“Now Kris, don’t even think about looking in Taylor’s direction,” Zac warned as they walked through the terminal, having just arrived in Tulsa. Kris rolled her eyes and followed close behind him. Ginger shook her head, knowing as a matter of fact that Zac was out of line.
“You know, Zac, a joke is a joke. I think you’re taking a little bit too far.”
“I’m just looking out for her, that’s all! We all know he’s gonna jump out of his pants when he sees her.” Kris stopped, giving him a strange look. Ginger stopped him and turned him around. “What?”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked. He glanced around before answering.
“Uh, we all know that you’re stunningly beautiful and he’ll think that too…” he let himself trail off. She smiled and pushed him forward.
“No loitering in the terminal,” Kris said. “Well Zac I do believe I have seen a evolution in you. You’ve gone from hating me and thinking low of me to liking me and calling me beautiful. I appreciate you.”
“Yeah well don’t make it public.” She opened her mouth to scream it out, but Zac stuck his hand over it. “I said not to make it public. We don’t want the whole world knowing now do we?” She nodded and bit his hand. “Ow! You moron.” They continued down the terminal until Ginger saw Taylor sitting in a seat, waiting for them. She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. Zac’s mouth dropped, and he quickly walked up to him. “You’re the one picking us up?” he asked.
“You were expecting Heather Locklear, right?” Taylor asked. Zac shook his head. Kris and Ginger walked up, getting the man’s attention. “Woah! You didn’t tell me you brought an angel with you!!” Ginger's mouth dropped as Taylor walked over to Kris and smiled. Zac rolled his eyes.
“Okay, okay, come on. I want to go home now. Swoon over her later.”
“It’s all right,” Kristina said. “It's about damn time I got some attention.” Taylor took her hand and gently kissed it.
“I hate to be rude, but what the hell happened to your hands?” he asked.
“Zac pushed me in a thorn bush,” she lied, giving Zac a glance. Taylor immediately turned to his little brother, silently questioning it.
“Well she dropped a dictionary on my head!”
“You said it fell on you while you were reaching for it,” Taylor asked, confused. Ginger looked at Kristina and stifled her laughter.
“I did that to protect her innocence! But now that she mentioned the bush incident I’m mentioning the dictionary incident.” Ginger shook her head again and grabbed Zac’s hand.
“Um, hun, why don’t we just go to the car and leave before we end up having a brawl in an airport,” Ginger said. He pleaded with her, rather enjoying the conversation, but she shook it off. “We’re leaving now. Come on you two, you can get to know each other on the way home.”
“You sound like you’ve lived there all your life,” Taylor mentioned. Ginger thought about it, feeling as though she had, but she had never even been there before.
“Well Taylor expect to see me around much more now,” she told him, not bothering to turn around. “God knows why I haven’t been there before.” She gave a pointed look to Zac.
“Sorry! I’ve just grown more accustomed to coming to your place instead of you coming to mine,” he told her. “I’ll make sure to have you over more often.”
“You better, hun,” Ginger said, smiling. After getting their luggage and loading it in the car, Zac and Ginger found their way into the back while they let Kristina sit in the front seat next to Taylor. They talked and talked, much to Zac’s aggravation. He didn’t like it at all.
“Hun, just leave them be. Talking doesn’t hurt. He’s just trying to get to know her,” Ginger said, quietly enough so the two in the front wouldn’t hear. “We never pay much attention to Kris, this is her time to be happy.”
“I don’t know…”
“Zac, have you ever see her eyes sparkle like that?” she asked, trying not to point. Zac looked over and watched her laugh harder than he’d ever seen. There was a twinkle in her eyes that had never been there before. He sighed.
“I guess you’re right. I’ll give it a try and if anything goes out of hand then they are being cut off from each other.”
“You sound like her father, not her friend.”
“Friends gotta look out for each other. That’s all I’m doing.” She shook her head, scooting closer to him.
“Zac right now you’re paranoid. Stop or I’ll have to smack you out of it. You have no idea how good it feels to know that she’s not so closed off and alone anymore.”
Once again, he tried to plead with her. She turned away and looked out the window. Not realizing it, he raised his voice. “Now don’t get mad at me for this.” Kris glanced at Zac, then to Taylor.
“Well Zac, it’s about damn time I got mad at you. I’ve been close off from you for God knows how long. I just wanted all this to work out as peacefully as possible but I’m not getting anywhere.”
