Welcome to Barstow

The groups get to Barstow, their first night out. What will happen? (Hahha, Barstow IS on the way to Vegas, really. I think, at least.)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, The OC belongs to FOX.

Author's Note: Some of you guys might ask, "Why are they going to Vegas… when they're not even allowed to gamble?" I do have a question: Who wants to waste their money gambling at 16?! (Unless if it's for charity …i.e. "The Gamble") Hahah the Vegas part isn't the main focus of the fanfic, and I do have other things for them to do. I'll try to be clearer on that. And keep in mind, this is my 2nd attempt, so I'm doing the best I can. And I do appreciate constructive criticism I try to keep it in my mind while writing. Thanks.

 

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The gang hit the town and was in search of a hotel. They finally settled in at a local hotel, and began to check in. The group grabbed all their belongings and headed towards the front desk.

"Hi, can we get our reservations for Cooper?" Marissa asked the desk attendant.
"Hello. Yes, I see it" the lady said, staring at the computer. "Unfortunately, there's only 2 suites available at this time."
"What?" Marissa exclaimed. She planned on getting a room with the girls, Seth and Ryan getting a room together and Luke getting a room on his own, due to the fact that he knew Marissa wouldn't be comfortable "sharing a room" together.

"Yes, unfortunately, there are only 2 at this time. The hotel would like to apologize for the inconvenience and offer a free breakfast at our lounge." The woman said.
Marissa looked back at everybody and each of them looked a bit tired. She finally said, "Ok… we'll take it." She said, grabbing the 2 sets of keys.
"Everybody, there's a little change in plans. Luke, Ryan, and Seth, you guys will stay in one room, and Anna and Summer and I will stay in the next one." Marissa said to the reluctant hotel guests.

Ryan looked at Seth, and then at Luke. How he'd ever survive tonight, he'd never know. Ryan picked up his bags and looked up at the guys. Luke looked pretty annoyed to having to stay with a couple of guys he'd knock unconscious if got the chance but he only went on this trip because Marissa want them to act more like friends with each other. Seth rolled his eyes at the whole idea of this.

"Alright men! Time to…uh… unload." He said, in his most manly voice. He was doing his best to make the best out of the situation.
"Ok…" Ryan said warily. 'I'm going to need all the self restraint I posses to get through this,' he thought.
Luke just stood there, looking at Ryan. 'One false move …' he thought. Luke found it bad enough to just be stuck in a vehicle with him. Thank goodness they were in opposite ends of the minivan, so they wouldn't have to interact with each other.
'Now,' Luke thought, 'I'm going to have to sleep near this guy. He'll probably rob me while I sleep…'

"Alright! Let's go upstairs, unpack, and hit the road." Marissa said excitedly.

The girls headed towards their room, and once they got the door open they realized one thing: there were only 2 beds, and there were 3 of them.
"I'm SO not sleeping on the floor. Ew!" Summer said, plopping on the bed.
"Well, neither are we. If there a better way to figure it out?" asked Anna.
"We could draw names out of a hat…" Marissa offered.
"Fine, let's just get this over with." Summer said, sounding a bit annoyed.

Marissa grabbed some hotel paper she saw and wrote the names and tore them out of the pad. The put them in a hat and swirled her hand around.

"Anna, want to do the honors?" Marissa said, holding the hat towards her.
"My pleasure," she said. "Alright, the first person to have a bed is … Marissa." She said brandishing Marissa's name on the scrap piece of paper. She stuck her hand in once more.
"And the next person to have a bed is….Moi." Anna said, revealing her name.
Summer was in shock. "So I have to sleep on the floor?!" she said eyeing the not so comfortable carpet.
"Yeah, well, it's the luck of the draw!" Anna said scooting Summer over.
"Ew…" Summer said, looking pretty disturbed. "Let's just unpack and get out of here."

Meanwhile, the boys headed towards their room. Luke was practically smoldering at the thought of sharing a room with these two losers. He was ready to pounce when they swung open the door to reveal that there were only two beds in the room.

