Summary: This is a rewrite of A Very Different County. Same premise just better basically. The story has been changed but not in whole. For those of you who have not read A Very Different County: it is Alex who is adopted by the Cohens not Ryan. This is about her life in the pool house. The story follows season one in a very basic way. Dialogue is different and the stories have been changed to fit Alex as the central charicter.
Disclaimer: Non of the characters are mine nor do I claim them to be.
A/N: Please review. I am a feedback whore.
A VERY DIFFERENT COUNTY
The Begining
I'd been following my brother for a good hour before he found one that really caught his attention. The street we were in was dark and the only windows facing onto it were either broken or boarded up. Trey took a final look around the area before pulling out a crow bar.
"I'm your big brother." He smiled, raising the crow bar higher. "If I don't teach you this who will?" He laughed as he smashed in the driver's window of the abandoned car.
"I don't know, Trey." I told him as I watched him climb in. This was the third car he'd stolen this week, but the first one where he'd insisted I came along for the ride.
"Quit being a little bitch." He yelled from his position in the driver's seat. "Get in!" I slammed his door shut and raced round to the other side.
I had two choices I realised as I opened the passenger's door. 1) I got in the car and rode with him to where ever he takes the damn cars and hopefully I get a share of his cash. Or 2) I stay on the side walk and either get mugged, raped or both on the way home and wait for Trey to come home and then beat me some more. Reluctantly I got in.
"Yeah, come on!" He laughed.
He was the lesser of two evils.
Just the only thing with the lesser of two evils is that it is at the end of the day, still an evil. This was made abundantly clear to me when I slammed the door shut a cop car drove past us. This just spurred on my brother more, looking at me and laughing he simply hot wired the engine, the noise of it forcing the police car to see us. It started up its sirens just as Trey sped off, in tern prompting the cops to follow us.
"You should see your face, man." Trey said, laughing at me staring back at the car chasing us. "Whoo! Yeah!" He screamed.
He just continued to laugh as another police car blocked our path, simply turning to avoid crashing into it and speeding down a new road, just as dark and dingy as the one we'd just turned out of. However, this one had yet another cop car lurking in it.
This one refused to play Trey's came however and simply smashed into the side of us, forcing us out of the chase and into a somewhat sturdier object then the hood of the car Trey had stolen.
"Fuck!" I yelled at him, slamming my hands down on the dash, as the other two cars caught up and the cops started to clime out and reach for their guns. "Now what?!" I spat at him, but then I realised there was no choice this time as I watched him step out of the car and hold up his hands. I simply followed once more.
Jail's not how they depict on TV. Its less high school and more 1950's, what with the massive racial divide, which nobody would be stupid enough to cross. If you're black you hang with blacks, Hispanic you stick with the Hispanics. I simply just tried to keep my head low and pray I got out before I graduated. Though another thing I learned about prison is that keeping your head down is easier said then done.
Most the girls in prison with me wanted to prove they were the biggest bitch in there, each with their own posse and desire to big up their 'rep'. It was therefore a relief when a guard came into my cell and told me that the state had found me a lawyer. I was frog-marched into the visitors sector where there was just one guy sat at the long table with papers spread in front of him.
As the guard took my handcuffs off the guy stood up and held out his hand:
"Alex. I'm Sandy Cohen. The court's appointed me your public defender." I looked him up and down, ignoring his hand as I did so, then simply sat down on the stall opposite. "You could do worse." He said, taking his seat again, "You okay? They treating you alright?"
"Where's my brother?"
"Ah…" He said slowly, looking back down at his files, "Trey is over 18, Trey stole a car, Trey had a gun in his pants and an ounce of pot in his jacket-"
"I knew he was high," I mumbled.
"And a couple of priors." He continued. "I'm guessing that right now Trey is looking at three to five years. But Trey's not my concern. This is your first time in lockup. I would assume you don't plan on coming back." He paused, I don't know if he was waiting for a response, but he didn't get one. "Your grades are... not great, suspended twice for fighting, truancy three times..." He looked back up at me, surprise evident in his eyes, "Your test scores ... 98th percentile on your SAT ones. Alex, 98th percentile, if you start going to class... Are you thinking about going to college?"
"Yeah," I told him, "I'm thinking about Yale, then Harvard for law school, wait a few years and then I'm thinking about running for president."
"Can you cut the crap?" He asked me, clearly my sarcasm was obvious. "I'm on your side. Come on; help me out here-"
"You wanna cut the crap?" I asked him, leaning down on the table so I was closer to him. "Modern medicine is advancing to the point where the average human life span will be one hundred. But I read this article that said social security's supposed to run out by the year 2025, which means people are going to have to stay at their jobs until they're…" I calculated it quickly, "eighty. So forgive me for not wanting to rush into any decision making." I told him.
He simply shook his head. "Look, I can plea this down to a misdemeanour." I looked him in the eye properly for the first time when he said this. "Petty fine, probation. But know this: stealing a car 'cause your big brother told you to - it's stupid, and it's weak. Now those are two things you can't afford to be anymore."
"I'll add them to the list." I went back to muttering at him.
"Do you want to change that?" He asked me, forcing me to look away. "Then you have to get over the fact that life dealt you a bad hand." He obviously managed to cotton on to the reason why I could no longer hold his gaze. "I get it. We're cut from the same deck, Alex. I grew up no money, bad part of the Bronx, my father was gone, my mother worked all the time. I was pissed off; I was stupid."
