By Zac's eighteenth birthday he'd done four more magazine ads and another commercial, this time spreading outside of Calvin Klein and into other companies. It was nearly impossible to open a magazine without one of his ads in it and his commercials were on heavy rotations on most channels. Although Zac thought doing ads would hurt his career, it only helped their last album sell more. It was actually on the charts now, which surprised everyone.
Ben threw a birthday party for Zac at his apartment, inviting all of Zac's family as well as his friends. Zac insisted that he and Taylor go over early to help set up. By the time they got there all of Zac's friends were already over there. "Zac!" Ben said, getting up. "It's just you two, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Zac said.
"Happy birthday, honey," Ben said and kissed him.
"Thank you."
"So when is everybody else coming?"
"About a half hour," Zac explained, walking into the kitchen.
"Zac!" His friends said in unison.
"Oh, hello," he said, waving, slightly surprised at the greeting. After a round of hugs from Jayden, Carter and Nix, Zac couldn't help but notice someone was missing. "Uh, where's Bronwyn?"
"Oh," Jayden said. "We broke up."
"Really?" Zac asked. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"No, it's a good thing," Jayden said. "She'll tell you it's a bad thing, but I think it's a good thing."
"Okay�" Zac said. "Well anyway, hi guys, thanks for coming. Ben, I need to talk to you."
"Okay," Ben said. They went into Ben's room and Ben sat down on the bed. "What's up?"
"Um, Ben," Zac said, sitting down next to him, "It looks like we're going to go back out to LA sooner than I thought." Ben eyed him carefully. "So�"
"You're going to miss my birthday," Ben said. Zac nodded.
"I'm sorry, baby," he said. "I mean I wanted to stay here as long as we can but we're going back on Saturday. Are you mad?"
"Well you've gotta do what you've gotta do. It's okay."
"No, you're mad," Zac said. "Baby, I am so sorry." Ben shook his head.
"Don't worry about it, okay?" Ben said. "Please?" Zac sighed and Ben hugged him. "It's okay."
"And I can't stay over tonight," Zac said. "I know I said I was going to but I can't. I have to do an interview."
"An interview?" Ben asked, letting go of him. "On your birthday?"
"Yeah," Zac said. "It's for a magazine. They're going to put me on the cover."
"Just you?" Ben asked. Zac nodded. "How do your brothers feel about this?"
"They, um, don't know," Zac said. "But one of the reasons I have to go back to LA early is because I have to do a photo shoot."
"Why can't you do the interview then?"
"Because I can only do the photo shoot for, like, an hour! That's not even enough time to get three shots, much less the cover photo and an entire spread to go with the interview!" Zac said. "Listen, it's not until eight o'clock so I still have�" He looked at his watch. "An hour and a half before I have to leave."
"Yeah, but Zac, your family won't be here for another half hour. I had an entire evening planned, including after everybody else left." Zac sighed. Ben was nearly fuming. Zac knew he wasn't going to take this well.
"If it doesn't take too long I'll come here afterwards."
"No, don't even bother," Ben said, getting up.
"Oh come on, Ben! It's not like I want to do this! It's good publicity. We're back on the charts now and it's because I'm doing stuff like this. I'm sorry if I want to help my career out. I love you, Ben, I really do, but I'm working my ass off out there and it's not like it's easy on me! I think about you every day and it kills me to be there while you're here and know I can't even have you come out to visit me because my parents think this is wrong!" Ben sighed.
"I just don't like that you're not here anymore. We've been dating for nearly three months now in the past two I've seen you for a total of three days."
"I know."
"It's just hard, okay?"
"I know."
"Let's go back outside, all right?" Ben asked. "I don't want to fight with you."
"Fine," Zac said. He got up and followed Ben outside. Taylor was connecting with Jayden in the living room�the two hadn't had a real conversation in over a year�while Carter and Nix were talking in the kitchen, sneaking bits of icing off of Zac's cake.
"Oh, I forgot to ask," Ben said. "Uh, who did you say was coming? Is it everybody?"
"Well Isaac decided to stay in LA," Zac said. "I don't know why, but actually I think it's just going to be my parents and possibly Jess. Your mom isn't home, is she?" Ben shook his head.
"No," he said. "She's working late again. I don't even expect to see her until the weekend."
"Oh, okay," Zac said. "Well it's probably better. She might slip and tell my parents I'm gay." Ben nodded.
"Yeah, probably. Oh, and that reminds me, I got a cell phone. I need to give you the number. It'll probably be better if you just called me on that for a little while."
"Okay," Zac said. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Put it in here."
"All right." Ben sat down and put his cell phone number in Zac's address book. Zac sat down next to him and put his arm around him. Although Ben was still obviously mad, Zac was trying to get as much physical contact in with him before Walker and Diana showed up.
