Before I start I just want to say that this chapter is as promised dedicated completely to ObsessedRomantic for starting the second installment of Townwood Hills. For those of you reading this that haven't checked out her RT fics- well what the hell is wrong with you all?! Go read them right now. AU season four Ryan and Taylor can wait for a bit.
"Okay Ryan, man I gave you your space yesterday, as it was your first official day back into the Cohen household, and cause you were kind of brooding but-"Seth stopped dead. He had been doing his usual thing to introduce Seth/Ryan time. He entered the pool house already talking so Ryan had no choice but to listen. He was opening the blinds when he hazard a glance over his shoulder to see Ryan staring at him sleepy and confused, which wasn't the unusual part about the morning.
Taylor Townsend was in the bed next to him… and they were holding hands… their fingers were laced together not cupped, so it must be serious. He remembered listening to the debate Summer and Marissa had over it in fifth grade and Summer's opinion was laced fingers meant they had to be together. Which was why at every available moment from the day Summer decided to give him the time of day, whenever they'd hold hands he'd be sure to thread their fingers together.
Seth shook his head realizing how off topic he'd gotten, "Okay I think it is way too early for me to be seeing this."
"Well you were the one who walked into the house without knocking." Ryan pointed out, finally removing his hand from Taylor's to rub his eyes.
"Good morning Seth." Taylor said brightly, before stretching, and Seth couldn't understand how she was acting so normal. As if this sort of thing happened everyday.
"Taylor," he nodded still confused, "I thought you left yesterday when Summer did. Won't they mind you missing classes this close to vacation? Thanksgiving is only a few weeks ago."
"Summer left yesterday? And you have no idea why I'm here with Ryan?" Seth shook his head no to both questions, "She didn't talk to you about Ryan and me… what is going on with her?"
"I wish I knew." Seth sighed sitting down on a chair, finally.
"Seth nothing is going on between me and Ryan." Taylor said, moving to the end of the bed to where her sneakers were. Seth let out a skeptical like squeak, and Ryan, as if he hadn't heard Seth added, "Well notnothing."
"Nothing romantic." Taylor dismissed searching for a comb or brush to run through her hair. She'd left the bar in such a rush that she didn't even think of packing her things. She'd have to do that. At least she told Andy she quit before she left.
Ryan stood finally and walked over to the bathroom where he grabbed a comb and handed it to her, before walking back over to Seth and taking the coffee the taller boy had offered.
"You're going to tell me what this is about later, right?" Seth asked quietly, "I mean it's one thing to give Taylor Townsend a place to stay, its another thing when you guys wake up with your fingers laced Ryan. And then you say there's nothing romantic going on."
Ryan shrugged and glanced over his shoulder to see Taylor pacing in the kitchen. She looked deep in thought so he wasn't going to interrupt her, "Okay!" she said finally, "I have to go." Ryan stood to protest, but she walked over and pushed him back down on the bed, "I'll be back, but I have to go get my stuff from the bar and then I think I need to pay somebody a visit. I'll be gone a day," she continued and Seth felt a little uncomfortable at the way they were talking as if he wasn't even in the room. Like they were in their own little world and he made a mental note to add TAYLOR in big capital letters to the list of things they had to talk about in Seth/Ryan time, "We'll go bunk bed shopping when I get back?"
Ryan nodded and Seth added a bullet under Taylor's name with bunk bed written underneath, "Let's not tell Kirsten and Sandy about Taylor staying here until she gets back then."
There was a long silent pause when Seth realized they were addressing him, "Oh! Right, yeah. No mentioning the female companion to The Kirsten or Sandy."
Taylor smiled at him in an amused way, while Ryan kept his gaze focused on her, like he was afraid she was going to walk out the door and never come back. Seth added a (Urgent!!!) next to Taylor's name.
"I'll be back," she smiled once more to Seth then stopped at the door, she spun around with her finger already pointed at Ryan, "Don't do anything stupid."
For the first time all morning, Seth noticed, Ryan avoided Taylor's gaze. Taylor glared at him some more before turning to Seth. She mouthed, 'Don't let him leave the house without you.' Seth nodded, still confused and Taylor said goodbye once more.
Seth walked into the pool house for the second time that day, hoping to get Ryan interested in doing something, that would lead to Seth-Ryan time where he could ask the boy about a certain auburn haired girl, and her hold on his brother.
"Yeah, yeah." Ryan said into the phone with his back turned from Seth, "I'm heading out there in a bit. I just have to put some gas in my car and then I'm going."
Seth remembered Taylor's words, 'Don't let him leave the house without you,' and slipped back out of the pool house to go pack. He had no idea where he was going, but he knew Taylor was right and that Ryan shouldn't be left alone.
