Well, Kevin is still in the hospital. It’s been two days since he went, and on the way he fell into a coma. He’s still in it, too.
Once we got back to Kristina’s house, her mother drove us both home. When I got home I ran into the bathroom and took a long, very hot shower. I basically burned the blood off my hands. I still couldn’t believe it happened.
I bring bad luck to everyone. I should have been the one to get shot, not Kevin.
That’s all I thought for the next few days. If he didn’t come out of the coma soon, he would miss Christmas. He couldn’t miss Christmas. I didn’t eat anything, I barely slept, I just thought about what was gonna happen to him.
Then I decided I was gonna go see him.
"Hi Kevin, it’s Ginger. Um, I decided to come and see you. It’s been really hard on all of us, I mean not to put any strain on you or anything, but it’s hard. We’ll live, I figure. I feel that this is all my fault, cause I bring bad luck wherever I go. I felt that I should have been the one who got shot. It would have been better. I don’t know where the person hit you for you to be under for so long. I mean in Scream 2 Courtney Cox got shot in the exact same spot and she didn’t go into a coma or anything. But then again, that’s a movie and this is life." I took a deep breath.
"I just wanna let you know that we all really love ya out here, I mean you’re a really good friend to all of us, and we can’t afford to lose you. Amanda’s a total wreck, it’s impossible to try and keep her sane. All she does is cries and cries, she didn’t even cry nearly as much when I got shot, and I got shot in the back." I laughed, oblivious to the tears streaming down my face.
"Well, I better go now, there’s a million other people who wanna talk to you and they got mad at me for insisting five minutes to let out my guilt. Well my time’s up, so bye. I really hope you come out of this well." I glanced outside and saw the people casually talking. Amanda was out there, she looked like shit, I had to say that, talking to Brian…I’m not gonna even start with him.
I ran out of the room, and ran out of the hospital, not even realizing my quick pace until I bolted out the door, and fell to the ground, sobbing. I couldn’t stop, I had to gasp for breath every couple of minutes because I kept forgetting to breathe, I was just sobbing and sobbing until I heard someone say my name. "Ginger?" I heard.
My head shot up and there stood Zac. Of course. I wiped at my eyes and sniffed before I answered. "Zac!" I squeaked. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were like on a break or something back at home. In Oklahoma. Far away from here."
He smiled. "Well we’re doing a tour now, and I got to pick the first date so I picked here. We were only gonna be here a few hours then leave but Taylor was an idiot and dropped a dictionary on his toe and broke it." I laughed, almost. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"I live here," I stated plainly.
"You live in a hospital?" he asked, rolling his eyes. I looked behind me and there was the hospital. Then I gave him a look. "So why are you at the hospital?"
"Oh…uh…my friend got shot," I stated before having tears fall down my face again. Zac took the liberty of sitting down on the ground next to me. I wouldn’t calm down, so he gently hugged me, letting me cry on his shoulder like the gentleman he is.
It’s things like these that score him the points, but he always ends up losing them somehow. He couldn’t do much to console me, he had no idea what he was doing, but his shoulder was enough.
I finally calmed down, and I realized what I had just did. "Zac, thanks. I really needed someone to cry on, but I suggest you leave before I end up killing you."
"What?" he asked.
"I’m really bad luck. Ever since I went to New York last month, nothing but bad things have been happening, and now their starting to happen to people I’m associated with, I mean my friends and all and I don’t want that to happen to you…"
"Ginger?"
"What?" I asked, oblivious to the fact that I had been babbling. He kissed me. Plain and simple, it wasn’t even long, no tongue either. But he kissed me and he hadn’t kissed me before.
When he pulled away, I smiled. "I was waiting for you to do that, you know," I told him. He shrugged, and smiled back. "Just don’t say anything and I won’t get mad at you."
"O.K."
"I told you not to say anything!" I said. He laughed. We stood up and he did something in motions or something and I couldn’t understand him. "You can talk, just don’t ruin anything."
