"So where's Zac today?"
Ginger and Zac were in her living room watching the interview that Zac had to miss in order to see her. Ginger was allowed to come home not long after Zac came and her parents allowed him to come over to the house, granted they didn't stay behind closed doors. She was lying on the couch with a blanket over her, her head in Zac's lap. Kris was in the recliner right next to them.
"Well," Taylor responded, "he got a call that his girlfriend was in the hospital and he had to run over there to make sure she was all right."
"Is she all right?"
"Yeah, he just called before we started and she's doing fine. It wasn't anything serious."
"That's good to hear." Zac looked down at Ginger who wasn't exactly happy. He didn't say anything about it because he didn't want to start a fight (and it seems he always started the fight when his intentions were good).
"Zac?"
"Yes, Ginger?" he asked, looking down at her.
"Can you get me some water?" He snorted.
"Get your own damn water." Her eyes grew in surprise.
"Zachary Hanson! How dare you! Get up and get me some water and do it now before I fucking bite your head off!" She sat up and pushed him away towards the kitchen. Confused, Zac walked over to the kitchen and got Ginger some water. When he came back she sat up against the couch and gave him a smile. "Thank you, dear."
"What just happened?" Zac asked, sitting down.
"You just got what I like to call level one of my sister's wrath," Kris explained. "It goes up to level five. Level three is enough to make somebody cry. You don't want to go higher. I've only seen level five once and it's pretty damn bad."
"So why exactly am I tolerating this?"
"Because you have little to no choice in the matter," Ginger explained. "Now shut up." Zac crinkled his nose. Alina walked in the front door with a prescription bag for Ginger. After diagnosing that Ginger had a severe panic attack, and nearly had another one while in the hospital, the doctor prescribed some downers for her to take whenever she felt too stressed. "Hi Mom."
"Hi kids," Alina said. "Hello my new daughter's boyfriend that I haven't been formally introduced to yet."
"Yes, Ginger has a habit of doing that."
"Ginger? He calls you Ginger?" Alina asked. Ginger nodded. "Why doesn't he�"
"Because I let him call me Ginger," she interrupted. "I rather like it." Alina shrugged. "Anyway, Mom this is Zac my boyfriend. Zac, this is my mother."
"Nice to meet you," Zac said, standing up and shaking her hand. Ginger rolled her eyes.
"You too. Anyway, Ginger, I have your medication, I'll put it in the cabinet with the rest of our prescriptions. So, Zac, how long are you staying?"
"Not long. My flight leaves at eight."
"Already?" Ginger asked. Zac sat back down next to her and she clung to his arm, putting her head on his shoulder. "You just got here this morning."
"I'm not supposed to be here at all. I can't just skip out on my job to come and see you." Ginger sighed.
"I know."
"We've still got the rest of the day, sweetheart, dote on that for a while."
"I want to go somewhere."
"Ginger, we talked about this," Zac whispered. She nodded. "We're going to stay here for the rest of the day until I have to leave. And anyway, you're in no condition to go out somewhere."
"You act as though I had a major surgery. I passed out for a little while and now suddenly I'm not fit to go anywhere." Zac didn't say anything. "I still want to go out."
"No."
"We can't have sex with everyone in the house, now can we?" Ginger whispered into his ear. He shook his head.
"We're not going to."
"What? Why not?"
"You're not up to it."
"Yes I am."
"Well I'm not up to it, then."
"My ass. You're always up to it. Give me three seconds and I'll make you up to it." Zac gave her a look. "Come on. Kris thinks I'm up to it, don't you sis?" Kris looked over, her eyes wide. She didn't know what they were talking about.
"Umm�"
"Say no," Zac told her.
"Say yes," Ginger countered, looking at Zac more than her sister.
"Um, I'm really not a part of this. Why don't you ask Mom?" Ginger giggled.
"Yeah, Zac, why don't we ask Mom?" Zac grew a slight shade of red and Ginger giggled again. "I'm only teasing you honey. It's just so easy." Zac ignored her and went back to the television where the interview with his brothers was finished, much to his relief. As much as it was a part of everyday life for him to constantly be on television, it wasn't for Ginger and she still hadn't been able to get past that. "I'll be right back." She got up and wandered out of the room, leaving Zac and Kris alone.
"I'm really glad you came, she needed some comfort right about now," Kris told him. He nodded.
"I kind of figured. I didn't expect her to have a panic attack though. She doesn't seem like the type."
"Well with a life like hers if you keep everything inside eventually you're just going to explode. She should be a lot better now that she's gotten some of it out." Zac didn't say anything. "Maybe this time she won't rebel and get another tattoo or something. She's such a punk."
"Yeah, well, everybody needs a quirk. Hers is just a couple of tattoos and a tongue ring."
"Does that tongue ring bother you?"
"It was weird at first, but now I kind of like it."
"I'm sure you do," Kris said. Zac gave her a look. "Hey! No looking at me like that!" Ginger came back into the room.
"Zac, are you bickering with my sister?"
"No." He looked innocent but she hit him anyway and sat down next to him. "Where'd you go, anyway?"
"I had to pee."
