Zac stepped out of the studio and went straight to the car. About halfway through the day when Taylor got a call on his cell phone Zac realized he'd left his phone in the car and nobody would let him go out to get it. As soon as the session was over he ran to the car and checked his phone. He'd missed a call, and, checking the number, he found it was from Ginger. "Crap," he said. He put the phone to his ear.
"Zac! Hi, it's Ginger. You're probably doing your whole studio thing right now, but I figured I should call anyway. Kris and I are leaving tomorrow morning, so if you want to call or stop by or whatever, I'll be here at the hotel all night. See you later." Zac smiled. He wasn't entirely sure how long she'd be staying in Los Angeles and he was afraid he was going to miss her.
Starting the car, he called her back. "Hello?" It wasn't Ginger. It sounded more like Kris.
"Um, hi," he said. "Is this Kris?"
"Yes it is," Kris said.
"Oh, okay. It's Zac."
"Oh, hi Zac! How are you doing?" Kris asked. Zac smiled.
"I'm just fine and dandy, how are you doing?" he asked. He looked behind him and pulled out of his parking space. He technically wasn't supposed to be talking on the phone and driving but that was one of the many driving rules he didn't obey.
"I'm just great. Are you looking for Ginger?"
"Yup."
"She went out for ice cream. She should be back soon, I'll have her call you when she gets in."
"All right." Zac hung up the phone and relaxed as he drove back to the hotel. He was anxious to see Ginger again. Last night was the absolute best night of his life. Once the night had actually started he completely forgot who she was and so did she. They were laughing and talking, getting to know each other. Apparently her parents didn't support her decision to make a movie and all but disowned her for it. She had a lot to do with her movie and she during filming she didn't have any time for herself, but she seemed to be pleased with the results so it didn't really matter. She told him about her childhood and how close her and Kris were. She seemed to talk more than he did, but he wanted it that way. He wanted to learn everything about her that he possibly could.
When he reached the hotel parking lot his cell phone rang and, looking at it, he saw it was Ginger. Smiling, he picked it up and put it to his ear. "Hello?" he said.
"Hi, Zac?"
"Yeah."
"It's Ginger."
"I know," he said. "I'd recognize that voice anywhere."
"Yeah, well, if you answered the phone singing I would have been able to say the same for you," Ginger said. Zac smiled. "What's up? Where are you?"
"I am in my car in the hotel parking lot," Zac said. "I just got here from the studio."
"Oh, perfect timing," Ginger said. He could hear the smile in her voice. "Are you up to doing anything tonight?"
"Of course. Do you need time to get ready?"
"No, I just went out for ice cream. I'm presentable. Come on over."
"All right. I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and looked at himself in the mirror. "Ugh," he said. He got out of the car and redid his hair before he walked across the street to Ginger's hotel. He knew if he even attempted to go back upstairs to his room his mother would be on his case for not coming home. He decided to skip changing his clothes and risk having Ginger seeing him in the same clothes.
He rode the elevator to her floor and went over to her room, then knocked on her door. A moment later she opened the door. "Hey," she said, giving him a smile. "Nice outfit."
"Shut up, I haven't been home yet," he said, narrowing his eyes and giving her a cynical look. Her smile grew.
"I'm sorry," she said. "Do you want to go home and change?"
"No," he said. "No I don't. I probably won't be able to come back if I go back there." She shrugged and let him inside. Kris was eating ice cream on the bed out of the container. Ginger ran over and jumped onto the bed next to Kris and dug her spoon in the ice cream as well.
"So what are we going to do?" she asked, looking at Zac.
"I don't know," he said, taking the liberty to sit himself down on the bed as well. Just as Ginger was going to shove the spoonful of mint chocolate chip in her mouth, he grabbed the spoon away from her.
"Hey!" she said, hitting him.
"What?" He gave her an innocent smile. She gave him a look and took the spoon back. "Anyway, where do you want to go? We could go sightseeing again. I didn't show you everything yesterday."
"I don't know," she said. "You did show me a whole lot." Kris started laughing and Ginger smacked her in the arm. Zac looked over and raised an eyebrow. He knew the way girls gossiped and was positive Kris knew that Zac and Ginger had spent the night together. As it was, he told Taylor without any hesitation. "Anyway�we could stay here. Send Kris back to her room where she belongs."
"You're not very nice," Kris said. Ginger smiled.
