Ginger had forgotten how big the house was. After her and Kris finished unpacking their things, Ginger went roaming the house and almost got lost. The thing that blew her away the most was the dining room. Before she came here she'd never seen a table so big, but serving nine people on a daily basis for years was rather hard to do on a regular sized table. Now that there were a good ten people in the house at dinnertime, it looked even bigger.
Zac found Ginger strolling around about seven o'clock that evening. Ginger was starving, not exactly having the guts to walk into the kitchen by herself where Diana was sure to be. They hadn't had dinner yet and Ginger had been so used to eating early with her previous family she was really starting to get impatient. "Hey you," Zac said. "I haven't seen you all day."
"Well I've been in my room all day. Maybe if you stopped by every once in a while�" she said, grinning. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her up against him. "Me and Kris were unpacking."
"Kris and I."
"Don't even," she said, giving him a warning glare. "I like the way I speak, thank you." Kris and Taylor passed by as Diana appeared from the kitchen.
"There you are, kids," she said to the four of them. "Dinner will be ready in a half-hour."
"Oh, Ma," Zac said, "Ginger and I were planning to go out tonight." Ginger raised an eyebrow at Zac. She was unaware of going out.
"Yeah, so were Kris and I," Taylor said.
"No you're not," Zac said. "We're going out."
"What, we can't go out the same night as you?" Taylor asked, turning to Zac.
"Where are you going?" Zac asked.
"Riveted."
"What? That's where we're going!"
"Um�no you're not," Taylor said. "Because that's where we're going."
"We can go together!" Kris said, speaking up. Everyone turned to look at her, shaking their heads no. "Oh come on! It'll be fun! I've wanted to do this since we started going out! We're all going to the same place, why don't we just go together?"
"Kris, I don't think that's a very good idea," Ginger said, shaking her head.
"Come on! Just this once. Please??" Kris asked. "Pretty please? All I've wanted to do since she moved in with me is go on a double date with my sister. And you guys are brothers and it would the best! I don't care if you all hate each other. This is for me. Kristina! Yay Kristina!" Ginger sighed.
"Oh, all right," Ginger said.
"Yay!" Kris jumped onto Ginger, hugging her tightly. "This is going to be so much fun!"
"Yeah�so much fun," Ginger said. "When are we going?"
"Um�right now," Zac said.
"Now? I look like shit and we're supposed to be going now?"
"Our reservations aren't for another hour," Taylor said.
"I'll call the place and see if we can get a table for four in an hour," Zac said, walking towards the phone. "You girls go get ready�"
"I'm going to need more than an hour," Ginger said. Zac looked at her blankly. "Is this place nice?"
"It's not formal but they'll look down on you for wearing jeans," Zac said. Ginger paused.
"What the hell am I gonna wear?" she rhetorically asked before she and Kris ran up the stairs. "I love how he springs this on me five seconds before we were supposed to leave. What was I supposed to do if we weren't going to change the reservations?" Ginger asked Kris as they walked down the hall to their room.
"I don't know. What are we supposed to wear?" Kris went in and slid over the closet door.
"I'm just going to wear a skirt and something that covers my tattoos."
"That narrows it down to, oh, this outfit." Kris pulled out a skirt and a shirt and Ginger looked at it, not exactly thrilled about it. "That's the only shirt that has sleeves and is nice enough to wear with a skirt, and it only goes with that skirt."
"We don't have anything else?" Ginger asked, searching through the closet. Being that they just put up most of the clothes that afternoon, she already had an idea of what was in there. "What about this?" She pulled out a pink button-down collared shirt with three quarter length sleeves.
"Are you going to be hot in that?"
"I'm going to be damn hot in this," Ginger said, a smile on her face. Kris gave her a look. "Well, I'll deal with it. I'm not wearing that." She put the other shirt back in the closet and she was set for the evening. Glancing at the time she realized she wouldn't have time to take a shower, fix her hair from the shower, and put on makeup in an hour, so she decided she'd just have to make do without one. "I don't smell, do I?"
