CHAPTER THREE

Zac stared out over the crowd carefully – he always did this, just in case there was someone he really liked whom he could watch out for when he was signing autographs. The last song they were playing was ‘Mmmbop’. Zac’s eyes kept averting his eyes slightly down in front of the stage where Don was standing trying to keep fans off of the stage. His thoughts were shouting at the girls ‘don’t let him touch you’, but his mouth was singing "can you tell me who will still care" along with Isaac and Taylor.

When the song was over, Zac threw his head back in relief, his throat had slightly begun to hurt from singing, he looked down at the crowd again, screaming for him and his brothers, clapping their hands wildly.

"You’ve been a great audience," Taylor called out into his microphone, he practically had to shout this because even with the microphone which made his voice a hundred times louder – he still couldn’t be heard over the fans.

Zac was the first to make his way off stage – which his brothers found strange. Isaac and Taylor followed to the back way of the stage

"Hey, Zac," Isaac followed on, "how come you didn’t say anything or do anything weird like usual?" he asked.

"I wasn’t in the mood," Zac answered, he took the megaphone strapped to his neck off and he let it hang on his shoulder.

Don appeared up moments later, letting security handle the rest of the fans trying to climb onto stage and stuff. "You guys are great!" he said in a loud cheerful voice.

"Thanks," Isaac said, putting his guitar down.

"Yeah, thanks," Zac muttered under his breath, though his voice was so slight, no one even heard the sarcastic tone in his voice. "Are we gonna hang around and do autographs?" Zac then immediately shot back into normality, forcing thoughts of the creep away.

"We can't," Taylor pointed out to a television crew who were hanging around at the edge of the stage. "We’re gonna have to do a quick interview…" he said.

"I hate these backstage things…"

"Its just for a few moments," Isaac patted Zac’s shoulder realising Zac was a little on edge. "Come on…"

Zac's mind was elsewhere while Isaac and Taylor made nice talk in front of the camera, saying the normal stuff that become so boring after saying it seven hundred times – ‘no, we don’t have girlfriends’, ‘We always hope to do the music’, ‘We started six years ago…’

Zac was actually glad no one wanted him to say anything – because he felt a little awkward – he could feel Don staring at him again, and this time he was convinced Don was bad news.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Zac didn’t like sitting in the room on his own, Ike and Tay shouldn’t have gone off to get something to eat and trust Zac on his own. It wasn’t so much the feeling that Zac was going to mad out of his loneliness – it was more to do with the fact that Don was somewhere in this hotel – having him in another hotel wouldn’t be far away enough.

Zac went into the bathroom to look for something to do, he stood at the mirror above the sink and stared at himself.

"Looking good," Zac smiled at his reflection and a cheesy smile was returned right back at him, he fiddled with his hair for a moment, pulling it back, folding it so it looked shorter, wondering how he’d look with a haircut. He sang the words to Man From Milwaukee as he mucked about with his hair.

He was bored, he realised as he finished the second verse from Man From Milwaukee. He went back into the bedroom, and headed for Taylor’s rucksack, wondering where Isaac’s Discman was, at least if he didn’t have anything to do he could listen to music. Zac began rummaging through the bag, his hand finding a small cardboard box right at the bottom of the bag, stuffed in between a bag of jellybeans and a box of tictacs. "Huh?" Zac asked softly, he pulled the box out of the bag and stared at the box in his hand.

"Cigarettes," he read out loud to himself. "Tay’s been at it again, Ike warned him not to get another packet, I guess he must have slipped away sometime and got one," Zac realised. He opened the packet and found a disposable orange lighter inside, he took it out and began flicking it. "Heheh, cool," he said, the flame from the lighter was huge! Zac was surprised he hadn’t singed his eyebrows off.

Zac took a cigarette from the packet. "Lets see what all the fuss is about," he muttered, and he put the cigarette to his lips and awkwardly lit it. Smoke began rising from the cigarette end. Zac sucked at the filter, and then began spluttering as the smoke filled his mouth and his lungs.

"Oh, man! That is gross!" he took the cigarette from his mouth, ran to the bathroom and tossed it out of the open window. He washed his mouth out – though it didn’t help - and he still found himself coughing.

"Well, Zac, that was stupid," Zac told himself, then he tensed up hearing the door from the bedroom opening.

"Back so soon?" Zac called through to the bedroom, he turned and walked through the bathroom doorway and paused, seeing Don there – not Isaac or Taylor – but Don! Zac gripped onto the chair by the wall for support. "What do you want?" he asked in a tiny voice.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Don answered in a firm voice, he took one step closer, and Zac wanted to run back into the bathroom and lock himself in – but a big guy like that could probably shove the door open, break the lock without breaking a sweat.

"Yeah, well, I'm okay, you can go now," Zac said, putting a little more force into his tone, hoping the guy would back off. But Don didn’t. Don took two steps forward, and Zac took one step back until he was in the doorway of the bathroom, instinctively, just as Don shot towards him with a speed that Zac didn’t think possible!, he flew into the bathroom and tried to shove the door closed, but Don was already against it, shoving back with all his strength, Zac saw the hand pushing through the gap in the door and he shoved harder, hoping he could crush the guys hand in between the door and the frame. Zac saw enough space in between the counter of the bathroom and the door that he could stretch his leg out and press his foot against the front of the counter, propping himself up and forcing all the strength he could into his back, he grunted in the attempt, feeling Don push back with a strength that would have made Superman jealous.

Don shoved the door heard, Zac tumbled to the floor, banging his back up against the counter, clumsily tried to get up, but didn’t succeed in doing so.

Don knelt in front of him, looking at him with a strange gaze. "Why are you trying to lock me out?" he asked in a voice of teasing. "You like playing games?"

"Back off now, Don, or I'm calling the cops," Zac growled.

"How? You don’t have a phone in your bedroom, Zac. And…unless I say so, you aren’t going anywhere…" he reached down and put his hand behind Zac’s head, and hauled him that way, Zac whimpered, too afraid to struggle.

Looking into the one green eye, the one lifeless blue eye, Zac saw something he hadn’t seen before – a danger lurking around. Zac then took control of his situation, instinctively, he kicked hard at Don’s crotch, Don yelled in agony, and Zac saw his chance of escape. Zac fled for the door of the room hoping to get out into the hallway, but before he had the chance, Don grabbed him and threw him to the floor.

Zac hit the floor with a hard thud, his arm seemed to go completely numb instantly, and he let out a holler of frustration as he tried to get up, Don was on him, pushing down on him so he couldn’t move.

"You little shit, you think you can get away with hurting me?!" Don demanded, he slapped Zac hard on the face, Zac couldn’t even scream in pain, he just lay there silent, burning hot tears stinging at his eyes.

There was a long period of silence.

"I’m gonna go now," Don suddenly got up, seemingly back in that reserved mood once again. "Don’t you breathe a word of this," he warned. "You tell them you fell, understood? Because if you don’t…you know what will happen."

Zac could only nod in complete terror and he lay there, watching as Don disappeared out of the room.

Zac closed his eyes tightly and forced himself not to cry.