“Where the hell were you? I’m in here looking everywhere for the two of you!” Kristina yelled once Zac and Ginger got back inside. Ginger smiled at her and pointed outside. “Only you would sleep your birthday away and then go outside for no reason.”
“We were looking at clouds,” Ginger said, putting hr hands on Zac’s, which were around her waist. He stood behind her with his chin lightly resting on her head.
“Clouds? I will never get you people,” Kris said and walked away. Zac chuckled softly and moved his mouth to her ear.
“She doesn’t get much,” he whispered. She smiled, and he moved his lips to her other ear. “Will you marry me?” She stiffened. He sounded serious.
“Doesn’t that throw off your whole plan?” she asked, turning around. He looked in her eyes and slid the ring onto her finger. He was serious. No graduation day marriage proposal, this was it. She'd been on such a wild range of emotions that day; this just completely made them disappear. She smiled widely, trying not to scream from her excitement and threw her arms around him.
“Of course I will,” she whispered, putting her arms around his neck and kissing him. “You do realize this is going to change the rest of our lives.” He smiled.
“Who cares?” he asked. Kristina walked in the room and cleared her throat.
“Come on you two, that’s enough of that. I want y’all to eat something and might as well eat the cake we made.” Ginger gave Kris a confused look, completely oblivious to what she had said before. “Birthday cake, someone’s birthday today…”
“Oh!” she said, sudden insight hitting her. Kris shook her head. “I’m a little dazed right now.” Zac gripped her hands, causing her to smile. It was their secret, at least for the time being. Both of them had silently agreed to keep it closed off until graduation when everyone was expecting it.
Still holding both his hands, Ginger led Zac into the kitchen and sat down in front of an eclair cake with eighteen candles placed out. Once they were lit, her mother, her father, Kris, and Zac starting singing the Happy Birthday song. She stared intently into the dancing flits of fire, the wish that she had every year since her sixth birthday winding through her mind.
The song ended and she closed her eyes, concentrating on her wish. She took in a breath and the doorbell rang. Her eyes opened, the fire still dancing. Kris got up to leave, but Ginger pushed her back down. “Let me get it,” she whispered and quickly blew out all the candles in one breath. The doorbell rang again as she ran over. She opened the door as the brunette figure turned to walk away. She couldn’t let her wish get away, so she had to go after him.
“Alex!” she called out. The figure stopped and slowly faced towards her. She knew it was him. Everything was Alex from his beautiful brown hair to his deep green emerald eyes when he turned around. He looked her over, not believing what he saw. Tears fell from her eyes, but she didn’t care at all. This was her brother. Alex took a few steps towards her, the wind blowing his loose clothes to one side of him. He was still as skinny as he was when she knew him.
“Ginger?” he weakly said. The tears still drenching her cheeks, she nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before.” She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close. “But I haven’t seen you in years.”
She held onto him tightly. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered. “You need to meet my family and my fiancé.”
“Fiancé?” he asked, pulling away. “Already? You just turned eighteen today!” She smiled and put a finger to her lips. “Let me guess, no one else knows about it.”
“They know it’s going to happen, but they’re not expecting his proposal for another two months. So keep in mum.” He nodded.
“How long have you know him?” Alex asked, stepping in and closing the door behind him.
“About five years. Come on, they’ll be as shocked as I am.” She took his hand and brought him to the kitchen. Four pairs of eyes in assorted colors looked over, confused. “Um, everyone, I want you to meet Alex.” One set of eyes widened—Kristina’s set. “Alex is my brother.”
“You have a brother?” Ginger's parents said in unison. She nodded.
“Yes, Alex is my real brother. Actually, Alex has been my birthday wish for the past thirteen birthdays. It’s finally come true,” she said. “Alex, these are my foster parents, and my foster sister Kristina. Over there with his mouth to the floor is Zac, my boyfriend.”
Zac noticed his mouth hanging and quickly closed it. He felt embarrassed. “Sorry about that,” he said. Alex looked him over and sighed.
