A/N. Thanks for beating to ParisAmy and thanks for the reviews. Enjoy =)


3.

I step out of the shower. The hot steaming water has relaxed my cramping muscles and I'm ready for the fight. No, I'm not. I have no idea how to remain polite towards this bitch of a witch girl, when she's insulting me at every occasion. I hate her and this is not only linked to the fact that I miss Marissa. Again a ball of anger hits my stomach. How could she leave me like that? I told her that sleeping together was something very serious for me. Shit, she had known that I had wanted to stay with her for the rest of my entire life. I never had done this, if I had known that she would leave me. I mean yes, her Mom is a bitch and I know that life can be hell if your Mom is a not caring dragon. But Europe? This was doomed to failure. Long-distance relationship? Had been worth a try. But no, she had wanted to make a cut. Leave her life behind. Shit. Again I'm faced with the fact that people leave me alone when they've found something better. Marissa has Europe, Seth has Summer, Kirsten and Sandy have Sophie and soon I'll be the forgotten toy. I hate this thought. I know Sandy and Kirsten will try not to let this happen, but this is a natural way for things to go. Sophie is their real child. They can love her and treat her like they want to. She's not as broken as I am; she's not so troubled; she's not only problems. I pull my t-shirt over and my boxers and step out of the bathroom. Oh no. That's what I needed today. There she sits. My nightmare. The red haired bitch from Harbor High.

"Oh…s…sorry…your Mom let me in…an…and said I…can come in…I mean…here…oh" She starts stammering. She blushes. At least she's not hard-nosed. Good to know. Maybe I can pull myself together and keep myself from murdering her.

"Is okay." I only tell her and start looking for my jeans. Please let them fit today, I beg inwardly. My knee had been that bad swollen yesterday night that I fear that it still might be too much for my jeans. I don't watch her, but I feel that she's staring at the scars on my leg. Yes, beach trips aren't happening too often anymore. Shit, I should stop getting drowned in self pity. It's disgusting. Yes, the jeans fit. Maybe my leg has decided that it has enough of being just a painful sucker. I hope so.

"Oh…I…I guess I…should…apologize…for…for the thing…with your leg." She starts stammering. How I hate it if people aren't able to pronounce full fluent sentences.

"You couldn't know that." I only answer and grab my books and writing pad. "It's better if we go and work in side. We have more space there." I say and head to the main house. No, I don't want her in the pool house. I don't want her snooping around in my privacy.

"Okay." She only says and follows me. We enter the main house and Kirsten is busy warming up the baby bottle for Sophie.

"Kirsten, can we use the table inside?" I asked her. Sometimes she's working on weekends and needs the table and I don't want to interfere in this.

"Oh, yes. I have no work this weekend." She says smiling and then hurries up to Sophie. I catch a confused glance from Lindsay. I pretend as if I didn't recognize it. She doesn't need to know the story of my life. She already knows my name and that I don't fake the limping. That must be enough.

"Okay, I already prepared the questions, I'm sure the answers are correct so we only need to make the presentation." Hu? What the…what kind of girl is that? Does she think…I feel how the ball of anger inside gets bigger and bigger.

"Uhm…thanks…uh, but I thought this was supposed to be something like teamwork." I only answer.

"Yeah I know, but I also know that you rather like to spend your time on other things and…when I work alone it's faster done." She answers and this had been the last straw. No, I can't maintain my composure. I'm too young for that and I'm too annoyed by this bitch, as if I could. I let the book drop heavy onto the table. The thud makes her flinch.

"Could you do me one favour and not treat me like a dumb ass of water polo player?" I snarl at her. I don't want to scream. I have to wait until Kirsten and Sandy are gone.

"But I thought…I mean…" What did she think? That this comes out and I'm the sucker who has to pay the bill of her snotty self-righteousness? Oh no. I'm not going to be the one having to serve detention only because she's too good for doing some kind of project hand in hand with someone else.

"I don't care what you were thinking, okay? I work my ass off, to be able to make it into all advanced classes and I don't let it being ruined by you." Oh yes, I know what happens when they think you let others do your job. Luke had been the best example for this. I don't need this.

"Sorry, I didn't think that you take school that serious."

"I do, okay and now let us go over with." I only answer and open my writing pad. Honestly I'd already had prepared everything too, as I hadn't thought that my teacher would come up with a new buddy for me. I'd been glad if he hadn't.

"You…really have…oh…I…"She starts to stammer again. I don't know what's wrong with her. On the hand she behaves like the evilest bitch on earth and then this kind of behaviour? She definitely has serious issues to work on.

We start to compare our results. They are the same, nearly. It starts to flow and I'm glad for that, because I don't have the nerve to spend my whole Saturday with her and with Physics.

