Tay looked at me and, seeing I'd seen his reaction to seeing the ground, blushed slightly. I just grinned back and held his hand.

"Tay? TAYLOR?!" Ike came storming onto the stage with Zac following.

"See? They're not here. Damn - practice is cancelled, see ya!" Said Zac and tried to make a hastened exit.

"Not so fast," said Ike, grabbing Zac by the hood of the sweat shirt he was wearing.

Tay shoved two fingers into his mouth and gave an ear-splitting whistle. Damn I wish I could do that... "Up here, Ike!"

"Get your ass down here right now!" Tay just shook his head and slouched back towards the stage.

As we came back down to ground level, Ike was stood at the bottom of the steps, hands on his hips looking every bit the prize shit-head Tay'd made him out to be, even if he did look slightly fit at the same time. That thought was soon sent flying from my head as soon as he opened his mouth.

"What the hell do you think you're doin'? Didn't you remember we were supposed to be goin' over that new arrangement we talked about this morning? And who the fuck is this?" he said, gesturing off-handedly at me. I was really starting to get pissed off by his attitude.

"I'm sorry, Ike, I was just showin' Dean here around... Guess it musta slipped my mind..."

I had to stifle a laugh. Here was Ike, Hanson Senior, trying to run the show and Tay was just fobbing him off just as he did Zac. Zac, however, was not so lucky in the suppression of his amusement, and a snigger escaped his tightly pursed lips.

"Shuddup, dick-wad," yelled Ike, pushing Zac back into his drum kit, his head crashing down through one of his 'pastie' cymbals.

"One hour. You'd better be here..."

"And if we're not?" I asked, now really narked at his attitude.

"It's none of your business, queerboy," he yelled, not even turning round.

Now, I'm usually a fairly tolerant sort of person, but I would not stand for that pig-headed tosser shouting at my boyfriend and sending a kid four years his junior flying...

"Would you like to come here and say that?" I enquired politely. Ike stopped mid-stride, spinning on his heels to face me. Slowly and deliberately he walked back so that we were just inches apart. Word by word, almost whispering he repeated his sentence, poking me in the chest with his index finger: "I said, 'It's none of your business'". I took advantage of our proximity and grabbed his testicles hard through his tracksuit trousers, Ike yelping, more with surprise than anything.

I whispered back to him. "Yeah - I am a queer, and obviously you have a problem with that. I don't. What I do have a problem with is you shoving a kid half your height just because he knows you're making a complete tosser out of yourself. Try it again, you'll be singing and octave higher than him," I said, giving his balls an extra twist before releasing him. He fell into the foetal position at my feet, whimpering slightly. "C'mon, Zac," I said, pulling him up from in between the cymbal stands and microphone cables, dragging him out of the stage door into the bright winter sunshine.

"I, I'm sorry," I said as we walked back to the trailer. "I shouldn't have done that..."

"Yeah you should!" grinned Tay. "I've wanted to do that to him for the last year or so. You wouldn't believe how unkind he's been to Zac and me, but I have to live with him, ya know? Anything I did might've just made things worse... You alright, Zac?"

"Yeah, I'll mend..." he replied, rubbing the back of his head furiously.

"Hey, your bleeding..." Sure enough, there was a slight red tinge to the back of Zac's hair.

"You got any surgical spirit or somethin' back at your trailer?" I asked.

"Should have - my mom insists we carry the essentials..."

Back at the trailer, I bent Zac over the sink and poured cold water over his head to remove the stain from his hair and to soothe the cut slightly. Hell, it always worked when I ripped up my knees on the pavement... He winced slightly as the stream of water hit the cut. "OK Zac, brace yourself..."

"Why... YARRRGH!" he yelled as I dabbed a tuft of cotton wool soaked with surgical spirit onto his wound. "Shit that hurts..."

"It's obviously doin' some good, then," said Tay...

After we'd patched Zac up and he was back to his usual hyperactive self, Tay called one of the take-away restaurants on the site and had a couple of Pizzas delivered. I was absolutely ravenous and dived into the first box as soon as it arrived, as did Zac, proving he was fit and well.

