It was about a week later when Leo flew up to New York. Zac went with me to the airport while the girls stayed at home. Zac and Ginger have been a little edgy around each other lately. They've been together all this time, but there's definitely something different about them. I don't know what exactly is going on with them, but I hope it's not the beginning of the end of anything.
"Can I ask you something?"
Zac and I were sitting in the JFK airport waiting for Leo's flight to get in. It was weird sitting in an airport with him again like this, just with him. It was almost like it used to be only on my other side was an empty seat instead of Isaac. I still couldn't believe how distant I was from Ike. Looking back I would have never guessed he and I would grow apart like this, so quickly, especially when my beef was with Zac and not with him.
"Sure, Tay," Zac said, looking up at the monitor in front of us for Leo's arrival time. It was still going to be another twenty minutes.
"Are you and Ginger okay?" I asked. He looked at me. "I mean you two have been really distant since Kris and I came back from Vermont. Is it still because of the marriage thing?" Zac sighed.
"I can't say."
"What? Why, do you not know? Is she holding out on you?"
"No, no, not like that," Zac said, shaking his head. "I can't tell you." I paused, confused.
"Zac, I'm your brother, you can tell me anything. Is she pregnant again?"
"No," he said, laughing a bit. "No, not that I know of."
"Then what is it?" He shook his head and didn't say anything. I shook my head, absolutely confused. "What the hell is this, Zac? I'm your brother and you can't even talk to me? I've known you all of your life and I've been your best friend for all of that time too!" He still didn't say anything. "I cannot believe this."
"All right," Zac said, lowering his voice. I looked around to see why he did it, since there was nobody else there. "You just can't tell Kris, all right?"
"Why not?"
"Because you're not even supposed to know, but you're pulling the brother card so I have to tell you. You only get one of those, all right?" I nodded. "And this isn't one of those 'don't tell Kris, but I don't really mean that' things. You really can't tell her."
"Then maybe I don't want to know," I said, putting my hands up. "If it's big and Kris can't know, then you better not tell me."
"Fine."
"No, tell me." Zac sighed.
"Are you sure?" I nodded. "And you won't tell Kris?" I nodded again. "Okay. Last week when I went up to talk to Ginger after our fight, we ended up fighting some more but she let me stay up there. In the morning we'd calmed down a bit, so we sat in the kitchen and talked about it, I mean really talked about it, and around noon we decided to get married."
"Really? So you're engaged now?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "We got married."
"Married?" I asked. "Like all the way gotten married?" Zac nodded. "Oh my God! I like how I'm the last person to get married now! See I do things the right way. I date the person for a while, propose, and then have an actual wedding, not some court thing that takes only a minute and there's nobody there." Zac shrugged. "That doesn't explain why the two of you have been so edgy around each other, though."
"It's because we're married and we don't want to seem like we're married."
"So you act like you're breaking up?" Zac scoffed. I looked up and Leo was walking towards us. "Leo! Hey!" I got up. "What the hell's up with your hair?" The last time I saw Leo he had hair just like mine and now it was all cut off, similar to Zac's.
"Yeah, it's gone," he said. "Nice to see you, man." He gave me a hug. "Zac! Hey, what's up?" He gave Zac a hug as well and we left quickly. "It's good to see the two of you together again." I nodded. "What the hell is that?"
"What the hell is what?" I asked. He pointed at my shoulder. "Oh. I got a tattoo." I absently scratched it. "It's all Zac's doing."
"Really?"
"Yeah, well Zac decided he was going to add Jenny's name to his and convinced me to get one as well. It just kind of happened." Leo shrugged. We left the airport and took a cab back to the apartment building. Leo was impressed when we got inside, looking around. This building wasn't the most extravagant place Zac and I could live, but it was definitely up there. All the apartments were huge and with the right interior decorator (i.e. Kris) it could look just as swanky as something that's worth twice as much.
"I just thought of something," I said, when we got into the elevator. "Where is Leo staying?" Zac shrugged.
"I don't know," Zac said. "Probably with you, unless he wants Jenny waking him up all night."
"Point taken," I said, and pressed the button for my floor. "My place it is." We went upstairs and into my apartment. Kris was sitting in there with Ginger and Jenny.
"Where's my baby?" Zac asked immediately, walking to the couch where Ginger was holding Jenny. He gave Ginger a kiss and took Jenny from her, kissing her as well. "Hello beautiful. Leo, come 'ere." Leo walked over. I took his suitcase to the guest room as Zac introduced him to Jenny. "Jenny, this is your Uncle Leo." Leo said hello and I sat down with Kris.
