"So you agreed to us living with two guys I've never met, one of whom you officially met last night and yet you don't know his name? Am I getting this right? At all? Hello?"
Marissa was pacing her living room after Summer arrived at her house a few minutes before to deliver the good news about their new living arrangements. "Well?" Marissa finally stopped moving and just stared at Summer.
Summer bit her lip. "Okay, when you put it like that, I realize it doesn't sound great but…come on Coop, Atwood is awesome, shows up to classes, sweetheart, hot, and just nice in general. Your type, really. And since the other guy is his brother, I don't think we have to worry about him too much, plus he's a bit of a nerd. So like, it will work out amazing." Summer waited for Marissa to agree, and when she didn't she simply shrugged. "Come on Coop, it's gonna be fine, where's your faith?"
"Sometimes, I honestly don't know about you at all Sum, at all." And Marissa marched out of the room.
Meanwhile…
"So you agreed for us both to live with two people…two girls you don't know and one of whom I don't know either? What if they have obsessive boyfriends waiting to shove you into drawers? Or they don't pay bills? Or…there's so much more we have to consider here Seth."
The two guys were at Ryan's apartment getting prepared for moving. Ryan was shoving his stuff into boxes as Seth sat on the desk chair and swung around on it.
"Dude, loosen up a bit. Summer seemed nice…didn't you say Summer was trying to set up her roommate with Trev, so obviously she isn't dating anyone and uh…we're from Newport, who cares about bills…that's what parents are for. Kidding, kidding." Seth adjusted his smile when Ryan turned on him. "Seriously though, I have to do this. Please?" Seth's puppydog face caused Ryan to throw a pillow at him.
"Okay fine. But you owe me huge for agreeing to this." Ryan got up and left the room shaking his head.
"You're going to thank me one day, I know it." Seth yelled after him, throwing the pillow at Ryan but missing and hitting the wall.
"Summer, you owe me big time, for agreeing to this whole thing… sometime in the future you are paying up and it will be amazing." Marissa screamed out to her best friend as she continued to fill the boxes Summer had thrown into her room an hour before.
She had so much stuff to pack in such a short amount of time. God her life was changing so quickly and she didn't know what to think about it. Just a few weeks before, she had been settled, no sleeping with random guys, no moving, no anything. Now her life was in turmoil. What were best friends for? Hopefully the guys would be nice though… and it was handy to have guys to boss around. Oh and they better be clean. Speaking of clean…she needed to look at her new place so she could decide what kind of supplies they would need.
"Sum!? Can we go see the place? I have a few things I need to check out." Marissa yelled out to her roommate, making her way to the door and walking to Summer's room.
"Yeah, sure Coop, no problem. Why don't I call the guys and see if they can meet us there, then we can have a little meet and greet or something? You know, so you feel better?"
"Um, yeah, that would be cool. I'll just go grab a coat and we can head out. We can take my car."
"Yeah, sure whatever, I'll call Atwood."
Seth was sitting in Ryan's room alone. Ryan was showering and Seth was waiting so they could finish packing Ryan's stuff. Seth was just getting bored when Ryan's cell phone rang.
"Hi, Atwood?"
"Hello, this is…uh, not Ryan,"
Summer checked her phone and made sure she had the right number. She did. "Who is this?"
"I think the better question is, who is this?" Seth asked, even though he already knew.
"Or the even better question is, why don't you know how to read call display? Now put Atwood on the phone assclown."
"Uh. Oh. Summer, calm down, it's Seth…" He paused. "Seth Cohen." Still no answer. "The guy you agreed to move in with last night."
"Oh, your Atwood's brother. Cool, is Atwood there or…?"
"Actually, he's in the shower. But I am not. As you can probably deduce. So, how can I be of service?"
"Well, Coop and I, that's my best friend, we wanted to know if you guys wanted to come meet us and see the place. That way we can all get to know each other before we move in and stuff. What do you think?"
"Sure. Yeah, We'll be there. What's the address?"
After getting the address, Seth hung up the phone and went to go get Ryan. He knew as soon as Ryan saw the house, he would warm up to the idea. He just had to get Ryan there.
"Dude you are not going to believe this. The girls called and want to…Hello? Earth to Ryan? What's got you so happy? You had this dopey little grin, much like me when it's Chrismukkah. What's going on?"
Ryan started out of his daydream and glared at Seth. Sometimes, he had the worst timing. "Uh, nothing." Ryan placed his toothbrush into the holder. In truth, he had been thinking about that girl again. It was impossible not to. As soon as all this moving stuff was done, he was going on a mission and he was going to find this girl. There was no way he could keep missing her. He just had to have time to explain the situation. At first it might seem weird but he was hoping he could convince her that was a good thing. Maybe he would just play it cool or…
"Dude? What is up with you?" Seth waved his hands in a circular motion to catch Ryan's attention.
Ryan rubbed his hand over his face. "Like I said, nothing. What are you doing in here anyway, I said I would be right back. I was only in the shower for like five minutes, can't you occupy yourself?"
Seth leaned against the door and Ryan shoved him as he walked past to go to change in his room. Seth followed. "Ha. Ha. You are SO not funny."
Ryan turned and stared at Seth, "I'm changing, you out."