"And you manage to over come all that? I wonder who will play you in the movie." I smiled sarcastically at him.
"You're smart enough to be able to have your own movie made about you." I raised my eyebrows at him. "Okay," he waved his hand, "forget I said that. I just mean, a smart kid like you? If you put half as much effort into your future as you did into your sarcasm…" he paused. "You must have some kind of a dream at least." He pushed.
"Where I come from," I looked him back in the eyes, "people don't know enough to be able to tell you who Martin Luther King was, let alone be able to tell you about their dreams." He simply sighed and went back to going over my papers, shaking his head every so often.
"My office will contact you to remind you the date for your hearing." Cohen told me, standing outside Juvie whilst I waited for Mom to pick me up.
"I'll remember." I grunted, feeling my pockets for my cigarettes, which apparently the guards stole when they took my clothes. "Damn cops."
"Wh-" Cohen started to ask before he got distracted by my mother driving up onto the curb.
"Unbelievable!" She barely waited to get out of the car before she started yelling at me. "What kinda family I got, huh? What the hell did I do to deserve this family? You want to tell me that?"
"Whatever. You don't care, I was in there a week and you didn't bother to even visit." I yelled back at her.
"What you say to me?" She stepped round the hood and I think she would have hit me, had Mr Cohen not stepped in the way and held out his hand.
"Mrs. Atwood?" He asked, "I'm Sandy Cohen. I'm Alex's attorney."
"You should have left her there." She told him, ignoring his hand, just like I had. "Just like her Dad's doing. Just like her brother's gonna." Cohen just turned and looked at me, I could have sworn there was almost pity in his eyes. "Let's go Alex. Now, Alex!" She repeated, raising her tone, when I didn't move before.
"I'm going to give you my card." Mr Cohen reached into his pocket and handed me a small piece of card. "My home number, you know, if you need something, if things get to be too much, call me."
I took his card as Mom got into the driver's seat and started yelling at me once more:
"Let's go!"
"All right!" I yelled back, pocketing the card and wrenching open the car door.
Home was just as I'd left it the week before. AJ in chair before the TV watching football, dirty plates in the kitchen and an open bottle of anything alcoholic on the counter.
"I can't do this anymore, Alex." Mom told me, pouring herself a drink, at least she was bothering to use a glass today. "I can't." She shook her head before taking a drink.
"I'm sorry, Mom."
"I want you out of my house." I looked at her for the first time since I'd re-entered the house. "I want you out!"
"But Mom," there were tears in my eyes, "where am I going to go?"
"You heard your mother, man." AJ joined in the discussion not looking away from the TV, "Get your stuff and get out."
"Stay out of it!" I snapped back at him, wiping my eyes quickly before either of them could see how they effected me.
"Alex don't talk to him like that." Mom said pouring herself another drink.
"I just wish he'd stop yelling at me and worry about his own fucking kids." I raised my voice for the last bit to make sure he was still listening.
"What you say to me?" He asked, actually caring enough to get out of his chair.
"You heard me." I said, looking him straight in the eyes, refusing to back down this time.
"Oh you think you're one of the guys now you've been in the slammer do you?" He scoffed.
"You've been in there enough times, you tell me!"
"We'll put it too the test shall we?" He smirked, before his fist collided with my face.
You got to respect a guy that hits sixteen-year-old girls. I felt my lip for blood, before swinging back at him.
"HEY!" Mom shouted as he pushed me into the counter, hitting me over and over again. I think she was more pissed about dropping her glass, from the shock of it, rather than actually caring about my well being.
When I could finally shake AJ off me, or rather when he got bored of hitting me, I got up and walked into my room, slamming my door behind me. I threw open my wardrobe doors and pulled out as many clothes as I could fit into my school bag, before walking back out into the living room (finding AJ back in his chair and Mom still drinking and smoking) and out the front door.
I picked up my bike, relieved it hadn't been stolen whilst I was away, and cycled out the yard and to the nearest pay phone. I rang everyone I could think of, even my ex, hoping to find a place to crash, but no one would take me or rather no one's parents would take me given that I'd been kicked out because I'd got in trouble with the law. Yeah like I was the bad influence.
It wasn't until I delved into my pocket hoping to find more quarters, when I found his card, his home number messily scrawled on the back. He was officially my last prayer, not that I believed in God.
"Told you." He smiled out his window, when he pulled up an hour later, "You could do worse." He got out his car and surveyed me sitting on the low wall outside the local 7-Eleven, guarding my bike. "This all your stuff." I nodded grimly. "Come on lets get your bike in the trunk and I'll take you back to mine."
"Thanks." I told him, shouldering my bag and wheeling my bike to the back of his car.
"No problem." He simply took my bike and after laying down a towel, placed it in the back of his car before pulling down the door as far as it would go. "If you hear a crash as we head down the freeway, you know you've lost your bike."
"Will you buy me a new one?" I smiled at him.
"Don't push your luck." He smiled back before getting in.
"This is a nice car." I told him, as I sat beside him. "I didn't know your kind of lawyer made money."
"No, we don't. My wife does." He smiled at me, before pulling off.
"Will she buy me a new bike?"
"I'll let you ask her." He laughed at me.