"Do you want to get something to eat? I’m starving," he said. I smiled, and agreed. He offered his arm to me. Of course he was overeating, but I didn’t care. I laced my arm through his and we walked off to the nearest McDonald’s.
When we got in, the scent of French fries and hamburgers hit me so hard I nearly fell over. Literally. I realized I hadn’t eaten in weeks, ever since I got shot…I shivered. I just couldn’t eat anything, I just couldn’t.
I told Zac what I wanted (French fries and a diet coke) and excused myself to the bathroom. I ran into one of the stalls and threw up. Wait a sec, I’m supposed to do this after I eat! Oh well, I can’t help it, all the food just makes me gag.
Finally I finished gagging and walked out of the stall. Quickly I washed my face, and took a drink of water from the fountain just to get the icky taste out of my mouth. Then I found Zac on the other side of the restaurant, already eating. Just watching him made me sick again, but I could contain it.
I sat down. "Sorry, I couldn’t wait for you, I’m really hungry." I shrugged. "Is that really all you want? Do you want anything else?" he asked. I shook my head.
"Nah, I’m really not all that hungry, I haven’t really been hungry since Kevin got shot."
"I figure Kevin is the friend. So, you two close?" he asked. I laughed.
"No, we’re just buds. We link up mostly through Kristina and Amanda. It’s just I really blame myself for all of this." I fiddled with my fries, happy he only got me a small. I couldn’t eat them. Maybe force down one or two but that’s pretty much it.
Damn I’m turning anorexic.
I took a sip of my small diet coke and forced down a few fries, but focusing my attention with Zac. This was the first time since I met him that I didn’t find him a repulsive pervert. He actually had a good personality, ate like a pig, but he made me laugh and that’s what I wanted at that time.
I have to admit he doesn’t look as good as he does in performances, photo shoots and appearances and shit like that, but that really doesn’t matter. His personality makes up for everything. I’d have to admit every single time I saw him he was at a performance, or going to one soon so he looked really good, but now he’s just plain ol’ Zachary Walker Hanson.
"How exactly did Taylor break his toe again?" I asked. Zac laughed.
"Tay’s weird, and he’s really clumsy. He was doing his homework and he needed to define a few words so he gets a dictionary. O.K. I’m in the room when this happens so I can truly laugh about this. The dictionary slips out of his hand and falls onto his toe. He was walking around barefoot so it just broke it easily. I was laughing my head off, and he’s swearing at anything and everything. I hadn’t heard him cuss so much in his life and he does a lot."
I laughed. "I did that once, I feel his pain, except it was at school and it was my math book. And I didn’t break my toe, I just bruised. Actually, it was Kristina who did it, so I can’t feel his pain…or was it Brittany who did it. Nah, it was Laura deSouza."
"Ginger, you’re babbling."
"Sorry, I do that a lot and I never realize it." Zac just gave me a strange look. "O.K…um, so, what’s up with your life?" I asked. He shrugged. "That helps."
"Eh, well, we got the rest of the tour to do, sixteen more cities to do then we go record another album."
"Damn, you sound bored with it! I would be so thrilled to go on a sixteen city tour! It’s so much better than staying around here and doing nothing but lookin’ pretty!" I took a drink from my coke.
"You wanna come with us?" I spit out my coke, giving him a strange look. "O.K., why did you do that?"
"Are you serious?" He nodded. "Well, Zac, as much as you may think, it’s not every day someone asks me to come with them on a tour."
"Then take a chance and come with me. We’ll be gone a while, I mean my mother is a teacher and she does teach me and my siblings, so I figure as much she would be able to teach you. I would need the company…"
"Zac look back on what happened with us every single other time we’ve seen each other. After a little while you say or do something I don’t like and I get pissed at you. I get really pissed at you, Zac. Alright, so I need you understand that I probably couldn’t stay with you for very long. Anyway, I don’t do buses."
"Why?"