"No you don't."
"Good. Then I don't need a shower."
"I love how much thought you're putting into this."
"Eh, we've been together ten months. I don't need to put thought into it anymore. You, on the other hand, are still new. Chop, chop, girl. You need to be looking good tonight." Kris rolled her eyes. "Do you think I'll get laid tonight?"
"I don't know," Kris said. "Why are you asking me? I'm not your boyfriend."
"Well I was just wondering if I should bring any condoms or not�"
"Why should you? Doesn't he have any?"
"And do what with it? Put it in his wallet and sit on it all night? That totally knocks about ten percent of the effectiveness�no I always put them in my purse." Kris paused and turned around.
"That's not true, is it?" she asked.
"Yeah. Having it in the wallet for God knows how long does indeed make it not as effective." Kris thought about it. "Do you want one for your purse?"
"Yeah, give it to me." Ginger opened a drawer and pulled out a box of condoms. "You don't buy them, do you?"
"No," Ginger said, shaking her head. "No, I don't do any of that stuff. I worry I look like a slut if I go into a store to buy condoms. He buys them, I just carry them." Ginger threw one over to her sister, who put it in her purse. Ginger put a few in her purse as well.
"What's up with that? What, are you going to score more than once tonight?" Kris asked.
"You never know."
"Give me another one." Ginger smiled and threw her sister another one.
Forty-five minutes later Kris and Ginger walked down the stairs to an awaiting Zac and Taylor. Apparently the restaurant was a good twenty minutes away and they were going to be late if they took any longer to get ready. Ginger wore her button-down three quarter length sleeved shirt and short black skirt with three-inch black heels that only Ginger could pull off. She had the shirt buttoned so she showed off enough cleavage to fit Ginger's style. Kris, on the other hand, wore black leather pants (that seemed similar to what Taylor was known to wear) and a halter-top that looked a bit more conservative than her polar opposite sister.
"Do I look beautiful?" Ginger asked, arriving at the bottom of the stairs. She spun around and gave Zac a big smile.
"You look gorgeous. Let's go." She gave him a look and walked in front of him to the door. He opened it for her and they walked out into the night. It was a lot cooler than it was during the day and Ginger's shirt was definitely not too hot. Zac walked over to his car and held Ginger's door open for her. Although Kris's idea of a perfect double date was taking the same car, it was obvious that they would be going different places afterwards so she relented and they went to the restaurant in separate cars.
"So what's this place like?" Ginger asked.
"It's sort of like a club, but it isn't," Zac explained, pulling out of the driveway. "There's a dance floor with tables all around, and it's really not fun unless you go later in the evening because that's when the play the good music."
"Oh." Ginger paused. "Can you dance?"
"Of course I can dance," Zac said, looking over at her. "Do you know anything about me?"
"Yeah, I do, but you don't tell me the important stuff," Ginger said. "Don't worry, now that we're living together I'll have time to learn all that stuff that I didn't learn when we were just dating. Like whether or not you have friends�"
"Are you still going on about that friends thing?"
"You never once spoke to me about any of your friends, Zac," she said. "You didn't tell me anything about your life at home! I had no idea you had any friends. I mean I went on and on about what me and Kris would do and you just sat there, saying nothing. I didn't think about asking because I figured you were so busy you didn't have any time for friends."
"You know I had a lot of friends before we starting going places," Zac said. "I had a ton of friends. My brothers were my best friends, of course, because we always did everything together, but I had guy friends and girl friends and just a large group of people. Pretty much everyone I know was home schooled so it wasn't like they had their friends from school and then me, we all hung out together all the time."
"Then what?"