"Ryan honey, we're going out now. I left the baby phone on the kitchen counter." Kirsten calls out of the hallway.

"Yeah, have fun." I call back.

"Thanks, and if you get hungry, I left some money on the kitchen counter." Kirsten says and peaks into the kitchen.

"Okay." I answer.

"Meaning, she expects you to get hungry." Sandy adds.

"Alright." I only answer and roll my eyes. I start to question who the baby is in this household, because right now, I feel like I am.

"I just wanted to point it out once again." Sandy answers to my expression and then they both leave for their Newport party. I catch Lindsay's questioning look.

"What?" I ask her. I don't like if people don't say what they're thinking. Okay, well I don't belong to those either; but I assume that's not written all over my face when something's up on my mind.

"I just wondered when…your Mom was pregnant. She doesn't look like that." She says. I have the feeling as if she's pretty ignorant. She attends every of my classes – and yes this enough reason for me to rethink my idea of college and just change into other classes – and she want to tell me she hasn't noticed? How off is that? I mean does she really only live in her little world. Well I don't care. Saves me a lot of talking, because honestly: she seems to be a little nosey.

"One of the biggest mysteries around Newport. I have no idea. When she found out that she was pregnant, she'd already been somewhere between fourth and fifth month and you haven't seen anything." I answer. I still wonder why she hadn't noticed anything. I mean despite the change of your physical appearance there are more factors telling you that you're pregnant, or not?

"But…I mean…there's more than just…you know this exploding stomach." Lindsay says.

"I'm the wrong person to ask such questions." I only answer. We go on with our work. We had decided for a PowerPoint presentation. Okay, I had decided for it, as Lindsay has never worked with this program. But I mean, despite that she's bitchy and nosey, working with her is really easy. I mean I don't have to explain everything three times to her and she contributes a lot of own work, and she doesn't distract me as Marissa seemed to do. At this thought another wave of sadness hits me. It's strange, I'd never thought that I was that sad about…okay, I had been on this happy pills, no wonder that I hadn't noticed how sad I really was. I regret the decision to stop taking them. Our work get's disturbed by the sound of the baby phone.

"Sorry." I excuse me and then run upstairs. Well, what does run mean? I still feel unsecure taking stairs. I have the feeling as if me knee is wobbling. Sophie is lying in her crib, kicking her legs. Her face is red from crying and big tears dripping down her chin. I carefully take her out into my arms. The warm body immediately nestles into my arms - relaxing a little.

"Shh, everything's fine." I sooth her, rocking her up and down. "Shhh." I sooth her on and taker her into the bathroom of her parents' bedroom, where the pink changing table with the white bunnies stands. I carefully lie her down. This is nothing to worry about, just a routine. Seth hates changing nappies. Okay, Seth hates everything referring to body liquids. I take the old one off and throw it into the bin under the table. She had already stopped crying and starts sucking on her toes. It's incredible how flexible babies are. I clean her and put some cream on her skin. Her skin is still so smooth and warm. She giggles when I tickle her tummy.

"You like that, huh?" I ask how long her skin will remain smooth like that. Pretty long, I guess. She's well protected here. It'll take some time until she'll meet the rough world. I put her romper suit on. She's looking at me with her big blue eyes. I take her back into my arms and carefully back into her crib.

"Here we are." I tuck her in and turn to leave. I don't reach the door frame and she starts crying again. I go back.

"Hey." I take her again into my arms. "Missing Mommy and Daddy?" I ask her. With her little hands she grabs my t-shirt.

"Know what, we'll both go downstairs now, and then you laugh about me and Miss super witch. How does that sound?" I ask her. She starts giggling again, as if she had understood what I've said to her. I slowly go downstairs. I'm too afraid to drop her and let her fall down stairs.

"Here we are." I say, still rocking her when we reach the kitchen. I take her into the crib in the living room. Kirsten demands having one there as well, thus she can take care of her daughter every minute. I carefully lay her into the crib and give her the little cat. She takes it from me and immediately is occupied with her little toy.

"She's cute." Lindsay says. I hadn't noticed that she had joined me in the living room.

"Yep." I only answer.

"But this is not quite the man's job, or?" She says. I could slap her face for this sentence. Fact, her ignorance will get her into a lot of trouble.

"You must be in the know." I only answer, swallowing down my anger about this statement. If she knew. But I'm not going to tell her. She only looks at me and shuts up and I appreciate that.

"Let's get back to work." I say and we start to work on our project. It only takes two hours more and then our work is done.

"Wow, I didn't think that we would be that productive." She says when we watch our work. I only shoot glares at her.

"Oh…sorry." She apologizes again.

"Do you want a copy of that?" I ask her.

"Yeah, that would be great." She says.

