"Man, I forgot how bad LA traffic was in the morning," Taylor said. Zac had his head pressed against the steering wheel, groaning. Today was no different than any other day during the morning commute, but all this time in a car with Taylor was getting to Zac. Yes, they were talking, and yes they were actually getting along now, but that awkwardness between them had yet to go away. Zac couldn't stand how close Taylor was to Ginger, even if he was engaged to Kris. Zac was sure that was only because Taylor's been around all this time, but it was still uncomfortable. This was Zac's child and Taylor was closer to her than he was.
"Yes, it's hell," Zac said. "Welcome to my seven-thirty every fricken morning."
"Maybe some music would help," Taylor said, turning on the radio. Zac immediately recognized his song.
"Ugh," Zac said. "Turn it."
"Why?"
"Because that's me."
"That's you?" Taylor asked. "No way! You don't sing like that!"
"You and Isaac never let me sing like that."
"Oh, posh," Taylor said. "We let you do whatever you wanted to do."
"That's a complete lie!" Zac said. "You and Isaac never let me do anything. You told me how to sing, you told me what to sing, you told me what to say in interviews� Whenever I finally got asked a question in an interview, on the rare occasion that it did happen, you would interrupt me halfway through my answer! You never let me talk and you certainly never allowed me to do that." He pointed to the radio. "I just wasn't good enough around you. With Isaac's perfect songs and Taylor's perfect voice, there was no room for me."
"Why didn't you say anything, Zac?" Taylor asked.
"Because you never let me," Zac said. "That's why I took that record deal. Not because of the money, or because of the popularity, I did it because I was finally able to do something by myself. They gave me complete artistic control; if I didn't like anything, anything, I was allowed to change it. They let me do what I wanted, when I wanted, because I wanted to do it."
"I had no idea you felt that way," Taylor said. Zac could hear the disappointment and guilt in Taylor's voice. Zac sighed.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that. It just�it just needed to be said. I mean you guys treated me like I was ten years old. Yeah, that's all fine and good for when I was ten years old, but even on the last album you were doing it. I'm nearly nineteen now�I have a child!"
"You're still my little brother, Zac," Taylor said. "That happens. You're younger than I am and I can't help treating you that way. Isaac does it to me all the time too. It's just something that happens."
"Well, whatever," Zac said. "We're not exactly in a situation where that's going to happen anymore."
"No, no we're not."
"Did you ever do anything with that album?" Zac asked. "Did you ever finish it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you weren't there."
"Pfft, you had plenty of it done to finish it without me," Zac said. "We weren't even doing vocals at that point. It was just instrumentals. You could have hired someone to take my place and nobody would have known the difference."
"But we would have known the difference. We weren't just going to replace you, Zac."
"You should've."
"But we couldn't," Taylor said. "And to tell you the truth, nobody thought you were really gone. Everybody at home, everyone at the studio, all our friends�we all expected you to be out here for a few weeks and then get homesick and end up coming back. Nobody called you because we all expected you to be coming back." Zac shook his head. He knew he wasn't coming back the moment he decided to leave. Apparently he was the only one. "And then when you didn't, everything just kind of fell apart. I bet you there are still people back home waiting for you to go back."
"I'm not going back, Taylor," Zac said. "I'm too happy out here."
"By yourself?"
"I'm not by myself," Zac said. "I had Gwen. Now that Gwen's gone, I have Ginger and Jenny, and I have you and Kris."
"Do you have any friends?" Zac looked down at his hand on the steering wheel, not answering. "You need friends."
"I don't need anybody. I'm not going to be in one place long enough to have friends. I'm going to be jumping around promoting this fricken album for at least a year," Zac said. "I won't even have time for my family, much less my friends."
"Do you not want to promote this album?" Taylor asked.
"Not anymore," Zac said. "I mean, I was excited about it before, but now with Ginger and Jenny�it's just not important anymore."
"Zac, you can't just stop your career because of Jenny. What kind of provider would that make you?"
