"Number one, baby!"
Zac looked up, an eyebrow raised, as an excited Taylor came up to him about four months later. The recording of the album took about a week, the editing taking a bit longer and the album was the quickest thing Zac had ever done in his life. Once he finished in the studio he grabbed Taylor and they went back out on tour. They'd done about twenty dates over those four months, taking their time, visiting cities they hadn't visited, but they were running out. Before long they'd be replaying cities, but the public didn't seem to mind.
"What, Taylor?"
"The album. It's number one." Zac made a face.
"I didn't want that to happen."
"Do you know how many copies you sold this week?" Zac stood up.
"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me." Taylor ignored his blatantly sarcastic comment and went on.
"Ten million, Zac. Ten million just this week. Hanson hasn't sold that many albums period." Zac walked to the window and looked out of it. He and Taylor were spending some quality time in the hotel before they were off to their show that night. "Why don't you care?"
"Because I never wanted to make an album in the first place."
"Why?"
"Because all I wanted to do was tour! And then Ron got me into making an album and I'd buckled down and said once I finished the tour I would do it. I was already in a contract when I fired him."
"Woah, woah, you fired Ron?"
"Yeah! I thought you knew!"
"No, I didn't even know he was your manager. I thought you were with Drake all the way through." Zac shook his head. "Oh. Well, go figure. I always hated Ron. If it were up to me, he would have been gone the first day Dad hired him."
"Well he and Dad were good friends and we were just kids then, Tay. We got stuck with him." On the table behind them, Zac's phone began to ring. He walked over and looked at it. "It's Madison. What does she want?" He picked up the phone. "Yes my dear?"
"I hate you."
"Oh, hello to you too."
"No, I'm serious. I really hate you."
"Why do you hate me, Madison?" he asked, putting his feet up on the table Taylor rolled his eyes and walked out onto the balcony, looking out to Lake Michigan. They were in Chicago again, this time on the south side, and would be heading back towards Madison's home in a few days.
"You made me cry! I went out and bought your album and I listened to it and you made me cry. You should have told me you wrote a song for me."
"I didn't write a song for you. What are you talking about? I wrote a song for my Great Aunt Betsy and her dog, Maddie. Now unfortunately her dog died some time ago and�"
"Your sarcasm isn't appreciated, baby."
"So did you like it?"
"I loved it! I had no idea you could sing like that�I mean usually you've got your guitar with you and on the rest of the album Taylor sings backup, but this is just your voice, nothing else. You've got some major lungpower, baby."
"Well thank you. I figured you'd like it." Zac looked over at Taylor on the balcony and he was smoking. "Hey!" he shouted. "Hey what the hell are you doing out there?" Taylor turned around.
"What?"
"No smoking!"
"He's smoking?" Madison asked. "Give him to me, I'll scream his ear off."
"No, that's okay. He needs his ear. He's proving to us that he doesn't need his mouth, throat, or lungs, but he needs his ear. You should see him, baby, he's got some hair now. He's getting it back. He almost looks like Taylor again, well, like Taylor with cancer hanging from his lips."
"Shut up, Zac. I have few pleasures in this life. Let me smoke."
"I think you should stop," Zac said. "But I don't want to go there again. So, Maddie, how's your day been?"
"All right. Where are you?"
"Chicago. We'll be by you in a couple of days. I'll swing by to say hello."
"You better to do more than that, mister. I'm expecting dinner, maybe a movie, a night out on the town, followed of course by a night of hot sex at the hotel, and you better be getting me flowers."
"Why?"
"Because if you don't recall, you haven't seen me in four months. It's been a whole four months without you, babe! I want something special."
"Whatever," he said. "Hey, when do you get out school?"
"May seventeenth. What day is it today?"
"It's April twenty-fourth. Just a little bit left before summer."
"Geez, it feels like I just started. Man, this year went by fast," she said. "Oh! Did you ever talk to the president again?"
"No. I think I'm on his shit list. I will never in my life be able to return to the White House. But I'm bugging him and his staff with letters every week."
"Every week? That's, like, so not going to do anything."
"Yeah, but when I send them, I send like four hundred to each person, each with one sentence written in them, so if they read them, they had to fan them out and decide which one goes where."
"I'm sure they have the time to do that too, Zac."
"Hey, it's fun. Taylor helps me out. I send about a hundred dollar's worth of letters out every Thursday." Taylor walked back into the room, having finished his cigarette. Zac made a face and waved his hand in front of him. "Taylor, you smell like smoke."
"Screw you, Zac." Zac rolled his eyes. "Get off the phone, we have to go to the arena."
"Why so early?"
"Press."
"Fine. Baby, I have to go. I love you."
"I love you too, hun. Good luck."
"Thanks. It's going to be so hard there without you reading your trashy magazines backstage and not even listening to my music. I could so use your support."
"Shut up."
"Bye."
"Bye, dear." Zac hung up the phone.
At the press conference before the show, Zac sat at a table with Taylor. The only reason they would hold was because of how incredible Zac's album was doing. It broke records, beating out Nsync's record for selling the most albums in one week. Zac really didn't care about it. He wanted to get on stage and not answer these stupid questions, but Taylor kept him there.
"Zac, how do you feel about this?"
"I really don't ca�" Zac felt Taylor's foot come down hard on his. "�know how to react. I really don't know how to react to all of this. It's amazing." He shot a warning glance at his brother, who was smiling. "I mean I know people wanted to buy it, but I didn't know there were this many people."