"You were right, she does look just like Ginger."
"I told you," Zac said. "I can see me in her, and that's really all that matters." Zac kissed her forehead and Jenny smiled.
"Hi Ginger," Leo said.
"Hi Leo," Ginger said, giving him a smile. "Nice to see you again."
"Again?" Zac asked. "You mean you've met before?"
"Yeah," Leo said. "Um, once or twice. Anyway�hi Kris."
"Hi Leo!"
"Let me see your ring," Leo said. Kris held out her left hand to show him her ring and his eyebrow raised. "Geez, Taylor, do they even come any bigger than this?" Kris giggled. In Zac's arms Jenny started to cry.
"Oh, honey, let me take care of her," Ginger said, getting up. "She probably needs to be changed." Ginger took Jenny from Zac and left the room. Although she lives just upstairs, Kris and I set up a second nursery for Jenny here in the second spare bedroom. It was very convenient for when Zac and Ginger had Jenny down here, which was about half of the time, and it would be there when Kris and I start having our own kids.
"Kris, where the hell are the diapers?" Ginger yelled. Kris groaned and got up, leaving the room too.
Leo and Zac sat down. "Hey, you know what?" Leo asked. "We should go out tonight. Just the three of us."
"I don't know, the girls won't like that," Zac said. Leo gave him a look.
"Oh come on, Zac," Leo said. "Do you have to do everything with Ginger? Taylor, do you have to do everything with Kris? I mean, I like the girls and all but I came out here to see my best friends. You two are whipped like nobody's business and frankly I'd like to see you go out without them for a change."
"We picked you up without them," I said. Leo shook his head.
"Yeah, and you were gone for an hour, if that. Come on, it'll be fun! Just us." Leo did have a point. I haven't done much of anything without Kris since we've been together. Maybe that's for the better because when I'm with her I don't get in trouble, but this is my best friend and I haven't seen him since Thanksgiving. I see Kris every day.
"All right," I said. "I'm in. Zac?" Leo and I looked at Zac. He still looked skeptical. I couldn't understand it. This was going out for a night with our best friend; it wasn't like we were asking him to go away for three years without any contact with Ginger.
"I don't know�"
"Oh come on, Zac. It's just a night out with your buddies. I promise we're not going to meet girls, do drugs and have illegal scandalous fun," Leo said. "It's nothing like that."
"I don't think so," Zac said, getting up. "Not tonight, at least." He walked to the nursery. Leo turned to me.
"What was that about?" he asked. I shrugged. "Well, I guess it's just the two of us, then."
"I guess so."
"It's better without him. He's not old enough to drink." That was true.
That night Kris was helping me get ready to go out. The only reason she was helping me was because she didn't want me to look "too hot" when Leo and I went out. "Kris, oh my God�I know you're not coming with me but it's not like I'm going out to pick up a girl. I'm just going to spend some time with Leo."
"I know�" Kris said, sighing. "But you're still going out without me and you are a very attractive, young rich cat and�"
"Cat?" I asked.
"Shut up!"
"Listen, baby, just pick out a shirt for me or I'm going without one." She sighed and grabbed a shirt from the closet.
"Here." I put it on. "Okay, that's good enough."
"Hey, Tay, you ready?" Leo asked, walking in the room.
"I believe so, if Kris lets me go," I said, giving Kris a look. She nodded.
"All right, all right, you can go!" she said. She kissed me. "Be good, don't sleep with anybody, don't drink too much, and Leo, you watch him. No girls." Leo saluted her. "And come home tonight."
"I will, babe," I said. I kissed her. "I'll see you later." Leo and I left. Once we were outside the room I turned to him. "Geez, you'd think I was leaving with a girl!" Leo shrugged. "So, where are we going?" He shrugged again.
"I don't know. What's good around here?"
"It's New York! Everything's good here!" I took out my phone. "I'll make a few calls."
It was about a half hour later that Leo and I arrived at a prestigious Manhattan club. It was ten o'clock and there was already a long line forming, but Leo and I passed by it and went inside immediately. I have to admit that being famous does have its perks. If I weren't a celebrity then Leo and I would be at the back of the line and probably wouldn't get in at all. There were quite a few people on the dance floor already.
"Let's go upstairs," I said. We went up the stairs. The second floor bar had less people around it.
"I need a drink, man," Leo said.
