I met up with Ginger at the airport. I have to admit I didn't expect her to be alone. Since the release of her last book she's blown up quite a bit around the country and she's become her own little celebrity. Her success overseas was incredible, to the point where these past few months has been the longest she's ever been in the country at one time since her first book.
"Where's Zac?" she asked me, a small smile on her face as she walked up to me.
"Oh," I said, smiling myself. "He had some things to take care of. He asked me to pick you up, but unfortunately your flight's been delayed and you won't be in for another hour."
"Really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well let's not waste any time." We ran out of there as quickly as we could and got home in record time. We fell into my apartment, kissing hard and tearing off each other's clothes. This time we made it to the couch and I was just about to get her panties off when she sat up. "Oh my God."
"Oh my God what?" I asked.
"Kris! I forgot Kris!"
"Who?" I asked, sitting up. She got off of me and started to put her clothes back on. "Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?"
"You have to take me back to the airport and we have to pick up my best friend Kris," she said. "She came with me and I just completely left her there!"
"What the hell? You can't just leave me here like this."
"I'll take care of it in the car on the way there, just get dressed!" That sounds very good to me.
When we returned to the airport I felt a lot better (and I do mean A LOT better; Ginger has a tongue ring) but Ginger was freaking out. I went inside the airport with her as it started to rain outside. "Great," I said, looking out the window at the rain. I hate driving in the rain.
"Oh, there she is!" Ginger said. "Kris! Kristina, over here!"
"Ginger! Where the hell have you been?"
"I'm sorry," Ginger said. I turned around and a short brown hair, hazel-eyed girl ran up to Ginger. She looked just as pissed off as I had expected, but there was something about her that nailed me to the floor and could have knocked me over at the same time. She had on a pair of shorts and one of those tops that you buy from a club at school and it looked absolutely amazing on her. I hadn't felt this way upon looking at a girl since I met Ginger, but this was like Ginger to the third power. For the first time in my life I looked at a very attractive girl and the first thing that ran through my mind was not 'I wonder how she is in bed.'
"What happened?" Kris asked, not even looking at me. I wanted her to look at me but she was so pissed off it was cute.
"Listen, Kris, I'm so sorry," Ginger said. "Um, why don't you meet Taylor?" Kris looked at me for the first time and when her eyes connected with mine I almost died. "Taylor, this is my best friend Kristina. Kris, this is Zac's brother Taylor."
"Nice to meet you," she said, not bothering to shake my hand or even continue to look at me. "Where's Zac?"
"He had some things to take care of," I answered. "I'll be taking the two of you back to my place where he'll pick you up."
"Really?" Kris asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I'm ready. Let's go." Ginger apologized to Kris again and the three of us left. Ginger sat in the back seat of the car, leaving Kris to the front and I was surprisingly grateful for it.
"Were you waiting long?" I asked carefully.
"Well, considering Ginger and I came in on the same flight, yes, yes I was." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I completely blew you off back there. I'm Kris."
"Taylor." She shook my hand. "It's nice to meet you."
"Yes, it is," she said, giving me a smile. My heart dropped and my hands started to sweat. I put the both of them on the steering wheel. "Thank you so much for doing this. Zac always seems to be busy."
"Yeah, well he's a busy kid," I said. I know I would have gotten a massive slap on the back of the head if Zac had been in the car. I keep forgetting he's not a kid anymore. "He's got a lot going on." I looked at her and she was still smiling at me. "A-and it's not like I mind having the two of you over. I get two hot girls in my apartment."
"Taylor?" Ginger asked. I glanced back at her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"You seem a little�nervous."
"I'm fine."
We arrived at home a little bit later and I offered the girls some coffee. Ginger excused herself to the bathroom, leaving Kris and I alone at the counter in my kitchen. "So," I said. "You're Ginger's friend, eh? I think she's mentioned you before."
"Yeah," Kris said. "I'm also one of her editors. I'm kind of the unofficial one, I mean, I've been doing it since I was twelve, but I still get paid for it."
"So how long are the two of you in town for?"
"Until the morning, then we have to fly overseas. She's huge over there and we haven't even begun to promote her new book yet," she explained, taking a sip from her coffee. She drank it black too.
"Do you usually travel with Ginger?" She nodded.
"Yeah, I go pretty much everywhere with her."
"Really?" I asked. "I haven't seen you here before and she's been here a million times." Kris shrugged.
"You know, I really didn't want to. She comes out here to see her boyfriend and that would just kind of make me the third wheel. I don't even know why I came along today. She ran off and just left me at the airport." She looked at me. "Not that I blame you or anything�"
"No, please, blame me all you want. I was the one who kind of rushed her out of there," I said. Upon realizing what I said, I cleared my throat and went on. "Anyway, I'm sure Zac'll be here to sweep her off her feet any minute now. If you wanted�"
"What?" she asked, looking at me with a sneaky gleam in her eyes. I don't think I've ever had this much trouble asking a girl out before. Usually it's just "hey, let's go" and then we go. I was so clueless on what to say and for the first time in my life I was actually afraid that she would say no.
"While they were out you and I could�um�do something."
"Like what?" she asked, smiling. I opened my mouth but when I caught her grin I shook my head.
"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" She laughed. "You're just like me, you know that?"
"No, Taylor, I'm not a whore," she said. My mouth dropped and she laughed again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I've just heard of your reputation."
"So has everybody else."
"Are you really like that?" I looked at her.
"Well�not anymore."
"All right, Taylor," she said. "I'll 'do something' with you." The door opened and Zac came in.
"Taylor?" So much for calling before he came over. Then again, we just got there so he might have called already. I hadn't checked my messages yet. Zac came in the kitchen. "Oh, hey Kris." He gave Kris a kiss. "Where were you? I called earlier."
