In the morning I went into the studio with Isaac. Zac wasn't back from Denver and I hadn't heard anything from him yet. As far as I knew, my mother was still blissfully unaware that Zac had left town, but if my father decided to drop by (and he usually did) he would see that Zac wasn't with us. I know Zac told me not to lie for him but he's my brother and I sincerely don't want him to get into trouble, at least, not for something as major as this. It was always fun getting him into trouble, but this meant something to him and I wasn't about to let him get busted for something as unpredictable as the weather.
It was about noon when Zac called my cell phone. "Hello?" I asked. In Zac's absence we decided to do solo vocals so he wasn't needed. At the moment Isaac was in the recording booth and I was in the editing room with a few other producers, all who seemed very annoyed at the last minute change of plans. We were going to do drums today.
"Taylor, hey it's me," Zac said.
"Zac? Where are you?"
"I'm still at the airport. I've got a flight and it's leaving in about ten minutes. I should be there about�um�three o'clock your time if all goes well." I looked at the time.
"Three o'clock?" I asked. "Do you need me to pick you up?"
"No, no don't bother. I'll take care of it. I'll be there at the studio at three. I'll call you if anything changes or I'm late or something."
"All right. I'll see you then."
"Bye!" He hung up the phone. I put mine down and waited for another producer to stop the song before I spoke to Ike.
"Hey, Ike," I said, "Zac just called. He said he'd be in by three."
"Finally," Isaac said, sitting down. "Where was he?"
"Denver." Isaac gave me a strange look.
"Denver? Why was he there?"
"New girlfriend." Isaac nodded. That's always a feasible explanation.
When three o'clock came, I heard from downstairs that Zac was in the studio, so at least he was on time. We got lucky and my father never showed up, so when Zac arrived he was in the clear. I was working in a notebook when he came in behind me. "Hey Tay�lor. Taylor. Sorry." I looked up to comment but immediately jumped and fell out of my chair. Zac burst out laughing as I landed hard on the floor. Rubbing my ass, I carefully put myself back on my seat.
"What the FUCK did you do to your hair?" I asked. When Zac had left for Denver yesterday morning he had his long hair that I was used to, but now that he was back from Denver it had all been chopped off, almost like Isaac's hair only it looked better on Zac. Zac ran his hand through his newly shortened locks. There was no sign of blonde left in his hair; now that it was all gone, all that was left was a dark brown.
"Oh," Zac said, as if he'd been like this for weeks and I was just now noticing. "Ging suggested I should do it and I was like 'you know what, I should do it.' So I did." I knew it. I knew that girl had something to do with it. Zac was way too attached to his hair to just decide, by himself, that he wanted it gone. From the way he's been acting, if Ginger had asked him to chop off a leg he probably would have done it.
"Ging?" I asked. He nodded. "All right, whatever. Get in there, we were supposed to do drums today."
"All right, all right."
Once Ike saw Zac he came flying into the editing room. "Where the hell have you been?" Zac looked at me. I shrugged. I told Ike already, I don't understand why he's having such a conniption.
"I was stuck in Denver," Zac explained. "I went there on our day off and there was a snowstorm. I was stuck there. I couldn't do a thing to get out of it; all the flights were cancelled."
"And what the hell is up with this?" Ike asked, smacking Zac on the side of the head.
"Ow," I heard Zac mutter. "Geez, Ike, so I cut my hair. Alert the media." Zac only gave Ike a look as he walked to his drums.
When we finished a few hours later, Ike went ahead without a word to anybody. Zac came up to me, short hair and all, and asked for a ride home. "What are you going to tell Ma when you get home?" I asked in the car. "Obviously you can't tell her Ginger convinced you to do it while you were with her in Denver."
"I'll just say I felt like it," he told me. "I don't understand why everyone's being so uppity about it, it's just hair."
"Zac, you look like a completely different person," I said. "Everybody knows you for your hair, and it's not like it looks bad�it's looks great, in fact�it's just you didn't tell anybody you were doing it." He shrugged.
"I didn't know I was going to do it, that's the whole thing!" Whatever, I thought. "So does Mom know I was gone?"
"As far as I know, no she doesn't. She might," I said. "She's usually on top of these sort of things."
"What do you mean?"
"Well when you were sneaking out to see Ginger, she never caught you but she knew you were doing it. She knows pretty much everything everybody does, she just doesn't let on that she knows."
"Let's just hope when I get home she just ignores that it happened, if she does know."