"Oh, that reminds me," Zac said. "Guys, I don't know if you know or not, but my parents don't know I'm gay, so let's not mention the fact that Ben and I are dating, okay?"
"You haven't told your parents yet?" Jayden asked. Zac looked over at him.
"Uh, no."
"Zac!"
"Listen, Jayden," Taylor said. "You don't know our parents like we do. They're not the understanding type."
"Well, Zac, you're eighteen now," Carter said. Zac looked behind him at Carter and Nix. "They don't have to be the understanding type."
"I'm still not saying anything," Zac said. "And neither should any of you! Ben and I are just friends."
"Yeah, friends who're constantly making out," Carter muttered. Zac gave him a look.
"None of that, okay?" Zac said. There was a knock at the door. "That's them. I don't want to hear anything from any of you, all right?" Zac got up and opened the door. "Hi!" Walker and Diana walked in, revealing a prettied-up Jess behind them. "Oh, hey Jess, I didn't think you were going to come."
"Yeah, I just kind of figured I should�" she said. "Happy birthday, Zac." She gave her big brother a kiss on the cheek and walked inside. "Nix!" She ran to Nix and jumped in his arms, giving him a deep kiss. Zac looked at Taylor, who shrugged.
"Uh, Nix?" Zac asked. "What the hell is this?"
"Oh, you don't know?" Diana asked. Zac shook his head. "Nix and Jess have been dating for quite some time now."
"Is that so?" Zac asked, looking at Nix. He looked down at the floor, his arm still around Jess's waist. "It's so nice that I'm informed."
"Yes," Nix said, looking at Zac. "It's nice that everyone is informed about everything now." Zac gave him a look.
"Nix, can I talk to you for a second?"
"Zac, no," Jess said. "You're just going to yell at him!"
"On the balcony, please," Zac said, and walked out onto the balcony. Nix reluctantly followed him out there and closed the door. The only reason they were on the balcony was because Zac was sure his parents wouldn't be able to overhear out there. "How long has this been going on?"
"Almost a year now," Nix said, crossing his arms. "Are we going to stay out here long? It's cold." Now that it was late October it was getting to be chilly out and was probably about fifty degrees out now that the sun was down.
"Just a minute," Zac said. "I know it's cold, but if we talked in Ben's room my parents could overhear. Does she know?"
"Know what?"
"Don't be stupid, Nix. Does she know I'm gay?" Nix didn't say anything. "The sooner you tell me the sooner we can go back inside."
"Yes! Yes, I told her. I thought she knew already."
"Oh my God." He opened the door. "Jess, come out here." Jess cautiously walked outside.
"Oh, Jesus Christ, it's freezing out here!" Jess said and put her arms around a shivering Nix. "What do you want?"
"Did you tell anyone?"
"About what?"
"About me!" Zac said. "Did you tell anybody I'm gay?"
"No!" Jess said. "No, I didn't. Actually until right now I thought Nix was lying. Can we go back inside now?"
"Ugh, fine! You go back inside, and don't you dare breathe a word of this to anybody. I still need to talk to Nix."
"Dammit, Zac!"
"Just a minute, okay?" Zac asked. Jess went back inside after promising she wouldn't tell anybody about Zac's secret. "Did you do it with her?"
"What?!"
"Did you sleep with her?" Zac asked.
"What do you care? It's none of your business!"
"I'm her older brother, it is totally my business! She's sixteen, Nix!"
"I know that!" Nix said. "If you absolutely must know, yes, I did sleep with her."
"Oh my God! I'm going to have to kill you now!"
"I'm in love with her, Zac!" Zac paused. "I love her."
"Seriously?" Zac asked.
"Yes! I love her and I've been in love with her for quite some time. We didn't do it until we were dating for a long time already and we waited until she was absolutely ready. I didn't want to make her do anything she would regret. She means so much to me, Zac."
"I had no idea."
"Can we go back inside now?" Nix's teeth were chattering and Zac was shivering as well. Zac wasn't prepared for the chilly weather; he'd spent the past month in LA where it was still warm outside.
"Yeah, fine," Zac said. He opened the door and went inside, happy to be back inside where it was warm. Nix walked back over to Jess and put his arms around her. She smiled and kissed him. Zac wished that he could be that publicly affectionate with Ben and not worry who was watching. Unfortunately, he was positive that was never going to happen.
Zac met his interviewer at a coffeehouse promptly at eight o'clock. She was about five foot four with brown hair and green eyes, and she recognized him immediately. She stood to shake hands with him. "Zac, hi, nice to meet you. I'm Rebecca."
"Nice to meet you, Rebecca," Zac said. They sat down at a table.
