Title: The Game, Part Two
Author: Kate Monster
Rating: PG to be safe
Summary: Set between "The Secret" and "The Best
Chrismukkah Ever". The fall soccer season is over, and it's time to...
celebrate? Or at least shake things up a little.
Disclaimer: Characters by the great and powerful Josh Schwartz. Pay no
attention to the chick behind the curtain.
PART TWO
Author's Note: I am greatly saddened by the fact that I have now managed to make Seth a Red Dwarf fan in not one, but two OC fics, and have yet to have any feedback on this issue. Isn't anyone out there in the cosmos a fan of both Red Dwarf and The OC? Please? Aw, smeg. Just me, I guess. I maintain that Red Dwarf would totally be in Seth's wheelhouse, though.
Ryan jogged a couple of steps ahead and aimed a kick at a broken stick that had fallen on the sidewalk. It skittered ahead of them, veering off to the side before landing in a manicured lawn. He paused to wait for Seth to catch up.
"And with skills like that, the mind boggles as to why your own team spent an entire season playing keep-away," Seth remarked.
Ryan glared at him.
"I can punt farther than two-thirds of those assholes. You'd never know it to watch our
games." He fell into step beside
Seth once more.
"You don't have to tell me, dude. I was there for the Mater Dei Massacre,
remember?"
Ryan grimaced.
"Oh, yeah. Fourteen to
nothing. That's not a soccer
score. It's a football score."
"Well, I wouldn't know."
"I got it. Thanks." Ryan paused. "I mean, what's the point of another season? I'm not getting any scholarships by playing
solitaire. It's not enough. Nordland and
Sanchez are ranked higher than me at my own position, and we suck."
"Pride?" Seth guessed. They glanced at each other and Seth shoved his hands in his pockets. "College?"
Ryan shook his head in disgust. "Everybody keeps throwing that around at me. Scholarship. So I can go on being somebody's-"
"-Don't say it," Seth interrupted.
Ryan glanced at him sideways. "Sorry."
"Good. And
you're not. Especially not if you earn
it, though, and for that you need extracurriculars."
"Huh. Lit Mag
need anybody?"
Seth shook his head.
"Pretentious kids who think they know what poetry is, plus Carol
Bedilla's gonna be editor next year and you guys would never get along."
Ryan nodded, accepting this.
"Guess there's always archery."
A horn from behind startled both of them. "Hey!" Luke crowed, leaning out the window of his truck. "Chino and Cohen! You guys made it?"
"Almost, yes, Luke," Seth muttered under his
breath to Ryan, "but then you had to intervene. And now we are leaving."
Ryan shot him daggers.
"Hey there. Luke."
"Want a ride?"
"No."
"Seth," Ryan hissed under his breath. "Can it. Naw, we're good," he called to Luke, raising his voice.
"You sure?"
"We'll see you over there," Ryan assured him.
"All right!" Luke crowed. "Hey, I got three forties of Beast, and you fellas? Are top of my list."
The truck roared off and Seth goggled at Ryan. "Beast?"
"Beer. It's
beer, and you like beer."
"I know what it is. Did Luke just offer us Beast?"
"I think he did. Yes."
"Is anything, like, you know, wrong with this picture?"
Seth's voice rose, frantic.
"Yeah," Ryan said impatiently. "Like, ten thousand things. But that's exactly why we are going."
Seth rolled his head in a circle. "And they say I'm the crazy one."
"Maybe that's because you are."
"Hey. I'm not
the one willingly taking us into the belly of the beasts. With the Beast."
"Seth. I thought we agreed on this."
Seth considered this. "Yeah, maybe I am a little bit crazy."
"Just a little."
"And you're a full-on smeghead."
Ryan squinted.
"Okay. I give up - what the
hell is a smeghead?"
"If we were watching Red Dwarf right now, you'd know," Seth said with smug satisfaction.
Ryan rolled his eyes.
"Enough already."
"Smeghead."
*
Seth glanced at Ryan. "Door's not ringing itself," he said hopefully.
"I don't know about this."
Seth exhaled sharply. "Now you have second thoughts? No. There's a 40 of Beast with your name on it in there, and we're not getting any younger." He reached across to ring the bell and Ryan winced.
Saunders opened the door and his face fell. "Oh.
It's you."
"Hi to you, too, Chip," Seth muttered under his breath in Ryan's direction as Saunders skulked off.
Ryan stared at him. "You know why he's pissed at you, right?"
"Cause, oh, I don't know, I'm Seth Cohen and I'm at his house?"
"Uh. Try again. More like Summer ditching him to be in your harem. Remember that?"
"Oh, yeah," Seth said. "That little thing."
