"Good morning, angel face," Zac said, leaning against the doorframe when Ginger opened it early the next morning. A large grin came over her face.
"Angel face? Strangely, that doesn't seem very complimenting. Angel pie, maybe, or just plain angel, but not angel face." She shrugged and kissed him gently, putting the palms of her hands against his face. "I didn't know you were coming over."
"There's a reason for that. I've officially dubbed us a spontaneous couple. Come on, we're going somewhere spontaneous." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the house. She winced a bit as her body bent down the step. "Something wrong?"
"No."
"You can leave the house, can't you?" he asked.
"Yeah, of course. It's fine. Let's go." She closed the door behind her. "Where are we going?" she asked, walking up next to him, gazing up at him somewhat lovingly.
"You'll see." He kissed the tip of her pale freckled nose and opened the door for her. "Let's go, angel face."
"Don't call me that, idiot," she said, giving him a smile as she entered the car, her body cracking as she sat down. He didn't notice. He closed the door and went to his side of the car. When he got in, Ginger was shifting in her seat. Her back cracked again.
"What the hell was that?" Zac asked, looking over at her.
"What was what?" she asked. Her voice had a quiver in it that he picked up immediately.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Do you want to�?"
"No, I'm fine," she said, smiling. "Just a little back pain. Let's go, angel pie."
"I don't know if I want to take you now," he said, folding his arms over his chest. She gave him a look. "I'm serious."
"Fine. We'll just sit here and stare at the garage." She looked ahead at the white garage door, a blank expression on her face. He watched her, amused, as she continued to stare at the garage door. She kept it up and seemed, actually, to be enjoying herself, although he was getting bored very quickly.
"All right, we'll go."
"Good."
He started the car and pulled out of the driveway. "Can I ask you something?" he asked, once they were out of her neighborhood. She was surprised he remembered how to get there, let along get out again.
"Might as well."
"Stuff like yesterday morning�that fight with your brother�does that happen often?" She nodded. "Then why do you still live with him? He's abusing you."
"Who else am I going to live with, Zac?" she asked. "I don't have anyone else. I've told you before and I'll say it again, I'm not going to get ripped from my family and stuffed into a foster home. Not even for a few months until I'm eighteen."
"Don't you think someone would adopt you?"
"Who'd adopt a seventeen-year-old?"
"I would." She looked over at him. "I'm just saying."
"You're too much for me, you know that? This is going to be very interesting. Very classic. So, where are we going, Zac?"
"I told you, you'll see."
"I can't stand spontaneity. It makes me nervous." He shrugged. "How long are you in town? I thought you were just 'passing through.' "
"Yeah, but you made me want to stay. I'll be here as long as I possibly can."
"You never know, you might get bored with me."
"Bored? With my little conservative Ginger? I think not."
"Seriously, though, where are we going? This freaks me out." He nodded, looking around outside. There was pretty much nothing around; they were passing through some the only farmland left in the city.
"I have no idea. I was kind of hoping something interesting would pass by and I could do I quick u-turn and get there." She giggled. "Is there anything interesting coming up or are we entering the farmland part of the town and I'm just driving to cows and more cows?"
"There's a Village Inn coming up on the right after we get out of this stretch of farmers and cows. We could have breakfast."
"Great." He looked around. "What's up with this farmland?"
"It's in between two places that are being built up. This time next year it'll be strip-malls and Wal-Marts or something." They were beginning to pull out of farmland and immediately Zac saw an IHOP.
"Did you mean this place?"
"No!" Ginger said, shaking her head. "There's a Village Inn two minutes down the road, if that."
"But IHOP's right here!"
"No!"
"Okay�" He passed by the IHOP, confused. "Why?"
"I'm boycotting them."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. Evil IHOP." Zac shook his head. "There was an incident with a waiter and some soapy tea�best not to think about it. See! There's Village Inn! They have better chocolate chip pancakes anyway."
"So much I have to learn about you, Ginger."
"Indeed. I'm a very complicated person."
Zac pulled into the parking lot of Village Inn.
"�So I was just kind of stuck being a fan, you know? I can't sing worth a lick, I can't play any instruments and I can't read music, much less compose it, so I'm just a fan. I think it would be awesome if I knew how to do all of that stuff like you can, but I can't so I'm fine with my own talents that I haven't discovered yet," Ginger said over chocolate chip pancakes and hot tea.
"That was probably the most long-winded answer I have ever heard," Zac said, laughing. He himself had only gotten a cup of coffee, which bothered Ginger. He'd mentioned he didn't eat breakfast�ever�and after she scolded him for a few minutes she let him have his way and stuffed her face with chocolate chip pancakes off the kid's menu.
"Well you asked what I did for fun and I answered you."
"Yeah, and it took about ten minutes to answer!"