"Considering I don't think I could benefit from any more money than I have right now, I think I would be a damn good provider," Zac said. "I just don't want to be away all the time. When Ginger and I dated I hardly ever saw her and if she's going to have Jenny, that means I'm never going to see Jenny either. I don't think I can do that."
"Maybe you and Ginger can work something out where you have Jenny for a while," Taylor suggested. Zac thought about it a moment, then shook his head.
"No, no I don't think so. I couldn't do that to Ginger."
"Why not? It's your daughter too."
"That would be like a custody thing," Zac said. "I don't want to go through a whole custody battle with Ginger. Imagine the press coverage on that."
"It's not like it's going to court," Taylor said. "Just ask her. She'll either say yes or say no, and if she says no I doubt you're going to have a massive legal battle over it."
"I don't even want to bring it up," Zac said. "Ugh�finally!" Traffic began to move and they arrived at the studio shortly. Zac looked at the clock. "And we're still on time. Let's see who else is here."
"Who is this kid you're talking about?" Taylor asked after they got out of the car.
"His name is Eric. He's a skinny little kid�he's sixteen but he still acts like a kid. He plays an awesome guitar but he doesn't sing all that well. I really don't know what to expect from him, because his irresponsibility is just going to end up getting him fired. He's got some good producers working for him and if he doesn't shape up soon I'm going to have to talk to Peter about it."
"Peter Denepir?"
"Yeah." Zac opened the front door and walked in with Taylor. Zac smiled to Ellen. "Hey Ellen."
"Good morning, Zac�oh my God." Ellen looked directly at Taylor and Zac couldn't help but smile.
"Ellen, this is my brother Taylor," Zac said. "Taylor this is our receptionist Ellen."
"Nice to meet you, Ellen," Taylor said.
"You too." She was awestruck. It was the same way the first time she met Zac.
"Have you seen Eric yet?" Zac asked. Ellen shook her head. "Well, he has five minutes to get here and get in the studio, so let's see if he makes it. Come on, Taylor. I'll show you around."
"How long have you been working with this kid?"
"For about two months now," Zac said. Taylor gave him a surprised look. "I know. And he's been late nearly every day. They haven't done much of anything in terms of recording either. They're spending a hell of a lot of money for this kid to record and he hasn't done anything but waste it. Have you ever been here before?"
"Actually, yeah," Taylor said. "Once."
"Then basically we can just go up to the studio to see who's there?" he asked. Taylor nodded. "Great." He walked to the elevator and went inside with Taylor. "It's not entirely Eric's fault for this. You're only as productive as the people around you and the producers around him aren't exactly the oldest and most experienced. They're kids like him and since Zac the boss isn't always around, it's easy to goof off and not get any work done." The doors opened and Zac stepped out. "It's this way." Zac turned to the left and walked to the first door. "It looks like they're not doing anything."
"Man, it's been a while since I've been in a studio," Taylor said, following Zac into the editing room.
"What the hell are you doing?" Zac asked, watching as two of the lower producers under him looked to be having a spit contest. "Stop that right now and get to work."
"But Zac, Eric's not even here yet."
"Does it look like I care?" Zac asked. "It's my job to make sure you guys are getting work done, and when you don't do anything, it makes me look bad. It doesn't affect you if Eric is late. You have tracks that need to be edited, do it until he gets here. When he does decide to show up, I'll deal with him, all right?"
"All right�"
"By the way, this is my brother Taylor," Zac introduced. "Taylor, these are all the produces working with Eric. That's Tyler, Brad, James, and over there is Steve." Taylor waved a hello. Just then the door flew open and a winded Eric came in. Zac turned to Eric, catching his breath by the door. Zac looked at his watch and then looked at Eric.
"I'm sorry," Eric said, panting. "I ran all the way over here."
"Well you should have ran a little faster, buddy," Zac said. "You're late again. I thought I told you to start getting in at eight thirty so you wouldn't be late."
"I'm sorry," Eric repeated. He looked at his watch. "It's only 9:05. I'm only five minutes late."
