I still don't own the O.C.
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Anna POV
"When you say 'find Seth Cohen' what exactly do you mean?" Ryan asked with a raised brow.
"How many ways can that be translated?" I replied.
"Ehm..."
"The problem is where to look. Where would he be? The planet is kinda huge... But we have no choice. We have to look for him and drag his retarded butt back here."
"So how can we do this?" He still seemed confused but I could tell that he was warming up to the idea.
I stood up and grabbed his arm, encouraging him to also get on his feet. He complied. Still holding him, I led him out of the living room.
"We're going to look for him now?"
I smirked but kept dragging him.
"Anna, where are we going?"
"To Seth's room?"
"You still remem..."
I turned around and shot him a look. "Of course I do, I was there enough times."
He nodded, avoiding my eyes. "Yes..." he said, coloring slightly. I guess he felt bad for bringing that up. As if he could. That would be like ignoring an elephant dressed as a Vegas showgirl... I mean, really.
"So, why exactly are we here?" he asked as I pushed open the door.
"Well, Seth always talks about everything so I'm sure he must have mentioned something at some point. And he's bound to have left some clues about his whereabouts. All we need to do is look and I bet we can figure it out."
"Well, we talked about sailing before he left and he mentioned Catalina Island and Tahiti."
"Tahiti?"
"Yeah... you've sailed there too, right?"
I was a little surprised that he knew that. So I asked him.
"Seth mentioned it a few times - I think he was really impressed by it."
I was flattered. I'd forgotten I'd even told him about that trip. "You don't think he'd be dumb enough to sail all the way to Tahiti on his catarman do you? Ryan...? Ryan, did you hear...?"
He didn't respond so I turned to look at what he was doing. He was standing by Seth's nightstand staring at something in his hand. I moved closer and noticed it was a map.
"What's that?" I whispered. From the way he held it, I could tell it was somewhat significant.
He didn't look up. "Oh, it's the map to Tahiti that Seth gave me last year. He dropped it here when I came to say goodbye and it looks like he didn't touch it."
I don't know, but I was beginning to get a weird vibe from Ryan. It seemed like his relationship with Seth might have been a little different from what I'd assumed. Not that there's anything wrong with different or anything, but still, it was a little surprising. "Hey, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe he decided to sail to San Francisco or worse, Fire Island," I half-joked.
"Ah-hun," he said, half-listening.
"Ouch!" I yelped. Something sharp pricked me when I plunked on Seth's comforter.
Ryan instinctively reached for me. "Are you okay?"
With a scrunched face, I nodded and reached beneath me to pick the offending object. It was a plastic horse.
"Shit! Seth left Captain Oats! This is worse than I thought."
Ryan rolled his eyes then joined me on the bed. "Seth leaves his parents and his girlfriend, but you only think it's bad because he leaves his toy horse?" He reached for it and I handed it to him. We both watched as he played with it.
"You know what I mean. Seth wouldn't leave him... I don't think."
Ryan shrugged. "You might be right. It's just that I tend to tune him out when he starts talking about his relationships with inanimate objects. Captain Oats, Summer Breeze... "
I laughed. "Yeah. He's a weird one, isn't he?"
"He sure is. But you can't help but love him."
I chuckled. You really couldn't.
He dropped Captain Oats on the bed then faced me. "So, how exactly do we find him?"
I shook my head and thought about it. I tried to look back at him but found it easier to look at the wall instead. For some reason, something about Ryan's eyes being trained directly on mine was doing something to my nerves. And I think my heart rate. But I am not sure though... perhaps it had nothing to do with him. It might just have been the combination of all the stress. I really didn't know what it was... all I knew was it felt weird.
"Yeah," he agreed.
"But you think he might have gone to Tahiti or Catalina Island."
He stretched his arms out and yawned. I guess he hadn't been able to get much sleep. From the looks of it, neither had anyone else. "It's a possibility. He went sailing and those are places he mentioned." He kept looking around the room as if he was searching for something.
"What?"
"Huh? Oh... just more clues. I wish we didn't have to play this guessing game."
I smiled. "It's a good thing we are dealing with Seth here. Something tells me it'll be a lot harder to find clues about you."
He mock-frowned. And his fake frowns are cute. But I wished he'd smile though... I couldn't remember ever seeing him smile. And at the moment, that was the second thing I wanted.
The reading on the alarm clock next to Seth's bed snapped me back to reality - time was running out. "Well..." I said, getting back to the matter at hand. "If he went to Catalina Island, he should have been back by now."
"Unless he decided to spend a few nights there," he pointed out.
"Yes. Imagine Seth all alone in Catalina. I'm not even sure he'd have fun."
"Trust me, he will," he said with a glint in his eye.
"Really? Why do I feel like there's a story there? Anyway, that would be the best case scenario and that'll mean he's fine."
"Yeah," he said without much gusto. He probably realized that was a little bit of a pipe dream. The least Seth would have done was call someone when he arrived on the Island. The fact we hadn't heard from him made us think he was still at sea. And the idea of Seth in the Pacific Ocean on that little boat was making me ill.
"But if he went to Tahiti..."
"Yes..." he said, his forehead wrinkled in worry. "It'll be great to catch up with him and put him on a safer boat," I said diplomatically. Of course I feared far worse, but I couldn't bear to vocalize them. Or see Ryan's expression when I did. "So you want to sail to Tahiti?"
"Why not? I've done it before..."
"To look for Seth?" he asked incredulously.
I didn't seem that unreasonable to me. "To look for Seth? To go on vacation? Think of it anyway you like... I did come here to help and that might help."
"But I can't sail."
"That's why I'm going sailing and you're not."
"I thought you said we were going to find Seth?"
I was at a loss of words. If I was hearing correctly, it sounded like Ryan wanted to come sailing with me. Ryan and I, alone on the high seas for weeks - that wasn't something I'd anticipated.
"Yes. I'll search the seas, while you search the land. It's all about divide and conquering, right?"
"How do I search the land if he's gone sailing?"
Good question. As I hadn't had time to come up with an error-proof argument, I tried my best.
" You know... you can make sure everyone is here. And do what you were doing before I showed up."
"But you did show up and you are going sailing."
"So?"
"Isn't it dangerous? Just you alone on such a long trip?"
I found his concern cute but intrusive. "Dude, I've done this twice - it gives me a chance to think."
"About...?"
"About life."
"Well it's going to be different this time."
"How so?"
"It's going to be different because I'm going to be there with you."
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A/N: I'm sorry that it's a little slowly paced but that's the nature of the story.