Again

Prologue

In late August 2001 Zac met Kate Tucker backstage at an appearance they'd done for a Macy's runway show. She was there with her best friend Natalie who had taken a liking to Taylor and she and Zac sat backstage and talked until the show crew kicked them out. Accepting they'd run out of time for the night, he asked Kate for her number and promised to call her the next day.

Two days later he sat with the phone in one hand in his backyard starring at the trees that lined their entire property.

"What's up?" Taylor asked sitting down on the back porch steps next to his brother. His voice had started Zac, but he was relieved to see it was his brother joining him and not Kayla. "What are you doing back here so late?" Taylor continued. It was almost 2 in the morning, and while Zac was usually a night owl, they'd had a stressful week and he thought he'd be asleep by now.

"I should ask you the same thing," Zac retorted feeling somewhat guilty for snapping at his brother for no reason. Taylor replied by holding up a cigarette up to Zac and shrugging.

"I can't sleep," he finally spoke after lighting up and returning his lighter to his pocket.

"Me either. Tay, can I talk to you about something and you promise you won't say anything?" Zac asked sounding a little desperate and a little defeated at the same time.

"Sure," Taylor said.

Zac let out a loud breath. He didn't know where to begin or how to explain the feelings he was having.

"You know Kate, Natalie's friend from the show a couple nights ago?" Zac began.

Taylor nodded, "Yeah, the girl you stayed at the venue with all night?"

"Yeah. Well I told her I would call her," Zac once again began but then trailed off.

"Ok.... What about her?" Taylor asked. He was confused. Zac sounded troubled but so far, this story was nothing to be concerned about.

"Well... ok. I told her I would call her, but... "

"But what, Zac? Spit it out already," Taylor said irritated.

"I kinda have a girlfriend," Zac finally spoke. Taylor turned to him wide-eyed. Zac had never had a girlfriend, not that Taylor knew of anyway.

"Girlfriend? Who is your girlfriend? Why didn't you tell us?" Taylor asked a little hurt that Zac had been keeping this secret from him. As much as the media made fun of them for their "Wholesome brother act" the truth of the matter was that the three of them were extremely close. They often felt like they were the only ones who understood each other.

"I've been seeing Kayla," Zac whispered.

"Kayla?!" Taylor practically yelled out. "Since when are you seeing Kayla? And what does seeing Kayla mean exactly?" Taylor's face began to turn red with anger. Kayla was like a sister to him, to all his siblings, and the fact that she and Zac were sneaking around behind their family's back was wrong to him.

"Taylor, calm down. We've been dating for about 3 months or so. We didn't say anything because our whole lives everyone's always tried to make us be together. Told us how cute we'd look together. We just didn't want to deal with all that," Zac finally admitted. Once he'd heard that, Taylor began to calm down a little. He understood where Zac was coming from. It was hard enough holding a "normal" relationship while being in the spotlight of the fans and media, but he was sure adding family to that spotlight had to be much worse.

"So are you two dating or is she your girlfriend?" Taylor asked his younger brother. Zac turned to look at Taylor with a confused look on his face.