"Motion sickness, migraines, anything you can think of, I get on buses." Zac shrugged.
"There’s medicine for all that."
"No."
"I know you’re just trying to blow me off, and everything you get can be cured, Ginger. I will not let this go unless you give me a very logical reason why you cannot go."
"Zac…"
"Tell me."
"Well I know you’ll probably ask my mother personally so that is not an option, I can’t think of anything else, so fine. I’ll go." He smiled, hiding his excitement very well. "But if you piss me off, I can walk home from anywhere we go."
"We’re going to Europe too."
"Europe!? Why the hell didn’t you tell me in the first place? I would have agreed the second the words came outta your mouth! Of course I’ll go now. Pissed off or not."
"Europe too? O.K., that’s fine, just don’t max out your card in Paris," my mother said. Zac was with me and he couldn’t believe it. She went into her purse and pulled out an American Express card. "Here, take mine too just in case some places doesn’t take visa. But get me something nice as a thank-you for letting you go." I smiled and hugged her.
When I turned around and went to go pack (I mean we’re leaving in like a day) my mother noticed the back of my neck. "And uh, Ginger," she said. I turned around. "Next time you go out, wear your hair down." She rubbed the back of her neck and I pulled out my hair.
"Thanx." I ran upstairs, and Zac followed me. When we went into my room, Zac let out a low whistle.
"Cheery!" he said sarcastically. My walls were black, I had a purple lava lamp on my black dresser, the blinds were closed and the bed was the only thing close to lively. Baby Blue. Justin’s favorite color.
I sat down on my bed. "This is my room, I sleep in here and that’s pretty much it. But there was a time when I wouldn’t leave my room," I said. Zac shrugged.
"It’s a nice pretty day outside, why don’t you open the blinds?" he asked. I only shrugged, not really caring. Zac opened the blinds, letting light in. I took out a suitcase and started packing some clothes. "We’re gonna be gone a long time, I suggest you bring more than one suitcase."
"Hey, we’re going all around, you guys have the busy schedule, I don’t. So I’ll spend my time shopping while y’all do something with your music or whatever. As long as you tell me when I’m supposed to be back to the bus and I’ll be there. I don’t even like your music all that much so don’t expect me to be at more than a few concerts."
"I don’t like you anymore, you won’t even be with us. We’ll be so tired the time I will be able to spend with you, I’ll be asleep." He hugged me affectionately, and gave me puppy dog eyes.
"Ha! That’s not gonna work with me." He let me go, and plopped on my bed.
"Well you don’t have to come with us, I mean I don’t know my mother will let me bring a girl along with me on a sixteen city tour, to a whole other continent even…"
"I promise I’ll spend some time with you, but I’ll be shopping most of the time, Zac. I swear it. If you wanna come with me shopping I wouldn’t mind, if you don’t complain."
"Like hell I’m gonna come shopping with you! I totally despise shopping. Don’t you got enough clothes anyway?" I took a deep breath. He totally despises shopping, that’s just too much.
"Cause you’re taking me to Europe, I’ll let that one slide. But if you weren’t taking me to Europe, I would so beat you bloody for hating shopping. I spent all of my free time shopping. I’m so glad I’m rich."
"I’m probably richer than you are."
"Probably. But hey, I got a lot of money and I’m really happy for it, or I would so have nothing to do. Do you mind that I change in front of you? It’s up to you cause I really don’t care. I once got suspended for walking out of the classroom without a shirt on."
"I don’t care. Why would you go around without a shirt on?" Zac asked. I took off my shirt and threw it in the hamper.
"We change for P.E. in the classroom and my teacher told me to go give something to the office. I had already changed my shorts, but I hadn’t put on my shirt yet, so I just walked out without it on. I didn’t even notice, but I got a week suspension."
"Did anyone see you?"
