Zac had promised himself that after he and Madison got back from the party he'd set her down and get to know her before he got too tired to talk. Unfortunately, that never happened. It started out that way. They were in the hotel room and they'd just sat down on one of the beds. Zac had asked her a few questions and found out her last name, what city she was from, and what school she went to when he got the overpowering urge to kiss her. So he did and they made out the rest of the night.
He kept it at that�just making out. He could have very easily taken it further and had sex with her right then and there, she was even willing to do so, but he couldn't. He didn't know her well enough. Even though he was ready he wasn't entirely willing. Plus he had some other reservations, one being that Ron had a key to his room (why? He had no idea) and liked to pop in at any given time�like he did the following morning.
Zac and Madison had fallen asleep together on the bed. She had a different room with the female back-up singers, but it turned out she never made it there. Both of them remained fully clothed throughout all parts of the night, so it was obvious that nothing had happened between them, but when Ron came in the next morning, that thought never crossed his mind.
"Zachary Hanson!"
Zac woke up with a start and rubbed at his eyes to clear the sudden day out better. He looked up at Ron and groaned. He sat up and was surprised to find Madison still sound asleep. He jumped slightly at her touch and looked up at Ron, who was giving him a look of disappointment.
"Oh no," he said immediately. "This isn't what it looks like."
"Really? What does it look like to you? To me it looks like a girl is in that bed with you." Zac immediately got out of the bed.
"No! Look! I've got all of my clothes on, I've even still got my belt on! She was over and we were talking and we must have fallen asleep."
"Sure, Zac," Ron said, "but you knew she wasn't allowed to be here in the first place. She was supposed to stay with your back-up singers downstairs and not even come close to your room."
"Jesus Christ, Ron, it sounds like you don't trust me!"
"You're a sixteen-year-old boy, Zac, and while you're away from your parents you're my responsibility. I know the kind of things you can get into while you're here and I don't want a girl to be one of them!" Zac gave him a look.
"You're not my father, Ron."
"No, I'm not, but you're in my care while you're on this tour. I have every right to call your father and tell him about it," he said.
"Fine!" Zac took his phone off the table and handed it to Ron. "Call him! I've got nothing to hide! So we talked for a bit and she ended up falling asleep here. So what? You've seen worse and didn't freak out about it."
"When did I see worse?"
"When Taylor brought that girl to his room and actually had sex with her; you barged in the next morning, similar to what you did just now, and you never said a word to my parents about it," Zac said. "That is a thousand times worse than this. He didn't even know her, she's been here for days and we didn't do anything!"
"Did you kiss her?"
"What relevance does that make?" Ron kept his steadfast glare. "If you must know, yes I did!"
"That qualifies as something to me."
"Get out of my room, Ron! And give me your key�you have no right to barge in here whenever you please. This is my room and my privacy and if I want to spend the fricken night with a girl I can. It's my decision, not yours." Ron huffed.
"I'm keeping the key; I made a promise to your parents that I'd keep an eye on you and look what you do. First skirt you see that gives you a smile and you're already in bed with her. I want that whore out of here before we leave." Zac took in a deep breath, fuming.
"Get the hell out of my room."
"I'm just protecting your best interests�"
"You've done nothing but protect your own damn interests! You don't care about me or about what I think! I've been working my ass off since this tour started and all I wanted was to do a few dates here and there so I wouldn't be lying around the house all day. You turned it into a career, a career I didn't want, and booked me solid every day for months. I don't want to do that! I need a day off!"
"Zac, this is only this hectic because you exploded so suddenly. Nobody expected this to happen but it did and you have to keep up with it."
"I don't care. I don't care about all that shit, what I care about is that I haven't been able to see my family since I started and I haven't had a minute to myself. And it's all your doing."
"So what are you saying, Zac?" Ron asked, an eyebrow raised.
"You're fired!"
"You don't have the authority to fire me."
"No?" Zac walked up to the table where a whole bunch of papers he didn't want to deal with sat and picked up the main one that concerned Ron's duties and his contract as a manager. Zac picked it up and tore it in half. "You're gone. Get out of here, I don't want to see your face again."
Ron, slightly stunned by the sudden turn of events, composed himself quickly. "All right then." He put Zac's phone and the extra key to the room on the side table. "I wish you luck." He left quickly. Zac sunk into a chair and put his head in his hands. He'd just woken up five minutes beforehand and already his day had taken a turn for the worse.
Madison awoke and sat up in the bed, smoothing out her long hair that had gone slightly askew in her sleep. She rubbed her eyes and looked over at Zac at the table. "Why so glum?" she asked, her voice groggy and hoarse from just waking up.
"I just fired Ron."
"Oh? Why?"
"Because he's a pompous asshole and I hate his guts." She smiled. "I don't know what the hell I'm going to do now. I may hate him but he was a damn good manager and I don't know how I'm going to replace him. I'll think about that later. Get up, we have to be out of here and on the road within an hour."
"Are you okay?" she asked, yawning. He nodded, giving her a smile.
"Yeah, I'm just fine sweetheart." He got up and walked to her, pausing to give her a short kiss before he headed towards the bathroom. "You should head back to your room, I'm sure they're worried about you."
"All right." She climbed out of the bed. "I'll see you in a few." He kissed her again before she left and he went into the bathroom.
"Zac Hanson has announced today in a press conference today the significant reduction in tour dates and the postponement of many of his current shows. Besides that, he has also fired long-time manager of himself and Hanson, Ronald Duff. We now go to footage of the press conference earlier today."
