When Zac arrived at home, nobody expected him there. He ignored pretty much everybody and went upstairs to his room. When he got there, he put his suitcase down, shut the door, and collapsed onto his bed. Getting to the airport was hectic, as was going through check in and security, and he got to the plane during the final boarding call, just as they were about to close the doors and take off. Once he got on the plane he couldn't believe his guts; he'd actually left. He was expecting a million phone calls from Ginger, but when he didn't receive any, he grew a bit worried.
His bed was a comforting sight. Once he fell onto it, he pulled his pillow over his head and screamed into it. "Rough time in Florida?" He moved the pillow and looked at the door. It was his mother.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Zac said.
"I found it a little odd how neither you nor Taylor even allowed me to see you before you left." Zac rolled onto his back.
"Not now, Mom."
"And I also find it odd how a vacation to your girlfriends' hometown seemed to be the best way to cure Taylor's 'panic attack,' " Diana added.
"Mom�"
"I would have let you go if you would have asked me," she said. "You know that. I don't like to see my boys worked to the bone. You don't have to pull something like that and scare the dickens out of everyone in the studio and all of us here just so you could see your girlfriend." Zac sighed. "But I'm glad you're back. I'm taking Taylor is still in Florida?"
"Or in hell�one of the two."
"What happened?"
"I am not telling you," Zac said, looking over at her. "No way, it'll just add fuel to your fire." Diana gave her son a look and walked over to him. She sat down on his bed.
"Tell me, dear. I might be a little more understanding than you think." Zac sighed.
"Promise you won't hate Ginger even more?"
"Oh, it's about Ginger?" Zac nodded. "All right, I promise."
"She's cheating on me with Taylor."
"Taylor?" Zac rolled over onto his stomach again and put his pillow over his face again. "Does either of them know you're aware of it?"
"Taylor knows," Zac explained. "I hit him."
"That's perfectly understandable."
"I don't know what to do, Mom!" Zac's muffled voice said, rising in volume under the pillow. "I really like Ginger! I've never had a girlfriend like her before, and then Taylor has to go and do this! He can have anybody he wants in the world, and he has to take her! I know it's her fault too but I just can't help putting all of the blame on Taylor."
"I can't tell you what to do, Zac," Diana said. "This is something you're going to have to decide on your own. You're going to have to talk to Ginger, but it's up to you where it goes from there. You have to decide whether or not you can forgive her for this. You can forgive her, but if you find you can't do that, then you'll both have to move on from this. As for Taylor�well I'm completely stumped." Zac finally took his head out of the pillow.
"Thanks Mom."
"You're welcome dear." She got off the bed and left the room, shutting his door behind him. Zac sighed and decided he'd given up for the rest of the day, and went to sleep.
He woke up the next morning and went into the bathroom to take a shower. He turned on the hot water and jumped in, trying to cleanse something off of him that the soap just wouldn't scrape off. After he got out, the entire bathroom was steaming and he wiped away the fog on the mirror in front of him. He looked at himself for the first time, seriously looked at himself for the first time since he found out about Ginger and Taylor. He looked like he had a burden on his shoulders, pressing him down. He was slumped over and crestfallen. His eyes had a weight in them he'd never seen before and he still didn't feel clean. He had something on him, something he couldn't get off and it was eating away at him. And all the while he couldn't help but feel three inches tall.
Forcing himself away from the mirror, he walked out of the bathroom and over to his room. He picked out his clothes in slow, rigid movements that weren't his own. He was going through the motions of getting ready for the day, but he wasn't feeling any of it and he didn't exactly want to. He was about to turn on the television when the phone interrupted him. He picked it up and put it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Hi." It was Ginger. Zac sighed and sat down on his bed.
"Hi Ging," he said. "I'm sorry for running out on you yesterday. I was just so pissed off�"
"What happened? Why'd you hit Taylor?"
"It's not exactly something I want to discuss over the phone, Ginger."
"Then tell me now," Ginger said. He looked up and she was standing in the doorway. He put the phone down. "Please, Zac. I don't like this. You've been edgy all this time and it seems like I don't even know you anymore. Just talk to me. You always said you could tell me anything."
"That doesn't mean I want to," Zac said. "I love you, Ginger."
"I love you too, baby. Listen, baby, I have something to tell you�"
"I know about you and Taylor." Ginger backed up against the closed door, her hands on her stomach in shock.
"What are you talking about?"
"You and Taylor. I know. I found out." A look of confusion crossed his face.
"�How?"
"I just, kind of, figured it out," he said, "in the car, on the way to the hotel. I don't know how exactly. You looked at him and I just knew. It all fit."