“I just got you back and you’re already engaged,” he whispered to her. She gave him a smile and motioned for both Kristina and Zac to come over and follow her out of the room. They went into the living room and she had them take seats around her. Ginger looked at her family.
"Damn, today has been weird," she said. "Well, everyone, get acquainted with Alex." Ginger smiled. "I'm so happy." Kristina looked over at Alex, who was looking at Zac. Zac has been staring at Ginger the whole time, wondering how exactly her wish had come true. The fire in her eyes that had been extinguished since the day they had met was ignited again. Ginger tried to look at them all equally, but it was rather obvious that she was staring at Alex. They had been close, and even closer from when they were apart. He was skinny, skinny to the point where Ginger began to worry about him. It made her think about where he had been the past thirteen years, while she was at this very house, making a queen of myself.
Kris began to sense these worries and after a few minutes of getting acquainted, she motioned for Zac to follow her back to the kitchen, leaving Ginger sitting on the floor, her knees folded to her chest and her hands around them. Alex sat in a chair across from her, looking down. She noticed his hair was raggedy and his clothes seemed old.
“Where exactly have you been since we got separated?” Ginger asked, slightly fearing his answer.
“Everywhere. I never knew there could be so little opportunity for a five year old boy with no family and a broken arm.” Ginger let out a silent breath and looked away. “But I guess your life’s been wonderful, you have a famous fiancé, lots of money, and all you could ask for.” Ginger could sense the envy in his voice.
“Yeah, and a lifetime of problems. Anorexia, brain cancer, depression…all I could ask for.”
“So basically the hospital is your second home, huh?” he asked. She nodded. “Same here. They never found out what was wrong with me.”
“They found out when I was fifteen, right after I started dating Zac.” She lowered her voice. “Don’t say anything, but the treatments aren’t helping that much.”
“Of course, you’re a Stevens. A medical mystery. The doctors around here must not be that bright cause some things are rather obvious. I mean even I pointed some things out to them that they didn’t realize.”
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, sighing.
“I’m completely surprised you didn’t scream your head off when I saw you.” She smiled and looked over at him. “I missed you, Ginger.”
“I missed you more, Alex.” She sat up and gave her brother a hug, long awaited and long overdue.
“What exactly do you expect me to do, Kris?” Zac asked, turning away from the window. They were in Kris’s room, and they were in an argument. “She’s perfectly happy right now, do you want me to take that all away from her?”
“But Zac you just can’t postpone the marriage so she can be happy with her brother for a while. He’ll be around for a while then he’ll drift off. And if he doesn’t then she knows she has a prior commitment to you. Like everything else in her life besides you, people just come and go and that’s it.”
“She’s sparkling with her brother. I’ve never seen that fire in her eyes before. She’s never been like this, and I just want her to keep that as long as she can before it diminishes again. All I want right now is to be the happiest she can be.”
“Why do you want her to be so happy? Why don’t you take her as miserable and go on with your own life? Do you really love her that much to put her life before your own? I know what you’ve done for her and personally I’m not happy about it,” Kris said, finally bursting.
“I cannot believe you just said that. You of all people should understand that it’s what she needs that comes first. I don’t care about my life because I don’t have life without her.”
“Zac why are you doing this?”
“What? What am I doing wrong now that doesn’t meet up to Kristina’s standards? And of course if you’re upset then Ginger is and the whole fucking world is against me!” Zac yelled. Kristina shook it off and continued, still pissed.
“Why do you love her so much? She’s not traffic stopping; she’s in no means perfect. I mean just look at her right now. She just reunited with her brother for the first time in thirteen years. She’s not that wonderful to be around, especially when she gets bitchy. What is it that you see in her? You’re this big shot celebrity who happened to walk around to a bookstore and met up with some girl whose life is one big fucking board game.”
“Hey just because I happened to have a job and be lucky enough and work hard enough to get to the top doesn’t mean I’m not a person. If you expect me to fall for some teenage actress like some so-called ‘celebrities’ do then you’re damn wrong. I walked into that store and saw her and I fell in love. I don’t know why I did but all of a sudden Ginger and everything about her came into my mind and never left. She’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me, music or no music, fame or no fame. Of course it was the fame that brought me here to Tampa but that’s it. The rest was fate and I’m glad that fate exists because without your sister in my life then there would be no fate and I wouldn’t want to live.”
