(Disclaimer: I don't own anything at all. So don't sue me. Please.)
A Note from the Author: I'm feeling the O.C. withdrawal, my friends. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get inspiration without a weekly reminder… If my last chapters haven't been exactly stellar lately (in timing and in content), I apologize. It's been hard getting the creative juices flowing, but I thank you all for your awesome comments. That being said, here is the much-deserved thank-you list (I was going to thank everyone from chapter 23 on, but there were just too many – thanks again, btw! – so it'll be from 27 on):
HOTTERTHNU – Yeah, I can totally see Seth being mean and bitter. And you're working on your thesis? As in university? Ah well, anyway, sorry I bash Marissa. But I mean, I need a scapegoat, and I just love Seth/Summer/Ryan more than her. Sorry again!
bens-baby – I hope to bring more different hoo-haws to the table and cheer you up. :)
benzbabidoll – Wow. Didn't expect so many people to like Evil Seth. Hmm… that would be a nice addition to the plot… And actually, I was busy because of exams and personal stuff. But thanks for caring!
BlueStarGirl – Yeah, I always found it interesting to know why people are doing evil stuff. Like why would Oliver latch on to Marissa, of all people, instead of, say, any other girl he met in therapy?
surlygirly – Why thank you! I hope to see more of you in the future.
Lucy – raises fist in air Yes! Another person on the Ryan/Summer train! One person down. Next: the world! Mwahahahaha!
yeah right… – Heh, I almost thought you were going to go back and review every chapter, and I was like, "Whoa." Anyhoo, thanks for some constructive criticism – believe me, I know, I would change the first few chapters if I could, but I think it's nice to know how different chapters one and thirty really are. I'm not sure if the 'yeah right…' who reviewed chapter 28 is the same person though, since s/he put their e-mail down. Is it? Are you? Eh? But your compliments were very flattering, thanks a bunch!
Lulu34 – Lol, I did somewhat predict the finale. Now if only Ryan could come back before Seth returned, everything will fall into place. Dammit, I wish I was a writer for the show. :P
Liz – Aww, sorry for the lack of Chino goodness.
Varthan – It's a good question, indeed! I try to torture my characters as much as possible for some reason.
Sayra Louise – I'm up for the challenge of convincing you of Ryan and Summer (maybe even Luke and Julie for some others – I'm surprised no one really found that squicky)!
Silver Dog Demon – Did you get my e-mail yet?
Brody – Dude, you need to have a talk with HOTTERTHNU. But heh, I think I'm a (closet) Marissa hater too. And the show will be back in late October? No! Say it isn't so! sobs
Kaylee – Yeah, the two don't get any privacy anymore. But that's life, amigo, and it sucks like a Hoover sometimes.
rckrbaby04 – That's one of my favourite one-liners, because it just came out of the blue for me.
Beboppin' Betty – Yeah, on screen I'm partly an S/S fan also. But the O.C. is a soap opera-ish show; who knows what'll happen next season?
Samantha! – Glad you enjoyed it. :D
Chapter ThirtyJulie Cooper's perfectly manicured French-tipped fingernails clicked impatiently on the steering wheel. Usually, she never let anything get in her way, and now she was obeying a lone red stop light at a deserted intersection.
The irony didn't escape her.
She didn't know why she was stopping instead of speeding right through as she had always done. Hell, she didn't even know why she was going to Luke's in the first place. Yes, Luke's. That blonde, blue-eyed ex-boyfriend of her daughter's who, thank God, was already past jailbait age. (But just barely.)
No wonder everyone called her the 'skank from Riverside' when they thought she wasn't listening. She didn't have much of a specific preference when it came to men.
In high school, she had dated every kind of guy possible. Older or younger, taller or shorter, from the athletic and lithe to the shy and studious. She flitted from each one to the next, never keeping him for more than a few weeks. Julie was dumped by no one; it was always the other way around. No one was allowed to break up with her, until she had dug her claws into him, sucked him dry, and then disposed of him. (The gossip mongers at Riverside High could never put this into light terms.)
With all of the boys and men she had come into contact with, Julie realized that after having a long hard look at her, they really only wanted one thing, and one thing only: sex. A roll in the hay. A rocking of the casbah. You get the idea.
And she was usually more than willing to give them what they wanted.
But again, this did not make her a ho. She was too good for that. She was, as those nice old ladies from church liked to say, a 'restless spirit'. And in the later teens of her life, Julie was a whole lot of restless.
She looked back on this area of her life with fond nostalgic memories, until a fateful morning in a bright hospital as she gazed into the eyes of her new baby daughter. She glanced at the soft light brown down on the head, the button nose, the cute pouty mouth, the delicate fingers… and realized, shit. She was going to have an amazingly beautiful daughter.
