Hope this was quick enough for anyone who's waiting, it's a little long and unedited, written in an hour, so I hope it's some kind of good! Don't forget to review!
The Fireworks (Part Two)
Avoiding Ryan is a challenge for a lot of reasons. Those reasons include A) She's at his house, B) Her social circle has dwindled in the past year and she really only recognizes a few faces apart from him, Marissa, and Seth, and C) Her boyfriend is bound and determined to sucker the four of them into as much group-bonding time as he possibly can.
Still, Summer is determined. After the awkward (read: incredibly hot) moment they'd shared in the kitchen, she doesn't trust herself enough to be near him and not blurt out something horribly embarrassing, like "Hi, I want your body" or "Could I have a burger, oh, yeah, and your babies?"
So she busies herself being Sandy's little helper, running dirty dishes to the sink and plates full of sliced fruits to the tables. She circulates the crowd with trays of appetizers and carefully sidesteps the small patio table Seth, Marissa, and Ryan have taken over. She ignores – or tells herself she's ignoring – the fact that Ryan's cool blue gaze lands on her every few minutes and lingers there.
"Summer," Seth finally calls, when an hour has passed and she's yet to take the seat he's been saving for her. "Put that tray down, everyone's done eating. Come sit with us."
She tries to protest but one glance around tells her he's right. The crowd around the food table has dispersed and most of the guests are lounging by the pool, hands laying idly on their stomachs in the universal I'm stuffed gesture. "Sure," she says with a wan smile, and the chair scrapes against the pavement as she drags it close to him – and farther from Ryan. "You guys having a good time?"
"The best," Marissa answers happily, patting Ryan's hand in emphasis. Summer's seen enough of their breakup and makeup routine to understand that they are in the process of another upswing. "I'm so glad to have a break from my mom and this weather is gorgeous."
"We live in Newport," Summer answers, her brows knitting together in confusion over Marissa's newfound exuberance. "When isn't it gorgeous?"
Seth's laughter is warm and familiar in her ear, but it's Ryan's quiet chuckle that tugs her own lips upward. "But the Julie thing is still a valid excuse," Seth points out. "How is the she-devil, anyway?"
"Out shopping for the day." Marissa sends him a kind smile. Seth's been the only one to act one hundred percent normal around her since everything happened – no biting his tongue, no probing looks. It's probably because he has no other setting other than the default humor, but still, it's nice. "She wanted to avoid this little shindig. She made me promise I'd stay inside with the doors locked."
"Just in case Ryan decided to storm the castle?" Seth cracks, laughing out loud as he imagines his friend in a full suit of armor. "Using me, his trusty steed, to distract the wicked witch, no doubt."
Marissa giggles with him, obviously entertaining a similar notion. "What would you do, bore her to death with babbling and bad jokes?"
"Hey." He adopts a wounded look, not half as offended as a normal person would be. "It's worked in the past, okay? Tried and true, baby, tried and true."
They all laugh at that and for a moment, Summer lets herself relax, sink into the moment and appreciate how familiar it all feels. Seth's arm around her and Marissa and Ryan across the table and all of them joking and bantering. It's like old times.
Then she glances down to slip off her sandals and when she looks back up again, Ryan's eyes are on her, practically boring a hole in her head with the intensity of his stare. Her giggle ends with a sharp gasp and her entire body buzzes with a pins-and-needles sensation that's not entirely unpleasant.
Nope. Not just like old times at all. Some things had definitely changed.
XXX
Twilight seems to last forever in Newport, the sky shimmering in a shade of blue as deep as a promise, the first stars sparking up in little clusters of silver. It's Summer's favorite time of night. But right now, the view she has of it is from the window in the Cohen's guest bedroom, where she's locked herself to catch her breath and get her head on straight.
It's not just her imagination. She's almost positive. She's caught him staring at her a record twenty eight times today. The last four times, his gaze didn't waver when it met hers, he didn't glance away or pretend to be doing a casual crowd-scan. That has to mean something.
She's just not sure what. Because as far as she knows – and she's the best friend, so she's definitely in the loop – he and Marissa are still together. Or back together. Or … whatever. They're trying again. Thanks, in large part, to her own damn persistence in the matter of reuniting them.
