When Zac woke up the next morning, he stretched out and smiled. Last night had been amazing; he'd never had sex like that before. The only thing that made it different from the other times was how forbidden it was. His parents were just down the hall and his little brother and sisters were in bedrooms sprawled around the remainder of the hall, and at two o'clock in the morning Madison came in the room and they had sex. Just that bit of knowledge, knowing that the family could wake up at any moment and hear them, made it all the more better. After they'd done it she'd slipped out of the bed and he watched her put her clothes back on before she went back into her room.
He got up and walked into the bathroom, taking a quick shower before he went downstairs. Madison was in the kitchen helping out with breakfast, a large smile on her face. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked at him, her puffy lips making him melt right away. She smiled widely. "Hey, nice of you to join us, sleepyhead," she said, giggling.
"Good morning," he said, giving her a kiss before walking over to the table. He sat down a moment and smiled at his four-year-old sister who was giggling excessively across from him. She wasn't paying attention to him, only at her other sister who was trying her best to make her laugh next to her. He could see the excitement in the little girl's eyes, knowing Christmas was just around the corner. The tree was up and the stockings were hung and all around the house Santa and his elves had made an appearance in the form of decoration.
Diana and Madison were getting along spectacular (his biggest fear was that they wouldn't) and apparently Madison had gotten up early to help her make breakfast for the family. They normally didn't have a spectacular breakfast like that, usually the kids had cereal and she'd make something for Zo�, but today was definitely a special occasion. Zac was home and he brought his girlfriend along with him.
"So you're just going to sit there while I do everything?" Madison asked, putting a plate of pancakes and bacon down in front of him.
"Well, I, um�"
"I'm just playing with you, honey," she said, fluffing his short hair with her hand. "You are cleaning up, though." He gave her a look as she turned around and laughed.
"Might help if I had a fork!" Zac said after her. She turned around and stuck out her tongue at him. He smiled and put on his best puppy-dog look, which worked better now that he wasn't hiding behind his hair. Madison crumbled immediately; unlike the rest of the family, she wasn't used to it. This was in fact the first time he used it on her. She opened up the drawer, surprising Zac that she already knew her way around the kitchen, and got out a fork for him. She gave it to him and he gave her thank-you smile.
"You are so never doing that to me again."
"I love you."
"Shut up."
Their banter left a shaky feeling in Diana but she quickly got rid of it and served her children before sitting down herself. Madison sat down next to Zac, giving him a look. He returned it and they began to eat. Zac, of course, ate like he hadn't seen food in weeks, despite the fact that he had a girlfriend who was staring at him the entire time, an amused but mostly disgusted look on her face.
"You know, baby, we will be eating again, you don't have to shove it down like there's no tomorrow," she said, laughing. He looked over at her, having just shoved a full pancake into his mouth, surprised she'd even mentioned anything.
"Sorry," he said, his mouth still full.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," she said, giggling. "I swear, the things you do�well, by the time I leave here you're not going be to doing any of that, you hear?" Zac rolled his eyes. "Starting with that one." She smacked him on the back of the head.
"Ow! Madison!" She just smiled at him.
After breakfast Zac cleared the table and did the dishes. Everyone left quickly after they'd finished and Madison was the only one who'd stayed behind. As Zac was loading the dishwasher, Madison wiped off the counters and the table. Zo� had left half of her plate before she ran off and made quite a mess.
"Maddie, baby, you don't have to clean up."
"Who else is going to do it?" she asked, turning to him. "You?" She laughed. "That'll be the day."
"I'll have you know I've done my share of cleaning around here. Nine people live in this house, and nine people make a fricken hell of a mess. I've done my chores. I'm just a guest here; I don't live here as of right now. I'm only doing chores because you're making me."
"Well it still needs to be done and even with three of her kids gone Diana still looks exhausted. I'm not going to let her stress over cleaning the house with just two days until Christmas, you know." Madison finished wiping up the table and took the rag back to the sink. "I can't imagine how she makes it when you and your brothers are home." Zac fell silent at the mention of his brothers and Madison noticed right away. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have�"
"No, it's okay. It's just kind of hard, with the holidays coming up and all. I know the little kids are used to us being gone but I was always with them, and we were always together at holidays. It hurts to know they're not going to be home." Madison turned away. "Mad? What's up?"
"It's nothing."
"Come on, tell me. Something's bugging you." She looked up at him and he could see the tears in her eyes reflect the light from overhead. "What's going on, babe?"
"I�I never told you I had a brother, did I?" He shook his head. "He's a good deal older, he'd be twenty-four this coming February. Mom was so proud of him when he said he wanted to go in the Peace Corps. It was his dream all of his life to join the Peace Corps, and we all knew it, so we were happy when he graduated and went away. Eventually he got stationed in South Korea." Zac immediately knew where this was going. "He was among the first to die over there."
"How come you never told me?" he asked.
