On Thursday night Kris and Ginger found themselves getting ready to go out for the night. This time they weren't so rushed so they both took a shower and looked a lot better than the first time they went out. Ginger was wearing pants this time, saying she felt "too uncomfortable" dancing around in a short little skirt. She had on a low-cut sleeved shirt that covered her tattoo when she wanted it to. Kris was wearing a skirt this time (although Ginger warned her that she'd be bitching all night that she couldn't let loose or she'd flash somebody) and one of Ginger's flashy tank tops.
"Man, sometimes I wish I could just laser this blasted thing off," Ginger said, pulling her sleeve down over her tattoo. "I can't wear the shirts I like, I can't do anything or go anywhere without someone going 'do you have a tattoo?' and acting like I'm some sort of circus freak."
"Why don't you?" Kris asked, standing in front of the mirror and putting an earring in. "I'm sure Zac will pay for it. I don't think he likes it any more than you do."
"I know he doesn't like it. He doesn�t like any of them, but they're too much of a part of me to just not have them any longer, you know? I've had them for six years now. Just the sacrifices a girl has to make in order to look normal. So, do I look normal?" Ginger asked, turning around. She made a dramatic pose for Kris.
"Yes, you look normal. Well, as normal as normal can be with that hair of yours."
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"Nothing! I'm just saying you're the only person I know with flaming red hair like that."
"It's not flaming." Zac appeared at the doorway. "Zac's flaming."
"Yeah, whatever," Zac said, shaking his head. "Anyway, we're going go in about five minutes. Ging, babe, why do you always seem to look like a whore whenever we go out?"
"I do not look like a whore!" Ginger said, huffing. "I'm more covered than Kris is!" Zac looked at Kris.
"Well Kris isn't wearing skin-tight pants and shirt so low I'm surprised you're even wearing one at all." Ginger made a face. "Hey, I think you look hot. I'd take you any day. It's all those other guys that bother me."
"You know, sometimes I think you're just looking for things to criticize," Ginger said. "I look fine."
"I hope when we're married you start dressing a little more�like a wife." Ginger huffed and took off her shirt.
"Fine," she said. "I'll change."
"God, Ginger," Zac said, stepping in and closing the door behind him. "You could at least close the door."
"No one's going to see, Zac."
"Stop bickering, the both of you. It's getting on my nerves," Kris said from the mirror. She was finishing her makeup, putting on her lipstick "Ginger just wear that black shirt and let's go." Ginger grabbed her black, sleeved shirt from the closet and put it over her head.
"Better?" she asked, posing for Zac.
"Much. Okay, everybody ready?" Ginger looked at Kris, who nodded.
"Yup."
"Great. Let's go."
Ginger followed Zac out the door and down the stairs where Taylor was waiting. They took separate cars again, only because Taylor wanted to take Kris out afterwards and say goodbye without Zac and Ginger around. On the way there, Ginger looked over at Zac.
"You know Jess is moving in my room, right?" she asked. Zac nodded. "So you can't sneak into my room in the middle of the night."
"Like I've ever done that."
"Well you weren't able to because of Kris. I'm just making sure you know I won't be alone. We're stuck not having sex the right way until we move out." Zac nodded.
"I was out cruising the other day after work and I came across a really nice development. It's new, you're on a lot of land and the prices aren't all that bad. I talked to someone in a model home and they said it wouldn't be open until about this time next year, which would be perfect for us when we moved out."
"You'll have to take me sometime."
"All right," he said. "Taylor and are going to be going over to LA on Monday. We'll be back on Thursday. You can come with us if you'd like but I think you'll have a better time at home. We're going to be doing nothing but working and sleeping and at least here you have people to hang around."
"Yeah, I think I'll stay here."
"Are you going to be okay around Mom now that Kris is gone?"
"I can handle her, Zac. I might not handle her in the best way possible, but I can still do it." The car fell into a comfortable silence until Zac pulled up to the restaurant. Surprisingly, Taylor was already there and waiting for them. Zac and Ginger got out of the car and the four went into the restaurant. "How'd you get here so fast?" Ginger asked Kris.
"I told him if he drove like an old lady one more time with me in the car I'd run him into a pole." Ginger nodded.
"Good idea."
They went into the restaurant and were seated, this time on the other side of the dance floor. This table was square; Ginger sat across from Zac, with Kris on one side of her and Taylor on the other. She picked up the menu and began looking at it when she felt a hand on her leg. She looked up and Taylor was looking at the menu with one hand, the other under the table and definitely on her leg. She tried to ignore it, shaking it away, but it appeared higher this time and she got fed up.
"I'm going to the ladies' room," she said, standing up. "If the waiter comes before I get back I want the chicken salad with a bowl of broccoli cheese soup." She left quickly for the bathroom, not expecting anybody to follow her, but she'd only been in there a moment before Kris appeared behind her.
"Are you okay?" Kris asked.
"Yeah," Ginger said. "Can't a girl pee without getting the third degree?"
"Well, if you came in here to pee, wouldn't you have gone to a stall instead of the mirror?" Ginger didn't say anything. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Ginger said. "It's nothing. Did you see me put my lipstick in my purse? I can't find it."
"You're not wearing lipstick."
"Exactly." Kris shook her head.
"I don't know. Do you want mine?"
