(Disclaimer: I don't own anything at all. So don't sue me. Please.)
A Note from the Author: I'm as busy as a beaver so I'll try to make this brief. To everyone who reviewed… I am not worthy (but much thanks anyway)! Sorry for a missing update, it's just been so hard for me to write something decent these days. The following was really just experimental because I forced myself to write and all that came out was primarily dialogue. makes puppy-dog eyes Please give this chapter a chance! Love y'all lots, onwards ho.
Chapter Thirty-FiveTry as she might, Summer could not make up her mind.
Fiddling obsessively with the radio dial, her brows knotted in concentration as she tried to divide her concentration between the road and the stations. Alt-rock. Hard rock. Pop. Country. Jazz. Hip hop. Classical. None of them fit the occasion. Irritated with her lack of success, she shut the damn thing off and drove the rest of the way in silence. This was not turning out to be a good day.
"Is Seth coming?" she barked at Ryan as he climbed into the car.
By some miraculous empathetic feat, he was able to sense the tension in the air immediately. "Uh… I don't think so."
"God! Sissy-boy Cohen needs to, like, get over us already!" Summer practically yelled, subtly leaning her foot forward on the gas pedal.
"Summer… You okay?" he asked as he unsuccessfully fumbled for the seatbelt.
"No! I mean, yes, I'm fine. PMS."
"Sure." His white knuckles were visibly apparent as he hung on for dear life to the dashboard in front.
"Yeah, more like Parental Mismanagement Syndrome," she mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Mmm, nothing, just grumbling about school. By the way, did you remember it?"
"Huh?"
"Your glove, Chino!"
"Oh, that. I'll get around to it sometime, I guess."
She grunted in acknowledgement. Fuck, there was really no way to put the question off. Quit stalling! It was only three more blocks to school, and this car wasn't going any slower. "Damn it!" she cursed out loud. Tires screeching, she swerved to the side of the road.
Ryan almost had a heart attack. That's it for cholesterol, he vowed. No more fast food. No more smoking. No more letting Summer drive. At this rate, his poor cardiac muscle was going to give out before he turned 20.
She turned to him, resolve set in her eyes. "Doyouwanttomeetmyparents?"
"Huh?" he sputtered, already anxious about what was coming next.
"I said, 'Do you want to meet my parents?'" she demanded.
"Your parents? Uh… uh… uh…" As in, the dad who she claimed to worship? The guy who almost destroyed her and Seth's relationship single-handedly with one comment of disapproval? The guy who represented everything in Newport Ryan didn't like? He was going to have to face him, plus her step-mom?
And as Summer watched the colour drain from his face, she was beginning to believe that she had the absolute worst timing in the world.
His condition didn't improve when they reached the school. Neither did it when they ran into Luke and Marissa in the hallway. It was a small world after all! Oh, joy.
"Ryan!" Marissa crowed. She then stood back to get a better view of him. "You look so… pale."
Luke forced a laugh and pulled her back. "Yeah, must be the lighting."
The four stood in an awkward rectangle as the pandemonium of confused students played out around them.
"So…" Summer began, glancing nervously at Marissa. Why was she acting so, well, normal? "How was Chi–"
"Ryan!" Seth called as he appeared at the end of the hallway. Jogging over to the foursome, he handed him one of his textbooks. "You forgot this at home."
Luke cracked an exaggerative smile. "And the gang's all here!"
Confused, Ryan squinted at Seth. Summer did the same. Well, the thing looked like Seth.
"Dude, you look like the poster child for TB."
It talked like Seth.
"What? Mom made me bring it. She threatened to cook tonight!"
All signs pointed to Seth. So… why? Was this a dream? Was this the twilight zone? Had leather wristbands cut off circulation to his brain and/or should she lay off with the nail polish?
"Forget it. I'm going to the locker room to check on my gym shoes. I overheard some water polo guy's conversation, and let me just say, the forecast is most definitely acid rain. Of the yellow variety."
"Ew, Cohen. Just… ew!" Summer snapped out of her reverie enough to wrinkle her nose in disgust.
"Yeah, well… You're not the one who has to clean them out."
"Want help?" Luke offered. He nudged Ryan discreetly, aware that Seth's good mood wasn't something to waste.
"Uh… yeah. Need some help?"
"Sure." Seth shrugged. "The more the merrier. Or, in Luke's case, the fairy-er."
Luke deftly punched him in the shoulder. "Man, I told you, no more jokes about my dad!"
Summer and Ryan exchanged looks of equal concern about the downright creepy state of circumstances before Marissa pulled her away to a private corner.
"C'mon, Sum, we need to talk."
"Sure, Coop…"
"So we're still friends, right? Because you're my best friend, and I don't think we should let anyone get between us."
"Er… Yeah." It was at this point that she began to believe the idea that this was all really happening, and that Marissa and Seth were simply, through some greater power, 'cured'. Maybe they had epiphanies last night or something. Anyway. It wasn't about the 'why' so much as the 'what'. The fact was, they seemed to be acting civil, even friendly again. That was a good thing, right? Weird and totally unexpected, yes, but nonetheless good?
Likewise, Ryan was being bombarded with enthusiastic-type comments from both Seth and Luke as they braved vacation-old filth.
"So… what exactly are we looking for again?" Ryan asked, a bit hesitant. Whatever it was, he was sure he wouldn't want to actually find it.
"My shoes! They're white. Well, they've got these stripes, which are blue. I mean, red. Wait, I threw out my white ones last year. They're grey. No, black!"
Luke adopted a mock pitying look and threw an arm around Seth's shoulders. "Forgive him. He likes to ramble sometimes."
Seth responded, just as sarcastically. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. You enrich our lives everyday with your intellectual insights."
The jock rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dude. You talk to a horse."
"I'll have you know, Captain Oats eats weaklings like you for breakfast! Or should I say that hay on top of your head that you call hair?" Seth retorted.
Luke touched his hair gingerly, then glared at him. "Oh, it's on now!" he bellowed as he tackled him to the floor.
Ryan could only shake his head in amusement.
"Help!" Seth called.
And grin.
"I'm too young to die! Ryan, please –"
And laugh all the harder. Seth had been wrong. The world was ready for some more Ryan-Seth-Luke time.
"I just think…" Marissa explained in a nearby hallway. "There should be some more Summer-Marissa time, that's all. You know, we've both been so busy that we haven't had a chance to really bond again. Just like old times."
"Yeah!" Summer agreed, visibly brightening. So things were back to normal now. Maybe she should just accept it. "I've missed you as a friend, Coop. I'm really glad you forgive me for, like, everything."
"Of course I do, Sum! I have no reason not to, especially since you've agreed… so yeah, when are you going to do it?"
"What? You mean… 'do it'?" The brunette's face turned bright red. Were her intentions that obvious? "It's… it's tricky, I don't know. There has to be that right time and place."
"I understand. Hey, you guys should have a fight or something, that would totally set the mood."
"Huh? But Ryan and I aren't really the fighting type, I don't know…" Summer paused. Well, making up was always the fun part.
"Then, how else are you going to break up with him?" Marissa asked nonchalantly.
"Excuse me?"
"You just said that you wouldn't let anyone get between us! Are you trying to take it all back yet?"
Summer bit her lip. "Um…" Right, she thought. Of course! Life was a bitch, how could she have forgotten that?
"Because, gosh, I don't think I could be friends with someone like that," her companion added.
Life was a bitch, Summer definitively decided. It was a two-bit whore that did no one any favours.
And frankly, it sucked like a Hoover.