"We were still at the airport," Kris explained.
"Oh, okay," Zac said. "Where's Ging?"
"I'm right here," Ginger said, walking into the room. "Hey baby." He kissed her. I nearly cringed; I knew where her mouth has been and frankly that was incredibly disgusting. "So you ready?"
"Yeah," he said. "Kris, you coming with?"
"Actually," Kris said, looking at me, "I was going to do something with Taylor." Zac looked at me.
"Really?" he asked. "Taylor, can I talk to you?"
"Okay�" I followed him into another room. He closed the door behind us.
"Kris?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Taylor, Kris is Ginger's best friend and she's one of my friends. You are not about to do to her what you do to everybody else. She means too much."
"I'm not going to," I said, crossing my arms.
"Yeah, right. You've done it to every girl you've ever met. What makes this time any different?"
"What doesn't?" I asked back. "I believe you have a date with Ginger." I opened the door and walked out without letting him talk anymore. He followed and he didn't want to talk about in front of Kris and Ginger, so he left without saying another word to me. When he and Ginger left and the door was closed behind them, Kris turned to me.
"So what was that about?" Kris asked. "If you don't mind me being nosy."
"Oh," I said, waving it off, "he's just afraid I'm going to do to you what I do to everyone else."
"Are you?" she asked, cautiously.
"Of course not," I said. "You're different." I've said this before but this was the first time I've meant it. I don't know if she believed me or not but that really wasn't the point. She would find out the truth later, now wouldn't she? "So, where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. What's good in Tulsa?" I laughed.
"Absolutely nothing." I walked around the counter and took her hand, getting her off the chair and walking her to the door. "I'll take you the park."
"The park, eh?"
"You'll have fun, I promise." I grabbed the bread and took out a few pieces. "For the ducks," I explained. She giggled a bit but I was serious. There are always ducks around the park and I always bring something for them. They like cheddar cheese popcorn but I didn't have any lying around and honestly I didn't feel like going out and getting some just for the ducks.
We arrived at the park and I gave Kris a piece of bread. "It's beautiful out here," she said. "I don't think I've actually walked through a park."
"Really? You obviously haven't lived yet," I said. She shrugged.
"It's because our parks have beaches connected to them," she said. "And I seriously doubt this one does."
"Yeah�I doubt it too." She broke off a piece of bread and put it in her mouth. "Hey, that's not for you!" She broke off another piece and threw it at me. I did the same. She ran away and I ran after her, catching her. We toppled into the grass and neither of us moved. "You are so incredibly beautiful."
She blushed. "Thank you."
She sat up but I stayed on the cool grass. It was getting hot now that it was May and the grass was soft and inviting. The only drawback was that it was still kind of damp from the rain earlier, but it wasn't enough to make me want to move. As we stayed there, the ducks came to us and Kris was having a wonderful time feeding them. "So what do you do for fun?" The question was so clich� I almost smacked myself for asking.
"Well not much anymore," she said, gladly ignoring how gay my question was. "Ginger and I are too busy to do anything anymore, but back before we would tour together I used to dance."
"Dancing?" I asked.
"Yes, dancing."
"You just don't seem like the type," I told her. "But maybe it's because you don't do it anymore."
"So, Mister Cool, what do you do for fun?"
"I sing."
"Really? I had no idea."
"Yeah it's a little hobby of mine. I don't exactly do a lot with it." She smiled.
"You know, you should think about going into that. I bet with a voice like yours you could sell a lot of records," she said. "Inspire a lot of people."
"Pfft�" I said.
"I'm serious!" she said, pushing me a bit. "How do you think Ginger got into writing? She read fan fiction and was like 'Oh man I could do that!' "
"No way," I said. "She started writing fan fiction?" Kris nodded. "That is the worst�"
"I know. It was actually good though. Then she got into porn for ladies and it was kind of weird for a while."
"That's what I said�but let's not talk about her, all right?"
"All right." I looked up at the sky and I didn't think lying on the grass looking at the clouds could be so entertaining. "Hey, do they have a bench for watching the duck-filled ponds here?"
"Yeah."
"Oh my God we have to go!" She pulled me up and I led her to a rather full duck pond and she sat down. She had a big smile on her face.
"You are really enjoying this, aren't you?"
"I like ducks," she said. "Oh, and the sun's going down."
"Yeah, yeah it is." She leaned her head against my shoulder, throwing the rest of her piece of bread, bit by bit, into the pond. I put my arm around her. My heart was pounding in my chest and I wondered if she could feel it. "This is amazing," I said, not even realizing I'd spoken out load.
"You think so?" she asked, looking up at me.
"Yeah�"
We didn't say anything until the sun set. She suddenly shifted and I felt her smooth leg graze against mine. There hadn't been anybody else around all night and I was grateful for it. In Tulsa I'm constantly getting recognized, you know, because here I'm a local hero just because I can sing. It was getting muggy out and it was starting to get uncomfortable.
"Do you want to go?" I asked.
"Yeah�"
I stood up and extended a hand to her, helping her up. I kept my hand in hers as we walked casually back to my car. I opened the door for her before getting myself into the car. That was something I never did. Zac does it all the time because he knows how to be a gentleman, but frankly every time a girl got into my car before I was not planning on being a gentleman so there really was no point.
In the car she turned on the radio, leaning in to reach and I felt her arm graze against mine. I nearly shivered. She found a station and leaned back, Dashboard Confessional's 'Hands Down' starting to play. "Oh man, I love this song," I said. I turned up the volume and started to sing along with it. Kris smiled, twirling a bit of her hair in her fingers.
"My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me, so won't you kill me, so I die happy�"