"So," Daphne began as we walked down the hallway towards her room.

"So," I replied.

"I saw you two, well, Taylor and you were kissing."

"Yeah, does that bother you?"

"No, of course not. It was a bit of a shock for me, but it's all good. You know all that matters is that both of you are happy, and if being together makes you both happy than it won't bother me at all. Okay?"

"Okay," I replied with a warm smile as she opened the door to her room.

"Although, it's going to be weird constantly reminding myself to refer to you as Will from now on," she added as she flipped on the light.

"Sorry about that," I laughed as we entered the room.

*          *          *          *          *

Will and I laid back on Cristin's bed and watched the television. I glanced over at Will whose eyes intently watched the television screen. He really was good-looking with his long medium brown hair falling just below his shoulders and his eyes always twinkling, especially when he was happy.

A lot of people thought when we first started to know each other that perhaps we were going out, but I was too head over heels in love with another guy, Michael. I closed my eyes as thoughts of Michael ran through my head.

After the kiss at the hotel with Zac I waited desperately by my phone every night, and when we had to go out I practically glued the cell phone to my ear. Amber and Cristin were so worried. I tried to tell them what happened, but realized I couldn't tell anyone about that moment until I talked to Zac again. What if it had all been some big mistake? He hadn't contacted me since that time, and if I had meant something to him and if he had wanted to further things he could of, but he didn't. So to save myself some heartache I decided to move on and look for someone else to fill the gap in my heart.

That's when I found Michael.

He was, as Cristin put it, "remarkably like Zac." In some ways I guess she was right, he did have a similar build, used similar facial expressions, and well, had Zac's moody attitude, but other than that he was a completely different guy. He had medium length shaggy brown hair and the most amazing warm brown puppy dog eyes. Zac had nice brown eyes too, but they were more of a caramel color. I ran my fingers through my hair.

Where are my thoughts taking me? I'm beginning to sound like one of those pathetic lovesick girls I always used to laugh at. Michael and I were over. In fact he had pretty much told me that he had used me because of my band status, not because of me. I was ugly and stupid and a loser for even thinking I was anything more.

"Stop it," Will snapped.

I opened my eyes and realized through a mist of water that I had begun to cry. I wiped my eyes and cleared my throat.

"Huh? Stop what?"

"Stop thinking about that loser, Michael! Daphne, he didn't deserve to even breathe the same air as you, and he sure as hell doesn't deserve to be thought of by you."

"Oh no, I wasn't even thinking about him," I lied.

"Oh really," Will said crossing his arms.

"Then who or what were you thinking about? Don't tell me you're turning teenie on me and you're crying because Hanson knows you exist."

I grabbed the pillow I was laying on and sitting up, hit him with it.

"Shut-up, dork. My gosh Ta - WILL! Ooo, why did you have to fall for someone with the same name?"

He tried to tickle me and whispered.

"Oh, shush."

"Shush? And to think I ever doubted that you were gay," I teased.

He shot me an evil look.

"Oh my gosh, Will! I'm kidding! I know you're not gay. You're simply a searcher for connections and whether it comes between you and a man or woman - IT DOESN'T MATTER! Anyway, I seriously was not thinking of Michael."

He raised one eyebrow. I continued to quickly wrack my brain for something else I could have been thinking of. Finally, it hit me.

"I was just thinking about Cristin, Amber, and you. I mean it hurts me sometimes how Cristin and Amber don't see what a sweet guy you are."

I knew he hadn't bought my story, but he let it go.

"I am so thirsty," I moaned.

"Me too," he answered.

Our eyes drifted towards the wet bar.

*          *          *          *          *

The three of us returned to our room and plopped down on our beds.

"I can't wait until we get all of this paperwork out of the way and are actually able to get out and just play," Tay muttered not realizing he said 'play.'

"Tell me about it," Zac replied.

"So, are you we going to go and get Will and Daphne," I asked.

I noticed a weird twinkle come to both their eyes. I looked at Tay confused, but decided to just let it go. Instead I turned to Zac.

"There goes that look in your eye that I know too well."

"Huh?"

"Oh, come on, Zac! It's obvious that you like the girl! JUST LOOK AT WHAT YOU LET TAY, WILL, AND I DO TO YOU!!!"

Zac shrugged and tried in vain to hide a grin.

"She's really nice, and you know I can't help, but remember New York," Zac began.

"Where you two kissed," Tay commented.

"Whatever, dude," Zac protested.

I interrupted, "Before you two start bickering, let's just drop it. It's really none of our business if they did kiss. However I got to ask Zac, will there be any kissing in the future?"

Zac shrugged, replying, "How am I supposed to know? Kissing Daphne involves more than just my own lips, and I can hardly control mine as it is! Don't expect me to even try to control hers."

Taylor commented, "It's so obvious that there is an attraction and a connection between you two."

"You think so," Zac asked optimistically.

"Definitely," Tay replied.

"So how are you going to woo her," I asked.

"Leave it up to you, Ike, to use the word 'woo' in a conversation," Zac joked.

"Okay, fine. How are you going to win her over? You do want to win her over, don't you," I questioned.

"I really don't know. I really would like to have a girlfriend, and I'd love to at least go on a date with Daphne, but with our schedules and our bands... What if I really enjoyed the date, and then I wanted more. By then though we'll be touring so I'll be unable to get to take her out more, and then she'll be touring with her group so she won't be able to travel with us. I don't know if I'd be able to handle that."