We made the rest of the ride in silence, only the sounds of the radio drowning out the noise of the traffic surrounding us on the freeway. I simply looked out the window watching the scenery change. It wasn't until was pulled into a gated community did I realise that the journey was over.
He stopped the car in the drive of one of the more modest sized mansions. He opened the door and it was only when I was about to do the same did he think about me.
"Um, you know, why don't you wait here for a minute? I'll be back." He told me.
I watched him pull out his keys, leaving an awkward silence when the music shut off. I rolled my eyes "It's my brother that steals cars, not me."
"Sorry." He said quietly putting the keys back in the engine and allowing me the music once more.
After waiting like five minutes for him to come out, I got restless and stepped out of the car. I felt my pockets and was pleased to remember I hadn't smoked the whole pack whilst I waited for Mr Cohen to pick me up. I got out of the car and walked down to the end of the drive.
I looked around at all the houses as I lit up my cigarette. I couldn't believe it; I had really lucked out. One minute I'm in a jump-suit, which are never flattering, then I'm standing in Orange County. If only it hadn't taken my whole world abandoning me for me to get there.
"Who are you?" I turned to see this tall brunette standing in the driveway next door.
I exhaled and watched the smoke leave my mouth in a satisfyingly straight line. I couldn't believe that I hadn't spotted her before when I was looking around the place. "Uh, Alex."
"Marissa." The girl smiled before looking me up and down. "Hey, can I bum a cigarette?"
"Uh, sure." I took out the pack from my pocket and handed one of the remaining ones to her. She looked at me, waiting for a lighter, I moved in closer, and offered her the lit end of mine. Once she'd managed to light hers I walked back.
Smiling she inhaled deeply. "So, what are you doing here."
"Right now?" I inhaled and exhaled once more. "Smoking."
"No, seriously."
"Seriously?" I took another drag from my cigarette and started walking back to her. "I, uh, stole a car. Crashed it." I shrugged, "Actually my brother did. Since he had a gun and drugs on him he's in jail. I got out and my Mom threw me out. She was pissed off and drunk." I waved my hand, causing my cigarette to burn orangy-red patches of light into the night, "So Mr. Cohen took me in."
She watched me, assessing me, trying to figure out whether or not I was speaking the truth.
"You're that cousin from Boston right?"
I thought about it for a moment, figuring out which would be easier trying to convince her that she really was meeting a girl just out of jail or that I was this cousin, apparently from Boston. I ended up simply nodding at her as I took yet another drag.
"Hi Marissa!" I turned to find Cohen walking down the drive and turned back and I watched as the girl tried to throw away her cigarette as discreetly as possible.
"Hey Mr Cohen." She smiled at him. "I was just meeting your niece."
He looked confused for a bit, before he cottoned onto who I'd agreed to be. "Oh. My favourite niece, Alex," he slapped me on the back. "All the way from Seattle."
"Seattle?" She questioned.
"Dad lives there. Mom lives in Boston." I made up quickly.
"Hmm."
"So we're all really excited about your fashion show fund-raiser tomorrow night." Mr Cohen said, after a break in the conversation.
"Really? You are." She smiled at him.
Cohen ran a hand through is hair, taking a deep breath, "No."
She laughed at his honesty. She was enchanting and I'd only been talking to her for a few minutes. She opened her mouth to reply but quickly shut it again when a truck pulled up next to us. A blonde boy, wearing a stupid white shell necklace rolled down the window and shouted out at her:
"Come on. Let's go!"
The girl looked at me before heading towards the truck, "Hey, you should come by, check it out. If you don't have other plans." She smiled at me again. "See you." She told Cohen as she pulled open the door and climbed up into the truck.
"Good night." Sandy replied.
I watched her kiss the driver, 'Who's that kid?' I heard him ask, once they'd pulled apart and before he drove off.
"Let's go inside." Cohen put an arm around me, steering me back towards the house, encouraging me to stop staring at the truck speeding away. He looked at my cigarette, still smoking away, "Uh, there's no smoking in this house." I threw it aside polluting the dark sky with red sparks. He ran back down to put it out as I just carried on walking.
When I woke up in the morning it took me a while to remember that I wasn't at home or in jail, but rather in the pool house of my lawyer. I pulled on the clothes I'd worn the day before and walked out into the fresh light of the new day, forcing me to blink as my eyes tried to adjust to the brightness.
I looked around, taking in the giant house, the pool and the view. It was amazing everything was just so big. The hills were green, the ocean blue. It was like I'd stepped out of my life and into some sort of Disney life, where everything is perfect 'cept for like a dad that works to much and never has time for his kids.
I literally pinched myself to check that this was all real and that I hadn't just drunk too much and simply in some alcohol induced dream.
I entered the main house to find some teenage boy sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV playing a video game. I watched him staring at me. He looked about my age I guess, just scrawny and very geeky looking, with his black curly hair and this dumb alert expression, not to mention his jerkiness.
"Hey." He nodded at me after we'd clearly finished looking each other up and down.
"Hey." I nodded back at him.
"Do you want to play?"
"What game?"
"Pro Ninja Fighter VI."
"You get pro ninjas?" I asked him sitting down.
"Well, yeah." He passed me a controller, "You didn't think they did it for free, did you?"
"I've never really thought about ninjas all that much actually."
"Strange." He said quietly as he started up a multi-player game.
