title - on the other side
genre - drama/romance
pairing - Zac/OMC
point of view - Zac Hanson
rating - PG-13 (due to some bad language)
betas - I am my own beta. Any and all mistakes are my own. If you happen to tumble across any feel free to inform me so I may correct them, thank you.
info - the fear of the world kept us in, safe from the dirt and the sin and yes I'm terrified, 'cause when you’re out you know there's no return, but I love you and they're going to learn

Previous chapters:
prologue - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20
21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30
31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 -

For Bree, because it was her birthday on Thursday. I hope you had a great day! <3

[ chapter 37 ]

Another week passed and I spent a lot of that week thinking about what would happen when the tour would end a week from now. We’d be heading back to Tulsa and I knew I could crash at Isaac’s for now and I really appreciated that, but I really didn’t plan on staying there too much longer. Isaac had his own things going and I didn’t want to be in his way and on top of that I really wanted to have a place that was my own. I wanted the comfort of having my own things around me and not having to feel like an intruder. So, one thing that was on my to do list for when I got home was apartment-shopping. That had been an easy enough decision to make. What I’d been thinking about all week was whether or not to I was going to ask Cayden to come back to Tulsa with me.

I didn’t want to have to be away from him and of course we could travel back and forth between states, but that wasn’t a real solution. I wanted him with me all the time and that could only happen if he was coming back with me. If I would have had the possibility I would have packed my bags and moved to Minneapolis myself, but I couldn’t. I knew there was no way I could convince my brothers to leave Tulsa too and as much as I loved Cayden, I wasn’t going to leave the band. So the only option was for me to ask him to move to Tulsa, which felt like a selfish thing to do, because he had his family and friends in Minneapolis and I felt like I couldn’t ask him to leave them behind because of me, but at the same time I knew I would ask it of him anyway.

And I wasn’t just going to ask him to move to Tulsa, I was going to ask him to move to Tulsa with me. That was another thing I’d been spending a lot of time thinking about. I knew moving in together was a big step, but we already shared a room every night and we spend basically the entire day together when we were on tour and we never had one fight. I knew there was a difference between life on the road and living together in a normal day-to-day life, but I was certain that we could make it work. I was just incredibly nervous about asking him and hearing his answer. I would completely understand if he wasn’t ready to leave Minneapolis and his friends and family behind, because I knew that that was a lot to ask, but at the same time I would also be incredibly disappointed, because I could already see us hunting down the perfect place and then arguing about the best color to put on the walls, but most of all I could already see myself falling asleep and waking up next to him every single day.

I sucked in a breath, before softly calling his name to get his attention. We were surprisingly alone in one of the back stages rooms and we’d both chosen to kick down and relax with a bunch of magazines.

“Hmm.” He reacted as he looked up from the magazine he was reading.

“There’s something I wanted to ask you.” I said nervously.

“That sounds serious.” He said as a small and slightly worried frown appeared on his face.

“It is, I guess.”

“Okay.” He said somewhat nervously as he put the magazine back on top of the pile to give me his full attention.

“I’ve been thinking about what’s going to happen between us, you know, when this tour ends and I - No, let me finish first.” I said putting my hand on Cayden’s as he opened his mouth to interrupt. My hand was incredibly sweaty and I’m sure that it did nothing to ease Cayden’s nerves, because he nodded only reluctantly as he laced his fingers through mine. I was thankful for the comfort it offered.

“I really don’t want to have to be without you for too long, so I was thinking that maybe you could come back to Tulsa with me and that maybe we could find a place together and -” The nerves were making the words come out in a rush. “- I’ll completely understand if you don’t want to, because I know you got all your family and frie-”

“I’d love to come to Tulsa with you.” Cayden interrupted with a wide smile on his face, before I got the change to ramble out the rest of my sentence.

“Really?” I asked completely surprised. I definitely hadn’t expected him to answer me so quickly. I had figured he’d need some time to think about it at the least.

He laughed. “Yeah, really. Is that so hard to believe?” He asked grinning.

I stuttered something, but I was still too surprised to form a coherent sentence which caused him to laugh again before he grabbed my face with both his hands and pulled me to him for a kiss that left me breathless as did the words that follow it. “Did you really, for even one second, think that I wouldn’t want to move in with you and that I would pass up the opportunity to be with you all the time? There’s no place in the world I’d rather be than with you.”

I still couldn’t find any words and all I could do was kiss him again and we happily did that for the next couple of minutes. When our lips finally parted it was only because we knew that there were things we needed to talk about.

“Are you really okay with moving all the way to Tulsa? All your family and friends are in Minneapolis.”

“It’s not like I see them much while I’m on tour. People are pretty used to my not being around, so to them it probably won’t matter much whether I’m touring all over the place or whether I’m living in Tulsa with you. I know that I’ll keep in touch with the people who matter and I can always visit if I start missing them too much.” He said with a shrug.

“It almost sounds like you’ve thought of this already.” I stated.