"So? Do you know how much studio time costs? Five minutes is a large chunk of change, Eric. You can't afford to be coming in late every day!"
"I'm sorry!" Eric said again. "There was a big accident and I even left earlier than I normally do! I ran all the way here so I wouldn't be late, and I'm only five minutes late! Not even everybody else is here yet!"
"I don't want to hear it, Eric," Zac said. He walked up to the kid, who stood a good half a foot shorter than Zac. "Do it again, and I'll be talking to Peter about it. We took a chance in signing you. If you're not committed enough to get here on time and actually get some work done, then you can take your material elsewhere."
"Okay�"
"Now get in there and start playing. I want all of you to start working right now. I'm going to stop by later and if I don't hear a substantial difference in the way things are going in here, someone's going to get fired. I can promise you it won't be me." Zac opened the door. "Hey Taylor, let's go."
Taylor, who had been aimlessly walking around the room, looked up. Zac motioned for him to leave and he followed Zac out the door. "You're a real hard ass, Zac," Taylor said, laughing. "I didn't know you had it in you."
"It's fun being the boss of other people."
"Are you really going to fire somebody if they don't improve?"
"I'm not even going to check up on them again," Zac said. "They know I'm serious. But if by tomorrow I don't see a difference, you can bet I'm going to fire one of those producers. I don't know which one, but one of them is going to go."
"Fire Brad. He was mocking you."
"All right. He'll be the first to go." Taylor laughed. "I've never actually fired anybody before. I hope I don't have to start doing that. It's really not my department," Zac said. "So, where do you want to go now? Home?"
"Nah, I'd like to hang around here a little longer."
"All right. The girls can wait at home. When did Ginger say she had to go into work?"
"Sometime this afternoon. If we're not going anywhere else, then we should be back in time. I think she's doing a run-through with the rest of the people in the movie. She's got some good names for this one. It's not like the first one where everything's new and nobody knows any of the actors."
"What is this one about?"
"It's�it's kind of about us."
"Us?" he asked. "Who's us?"
"You, me, and Ginger. It's different enough so the common person wouldn't know it was autobiographical, but if we watched it we'd see the similarities. I mean, you and me aren't brothers, we're just friends."
"So what's the twist?"
"I think someone ends up with AIDS."
"Oh, okay," Zac said. "Well, that's not autobiographical, I hope."
"No, it's not," Taylor said. "Not that I know of."
"For all you know you could be swimming with infectious diseases, with all the girls you've been with in your life." Taylor gave him a look. "What? It's not like it isn't true! You slept with everybody. You slept with everyone I was interested in. Well, except for Gwen." Taylor was silent, looking at the posters on the walls as they walked down the hallway. "You didn't!"
"Yeah, I did," Taylor said. "I wasn't proud of it, and you weren't dating her at the time."
"I hope not!"
"No, it was after you broke up," Taylor said. "It wasn't long after you broke up, but it was definitely after you broke up. I made sure of that."
"She told me you didn't."
"Well, we did," Taylor said. "It wasn't repeatedly. It was just the one time. She was skinnier than I am and that wasn't cool."
"Yeah, she is really skinny."
"Do you regret breaking up with her? Either time?" Zac thought about it. They turned the corner and Zac shook his head.
"No," he said. "No, I don't. If I hadn't broken up with her the first time I wouldn't have gone out with Ginger. And this time�it's better that we're not together. She really, really wanted to get married and I really, really didn't. It would have just ended up uglier than it did."
"Was it ugly?"
"Well I kind of wasn't around when it was happening, so I didn't get to see the ugliness," Zac said. "We had a massive fight and I didn't see her for a few days, then we broke up and I left again. She moved all of her stuff out and that was the end of it."
"I hope she doesn't come around again today with Kris and Ginger there," Taylor said. "Does she know about Jenny?" Zac nodded. "Well at least she wouldn't be entirely shocked. Maybe we should go back."
"Yeah, good idea." They turned around and went back to the elevators.