“Neither am I!” he yelled. Kris got pissed, and turned around, pushing him to the other side of the car.
“What the hell did I tell you about raising your voice to my sister? You cannot do that with her!” Ginger's eyes widened and her mouth dropped. She noticed and turned back around quickly. Zac looked out the window and Taylor was clueless.
“Is that why he’s been afraid to fight with me?” she asked, completely and utterly shocked. “Is that why he can’t have a normal fight with me? Because you’re worried I’m going to take it personally? You of all people should know that I do not act like that anymore.”
“Hello? Are you even alive Ginger? What did you do just earlier this week? I do remember you completely spazzing out on us both. It can happen again.”
“And that’s why I’m going back on treatments.” Taylor bit his lip and continued to drive. He had no idea what they were talking about. “It’s not my fault, I cannot help it.”
“Why do you think we treat you like that? You cannot help it so we have to treat you like a different person,” Kris said, lowering her voice.
“I don’t treat you like a different person after your incident downtown,” Ginger said.
“I wish you wouldn’t bring it up, Ginger,” Kris said, lowering her eyes to hands. Taylor parked the car and announced that they were home. Zac looked over at Kristina and Ginger. Ginger kept her eyes out the window and Kris kept her eyes in her hands.
“And I wish you wouldn’t bring up my condition.” She unlocked the door and got out of the car in unison with Kristina. It was funny how many things they did exactly alike and didn’t notice. Her eyes finally met with hers, and they saw sympathy for each other. Ginger smiled and walked over to her. “Sorry,” she said. Kris smiled back.
“Sorry.” Awkwardly they hugged each other.
“Aww,” Taylor cooed, still inside the car. “They made up. They sure as hell do it faster than we do.”
“I hate it when they do that,” Zac said, shaking his head and getting out of the car. “Wait a few minutes, they’ll start laughing.” Taylor got out and opened the trunk in time to hear laughter. His eyes darted to Zac who had a knowing look on his face. The two guys took out the luggage and hauled it into the house. Kris and Ginger felt completely out of place, more Kris than Ginger, and watched. Diana walked out of the house and greeted them.
“Hello, you must be Kristina,” Diana said, shaking Kris’s hand. She smiled and ignored the pain that shot through her. “Hello Ginger,” she said, giving her a hug. “How are you doing?”
“I’m…I'm okay."
"Just okay?" Diana asked.
"Well, I'm not all that great. The cancer left and just recently came back. I’m starting treatments once I get back.”
“Oh my dear. Well I’m sure you’ll get better. You have that flame in you that just won’t give up. I can sense it.” Ginger smiled. She looked over the both of them and to Kris’s long sleeved shirt and jeans. “Aren’t you a little hot?”
“Very but I don’t want everyone seeing what happened to me,” she said, quietly. Ginger nodded to her once she saw Diana’s questioning look. “I got assaulted the other day and I don’t want to make it seem like a big deal.”
“It is a big deal, Kristina.”
“Well he didn’t take much and I haven’t heard any threats so I find it over. He just got me pretty bad. I hate pity.”
“Just like Ginger,” Diana said. “Well come in the house, it’s cool in there. The kids just might bombard you, so be careful. Taylor and Zac are the only sane ones.” Ginger started laughing.
“I’m sorry to say this but I don’t want to meet the rest of your kids if they’re the only sane ones,” Kris said, following Ginger inside the house. Zac and Taylor walked down the stairs and met them at the front door.
“Ooh I want to see your room!” Ginger said, raising her voice so it would squeak and make her sound like a little teenybopper. “Oh my God Kris do you actually believe we’re in their house?”
“I know!” she said, taking on Ginger's lead and squeaking too. “They are so fine!!” Zac let his head fall in his hand.
“I know!!” Taylor laughed as Isaac walked in the room and looked at the two sisters strangely. “Okay Kris, you can stop now.” She shrugged, turning around. Isaac was still looking at them strangely.
“Good first impression,” he said, directing to Kris. She scratched the back of her head and looked away.
“Uh, hi. I’m Kris, Ginger’s sister,” she said. He nodded.
“Oh, nevermind then. I’m guessing you’ll be like that a lot,” he said and shook her hand.
“But I do want to see your room,” Ginger said. Zac took her hand and led her up the stairs. Taylor held out his hand to Kris and she took it with a smile.