"I don't know," Zac said. "It's up to you."
"We're not making much progress here," she said, sitting back. "Why don't we just stay here and if we get bored we'll go out?" Zac nodded. "Kris, go back to your room."
"Why?!"
"Because you're not invited," Ginger said. "I'll see you in the morning." Kris grumbled but left peacefully, leaving the ice cream and her spoon behind. Ginger took over Kris's spoon and gave Zac hers, and the two of them laid back in the bed, the television on in front of them.
"Where are you going after you leave tomorrow?" Zac asked.
"New York," Ginger said. "There's a publishing company there that wants to publish my book."
"Oh, that's cool," Zac said. She shrugged.
"I don't know. I usually don't let a lot of people read my work and now it's going to be distributed everywhere�I don't know who would buy it."
"I'd buy it." She gave him a smile.
"You would," she said. "You know, you haven't kissed me yet."
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'll have to work on that." He kissed her. It was short and tasted like ice cream. "When am I going to see you again?"
"I don't know," she said, looking down. "I'm going to be in New York a while with my book, and honestly I don't think I want to make any more movies."
"Why?"
"I don't like making movies. It's so grueling and it took everything out of me. I guess it had to do with me being such a big part of it, but I didn't really like it. Anthony said he wanted to keep doing movies and yay for him, I hope he makes some damn good movies, but I'm done."
"I kind of wanted to see you in more movies," Zac said. "I think you're a brilliant actor." She blushed.
"Thank you," she said, her voice low and embarrassed. "Writing's my passion, though. That's what I really want to do. If in the future I want to do another movie I will." She looked up at him. "I completely got off topic, there. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," he said. He'd almost forgotten he'd asked her a question.
"Um�if you're ever in New York I'll be there for a while," she said. "Otherwise I'm not entirely sure. If I have a couple of free days I'll come out to see you, or if you do, if you want."
"That sounds good," he said. "I don't know the next time I'll have a free day. Maybe after we finish our studio work." She nodded.
"I won't have a free day for a while," she said. "This book is going to take me a while; I haven't even written it yet." Zac didn't say anything. The last time he had a girlfriend, which wasn't all that long before, it wasn't like this. He'd liked the girl for quite some time and they were good friends for about a year before he finally got around to asking her out. This was different. Yeah, he'd had a crush on Ginger for months but he didn't actually meet her until two days before and now they were planning out the future, when they would see each other again. He wouldn't have a free day for weeks and he could very well never see her again, leaving their relationship as a fling with great sex and that would be the end of it. He'd done that before, well not to this degree but he had definitely wowed some girl for a night and then never spoke to her again. He wasn't the kind of guy who'd sleep with a girl and just leave. Other things, yes. Sex, no. As it was he'd only lost his virginity recently to his last girlfriend Gwendolyn.
It was weird. He barely knew this girl and he'd already slept with her, and was planning to see her again weeks in the future. Usually he didn't think about anything like this so far in advance, but something about her definitely wanted him to change that. He'd met a lot of girls in his life, and dated his share of the pretty ones, but she was definitely something different than he had ever known. It was definitely weird, but for some reason it didn't seem to bother him.
"I'll see you in a few weeks," Zac said. It was the next morning and he'd ended up spending the night with Ginger again. This time she was awake when he got up to leave for the studio, and he was sure it was because it'd be the last time they'd see each other for a while. "When I have a free day I'll come by to see you."
"All right," she said. "I can't wait."
He kissed her and she was surprised. She seemed surprised every time he kissed her. He couldn't help but smile a little bit, knowing she felt it with their lips entwined together. He put his arms on her waist and slowly slid them down to her ass. She had an ass that he didn't mind holding every now and then and she didn't seem to mind, so he had no problem taking advantage of that.
"Are you going to miss me?" she asked, looking up at him with the violet eyes that he always wondered about. When he'd first read she had violet eyes he blew it off, saying they were fake but these past two days they looked so beautiful and too natural to be fake. Anyhow, she would have had to take them off when she slept and he'd spent two nights with her so far and she hadn't touched her eyes once.
"Of course I will," he told her. It was the truth. He didn't realize how much he really was going to miss her. "I didn't think I would this much, though. I barely know you."
"Sometimes that doesn't matter," she said, giving him a bright smile. "Sometimes all that matters is that you're there and I'm there and that could be enough to last a lifetime."