"Okay, then I need your e-mail address to be able to send it to you." She nods and scribbles down her e-mail address and I send a copy of our work to her.

"Well, I can go home then and enjoy the rest of my free Saturday. Bad I haven't even made any plans." Again I only look at her. Yes, I'm used to people not having high expectations regarding me; but hell, I'm not stupid and she had witnessed it. I guide her out and wait for her to drive off in her car. She starts the engine and it starts to cough. Oh no, that's not a good sound. She starts the engine again and again.

"Shit!" She yells.

"Stop the engine! I'll have a look onto the motor." I tell her, and then I go and open the engine hood. Hot steam hits my face.

"Well, I guess your car can use a visit in the garage. The radiator hose burst. I can't fix that." I told her.

"Shit." She says once again and gets out of the car.

"Well, I would offer you a ride home, but Seth is out with Summer, and Sandy and Kirsten are out too. So I can only offer you a ride on my bike." I say to her. I want to be polite. She doesn't need to know that I hate her, and finding out that your car is rotten isn't quite the right moment to be faced with the fact that nobody likes you.

"No…is okay. I'll call my Mom." She says and picks her cell phone out of her bag. She turns her back to me. If she knows that I still can hear her?

"Oh no…but…okay…when? Alright…yes" She flips her mobile shut and then goes down the driveway.

"Hey, don't tell me you want to walk the whole way home." I ask her.

"I have no other choice."

"Did you pay attention to the sky?" I ask her. It was getting dark and it is only 2 pm what means it is going to rain today - probably thunderstorm again. I hate this kind of weather. It reminds me a lot of last year, and last year hadn't been the best of my life. No I don't want to be reminded of last year.

"Any other suggestion?" She asks me and she sounds irritated. Well, I could let her go home, but I just can't. I can't be such an asshole. I hate her and I wish I could just let her walk off, but no. I'm weak. My life here is making me sensitive.

"You can stay here and wait until someone is there to take you home." I suggest. Now it was out. I was sending myself into hell.

"Oh…I…don't know…I'm sure you already have other plans and…"

"Just come in." I free her from her cage of unfriendly insecurity. She slowly follows me back into the house.

"Do you want something to eat?" I ask her. I for my part, am starving and I have no idea when the last time that I had been hungry like that.

"Uh…yeah…why not." She answers. I go to the fridge and search for eatable things. I still can't warp my head around the eating habits in this household. The fridge is usually stuffed with everything and nobody cooks. I guess I'll never understand this. I pick some of the things and start to prepare something to eat.

"So, you cook?" She asks me. What did she think how I prepare something to eat? "Can I give you a hand?" She asks.

"Uh…no thanks…I guess I can prepare spaghettis without any major accidents." I answer her.

"Then let me set the table. I mean…after being so rude it should be me cooking." She says. At least she admits her mistakes.

"Okay, uh…plates are there and…knife, fork and spoon are…uh there." I tell her and then fix my concentration on preparing dinner. Shit! I swear inwardly. I have forgotten Sophie. But hell, she doesn't say anything since she's here. I fast warm up her bottle. The spaghettis could get ready by itself. I hold the bottle against my cheek, checking whether it isn't too hot. No, it isn't too hot, or too cold.

"Can you have a look at the spaghettis?" I ask Lindsay, before going to Sophie.

"Hey little girl, time for your lunch." I say, before lifting her out of the crib and taking her into my arms again. In the other hand I have the bottle. I sit down on the couch, thus Sophie can lean comfortingly back into my arms. She starts to refuse the bottle.

"Hey, already starving for the right shape? I guess you can wait with that." I tell her and she starts sucking her bottle.

"Uh…Lindsay…could you hand me that towel?" I ask her pointing at the towel lying on the table. She places the towel on my right shoulder.

"Thanks." I say, leaving my eyes on Sophie. She's a fast…well …drinker. She doesn't need more than ten minutes to empty her bottle.

"Shh, not too fast. We don't want you choking on your milk." I try to slow her down, but she's still too tiny to understand this. Satisfying her tummy is all she wants now, and she shouldn't have to worry about more than that.

"That's it. Everything's gone in this little tummy of yours." I gently rock her up and down. I don't have to wait long for the burp.

"Oh…don't let your Mommy hear that. That's not really girly-like." She nestles down into my arms. I can see how her eyelids become heavier and heavier until she falls asleep. I carefully lay her back into her crib and tuck her in, putting her cat into one of her arms.

"Wow, you're really good…in being a big brother." Lindsay says. "I don't think there are a lot of brothers around Newport Beach doing this kind of job that good." I only shrug my shoulders. I don't know what I'm supposed to think about this comment. One the other hand she can be the worse bitch I've ever met, but when it wasn't about school she can be really a nice person.

"Okay, I guess our lunch is ready too." I only reply.