“A-ha, Ike. You’re left out again. Why don’t you go get Roni and bring her over?” Taylor asked. Kris gave him a questioning look. “His girlfriend. He actually met her at the mall in Tampa about three years ago. She worked there.”
“Did she work in a Gap?” Kris asked, getting the form of her old friend in her mind. Taylor looked away to think.
“I think so. Either Gap or Limited or something like that.” Just then there was a knock at the door and Roni, the same old friend from the Gap, came inside and greeted Isaac with a hug.
“Oh my God!” Kris said, her mouth dropping. “Roni?” Roni turned around and took a step back, shocked. Kris ran over to her and gave her a hug.
“What a small world! What the hell are you doing here?” Roni asked, smiling. It was just amazement to her as it was to Kris.
“I came with Ginger. Let me go get her.” Kris ran halfway up the stairs and screamed out her name. “Ginger! Get your butt down here!” Ginger appeared quickly.
“What?”
“Someone’s here we know!” Kris pointed to the base of the stairs. Ginger looked over and immediately ran down.
“Oh my God I haven’t seen you in forever!” she said, almost toppling Roni over in a hug. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m dating Ike,” she said, smiling. Ginger glanced over at Ike was seemed more shocked that they knew each other than they were. Ginger turned back to Roni and smiled.
“Dude!!”
Zac walked down the stairs and looked at the three women in the room conversing with each other. He shot a confused look at his brothers and pointed. “They seem to know each other,” Taylor said, shrugging. “I still don’t know how.” The three guys waited until they finished summing up the past three years in which they hadn’t seen each other. It took about a half an hour. When Ginger finally looked over to the guys, Zac had fallen asleep against the doorframe while Isaac and Taylor were playing cards on the floor.
“Well I didn’t expect y’all to wait for us to finish,” Roni said, laughing. Ginger walked over to Zac and sat down next to him. She put a finger over her lips to silence the people in the room then started to lightly tickle his nose. After flinching a few times in his sleep, he woke up and sneezed.
“I think I’ll go back to sleep now after I was rudely awakened,” he said, and stuck his head in her lap. “You’re comfy.”
“No I’m not. Get off me,” she said, pushing him up and sticking him against the doorframe again. He only fell back on her lap. She gave up and started to stroke his hair with her left hand. Diana walked in and shook her head.
“Do you think you could hang out somewhere other than in front of the stairs? I’m surprised you haven’t been toppled over by kids yet.”
“Well we seem to be blocking every which direction,” Isaac said, “so no one can come in.” Diana shrugged, and looked down to Ginger and Zac.
“I don’t know how I handle you people. You—is that an engagement ring on your hand, Ginger?” she asked, walking over. Ginger smiled and held out her hand for all to see.
“Woah!” Roni said. “I didn’t even know you two were together and you’re engaged now?” Ginger glanced down at Zac.
“You moron,” he said. “Oh well.” He let them all watch as he kissed her. Taylor and Kris both got annoyed.
“Sheesh, that’s all you do now,” Kris said, throwing her arms in the air. “I tell you once that I don’t see it and then you go ahead and never stop.”
“See what happens when you say stuff, Kris?” Taylor asked, sticking his arms around her. She smiled, welcoming the attention. It had been a long while—since before Ginger met Zac—that she had attention like that. Of course Zac and Ginger talked to her, but she never had the consideration of someone of the opposite sex. She was stunningly beautiful, Zac wasn’t lying when he said it, but her insanely beautiful sister had always surrounded her. It’s not being selfish because she admitted it herself and so did Ginger…no one appreciated her. Now that Taylor had his eye on her, she felt happy. For years it had been Ginger, Ginger, Ginger…now it was all Kris. She welcomed the comfort of someone hanging on her instead of watching it before her eyes.
Ginger noticed the comfort in her eyes, while Zac had no part in it. No one seemed to understand why he was so upset over it, and frankly she didn’t either. She wasn’t going to let herself get mad at him for being protective, so she pulled Zac up. “I never got to see your room, let’s go,” she said, and took him up the stairs. His room was plain—plainer that she had expected. The walls were white and it had a bed in the corner, a TV opposite to it and two dressers. A bookcase was tucked in the only remaining cover, scattered books along the base of it.
“It doesn’t suit you, Zac,” she said, turning to him. “You’re wild and this is plain. Let me guess, you haven’t been in here long.” He nodded.