"Oh, looks like someone's trying to be a hero but you got a little cocky. X O, X O it's an unbeatable combination. Oh, oh,..." The kid was practically bouncing next to me. "OH! What happened to your head, dude? Where did it go? I'm sorry did someone die?" And he also didn't seem to need to pause for breath like normal kids. "Oh, hey, do you want to play Grand Theft Auto? It's pretty cool, you can like, steal cars..." He stopped suddenly, the look of fear on his face was almost cute. "Not that that's cool. Or uncool, I don't know, um-"
"It's pretty much like the game actually. 'Cept you loose your cigarettes, not your money, once you get released."
"Really?" He smiled at me.
"Yeah I was not impressed."
Sandy came in with a load of groceries, before I could tell him anymore about jail. "I see you two have met." He smiled at us sat in front of the TV. "Seth, what are you doing inside on this beautiful day? Why don't you show Alex around?"
"Okay, cause it's so great around here. There's so much to do, Dad." I liked this kid; his use of sarcasm was almost as regular as mine. He turned to me, "I don't know, unless, what do you want to do?"
"What do you guys do around here?" I shrugged at him.
I hate boats. I seem to get seasick from just looking at them, and Seth's was no exception to this. I guess I just never got a chance to get acclimatised to them, you know living in the city and all. At the first break in his constant talking about Autumn I asked if we could possibly go back to shore.
Sandy was walking down the hill to the beach just as Seth was rolling up his sails and I was trying not to throw up.
"Hey, you two." He called, oblivious to my heaving. "I thought we'd head over to the fashion show at about seven."
"Yeah, have fun." Seth deadpanned, not turning away from his boat.
"Come on. It's a whole new school year, Seth."
"It's also the same kids, Dad." He sighed, finishing doing, what ever it was he was doing with his boat. "Why do they even need a fashion show? Every day's a fashion show for these people."
"Yeah, well Alex has to go." Sandy just shrugged at him. "Marissa invited her."
I was sat on the beach, letting the conversation pretty much just drift over me, as I tried to focus on something that wasn't my nausea, when Seth dragged me into it.
"Marissa invited you?" He looked at me, as I slowly stood up, holding my stomach as I did. "I've lived next door to Marissa for like, forever. Her dad almost got married to my mom even, and, like, she's never even invited me to a birthday party." I raised my eyebrows at him.
"That is not true." Sandy interjected. "They did not almost get married."
"Eh." Seth dismissed him.
"Hey," I shrugged, still holding onto my stomach, "maybe Autumn will be there."
"Try the season before." He told me.
"Huh?"
"Sum-mer." He said slowly. "Her name is Summer."
"Oh."
"But that is interesting. She is Marissa's best friend." He paused, clearly thinking the situation through "Seven?" He asked Mr Cohen.
"Seven." He nodded.
"Seven." Seth smiled at me before walking up the hill his father had just walked down.
"You alright, Kid?" Mr Cohen asked me walking over and putting his arm around me.
"Uh huh." I nodded before my insides fled my body via my mouth and I threw up on his shoes. "Sorry Mr Cohen." I said sheepishly, still holding my stomach.
"Please, call me Sandy." He smiled, shaking the worst of it off before walking me up the hill after Seth.
I stood in front of the mirror; I couldn't believe that it was me I was looking at.
Kirsten had lent me one of her dresses. It was this long elegant black thing, made of a material I'd never even heard of but was positive cost more than my house, it had thin straps and amazingly didn't clash with the purple streak I'd put in my hair like a month before. I hadn't worn a dress since I was seven, I don't do dresses, I mean its nearly impossible to look hard when you're in a dress and you can never run as fast.
But as I looked at myself, I couldn't help but smiling, I mean I looked quite nice.
"Wow." I turned round to find Sandy smiling at me from the doorway. "Look at that. It fits you beautifully. Turn around." I spun for him, causing the bottom of the dress to flare up slightly, which in turn made me giggle a little. (I never giggle, I blame the dress!) "Look at you." I looked back at my reflection with Sandy standing behind me. "Huh? Beats a jump-suit." I smirked at him and watched him leave, before going back to looking at myself in the mirror.
I was a long way from home. I mean, I knew I wasn't in Chino, but it wasn't until I stepped into the fashion show- party thing, did I realise just how out of Chino I was. I was stood surrounded by all these Newport folks, all dressed up, smiling. They looked happy, almost anyway.
A waiter came up and offered hors d'oeuvres to me:
"Mushroom leek crescent? Crab and Brie phyllo?"
I picked up one of the things he'd just told me he had, no able to distinguish between then and popped it in my mouth. And then quickly spat it back out into my hand.
"Welcome to the dark side." Seth laughed in my ear, as I looked round for somewhere to dump my half-chewed appetiser.
"I blame your boat for this." I told him walking off in search of a napkin, a trashcan or simply a bush.
"Oh, so, you must be the cousin from Boston, hmm?" A woman asked me as I was wiping my hand on a napkin at the bar. "I don't know how you do it. I could just never live there. I hate the cold."
"Well, you, uh, get used to it." I frowned at her, not knowing who the hell she was or even why she was talking to me. "Excuse me." I pointed to somewhere that she wasn't and quickly headed in that direction.
"Do you... like Seattle?" Another woman asked me as I tried to get to the non-specific place I'd pointed to. "I mean all that rain, isn't it depressing?"
"Umbrella's are pretty much like purses in Washington." I told this one. "Excuse me I think I see my friend waving to me."
