Chelsey’s giggled. Taylor had no energy to be polite or converse so he just stared off into space.
Taylor watched as the girls continued to flirt with his brothers. Faith ruffled Zac’s hair playfully as she inhaled a puff of her own cigarette. He had to admit that even though Faith was definitely not his type she was pretty hot.
That’s when his attention instantly shifted to Sapphire who had run back to her bus to pick up a small cosmetic case that sat on top of her other luggage. She was wearing a short, schoolgirl-like skirt that perfectly flew up as the wind blew just enough to let him sneak a peek of the lower half of her ass. He felt his face grow warm and knew that it was most likely turning red, but he couldn’t help it.
Just then, he realized that Sapphire had turned towards him. He looked away quickly but not before catching a glimpse of her satisfied smirk.
Oh great, he sighed. Good one, Tay. That’s all these girls need are bigger ego’s.
Grabbing his room key and luggage, Taylor huffed to his room, this time not having to share it with his siblings. He stomped his cigarette out and swiped the key card before entering the room.
Taylor threw down his large suitcase and a duffel bag by the closet and fell onto the bed. He was so exhausted it only took him seconds to pass out.
A few hours later he awoke to the sound of a guitar playing outside.
Slowly, he stretched and got up to look out the window. Blake and Isaac were sitting out front on a bench, an acoustic guitar sat on Isaac’s lap. He strummed a melody as Blake sang along.
Sighing, Taylor shut the curtain and walked over to his luggage. It somewhat annoyed Taylor that his brothers were getting along so well with the Chelsey’s. The girls didn’t even mind that he didn’t care for them. No one was unhappy except for him and he couldn’t figure out why.
Being stubborn, Taylor decided to ignore it and deny he was acting immature about the situation. Instead he got out his laptop and signed in to hanson.net. He logged in to see there was a plethora of private messages to him. He skimmed through the subjects and most of which were from fans asking this or wanting to know that.
Then, he got to the most recent one. The subject was “You should try smiling, frowning can cause wrinkles.” Intrigued, Taylor opened the message to see one, lonely sentence.
“Things will get better so cheer up already.” A little further down he saw an AOL Instant Messenger screen name listed: emerald_skies.
For some odd reason, Taylor felt the need to add it to his AIM buddy list and so he signed on and saw that emerald_skies was actually online. His heart beat out of his chest and he sat there staring at the screen name for what seemed like a long time, trying to decide what to do.
What if this person is a crazy, stalker fan? How could she/he/it know I’m unhappy about everything? Well, my fans are very observant. Taylor thought before clicking on emerald_skies and sending them a message.
IamtheTHan: hi.
emerald_skies: hello there.
IamtheTHan: I got your message. Do I know you?
emerald_skies: I dunno. Do I know you?
IamtheTHan: Depends upon if you go to our shows or not. Apparently, you must since you know about our official website.
emerald_skies: I guess you could say we know each other then. I didn’t expect for you to message me, honestly. I’m glad you did.
IamtheTHan: What’s your name? I’m Taylor.
emerald_skies: It’s not really important is it? All I wanted you to know is that everything will be ok. I’ve noticed your melancholy attitude. There are a lot of people who look forward to seeing you on this tour so keep it positive for us.
IamtheTHan: Ok. You’re pretty insightful.
emerald_skies: I have been told. I’m sure I’ll see you soon.
IamtheTHan: Oh really? Like tonight?
emerald_skies: Yes, but I have to get going now.
IamtheTHan: Come see me at the show, maybe we can hang out afterwards.
emerald_skies: We’ll see. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.
They signed off before Taylor could reply and he stared at the message blankly. Either he had a very weird stalker on his hands or maybe it could be one of his few hot fans out there. He smiled and hoped it was the latter. It had been a while since he let loose and got laid. Maybe that was his problem. He was going to make it a point to find this person tonight.
“You should really be singing more within the band,” Isaac told Blake as they got up from the bench. “You’ve got a beautiful voice.”
“Well, thanks but singing isn’t my thing really,” Blake looked down shyly. “I like to write music and play, but being in the center spotlight is kind of intimidating.”
Isaac had to laugh out loud. “What do you mean? You girls are outrageous on stage!”
Blake giggled in return, “It’s just the booze talking! I mean I think Sapphire does a great job so I just follow her lead. I like being on the side lines.”
“Yeah, I know that feeling.”
“What do you mean?” Blake wondered noticing Isaac’s changing demeanor.
“Taylor is obviously our front man even though we all sing, we all write, and we all play. There’s nothing we can do to change this fact, but he’s the favorite. Always has been, always will be.” Isaac explained as they walked to their separate hotel rooms.
“Well, if it’s any consolation you’re my favorite!” Blake winked at him kindly and opened the door to her room “I’ll see you tonight, Isaac. Thanks for the jam session!”
Isaac nodded and waved bashfully before heading back to his own room. Zac came out of the room next to his just as Isaac was swiping the key card.
“So, Ikey- poo, I noticed you’ve been out here with Blake all afternoon!” Zac teased as he followed his big brother inside. “Are you going to spill it or what?”
“Spill what? There’s nothing to say. We were just playing,” Isaac shrugged his cheeks suddenly turning a light shade of pink.
“I can see it all over your face, Ike. You like her!” Zac pointed at him as if he had some sort of disease.
“Grow up, man! No I don’t!”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t! Now get out of here so I can take a shower and get ready geeez!” Isaac waved his little brother off, but Zac didn’t budge.
“Not until you admit it.”
“Admit what?” Isaac asked. He was starting to get annoyed by Zac’s pestering and wondered if he should just pretend he wasn’t even there. The sad thing is that Isaac knew his brother was right. He did kind of like Blake.
“Oh, come on! Don’t play dumb!”
“Blake is nice and pretty dude now go away!” Isaac replied.
“All right all right!” Zac smirked as left.
Zac was too good at knowing how his brother thought and felt about everything. He may have been the youngest, but he was the most observant of the three. Now Isaac just had to make sure that Zac didn’t go around telling everyone that he liked Blake or else he’d be embarrassed for sure. The only way to do this was to keep all alcohol out of Zac’s reach.
This is going to be such a long tour, Isaac sighed while covering his face with his hands.