"You know what, Zac," I started. He looked over at me. "I know you really like this girl and all and that's great, but you've got to be careful around her. Girls can do things to you. I mean, just look at you. You've been dating her, what, a couple of weeks and she already convinced you to cut your hair, something nobody else has ever been able to do."
"She didn't convince me," Zac said. "I was actually kind of thinking of doing it anyway."
"Well, whatever. Just be careful. You might end up with a tattoo on your ass that you'll regret for the rest of your life." Zac fell silent and subconsciously tugged at the sleeve of his shirt. I shook my head in disbelief. "You didn't."
"Not on my ass, no�"
"Oh my God Zac!" I said, my voice rising. "Who the hell are you? You cut your hair, you got a tattoo, I mean, what's next?"
"You didn't notice I got my ear pierced."
"Jesus Christ, Zac."
"He has nothing to do with it." I cannot believe this. I let my brother go to Denver by himself for a day and he comes back tattooed, cut, and pierced. "So I did some things that I wouldn't normally do if Ginger wasn't around. So what? I like it all! I like my earring, I like my tattoo, and I like my hair!"
"Fine. Whatever. But do not even think about coming to me when Mom kicks you out of the house."
"Mom's not going to kick me out of the house."
"Whatever, Zac." There was an awkward pause. "So where's your tattoo?"
"On my arm."
"Can I see it?" Zac paused, then shook his head.
"No."
"Ugh, why not?"
"You'll just make fun of it!"
"I won't make fun of it," I said. "Not unless it's stupid, and you wouldn't get something stupid. Let me just see it." He sighed and lifted up his sleeve. I looked at it as we stopped for a red light. He had a hollowed out fancy looking cross. I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't exactly know what it is. It was about three inches long. If I had ever thought Zac would get a tattoo, this was exactly the one I'd picture him getting. "That's not stupid."
"Yeah, the guy who did it said it wouldn't be as bright as it's supposed to be until about a week from now." He looked at his tattoo again as we arrived at home. I got out of the car with Zac, who was carefully pulling his sleeve down. When we got inside my mother seemed none the wiser that Zac had been out of town, but she did notice his hair (and his earring) right away.
"What the hell is this?" she asked, walking up to him. She tugged on his ear.
"Ow," he said. She tugged at him again. "Ow! Dammit, Ma!" I was tempted to leave him alone and just go on upstairs so I could get my stuff and get out of here, but seeing my brother like this is just too fun. "Geez, you're so pent up on my earring you haven't said a think about my hair."
"Well I like you hair, dear," my mother said, putting her fingers through his hair. "Get rid of this thing."
"What?" he asked. "No!"
"I'm not going to have that in my house, Zachary!"
"No! I'm keeping it!" Before she could say anything else, he stormed out of the room and went upstairs. She turned to me and I backed up.
"And you," she said, wagging a finger at me. "You let him do that, didn't you?"
"I wasn't even a part of it, Ma," I said. "He went out and he came back like that." She put her hands on her hips. She didn't believe me. "He did! I had no idea he did any of it; he came back and surprised the hell out of all of us."
"Are you telling me the truth?" she asked, eyeing me.
"Yes!"
"All right."
"Anyway, I just came by to pick up a few things," I said, walking out of the room and to the stairs.
"You're not staying for dinner?" she asked. I stopped and turned around.
"I was unaware we were having dinner," I said. Dinner around my house is a tricky thing. Sometimes we have a family meal, sometimes we just order out, and the rest of the time I just sort of make something for myself.
"Of course we're having dinner, Taylor!" My mother, on the other hand, insists that dinner is a common thing that everybody has to be a part of. I had a feeling that now I had moved out of the house, any time I was over here we'd be having family dinners.
"Okay�" I said. "Well, I'll be upstairs." I ran up the stairs.
"Taylor, Taylor I need you to do me a big favor," Zac said as soon as I stepped inside the house a few weeks later. I was getting used to being in my apartment. Zac was over there more than he was here, which wasn't surprising since Mom found out he went to Denver and wouldn't let him out of her sight. He ran out of the house often to come to my place, and would stay for the day until everything settled down here. He wasn't allowed to stay over and if he tried my mother would show up to drag him home, so he doesn't even try anymore. I was here just as much as I was at home, making sure my mother knew that I wasn't abandoning her like Ike had, who still hadn't returned home since he moved out.