I walked so quickly away from her that I didn't notice that I'd walked into someone else.
"Oh sorry." I said looking up at one of the few people I recognised at the party.
"Its okay." The girl did that smile thing again.
"You, uh, have to help me." I told her, looking over my shoulder and seeing the woman still looking at me as if ready to ask more questions about a city I'd never been to. "Women keep talking to me and I don't know how to make them stop."
"Well, uh," she looked around. "Me and my friend Summer are hanging out in the changing rooms if you want to join." She shrugged.
"Will women ask me about Seattle in there?"
"Maybe, but there's a lesser concentration of them." She said, all the time still smiling, "plus," she waved her purse, "I've got alcohol."
"I'm so in." I smiled back at her. "Sorry, what did you say your name was again?"
"Marissa." She said simply taking my hand and leading me out of the main party and into the building.
"I'm Alex." I told her as I followed her through the people to a toilet.
"Yeah I know, I can remember names." She laughed as she pushed open the door to reveal a short brunette applying lipstick.
"Look what I stole!" The short girl held up two glasses filled with either wine or champagne, knowing the guests at the party it was probably champagne, proudly.
"Look what I stole." Marissa smiled as she pulled out a substantial bottle of vodka from her purse.
"Alright!" She laughed. "Here." She handed Marissa one of the glasses before drinking from her own.
"Thanks." Marissa smiled, sipping from it. "Summer this is Alex, by the way. Alex this is Summer. You think you can remember that?" She laughed at me, passing me her wine or champagne to sip from.
"I can give it a go." I smiled back at her, as I hopped onto the counter.
"Alex is staying here from either Boston or Seattle."
"There's a pretty big difference, Coop." Summer laughed, but strangely looking at me rather than Marissa.
"Mom lives in Seattle, Dad lives in Boston."
"I thought you said it was the other way round?" Marissa looked at me, taking back her glass and promptly draining it.
"Whatever," Summer waved her off. "So what are you doing in Newport?"
"I'm, uh, staying with the Cohen's."
"Cool." She smiled, not even taking her eyes off me as she sipped from her glass. "So you're coming to the party afterwards right?"
"Party?"
"Yeah our friend Holly's throwing a party at her parent's beach house. You have to come." She smiled at me. "Doesn't she Coop?"
Marissa looked up from refilling her glass with vodka. "Yeah."
"Cool." I smiled at them.
When the girls got called out of their toilet for the fashion bit of the fashion show I wondered back out into the main bit to find everyone now seated round tables. I looked for Seth and was horrified to find him sitting at the kid's table.
"Where you been?" he asked me as I slipped into the chair next to him.
"I was in the toilet with Marissa and Summer?"
"Dude, you should totally see the picture going on inside my head." He smiled at me. "If only you were gay!"
"Yeah." I half smiled back at him, looking round at the kids staring at us. "You do know this is the kid's table right?" I whispered in his ear.
"Yeah."
"Okay." I nodded, picking up a menu.
"Thank you, thank you." Marissa speaking into a microphone took my attention away from the menu and to the stage. "Thank you all so much for coming. Every year we put on a fashion show to raise money for the battered woman's shelter. It's such a good cause you guys and we couldn't do any of it without your support and the support of Fashion Island and all their great stores. All right, enjoy the show!" She smiled one more time before relinquishing the stage to Summer who walked out in a different outfit and with a lot more makeup on.
"She has Tahiti written all over her." Seth told me, not taking his eyes off her.
"She does look pretty hot." I conceded, looking up at her too, but strangely I found that, unlike with Seth, she met my gaze.
After about an hour of girls walking up and down the cat walk in stupidly expensive dresses, the fashion show drew to a close.
"So I was invited to a party, now. You wanna come?"
"How come you've been here less than a day and you're already getting more invites than I have my entire life?" Seth asked me as we hung around out front.
"Cause I'm so much cooler and hotter than you?" He looked me up and down. "Please do not check me out. That would just be weird." I told him, slapping him away.
"Why?" He asked.
"Well I'm gay for a start."
"You are?"
"Its not obvious?" I frowned at him.
"Apparently not." Suddenly his facial expression changed and he did that jittery, bouncy thing he'd been doing when I'd found him playing video games. "So when you were in the toilets with Marissa and Summer?"
"Sorry, we were just drinking."
"Oh no," he smiled, "that's good, cause I- I-, with Summer-"
"I wouldn't get your hopes up, I think she was checking me out."
"Summer?" he laughed, "No way. She's like the straightest straight girl since, like, Barbie."
"Do know Barbie's gay right?"
"No she's not, she's like married to Ken."
"She was gay whenever I played with her." I shrugged.
"Weird and oddly erotic images in my head."
"Ew!" I hit him round the back of the head. "Not like that you perv."
"So this party?" He said, rubbing his head and clearly trying to change the subject before I hit him again.
We hitched a ride with some of the other teenagers that were at the fashion showy thing, most of them either calling Seth 'queer' or ignoring him completely for the entirety of the drive. When we pulled up, I discovered just how poor I was given that even these people's beach houses were bigger than my home.
Seth and I followed the others in and I was appalled to hear that they had some cheesy hip-hop playing, yet was pleased to see alcohol everywhere. My mom would have died and gone to AA heaven if she could have seen it. There was a table full of bongs, people snorting drugs of the table, while the stoned brats just sat and giggled. I watched a guy dancing put his hand under a girl's shirt, whilst another dancing girl took off her dress. These people were classy.
