~More Circles - Chapter 2~

Seth was gloriously Happy. With a capital "H". Again and again in his mind, Summer launched herself at his lips, grabbing his face and holding him there. He stood perfectly still, shocked into silence, and that sounded stupid because, well, silent? He couldn't continue his poetic ramble with SUMMER'S FACE attached to his mouth, now could he? Of course he was silent! He tried to figure out what to do with his hands, because in this alternate universe, he had NO idea, and it wasn't like he had experience at this sort of thing. In any universe. One of his hands randomly, apparently under it's own volition, settled on her side, and he mentally thanked his hand, because touching her? HELL yeah! - then the other hand took the hint and, not wanting to be left out of the fun, jumped on her other side, then her shoulder, ending up in her hair. He fervently thanked that hand also. Once that was all settled, with the hands, he leaned into her mouth and kissed her back and suddenly knew all of his fantasies concerning Summer had not prepared him for the real thing. At All. Then it ended and he stared at her, waiting for her to slap him, or something, then he remembered SHE had kissed HIM. And she was SMILING at him now. Very sweetly and almost, could it be? - shyly.

On his 13th reenactment, Seth heard Ryan' voice and he sat up in the chair. Looking over at him reclining on the bed, he saw that he was talking in his sleep. Ryan's hand, resting on his stomach, moved out in front of him, palm up in a pleading gesture. Seth's joy was quickly tempered by sadness for his friend. He had seen this before, almost every night he'd stayed over in the pool house. Ryan would talk in his sleep, usually too softly to hear distinct words, sometimes reaching out like he was warding off something - or someone, other times pleading with his hands. Once he had said quite clearly "Mom wait!" and Seth had known exactly what that was all about. Just now he had said something about Marissa. While Ryan had opened up considerably since moving here, he was still a man of very few words compared to the rest of North America, and Seth thought sometimes talking in his sleep was the only way Ryan could communicate all the things he wanted to say while awake, but couldn't.

He hadn't let on to Ryan before, but Seth had had a pretty good idea of what happened tonight, he just didn't know the severity of it until Ryan avoided the bed like it was on fire and tried to trade out Seth's chair for it. Ryan was supremely happy with the big bed, once admitting to him he had never had anything other than an old lumpy twin that hurt his back, but that was still better than when he'd had none at all and slept on the floor. Seth had seen Gabby slink into the pool house during the party, and had later tried to stop Marissa with some brilliant small talk when he'd seen her headed in the same direction. He didn't know why she was going to see Ryan, because in his boredom with Summer's interest in all things corporate, male, and 20-something, he had looked around several times and seen Marissa and Luke and they were all over each other. Seriously. But he thought he should to try to head her off, and when she'd sidestepped him, he had hoped that Gabby had slunk out of the pool house when he wasn't looking, and if not that she and Ryan were involved a friendly game of ProSkater3. From the look on Marissa's face as she whizzed back by, they had been involved in a friendly game of some sort, but he doubted it was ProSkater3. He hoped it was just a kiss, because well you know, since Marissa had obviously chosen Luke anyway, but then after seeing the very rumpled bed and Ryan's avoidance, he was very afraid that Marissa had seen "Grandma" making a man out of Ryan. If he wasn't already. Not the point. A girl just didn't get over a sight like that, and well, he knew Ryan. Ryan had seen that Marissa had chosen Luke, and why would he say no to Gabrielle? Seth certainly wouldn't, and she was his freakin' "Grandma". And that was just weird. But Ryan hurting Marissa for any reason, even unwittingly in this convoluted situation, would put Ryan in a tailspin of brooding and guilt for God knows how long. Seth wished he knew how to help. At least he could be here if Ryan woke up and wanted to talk.

He was talking now, in his sleep, about a door.

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