Julie tried to teach Marissa a lot in her childhood, she really did, about men and how to avoid their dirty little clutches. But the fact of the matter is, Julie was only 19 years her daughter's senior, and that meant she couldn't be much of a teacher or a mother. She watched as Marissa predictably blossomed in her later years into another version of Teenage Julie, this time a straight-haired brunette with doe-like eyes. Whereas Julie had curves in all the right places, her daughter grew to have a stick for a body.
But that was okay. It was what Newport teens were supposed to look like.
Julie breathed a sigh of relief when Luke Ward came into the picture, with his movie-star good looks and his parents' steady income. This was a boy who could take care of her daughter. This was a boy who would probably marry Marissa even if she didn't get pregnant. The future looked full of promise, and now all that was left to worry about was Caitlyn.
And hey, didn't Luke mention that he had two younger brothers?
It seemed like there was no problem. Until Sandy Cohen decided on some good Samaritan whim to bring a snotty little juvenile called Ryan and install him in the pool house. Julie saw her past come to life before her eyes, the beginnings of young love. But she had worked too hard for this, for a place where her children could grow up without having to work a day in their lives. Ryan represented trouble; any girl's future with him meant hardship and heartbreak, especially if he came from Chino.
At least the sudden intrusion into her life had been a promising twenty-something with a hefty trust fund and good prospects in a financial career. The bonus was his sense of honour, because any other self-respecting Newport man would have taken one look at her trailer trash origins and left, only getting what he came for. Yes, Jimmy Cooper had been an honourable man, that is, before he decided to cheat his clients out of their money even though there was no logical motive to.
They already had the mansion, the cars, the kids. What more could he have wanted? Apparently a five-by-five jail cell and an uncovered toilet to boot.
Julie had tried to love him before the whole marriage had blown up in their faces. She really did. She knew that giving up Kirsten had been difficult, and working every day to put food on the table was also very taxing. And she appreciated his efforts to be a loving dad to the kids, too. But she didn't love him. And neither, she suspected, did he love her.
But they really had tried to make it all work. It just so happened that they failed.
Then Caleb Nichol came along. Julie didn't know when she started rating men on how thick their wallets were instead of factors like how tight their abs were, but it didn't make much of a difference. Just trading one superficiality for another. She had been a wreck: her marriage was in shambles, her children hated her, and her friends were name-calling behind her back. Problems like this – any problems – were easy to fix in Newport if you just had a lot of money.
And Cal, well, had a ton of it. She wouldn't be surprised if he rolled around in it daily, and used twenties to wipe his ass. He was filthy, stinkin' rich.
Unfortunately, he was just like any other man, and Julie was pretty sure that he didn't come imbued with a set of morals. How dare he? She did not give booty calls. She asked for them!
That was the appeal of Luke. He was young enough to still take orders and had enough sense to allow the woman in the relationship to boss him around. Sure, he had a 'healthy appetite', but the feeling was mutual. The look of adoration he constantly wore for her didn't hurt. It made her feel young again, that she still looked hot enough for some boy old enough to be her son to lust after her.
His appeal was solely based upon some abstract feeling of attraction. It was not like he was the absolutely the richest guy she had ever met (that was Cal), nor the best-looking (that was some guy in Europe she had toyed around with). Based on the circumstances, being that he was Marissa's ex, and she was, oh, almost twenty years older than him and in the middle of a divorce, she should have dumped him by now and drowned her sorrows in margaritas instead.
But she didn't.
Even when they were found out, and when Julie thought that she would just fall apart at the thought of Marissa back in the hospital again, whatever her and Luke were doing continued.
Julie didn't think that she would ever know why.
Her cell phone rang, and when she glanced at the Caller I.D., she smiled.
"Luke," she acknowledged satisfactorily.
"Mrs. Coo – Julie, listen. I need to make this brief because she's only just gone to the bathroom. I mean, Marissa's here and she's in my bathroom. So, uh, don't worry, okay? But this means that we can't get together tonight to uh… do the thing. That thing. You know." He coughed awkwardly.
"That's… that's…" She couldn't suppress her grin. "Thanks. I'll call you later."
She had originally planned on going to his place as a means of comfort for the time being, and then look for Marissa some more in the morning. But now… two birds with one stone indeed. He had comforted her with the news that her daughter was back in Newport, and that was enough. She expected that he had enough brains not to mention their little meeting-that-never-was tonight to Marissa. But that assumption wasn't fair; she knew that Luke was growing more mature by the minute.
Or it could just be that she hoped so.
Because whenever they met up at the Mermaid Inn or wherever, and were hot and heavy under the covers, she couldn't help but picture a group of cops busting through the door, shouting, "Police! Julie Cooper, put your hands up! You're under arrest for committing indecencies with a minor!"
Then this picture morphed into one where the policemen were totally hot and shirtless. She would coyly ask, "Are you going to handcuff me, officer?" and the fantasy would keep on going downhill from there.
What did you expect, anyway? She always had a thing for cops. If the time ever came for her to have a bachelorette party, that would be what she'd want, as a theme.
Then again, firemen wouldn't be so bad either.