"Now this is the dark side." I smiled at Seth, taking it all in, before I hit him on the chest with the back of my hand and made for him to follow me through the party.
We passed drunken sluts throwing themselves over those preppy rich boys. It was sickening. None of them could handle their drink. Seth was following me slowly muttering something about cocaine. Out side there was yet more booze, they had way too much money if they could spend what can only be described as 'rent money' on alcohol. Some of the guys were throwing sticks onto the fire to keep it going, with girls hanging onto them thinking they were cool for knowing how to make fire!
"What next the wheel?" I asked Seth as we made our way over to the keg.
"I hear its in its final stages of development." He laughed as he passed me a plastic cup for me to fill up for him. "So I'm going to find Summer." He told me, once I'd handed him back his cup, "prove she's not a lesbian."
"Prove who's not a lesbian?" We turned to see Marissa, standing next to us.
"Uh, your friend, Summer." I smiled weakly.
"Oh no," she shook her head, taking my cup away from me and sipping from it. "She's totally straight."
"See man," Seth smiled triumphantly, "and now I'm going to find her." He told me holding up his cup as a toast before walking back into the house and the main party.
"So, what do you think of Newport?" Marissa asked me handing me back my cup.
"I think I can get in less trouble where I'm from." I was caught in her eyes. They were glistening green, I don't know if she was pleased to see me there or just plain drunk. But her eyes were shining.
"Now, where exactly are you from?" She asked.
"Hey, Coop!" One of the girls shouted from inside the party. "It's your turn to deal." My attention instantly went to the Pokka game going on with yet more semi naked girls.
"By the way, about that trouble," she smiled, "you have no idea!" She said to me before she walked off to join in the game. I simply stood in the doorway, between the beach and the party and watched her join her friends. She seemed so at ease with herself, the way she just flitted from one activity to another. She seemed to genuinely enjoy life and I envied her because of it.
"You made it." Summer smiled at me, joining me at the door.
"Yeah, though I do feel somewhat over dressed." I smiled back, looking over her body covered only by a bikini and a mini skirt.
"Are you checking me out?" She asked me.
"You were checking me out earlier." I said simply, sipping from my drink.
"Tell anyone and you're dead." She hissed. I simply ran a finger across my lips, as if zipping them closed. "They better be." She warned, recognising the action.
"Now why bother admitting checking me out," I whispered in her ear, "if you don't want anyone to think you're the slightest bit gay."
"You wanna just shut up already and meet me in the bathroom and make out?"
"Now what kind of a girl would I be if I said yes to that?" I laughed at her.
"You'd be a bitch," I heard Seth's voice turned to see him glaring at me, "who should just go back to Chino and start stealing cars again."
"Seth," I laughed, "you're over reacting to eves-dropping on only half a conversation."
"Over reacting?" he practically spat the words back at me. "I named my boat after her."
"Who are you?" Summer asked him, confused by the whole turn of events.
"DYKE!" Seth yelled at her before storming off onto the beach.
"You have fun with this." I smiled at her, pointing at the whole party that had stopped what they were doing and staring at Summer and me before going off in search off Seth.
I only got as far the decking steps though, when I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me back slightly.
"Hey," Marissa said, this was the first time I'd seen her when she wasn't smiling, "who was Seth yelling dyke at?"
"Me." I said, not really thinking about it.
"Why?"
"Cause I am." I told her. The first bit of my honesty she actually believed I knew this by the way she instantly let go of my arm, walked back across the decking and into the house.
I don't know why but it bothered my slightly, it was stupid I'd barely said ten sentences to the girl. I couldn't let it get to me though I had to find Seth and explain what he thought he'd heard.
I tracked him down quite easily by his screams and a circle of big guys laughing.
"Oh, I guess you're fans of the cliché." I heard him say from within the ring.
"Shut up." One of the guys laughed.
I walked over and pushed a couple of the guys aside so that I could see a boy standing in the centre holding Seth by his ankles.
"It's been like two minutes Seth," I wanted to laugh, but suppressed the urge, "how are you already in trouble?"
"Hey, Alex." Seth managed to gasp at me, "What's up?"
"Can you put him down?" I asked the boy.
"What's it to you?" I turned round and found Shell Necklace Truck Dude straightening out his shirt as he walked over to us being followed by a girl that definitely wasn't Marissa.
"Nothing much, I just can't think of any logical reason as to why he's doing it." I said simply. "And why, just out of curiosity, does everyone around here just seem to turn up out of nowhere to say stuff to me?"
"What's with this chick?" the boy asked Shell Necklace.
"Oh no," I sighed, "now why did you have to ruin a perfectly decent conversation by calling me 'chick'?"
"Huh?" The boy just stared at me.
"Cause I mean now I'm going to have to do this." I told him as I hit him in the face, forcing him to drop Seth on the sand.
"I'm so glad you did that." Shell Necklace smiled at me. "Cause now I can hit you!"
The force of his punch sent me to the ground. "That's not how it works." I told him holding my face. "If I hit your friend, your friend hits me not you."
"Whatever." He shook his head and headed back towards the house.
"Hey," I called out to him, causing him to turn round and stare at me still in the sand. "Marissa your girlfriend?"
