I sat at the kitchen counter, patiently waiting for mom to notice that I needed to talk with her. Even though I was just days past my 18th birthday, I still needed that input occasionally. Normally, Ike would have been who I sought out in these moments, but he would be prejudice on this issue.
"So Zac, what's bothering you.." I could always count on her to notice, althought the clue of me sitting at the counter with no food was an obvious one.
"Well,.......what kind of, er...how much...ugh, Am I too old to date a younger girl now?" I just spit it out after stumbling over my words.
"How much younger?" she had a slight smile on her face "I suppose we should have sat down with you and talked like we did with Ike and Tay when they turned 18, but considering that I'm sure they already relayed the whole conversation to you, I wasn't sure it was necessary"
"Well, ..I'm not sure of the whole situation with her yet, so I'm not going to say who, but she's less than 3 years younger..." I looked up at her through my hair that still remained long through the past years.

Even though there were many kids in the house still younger than me, she had always treated me like her baby. I liked it most of the time, as it kept a great open relationship with her. Seeing her look up behind me, I turned to see dad walk into the kitchen. He took the stool next to me.
"Walk, Zac is talking with me about some new boundries for him now that he is "of Age"" she looked at me and winked.
"How late you stay out depends on who you're with, Zac" he put down the paper he was reading and looked at me " Pretty much the rules..."
"He's talking about girls and dating Walk, not curfews, although I don't doubt that the next question was yours"
"Oh...Oh.." He sort of laughed a a bit.
"I was just talking with mom about dating girls who weren't my age yet." I was beginning to get a little embarrassed as I saw Taylor slink in the door and look at me with mom and dad, before quickly heading down the hall.
"She's almost 16, but..." Looking out the corner of my eye I saw him look at mom with a questioning look.
"Is it someone we know?" mom was curious, and this was her way of letting dad know that she hadn't been enlightened either.
"Um, yeah...we know her, but I haven't asked her out yet, so..." I stopped as Ike walked in the kitchen. He looked at me.
"This brings back memories...the "you're and adult now " speech.." grabbing a coke from the fridge, he plopped at one of the stools down the counter evidently intent being there for the rest of the talk. I talked to Ike about everything, but I didn't need him here to finish this.
"I'll just think about it and talk to you later, mom"

Chapter 2

Heading out to the front porch swing, I flopped down, and let my mind wander.....
I was 18, a legal adult. To tell you the truth I didn't feel a whole lot different than I had in the last five years. After the Albertane tour, things were quiet for awhile, we slowly started working on the next album that we had due out in the summer of 1999. Alot of the music had been written already, and we spent alot of hours just polishing it before we headed to the studio. Ike was "inspired" and wrote some incredible stuff when he was dating Kate, but she had her life full, and they just left it at a deep friendship.

That's when all hell broke loose. The album hit the charts and when straight to the top. It was Middle of Nowhere all over again, it went platnium within 60 days on the rack. We were officially in the respected musician catagory. We were on the road for nearly a year with very few breaks. I was only 14 and had 2 platnium and a gold record. The fans were hungry and wanted more, not that we didn't have enough material, but after the whirlwind year, we were just plain tired. We gave them one more live album and then took a break for nearly a year.
We used this break to get high school finished and college started for Taylor. Taylor chose to go to UOT full time and Ike continued on the same path he had been. He had been dabbling, taking classes here and there, doing most of his general ed through internet extension courses. Taylor was only a year behind him in studies, but that was how it always was. Taylor dove headlong into anything and everything he attempted, and always suceeded. He loved the University, and we rarely saw him except for our scheduled practice time.

Since then we put out 2 more original albums and another with some remakes of older stuff and some covers. All three stood at gold status and we did a full world tour and a US tour in there also. It was now time for another break. We had fufilled our contract to Mercury two albums ago, and signed again on an album by album contract.
This was my year to get started on college and I had followed in Taylor's footsteps by enrolling for 12 units at UOT. It was all general ed and fairly easy, so school wasn't high on my list right now. Everyone was used to seeing Ike and Taylor around the university, so by the time I got there, I still got a few whispers, but nothing compared to what Taylor went through. He had taken it in stride, as he always did. For the first year he was at school, he had to have a bodyguard with him so that he could get to his classes on time and to keep peace in those classes. I chose not to have a bodyguard, though mom and dad were worried. Ike never had one, so I figured I could do without too. I sat back and let the sun of the afternoon warm my face.