As the number of slices deminished, we laughed and joked about anything and everything, each of us full of anecdotes and amusing stories of times past. Then Zac came out with a conversation-stopper.

"So, what did you two guys get up to at that Alton Towers place, then?" I think he sincerely meant the park itself, but none-the-less, Tay and I stopped and looked at each other, then at Zac.

The look of genuine curiosity slowly changed to sly understanding without a word passing. "Should we tell him?" asked Tay.

"Don't see why not..." I replied.

"Did you, you know, 'do' each other?" Zac asked, fidgeting in his chair and leaning forward with anticipation. Just as I was about to answer, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it..." said Tay, leaping out of his seat like a gazelle on steroids, a relieved look on his face. "Oh, it's you..."

"Can I come in?" asked Ike, looking rather sheepish. Tay looked at me. I just shrugged.

"I suppose..."

Ike sat down at the table and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he said. Tay actually looked shocked - it was the last thing he was expecting his brother to come out with. "I've been acting like an asshole recently,"

"You damn got that right!" yelled Zac.

"Hey, let him finish," I said, holding Zac's arm.

"I've been acting like an asshole and I want to say I'm sorry. For everything. You all right, Zac?"

"Yeah, no thanks to you..."

Ike nodded his head slowly. "Dean, can I have a word with you? In private?"

I looked over Ike's shoulder at Tay - now it was his turn to shrug.

"Sure. You wanna go for a walk?"

Ike and I sauntered round to the pond that I'd gone swimming in earlier that day and sat on one of the benches.

"Dean, you're gay, right?"

"Last time I checked..." I grinned back at him

"Can you be serious for a moment... Thing is, I think I may be as well. I don't know who else to talk to..." I was shocked! All three? Surely not... "Thing is, ever since I've been on this tour, I've been thinking about this guy all the time. His name's Andy - he's one of the lighting fitters. I think he's 17..."

He was really chewed up inside, I could tell.

"Thing is, ever since Tay told us he thought he was gay, I've been thinking about it myself. Ever since I was twelve or so I've always liked looking at guys, but kept telling myself it was wrong and I shouldn't be doin' it..." Uh oh, mistake #1... "Thing is, I like girls as well - hell, I've dated enough of 'em..."

"Have you ever had sex with a girl?"

"Yeah..."

"Did you enjoy it? I mean emotionally as well as the sex?"

"I guess... I loved her, I think..."

"Don't think I'm being rude here, but did you ever think about another lad while you were doin' a girl?"

"No! No....."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I think..."

I felt like one of those shitty "Find your sexuality" questionnaires you get in trashy teen magazines. Less than 20 points - Heterosexual. 20-60 points - bisexual, 60-100 points - gay...

"Well, you might be bi..."

"You... You mean I'm not gay?"

"I didn't say that. Try not to put yourself in a category, or at least not yet. Do you get on well with Andy?"

"I... I don't really know him. I've seen him looking at me a couple of times..."

"Then get to know him! When's he next due to be around?"

"Tomorrow morning, for the sound test..."

"Then may I suggest you 'accidentally' bump into him? And remember - be yourself, not who you think he wants you to be. If he doesn't want to get to know you, he'll tell you..."

Ike looked at me in a way I'd never seen before. Suddenly a whole different aspect of his character had been opened up to me.

"Sorry I was such an asshole," he said again. "These feelings have got me real beat up inside. I just had to take it out on someone. I guess I was jealous of Tay - he'd found his love and declared it. I wanted it to be as simple as he made it look..."

"It wasn't simple," I said, squeezing his hand. "It'll work for you. Just wait and see..."

"Would you tell Tay and Zac for me? I don't think I could do it..."

"Sure. They'll be pleased for you..." I patted his hand and stood up. I could tell he wanted to be on his own for a while.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks, man..."

I just smiled and walked back to Tay's trailer.


On to Chapter Nine

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Touring with Hanson is © 1998 by Dean Lidster. This work may not be duplicated in any form (physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the author's written permission. All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.

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