Seth sat down in the hall as Ryan shut the door and proceeded to get ready. Both were silent for a few seconds until Seth interrupted. "Oh, dude, I forgot. The reason I was coming to get you, the girls want us to come and see the house. They think it will be a good way to do a meet and greet type thing."
"Oh, really?" Ryan was pulling on his shirt and yelling to Seth through the door. He turned and opened it with one hand. "We have a lot of packing to do though…"
Seth had just got up and walked into the room. As Ryan responded he collapsed onto the bed. "Dude, you have been saying we don't know who we're moving in with, I pull out the solution, you veto. You need to loosen up a bit man."
Just then, Ryan's cell phone rang and he reached for it. Seth put up a hand. "Wait! That could be Summer, let me get it. She's probably calling to talk to me again. Can't resist my little man charms."
"Did you just say man charms?" Seth lunged for the phone but Ryan pulled it out of reach just in time.
"It's not Summer, okay? It's Trev, that guy from the party?"
Seth nodded and proceeded to stare at his watch with impatience.
"Hey, Trev, what's up man? Oh really? That sucks. Well, no I don't mind at all? Where? Okay, give me like 15 minutes and I'll be there. See ya." Ryan closed his phone.
The whole time during the conversation, Seth had been shaking his head and making wild arm gestures but Ryan ignored him. Now Seth just stood up and raised his arms upwards. "What the hell was that!? You clearly ignored the sign, you can't tell me you didn't see me flapping away like a pigeon Ryan, you just can't."
"No, I saw you." Ryan reached for his jacket and turned to Seth. "Look, Trev's car won't start, he's getting it towed but he needs a ride home. I said no problem. I owe him a favour, he let me search his house, and he totally helped me study for that thing I had in class the other day…so come on."
Seth nodded. "Fine. Call Summer and disappoint her soul. And you know how you said I owed you…we're even."
Ryan narrowed his eyes. "Hardly. But there's no need to cancel, we can do both. I'll drop you off, get Trev, drop him off and go home and keep packing. I'm sure Summer won't mind. And if she does, then I can pick you up."
Seth sighed dramatically. "Fiiiiiiiine. But don't blame me if I dibs the bigger room." His eyes were gleaming.
"Seth, we're living with two girls. We'll be lucky to get a closet." And with that, they headed for the door.
"Wow Sum, you weren't kidding. This place is amazing. I think I might actually like it here. Depending on these boys you've asked to move in with us. Where are they?"
Marissa was dancing around in the biggest bedroom, which she had convinced Summer should be hers, since she was such a good friend. Summer was sitting on the floor watching her friend. She glanced at her watch. "I don't know actually, he should be here by now. I'll call him."
The doorbell interrupted her dialing. Summer smiled. "Okay, that's them now. Even if you hate them, we've already agreed to everything. We can ditch them later but just be nice now, okay?"
Marissa grimaced but nodded. They both headed towards the front door. Summer opened it. "Hey guys, welc—where's Atwood?"
"Well, hello to you too Summer. And you must be…uh…Coop? I'm Seth."
Marissa brushed her hair behind her ear and reached out her hand. "Um, Marissa, actually."
Seth nodded, and waved at Summer. "So, uh, are you going to invite me in or…?"
"Not until you tell me where Atwood is Cohen." Summer stared at Seth. He turned and pointed at the SUV driving away up the street. "Well, one of our friends had a problem with his car, so Ryan said he was really sorry but he had to help the guy and that he would see you ladies later, when he came to pick me up."
Marissa bit her lip. She was anxious to meet this other guy. But she smiled at Seth. "Well, that was nice of him, come on in. The place is amazing. Unfortunately, I have to leave soon, I'm supposed to meet this girl from one of my classes to exchange notes for a paper. But I guess I'll meet him when we all move in, right?"
"Sure, I'll be sure to give him a full report on you anyways. So let's get started ladies. Let's see a tour."
Three hours later, Ryan pulled up in front of the house to pick Seth up. He stepped out of the car and got really nervous. What if the Summer's best friend decided she didn't like him? What if Seth had ruined everything? The truth was, he needed this place and rent was good… he bounded up the steps two at a time.
Just as he was about to push the doorbell he heard Summer yelling "Shut up Cohen, I will not tell you one more time. God you are so annoying."
Ryan decided he arrived just in time. He rang the doorbell and knocked but the argument seemed to be overpowering his attempts to get in so he tried the door. Since it was unlocked he walked into the kitchen where he saw Seth and Summer in the middle of an argument about where the table would work best.
"Hey…hello? HEY!" Ryan yelled. "Sorry to just walk in but I guess, I'm going to live here. Hey Summer. Where's um, your friend?"
"Oh, she had plans for tonight but Cohen and I stayed to talk about our house." Summer smiled at him. Seth was leaning against the counter and nodded at him.
"Uh, you ready to go?" Ryan asked Seth, trying to lower the pressure in the room. Seth nodded, smiling. Summer looked…disappointed?
"Sure, man. So…we move in tomorrow?" Seth turned to Summer for confirmation and she nodded.
"Well then, we better pack up at our places, see you tomorrow. Tell Marissa I said hi and we'll see her soon."
Seth led the way out of the house. Ryan smiled. Marissa. That sounded like a nice name. Maybe this would work out after all.