Ryan briefly closed his eyes and shook his head. "Just don't try to talk to Saunders
tonight."
"Not planning to."
"Stick with me."
"Dude. So done."
They exchanged a brief grin before emerging into the kitchen. Ryan felt a spike in his confidence. He had Seth. At least he had Seth.
He spotted the keg in the corner and made a beeline for it, making sure he didn't lose Seth in the process.
"Hey, Chino!" Luke called. "You made it!" He'd apparently already done the finding-the-keg thing and was now doing the drinking-the-beer thing.
Ryan sauntered up beside him and reached for a pair of plastic cups. "Barely. But yeah."
"Now the fun can begin!"
"We're not staying long," Ryan warned, and Seth bobbed his head in enthusiastic agreement.
Luke lowered his voice.
"C'mon. Show face."
"I think we've shown," Seth said, eying Nordland and a
funnel, which seemed like the wrong combination even to Ryan. "Okay.
Bye."
Ryan grabbed his arm.
"Oh, no you don't."
"So. Cohen," Luke
said, grinning. "I hear you're the big
mack daddy around campus these days."
"I'm sorry, what?" Seth asked politely in disbelief, shrugging away from Ryan's grasp.
"Yeah, I trained him well," Ryan said, releasing him. They exchanged a glance, and Seth narrowed his eyes.
"Mack daddy?" Seth echoed.
Ryan shrugged in Luke's direction. "Of course, we still have a few lessons to go."
"Ah, and clearly? Your humor is reaching new heights. I'm going to fill these now. Excuse me." With that, Seth snatched the cups from Ryan and marched for the keg.
"So that's cool, you know," Luke said, watching him go. "You and Cohen, you even act like real
brothers."
"We do?" Ryan wasn't entirely sure he agreed with that.
Luke sipped his beer thoughtfully. "Well. I beat up my
brothers. But you know what I mean."
"Yeah," Ryan said, watching Seth pump the keg a little too eagerly. He blinked and shook his head. "Yeah, I do, kinda."
"That must be cool, you know. Having a best friend like that."
"I guess," Ryan said slowly.
"I mean, even if it's Cohen." Ryan turned sharply and Luke put his hands up. "Hey!
Whoa, now! You know what I
mean."
"Do I? Cause I don't want to hear you finish that thought." Ryan crossed his arms, squaring his shoulders.
Luke caught the warning.
"It's cool, man. I mean, he's
cool. We're – we're cool. All right?"
Ryan relaxed. It still shocked the hell out of him that this was Luke now, but he wasn't complaining. "Better. Look, he already thinks he's gonna get his ass kicked tonight. And you're not helping."
"Oh, no. I'd never-"
"Luke. Too
little. Too late."
Luke sighed. "It's different now. You know that."
"I do," Ryan admitted.
He glanced over at Seth, balancing the cups of beer. "He doesn't."
Seth returned and handed a cup to Ryan. "First round's on me."
"Hey. They should put you on a stage," Ryan deadpanned.
"They should," Seth agreed cheerfully. He took a swig of beer. "Oh my Lord, that is terrible." He took another.
Ryan had to grin into his own beer. "So now what? We claim the misfit corner?
Hide in it for an hour or two and jet?"
Luke's face fell.
"But that lacks poetry."
"You know what else lacks poetry?" Seth asked politely. "Chip Saunders kicking my ass into his
pinball machine. And on that note, I
hear him coming now, so living room, exit stage left. Excuse me."
Amused, Ryan followed Seth out of the kitchen, sensing Luke at his heels. A few girls were on laps or otherwise associated with the guys in the living room, including Holly, which made Ryan's skin crawl. He glanced at Luke, who seemed determined to ignore her. Ryan felt smug with satisfaction at the thought that whatever had passed between the two of them had failed miserably.
Seth pulled Ryan away from Luke. "Poetry? What does he
know about poetry?"
"Maybe he wants to join Lit Mag next year. How would he and Carol get along?"
Seth considered this.
"Pretty well, actually.
Hey. Look, Saunders has Patch
Adams on DVD. And now? I completely understand him." He poked the DVD with marked contempt.
Ryan had to grin a little. He knew Seth was what he needed to survive this night.
"He's got the Kevin Smith movies, too," Ryan pointed out, fingering a copy of Mallrats.
"But dude. Patch Adams?"
"Hey, look, I'm not defending the guy."
"Good. Okay, second
round?"
Ryan blinked and looked back and forth from his
three-quarter-full cup to Seth's empty one.
"You are not gonna get wasted on me tonight, are you?"
"Dude, isn't that the plan?
How else are we gonna survive this?"