"Then we made it big and some of them just kind of went away. I got so busy I couldn't call all the time like I said I would and a lot of them didn't understand that. We were just kids then, I mean I was, what, ten? Eleven? They didn't understand why I was gone so often and why I was on TV and stuff and I didn't see any of them. A lot of them think I sold out and they just stopped talking to me. I don't ever see them anymore but there are hardly any of them left anyway. Tim is the only one who really stuck around, and he was friends with all of us. He's Taylor's age. Then there's Adam, I still talk to him every once and a while, and the only girl friend I had left was Megan but now that she cheated on Tim I don't think I'll ever see her again." He shook his head. "Don't you think that's terrible what she did to him? I mean his own brother�he was really close with his brother too. Kind of like me and Taylor used to be."
Ginger shook her head, tears in her eyes. "Yeah," she said, her voice low. "That was terrible."
"I don't think he's going to talk to her or his brother ever again."
Ginger didn't say anything as she looked out the window. They were going into town when she thought of something. "They won't play anything country�will they?" she asked.
"No," he said, a laugh in his voice. "No, Ginger, I know how much you love country music. Wait till tomorrow night, I'll take you to a real happening place. Line dancing and cowboy hats and everything�"
"Oh God!"
"No, I don't like that either. It's too much for me. Living out here you're bound to get some of it, and some of it's not that bad, but most of it is just terrible. I don't like country music."
"I like the Dixie Chicks," Ginger said.
"Yeah, they're about as much as I can handle. Jessie loves them. Whenever I'm home her and Avie are blaring the Dixie Chicks in their room."
"Damn, Taylor drives like an old lady," Ginger said, looking behind them. Taylor, who started out immediately behind them, was now nowhere in sight. When she did see him, he wasn't going fast anyway. That morning when he'd driven home she thought she'd never get there with the way he was driving.
"I know. It's because of the car. He's so worried he's going to crash his precious car he drives it so fucking slow�I swear."
Zac and Ginger got to the restaurant first and waited in the parking lot for Taylor and Kris to get there. A good five minutes later Taylor pulled into the empty space next to them and everybody got out and started walking to the restaurant. Before they went in Zac finally noticed that Ginger's top was showing off a hefty amount of cleavage.
"Dammit, Ginger, button your top!" he said.
"What? Why?" she said, looking down.
"Because if I was a guy sitting around in a place like this and you walked in looking like that, I would be hitting on you all night, I don't care who was with you. I don't think I want to get into any fights tonight, so please be decent." Ginger grumbled, not expecting such an honest response, and did another button on her shirt.
"Is that decent enough for you?" she asked.
"No."
"Well tough, it's decent enough for me." She went inside. Zac went up to the waiter first and they were led to their table. Ginger and Kris chatted, looking around at the place. It was definitely modern, with a large dance floor surrounded by quite a few tables. There was a DJ playing loud music that a lot of people were already dancing to, while some were enjoying dinner. This was not a place to go to in order to have a quiet evening.
Ginger sat down in between Kris and Zac on the round table and picked up the menu immediately. They ordered quickly and then sat around in silence as they waited for their food to come. "Why is nobody talking?" Kris whined.
"Because we're uncomfortable, Kris," Ginger explained.
"Oh. Well I'm not! There's got to be something we can talk about�um�I know! Let's all go around and tell a secret. That'll be fun."
"Kris, you are way too into this," Ginger said, swirling her straw around in her drink.
"Well I'm sorry. I've wanted to do this forever. You go first, sis."
"Me?" Ginger said. "Why me?"
"Because you're the one complaining. You first." Ginger sat and thought about it but only one thing came to her mind. She tried to think of something else, but Kris knew all the rest of her secrets. "Come on."
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking�all right. I gave Zac head in your car when you told me not to." Zac's eyes widened.
"Why are you telling her that one?" Zac asked, his voice rising. Ginger ignored him.
"Okay," Kris said, nodding. "My turn. I knew you gave Zac head in my car."
"How did you know?" Ginger asked, her mouth dropping. "How could you possibly know that?"
