Chapter Three
I sat backstage at the concert, with Brittany Rose sitting on my lap. She was pretty excited. I should tell you this now before you get confused. Ginger is not my real name, it�s Laura Beth. Just saying this cause Brittany only calls me Laura Beth.
"When�s the concert gonna be over, Laura Beth?" the little blond spoiled brat asked me.
"In a few minutes Missy Rose. Just be patient," I told her. She nodded, and looked to the stage. It was almost over, Savage Garden were just setting up to play now. Someone ran by me, stopped, and ran back. Of all people, it had to be Zac.
"Ginger?" he asked. I rolled my eyes�he didn�t notice�before responding. I looked over and have an annoyed smile.
"Zac! Charmed to see you again. And know who you are�"
"Hey I can explain that," Zac started. I just shook my head and spotted a snack machine not far away. I gave Brittany a dollar and told her to buy herself some candy.
"What? You thought I was gonna scream or something? I would of really liked to have known who you were then, instead of finding out with the rest of the world."
"I�m sorry about that, I thought you would and I couldn�t handle another scream that night."
"Well I didn�t, and personally right now I�m mad at you. I appreciated the flowers, they�re my favorite kinds, but you can�t buy me over with them, no matter how hard you try."
"Are you sure about that?" Zac asked. My hesitation told him that I was lying. "Oh, so I can buy you over with flowers. All I need to know now is where you live so I can send them." I shook my head again.
"Whatever, Zac. Go back to your little famous world and get out of my life," I said, standing up and realizing he stood a good five or six inches taller than me. "Brittany Rose come here!" I called. Brittany ran over to me, and I picked her up. It�s really surprising how light she is. (As compared to real life)
"Bye," I said, and we left him without a look back, as Savage Garden started Truly, Madly, Deeply.
"Why�d we leave, Laura Beth?" Brittany asked me. I refused to tell her that it was because of the horrid Zachary Hanson, so I made up something.
"That was the last song and it�s not all that wonderful anyways. And it�s late, so we should be getting back before your mom has a fit." Considering that�s one of my favorite songs, I dissed it pretty bad.
We got a cab, and went home, my head pounding and all I could see was the look on Zac�s face when we left. It seemed hurt, but that�s the last thing I want to know�that I hurt one of favorite singers.
When we got home, Brittany ran over to my sister, Denise, and I fell onto the couch, something sticking into my back. I yelped, and turned around. There was something sticking out of the couch.
"What the hell is this?" I mumbled, taking it out. It looked something like a stick of some sort, and I felt blood rushing to my back. I threw it on the floor, and almost immediately my goat of a niece, Kelsey attacked it.
I didn�t care, I had a stressful day. First of all we had a test and two pop quizzes at school, in all the subjects I hated, and I found out that my current boyfriend (who shall remain nameless because i don�t know what to call him) was making out with another girl on the playground at recess.
And now this whole Zac thing. Of all cute, talented guys there, I had to find him. I bet he planned the whole thing. "Laura Beth!" I heard Brittany yell. My head shot over.
"What?" I asked.
"You�re bleeding!" she said, in an almost disgusted tone. I put my hand on my back where the stick thing had gone in, and of course, there was blood there. Oh well, it didn�t matter to me, just added onto the pain that I had been through that day.
"I don�t really care anymore," I muttered, and laid down on the couch. Ever since I found out that I had met Zac, since that Rosie thing, my life had hit a spree of bad luck. That�s all it was. It seemed that having Zac in my life made it a black omen and stuff I didn�t want.
I�m waiting to get shot again.
Sighing, I went upstairs and into my room, where I quickly changed and fell asleep, forgetting about pain, and went back to the carefree life that I had once known so many years ago.
"Laura, what is with you and flowers? I saw your room and it�s like if you have allergies don�t go anywhere near it!" my sister, Denise, said, after I opened a long narrow box that revealed a dozen long stem blood red roses.