Taylor stepped onto campus and sighed taking in the college life around her. This was supposed to be me and Ryan. She thought to herself. We were supposed to have the college experience, and instead we've spent the last three and a half months, that we should have been in school, working at some dirty bar.
She headed for the direction she knew Summer's room to be in. Of course it was still early afternoon, so Taylor didn't expect the girl to be in her room. The door was wide open, but when Taylor peered in no one was to be found.
Shrugging the girl sat on Summer's bed and sighed. The past twenty-four hours had been probably the hardest she'd had in a while, and now instead of relaxing and trying to figure where she was going from here, she'd hopped the first plane to Rhode Island and was currently waiting to fix Summer.
Fix Summer. She thought sadly to herself, cause it was true. There was something wrong with her friend. She didn't have too much experienced with friends, seeing as Summer, Seth, and Ryan were her very first ones, But if your friends are in trouble you do whatever it takes to help them. At least that's what she and Ryan had been doing for each other.
Taylor laid back on the bed, she'd only slept about eight hours the night before. And the night before that she hadn't gotten any sleep cause she was crying too much. But she preferred not to think about that. It's kinda cold in here. She pulled Summer's blanket up and let her eyes drift…
Ryan shoved some of his stuff in his duffle bag, left a note on the dresser in case Taylor came back before he did, and left the pool house. He quickly shoved the bag in the back of his jeep and jumped in without a glance back. He had just made it down the driveway when he slammed on the brakes.
"Ow." Seth exclaimed as his side hit the seat, he lifted his head from his hiding spot in the back seat, "Oh hey Ryan."
"What are you doing, Seth?"
"Taylor told me not to leave you alone." He said ratting her out automatically. Ryan almost grinned at Seth's utter lack of courage, but he was angry at the both of them, "I'm not getting out of the car cause I'm pretty sure Taylor can kick my ass if I don't do what she says."
Ryan chuckled and nodded, while Seth climbed into the front seat, "So tell me where are we going?" Ryan shook his head indicating that he wasn't going to tell Seth, "Okay…" Seth trailed off then grinned and turned back to face Ryan, "How long have you and Taylor been "Not Romantically" hanging out?" Ryan groaned as he put the car in drive.
Summer walked into her room, dropping her books by the door. She had a few minutes to herself before Che started the 24 hour tree sit, and she was gonna call Seth to see how Ryan was adjusting. Her hand paused about a foot from the phone, and she sighed.
"I can't do this."
"Do what?" A sleepy voice mumbled from her bed. Summer gasped and ripped back the blanket, "Hey." Taylor said.
"Taylor?" Summer asked surprised, " What are you doing in my bed?"
"Taking a nap, living with Ryan has completely messed up my sleep cycle." Taylor noted the bags under the other girl's eyes, and smiled, "Oh do you wanna get in? We can snuggle."
"No," Summer said, "What are you doing here instead of in Newport or that STD filled bar that you work in?"
"Oh, I don't work there anymore." Taylor said shaking her head, "I moved in with Ryan last night. We're supposed to go shopping for bunk beds sometime this week."
"You moved in with Ryan?" Summer could not handle all of this information right now, "Right, what exactly are you doing in Providence, in my bed?"
"Why did you leave and not tell Seth?"
"I left cause I have school, and I told Seth, I left him a message on his answering machine." Summer said weakly.
"I didn't mean why didn't you tell Seth you were leaving- Summer! You didn't even tell him you were leaving?" This was worse than Taylor thought, "Why didn't you tell Seth about me and Ryan."
"It didn't come up."
"Yeah, it didn't come up cause you're avoiding talking to him." Taylor shot back, "Summer what is going on with you?" She pushed Summer onto the bed and knelt down in front of her, "Is this about- oh my god!" Taylor broke off, "When was the last time you shaved your legs?" Her eyes went lower and she added, "And what happened to your toes?"
"Yeah, I don't do that stuff anymore." Summer deadpanned, obviously unwilling to talk about it.
"Yeah, no kidding." Taylor said still staring at her friend's toes, "You have hobbit feet."
"Summer!" Che burst into the room, "Leonard just spotted the chainsaws, this thing is going down now."
Summer moved to get up but Taylor grabbed her hand, "Summer."
"Taylor, I gotta go, look my diner card is on the desk. Go get something to eat, we'll talk later." Summer rushed out of the room without a glance back and Taylor's worry meter skyrocketed.
Ryan threw Seth's phone on the ground, "I can't keep watching you to make sure you're not calling your dad."
