*~*~*~*~*~*~CHAPTER TWO~*~*~*~*~*~*
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;"We are truly all alone, company disguises losses to
which we all are prone. If life teaches you anything it shouldn't be how to feel, we are all
living dummies who can't find anything real."~Living Dummies, Tasha
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  Zac peered out the window at the raging storm.
  "Man I pity anyone out in that weather!" he
said to himself, only deep
inside him he knew that he wished it was him.
  The idea of being outside in an anger that
matched his own frustration
fancied him. He could scream without being heard and cry without being
seen. The glory of rain is that no one sees you crying in the rain. All
the stress of his chosen life was mounting on his shoulders, seeming to
weigh him down like a cement block tumbling through the water slowly to the
bottom of the ocean, never to breathe again.
  His own breathing was suffocating him.
  To the world, he was "Zac Hanson: always
perky, never down, watch out he's
slap-happy-crazy!" but on the inside, there was a serious side to him. He
had tried more than once to be serious and make sophisticated statements or
highly-conversational view points. But everytime he wasn't bouncing off the
walls, the people outside of his family thought there was something wrong
with him. An illness or exhaustion.
  Nowadays, the hyperness was all an act. An act to
keep the girls screaming
and the records selling. Personally, Zac would have liked to stop and let
the girls listen to the music without drooling over the glossy pinups that
covered their walls. But that would never happen. The music industry
demanded their constant appearance and the screaming girls pleaded for it.
What was a guy to do?
  His silence and peace of mind was disturbed
by his older brother talking on
the phone. Probably another girlfriend.
  "Gee Tay..knocking? You don't say!! Really
appreciated! I mean, I know I
would be pissed if you hadn't knocked!" Zac turned with heavy sarcasm to
Taylor.
  Taylor just waved his hand dismissively and
sat down on Zac's trundle bed
to continue his conversation.
  "No Amy, I'm telling you, The Braves have
the Astros beat to a
pulp!!...unh-unh....cuz I said so...you know you believe everything I
say...cuz you want to.." Taylor continued flirting with his girlfriend over
the phone while Zac shook his head angrily and left the room.
  Trying to think in this house was getting harder
every day.
  Zac walked through all the rooms in the
house, looking for a place to sit
and think. Even the closets held no image of solitude that he so desperately
seeked.
  He grabbed a yellow poncho off the coat
rack in the laundry room before
heading out into the rain.
  No one sees you crying in the rain.