Ryan stared at him for a moment before shrugging and tipping his cup up so that he could chug the remaining contents. He polished it off with a smack and tipped it up to Seth. "Cheers?"
Seth tilted his head back to the kitchen and Ryan trotted after him, casting a glance in Luke's direction. Luke, for his part, looked pretty much miserable by the fireplace.
"Hey, man, need another beer?" Ryan called out to him. Ditching him at this stage, even by accident, seemed wrong somehow.
Luke's eyes widened, presumably in shock at their
haste. "Not yet, man."
In the kitchen, a bunch of guys were playing with the blender, something Ryan was very glad had never appealed to Seth. And Nordland was looking a little unsteady on top of the counter. The kid couldn't hold his alcohol. And to think, Ryan had been jealous of him when he first came to Newport.
Ryan closed off the tap with his cup three-quarters-full again. "Having fun yet?" he asked Seth, who was already taking huge sips.
"This beer is shit," he said between gulps.
"It's Rolling Rock."
Both of them turned in surprise to Luke, who had materialized behind them yet again.
"No wonder," Ryan grunted.
"Don't knock the Rock," Luke said cheerfully.
"Hey," Seth said. "Poetry." He glanced with significance at Ryan, who directed his full attention into his cup of beer to keep from laughing or otherwise incriminating himself.
"I can't believe you drink Beast," Ryan said to Luke, trying to keep some semblance of conversation going.
"Yeah," Luke said. "Yeah, my dad's a fan. You can take the guy out of college... well, you know the rest."
Ryan frowned. He wasn't sure that he did. "So do Chip's parents know that there's a bunch of high school kids and a keg at their place?" he asked curiously.
"Probably," Luke said.
"They don't care. He's an only
child. He gets away with everything."
"God, I can't stand people like that," Seth grumbled.
"Um, Seth?" Ryan asked, blinking.
"Hey, I get away with nothing. Nothing. You know my parents." Seth tilted his beer cup to his mouth again.
"Okay. So," Luke
started. "Seriously. I don't get it. Didn't they, like, adopt you?
Aren't you two actually adopted brothers, or what?"
"It's complicated," Seth said, even as Ryan shook his head. They glanced at each other.
"It's more like a legal guardianship situation," Ryan
explained quietly, glancing around.
"They, like, sign papers and stuff.
We're not really brothers, we just sort of... stay in the same house."
"I still think that's awesome," Luke said.
"It is?" Seth asked, glancing at Ryan. Ryan shook his head.
"How about that Beast? You fellas ready?" When neither of them said anything, Luke offered a thumbs-up and slipped off in search of the Beast.
"I could have sworn he used to be Luke," Seth hissed once
Luke was out of earshot, waving his cup for emphasis. "'Awesome'? Is he kidding
me? I remember last summer. Do you?
For that matter, does he?"
"Maybe he's repressed it," Ryan said, glancing around. "C'mon, he's got Beast, give him a chance."
"A chance? Did I ever tell you about the time he stole my boxer shorts in gym class and threw them on the telephone pole?"
"Many times."
"Ryan. They had my name in the waistband. Big block letters!"
"I heard," Ryan muttered. He stared into the bubbles in his beer.
"People still talk about it. Stuart Eldredge called me Pole-Pants last week in French class."
"Okay," Ryan said, cutting him off. "I really don't want to hear it."
He instantly regretted it, seeing the hurt look on Seth's
face. "Look, maybe it sounds funny to
you," Seth said, "but I was miserable.
For years."
"It's not funny," Ryan said. "I'm sorry. Look, I'm the last person who'll argue Luke's not a dumbass. But he's making an effort. Remember, he has a gay dad now." He sipped at the beer.
"So what, I'm supposed to feel sorry for him?"
"Well? Yeah."
Seth sighed. "It's
poetic irony, that's what it is."
Ryan gulped his Rolling Rock. "Notice I'm not disagreeing with you."
"It's justice, man.
Fair and square. He should
suffer."
Ryan squinted as he swirled the beer around in his cup,
sloshing against the side. "I kinda
think he is."
"Maybe you're-"
"Hey!" Luke broke between them. Who's ready for this?"
Seth glanced at Ryan. "Bottoms up?"
"C'mon, you see the basement yet?" Luke asked. He gestured and moved away.
Seth shot another glance at Ryan. "I am only following because Luke has Beast in his hands."
"Of course," Ryan agreed seriously.
"You know that."
"Seth. Move."
Ryan bumped his beer cup against Seth's back, prodding him on, and together, the two of them made their way through the crowd after Luke's disappearing figure. He wasn't sure he had the greatest feeling about this, but at least? If nothing else? He still had Seth.