"Well," he said, raising his eyebrows. "Thanks for sharing."
"You were the one who asked." Zac sighed. "I love you, baby."
"Whatever."
"Okay, I'll call you when I get there. I don�t know when I'll be able to see you again. I have most of Christmas off, I could come by and see you around then, or maybe you could spend some time with me when you're out of school," Zac said to Ginger around seven o'clock that evening. His plane was leaving in an hour, and of course he prolonged his departure as long as possible. Although Ginger wanted to go to the airport to see him off, her parents said she was still too weak to leave the house.
"All right."
"I love you."
"I love you."
"We're going to get married once you get out of school, right?" he asked. She looked at him questioningly. He laughed. "Maybe we should wait until I'm out of school, then."
"Yeah, until you're done."
"All right." He threw on his coat. "I didn't scare you, did I?"
"No�no not at all. I just kind of forgot about the whole getting married thing."
"I didn't." He glanced down at her hand and saw that she was still wearing the ring he gave her. "You do know I'm serious about this, right? I don't want you to think that I don't want us to get married and this is some teenage love crap."
"I know you do. I want to get married to you too." She stood on her toes and kissed him.
"Oh Jesus, you're getting married now too?" Kris asked, walking into the room. Ginger let go and looked away. "What's tomorrow's surprise for me?"
"I'm pregnant."
"No you're not," Zac said, eyeing her.
"I'm not," she said, playfully hitting him. "I'm just joking. I'm not pregnant."
"Good."
"You're so gullible. Kris get out, Zac and I want to have sex before he leaves."
"No we don't, we don't have time," Zac said. "I swear, woman, kicking your sister out so you can have sex with your parents in the house? You're such a punk."
"Yeah but you love me so that must not matter anymore."
"Come outside with me," Zac said, grabbing Ginger's hand. He said goodbye to Kris and to Ginger's parents briefly before the two of them headed out the door to Zac's rented car. Ginger looked at it and immediately scrunched her nose.
"Why did you rent a car when you were only going to be here a few hours?" she asked.
"I don't like cabs and I have a friend in the rental car company so it didn't cost me anything. Don't think I spent an arm and a leg getting a car this nice for just a few hours. I'm not like that."
"Whatever."
"You're still not over who I am, are you Ginger?" She looked up at him, confused.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're still not over the fact that I'm Zac Hanson. I know you aren't. Jesus Christ, Ginger, it's been three fricken months. Get over it." Her look remained. "How am I supposed to know when you're with me, when you're sleeping with me, you're doing it for me and not for him."
"Who is him? There's only one person and it's you, Zac. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ginger I'm two different people and you know that. We've fought about this before. We've been fighting about this. I can't believe you don't get it by now," he said. She looked away from him. He was staring straight into her and it was beginning to scare her. The last thing she needed was to fight with her boyfriend right before he was leaving to go home, and she didn't know when she would see him again.
"Zac, I really don't want to talk about this right now."
"Well I do."
"Zac�I don't know what you're talking about. You're one person to me and you always have been. Maybe I can't make that distinction that you can but it doesn't matter to me. It matters to you. Maybe you should learn to let go of it instead of forcing me to conform to what you think all the time."
"Maybe you should think about this. You do the same exact thing. There's the you that I see and there's the you that everyone else sees. You hide half of your life from me. I don't even know your name. But I respect that. That's your choice. I have two lives to live but that's only because I'm forced to. I have to be a different person in front of the camera. I just want to know if you love that me or you love this me."
"I love you."
"Which me?"
"This you! Jesus Christ, Zac, what do you want me to say? I don't want to start a fricken fight with you, not before you leave."
"Fine." He opened the car door and climbed inside.
"Zac!"
"It's fine. Everything's fine. I'll see you later." She huffed and turned around to go back inside. "Wait, Ginger�"
"What?" she snapped, flipping around.
"I can't leave you like this. Come back here. I won't leave until I get a kiss." She scrunched her nose.
"I can't kiss you right now."
"Ginger�"
"Zac, what am I supposed to do? I don't know what you're talking about, nor do I care. I just had a nervous breakdown, and I don't know when I'm going to see you again. I don't want to deal with this right now." She put her hand through her hair. "I'll�I'll see you later." She turned around and walked back into the house.
"Fuck. Ginger! Ginger, wait, I'm sorry."
"You're going to miss your flight."
"Then I'll miss my flight. I can't leave you like this." He wrapped her blanket tighter around her body. "It's cold out here."
"It's barely 70, Zac. That's hardly cold."
"But you're shivering."
"I'm just breaking down again." He put his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
"Don't break down on me again. You scared the hell out of me today. I love you so much, Ginger, you don't understand. Don't do this to me."
"Zac�I didn't want you to see me like this." She buried her head in his chest. "I'm so messed up and I can't do anything about it. I don't know what's wrong with me." He ran his hand over her head, calming her a bit. A confused look came over his face.
"Ginger?"
"Hmm?"
"What's this?" He found her hand and placed it on the back on her head. She felt a bump he'd found near the nape of her neck.
"Oh my God, what is that?"
"Let's go inside." He pushed her inside the house.