Settle Down, Settle Up

I don't own these characters and neither do you

I'll write another chapter if you guys like it. If not, I'll scrap it and go with a different storyline.

"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down." - Woody Allen, Love and Death

Cappie hated Rebecca Logan from the moment he saw her. She seemed to him to be a female version of Evan, rich and spolied. A real bitch. She wore pearls and sweaters and pastels. So, it wasn't hard at all to join Casey in her crusade against Rebecca. His hate for her came from a place of not only hate for Evan, but love for Casey. His feelings for Casey lay inside him like fire. It hurt less if he directed that burning away from the angst-ridden romance between them and more towards a mutual hate for Rebecca. He relished every mean thing Casey said about Rebecca partly because she relished everything Casey said period, but partly because as she spoke, it seemed as though she was not only chiding Rebecca, but everything she represented. Getting ahead, using people, polos. All these represented things that Casey had left Cappie for.They all represented something which might make her take him back.

He really needed to stop doing that. Everything he though about seemed to come back to Casey and a weak attempt at convincing himself that they had a future together. This snapped Cappie back into reality. He was sitting on a couch at the Kappa Tau, next to a large brown stain that looked new. He decided to get up and walk into the kitchen before he could find out what it was. As he walked through the hall, surrounded by people he loved and people he'd love to know, he drifted out of his brooding and into an elated manic state that people had come to expect from him at these crazy parties. When he reached the kitchen, he quickly grabbed an old cup from sink and rinsed it out since there were no more clean Dixie cups in sight. He opened the fridge and grabbed some of his good whiskey from behind some TV dinners, pouring it generously into some Coke.

"Could I steal some of that?" he heard from behind. He almost dropped the bottle in surprise. The voice sounded nervous and weak, yet somehow sexy.

"Sure. You sound like you need it more than-", he turned and right before him was Rebecca. She looked smaller than he had set her in his head, not nearly as menacing. She wore jeans and a plain white T shirt with pearls, her hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail.

"Thanks. Sorry, I just...well"

"More of a whiskey girl?" he asked, raising his eyebrow. Was he flirting with her? He had, hadn't he? She smiled and tilted her head slightly, pulling away from the energy between them.

"No. I just. I had a terrible day and I think I'm going to have a worse one tomorrow" The way she said it made him want to help her. He handed her the drink he had already made and washed a cup of his own to make another. When he turned back around, she was still there, the drink cupped in her hand. She was staring down into it completely in her own world.

"Still here?" he said. It came out harsh and stern, as if he were telling her to leave. He couldn't help but stand up a little for Casey since Rebecca had done her so wrong.

"I'm sorry" she said, still staring into the cup. "I'm just...you're the only person I really know here. I mean, I don't really know you, but I know who you are through Casey"
Her name stung Cappie, jolting him further into his anger.

"Why are you here, then?"

She smiled, but her eyes still seemed sad. Suddenly she look up at him and, as quietly as possible, she sighed.
"I guess I just. I belong...I mean here as much as I...belong here as much as I belong there, right?" Looking at her, he realized she was already fairly tipsy. Her words had come out in a stream that he had to untangle to make out what she was saying.
"Aren't you like, the ZBZ prototype?" Cappie asked, looking at her pristine outfit.

"No" she said, looking right into his eyes. "I'm not. I came to college and thought that I could be who I wanted to. I thought I could wear sweatpants and sleep through class and eat popcorn with friends. But that's not what ZBZ is about. I have this thing...I always try to impress people. Not, I mean, not make them like me really...but respect me. I guess I got it from my Dad. So, I wake up in the morning and I feel like I want to wear a big T-shirt and some workout shorts, but when I put them on, I don't have the courage to go out. I feel like if people see a crack in me they'll just try to get at it and tear me down. It feels like a frilly warzone" She looked up again and saw that Cappie had leaned against the bar, looking away. "Sorry" she said, embaressed. "You just seem to be more, I don't know...flippant about it. About what people think of you. And, they still love you"
Cappie realized she was right. He felt a little proud for a second, but he also felt for Rebecca. He hadn't really realized she was a real person. He racked his brain, trying to be angry at her again. Once he found that anger he unleashed it on her.

"Well, I guess it's not a great welcoming gift to sleep with someone's boyfriend"

"People keep saying that. It's really not fair" now she was angry. The cold shell that he usually saw around her had returned." I mean, I didn't even know he had a girlfriend until afterwards. He never mentioned her. Casey's always the victim, right? Well, she's the one who just forgave Evan and hates me even though HE'S the one who fucked up. It's retarded. He's the one who should be in trouble. Who people should hate. She's the one who should be embarrassed. She's the one who couldn't...couldn't...whatever. Fuck it"

Cappie knew she was right and they'd both finished their drinks so he quickly grabbed the bottle and walked outside.

"You coming or what?" he asked as he opened the door to the backyard.

Her face lit up as she followed him outside to a picnic table. They swigged straight from the bottle. After a while, they lay table and swapped stories about their past, his involving crazy hippie parents and hers involving conservative cleancut ones. Though they were totally different, they seemed to bond over a joint feeling of spite that their parents had given them a life devoid of "normalcy". Each had spent a lot of their childhood just wanting to be an average kid. They laughed and their cheeks flushed with whiskey and maybe a little more. Cappie could feel himself looking more at Rebecca's lips and chest...at the strong muscles of her arms.

"I have to stop getting crushes on Casey's boys" she said, giggling. She was so drunk now, she didn't even known what she was saying.

"Good thing I'm not Casey's" Cappie leaned towards her. Even as he said it it wasn't true. Saying that made him realize how true it was. He WAS Casey's. He felt like his relationship with Casey was a burning building...he just had to find some way to escape. As he looked down at Rebecca, he began to see her lips, opening ever so slightly like a cracked window.

He took his chance and grabbed her lower lip between his, sucking on it gently. As Rebecca tiled her head and deepened the kiss, Cappie closed his eyes and tried his best not to pretend he was kissing Casey. It almost worked.

Okay, this is my first fan fic. Tell me what you think... if you like it I'll keep writing. There should be more CC in coming chapters...just to stir things up a little!