"Yeah, it could be," he said. He kissed her again, this time on the tip of her nose. "I have to go. I have to get my ass kicked before I go to the studio."
"Will you call me?" He nodded.
"Definitely." He kissed her again and reluctantly left, pausing twice to look back at her and he had the hardest time letting go of her soft, smooth hand. She closed the door so he could get home without continuously pausing, and when he got to the elevator he was broken up inside. He thought wanting her was bad, but now that he had her and he had to be away from her, he was feeling twice as bad, if not three times, and it really hurt. He wouldn't be able to see her for weeks and he didn't know how long phone calls would fill that little hole that was forming in his heart.
When he walked into his hotel room his mother was there. As soon as she saw him, wearing the same clothes he'd left with two days before, she sighed and turned away. He went straight to his suitcase for a change of fresh, clean clothes and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. He didn't get a chance to do anything at Ginger's, except for doing her, and he was sure his mother knew about that. If Taylor hadn't blurted out about a week ago that Zac wasn't a virgin any longer, this wouldn't have been such a big deal. But his mother knew he was having sex and had a tendency to think that Ginger was a whore. Now that he hadn't been in the hotel room for two days, it was all but confirmed that he'd had sex with her.
He took a long shower, avoiding his mother as much as he could, until Taylor pounded on the door. "Zac! We're leaving in ten minutes!" Zac shut off the calming water and stepped out of the shower, drying himself off with a towel. He put on his fresh clothes and dried off his hair with the towel as he went out into the main room. Taylor and Isaac were ready to leave, waiting on him, and Diana was still in there.
"Boys, why don't you go ahead?" she demanded more than suggested. "Zac will take his car to the studio. I need to speak to him."
"Oh, fuck," Zac muttered under his breath.
"I heard that," Diana said. Taylor and Isaac gave Zac a sympathetic look but left anyway, leaving the boy and his mother alone. "What gives you the audacity to run off like that?"
"I didn't run off, I was across the street!" Zac immediately said, trying to defend himself. "I went to the studio yesterday and I was there on time, I'm going today�I don't see what the big deal is."
"The big deal is that you're still seventeen years old and you're running around like you're old enough to take care of yourself. You're running around with movie star slutty girls, spending the night out and not even calling to say where you are or that you're okay. I haven't seen you in two days! I have no idea you were at the studio, nobody bothered to tell me. I'm not there so I can't see you, Zac."
"I am old enough to take care of myself," Zac said. "I've been taking care of myself since I was ten years old, Mom. I've been providing for this family and working my ass off to do it. Ginger is not a whore, no matter what you may think of her, and I really like her so I'm not just spending the night with random people! You don't even know if we did anything."
"Did you?" Diana asked. "Did you sleep with her?"
"That doesn't matter!" Zac yelled. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions and do what I want to do. Just because some stupid law says you've still got control of me doesn't mean it knows what it's talking about. I'm not like everyone else, Mom. I'm not the norm that the law is set for. I've been an adult before I was even a teenager. I was traveling the world, working hard days and not getting enough sleep. I've been making the money for this family and I don't see you bothering anybody else about this!"
"Your brothers are twenty and twenty-two, Zac. They're old enough to be on their own and take care of themselves. They just choose to stay at home because it's more convenient," Diana said. "You are seventeen. You're still under my care and it doesn't matter what you say because you're still underage and you still don't know what life is about. I don't want you seeing this girl anymore."
"Oh my God!" Zac yelled. "I fuck up for a day and a half and you pull all of this on me? You've never forbidden me to see anyone before."
"Don't swear, Zac. Now I've never had any reason to forbid you from seeing anyone before," Diana said. "You haven't gone out and spend the night with a girl that you don't know and completely worry your family because of it!"
"I haven't worried anybody! And for the whole spending the night with a girl I don't know, maybe you should be having this conversation with Taylor. Every other night he's fucking some random chick and then getting rid of her in the morning."
"Zachary!"
"It's true! I don't understand how you can just turn your head and look the other way at that, because he does it all the time, whether you're with us or not."
"What your brother does with his life is entirely different. He's twenty."
"But he's been doing it since he was fifteen! I'm not like that! Ginger is different, mother!"
"I don't want to hear it," Diana said. "You'll be late for work." Zac huffed and left in a fury.