"That's…um...interestesting." Seth commented.
"Oh great." Ryan said softly. Not only did he have to share a room with the boyfriend of the girl he likes, but now he has to battle out for a freaking bed, too?
"I don't care how you two decide it, but since I paid for a room, but never got one, I'm claiming a bed," Luke said, practically mapping out his territory. "Besides, Cohen, I'm sure you wouldn't mind sharing a bed with Ryan, right?" he said laughing at his own joke.
"Hey, why don't you shut up? I'll sleep on the floor." Ryan said, gritting his teeth. 'Self-restraint' he thought to himself, while piling his stuff onto the floor. 
"Thanks Ryan, you don't mind right?" Seth said, bouncing around on the other bed not occupied by the resident jerk-face.
"Yeah, it's cool. You've given me so much; I oughta try to get even." Ryan said grabbing a seat cushion to make a pillow for his make-shift bed.

The boys continued to unpack in silence, really not knowing what to say to each other, even though Luke would gladly want to never talk to them again, when suddenly a short knock was at the door. It was Marissa.

"Hey guys! I guess you've been acquainted with the 2 beds." She commented.
"Yeah, we've been introduced!" Seth said, laying on his bed reading comic books.
"Well boys, get ready, 'cause we're going out and grab some food!" Marissa said. 

The boys quickly got ready and they piled into the Minivan, and headed out.

"So, what are you guys in the mood for?" Anna asked the group.
"Mmm… right now? Pasta." Marissa said.
"Ew, hello, carbs!" Summer whined. Anna looked at her as if he grew another head or something.
"Yes! I'm on Atkins'…" Seth said, trying to help Summer out, but she just looked away.
"How about Chinese?" Anna said, with thoughts of Sweet and Sour sauce in her head.
"Or the lovely American cuisine, known as Denny's?" Seth offered.
"Or why don't we don't do that, and just go to a Thai house?" Luke said, staring at the road in front of him.
"Why don't we just go to a restaurant with different things, and order for ourselves?" Ryan said from the back.
"Yeah… great idea Ryan." Summer said, shooting a smile and raised an eyebrow towards Ryan.

"Sounds good to me!" said Marissa, smiling at him.                                             
Luke looked at her face and thought, 'Yeah I'm sure it does…'
Ryan caught a glimpse of Luke's cold blue eyes, looking at Marissa, when he tore his eyes away from her. He didn't like it.

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At the restaurant, after they all ordered, they sat around staring at their water glasses. Anna looked at Seth playing with his fork and straw pretending that they were drumsticks and drumming them onto the table. Anna decided that she really connects to Seth, on a different, higher level than any girl has ever before, yet it seemed to her that he just didn't know it yet. The Cotillion was one of the greatest nights of her life, finally meeting someone into the same stuff she's into. She just hoped the saying "opposites attract" didn't ring true. Usually, she didn't have to or want to compete with other girls for boys, in fact she found that lame and tacky. But something about Seth made her want to break the rules in half. She'd just have to be there … in case he ever needed her. She sighed and sat back in her seat.

Summer looked up from her glass to look at Ryan. This was the first time she really got to examine him. His face looked a bit tired but determined and rough, too. He always wore that little black leather strap choker, and wore the same undershirt muscle tee. It seemed to Summer like the perfect "boy from the wrong side of the tracks" uniform to her, and it was sexy. Something about him intrigued her. She awarded that to the fact that he was obviously hopelessly in love with her best friend, and the fact that she couldn't have him made her want him even more. Summer looked over at Marissa. She noticed that she too was staring at Ryan.

Marissa thanked the stars that Luke and Ryan hadn't fought yet. It seemed like a miracle, really, that they had traded insults and one of them ending with a black eye. She looked at Luke … and then looked a Ryan. Luke symbolized all of what the OC had to offer her. A comfortable life and everything she wanted would be handed to her. Ryan, however symbolized her soul, the outside. She was so sheltered by the OC that she didn't really know what the outside had to offer her, and she wanted to find out. Her mind told her Luke … but her heart told her Ryan. She sighed and looked down at her jeans.

Luke was busy twisting knots into his napkin to notice the staring contest Marissa had. He looked up and saw Ryan look at Marissa. He looked down at the napkin and started folding more and more.  It was like no matter what he did; Ryan would still be there, behind his back and try to get with Marissa. He found no point in giving Ryan another bloody nose upon black eye when all it did was anger Marissa even though it did make him feel better. So he just sat there, twisting the crap out of the napkin.

While Seth finished up a set of mental drumming he looked up. He noticed that everyone looked like their heads were clouded by deep thoughts. He raised an eyebrow, and looked over at Ryan. He was too into watching the condensation of his water glass drip down. He looked at Anna, who smiled at him then looked away, and then he stared at Summer for a moment too long because she just glanced at him and rolled her eyes. He muttered, "Okay…" to himself and then sat back in his chair. This was going to be a long dinner, he could just feel it.