“Yeah, I just moved in here about two weeks ago. I haven’t been able to move my stuff into it yet, and I haven’t had an opportunity to paint the walls. But I sincerely don’t think I should bother, considering in eight months I won’t be living here anymore.”
“Where will we live?” she asked, putting her arms around his neck. “I have to get away from Tampa.”
“I have to get away from Tulsa. But I know where we’re going and you don’t. I already bought the house so you can’t say no.”
“Please tell me it’s somewhere north! I can’t stand to live in heat any longer.” He shrugged, thinking about the location.
“It’s pretty north, but sometimes it does get hot in summer. It snows in winter though.” She smiled.
“It’s been too long since I’ve seen snow, Zac. I most definitely need to make a snowman this winter.” He smiled.
"You will," he told her. "And Kristina has gotten accepted to the college that’s right outside of town so she won’t be far.”
“Oh damn! College! I got my acceptance letter to Northwestern! I hope it’s not out of our way…” she said, putting her head on his shoulder.
“We’re moving to Chicago, sweetie.” She let go of him and put her hand over her mouth. This had to be the biggest surprise that she had ever heard. “In your sister, Danielle’s, old house.” That was bigger than moving to Chicago.
“Oh my God! I love you!” she said, tightly hugging him.
“If you really loved me you’d let me breathe,” he choked. She let go and sat down on the bed. “Are you surprised?”
“Well I kind of wanted to live there, but I sure as hell never thought you would actually pick out Chicago, and even more so to pick out Dani’s old house. For once I’ll actually be close to my sisters. And you’ll be able to meet them.”
“You say it like it’s something bad,” he said. She smiled, got up and stuck a hand on his shoulder.
“Zac, they’ll eat you alive. They’ll ask you millions of questions mostly because they want to know what kind of person I am through you. And they want to know what kind of person you are and what your views on things are. They are the most inquisitive people I know!”
“Still, you say it like it’s something bad.” She rolled her eyes.
“I can’t wait for you to meet them,” she said, embracing him for the third time. “You know that going back to my childhood can bring a depressed state because of my parents. My sister’s place isn’t more than a five minute drive from where I used to live.”
“But you’re going to be fine, hun,” Zac said.
“I think I love you too much,” she responded, taking his hands. She noticed Kris and Taylor standing at the door, Ike and Roni behind them. Kris walked in.
“Yeah Zac I think she loves you too much,” she said, and sat on his bed. “Comfy bed.”
“Who said you could sit on my bed?” Zac asked, eyeing her. Kris smiled and let herself fall back on it. Taylor walked in and sat down next to Kris.
“Me!” she retorted.
“Let’s just all sit on my bed,” he said, noticing the two already sitting there. So Ike and Roni climbed onto the bed, followed by Ginger. “That was a rhetorical statement.”
“Come on Zac, we can fit one more,” Roni said, patting an empty space beside her. He sighed, shaking his head, but he sat down anyway.
“If the bed breaks all of you are chipping in to help me buy a new one.”
“Yeah, like you don’t have the money the buy a new bed,” Taylor said.
“This is a literal circle of friends,” Ginger said, laughing.
“And I’m the newcomer cause I’m meeting two of you for the first time,” Kris said. “Everybody else already knows everybody. Is anyone else hot?”
“Hello? It’s 90 degrees out and you’re wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, of course you’re going to be hot,” Roni said. Ginger turned to her.
“Kris, we don’t care about your arms. We know it’s all Zac’s fault, you don’t have to hide it,” she told her sister, winking.
“What?” Roni said. “Zac did what?”
“Zac pushed our dear friend Kris in a thorn bush and cut her up really bad. She’s just too nice to blame him for it.” Roni hit Zac in the back of the head.
“Hey! What was that for?” he whined, rubbing the back of this head. She had to laugh.
“You pushed her in a thorn bush! Shame on you,” she said. Ginger held back her laugh and looked at Kris. She was grateful they made up something else, and that they blamed it all on Zac.
“Well she dropped a dictionary on my head!” The circle broke into laughter, more so Kris because she was there when it happened. Zac eventually got over the hurt of them laughing at him and joined in.
“You know guys, I may sound corny, but I have a feeling we’re going to be together for a while,” Taylor said, taking a glance at the other five in the circle. “Three brothers, three best friends—two engaged and two going out…two soon to be going out—I think we’re going stick around for a while.” The rest of them looked at each other, except for Kris who was smiling at Taylor. It was strange how he was exactly right.