"Yeah, what's it to you?" he sneered down at me.
"She know you were with another girl all night?" He simply kicked me in the stomach as way of a response.
"Welcome to the O.C., bitch! This is how it's done in Orange County." He laughed as he went back to walking into the house, only this time with is friends in tow.
"Okay ow!" I admitted to Seth once they were all out of earshot.
Seth plunked down on some cushions. I slowly sat on the end of the bed and started to take of the dress, before realising, I couldn't exactly change with Seth in the room, not that I had anything practical to change into.
"Well, I... I don't know what to say... except that you totally had my back out there. Granted having a girl save me does nothing for my man points but still, you had my back. We're, like, in a fight club or something. I don't know. You know what I think? Alex, I think that if you were to teach me some moves. I think that we could totally take 'em next time, well if you're not wearing a dress. That's what I think. A little bit of that." He kicked foot to emphasise "You know what I mean? A little bit of that, that. What do you think about that? Yeah." He lifted his hand for a high five, which I could tell he was not going to put down until I joined in. "Oh, also, that wasn't exactly way that I first planned to talk to Summer, you know having to watch her flirt with you and then yelling 'dyke' at her. But, I am now on her radar. Do you think I should tell her about Tahiti? Do you?"
"I would leave it until you find out if she's at least bi." I told him, trying to figure out which hurt more the punch in the face or the kick in the stomach.
"That's what I thought. See that's what I was thinking. I wanted to make sure we were, like, on the same page. Quite a little night we had there." He curled up on the cushions. "I'm not going to forget it. Alex, I'm not going to forget that one."
I looked over to say something but saw that Seth and his slightly tipsy self had fallen asleep, still wearing his suit.
I got up, which was easier said than done, given the pain in my stomach. I went over to my clothes and felt through my pockets until I'd found my cigarettes; I pulled one out of the packet, picked up my lighter and headed out into the garden. I stood by the railing and simply admired the view as I lit up. It had been some crazy arsed day, but at the end of it I was no longer in jail so that was something.
A jeep pulling up to Marissa's house, pulled me out of my musing. I was surprised to see Summer and another girl carry a passed out Marissa up the driveway. They were giggling and obviously still very drunk. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were rummaging around in her purse looking for what I can only guess to have been her keys.
They left Marissa laid out on her driveway, I watched them leave, just abandoning her in front of her house. I rubbed my eyes with one hand and put my cigarette to my mouth with my other. I couldn't just go back into the pool house knowing she was there. Could I? I sighed and threw the end of my cigarette over the cliff.
I went down to where Marissa was and, after shooting a couple worried glances at the house, I tried to wake her.
"Hey…" I rubbed her gently, "Marissa?" I tried even, but just like I'd seen Mom a thousand times before, she was out cold from the drink. I picked up her purse and looked for her keys, hoping that the other two had simply just been too drunk to find them.
I looked back at the house, then again at her. I wondered what the hell her parents would say if I knocked on the door and tried to explain what had happened, but I didn't think the story would sound so good coming from a stranger with blackening eye.
I sighed once more, before realising that I was going to have to try and carry her back to the pool house so she could sleep it off with me and Seth.
The morning light woke me, I hadn't remembered to drop the blinds the night before and any hopes of getting back to sleep with out getting up first were slim to none, especially as I was curled up in a ball under Seth's jacket on the floor.
I looked up longingly at the bed and was surprised when I found it empty. She must have left as soon as she'd woken up. I looked across the floor, relieved to find Seth just as I'd left him. I pushed myself up, rubbed my eyes and stood up slowly.
The pain in my side reminded me just what had happened the night before. I made it as far as the bed before I sat down again, I simply pushed back the covers and crawled in. A shadow falling across my pillow, however, told me that I would not be permitted to fall back asleep.
I looked up and saw Mrs Cohen with her hands on her hips in the doorway, her nostrils flaring.
"Thank God." She snapped, causing Seth to wake up quickly. "What happened to your face?" She asked him as he sat up.
"Mmm." He rubbed his eyes and yawned, "I got into a fight."
"With who? Why?"
"I don't really know. I don't really remember. Um... I was really drunk. Yeah, I think I still am a little bit." His attempt to stand up failed, and he crashed back down onto his make shift bed. Kirsten was anything but impressed.
"Let's go. House. Now!" She said in a tone reminiscent of my mothers.
Kirsten grabbed Seth by the hand and yanked him up, after his complete and utter lack of movement, and pulled him out of the pool house. Seth turned to me and tried to wave as he stumbled through the door.
"Later." Kirsten simply snapped at me, before slamming the door shut behind her and Seth making the glass rattle in their frames.
I laid back down, it was too early for yelling, too early for trouble. However, I was too awake to get back to sleep so I got up and found my clothes. I pulled off the dress and threw it on the bed, I wanted to look at my bruises before I got dressed. I stood back in front of the mirror, but instead of being vein I simply felt the edges of all my bruises. They would have made Mom, Trey and AJ proud. If only they could have seen me.
I went to my school bag and pulled out some clean clothes. Just a plain fitted 'T' and some jeans, nothing nearly as spectacular as the dress Mrs Cohen had leant me.
I looked round the pool house for a hanger for it, it was creased enough without me trying to fold it. However, finding none I simply laid it out on the bed. It was a mess. Sand had stuck to the wet alcohol of the night before. I tried to wipe it off but to no avail. Giving up I just walked into the kitchen.