"Yeah, all the guys were done changing and they were waiting outside and I just walk out without a shirt on, and my teacher caught me before any of the littler kids saw me. But the whole entire male population of my grade saw me in a bra. And seeing that I’m changing in front of you and I barely know you shows that I have absolutely no modesty whatsoever." Zac laughed.
"I figure you wouldn’t."
"I have no idea what I’m gonna wear today!" I was standing in my underwear, Zac was basically trying not to stare at me, trying to keep eye contact with me.
"You wait until you’re in your underwear and realize that you don’t know what you’re gonna wear?" I nodded. "I don’t understand you. I grab something and I put it on." I looked at what he was wearing. Those disgusting yellow pants, and yellow Doc Martens, with a plain black shirt.
"See Zac, I have a sense of fashion. I don’t wear yellow cause I find it revolting. And seeing what you’re wearing, I won’t ask your opinion. MOM!" I yelled out the door.
"WHAT?" she yelled up the stairs.
"Can you help me pick out something to wear today? I can’t think of anything and Zac has no fashion sense."
"Are you changing with him in there?" she asked, coming up the stairs. I nodded. She rolled her eyes. "You’re not supposed to do that unless you’ve known him longer than today."
"I have, we’ve met up a couple of times in New York and a whole bunch of other times. He doesn’t care." She shrugged and walked in the room. I looked at what she was wearing. "Can I wear that shirt?"
"O.K. Wear your black shorts with it," she said, pulling off her beige midriff, which was a little short, even for a midriff, and gave it to me. I put it on and found my black shorts. They’re really short! I mean they show off my ass a lot.
I put em on and sighed. "Much better than that crap," I said, signaling to what I had been wearing before, a baby tee and jeans. "K, I’m packed, well, sort of, anyway, let’s go Zac." He got up from my bed and followed me out the door.
My mother pulled me ahead, like the rude person she is. "you didn’t fuck him, did you?" she quietly asked.
"No! Haven’t known him long enough for that." My mother burst out laughing. "Funny, a few mistakes, they weren’t that good anyways. Come on Zac, I gotta go say bye to Kevin before we leave."
"I’m coming," he said, walking down the stairs and following me out of the house.
"You wanna cab or wanna walk to the hospital. I don’t care." He shrugged, so we just walked. It wasn’t that far anyways. Few miles. The trip there was uneventful, Zac realized I wasn’t exactly the girl I was cracked up to be. I wasn’t a down-to-earth nice girl his first impression thought I was.
We arrived at the hospital soon, and Zac just realized he hadn’t told anyone that he was leaving. He went outside for some fresh air, the hospital was stuffy and smelled weird. He’d been out there less than a minute when I came running out.
"I probably have half the city looking for me. I’m just glad we already performed, or I would be in deep shit right now. You go see Kevin and I’ll try and find my folks," he said. I agreed, and walked over to where Kevin was. Apparently no one really had anything to say anymore, so I went in without any problems.
"Hey Kev, it’s Ginger again. I just had the perfect day, and I feel really bad about it, cause you’re lying there in a coma. Well, lemme tell you about my day. The last time I came in here it was just too much for me so I ran out of the hospital crying. Well, Zac was out there. He’s kicking off the tour here and Taylor broke his toe so they were here. It’s ironic how we just keep bumping into each other everywhere. We went to McDonald’s for some food, he ate a lot but I couldn’t eat anything. I haven’t been able to eat anything since I got shot and when it happened to you just made things worse. No pressure on you or anything, it’s just my life has been screwed lately. But then Zac came along and things have been going good. He hasn’t pissed me off yet, and I’m hoping he doesn’t. I know we’ve only been with each other a few hours, but we seem to be hitting it off pretty well. He…" I paused to sniff, not really noticing I had started crying again. All this was so overwhelming. "He offered for me to come on the tour with them, and I agreed. He also said that his mom would teach me what I’ll miss in school. I told him I got suspended for going out of the classroom without a shirt on, but he doesn’t know the truth. Actually, no one does. Not even Kris and Amanda. I couldn’t bear to tell them. Kevin I’m trusting you with this, I don’t want anyone else to know. I got expelled. And it wasn’t just that I walked out of the classroom without a shirt, I just got a detention and a two hour speech on decency from the teachers and the principal. I got expelled because…" I broke down then, and fell into the chair.
