Disclaimer: Fox owns it, not me. No profit has been gained by writing this. No harm was intended.
Seth used to be an observant kid--a trait apparently inherited from his mother--until he started to see what was going on, until that shit started to hurt. Then, he just blocked it all out. Selective memory was better for your sanity, anyways.
It sweats in his hand, little beads of water diffusing from the cold plastic of the cup where they would have been safe, still part of the whole. Maybe they're out there, screaming in their little water drop voices for reentrance at the plastic that holds a grudge, that they only left to see what it was like, beyond. Like his mom had when she left home to live in New York and ended up with a 'bad boy'--Seth scoffs to think of his dad like that--working off student loans. Maybe the water drops were on the rebound and running away, like Mom had when she went slumming and ended up pregnant. Yeah, they don't think Seth knows he was their fuck up, but, then, they've always underestimated him.
Seth really doubts his dad minds the predicament he got himself into. Living in a swank house, he could be every little punk's messiah and still live comfortably, have a beautiful wife that his dick of a brother is jealous of. What does he think, though, when she's looking at Marissa's dad like that? It's so fucking obvious, to everyone but Sandy.
Or maybe the water drops are like him, and they just kind of…got pushed out, not a conscious choice or anything. Maybe the other drops exiled them like Seth was, albeit less subtly than in his case. Well, in some instances. And less lonely than Seth is, because when it comes right down to it, Seth is the only kid the brats from his fenced-in neighborhood like to pick on, and the drops have each other, and Mom had Dad, even if it's in the place of someone else.
So Seth cleans off the side of the plastic cup with the end of his shirt and leaves it on the table to go play a game. Life's just easier when you like that.
So maybe Seth can't make his memory as selective as he likes, but he tries. Really hard. And, maybe, if he hopes and prays enough, the fairy tale his parents think they live in will come true.