Zac and Ginger arrived back at the hotel room about an hour later, Ginger completely stocked up on everything she could possibly need in the next two days. Zac was exhausted and fell onto the double bed as soon as they got inside. Ginger carefully put her things away and looked around.
"Zac, you've been in this room for five minutes and you've already managed to completely mess it up," Ginger said, looking around. His shoes were thrown on the floor, having knocked over a chair when he kicked them off, and all of his clothes were spilling out of his suitcase in the middle of the room. She made a face.
"Ginger, this is not messy," Zac said, looking at the room. "I don't know what you consider messy, but this is pretty damn clean for me." She rolled her eyes and picked up his shoes. She straightened the chair and put his shoes in the closet.
"Can I put your clothes in the drawers?" she asked.
"Why?"
"Because you're going to be here for another week and a half," she said. "You couldn't possibly live out of your suitcase for a week and a half." He looked at her blankly. "Well I'm doing it anyway. Do you mind?"
"Ginger?" She looked at him, expectantly. "You sound like a wife." She smiled.
"I do, don't I? Well I'm just OCD about this sort of thing. It's a phase; it'll be over in no time. Don't expect me to always be this neat." He shrugged. She put his clothes in the drawer, re-folding most of them because they were carelessly thrown in the suitcase when he threw all of his things together.
"Are you done yet?" Zac asked, patiently watching her from his spot on the bed. She turned to him.
"Almost, hold on." He sighed and waited. She threw away her plastic bags and let out a sigh of relief to be done. "All right, I'm done."
"Good. Come over here."
"Why?"
"I don't think you've kissed me all night! I thought I wouldn't see you for weeks and you come back and not even a kiss! You've been back, what, two hours and still nothing? I think you're holding back." She grinned and climbed onto the bed. He sat up and she pulled herself into his lap.
"Hey," she said, "You could have kissed me any time you wanted to."
"I thought we decided you were making all of the first moves." She shook her head and lightly brushed her lips over his. "What kind of hello kiss is that?" She raised an eyebrow and let him take over. He pressed his lips against hers with such force she had to hold onto his shoulders so she wouldn't fall backwards. Taking in a deep breath, she deepened the kiss, opening her mouth and letting him explore her as much as he wanted to. He pushed her backwards and she fell back onto the bed, his body lying in between her legs and his hands rubbing up and down the top half of her body. His fingers slipped down her body to the hem of her shirt that he pulled up and over her head.
He removed his lips from hers and began to kiss down her chest, then stopped. "What?" she asked.
"I just noticed this," he said. She had a small yellow rose tattoo on her left breast. "Where did this come from?"
"I got it a very long time ago," she said. "Me and some friends, some older friends, used to do crazy shit like this all the time. I have three."
"Three?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Where else?" She smiled.
"Well, there's this one," she said, undoing her pants and showing him the small Chinese character on her hip. It was about the size of a quarter; the tattoo on her breast was about an inch and a half long.
"What does it mean?"
"Ginger."
"Ah�makes sense." She smiled. "Where's the other one?" Her smile grew.
"You're going to have to find it," she told him. He eyed her.
"Is it dirty?" She shook her head. "Is it on your ass?" She shook her head again. "Hmm�well let's just take off your pants and look." He pulled down her pants (they were already half off her body anyway) and threw them on the floor. He opened her legs, searching for her next tattoo. "How big is it?"
"It's the same size as this one," she said, tapping the tattoo on her hip. He looked up and down her legs, and, not finding anything, flipped her over onto her stomach and saw it right away.
"Oh," he said, "There it is." It was on her lower back. It was a dove. "You're a little rebel, aren't you? Three tattoos already and you're barely even legal." She gave him a smile and rolled over.
"I have my tongue pierced too," she said. "I just don't wear my ring anymore because of the whole publicity thing. I couldn't have it on during the movie and my people don't want me wearing it during shows. They want me to appear as a wholesome little girl."
"You're hardly wholesome," he said, looking over her. "You're half naked in a bed with someone you barely know."
"I know you more than I know most people," she said. "Knowing someone isn't as important as it used to be."
"I'd like to know you," he said.
"I'd like to know you too."
"I want to see you with a tongue ring," he said.
"I have one with me!" She got up and walked over to her purse. "Kris gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday and it's expensive so I don't like not having it with me. I wear it when I can. When I can't I keep it in my purse." She dug through her purse, pulled out a little box, and took out a gold tongue ring. Giving Zac a smile, she went to the mirror and put it in.
"Wow, you really do have a tongue ring," he said. She walked back over to him and stuck out her tongue. Instead of a stud, it was a heart that laid flat against her tongue. He could barely see, but written on it was her name. "You really are a naughty girl." She shrugged. "I like that."
"Do you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. He nodded. "Well�" She kissed him and he was a bit uncomfortable with the ring but in a moment it didn't even seem to matter. His hand had just slipped her bra strap off her shoulder when his cell phone rang. He ignored it, of course, but when it started again, he stopped. "Maybe you should answer that," she whispered.
"It's my family, they're wondering where I am," he said. "I don't want to answer."
"They're going to keep calling until you answer, and if you want to get in on in peace, I suggest you answer now," she told him. He sighed and reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his phone.
"Hello?"
"Zac, honey, where are you?" It was his mother and she sounded more pissed off than concerned. He sighed and laid back. Ginger began to kiss his bare chest, giving him a naughty glance and he was suddenly afraid.