"Yeah, so do I." Leo and I got a drink before going over to the semi-private VIP section and sat down. The VIP section overlooked the dance floor, but was walled up from the rest of the place and was high enough so nobody could see inside. I loved this club. It was exclusive, and not only was it exclusive�it had more than one level to it. There was the main level, which Leo and I overlooked right now, which played hard-core rap remixed club music, then there was the third level that played techno music and usually had less people (for some reason not everybody realizes there's more than one level to this place), and then there was the roof that usually had a random local acoustic act playing bluesy kind of pop music. This club was close to the water so it had a nice view, despite the fact that it was only about four or five stories tall. There was hardly anybody up there and it was a good place to have a drink and listen to some music to get away from the crowded downstairs dance floor. When I was eighteen Leo and I would go clubbing in Tulsa and back then he and I would get so drunk that it really didn't matter where we were or who we ended up with, but tonight was a little different. I was engaged and I have no interest whatsoever in finding a girl here.
"Tay?" Leo asked. I looked over. "How old is Kris?"
"She's nineteen," I said. He nodded.
"So she wouldn't have been able to come with us anyway," Leo said. I shrugged. This was a 21 and up club with an open bar but upon walking in, nobody even bothered to check whether or not Leo and I were old enough.
"She probably would have been able to," I said. "People don't seem to care how old we are when I'm around. Back in Tulsa people knew I was only eighteen and they still gave us drinks anyway."
"That is true."
"They wouldn't have fun if we brought them all along," I said. "Ginger would be leaving every five minutes to check on Jenny, Zac would get piss drunk and Ginger would yell at him, and I don't think Kris would really like a drunk me either. I'm kind of an ass."
"Yeah, you are," Leo said. "Whatever." I shrugged and took another sip of my drink. I hate the taste of alcohol but I usually after a few I can't really taste it anymore. "You want to go down there?"
"I need to get a little drunk first," I said. He nodded. In about ten minutes Leo and I had downed enough to make my initial inhibitions fade away so we went downstairs. We found a few girls very quickly and although Leo was up to his old tricks, I was very reluctant to even dance with one of them. Leo pushed me into it and suddenly some random chick was all up on me.
"Come on," she said, noticing my lack of enthusiasm. "It's just a little dancing." It was just a little dancing until about a half hour later when Leo invited the two girls up to the VIP room. I followed behind, letting the girls bask on Leo for a while.
"Come on, Taylor, sit down," the girl I'd been dancing with said. I definitely didn't tell her my name. It was definitely a turn off that she knows who I am.
"Um�I think I'm going to get another drink. Does anybody want anything?"
"I'll have a Sex on the Beach," she said. I turned and walked away, my eyes widening. She was definitely forward. I got myself another drink and got her a Sex on the Beach. When I walked back to the room, I found Leo and the other chick making out.
"Here," I said to the one I was with, setting her drink down in front of her. I sat a good distance away from her and took a long swallow from my drink. She slid closer to me. "Um�so what's your name?"
"Does it really matter?" she asked. She tried to kiss me but I backed away from her. "What's wrong?"
"Listen," I said. "You're very beautiful but I'm not interested."
"I think you are�"
"No! I'm engaged." She smiled.
"That's okay," she said. "She doesn't have to know." I've heard that before. It's not that simple and I didn't even want to try. She tried to kiss me again.
"No thank you." She rolled her eyes and picked up her drink. There was a long silence between the two of us and eventually Leo picked it up. He turned to me.
"What's the matter, man?" I very forwardly gestured to the chick next to me, who took a sip of her drink and waved. "Oh, come on!"
"I don't think so, Leo. Kris would flip out. No!" I turned to the chick. "You're very beautiful, and if you keep it up you will get laid tonight, unfortunately it's just not going to be by me. This was a mistake, maybe I should just go home." I got up.
"No, no, Taylor! Sit down," Leo said. "I'm sorry." I sighed and sat back down.
"You know what," the chick that was with Leo said, "I think I have something that will make you loosen up." She opened up her purse and pulled out an all-to-familiar white powder.
"Oh no!" I said. "No! I am leaving right now!"
"Come on!" the chick said. "Do a line, you'll feel so much better." Leo agreed and I looked at him, appalled.
"Leo, we quit," I reminded him. The chick next to him prepared a line for Leo on a mirror. It was so familiar. He took it. My mouth dropped to the floor. "Leo! Oh my God�" Leo pushed the mirror over to me.
"Come on, Tay," he said, sniffing. "Take a line. One won't kill you."
So I did.