Chapter 16-Just Friends
"...to basically sum up everything I’m trying to say, we can head back to Tulsa in a week because I’ve rearranged our schedule," Stirling McIlwaine stated, stacking his papers neatly.
"That would be nice, wouldn’t it, boys?" Walker asked his sons, who were seated around the long conference table.
"Cool," Zac agreed.
"Yeah, awesome," Taylor nodded.
"Ditto," Isaac concluded.
"Then it’s settled," Chris said as he stood up, "We leave for Tulsa in a week,"
That night an appearance on the Tonight Show had been scheduled. Scarlet, deciding she had nothing better to do, tagged along, dressed in a khaki colored cargo skirt, a white tank top and silver Docs.
The performance ran smoothly. After the show, Isaac, Taylor and Zac had to sign autographs for fans who had waited outside the NBC building. Isaac and Zac went ahead, Taylor sat next to Scarlet in the V.I.P lounge.
"You guys were great," Scarlet beamed.
"Thanks. But number one: I couldn’t hear myself. Number two: I sang the wrong verse. Number three: Jay asked the same girlfriend question. Number four: the same girls are in the audience and number five: Jay made the same joke about how we’ve grown," Taylor laughed.
"It still sounded OK,"
"That’s all I wanted to hear. Wanna come downstairs? We’re signing autographs,"
"Nah. I’ll stay here," Scarlet said, "You go. I’ll be down before we leave," She really wasn’t in the mood to be screamed at by a bunch of teeny boppers.
"OK. See ya," With that, Taylor exited the door with a mission to find the elevator.
"Lost, Tay?" Chris asked with a smile.
"Kinda,"
"Here, I’ll walk you downstairs," Chris and Taylor took the long way downstairs-the stairwell.
"Taylor, can we talk ‘man to man’?" Chris asked out of nowhere.
"Sure," Taylor said cautiously. What the hell did Chris want to talk about?
"Scarlet," Chris said plainly, "Don’t lie to me, Tay. I see you stare at her, the way you look at her, the way you talk to her,"
"What are you saying?" Taylor asked, a bit embarrassed as to how his manager had picked up on this.
"I’m saying," Chris took a deep breath, "I’m saying, don’t get involved with her. I’m not saying this for publicity reasons. Heck, you get involved with people, still you don’t tell your fans. But, what I mean is, she’s only going to hurt you. She’s unstable after what happened to her. She doesn’t know what to think, or how to think straight. Just...just...just stay friends with her. OK?"
"Yeah," Taylor nodded, "Just friends," Was that all Taylor really wanted?
"Make your life like toilet paper, long and useful,"-Zac Hanson