Kris retreated to the chair behind the desk and plopped in it. Anger flowed through Zac’s eyes until he saw the tears flowing down Kris’s cheeks. To see her cry hurt him inside, the part of him that belonged to Ginger. He couldn’t recall ever seeing her cry before. He backed up against the wall and looked away.
“Well, I believe you won Zac. Go tear her up now.”
He slid to the floor, guilt running through his veins from his eyes to his toes. Taking a deep breath, he put his hands through his hair. The room went silent, only shook by the sounds of someone walking up the stairs. Peppy and excited, Alex and Ginger walked into the room. She saw Kristina in the chair with a tearstained face and Zac sitting on the floor by the bunk bed, looking at the floor.
“All right, who died?” she asked. Kristina glanced at Zac, who only sunk lower to the floor. “What the hell happened? Did my depression lift to the two of you or something? Everyone knows that you are the peppiest people I have ever met.” A long silence.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Zac finally said, getting up. “Your sister and I had a disagreement about something—nothing important.” He walked over to Ginger. She gave him a strange look.
“Meaning you were in a fight?” she asked.
“No, just a disagreement. We’re fine now, aren’t we Kris?” Zac asked, turning to her. His eyes pleaded with her, to help him out and to let her know that there was nothing wrong.
“Yeah, we’re fine now. It was just an awkward silence when you walked in.” Zac turned back to her and smiled. “Zac would never let a fight happen between us.” His smile faded but quickly came back full strength. He couldn’t let anyone find out what happened in that room.
“All right, then. If you’re okay. Alex and I wanted to let y’all know that we were gonna go to dinner, and we’re leaving soon.”
“Okay,” Zac said, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He slipped by her and into one of the guest rooms that had been just proclaimed his as long as he chose to stay. Ginger's parents had no problem with him there, and for some reason they really seemed to like him.
“Alex, why don’t you talk to Zac and see if you can get something nice to wear. You two seem like the same size. Kris and I are gonna get ready now.”
“Sure,” Alex said, and walked to Zac’s room. Ginger closed the door and turned to Kris.
“What the fuck do you think you’re thinking? I know as a matter of fact that you never cry. To see you like this right now and to see Zac on the floor like that is not something that I planned on seeing today.” Kris got up and opened the closet door.
“We had a disagreement.”
“No shit Sherlock,” she said. “Don’t think I didn’t hear you two yelling downstairs. Alex is in Zac’s room talking to him right now. I don’t think that a disagreement results in you shedding tears. Now you are going to tell me what you were screaming about.”
Kris bit her lip and turned around. “Zac wanted to postpone the marriage so you could be with Alex.” Ginger looked around the room before glancing back to Kris. She had a sullen face that made the whole thing seem like it was horrible.
Ginger opened the door and burst into Zac’s room, ran over and kissed him. She stuck my forehead against his, and whispered “Thank you.” Completely shocked and curious, he tried to smile.
“For what?”
“Actually proposing to postpone your happiness for mine. It won’t be necessary but I thank you very much.”
“Who told you?” he asked, glancing at Alex. “Wait, let me guess. Your genius sister who has a habit of dropping dictionaries. She did it again today and was an inch away from the same exact spot she dropped it the last time.” Ginger laughed. Of course Kris didn’t have the best grip on things but to drop a dictionary on a guy then almost do it again in the same place? It was downright funny.
“Yeah. But I’m glad she said something cause now I can’t drag you back in there and make you apologize.”
“What the hell? I’m not going to apologize to her. She started it.” She pulled away from him and walked over to Alex.
“Now you sound like you’re five, Zac. If you don’t apologize and be the better person in this fight then stay home tonight. Alex and I will go to dinner. And I will have to ask you to go back home tomorrow.”
“I’ll go!” Zac walked out of the room and back into Ginger's.
“See how much he loves me,” she said to her brother with a smile. “He doesn’t want to leave so he’ll do what I want.”