"You're selling about a million albums a day, Zac. What does that mean to you?"
"It means I must be doing something right. That's extraordinary. I'm sure it'll die down eventually, though."
"Do you expect more sales when it comes out in Korea next week?" Zac's eyes grew.
"It's coming out in Korea?" he asked. "I didn't know that! Well, then I really don't know. It's either going to be well-received or very, very ill-received."
"What are your thoughts on this, Taylor?"
"I think it will be very well-received. If not just by the community, then by the Americans living there. I know from personal experience that Zac's music got us through some tough times, always had us thinking of home, and always had us uplifted. He'll definitely sell a lot of albums over there."
"The thing getting the most recognition from your album is the bonus track, Maddie's Song. Is that single worthy?"
"Probably not. The kind of music I'm doing right now is a certain genre. It's all protest music; it all has to do with the war or the way the country is being run�Maddie's Song is something different. That song is about a girl, that's why it's a bonus track, because if you listen to it, it has nothing to do with the rest of the album. There was actually a lot of controversy on whether or not it would go on the album because it was so different."
"How about when the war is over?"
"Well, if the war ends before the album is exhausted, sure. It'll be a great single on getting back to the way things were before."
"Do you think that could happen?"
"Ask your president. He's the one with all of the bright ideas."
"Is there any animosity between you and President Smith, Zac?" Zac glanced at Taylor.
"Well," he said, "I think he's a blithering idiot and he doesn't like me, I'm sure he's even out to get me, so�I guess you could say that, yes. But I'm keeping my distance from his secret service and I haven't heard a word from him since I met with him around Christmas, so things are still under wraps."
"Aren't you a little intimidated by his power?"
"I think I have a little power myself right now," Zac said. "Actually, let me talk to my audience tonight, we'll vote to see who's got more power."
"Do you think you're more powerful than the president?"
"I never said that. I just know that as today I have ten million people on my side that agree with me and not with him. They proved that by buying my album."
"Zac, do you think the war is going to end soon?"
"No, I don't. As much as I'm fighting to end it, I'm not doing very much to persuade the president. He's the force behind it all; he's the only one who can stop this or at least take our people out there. He doesn't like me so that's not going to help any."
"But he can't ignore us forever," Taylor added. "One of these days he'll have to cave in, even if that's the day North and South Korea sign a peace treaty."
"Do you think the success this album will prove anything to him?"
"Probably not," Zac answered. "But it'll definitely show Taylor and I what kind of numbers we're dealing with here. I don't have the numbers from the tour I did before I recorded the album, so I don't know how many people I'm dealing with here. I know I've got at least ten million because of the figures I have right now, but there may be more and the more people I have, the easier it'll be to stop this war."
"I understand your brother Isaac is still in Korea," one reporter said. Zac's face faltered a moment, but he composed himself just as quickly as he let himself go. "Say he comes home tomorrow. Will you stop?"
"No!" Zac said, smiling. "No, then I'll just have another person on my tour. I'm not stopping until everyone over there that doesn't belong over there is here and safe at home."
"Have you heard from your brother at all?"
"Yes," both Taylor and Zac immediately lied. Zac continued: "Yes, we've received letters and he's all right. He's eager to come home. He's very interested in what I'm doing." Zac looked at Taylor. "What we're both doing."
"Taylor, did you see him while you were in Korea?" Taylor's face immediately shut down and Drake stepped in.
"I'm afraid the boys cannot answer any more questions, they have to prepare for the show. You are all welcomed to stay in the press box; it has been opened for you, if you'd like to watch the show. They will be unable to answer questions after the show, we have to catch a flight immediately; I'm afraid that will be all. Thank you for coming." Taylor and Zac got up and left quickly to a secluded area as the press was fanned out. Taylor was blank.
"Tay?" Zac asked. "Tay, are you all right?" Taylor did not respond. Zac noticed he had his leg pulled up to his chest, clutching it as if he were in pain. Zac knew that sign, especially now that they'd been touring together for months. "Tay, wake up!" Zac snapped his fingers in front of his brother's face. Taylor looked over.
"What?" he asked. "How'd we get here?"
"We walked. You were zoning out."
"Oh," Taylor said. "I had no idea. Sorry." He stood up and walked towards the stage. "Are we doing a sound check?"
"We did it before press, Tay," Zac explained. Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Listen, Tay, maybe you should sit this one out."
"No, I'm fine." He looked out on the stage. "How much time until we start?"
"About an hour."
"Okay. I'm going to warm up." Taylor left and Zac's eyes followed him. When he was gone, Zac looked up at Drake.
"He's getting worse, Drake."
"I know."
"I'm just afraid he's going to do it during the show. He doesn't have a big part and I know he wants to do more but I'm not going to give it to him. I don't want him doing a solo and suddenly freak out. It's okay if he's doing backup because nobody will notice. If he solos�it could be bad."
"Maybe we should get him help?"
"I don't know. We're not in one city long enough to do that. I don't want to leave him behind. He's popular and he won't do well if we kick him off for a little while."
"Well if he zones during the show, we're going to have to." Zac made a face. "Zac, he's not doing well. He hasn't been doing well since he came back from Korea. He hasn't made it a night without a nightmare yet, you know because he's been sleeping in your room every night."
"Yeah, by the way, when we go to Cleveland, he's sleeping in your room."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not having him in my room when Madison's over." Drake nodded. "Maybe you can calm him down at four o'clock in the morning this time. I'm losing sleep too."
"All right, Zac." Zac worriedly looked over at the room his brother was in.