“That’s because I have.” He said with a somewhat guilty grin.

“You have?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah. Didn’t you think I had realized the end of the tour was coming up too? And I want to be away from you about as much as you want to be away from me. So yeah, I had already considered moving to Tulsa to be closer to you, I just wasn’t sure how to bring up the subject. It’s a pretty big thing, even if we wouldn’t be living together, and I was scared that if I’d ask you you’d feel like you had to say yes and I didn’t want to pressure you.”

“That’s really sweet, but do you have any idea how scared and nervous I was about asking you this?!” I asked much more dramatic than necessary, which caused him to laugh loudly, which lead to me kissing him to shut him up and that kiss led to us not talking again for another ten minutes and I’m sure we wouldn’t have stopped at kissing if Kent hadn’t suddenly walked in. He was gone again as quickly as he’d shown up, but it was enough to detach us from each other for another while to do some more talking, because we did need to figure out how we were going to arrange everything.

We spend the next half an hour talking about our game plan which felt together pretty smoothly, because we easily agreed on everything. Right now the plan was to spend some time with his parents and friends after the tour ended and to get his stuff ready for transport to Tulsa, where we’d stay in a hotel until we’d found a proper apartment. Even though neither of us particularly looked forward to living in a hotel for another unknown bunch of weeks, neither of us felt like we could ask Isaac to stay with him either. I already felt bad enough for invading when it was only me, let alone when there were two of us. I wasn’t really sure how comfortable Isaac would be with living together with us anyway, so we weren’t going to bother asking him.

All in all I was suddenly a whole lot more excited about going back home. I really had something to look forward to now. Although there was one thing I was a little less excited about which was telling my brothers about it. I suspected Taylor might not be so happy with my good news, which was why I was planning to get it over with as fast as I could. It also meant that he’d have more time to get used to it, which I figured couldn’t hurt. But it would have to wait at least a little while longer, because it was time to go out and face the mass of fans who were waiting for autographs and pictures.

As always the amount of sound the fans could produce as soon as they saw us was overwhelming and if the years of drumming hadn’t caused me some hearing damage, the screaming surely had. Luckily I was in a good mood today and I couldn’t care too much, but some days things like this could be extremely annoying - and I was saying this nicely.

I dutifully worked along the line of girls while stopping to sign a cover or select body parts every couple of feet while smiling when pictures were taken and trying to make small talk with all the girls who were asking for my attention. It was all part of the job and it had pretty much become a routine, though there were always girls who did or said something you didn’t expect and today there was one such girl. I was still busy signing the CD of the girl who was standing next to her when she tugged at my sleeve, which was nothing new and something I usually ignored, and it wasn’t as much the tugging as the question she asked that caused me to pay attention.

“What’s his name?” She asked.

“Huh, whose?” I asked confused.

“His.” She said and pointed at someone behind me. I turned to see Cayden walk back into the venue carrying a heavy box with some of our equipment.

“What? Cayden?” I asked wondering why she’d want to know his name.

“Yeah. Does he have a girlfriend?” I think my jaw dropped a bit, but I hoped I recovered fast enough for anyone to notice. I wasn’t sure whether to be jealous or flattered by the fact that she was interested in my boyfriend.

“Uh, sort of.” I told her hesitantly. It wasn’t a complete lie when you looked past the fact that I wasn’t a girl.

She hummed in consideration and I might have spent more time considering what might be going through her head if a dozen of other girls hadn’t been fighting for my attention. I liked this shirt and I didn’t need the sleeve pulled off.

After five minutes of signing I had nearly forgotten about the girl and her questions about Cayden when she suddenly shouted his name. I turned to see Cayden stop in his tracks halfway to the bus and he turned around to see who had called for his attention. The girl, a blonde with her top now pulled at least an inch lower than when I’d been talking to her, waved at Cayden to come her way and I could see Cayden hesitating, but I guess that in the end his curiosity got the better of him because he started to make his way in our direction. I wasn’t the only one watching him then. Even the fans had forgotten about us for a while and were focusing on Cayden and the girl. I couldn’t remember a fan ever paying attention to anyone other than us while we were signing. This was definitely a first.

The girl held out a piece of paper for Cayden to take as soon as he stood in front of her.

“What’s that?” He asked looking from the piece of paper and back to her. He was smart enough not to take the note right away.

“My phone number.” She said flashing him a seductive smile that I was sure would have made many other guys weak in the knees. Not Cayden though.

“I can’t take it.” He told her.

“Why? Do they have rules against sleeping with fans?” She asked flirting all the while.

“Well, that aside.” Cayden said with an amused smile. “If I’m going to accept your number, you’re going to expect me to call and I won’t. I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

“Oh c’mon. Aren’t you in for a little fun? I never disappoint.” She tried to convince him by batting her lashes.

“I’m sure you’re going to make some other guy really happy then. I’m really not interested.”