"Zac, I'm�"
"I'm sorry, Ginger," Zac said before she could get to it. "I don't know what I did, but whatever it was, I'm sorry."
"You didn't do anything, Zac. It wasn't your fault and you know that."
"I�I just can't help but feel like it, though. I can't help but feel so completely unimportant." A tear slipped from her eye and she wiped it away. "You don't have any reason to cry, Ginger. You did this. It was your choice."
"It was the wrong choice."
"No shit." She looked away. "I don't know what to do. I honestly do not know what to do. I don't know if I can forgive you or not."
"Then I won't ask you to forgive me."
"I think we should take a break," Zac said. She looked at him.
"Break up?" He hadn't meant it that way, but he found himself nodding anyway.
"Yeah."
"All right," she whispered. She turned and walked out of the room.
Three hours later Zac took a drive and found himself in front of a house he'd never thought he'd see again. Checking his appearance in the rear-view mirror, he took in a deep breath and got out of the car. He walked up the front steps to the front door and rang the doorbell. An elaborate chime rang through the house, he could hear it inside, and he waited for someone to answer the door.
She did, a few moments later, looking as Hollywood as ever. Her hair cascaded perfectly off her shoulders and down her back, her eyes blazing in excitement, a smile tugging at her lips. She wore her wannabe Hollywood clothes, showing off her tanned, sculpted stomach and her skinny legs. She shook her head.
"Hi Gwen," he said.
"You broke up with her, didn't you?" Gwen asked.
"Yeah�"
"When?"
"This morning." She checked the thousand-dollar watch on her left wrist.
"And you're already here? I'm surprised," Gwen said. "Who did it?"
"I did."
"Really?" she asked. The smile on her face grew to reveal her perfectly white teeth. "Well come on in. I know how to take care of my baby when he's down." Zac walked inside and she gave him a kiss before she closed the door behind them. She walked ahead of him to the stairs and ran up them, her three and a half inch heels clicking against the tile as she did so. Her staircase always reminded him of a palace, not a home. Her family was well off, but not this well off. They purchased things they couldn't afford and so far were getting away with it. When their debts finally caught up to them, Zac could only hope Gwen was as far away as possible.
He followed her up the stairs and to her room, which was at the end of the opposite hall to her parent's room. It was the only reason she could do the things she did; she had her own back staircase that led to her own little back door, so in the event she was doing something she knew she could get in trouble for, she would run down the back stairs and be off until the blaze blew over.
When she opened the door to her room, it looked the same. After all, it hadn't been that long since they broke up. It happened at the end of May, and now it was the end of September�about four months. It scared him to think that he was with Ginger less than four months and he allowed it to go as far as it did. As it was, he was with Gwen for nearly a year.
"Sit down, babe," Gwen said, sitting down on her fluffy bed. Zac walked over and sat down; her bed was the most comfortable bed he'd ever been on, and he'd been on a lot of beds (what with going to various hotels all his life and all). "Tell me what happened." Zac sighed.
"She was sleeping with Taylor."
"Who isn't?" Gwen asked, a light laugh in her voice.
"Did you ever sleep with Taylor?"
"Hell no!" Gwen quipped. "I never wanted to! No, Zac, you're the only Hanson I could put up with. Taylor was too much of a pretty boy for me."
"What, and you're saying I'm not?" Zac asked. She laughed. "I was afraid to come over here. You knew I was going to come before I did."
"Honey, I saw right through her," Gwen said. "She wasn't any good for you. She was too Hollywood for you. You deserve someone better, someone�"
"Like you?" Zac filled.
"Like me, perhaps."
"I don't know, Gwen. You've been nothing short of a bitch to me since we broke up," Zac said, scooting away from her as he spoke. She might slap him. He was relieved when she didn't.
"That was because we were broken up and I didn't exactly want to be."
"Come on, Gwen, if I hadn't broken up with you, you would have broken up with me. You found somebody else who was here all the time."
"I didn't know what I wanted, Zac," Gwen told him. "Yeah, it got lonely at times and I wasn't used to that. Listen to me. I'm willing to try again if you are." He didn't say anything and she climbed on top of him, pushing him down on the bed. "Come on, we had some fun, didn't we?"
"I think somebody's trying to get laid."
"And I think somebody's trying to resist me."
"All right, Gwen," Zac said. "All right, we can get back together. It has been a while since I've had someone who actually knew what she was doing in bed."
"Oh�Zac, baby, that was low�" Gwen said, kissing his neck. "You're back."