"Zac, do you think I could get inside first?" I asked, brushing past him. He looked around anxiously and automatically I knew it had something to do with Ginger. "What is it?"
"Ginger's going to be in town tomorrow," he said. He was nearly beaming with happiness.
"So what does that have to do with me?" I asked.
"Mom won't let me go anywhere but your place and she definitely won't allow Ginger here�" I crossed my arms.
"What do you want, Zac?"
"Can Ginger stay at your place tomorrow night?"
"Oh my God," I said, dropping my arms and walking away.
"Please, Taylor? It'll just be for one night and I promise you'll like her. It would mean so much to me."
"I don't even know this chick, Zac!"
"Shh!!" Zac said, jumping a bit in his spasm. He was definitely freaking out about this. I sighed. "It doesn't matter, it's just going to be one night. She'll sleep in the guest room and be out in the morning. You don't have to do anything else. Please, Taylor? Pretty please?"
"Zac, you're seventeen years old. I think you've outgrown the 'pretty please.' "
"Come on, Tay, I'm desperate here."
"What did I tell you about calling me that?"
"I'm sorry!" he said. "So, will you do it?"
"Zac�"
"Listen, if you do this for me," he said, "I promise Friday will be the best birthday you've ever had." I sighed. Zac had been ruining my birthday, not intentionally of course, every year since I was ten so that promise meant very little to me. But, looking at him, I could see how desperate he was for me to comply with him.
"All right," I said.
"Yay!"
"But only for the one night," I said. "Her being there totally gets in the way of my scoring with hot chicks."
"It'll be fun! I'll be there most of the time and I'll even try to get Mom to let me stay the night."
"Mom's not going to let you stay the night, especially not if you spend the whole day over there."
"We'll see."
"Whatever."
"Thank you so much, Taylor!" Zac gave me a big hug. "Her flight comes in at ten so I'll pick her up and bring her to your place." I nodded. "Thank you!!" He ran up the stairs. I sighed and sat down in the living room. My little sister Avery was in there.
"Hey Ave," I said. She was watching re-runs of Friends, which I don't oppose to watching.
"Hey Tay," she said. I made a face but she didn't see it. "You know, for someone who doesn't live here anymore, you sure do come around often."
"What's wrong with wanting to spend time with my family?" I asked. "Would you like me to be like Isaac? You haven't seen him since before he left." She shrugged.
"You know I really wouldn't mind it," she told me. I threw a couch pillow at her. She threw it back at me but I caught it and put it back down next to me. "You know next time you should take Zac with you."
"Hey, I don't want him living with me either!" I said. She smiled. "So how do you like having a room by yourself?" Now that I was gone she and Jessica finally got separate rooms and she seemed very delighted when I told her that would be happening.
"It's a lot better," she said. "Now I don't have to listen to her snoring when I'm trying to get to sleep and I can go to sleep when I want. She goes to bed at nine o'clock! At nine o'clock I'm wide awake and I have to be quiet because she wants to sleep."
"You don't miss her?" I asked. One of the things that surprised me when I finally got my own room was that I actually missed being with my brothers all the time. The freedom was great but I wasn't as close to either of them after that.
"Yeah, I guess I do�but only just little bit."
"Taylor!" Zac came flying down the stairs and I groaned. That boy will be the death of me someday. He ran into the room and once he saw Avery sitting on the sofa he stood up straight. "You're not invited. Get out of here."
"I was here first!" Avery said.
"Get!" She huffed and left the room. Zac sat down next to me. "All right, I talked to Ginger and she said thanks in advance for letting her stay."
"You shoved Avery out of the room to tell me that?" I asked.
"No, not just for that. Listen, Taylor, you're going to be alone with her for a while," Zac said. I knew this was coming. "We've had our problems before when it's come to this. I really like Ginger, I don't want you to fuck anything up."
"I'm not going to fuck anything up, Zac," I said.
"I'm not saying you will this time. It's just you have before." I sighed.
"That was ages ago." Zac eyed me. "It's not going to happen this time! I have absolutely no interest in taking your girlfriend from you. So I've done it before, it's not like I was in my right mind then." I gave him a piercing look and he sighed. He knew what I was talking about. I used to be a little bit into the drugs and they usually made all my decisions for me.
"You're right," he said. "Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just a little worried."
"That's okay," I said. "If I were you I'd be worried too."
"Why?"
"Oh my God, Zac." I got up. "I'm going home." I walked to the front door and Zac followed behind me. "Call me before you come over."
"All right." I left quickly.