Chapter 3

As I headed down the stairs, I could see Zac sitting on the front porch swing with his eyes closed, probably reeling from the intimate conversation he seemed to be having with the parents when I walked in. I opened the front door and he snapped his head up to look who was there.
"Hey Tay.." he looked happy but troubled.
"So what grandiors of wisdom did mom and dad have for you today?" I laughed a little thinking back 2 years to my lecture.
" Oh, there was no lecture, I was just talking to mom and dad came in..."
"Talking to mom,...girl troubles huh?" I understood, as I also was close to mom and sought her out occasionally even at the ripe old age of 20.
"Who is she...got it for that gal at church again, huh?" If Zac wanted to keep a secret, the only way to get it out of him was to make him slip.
"Nah, Tay, she's old news...she had no ambition, no dreams, well let me correct that....she had one dream...to marry me and have my babies..." he smirked and shook his head..."If I'm not married by thirty, I may look her up..."
"Hey Tay...?" Zacs eyes were closed again as he was soaking up the afternoon sun
"You ever date anyone younger, once you were my age?" opening one eye, he looked at me.
" Nope, You know me better than that...I always liked older girls, once I was of age, I never looked back...
"Remember that girl in Vermont?"--My smile increased as I thought about the short relationship I'd had with Amanda. She was awesome, but the distance was just too hard. Looking back at Zac, he was off in never, never land again.
"You were the one who always liked all the little ones..." remembering back to some shows where he would just have little girls in hysterics from his flirting. Well this was going nowhere...time to pull out the full artillery.
"So who is she..?" I asked flat out hoping he would just answer so I didn't have to continue with all these games.
"I haven't decided about asking her out yet...." He was usually so cool and confident about the girl thing, I had to wonder why now he was all tied up about this particular girl, after all he had dated quite a bit since he was allowed to at fifteen.

Though at times our life was wild, Ike and I started dating after we came back from the Albertane tour and then were promptly thrown a loop when the next one hit the charts with such force. We had all had our share of dates, good and bad, and Ike and I had even had a couple of steady relationships for periods of time. Ike's try at something with Kate was one of the most memorable, probably because they are still dancing around the issue to this day, nearly five years later.

Chapter 4

Looking up from the paperwork I had been at for the last two hours, I looked over at the sofa where in front of the fire a famous rock star sat doing his Poly Sci homework....."Isn't It Ironic....." the words from one of my favorite older Alanis songs ran through my head. Issac's words shook me from my thoughts
"So Kate... your big 21 is next Saturday--any plans?" he knew better than that, outside of their family and church, I had no social life, not because I didn't want to, but I was comfortable the way things were.
"Yeah, right Ike, I have a hot date..." I laughed as I looked at him.
"So it's you, me and Lacey again--I had a great time last year, but can we do better than Marie Calenders this time?" We decided too late to do something last year, and ended up at Marie Calenders with singing waiters and all. I was horribly embarrassed but Ike and Lacey had a good laugh.
"I'll check with Lace and make sure she doesn't have plans...." At that moment, as if on cue, the front door opened and Lacey walked in, basketball in hand, sweaty from practice.
"Hey," we all three chimed almost in chorus...
"Good practice?" I watched her dump backpack, ball and shoes in the front hall as she walked in and threw herself on the sofa next to Ike.
"Yeah, I'm gonna make varsity next year if it kills me..and it probably will.." She was tired, but happy, basketball was one of her two loves in life.
"Hey, Ike wants to take us out for my birthday again this year...k?" a smile tugged at her face.
"Marie Calenders again?" she snorted with all of her teen sarcasm she could muster.
" I think not--but the choice is up to Kate...since it's your 21st, lets do it up......Shadowbrook, what do ya say Kate?" His charmer look was approaching and I knew I had no escape.
"That means I have to pull out the glad rags" I looked at him and sighed...I really disliked dressing up, but for some reason I was kind of looking forward to this.

Ike had been my safety net for the past five years, as had his family. Walker and Diana had all but adopted us and we became one big extended family. That was part of the reason Ike was here, he came to my house for peace and quiet when he had major studying to do. He never had even mentioned moving out, even though he was almost 23, His devotion and attachment to his family was something you didn't see too often these days.
The years had fairly flown by and the guys were very successful, but had now taken some time so that Ike could finish and Zac could start his college. What Ike planned on doing once school was done was a mystery to me, they already ran a multimillion dollar corporation with very little help outside the family.
I watched him slowly fall asleep as he was trying to get through the last chapter of his text, but he was gone, his head layed back against the couch and his book had slipped to the floor.
Lacey was engrossed in some book, still in her sweaty clothes from practice. Ike's book hitting the floor startled her. She stretched , got up, and headed for the stairs after carefully turning off the living room light and throwing a blanket over Ikes long legs that were sprawled out over the coffee table. After working a short time more, I decided it was time for all good kids to be in bed and looked over to where Ike was, now half laying, half sitting. The light from the fire played on the still long, gold hair that he had kept for all these years.
"Yeah, some rock star, looks more like a tired little boy," I laughed to myself as I shook him gently to send him home.

Chapter 5

Sitting on the couch in the peace and quiet, I was having flashback memories of the times that Kate and I had made attempts at a relationship. It was the 8th wonder of the world how our friendship had survived all the attempts and remained in tact.

After that fateful December, when I inititally had my obsession over her realized, we tried to make a go at a relationship. We were soulmates, and it progressed very quickly, almost too quickly. The physical relationship, got out of hand many times, and we had to stop being alone together. Both of us are very affectionate people, and to this day, our body language gave others the image that we were much more than good friends. We sat down and had a disscussion that June about us. It was decided between both of us that we were to be friends. At first it was unbelievably hard, and I almost went back to the original obsession that had brought us together, but gradually it became easier. That was not the last. It seems that almost on a yearly basis, we slowly slide back into more than a friendship, only once though did we actually admit it and try again to make a go at it. That ended when the world tour started.