"Thank you so much for agreeing to meet me on your birthday," Rebecca said. "I'm sure you must have had something planned."
"Well I had a little party with my family and my friends before I came here," Zac said, smiling. Rebecca searched through her purse and pulled out a small voice recorder.
"Do you mind?" she asked, showing it to him. He shook his head.
"No, go ahead." She put it on the table and after a standard, taped agreement that Zac was fine with having the interview recorded, they began. Zac ordered himself a cup of coffee immediately. Although he wanted to keep this short, Zac was sure it was going to run for a while and Ben had out and out told him not to come back, which made him feel terrible. He was only going to be in town for a few days and the last thing he wanted was an unnecessary fight with his boyfriend.
"So let's get right to it," Rebecca said. "The past few months you've been blowing up all over the country�in magazines, on television, and now your album's on the charts again? How do you feel about that?"
"It's quite surprising," Zac said. "I did the first CK ad on a whim, I mean I didn't even want to do it because my brothers weren't going to be a part of it, but my publicist convinced me. Then all of a sudden everybody wants me to do ads and such, and it's just so amazing�I had no idea it would happen."
"How do you feel about this all of this coming to you instead of your brothers?"
"I'm not exactly happy about it, but it's selling records, so they're happy for me. I don't like doing anything like this without them, but for some reason Calvin Klein thinks it's better just as me."
"You're commercial for Klein's Eternity for Men is turning a lot of heads. You are Corrina seemed to have a lot of chemistry."
"I'll let you in on a little secret," Zac said. "I'm just there to make her look good. That's all the direction they gave me. 'Zac, roll around with this half naked model and try not to get in her way.' " Rebecca laughed. "What can I say, I did what I was getting paid for."
"I have to ask," Rebecca said. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Zac smiled.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I can honestly say I don't."
"Really? A sexy guy like yourself doesn't have a girlfriend?" Zac shrugged.
"Who knows why these things work like they do?" Zac asked. "But, no, I don't have one. Thank you for calling me sexy, though."
"It's true," Rebecca said. "Do you think you'll get into anything else besides modeling for magazine ads and TV commercials?"
"Like what?"
"Like runway modeling, maybe acting." Zac shook his head.
"No," he said, laughing a little bit. "I can't act for shit." He took a sip of his coffee. "Please cover the fact that I just swore."
"All right. So you're not going to do anything else? No catwalk?"
"I'm a musician," Zac said. "I'm not a model. However, if the situation ever arose I'd certainly think about it. I don't know if I'd actually do it or not. I usually need a lot of convincing to do anything. My publicist always tells me 'You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but�' and then she lays a massive guilt trip on me until I agree. It's all good, though."
"What are you and your brothers doing right now?"
"Well we're here in Tulsa for my birthday," Zac said, "but currently we're doing a lot of writing for the next album in LA. Hopefully we'll have enough material to start recording before the end of the year."
"Any idea when it'll be released?"
"I have no idea," Zac said, honestly. "I mean we're just starting out right now. Any date I give you right now would be a lie."
"So lie to me."
"September 2054." Rebecca laughed.
"So what's next for you in your modeling career?" she asked.
"Oh, I just found out I'm going to be on the cover of YM!" She shook her head. "Actually, I don't have anything else planned right now. I'm sure something else is going to come up, it always is, but I'm not entirely sure."
"Is there anything you won't do?" she asked. "Calvin Klein does a lot of underwear ads. Would you do it if they asked you to model underwear next?"
"Probably," Zac said. "I mean when I did my first ad I had a problem with even taking my shirt off, but I am eighteen now, I can make my own decisions, and if they wanted to see me in my underwear, why not? Obviously somebody thinks I look good enough do something like that."
"How about nudity?"
"Now why the hell would they want me to be naked?" Zac asked. "Yeah, they get the chicks all naked and stuff to sell diamonds or eye makeup or whatever, but why would I be naked?"
"It may come up."
"Sure, why not? It's just tasteful ad campaigning," Zac said. "It's not like anybody will get to see anything."
"Unfortunately." Zac laughed.
"Yes, unfortunately." Zac took another sip of his coffee as she went on to ask him questions. They all pretty much sounded the same. He was getting interviewed for a teenage girl's magazine so there were only so many subjects she could ask him about. She could care less about his music, and she made that very clear. She didn't care how the sound was changing or how the recent tour went. All she cared about was the fact that little MMMBop Zac Hanson had turned into this sexy CK model. She cared more about his stomach than his voice, more about his arms than his talent, and more about his ass than anything he had ever done in his life. He couldn't help but notice how little his brothers came up, unless he mentioned them, and how much she obviously wanted him to ditch them and take up a modeling career. It pissed him off.