"Yeah." Kris reached in her purse and pulled out her lipstick. Ginger applied it in the mirror and the two went back to the table. When Ginger sat down, she glanced under the table and kicked Taylor as hard as she could. He sat up straight immediately and a hand went under the table to rub his leg. It turned out in the short time Ginger was gone the waiter came by and a few minutes they had their food. Ginger brought one leg up on the chair with her, receiving a questioning look from Zac, but was sure Taylor wouldn't be able to reach her now.
"So," Kris said, getting tired of the silence, "how's everybody's life been? Has it been good? Is everyone going to whither away in sadness when I'm gone?"
"Of course we are," Ginger said. "Life is so not fun without you."
"Damn straight. What about you, Zac? Are you going to miss me?"
"Yeah," he said. "Even though you're always around and never give me a minute alone with my girlfriend, I'm going to miss you." She gave him a look. "I'm just kidding. Of course I'll miss you."
"What about Taylor?" Ginger asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Now that I'm gone Taylor isn't getting laid every other day, of course he's going to miss me," Kris said. "I'm just an essential part of this family." Taylor glanced at Ginger, who immediately shook her head and turned to her food. The conversation veered to something else until the DJ started playing a song that Ginger and Kris both recognized.
"It's our song!" Ginger yelled. Kris grabbed Ginger and pulled her out onto the dance floor where they started to dance with each other, the speakers blaring Ricky Martin's "Maria." Zac and Taylor watched, slightly amazed, as Ginger and Kris started doing a series of turns and spins before meeting up with each other again, laughing the whole way.
"Why are we with them?" Zac asked Taylor as the song changed and for a moment Ginger started grinding on Kristina, who smacked her ass and they both started laughing.
"�I don't know."
"Okay, we're done," Ginger said, sitting back down. "Man, that brought back memories."
"Yeah," Kris said. "I'm not hungry anymore."
"Me neither."
"You want to go back out there?" Kris asked. Ginger nodded and the two went back out to the dance floor.
After they finished dinner Zac and Taylor joined their girlfriends on the dance floor and they broke into couples for most of the night. "Is Taylor hitting on you?" Zac boldly asked during a song about three hours after they started to dance.
"What?" Ginger asked. "No!"
"Are you sure?"
"Why would I lie to you?" Ginger asked.
"It just seems like you've been avoiding him all night." She shook her head. "All right."
"You still don't trust him, do you?" Ginger asked. Zac sighed but shook his head. "Zac�if you don't start trusting him what's going to happen once Kris leaves? It's just going to be him without her around. You're not always home when he is and sometimes I'm going to be alone with him. If you don't start trusting him, pretty soon you're just going to get paranoid."
"I'm not paranoid."
"I didn't say you were. I said you were going to be."
"I'm going back to the table." He let go of her and started walking to the table.
"Hey! Where are you going?" she asked, going after him. "I was getting off on that! I swear I was! Get back here." She ran after him and sat next to him at the table. "Don't run away on me, Zac. You know I'm telling the truth."
"I'm scared, Ginger. I really am. I want to trust him and I want to say everything's going to be all right but I just have this feeling�something's going to happen." She put her head down on the table that had been cleared while they were dancing. "And now that Kris is leaving I just can't get it out of my mind. I don't know. I know you would never do that to me but�I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about."
"Do you want to go?" Ginger asked, lifting her head up to speak to him. "Leave Kris and Taylor alone for the rest of the night? It is kind of late." Zac looked at his watch. It was eleven-thirty.
"Yeah. Do you want to go tell them?" Ginger nodded. She grabbed her purse and walked back out onto the dance floor to find Kris and Taylor. She found Taylor on the other side of the dance floor against the wall.
"What are you doing all the way over here, Mister Hot Shot?" she asked, giving Taylor a smile.
"My leg hurts," he said, looking at her pointedly. "And Kris is in the bathroom."
"Well maybe if you would have kept your hand off my thigh I wouldn't have had to kick you, now would I?" she said. "Me and Zac are going to go."
"Sure. I'll tell Kris."
"Are you guys going to be out all night?" she asked. He shook his head.
"No, we should be back. You'll see her before she leaves tomorrow, I promise you that," he said. "You looked good tonight."
"Shut up." Before she turned to leave, he grabbed her and kissed her. She pulled away from him immediately and slapped him. "Don't ever do that again."
"Zac's going to be in LA an extra day, they're sending me back earlier." She shook her head. "You and me are going to be alone."
"Taylor, if I told you once, I've told you a million times. I love Zac. You and me are never going to happen."
"That never stopped you before."
"You're such a bastard." She turned around and left. She found Zac back at the table. "All right, we can go."
"What took you so long?"
"I couldn't find them," Ginger lied. "But eventually they showed up. Let's go." Zac stood up and put his hand on her back, leading her out of the restaurant and to the car. When they got outside Zac noticed how much she was shaking.
"Are you okay? You're not cold, are you?" She shook her head. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing," she said. "Nothing." He opened the car door for her and she got inside. When Zac got in she was checking her lipstick in the mirror. She fixed it a bit with her finger, wishing she could have caught Kris to touch it up. Then again, if Kris were there she wouldn't have had to touch it up to begin with.
"Do you want to go somewhere?" She shook her head.
"No, I just want to go home. I'm tired."
"All right."
"I love you," she said, looking directly at him. "I love you and don't you ever forget that." He looked over at her, slightly confused.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine," she said, smiling. "I'm just fine." He turned to the wheel, started the car, and pulled out of the parking lot. She looked out the window and fought back tears.