"You guys left and me and Taylor decided to leave, like, a minute after you guys. So I'm driving along, la, la, and I'm like, hey that looks like my car! I pull up behind it and I find out it is my car! So I figured it was just you and Zac going back to the hotel, but I look in the car, and I see Zac driving, but I don't see you! In the back of my mind I knew what you were doing but I was kind of hoping you weren't. I had to find out so I just kind of followed you around until all of a sudden you pop up and I was like 'No, she did not just do that in my car�' "
"Maybe if Zac was paying attention he would have noticed you were following us," Ginger said, shooting Zac a look.
"Uh, I was lucky I could stay on the road, much less look around for random cars following us," Zac explained.
"Dude, how is it with the tongue ring?" Taylor asked.
"Like you would not believe," Zac said. Taylor looked at Kris and raised his eyebrows.
"I am not getting a tongue ring so you can better enjoy blow jobs!" Kris announced. "Con Zac into letting Ginger give it to you so you can get it out of your system!" Taylor looked at Ginger but she was looking at Zac.
"Okay, Zac, your turn," Ginger said, changing the subject as quickly as possible. She knew Zac wasn't exactly enjoying where that conversation was headed either.
"How about no?"
"How about yes! I shared my secret," Ginger said. "It's your turn. Tell us a secret."
"I don't have any secrets."
"My ass. Tell me."
"Look, the food's here!" Just then the waiter came by and served everyone their food, but Ginger didn't let that stop anything.
"Well?" she asked.
"Well what?" Zac retorted.
"What's your secret? If I had to say something, so do you."
"That wasn't a secret, everybody already knew it happened!" Ginger gave him a look. "I don't have any secrets. I said that already."
"Fine," Kris said. "Then I get to ask you a question." Zac rolled his eyes.
"Fine."
"But you have to answer honestly. No lying."
"Fine! Just ask the question!"
"I have to think of one," Kris said. She sat back and began to think while everyone else started eating. "Um�since we're on the subject of you and my sister's sex life, how many times did you have sex on her birthday?" Zac groaned.
"Why does it have to be about sex?"
"Because that's the latest topic, Zac. Everybody's got to know about the sex," Kris said.
"Fine. Okay. So was that on her birthday or during that whole period when we were at the hotel?"
"The whole period. The whole time you were in town for her birthday. How many times?" Zac sat back to think about it.
"I don't know�Ging, help me out here."
"Well there was the three times when we got there," she started, looking off into space, thinking about it.
"Then in the shower."
"Does the blow job count as sex?" Ginger asked. Kris shook her head.
"No, I'm talking about the real thing here."
"Okay. When we got back to the hotel we did it twice."
"And then once in the morning," Zac finished. "So how many was that?"
"Seven," Kris supplied. Zac nodded.
"Seven," he said.
"Damn!" Kris said. "That is a lot of sex in a very short amount of time." Ginger shrugged.
"I'm good that way," she said, giggling. "Okay, Taylor's turn. Tell us a secret. Or do we have to ask you a question as well because you're like your brother and have absolutely no secrets whatsoever?"
"Just ask me a question," he said.
"Okay. Can I do it?" Ginger asked Kris. She nodded. "Okay. Let's think about this�since we can't seem to talk about anything but sex, how many sexual partners have you had?" Taylor was completely not expecting that. He figured she was going to ask how many times he did it with Kris, and he had that answer ready, but now he wasn't so sure.
"Oh�geez�" He looked at Kris for support but she sat back and crossed her arms over her chest.
"No, I want to know this. There's been me, that's one. How many others?" Taylor thought about it. While he was thinking, counting off silently on his fingers, the rest of them finished dinner. Ginger was full and pushed her plate away when Taylor suddenly burst out with an answer.
"Twenty-two."
"Twenty-two?" Kris asked in completely disbelief. "Does that include me?"
"Twenty-three."
"Oh�oh my God," Kris said. "Oh my God. How can you possibly do that? How old were you when you lost your virginity?"
"Um�fifteen? Or was it fourteen�fourteen or fifteen. I don't remember."