"I'm still in the hotel, Ma," he said. Ginger raised an eyebrow, eating up the information that he was talking to his mother, and began to unbutton his pants. He shook his head but she nodded.
"Well, honey, we're all very concerned. Your brother said you were got your own room. You didn't get your own room, did you?"
"Yes I did." Ginger took his pants off and threw them on the floor. She slid down to his boxers and he shook his head again, a panic expression on his face. "Hold on." He put his hand over the speaker. "Ginger, no, don't you dare with my mother on the phone."
"What? I know you've been dying for me to do this," she told him, her hand disappearing inside his boxers. He tensed and her smile grew. "I bet you've never had it done by a girl with a tongue ring."
"Ginger, please�"
It was too late. She had already started and he gripped the side of the bed in agony. He put the phone next to his ear again squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "Um�Mom," he started, his voice quivering, "Mom I have to go."
"Why? What could you possibly be doing�?"
"I'm working on something and it's blowing all the energy out of me." Ginger winked at him. "Gotta go. Bye." He hung up the phone and threw it across the room. "Damn, Ginger�don't ever do that again." She didn't respond.
The phone rang again about an hour later. Zac and Ginger were long done and were falling asleep together in the bed. "Get that," Ginger whispered, her eyes closed, her head resting on his chest. He gently pushed her off of him and walked across the room to his ringing phone. It was his mother again and he groaned.
"Hello?"
"Are you done?" Diana asked. Zac looked at Ginger in the bed and she had fallen asleep.
"Yeah, yeah I'm done," he said. "What do you want?"
"Zac, come back here. It's just inconvenient for you to be in a different room, no matter if it's next door or in a different hotel. We�"
"It's inconvenient for me to be there," he said. "During the day when I'm in the studio, yeah, that's okay for people to be telling me what to do, but afterwards if I want to go out, I think I should be able to."
"Zachary, you're seventeen years old," Diana said. "I think it's about time you start acting like it. You can make all of the excuses you want about growing up too fast and being on your own most of the time, but you are what you are and I still have a legal obligation to take care of you for another year."
"Four months," Zac corrected. He didn't want to have to deal with her any longer than necessary. "Listen, Mom, just let me do this. I'm pissed off and the longer you bug me, the longer I'm going to be like this. As soon as we leave the city I'll be back to my old self again and you won't have to worry about anything. It's probably just a phase and if you let me go through the phase, then everything will work out in the end."
"I don't believe that for a second."
"Then don't. But if you don't, I'm not even going to speak to you for the rest of the time we're in LA. It's up to you." He paused, looking over at Ginger. The room was dark but he could still see her from the moonlight pouring in from the glass doors that led to the balcony. She was a silhouette of her real self in the moonlight but she still looked just as beautiful as she always did. This was still amazing how he was getting so close to her. He wasn't like this with Gwendolyn and he was glad for that. Gwendolyn had been a mistake from the beginning and he knew it, as much as he refused to believe it. He never wanted to think about Ginger as a mistake.
"Do you have any idea what you're putting this family through right now, Zac?" Diana asked. Zac groaned and shifted in the chair. "No, don't give me any of that. I'm saying this for a reason. Your brothers never gave me any kind of worry like this. I know this career hasn't been as beneficial to you as it has to Isaac and Taylor because of your age, but you knew what you were getting into when you started. I wouldn't have let you do it if I didn't think you could handle it. I've let you get away with a lot, Zac, but this is going too far. You're not an adult, as much as you think you are, and you're not ready for what you think you're ready for."
"Mother, nothing you say is going to get me to come back. I need some time away. It's not like I'm running away from home and you guys are never going to see me again! I'm still in the hotel! I'm in the same building as you, I'm just not in the same room as you. It doesn't make that big of a difference. You can still call me all the time; I'll be sure to be around so I can answer my phone. You can still nag and bitch at me all you like, but now I can hang up the phone and ignore you." Diana sighed. Zac knew she was relenting and he was sure that it took a lot for her to do that. He knew how out of line he was, but he also knew if he didn't do anything about it now, it would just get worse and he'd end up doing something that he regretted.
"All right, Zac. Whatever. You win, stay in your own hotel room and do whatever you like. I don't care anymore. Are you going to be up and ready to go into the studio tomorrow?" she asked.
"Yes, mother."
"Fine. Goodnight." He didn't say anything as he hung up the phone and brought it over to the bed. He put it back on the nightstand and climbed back into the bed with Ginger. He had to admit he felt like he was married, but it was a good feeling. It was comfortable. Ginger made him feel comfortable.
As he laid down, Ginger shifted and put her head back on his chest and draped her arm around his waist. He smiled. He'd woken her by getting into the bed. "Is everything okay?" she whispered. He looked down at her and she was looking back up at him. He nodded.
"Yeah, honey, everything's fine."
"Do you think we're moving too fast?" It was one of those questions he didn't expect her to ask and wasn't entirely sure how to answer. He thought about it and she waited for him to answer.
"I don't know," he told her. "I mean in other relationships I've never gone so far so fast, but in other relationships I haven't felt as comfortable as I have with you. You're different than the rest of them and sometimes that scares me." She smiled.
"It scares me too."
"Do you think we're moving to fast?" he asked. She shook her head.
"You mean too much to me to be moving too fast," she said. "It's just different." He smiled and ran his fingers through her hair. It was as soft as he always thought it would be.
"How much do I mean to you?" he coyly asked.
"Plenty." She kissed him. "Go to sleep, hun." He didn't need to be told twice. He fell asleep, waiting for the moment when he woke up in the morning to her smiling face.