"Gonna be kinda hard to now." Seth pointed out, with a shrug. But when Ryan's phone rang Seth felt a surge of hopefulness, "You're allowed a phone." He added, damn his sarcastic nature.
"It's not Sandy." Ryan said with a half smile, and Seth's hope flopped hopelessly on the ground, like a fish out of water, "It's Taylor." His hope lost the gills and grew some wings, "Hey. Where are you?" He threw a sideways glance at Seth, "Oh yeah? Seth and I just took a trip- what? No I'm not! It's not stupid- look you don't- no I'm not going back until I see this through. I'll see you when I get back, goodbye." Ryan closed his cell phone with a mixture of anger and desperation painted all over his face.
"She not happy?" Seth asked softly.
"No." was all Ryan said as they walked back to the car, and the rest of the ride was silent.
Taylor looked down at her cell phone. She was pissed. Pissed that he'd gone when she told him not to do anything stupid. Pissed that he'd dragged Seth along on this suicide mission of his. But mostly she was pissed that she was stuck trying to help Summer out of this go green phase, that was clearly just a way of dealing with Marissa's death, instead of making sure Ryan didn't get himself killed.
One step at a time.She told herself and zeroed in on Summer on the grass, with that raggedy guy from earlier, and Summer had dissedRay? Of course Taylor knew she wasn't cheating on Seth with this guy, but still if what Amber said was true, she was spending a lot of time with this Che person, Dinner first. She added to herself, if the signs were any indication, Summer wasn't go anywhere until the tree was 'safe' or whatever, and she needed some time to come up with a plan.
Ryan knew he'd get in trouble for this later. With Sandy, Kirsten, Seth, Summer would probably be mad that he dragged her boyfriend out to Mexico and then ditched him to go find the guy that killed his ex-girlfriend, and then of course Taylor would be furious if she wasn't already.
But he had to do this and he just hoped they'd all understand.
As he left the 'hotel' he contemplated calling her, and telling her just exactly what he was doing. He didn't know if it was because he wanted her to tell him it was okay, or maybe for her to talk him out of it. Cause he knew while Seth failed, Taylor would be able to do it with a few simple words. He didn't know what those words were, cause if he did he wouldn't be headed to Volchok's place of work, but he knew Taylor'd be able to find them in a matter of seconds.
Which is why he turned his cell phone off and walked into the bar.
Taylor watched as Summer fluffed Che's pillow, in disgust. Who was this girl and what had she done with Summer? The Summer she knew wouldn't just abandon Seth at the time he needs her most. The Summer she knew would hear a story as juicy as her's and Ryan's and would tell the whole Cohen and Robert's clan in a heart beat, and so far the only people who knew she was sleeping in Ryan's room and had been for the past five months, were Summer, Ryan, Seth, and herself.
"Move it Hippies." Taylor said moving her way through the crowd to Summer.
"Taylor, hey." Summer said, noticing the other girl, "Listen you can have my bed tonight cause I'm gonna be out here."
"Uh-huh," Taylor said with a big fake smile as she reached out to grab Summer's wrist, "I need to talk to you."
"Whoa, Taylor! Wait what?" Summer asked when Taylor had dragged her a few feet away from Che. To be honest Summer didn't appear to be putting up to much struggle to get away from the guy, so Taylor loosened her grip, but she needed to ask anyway.
"What is going on between you and that Che character?" Taylor asked glancing over Summer's shoulder to see him watching them.
"That Che character?" Summer repeated, "What are you talking about?"
"I am talking about you leaving Newport and your boyfriend after what an hour of time together?" she said, grabbing her friend's shoulder and looking her in the eye, "Summer he needs you, and I'm not saying you should be sacrificing your school work or classes or anything but if you have time to save a -what?- 300 year old tree, then you should have time to get on the phone and talk to Seth."
"Seth is a big boy, and he can take care of himself." Summer said snapped, right as Taylor was about to respond her cell phone rang.
"Hello?" she snapped not letting go of Summer's right arm.
"Taylor?" Seth asked.
"Seth?" She panicked letting go of Summer's arm, but the girl was going no where now that she knew who was on the phone, "What's wrong? What happened?"
"What happened?" Summer repeated in a shaky voice, "What's going on?"
"Ryan, he's disappeared. I had to use a phone in this bar, just t call you cause he smashed my phone- but I don't car about the stupid phone- Taylor I'm not sure what I should do right now. He's going after Volchuk and I have no idea where to find either one of them."
"Damn it!" she swore angrily, "Why is he being such a- Damn it!" she cried again.
"Is it Seth? Is everything okay?" Summer asked shaking Taylor's arm.