"Someone I know is trying to buy me over with roses and tulips because he knows those are my favorite. It working," I said, taking out the roses and smiled. For the past week, I�ve been getting flowers from Zac. Even though he went back to Tulsa the day after the concert.
This time, there was a note attached.
I found out your last name from someone who knew you, and since you�re the only Miaso in the book, it was easy to send these to you without having to go through a lot of crap. So far I�ve sent you twelve bouquets. Call me if it�s working.
He left the note signed with only his number, but I knew who they were from. I didn�t have to get a name or something like that. I studied the number briefly, and then looked at the time.
Four o�clock, so that would make it three over there�would he be home? I sighed, and went over to the phone and dialed his number. Someone picked up the phone. "Hello?" a deep voice said.
"Hi, is Zac there?" I asked, almost nervously. My sister rolled her eyes and left the room.
"Hold on, I�ll go get him." I heard him put the phone down. "ZAC! YOU GOT A PHONE CALL!" I smiled, and waited patiently. I heard footsteps, and then the phone being picked up.
"Hello?"
"Zac? This is Ginger," I said, and bit my lip.
"So the flowers worked." I laughed a small and sexy laugh, which usually made guys nervous. "So, what�s up?" he asked. It worked. He sounded nervous.
"Oh, nothing much. You�re lucky no one in my family has allergies because my room is just filled with all these flowers. You�re not the first person who�s sent me a ton of flowers before."
"Who else?" Zac asked.
"My boyfriend�"
"Boyfriend?" Zac asked, glumly. "You have a boyfriend?"
"Well, not anymore. I found out he was cheating on me," I said. Why am I telling you this?
"I don�t see why anyone would want to cheat on you. I would consider it a great privilege to go out with you. You�re beautiful."
"Why thank you Zac! That�s the nicest thing you�ve said to me all this time I�ve known you."
"Who was that little girl you were with at the concert? Your daughter or something?" Suddenly I got really mad. That was offensive.
"I�m six years older than her, how can she be my daughter? I take that as an insult. Thank you very much for the flowers, Zac. Nice talking to you!" I slammed down the phone and ran out of the room.
All the joys of Caller ID, Zac thought, laughing an evil laugh, and copying down my number into an address book he found in the drawer.
Taylor let go of the mute button on the phone in his room, and hung up the phone. He didn�t like the fact that his little brother was lusting over a girl so much, sending her hundreds of dollars worth of flowers, and he knew what Zac had been writing in his little journal.
Their father had said to write down the events of the day, career-wise, but the boys had taken it further than that and started writing personal things. They left their journals wherever, clearly writing their name on the front so none of them got mixed up. They trusted each other enough to leave them anywhere.
Stupids.
Well Zac had written that if the flowers didn�t work, he would move to expensive candy and jewelry, anything he could to get me. And he also wrote that he was lucky the flowers were working cause he had no idea what kind of candy or jewelry I liked.
"I�m going over to Joel�s house," Taylor heard Zac yell, hoping someone would hear him. He smiled, and went over to Zac�s journal, opening it up.
December 18th, 1998
Countdown�one week till Christmas!!
I�m happy we get to stay at home, and we don�t have anything to do until New Year�s. I sent Ginger flowers again, and this time I gave her my number. I hope she calls, I wanna talk to her once more. What is wrong with me? We were having a good conversation at that charity concert thing, then I go and blow it. I don�t even know what I did! She just got pissed at me. I hope I don�t screw up again�I really like her.
.
Tay put down the journal, and sighed. "He�s getting too friendly with her, he really is," he said, putting the journal back where he found it and walked out of the room. Taylor had been a nosy little ass, listening in on Zac�s phone calls, reading his journal, listening to him and his buddy Joel talk all the time.
"I just hope he doesn�t ends up getting too involved and drop out of the band for her."
"Wake up, Ginger!" Kristina yelled. Amanda, Kevin, Kristina and me were at the park in her neighborhood, me and Amanda sitting on the swings. I hadn�t gotten any sleep the previous night because Brittany Rose (who sleeps in the same bed as me when they come over) had kicked me all night, and took all the covers, and I froze.