"I didn't want to say anything. It'd just make you think of your brothers and I know how much it hurts you. It hurts me too. We haven't had Christmas with him for years but this was the first time I know we'll never spend it with him again. My mom wanted me home; if he couldn't be there she wanted me there, but I can't handle her since he died. I had to get away from her and I went and visited my uncle a ways away, he gave me tickets to your concert and I found so much truth in your message that I had to come back every time. You helped me so much, Zac, just what you were saying up there helped me and I'll never be able to thank you enough for that. It hurt like hell when I heard he was gone but you helped that go away. I'm okay with his death and that's because of you."
"Wow, I�"
"That's why you're so popular, Zac," she said, cutting him off. "Yes, some of it has to do with your talent and because it's you, but I bet a good ninety percent of the people who come to your concerts and support you are doing so because they're hurt and you're the one who can help comfort them. They've lost someone close to them and you're the one who makes it all go away. You're the reason they can get up and face the day, because of what you said. You don't know the power you have right now. You don't understand that what you're doing is affecting millions and millions of people, that just being here you're affecting me." When she finished Zac was barely able to hold himself up, the heavy weight of realization pouring down on him. She noticed this and grew embarrassed immediately. She put the rag in the sink and walked away quickly.
Early in the morning of Christmas Eve, Zac wandered down the stairs and found his mother in the living room, watching old home movies of the family opening presents Christmas morning. The darkness of the room shrouded her but the light from the TV illuminated the tears in her eyes.
"Mom? What are you doing?" Diana quickly wiped her eyes and looked at her son.
"Just watching some old movies." Zac smiled and sat down next to her. How old was he in this one? Four? Five? He had no idea. Avery wasn't born yet and Jess was still crawling so he couldn't have been more than that age. The kids were tearing open presents; Ike had gotten a guitar and was playing with it. Zac couldn't remember if he'd known how to play one by then. Taylor was already done opening his, but instead of playing with them or even taking them out of their boxes, he was cuddled up against his mother, his thumb in his mouth. It'd taken him until he was ten to finally break that habit.
"Why are you doing this, Mom?" Zac finally asked.
"I just wanted to see them again, honey."
"Mom, I know it sucks that they're not here. I know that you want them home, but you're just going to torture yourself doing this. I'm here, dote on that for a while." Diana shook her head, not taking her eyes off the screen. Zac huffed and shut it off for her.
"Zachary!"
"Mother, please." Diana sighed and stood up. "It's Christmas, you're supposed to be happy."
"How am I supposed to be happy when my babies are halfway across the world fighting in a war that isn't even ours?"
"You're starting to sound like me, Mom."
"No, you're starting to sound like me." Zac smiled. "What time is it?"
"It's nearly seven. Have you been up all night?" he asked. She nodded. "Mom, that's not good. Now you're going to be grumpy all day. Go upstairs and go to sleep."
"I can't do that, we have people coming over for dinner, the house is a mess and I have to take care of the kids�"
"Mother, no. You're going to sleep. Jess, Ave, and Mac can all take care of themselves, I'll deal with Zo� and I'll clean the house before the people come over. Where's Dad? He'll help."
"He'll be at work until four."
"Work? Why is he working?"
"He got so bored around the house that he was starting to bug me so I made him go out and get a job. It's nothing much, but he has to work today." Zac made a face. One of the reasons he was happy he was doing something he loved and made so much money at it was that his parents wouldn't have to work at a stupid job they didn't care for again. "Maybe if you took him on tour with you�" Zac thought about that; if his father did that, he definitely would not be able to do the things he'd been doing.
"No, that's quite all right. Drake is an awesome manager and so is everybody else on tour with me. He'd just be a bother."
"Whatever, dear."
"Go to sleep, Mom."
"Are you really going to clean this entire house, top to bottom, and take care of a very messy four-year-old at the same time?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Madison will help me."
"Madison's doing what now?" Madison asked, walking into the room. Zac gave her a big smile. "Oh, I don't care. I'm starting breakfast." She disappeared into the kitchen. Zac gave Diana an expectant look and she groaned.
"Fine, Zac. I'll go to bed." He smiled and shooed her off before going into the kitchen. He waited for the sound of the door closing until he came up behind Madison and started kissing her neck.
"Why, hello to you too," she said, turning around. "And what's up with you?"
"We're alone until the next person wakes up�we've got at least an hour."
"An hour?" she asked, grinning. "That's quite a while�why, we could even do it twice in that amount of time." He smiled and kissed her. She giggled lightly at his forcefulness and kissed him back. He didn't waste any time to pull up her leg and slide his hand over her smooth thigh, holding it up against his hip. She ran her hands down his chest, to his pants, and as she was undoing them, they were interrupted.
"Zakky?"
"Fuck," he mouthed, ready to scream it out. Madison gave him a warning look and quickly put his pants back together before he turned to the doorway. "Hey Bubs, you're up early." He walked over to Zo� and picked her up off the ground. "What are you doing up?"
"Mommy woke me up."