Ryan sighed. He was tired of this silence. So he decided to break up the tension.

 "So… Marissa, what do you have planned on our itinerary for tomorrow?" he asked.
Marissa looked a bit startled. "Oh! Umm… I was thinking we should just try to get to Vegas in one piece, eh?" she laughed nervously, then cleared her throat.
" Well I know where I wanna go! I hear the Liberace Museum is a ball!" Seth said sarcastically.
"Of course you'd find it amusing, Cohen." Luke sneered.
"Luke!" Marissa said. "Be nice…" She warned looking in his eyes. She expected to see an apologetic set of blue eyes, but instead she saw something dark, something she didn't like.
"Right... well, I'm sure you'd like to go to the boxing match at Caesar's Palace, since, you know, you can identify with the cheap shots, eh?" Seth retorted.
Before Luke could get a word in, the waiter came by with their order.

'Thank goodness,' Marissa thought. 'This is going to be interesting...'

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After the dinner, they loaded up and headed back towards the hotel. It was almost 1 o'clock in the morning when they finally got settled into bed. Marissa just stared at the ceiling, counting the tiles. She really didn't appreciate Luke's manner. She was starting to second guess her relationship again, for the millionth time. Should she break it off with Luke to be with Ryan? She just wasn't sure. She couldn't sleep. So, she silently got up and went to the balcony to think.

Next door Ryan was lying on the oddly soothing ground thinking about Marissa. Before, when his future in the OC was questionable, if Marissa wanted him to stay in Newport, he would have. Now that he is for sure living there, right next door to her, he felt that he'd do just about anything if Marissa asked. The mere sight of her took his breath away. But only one thing was in his way: Luke. If she felt the same way about him, wouldn't she have dumped him a long time ago? And Ryan knew that Luke wasn't worthy of a girl like her, after him cheat on her with that blonde girl at the fashion show after party. If there was one girl, more than likely there were more. The thought of Marissa getting cheated on was making him angry. He sighed into the open void above his head. He could hear Seth lightly snoring and Luke talking in his sleep. He had to shake this feeling of doubt off. He got up and walked to the balcony.

Marissa was already sitting down on a seat on the balcony when she heard the door slide open of the balcony next to hers. Then, she saw Ryan step out, and gaze at the stars above him. And he sighed. He turned and saw her looking at him, feeling a bit startled.

"Hey…" he said softly.
"Hey." She said. She got up and walked to the ledge facing Ryan's.
"Can't sleep?" she asked.
"Yeah…" he said. "I've got a lot on my mind."
"What about?" she asked. "If you don't mind, of course."
"Well…" Ryan started. He couldn't quite form the words in his head. He couldn't just out and say, "Well, let's see, the girl I think I'm falling in love with is with the biggest ass on the planet, for starters!"
"Just … complicated matters." Was all he could say.
"Yeah?"
"How about you? Why are you up?" Ryan asked, trying to divert the conversation.
"Well…" She started. She couldn't say, "Well, hmm… I think falling in love with a boy that's not my boyfriend."
"Umm… it's a touchy subject. I'm at a fork in the road, and I don't know where to go. I'm pretty much lost." She said looking down. Which was true, she truly was.
Ryan got started towards her.
"I can help you find your way again…" Ryan said with a tone that both had touches of seriousness and softness, and then looked at her. The moon shone in her eyes when she looked back at him. She was speechless for awhile. She looked out at the scene in front of her. Buildings, lights, cars speeding by. She walked up to the railing facing the street.
"Can we just stand here, Ryan?" she asked, without looking at him.
"Ok." Ryan walked up closer to her, next to the railing. He silently reached out and touched her pulling her chin towards him.  
"No matter what, you'll find your way." He said and then turned and looked at the night sky, which was staring right back at him. 

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Woo. That was longer than expected. Alright people, please review! As I've said, if you guys want to see something, I might put it in, since obviously, this was made for entertainment purposes. And thanks for reading; I've gotten mostly good reviews! =) Alternate realities rock, since a new episode might be produced before I get to finish this, and that episode might confuse readers, etc, etc, etc. Thanks guys and gals, I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I get the time. (This will be like TOMORROW! Hahaha) I just don't want people waiting too long, because I personally hate that. But don't worry I'm not rushing it. =) See you guys in the next chapter!

- electricavenue