My head shot up and all three of them were looking at me. "What?" I asked, and put my head against the chain.
"Did you get any sleep last night whatsoever?" Amanda asked. I shook my head. "Why? What happened?"
"Brittany Rose kept kicking me all night and she took all the covers. It got down to 40 degrees last night and I was freezing my ass off! I never went to sleep, but Brittany slept like a rock."
I took out a cigarette and lit it up. "My mom caught me with one of these the other day, and she went out and bought me a carton. I got slapped because I kept taking all of hers, but she never really did care," I said.
"Dammit I want your mom," Kristina said. "And I hate it when you smoke around us." I gave her a strange look. "It makes me want one," she said, taking my cigarette, and took a drag. She passed it along to Amanda, who took a drag and gave it back to me.
"My mom says I have to pay for them, though. She�s not about to waste money on both of ours. I don�t see why she couldn�t though. She has the money, I don�t. Oh well." I took another drag and Kevin stared at us. "What?" I asked him.
"O.K., I know you smoke, Ginger, but I didn�t know you two did. When�d you start?" he asked.
"Before she did. We actually got her doing it," Amanda explained. "We�ve just died it down a little bit. We still drink a lot though." I looked to her, and she looked to Kristina, and the three of us laughed.
"Ah, to be in New York again," Kris said.
"I don�t think so. That�s where I met up with Zac, had the worst hangover in history, got mugged and shot in the back. Let�s not and say we did," I said, sighing, and looking behind me.
"Well it was your choice to storm out of the hotel like a crazy person at midnight, in the rain. What is with you and rain anyways?" Rain. Rain is a thing that reminds me of my father, he loved rainy days.
And then left us for some bitch he found.
I go out in the rain, all the time, hoping that a lightning bolt would come down and strike me dead. I used to carry a metal rod in my pocket when I went out in the rain, and I got struck once. That�s what makes me so stupid.
Literally stupid. I used to be a straight A student, and now my grades went down to barely passing. I lost a lot of common sense, and can�t remember anything from before I got struck four years ago.
My mother let me know about my father, so that�s how I know. "Ginger, wake up!!" Amanda said, snapping her fingers in front of my face.
"What?" I asked, turning my head to her.
"You blocked out on us. I asked you what is with you and rain and you blacked out on me," she informed.
"Oh, well my dad used to like rainy days. After he left me and my mom I had some kind of attraction to rain. Lightning, actually. Remember back in fourth grade when I didn�t come to school for a month and when I came back I didn�t remember anyone?" I asked Kristina.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I got struck by lightning and got amnesia. I still have it to, my mom had to fill me in on my life before then." Kristina gave me a strange look.
"You never told me you got struck by lightning, I just heard from someone you got amnesia. Damn, so why do you still go out in the rain after you got struck?"
"Cause I can�t help it, it�s just something I gotta do. Like an obsessive compulsive disorder, some people can�t interact with others, I can�t stop walking around in the rain."
"Have you gone to therapy for it?" I nodded, and started gently swinging back and forth.
"Yup, but it doesn�t work. You know this whole amnesia thing really screwed up my life. I mean I really want to know my life before I got struck, and now I have to go to therapy once a week, and then I see a shrink for two hours, talking about how I �feel.� How the hell is that supposed to work?"
"I dunno," Kevin said, taking the chains to my swing and twisting them around. "I�m not a shrink, have you tried to like ask how?" I shrugged, and he let go, me proceeding to spin around while the chain unraveled. Of course, Kevin did it a lot of times, so I kept spinning, faster and faster until I slowed and stopped.
"I guess I�m not your average Joe, now am I?" I asked.
"Ginger, you were never an average Joe," Amanda said. "So how come you tell us now instead of before?"
"You never asked," I replied. She rolled her eyes and I laughed, before taking a final drag of my cigarette and then putting it out in the sand. It was rather cold that day, only 50 degrees but for Florida, that�s pretty damn cold. It hadn�t snowed when we went to New York, and it rather troubled Kris. She wanted snow and all we got was freezing rain.