"I still answered it, though."
"Are you always like this?" he asked.
"No, not really. I'm just pushing your buttons, angel pie." He rolled his eyes at her. "Shut up. Are you sure you're not going to eat anything? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
"We've been over this."
"I'm just saying! You wanna take years off of your life not eating, go right ahead, just don't come running to me when you're dead."
"You do realize that makes absolutely no sense," he said, watching as she took another bite out of her endlessly chocolaty pancakes. "And you're starting to sound like a wife."
"You never know. We are getting on in years. You might end up having to settle down with me one of these days," she said, grinning as she took a sip of her hot tea. "Could you imagine that? I'd be screaming at you to eat some breakfast while piling chocolate chip pancakes into the mouths of our millions of children you'll probably want and I'll have to handle."
"Millions? I'm not so sure about millions�maybe in the thousands�"
"You're not about to do that to me," she said. "Two is plenty."
"Two?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Just two? How boring is that? We'll have to have more than two."
"Fine. Three."
"Come on, Ginger�"
"Four."
"All right. I'll settle for four. Just because this is a first date."
"This is our first date, isn't it?" she asked, beaming with realization. "If I would have known, I would have looked a bit better for you, but of course you showed up at my door unexpectedly inhumanly early in the morning."
"It was eight o'clock."
"That's inhumanly early for a summer morning."
"Well you're going to have to get out of that habit because I'm a morning person." She snorted. "Especially if we're getting married and having four kids."
"Whatever, Zac." She looked up at him. "Doesn't that scare you?"
"Doesn't what scare me?"
"That you're sixteen years old, on a first date and already we're talking about getting married and having kids," she said. He shrugged.
"No. Not really," he said. "I guess it's just you. I'm sure when I was on my first date with my last girlfriend and we talked about this kind of stuff I would have run out the door." She giggled. "I don't know. You're different."
"I like to think I'm mighty different."
"You are. I don't think I've ever dated someone as out there as you are. I don't think I've ever even met someone who's had a tattoo before."
"Really? And you call me conservative!"
"That was before I knew you."
"You still don't know me now."
"I think I know you a little bit better than most people do. I'm sure you don't go around telling people you've got social services breathing down your neck." She shrugged, glancing around.
"I guess you're just different."
"I like to think I'm mighty different."
"That is true. You're Mr. Big Shot hanging out in a Village Inn with an orphan girl who's got problems up the wazoo, a tongue ring, and four tattoos."
"Four?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Really? I've only seen one."
"There's one on the bottom of my foot I just got done, but it'll only last six months because of where it's located, that says 'made in Japan.' "
"Why?"
"Because I was born in Japan and I think that's the funniest ish I've ever seen in my life."
"Okay, whatever�"
"Then there's the one on my lower back, it's some Chinese symbols but I won't tell you what it says, and there's another one that you'll just have to find out on your own," she said, grinning mischievously at him.
"Really?" he asked. "When will I get to see that one?"
"That's more of a second or third date thing�"
"Well, if you want to be technical, we could consider the party our first date, being that we did up spending the night together and all�" She shook her head. "Aww, come on, I'm curious now!"
"You'll just have to stay in town a little longer." He began to think.
"How about�how about I take you home and we go out tonight? Would that be a second date?"
"How easy do you think I am?" she asked, sitting up straight. "Just because I let you do what you did that first night doesn't mean I'm going to let you again right away. I wasn't thinking right."
"What were you thinking then?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She shook her head and looked away. "Oh, come on, tell me."
"No. No I don't think I want to tell you," she said. The humor in her voice had gone and she seemed a bit ashamed of herself. She pushed her plate away. "Well, I'm done. Are we still on for tonight or�?"
"Tell me."
"You don't want to know."
"Yes I do." She sighed, sitting back, her hands still wrapped around her warm mug of tea. "What, do you think I'll get offended?" She nodded. "I promise I won't."
"You can't promise anything. I don't know how you're going to react and neither do you. I wouldn't make a promise you couldn't keep." He gave her a look. "All right, I'll tell you. I'm not proud of it and it's not what I think now, but I saw you at that party and once I realized you were looking back at me I was in awe of you. Hey, this is Zac Hanson, the little drummer boy from the band that I've had a crush on for the past five years, let me make out with him and tell all my friends�" Zac looked away. "I was going to let you go all the way with me but you didn't and I appreciate that. Once you stopped my view on you changed and I forgot about what I was thinking before."
"So basically you just wanted to hook up with me to brag to your friends that you slept with Zac Hanson?" he asked, looking back at her.
"Pretty much."
"Well�I have to say I thought better of you."
"So did I." He didn't say anything in response to that. She sighed and looked down at her almost finished pancakes. She wasn't hungry any longer.