"Oh, did she?" Zac shot a look at Madison who only shrugged. "Well that wasn't nice of her. Are you still tired?" Zo� shook her head. "I thought so. Well Maddie will make you some breakfast right after I talk to her." He put her at the table and walked up to Madison. "I say we leave her here and find a secluded area."
"Zac, that's wrong. At least wait until Jess wakes up."
"Ah, good idea." He ran out of the room and up the stairs, leaving Madison laughing in the kitchen as she made a quick bowl of cereal for Zo�. He burst into Jess's room. "Hey, Jess, wake up." She groaned and rolled over. "No, Jess, wake up, I need you to watch Zo� for a little while."
"Why? Where's Mom?" she muttered, still not opening her eyes. Zac knew if Jess could, she'd sleep all day. He had been the same way once, before he learned to survive on a minimal amount of sleep.
"She's asleep. She was up all night and I made her go to sleep."
"Why can't you do it?"
"I have to go to the store."
"What about Madison?"
"First off, she's a guest and I'm not going to make her watch my little sister. And she's coming with me." Jess groaned and threw the covers off. She growled at her brother and went down the stairs. He followed her and took his keys off the table. "Hey, Mad, let's go." Madison smiled and handed Zo� her bowl of cereal and a spoon and the two ran off together.
"Fricken big brothers, think they can boss me around," she said, huffing and making herself a bowl of cereal. She sat down across from Zo�, who was making a mess, and gave her sister a look. Zo� returned it, not quite understand what it meant, and ate her cereal.
Forty-five minutes later Jess was still in the kitchen but Zo� was long gone when Zac and Madison came back. The house was totaled; it definitely wasn't like this when he left. Zac went into the kitchen and Madison started cleaning up in the living room. Zac looked pissed as all hell but Jess didn't seem to notice. "Jessica," he said as calmly as he could. She looked up.
"What?"
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE?" he yelled. She jumped.
"What are you talking about?"
"This house was relatively clean when I left, now it is a total disaster area! Zo�'s got her shit everywhere! I thought I told you to watch her."
"I did!"
"No you didn't! If you were watching her this would not have happened. Fucking A, Jess, I leave for forty-five minutes and the house is totaled. There's no way I'm going to be able to clean this by the time Mom wakes up and if she sees the house like this she is going to freak out!"
"I thought you were going to the store," she said, looking over him.
"Yeah, we did."
"Then what did you get?" He paused. He hadn't thought of that.
"Well�we went, but they were out, so we came back." She gave him a confused look.
"What were they out of?"
"Everything." She looked confused still and shook her head a moment until she realized what had really gone out. She jumped up, a look of disgust on her face.
"Ugh! You woke me up and made me watch Zo� so you could go out and fuck your girlfriend? And you have the nerve to yell at me because the house is messed up. When Mom wakes up and sees that the house is trashed don't tell her I didn't watch Zo�, tell her you went out and had sex with your girlfriend."
"Shut up, Jess."
"No! That's so not fair! Just because you're a celebrity you think you can get away with everything! It doesn't work that way, Zac. You think you can get away with having sex with your girlfriend�" Zac opened his mouth to protest. "And don't think I don't know you're doing it, either, I'm fourteen, Zac, I'm not stupid! I know you two do it at night when everyone's asleep and I betcha Mom and Dad know too but they don't think you'd do it because you're too perfect for that! You're the one with the voice and the message, getting up in front of thousands of people every night, making millions of dollars. You're not even the same person anymore, Zac! You're not my big brother anymore! You're this foreign guy who's got a stick up his ass because he had a hit record, he has millions of fans, he's on every TV screen from here to Timbuktu just because he cut his hair! You act as though you're God's gift to the world but you're not! You're just a shitty older brother who doesn't care about his family at all. I bet it's your fault to that Ike and Tay are still gone. They were real older brothers�"
"How the hell is that my fault, Jess? Did I go over to North Korea and say 'hey Mr. President, things are getting a little bit too good around here, why don't you bomb the capital and kill a hundred thousand people because you're not happy with your borders? And while you're at it, why don't you get the US involved and specifically make my two brothers go over there and miss Christmas.' "
"What is going on down here?" Diana yelled, walking into the kitchen. "You've woken everybody in the house up, Zo�'s crying her eyes out and this house is trashed! What's happened?"
"Ask your perfect son," Jess muttered, her eyes shooting daggers at her older brother. Zac shut his mouth, afraid if he opened it again he'd say something he regretted. Diana looked over at Zac.
"What's going on, Zac?"
"I leave for forty-five minutes and I ask Jess to watch Zo� and when I come back the house looks like this."
"Why don't you tell her why you left?" Jess said, huffing.
"That doesn't matter," Zac said, eyeing Jessica. "I come back here and ask what happened and she blows up at me, yelling at me and�" Zac was cut off by the doorbell.
"Who could that be?" Diana asked, tightening her robe and walking to the door. Zac and Jess followed, just as curious as she was. She opened the door and immediately began to cry. Zac walked around so he could see out the door.
"Taylor?"