"So, did we come here to sit around and talk about Ginger? Let�s play some basketball, baby!" he said, quoting Justin from �N Sync. I stared at him, shocked. "Amanda made me watch the concert like a million times."
I gave her a high-five and we ran over to the basketball court.
In the middle of a two-on-two game, the score tied at ten, I heard a loud bang and expected myself to fall over. But I didn�t, I wasn�t even hurt. Then I heard Amanda scream. "KEVIN!" I ran over and he was lying on the ground, blood creating a large stain on the left side of his stomach.
I collapsed down to my knees next to him. I took a bandanna I had and put pressure against it. His eyes were open, but were closing. "Kevin, no, don�t�stay with me, stay here with me," I said, gently patting his cheeks. He kept trying to close his eyes but I wouldn�t let him. "Kevin it�s really important you stay here with me, keep your eyes open. Look at me, keep looking at me."
He slowly moved his head towards Amanda, and pleaded with her, but it failed. Then he tried pleading with Kristina, but it still failed. "One of you go call for help! I don�t care how, run over across the street and use one of their phones, just do it!" They ran over across the street as quickly as they could, and I tried to keep Kevin awake.
"Come on, Kev, you really gotta stay awake. I�m gonna keep talking to you until some help gets here. I know what you�re going through, it hurts a lot and you just want to get away from it, but you gotta stay with me."
His blue eyes glossed over, and it looked like he was gonna cry, but he was fighting not to. "It�s O.K., Kevin, you can cry if you want to, everybody cries." A tear fell from his eye and I felt terror. This was supposed to happen to me, I knew it.
I hugged him. "I�m sorry, Kev. It�s my fault, it was supposed to be me who got hit, not you." He winced, and I let go. He tried to talk, but I wouldn�t let him. "Don�t say anything." I had tears falling down my cheeks and he gave me a strange look. "What? I can�t cry?"
He smiled, and Amanda ran back, and sat on the other side of him. Kevin�s eyes drifted over to her and gave him a weak smile. This was all too much for us. The worst that�s ever happened to someone close to us was maybe a broken leg, or arm or something.
Besides me getting shot.
But this wasn�t New York City, at midnight. This was around noon in Tampa, a town where they don�t do this kind of things. "Where�s the ambulance?" I asked, rhetorically, cause he was bleeding a lot, and my bandanna was getting soaked.
Quickly I rung it out and put it back on his stomach. It had been a while, and there was a hospital close to the park anyway. Just then I heard a siren and looked over to the street. An ambulance pulled up soon, and a few paramedics got out and ran over to us.
They took Kevin on a stretcher, and brought him over to the ambulance. Kristina ran up to us just then. My hands were shaking when I realized that he could of died just then, with me trying to help but doing nothing about it. His blood was all over my hands, all over my shirt, all over the basketball court.
Two police officers came over to us. Both were male, but one had blond hair and the other had black. "Was it just you three girls and him here?" the dude with black hair asked. We nodded.
"Do you know what happened?" the other one asked.
"Well, we were playing basketball and I was shooting so I really didn�t see it, but I heard a loud bang, Amanda�s scream and Kevin was on the ground," I told him. He turned to Amanda.
"You�re Amanda?" he asked her. She nodded. "What�d you see?"
"I heard the bang and I saw Kevin fall so I screamed." The dudes nodded, and turned to Kristina. She said she heard the bang, Amanda�s scream and me run over to him and put my bandanna on his side.
"Where are your parents?" the dude with the black hair asked.
"Amanda and Ginger are staying with me, and my house is down the road. Kevin lives over there too." They nodded, and told us to go back to Kristina�s house. We stood there until the ambulance took off, and after the police car left, when we were alone again.
Once the last car left, Amanda burst out crying, falling to the ground cold grass. The basketball court had been taped off and labeled a crime scene. I fell to the ground next to Amanda, and Kristina fell next to me.
I looked down to my hands, and they were still covered in his blood.
Chapter Four
Chapter Index