"God I can’t even say it…but I’m gonna have to. I already started and it would be rude to just stop and say nothing. O.K., I got expelled because I got caught fucking a boy in the bathroom." I totally lost it. "And…and the thing with this school is they don’t let you tell your side of the story. I didn’t wanna fuck him, he raped me." I put my head in my hands. "Kevin, he raped me. I couldn’t do anything about it. I told them he made me do it, and they said that he couldn’t of made me do it unless he had a gun to my head and he did! I didn’t wanna get shot again, so I fucked him. They didn’t let me explain that he did. I’m not gonna say who it was, he knows who he is, I don’t want anyone else to know, I’m really afraid of him now. He was there when I got my speech, and when I tried to tell them it was a rape and now he’s hunting me down. This trip is my free ticket outta here and I gotta take it or I’ll get shot. And I think it was him who shot you. I know as a matter of fact he was aiming at me and it got you. Kevin this guy is serious, and he won’t stop till I’m gone." I stood up. "Kevin I need you to come out of this. I need you to get out of this coma and back into your world. You need to go back to that park and play basketball again. You need to twist me, Kris, and Amanda around on the swings until we get dizzy and throw up but we still want to do it again. This is the only thing you need to do, Kevin. And when I come back, I expect you to be your old self again."
I sighed, and walked out of the room. Everyone looked up at me, then resumed what they were doing. Amanda was quietly talking with Brian, his brother, Kevin’s parents were just sitting there, in total shock and grief even after a few days. Kristen Rizzo, his cousin, was next to them, also in a state of shock. Kris was on the other side of Amanda, next to Denito, a good friend. I looked at all of them before walking away.
I found Zac engrossed in a conversation with someone I recognized as Isaac. Quickly I walked up to him, and grabbed his arm. "I need to talk to you," I told him. He nodded.
"Excuse us, Ike," he said and we moved to the other side of the room. "How’s he doing?" Zac asked. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. "You look like you had a nervous breakdown, Ging."
"Well that’s my problem. Kevin isn’t really getting better. I know all the medical mumbo jumbo, I mean I’ve been in a hospital enough times to know whether someone’s going good or bad. And he’s not going too good. Zac I know who did this."
"Why don’t you go to the police or something?" he asked, almost frantically.
I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Zac the guy who did this is much more believable at lying than I am at telling the truth. He’ll get a fair trial and I know he’ll win. Even if we had the best lawyer in the world and he had the worst, he would still win. Zac I’m really worried about him, and me. Cause I was supposed to be the one who got shot.”
“Ging…”
“I’m serious!” I yelled. Then I looked around and returned my voice to a whisper. “I know he wants me dead, I can’t explain it right now, there’s to many people around but I need you to know that. That’s why I really need to go on this trip with you, and I don’t want him knowing where I’m going, so don’t even think about telling anyone outside the people who have to know that I’m gonna be coming with you. Even though I know the press and they’ll find out, as long as we can keep it a secret for as long as possible I’ll be fine. Can you do that for me?” My eyes pleaded with him.
“Yeah, I can do that for you. No one really needs to know.” I smiled and he gently kissed me. “By the way, I asked my mom and she doesn’t really care. And she wanted me to quote her exactly. ‘No funny stuff.’ ” I laughed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be nice.” He rolled his eyes.
“Actually, she was also wondering what kind of state of mind your mother was when she agreed for you to go. She didn’t believe me when I told her that you can just go. And she wants to meet you before we leave. Apparently you just can’t come along with us…”
“Why not?” I asked smiling. “Where to now?” He led me in the right direction and I have my first afterthought of agreeing to going on this tour.