"Good one, Roberts," she congratulates herself now, shaking her head at how she'd pushed and prodded Marissa into that stupid date. "Real smooth move."
"Summer?" As if she's conjured him, Ryan's voice floats through the wall, accompanied by his fist knocking on the closed door. "You in here?"
Her head nearly snaps off her neck as she swings it around to stare, wide-eyed, at the door. "Uh – yes," she calls out, mentally adding, Hiding from you. "What is it?"
"We've been looking all over for you," he responds, and there's a touch of impatience in his voice that is very un-Ryan. "Open the door, please?"
She complies, mostly because it's too high up to jump out the window and any other escape route would involve removing ceiling tiles and crawling through vents. She's petite, sure, but she's claustrophobic, too, and she'd rather not be trapped in an air duct when she could be trapped in a large room with Ryan and a rather comfortable looking bed.
"You're acting strange," Ryan says immediately, the second she's opened the door. Instead of stepping aside so she can join him in the hall, he enters the room and kicks the door shut lightly.
"So are you," she returns, taken aback by his forthrightness. Ryan isn't usually one to initiate a conversation, but then again, he does play the hero very nicely. Marissa and Seth probably elected him to go deal with her. "You keep looking at me."
Ryan hesitates to answer. He can't exactly deny it, his eyes have been drawn back to her time and time again today. He just doesn't know why. "Well, I, uh … I kind of have a favor to ask."
If it's possible for a heart to deflate like a balloon, that's what Summer feels. It just … shrinks inside of her, all the hope she'd barely been allowing herself to feel, and her shoulders slump as she tries for flippancy, "I'm not holding the firecrackers while you guys light them. If I lose a hand, that'd be the end of manicures for me, and I really like that Chinese woman's work."
He gives her the smallest of smiles. "Like Seth will be allowed anywhere near the fireworks. No, I wanted to ask if you would, uh, come with me to visit Kirsten on Saturday."
Summer blinks. She'd been expecting it to be about Marissa or maybe an opinion on what to get Seth for his birthday. "Um. Wow."
"You don't have to," Ryan rushes to assure her. "It's just that, Seth won't even talk about her, much less visit, and I don't think Marissa's really up to it, so I just … I thought you and I could go."
"Wow," she says again and maybe it's silly, but she's touched. Ryan doesn't really pour on the flattery, but knowing that he thinks she can handle that trip is probably the best compliment she's ever gotten. "Of course I'll go with you, Ryan. I'd love to."
He's supposed to leave it at that, he knows. But his feet lurch in the wrong direction and there's suddenly no space between them and she has this look in her eyes like she's either absolutely petrified or incredibly grateful for his unexpected proximity.
Summer's sure she's either dreaming or dying, because no way would Ryan freaking Atwood be pressed up against her like this in any other scenario. Ever. He is her best friend's boyfriend, her boyfriend's best friend, and it's wrong, wrong, wrong. And she needs to take a deep breath, count to three, and step back.
Or stretch onto her tiptoes, wrap her arms around his neck, and kiss him like her live depends on it. Which it might. So, common sense be damned, she does, molding her body to his, locking limbs and lips together. Ryan seems stunned for an instant, as if he hasn't been waiting for this to happen all day, but recovers admirably, bringing his hands to her hair and then dragging them back down her body to her waist.
A moan tears out of Summer's throat as her own hands reciprocate, traveling up his back to trace his shoulders and then trail down his spine, fingernails dragging lightly to elicit a hiss. Without breaking contact, Ryan begins to move her backwards, steering them both towards the bed that looks like it's been waiting for just this occasion.
"Ryan!" Seth's voice calls, making them both gasp and jump apart seconds before he turns into the room. "Summer? God, what have you guys been doing?"
Summer nearly chokes. "Uh, just, uh, talking about Marissa. And you know, everything. She seems better, don't you think?"
"I guess," Seth replies, obviously not very invested in the matter. "Let's hurry up and get back downstairs, okay, the fireworks are gonna start soon."
Summer chances a glance back at Ryan as Seth takes her hand and leads her down the stairs and bites back a loud sigh. She doesn't think her body can handle anymore fireworks today.