"How many times have you done it?" Ginger asked.
"Whoa, that's a completely different story in and of itself. I'll need like a piece of paper and a calculator or something�"
"Oh my God!" Kris said again.
"Geez, Taylor, I knew you were a whore," Zac said, "but I didn't know you were that much of a whore."
"I'll be back," Kris said. She got up and headed to the bathroom. Ginger sighed and got up, following after her sister. In the bathroom they met up. Kris was freaking out. "I cannot believe this! I absolutely cannot believe this! I mean I know you said that he'd done it, like, a hundred times but I thought you were grossly exaggerating! Now I don't know! Twenty-three people�damn! I've had sex with two people my entire life. My last boyfriend and him. I cannot believe this."
"Kris, you knew he was like this when you started dating him. You knew he'd had a lot of experience. You may not have wanted to admit it, but you knew he was like that. He's the front man of a band that goes on tour and meets a lot of girls. I mean a lot, a lot of girls. It's very easy to find a pretty face and I'm sure it gets damn lonely on the road."
"You know, it's not even that that bothers me," Kris said, turning to her sister. "It's not that he's so many partners. It's that he's supposed to be in a relationship with me and he's still going out on tour and meeting all those girls. How do I know what he's doing out there? Who he's doing? I don't know! I can't monitor him all the time!"
"You just got to trust him, sweetheart. He loves you, Kris. Taylor was my friend when I was out here before and I hear about it all the time. He's never loved anybody before! He's never been in a relationship this long before. He's never invited someone to spend the summer with him and do all these things with him. You're different. You're making him change and I, for one, am glad you're doing it."
"What exactly happened between you two that Zac doesn't trust you?" Kris asked, catching Ginger off guard.
"What?"
"Did something happen between the two of you?"
"No!" Ginger said immediately. "No, it's just me and Taylor were pretty close. He was like the best friend a person could have while I was out here and Zac was getting jealous. He thought Taylor was just hitting on me, and I'm sure in some ways he was, and he doesn't trust Taylor. He's lost girls to Taylor before and he's afraid I'm going to do the same thing. It's a lot better now that you're around but Zac's still afraid it's going to happen." Ginger rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
"Okay. All right, I can go back out there now. I just needed time to let that sink in," Kris said. "Twenty-three�damn�"
Kris and Ginger went back out to the table where the plates were cleared and there was nothing left to do but dance for the rest of the night. When the DJ played a song that Ginger liked, she pulled Zac out onto the dance floor. Kris and Taylor sat back at the table and talked a bit longer, until the next song when they joined Zac and Ginger on the dance floor. Zac turned out to be a pretty good dancer, which surprised Ginger. She didn't think he had any rhythm at all, but he knew what he was doing. But considering the type of music the DJ was playing, Zac's only role was to hold Ginger while she did everything and pretty much have sex with their clothes on while standing up, and he was pretty good at that.
A half an hour later Taylor asked if he could dance with Ginger and Zac, having a pretty good night so far, didn't have a problem with it. Zac danced with Kris while Taylor took Ginger a couple of feet away so they could talk without having Zac hear it. The music was louder on the dance floor and Zac probably wouldn't have heard anything if Taylor had yelled it in his ear, but they still wanted make sure. When they stopped walking and started dancing, Ginger looked around and she couldn't even see Zac any longer.
"So are you having a good time so far?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah," Ginger said. Taylor turned out to be a better dancer than Zac, but that was expected. His moves were more suggestive and they way he held Ginger was quite different. Ginger didn't even think he held Kris this way. They were facing each other, their hips pressed tightly up against each other, dancing in a way that could only be described as heavy grinding. "Taylor?"
"Hmm?" He looked straight into her violet eyes with his bright blue ones in a way Zac had never done.
"That twenty-three�did that include me?" she asked. He shook his head. "So it's really twenty-four, then?"
"Yeah," he said. "But don't tell Kris that."