"Look, Alex, I don't mean to play bad cop." Mrs Cohen said the moment I'd opened the door. "It's nothing personal-"
"But you want me to go home?" I'd known this was coming, before I'd left the pool house, I'd even re-packed my bag so that I was ready to go.
"I'm sorry." She looked away, not wanting to meet my gaze. "You seem like a really nice girl."
"No, I don't." I said seriously, "I got your son into, most likely, the first fight he's ever got into and that's not to mention getting him drunk."
"Well, yeah, actually."
"I have to go home sometime anyway." I told her. "Just, can I say goodbye to Seth?" She simply nodded and gave me directions to his room.
I knocked on his door, having got no reply I just walked right in. "Hey, wake up." I smiled at his once again sleeping form, only this time he was out of the suit.
He rolled over slowly and smiled when he saw me. "Hey."
"So I'm going to head home." I told him, pointing out his door as I said so.
"Are you leaving? So..." He stumbled as he tried to stand. He sat back down clutching at his head. He tried again, more successful, and walked over to where I was standing by the entrance, "Um. So, what's up?"
"I got to go back. Try to figure some stuff out back home."
"Okay." He nodded slowly. "Well ... cool. Or ... not cool, but, uh, you know, what I think I mean." He smiled weakly.
"Drink plenty of water and, uh, take a couple of Asprin." I pointed to his head, when he just stared back at me confused.
"Come here." Seth pulled me in to a hug just for me to push him away.
"I don't do hugs." I told him, "See ya." I smiled one more time before turning to leave.
"Wait a second. Just wait a second." He walked over to the desk, grabbed a map and handed it to me. "Maybe there's someplace you want to go." I stared at the map of Tahiti in front of me "It's pretty good for ideas."
"You're such a geek." I laughed at him, hitting him with his map.
I made my way down stairs and thanked Mrs Cohen again. Sandy loaded my beaten up bike into his trunk once more and followed me into the car.
As we pulled out of the driveway I saw Marissa standing at the end of her drive again. I watched. She watched me back. Our eyes locked. We hadn't said much to each other, we had a big zero in common, yet I still wanted anything but to leave her instead I wanted to get to know her.
As Sandy drove further away from his house, I had to turn my head to look at her. I kept watching until I saw Shell Necklace's truck pull up, blocking her from view.
When I first met her I was enchanted by her by the time I left Newport I was mesmerised by her. I couldn't get her out of my head. And what was even more frustrating was that I had no idea why.
The drive back was a blur, it was over before I'd even registered it beginning. I only knew I was home when Sandy applied the parking break and stepped out to unload my bike.
I joined him on the sidewalk outside my home. I'd never realised how much of a dump my house was until that point. The front yard was littered with mouldy mattresses, a broken washing line, a couple of old chairs, not to mention all the other crap in it.
"So, thanks." I sighed, "for everything."
"I'm going to make sure everything works out, Alex." Sandy told me and I actually believed him.
"I know," I nodded as I pushed open my gate, which was on its hinges. Sandy made to follow me, but I stopped him. "It's okay. I can take it from here." I walked my bike up the path, knowing Sandy was still behind me, watching my every move. I cast it aside when I fumbled for my keys to unlock the front door but was un-surprised to find it open. I pushed the door further and stopped dead when I saw the inside.
The house was empty except for some random, abandoned junk. All the furniture was gone. I ran the short space of my front room, wanting to find signs of life. A sign that she hadn't just upped and left. A sign that I would find her, even her dead beat boyfriend at this stage, I didn't care. I just couldn't find the house empty. I couldn't have been abandoned.
I walked back into the kitchen area and found a note on the counter. A note. A fucking note. Leant my head against the cupboard and picked it up. I didn't bother to read it. What was the point? She'd left that's all I needed to know. I didn't need some how or why. I needed a mother. Not some drunk that ran off at the first sign of trouble.
I heard Sandy approach. I didn't know what to do. My mother, the person I'm meant to be closest to in the world, had abandoned me. I was numb.
I'd always known she didn't want me. It was bad enough she'd had my brother, fifteen and knocked up. That was a mistake. Having me; well that was just stupid. She'd had a fit when I told her I was gay. I'd looked my self in the bathroom to get away from her hands. Her drunken hitting. She'd found me in bed with the girl next door, I could hardly deny being gay. I remember I just sat there crying out to her, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' Trying to figure out her mood through the door. Boyfriend after boyfriend hated me. Dyke. She only seemed to find dead beat red necks. But she didn't though me out. I was never home. Its bloody hard to throw someone out when they're not there.
Jail though, that was the last straw. I don't know why. Dad? Jail. Brother? Jail. Ex? Jail. Me? Gay and trouble well what sort of mother could raise that?
And yet I, however much I knew we didn't get on. However much we didn't even like each other. Coming home and finding her gone was a shock, and it hurt. At the end of the day she was my mom, she shouldn't just leave me.
I kicked the unit. I hit the cupboard. My knuckles white and sore. Tears running down my face. What the fuck had I done to deserve this?
"Come on, let's go." His voice tore me from my thoughts.
I was in shock. Who wouldn't be? I walked over to him, my vision now blurred. He put his arm around me and I cried into his shoulder. He led me out of the house and shut the door behind him. He shut the door to my past life.
R&R, thank you. Circus