“I want to make you happy though.” She said with a sexy pout. I really couldn’t believe this girl. I thought Cayden was making it pretty obvious that he wasn’t interested.

“I already have someone to make me happy.” Cayden responded and I forced back a smile.

“Oh, right, the sort of girlfriend Zac mentioned. It didn’t sound very serious.” The girl said to which Cayden shot a quick glance in my direction and I hoped it was obvious that the small exchange I’d had with the girl had been pulled completely out of context here. “She doesn’t even have to find out.” The girl continued while sending Cayden another killer smile. I could about kill her right now. I was beyond annoyed and so was Cayden judging by the way he glared at her now.

“You really need to learn when to let go of something.” He said “Trying to talk someone else’s boyfriend in bed with you is way beyond crossing a line. You don’t do that and if you think that that is perfectly fine than something’s really wrong with you.” I was pretty sure that I wasn’t the only one who noticed that Cayden was upset. He knew exactly what it felt like to be cheated on and I’m sure that this ripped open some old wounds. His words seemed to do nothing to the girl though. Mostly she seemed annoyed with the fact that she wasn’t getting her way and I wished that I could think of something to say to make her feel shitty about herself. That really was nothing like me, but she’d just hurt my boyfriend and she didn’t even care about it.

Cayden gave her one last angry glare before he turned around to head back to the venue. “Just for your information,” he said as he turned back after having taken two steps, “Zac’s just too polite to tell you that my sort of girlfriend is actually a guy.”

The girl’s jaw dropped and she stared after Cayden as he walked in the venue. I guess that, unlike me, Cayden was clever enough to think of the one thing that would make her feel shitty, because she suddenly looked far from happy and also incredibly embarrassed and I had a hell of a lot of trouble fighting back a smile and judging by the faces of the fans I wasn’t the only one, although some faces looked shocked too. I couldn’t blame them. I was a little shocked too, but most of all I was incredibly pleased with the girl’s reaction to Cayden’s confession. That didn’t take away the fact that I was worried about Cayden, because I knew he was hurt and I really didn’t want him to have to be alone right now, but I couldn’t just run after him either. I didn’t need the fans to find out about my sexuality right now too.

I was relieved when Isaac and Taylor finally decided that they’d done enough signing and I gladly followed them into the venue where I announced that I was going to look for Cayden, which they didn’t argue against. After stumbling upon two empty rooms I found him in the third where he was staring out the window at the fans below. I had the feeling that he might have been watching us ever since he disappeared inside.

“Hey.” I mumbled as I slipped my arms around his waist from behind him.

“Hey.” He replied quietly as he leaned back into me a little. I was glad he didn’t shrug me off.

“Are you okay?” I asked before placing a gentle kiss in his neck.

“Yeah. Are you?” He asked.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked with a frown.

“Because a crazy woman was trying to steal me away from you and because I blurted out that I had a boyfriend. What if they’re going to piece us together?” He asked.

“Then they’d be right.” I answered.

He turned around in my arms. “Aren’t you worried about it? You know I don’t care if they know, but I thought that maybe you’d be mad at me for just letting that slip.”

“I’m not mad. It’s really not my place to tell you who you can or can’t tell that you’re gay. I already feel crappy enough for making you hide who we are. I’m not going to make you hide who you are on top of that.”

He kissed me softly. “Aren’t you worried though?”

I sighed softly. “Yeah, I am. A little.” I admitted.

I was overly aware of how much imagination our fans had. I knew that Cayden and I had been fairly safe in the past, because there had been no reason for them to suspect that something was going on between the two of us. Now that Cayden was out I was sure they would have a ball coming up with ridiculous theories and from there it would only be a matter of time until enough of them started to believe it and started to gather proof of it. The fact that Cayden was coming back to Tulsa with us certainly wouldn’t help and I was sure that it would only be a matter of time until they’d figure it out and I could only hope that I had already told them before that. They deserved to hear it through me.

“But there’s nothing we can do about it now, so we’ll just see how it goes. I’ll tell them when I’m ready to and if they figure it out before then, then I’ll find another way to deal with it. Let’s just hope that they take their time figuring out. It’s not like I’m an obvious match.”

“True. You’re really something else. You just keep on surprising me.” He said with a smile.

“Just trying to keep things interesting.” I said with a grin.

“I like it.”

“I know.” I said smiling. “So, are you really okay? You seemed pretty upset out there.”

“Yeah, I guess it does still hurt sometimes, but I’m okay now, so don’t worry about me.”

“Only if you don’t worry about me either.”

He chuckled. “Deal.”

“Seal it with a kiss?” I asked cheesily.

Of course he wasn’t one to argue. How could he say no to that anyway? Any excuse to kiss each other was a good enough one in our opinion. It was just so incredibly easy to be with him. I couldn’t even imagine us having a fight or being mad at each other. I hoped that that was one thing that would never change, especially now we had agreed to find a place together. Just thinking about living together with him had me excited again. I knew it was a big step, but I was more than ready to take it.