Taylor nodded, "Seth is fine. It's Ryan that we're worr-" Taylor broke off as Summer turned her back and headed for her spot by the tree, "Summer!"
"I have to save the tree." Was all she said.
"Summer's with you?" Seth asked confused, "Where are you? Can I talk to her?"
"I'll explain later Seth." Taylor said trying to come up with a plan.
"Okay, look I have an idea, but I'm gonna have to call you back okay?"
"What? No, Seth-" Taylor was met with a dial tone, "Damn it." She added softly, and did the only thing she could do, head back to Summer's room to lie awake and worry.
Summer walked in the room at about eight o'clock the next morning. She was surprised to see Taylor already awake and packed.
"You're leaving?" Taylor nodded, "Oh… I kinda liked having you here."
"All I did was nag you." Taylor pointed out with a small smile.
"It was just like old times." Summer grinned.
"I have to get back, you know Ryan and Seth stuff from last night." Summer nodded and looked away guiltily, "Listen Summer, I know this is your way of coping, but you can't shut the rest of us out okay? Seth cares about you, you have to let him in sometime. Okay you are using this Che guy, and all of this save the earth stuff to hide from him."
"I'm not hiding from Seth, and I do let you guys in." Summer tried to defend herself.
"Summer you came back to Newport to fix the whole Ryan situation, so Seth would stop calling you. Not completely, but so he'd stop calling everyday to remind you of what you left behind, and yes maybe you fixed something even bigger in exchange, but the facts still remain. Summer how often do you call him? Once a week? A month?" Summer looked down at her feet, "Summer just talk to me- or better yet talk to Seth- write him a letter anything. Just…just tell him what you're going through, and he'll help you, if you let him."
"I think you spent a little too much time in that bar playing make believe with Ryan- you know, that you and he were happy and making a well adjusted life for yourselves- cause here in the real world we hide our feelings." Taylor rolled her eyes, "And since when did saving the earth become a bad thing?"
"I didn't say it was." Taylor was quick to defend herself, "And yeah me and Ryan were playing make believe but we snapped out of it!"
"Only because I kicked you out of it!" Summer said standing, "You came here after months of living a lie and all you've done is tell me what's wrong with my life! When you are the one who still hasn't told her mother- and I'm betting Mr. And Mrs. Cohen- how you've been living with Ryan since the beginning of the summer, so you're the one avoiding things, Avoider!"
"Fine," Taylor said, "Be that way. But you're gonna lose Seth and then you'll wish you listened to me." Taylor grabbed her bag and turned to storm out but something stopped her so she turned back and added, "Don't worry, I'll take care of whatever mess the boys got themselves into last night." She sent the girl a small girl, which was returned and left.
Taylor was gonna kill him. Sure he hadn't actually said the words but the threat had been implied. He had actually threatened Seth so he would tell him where Volchuk was. She was going to kill him, he thought to himself once more as he gripped the pipe hidden in his jacket sleeve. He could see the door. He was so close. Soon Volchuk would be dead, just like…
He knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again. No answer. Time to do this the Chino way. He broke open the door and came face to face with four empty walls and no Volchuk.
"Damn it!" he swore slamming the pipe against the wall, now Taylor really was going to kill him, cause he really was going to kill Seth.
He walked back down the hallway and towards the exit, only to stop dead when he realized he needed a worse way to kill Seth, because Kirsten and Sandy were there waiting.
Taylor stepped out of the cab in front of the Cohen's. She was going to have to make her way around the house and to the pool house without Mr. and Mrs. Cohen seeing her. Which was proving to be very easy but she stopped short when she saw Seth heading to the pool house, and Ryan adjusting the blinds.
At least the boys are safe. She shrugged to herself, Well for now. I am gonna kill Ryan afterall.
But she watched as Ryan closed the blinds effectively shutting Seth out, "Damn it." She sighed, and walked over to Seth, putting her arm around his shoulder, "I'll go deal with it." He nodded, "Summer's gonna be okay, by the way. She just needs some time, and to know that we aren't going anywhere."
"I don't know how you know this, or why but thank you." He said, and turned to go inside the house.
"But don't call her." Taylor said quickly, "Wait for her to call you." He nodded and she walked up to the pool house door, she tried the handle but found it locked, so she knocked on the door.
"Go away Seth." Ryan barked.
"It's not Seth." She said softly, but he heard her and unlocked the door.
"Look it's been a long day." He said closing and locking the door once she was inside.
"Let's just go to sleep." She nodded and moved toward the bed, "We'll deal with it in the morning."
Well okay, there you go guys, chapter three- or four depending on how you look at it.
Please review and tell me if you loved it or hated it. Or maybe a little of both, whatever, just tell me.
-Em