𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐭 || 𝐙𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐧 [𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝]

13- From The Atlantic

Hayden, 18 years, 7 months, & 6 days old

"Ready to meet my band mates?" Zach asked as we sat in the driveway of his shared home.

"After three years, yes," I smirked.

"Right, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm excited," I grinned.

"And I'm sorry that I never really told them about you. They don't know I'm with you so this is a surprise to them." His face filled with worry.

"Never told them about me? Even though I was coming all this way to see you?" I said angrily.

"I'm sorry." Without another thought, Zach was climbing out of the car and I followed him. We walked up to the door together and entered into a house booming with noise.

"Hello?" Zach yelled over sounds of various types. He grabbed my hand and led me into the living room.

"Zach!" A boy with frost-tipped hair shouted. He paused the video game that he was playing on the TV and stood up.

Zach smiled and waved. "Hey!" Then three more boys rushed into the room from the kitchen and stopped in their tracks when they saw me.

"Who's this?" The tallest one asked.

"Guys, this is Hayden, my best friend from home. I haven't seen her in a while and she came to visit."

"Hi!" The boy with the long neck smiled. "I'm Daniel."

"I'm Corbyn," the frosty haired boy said again.

"It's nice to meet you, Hayden. I'm Jonah," the tall one waved.

"I'm Jack," the one with wildly curly hair smirked. "Zach, you should have warned me that your best friend was so beautiful."

I smiled and my cheeks turned pink. "It's nice to meet you all," I laughed. Jack's comment caught Zach and I off guard. Zach's face hardened and he rolled his eyes.

"Well," Zach coughed after a long pause of silence, "I thought we could all hang out today and get to know Hayden, but maybe not too much." He stared at Jack intensely.

"We can show you around California if you'd like," Jonah offered.

"I'd love that. I've never been here before," I said.

"Can we go to Venice Beach? I want to go skateboarding," Jack decided.

"Sure," Zach nodded. All the other boys nodded with him.

We all piled into one minivan and started our drive to Venice Beach. I was sat next to Jack in the middle row while Zach was in the passenger seat while Jonah drove. It was awkward sitting next to a bunch of strangers while my best friend sat somewhere else but something in me trusted them.

"So you like to skateboard?" I leaned over to Jack.

"Yeah, I love it. Do you know how to skateboard?" He responded.

"No, I don't. You'll have to teach me sometime," I gave a soft smile.

"I think I will. It could be interesting," he laughed. "So what do you like to do?"

"Music is my only other passion. Singing and playing ukulele is basically my life."

"You'll have to come to one of our rehearsals. We mostly goof off and play random songs but it's a good learning experience if you ever want to preform."

"Zach said he might give me a spot as your opener on tour this summer."

"Really?" Daniel gasped from the back seat.

"We'd love for you to join us on tour," Jack smiled and his eyes turned soft.

We got to Venice and all six of us piled out of the car. We started our time by walking along the boardwalk and peeping into stores. Jack skated ahead some then came back and skated off again until we finally made it to the skate park. The rest of the four guys and I stood around and watched Jack skate for a while before Zach and I decided to get some ice cream.

"This is really fun, thank you," I said as I licked the tip of my ice cream cone.

"No problem. It's what you came here to do, isn't it?" Zach laughed.

"Yeah, but," I trailed on.

"But what?"

"Before I met the others, they didn't know I existed. Why didn't you tell them about me? For the longest time I was your best friend and you didn't tell your other friends about me?"

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I just didn't want them to make fun of me for, you know, being friends with a girl." His eyes became scared as they slowly came in contact with mine.

"I thought that after all these years of being bullied you didn't care about what others thought about us. Why give that up for what seem like your brothers?"

"Because they are my brothers, I know them. And I know that if I told them about you they'd want to steal you." Zach took another bite of his ice cream.

"Steal me?"

"Yeah, and Jack proved it to me. Don't you see him flirting with you?" His voice raised.

"He was just trying to be nice," I defended.

"He was saying he likes you, in more than a friendly way. I don't like it."

"Why do you care?" Then I realized. "Oh my gosh, you're jealous," I laughed.

"What? No." Zach's face turned bright red. "I'm looking out for you."

"Fine, and not that I liked him back in that way but I'll tell Jack to stop flirting with me."

"Thank you. And you'll be thanking me later," he wiggled his eyebrows.

We finished our ice creams and met back up with the others. They were all hanging out on the pier. We stayed out on the beach until sunset and I got to watch the sun go down over the ocean. Zach took me home I got ready for bed.

Later, I got a text from Zach and an email from Atlantic Records. I opened Zach's message first.

THEY WANT TO HIRE YOU FOR OUR TOUR!! OPEN THE EMAIL!

I opened the email and an image of a formal note from Atlantic Records read that they wanted to hear my music for a decision to hire me to open for the next Why Don't We tour.

:::

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