It was 3:00 am when Taylor and Isaac stumbled into Zac’s hotel room. The door had been left open and Zac and I sat on the bed together, me wrapped in his arms, cuddled against his chest. Nothing had been said for hours. My face felt hard with dry tears.
“Dad is still talking to Derek.” Taylor said. He crawled onto the bed and rested his head in my lap. “I don’t want you to leave.” He said, looking up at me. I tried to smile at him, but it wasn’t worth the effort. There was no fooling him anyways. The word leave brought on new tears, and I could feel Zac squeeze me a little tighter. “I don’t want to ever let go.” He whispered. Isaac sat down on the bed quietly. He frowned at all of us. He probably could have said something insightful at that moment, but he didn’t. He just sat. But his sitting with us showed his love and insight, and so no words were even needed.
---------------------------------------------------
At 5:00 Zac and Taylor disappeared downstairs. They were going to see what they could do. I was worried. I had to leave for the airport at six. Isaac helped me as I packed up my stuff. Six drew quickly nearer and by 5:30 Isaac and I headed outside to gather the rest of my belongings from the bus, and put all my stuff in the van.
Isaac and I sat silently in the van by ten to 6. The airport was nearby, and soon Taylor and Zac appeared from the hotel. They strode confidently as usual. There was no expression on either of their faces. They piled into the double seat in front of us.
“What’s the verdict?” Isaac posed hopefully. Taylor shook his head. I was a goner.
“There isn’t anything we can do?” Isaac prodded. “We tried everything.” Zac said. And then he breathed the word “Nothing.”
The whole ride to the airport I stared out the window. I was too sad to talk, too sad to look at anyone. In just a little while I would be pulled from the people I loved most anyways. What was the point of pretending to act happy in our last while together? We all knew that we weren’t.
When we parked at the airport, Derek, who had driven, turned around. “Remember, we’re here to end rumors. You may all hug as she departs, but there will be no kissing. Fans have learnt of this little outing to the airport, so lets keep it friends-friends.” All three boys looked at him coldly. I looked around at them. ‘Goodbye.’ I thought.
We walked silently into the airport. There were many more fans than I had expected. All of them pulled and tugged at the boys, yelling their names. They didn’t pay any attention, though. Zac was the most brutal, pulling and pushing his way through the crowd. He pushed aside a girl who got in his way, and stared at her angrily as she fell to the ground. ‘This is all your fault’ he thought.
-------------------------------------------------
I hugged all three boys. Taylor gave me a kiss on the cheek, but Zac was too numb to move. I stood for a moment. The boarding call came over the overhead. I cringed as if I had just heard I was on death row. I looked at the boys once more, and turned to board the plane. Girls were all around us. I pushed carefully through them and gave a woman seated at the desk there my ticket. She took it, smiling, and handed me back a piece, and I was off to board the plane.
The second after I had lost hope of waking up from this bad dream I heard my name being called. I tried to shake it off. ‘Its all in your head, Adrian.’ I thought to myself. “Adrian!” came the call again. I wasn’t dreaming it! As I turned I saw Zac standing about ten feet away. Fans surrounded him, but were quiet. The listened in awe to what Zac was about to say.
“Adrian, I need you.” Zac said. There was a low gasp from the crowd. Zac looked around and caught the glare Derek was giving him, begging him to stop.
“Adrian…” Zac said, sobbing.
“Please. Please don’t leave me.” Zac turned away, but instead of walking away, he faced the hundreds of fans behind him. “I love that girl over there.” He yelled, making sure even the girls in the back could hear. “Have any of you ever been in love?” Zac asked the crowd. From it came many shrieks and ‘yeahs’.
“Then you should probably know that you can’t live without that person. And I KNOW that none of you would want me to be unhappy, and if you would you are cruel.” He said, shooting a look back in Derek’s direction.
“I want to know…” Zac said quietly. “before she leaves, how many of you will hate me if I fall in love, as long as I keep making music for all of you?” Zac posed. There was a long silence. And then a girl in the back yelled, “we’ll still love you, Zac!” and then the screaming started. Zac himself couldn’t believe what he was hearing. These girls supported him. "Go get her back!" One girl yelled from the middle of the crowd. He turned back to me, and before he had to even say a thing I was running at him. Our lips were the first thing to meet, and then we embraced. The screaming got even louder than before.
When we pulled away, I saw Isaac and Taylor in the back of the crowd smiling at us. They waved for us to go over to them. Zac grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. We walked quickly out of the airport. Derek was hot on our heels saying something about how he was not impressed but we could possibly work past this ordeal if the boys just cooperated. We got to the parking lot just as Walker pulled himself out of a taxi. He gave all of us a hug and started towards the white van with us, talking joyfully as if he had been there all along and knew what was going on.
As we climbed into the van Walker turned and smiled joyfully at Derek. “Did I mention you’re fired?” He asked perkily, maybe too perkily. But who was going to argue with him. We all smiled at each other as Walker drove us back to the hotel, leaving Derek standing there in the parking lot.