"On behalf of myself and the entourage of people on my tour, I'd like to announce the postponement of the dates on the tour. I will get to all of them and might even add more cities to line-up, but right now all of the shows have indeed been pushed back a few days," Zac's cool face said as spoke to the media who had been following him around since he could remember.
"But why?" one of the reporters asked.
"To be perfectly honest, I'm exhausted. Since I started this tour I've been doing a show every day, sometimes twice a day, without any rest. And this isn't just to benefit myself, I've noticed the significant change in mood with my back-up band and everyone who's on tour with me. They are all extremely tired and I owe them the world for putting up with the crap we've been through."
"Does this have anything to do with your firing your manager?" another reporter asked.
"Yes. He was the one who booked all the dates and he was responsible for pushing us day and night for weeks."
"Why did you fire him?" the same reporter asked.
"Ron and I are two different people and although he may be an awesome manager for Hanson, he wasn't in the same place I was for this particular tour. He was looking one way and I was looking another�we had creative differences and personal problems and I felt it was just his time to go before I was led to a place I didn't want to be."
"Have you spoken to him since then?"
"No, I personally haven't but he's still in contact if I need him. It was strictly a business call; he and I are still friends and he is still a manager for Hanson."
Zac walked into the room where Madison was watching the news and winced to see his own face on the screen. "What the hell are you doing watching this crap?" he asked, plopping down next to her. He reached for the remote but she held it away from him.
"No! I want to see this! You just told a bold-face lie on national television."
"This isn't national television. Give me the remote." She shook her head and he leaned over her to reach for it, but she held it away. "Madison! Give me the remote!"
"No!" she said again, looking straight at him. He was still looking at the remote. He eventually caught her gaze and was lost a moment in her eyes. She smiled, sending a twinkle into her eye and he dropped his hands to her, pushing her down as he engulfed her in a deep kiss. She dropped the remote on the floor and it was forgotten. Zac's face disappeared from the screen and another news report came on that neither of them paid attention to.
Zac had taken off her shirt and was reaching behind her back to undo her bra when the TV caught his attention. "Wait, we have to see this," he said, stopping.
"Zac!"
"Hold on!" He grabbed the remote off the floor and turned up the volume.
"�and today the North Koreans made a surprise attack on the city of Pusan in South Korea, completely demolishing it and most of the people there. Among the people there were many American peacekeeping troops." Zac gasped. That's where Taylor was. "There are a few survivors but a good 85% of the town's people are dead and the remainder are badly injured."
"Oh my God," Zac said, sitting up. Madison grew annoyed and put her shirt back on. She got up and started to walk away. "Hey, where are you going?"
"I'm going back to my room, Zac. We were in the middle of something and you just turn to the TV and forget about me!"
"Madison, baby, my brother's there." She stopped and looked to the floor.
"Oh. I didn't know." He got up and walked over to her. He took her hands and tried to get her to look at him but she didn't. He kissed her forehead.
"It's okay. Why don't you go back over there and I'll be right with you. I just need to call my mother first."
"Oh, okay," she said, looking up at him, her eyes twinkling again. "Why I don't go over there, get naked, and stare at you while you talk on the phone with your mother. 'Oh, sorry ma, my girlfriend's naked, I have to go now.' " Zac smiled. "What?"
"You are my girlfriend, aren't you?" he asked. She blushed in realization.
"Well, not really�I mean we've only made out a few times and I just came here a little while ago and we've only been on one date, if you consider it a date�"
"Madison, just go over there, okay? I'll be right there." She gave him a smile and slipped by him to the couch where they had been sitting before. He picked up his cell phone and went into another room to call his mother. Glancing at the time, he realized it was late over there, but if she didn't already know, he had to tell her. He dialed the number and she picked up. "Mom! Hey Mom, it's me."
"Zac, honey, how are you doing?" she asked, her voice sounding surprised to hear from him but slightly disappointed that it was him.
"Did you hear?"
"Yeah, I did. Taylor called and he's okay. He and a few of his buddies were off that day and decided to go down to another city for dinner. Thank God for watching over him, he wasn't anywhere near it." Zac let out a huge sigh of relief. That was good news. "He worried me to death but he assured me he was okay. I just don't like it when my babies aren't home," Diana said. "Especially you. You can come home on your own will and you're not halfway across the world. When are you coming home, dear?"
"When I get some time off," Zac explained. "Ron booked me solid for weeks and I want to come home but I have to finish all these tour dates. Once I get them done I'll come back home before I start recording. I'm just glad to be rid of him; he was definitely overworking me. At least now I get a day off in between shows and I'm not rushing to be everywhere."
"That's good, honey. Come home soon. We miss you around here."
"I know, I know."
"I saw your press conference earlier. You handled that very well by yourself." Zac smiled. It never hurt to have support from his mother. "My babies are growing up and I don't like it one bit."
"Oh, Mom, don't start with that now. I'm too tired to try to comfort you."
"All right, I'll let you go."
"Mom, try to get some sleep."
"Thank you, honey. I'm still a little shaken. Be careful out there."
"I will." Zac put up with a few more minutes of safety instructions from his mother before he hung up the phone and walked back into the room Madison was in. She was lying on the couch, watching television, and shut it off once he came in the room. She threw the remote across the room so he couldn't get to it and propped her head up on her hand to look at him, unknowingly showing him a ton of cleavage.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey." He put the phone down on the table and walked over to her. She gave him a smile. "So what's happening?"
"He's fine. He wasn't even in the city when it happened." She noticed he still didn't look good. "I guess I'm still worried about him; he could have been there." She sat up.
"I have something that will lift your spirits. Sit down." He sat down and she climbed onto his lap and kissed him.