Tay's eyes lit up.

"I GOT IT," he exclaimed.

"You got what," Zac asked annoyed that Taylor had interrupted him once again.

"We need an opening act. Freezer Burn needs a little bit more exposure. They play instruments and from what I heard their songs totally kick ass. Why don't we see if they would be interested opening for us?"

Ike and I exchanged looks. For once something had come out of Taylor's mouth in full sentences that was actually understandable and sensible.

"Would that be wise? We can be dicks on tour, and since Daphne is so valuable a friend," I stated.

"We let Admiral Twin open for us," Tay pointed out.

"Yeah, but I wasn't like trying to get into the drummer's pants," Zac teased.

"So?! I was," Tay joked.

We all laughed.

"That is so gross, Tay," Zac exclaimed, "Please tell me you're kidding."

"OF COURSE I AM, ZAC! Geeze," Tay muttered.

I decided to speak up before there was more bickering between the two of them.

"Well, we'll audition them. We'll go by the room sometime and ask them to sing something to us a cappella. If they do a good job then we'll tell them they are welcome to open at least the first half of the tour, and if the fans seem to warm to them then we'll talk about them opening the second half. It may be fun to go back on tour with some friends," I reasoned.

"Sounds cool," Tay replied.

"Yeah, sounds awesome, but are you guys sure about this? I don't want you guys to do this just for me?"

"Hey! I think their group kicks ass, and I wouldn't mind having some chicks open for us for once," Tay said.

"We did have M2M," Zac commented with a groan.

I rolled my eyes and stated, "Yeah, let's hope this doesn't turn into another M2M nightmare."

"That's all in the past, you guys. Our fans have loosened the leash a bit since you tied the knot, Ike," Tay said.

"Yeah, right," Zac scoffed, "the leash was simply pulled tighter on you and I, Tay.

Plus for some reason the teenies expect us to have these highly evolved sex lives, and even though they hate the thought of us with someone, they seem to hate the thought of us single even more. So they make up elaborate lies about us traveling alone and bringing girls up to our hotel rooms, and they say that they are carrying our babies or that we wrote that song about some chick who ran off with another guy to get married and left us heartbroken."

"Dude," Tay mumbled, "girls are complicated."

"Not all of them are girls, dude," Zac corrected him with a wink.

Taylor blushed and whispered, "Not all our fans are teenies."

I glanced back and forth between the two of them. What the heck was I missing? Will popped up into my mind, and my eyes focused on Taylor. Did he, did they... whoa... Then I noticed the smile on his face. He popped out of his weird depression when he ran into Will again.

If Will brings him happiness and Tay brings Will happiness, then that's all that matters. It's going to be weird, but who knows…I may just be jumping to conclusions as usual. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tay throwing on his tan-colored suede jacket, as Zac flung open the hotel room door.

"Whoa! Whoa! Where are you two going?"

"We're going to go get Will and Daph! We'll be back soon," Zac yelled.

Before I could say anything Zac and Taylor were gone.

*          *          *          *          *

"You knock," Tay told me as we stood in front of Daphne's hotel room door.

I lifted my hand up and knocked on the door. My knock echoed down the empty hallway. Silence. I shot Tay a confused look. He shrugged and motioned for me to knock again. I did. Nothing.

"I guess they went out," Tay sighed.

Just as we were turning to walk away the door was flung open by a giggling Daphne.

"Hey guys," she exclaimed.

Will was rolling around on the bed behind her and little bottles of liquor were open, empty, and strewn all over the floor.

"Are you drunk," I asked with a grin.

"Me? Never! I have a very high alcohol tolerance. Plus I ate some of the snacks they left in this room, too. Will, on the other hand, well…he's just a little bit tipsy because he didn't eat anything, but he'll be better in a few minutes. His body is pretty used to alcohol and processes it quickly. Do you guys want to come in?"

"No, that's okay. Um, do you just want to hang tomorrow?"

"NO! Hold on, we'll go with you back to your room or whatever. We're cool. WILL, UP!"

Will sat up. He seemed to become sober as soon as his eyes locked on Taylor.

*          *          *          *          *

Taylor and Will walked behind us. The elevator dinged open at the end of the hallway. Zac leaned in towards me.

"Hey, Daph, what do you say we make a break for the elevator and ditch them?"

I smiled at him and then the two of us raced for the elevator. We jumped in.

Zac yelled, "DAPHNE, HIT THE 'CLOSE DOOR' BUTTON!!"

I screamed as Will and Taylor started running towards us. I hit the button repeatedly and the doors closed just as Taylor reached them.

"YES," we shouted high-fiving each other.

"YOU ROCK," Zac exclaimed.

*          *          *          *          *

"I can't believe he did that," Tay said in shock as he stared at the elevator doors.

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Daph hit the button," I snickered.

"Yeah, you're right," he said sneering at me.

"Hey, dude I don't control her, don't blame me," I defended myself.

"It's ok I guess, Zac's got it bad for her," Tay smiled.

"Yeah, she's pretty deep in it for him too," I replied as we stood outside the elevator doors.

"Really?"

"Yeah, can't you see the look she gets when he talks to her," I asked as the doors chimed open.

"I didn't pay attention, but I know Zac gets that face too," Tay smiled.

"Let's get out of here," I grinned as we got in the elevator and the doors rolled shut.


On to Chapter Eight

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Memories ... Of A Forgotten Past is Copyright © 2000 by Taylor W. Quest.
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