Disclaimer: I'm doing this just for fun. I don't own anything connected with the O.C.
A BAD MONDAY
11:45 pm
"Yeah?" Ryan slumped into the chair, legs stretched out in from of him, the telephone pressed to his ear. The silence felt good. His headache was so bad.
He waited and as the seconds passed and the throbbing in his head continued Ryan lost patience. "When you grow a pair, buddy, I'll be here."
Ryan's finger, poised to disconnect, hesitated when a voice answered him.
"Hey, Ryan."
Ryan thought that he'd never heard Seth sound so young.
"What are you doing up so late? You need your rest." Ryan slid further down into his chair until his neck rested on the back cushion. He closed his eyes and concentrated on not thinking about the pain.
"I tried the sleep thing and it's not happening tonight so I thought I'd call you. No one else would be up so late on a school night."
"Oh?"
"Well, yeah, right, everyone would still be up. Only total geeks would be in bed this early." Seth lapsed into a momentary silence.
"Ryan, I didn't ask you how you were doing earlier."
"Okay."
"That's good." The phone went silent again.
Ryan had never heard so many pauses in one Seth Cohen conversation.
"I called because you didn't say if you were coming to the hospital tomorrow." There was a plaintive, little kid quality in Seth's voice. "Not that you have to or anything if you've got plans already. That would be, like, completely cool. You know what I always say, a guy can never have too much bonding time with his dad. But - it's just that I know Mom got you sprung from school for the next two days; and since I'm not going anywhere, I thought if you were free we could hang together."
"No," Ryan replied quietly.
"So, you're saying that 'no' you didn't say if you were coming, or you're saying that 'no' you're not coming, or you're saying…" Seth hesitated. "…You're saying that 'no' you don't want to hang with me?"
Converting Seth's convoluted sentences into something simple and understandable challenged Ryan on a good day and today didn't qualify as that. Tonight he wasn't sure if he even cared enough to try. Ryan rubbed the spot between his eyes where it felt as though the blood was trying to burst out of his temple.
"Yes."
"Monosyllabic responses – I can deal with that," Seth went on unfazed. "If horses can communicate with their masters using their hooves to stamp out messages, you and I can find an equally effective medium of communication."
This brought a snort from Ryan.
Seth continued thoughtfully. "Eye blinks are out since Dad, shortsightedly, refused to buy me the picturephone I wanted; however, we could use the 20 questions technique, or I could run through the alphabet and you could spell out your response a letter at a time with just a 'yes' or a 'no', like with an Ouija Board."
These suggestions drew only silence.
Ignoring Ryan's lukewarm response, Seth plowed ahead. "So, anyway, I was thinking that if you rode in with Dad we'd have the morning to ourselves while everyone's in school. I'm here all alone in the morning with nothing but Dad and daytime television. Ryan you've got to save me.
"Later Dad could drop you off at home after lunch when he goes to the office so you could rest, kick back, and have the rest of the day for Ryan time. Besides, I'll have company in the afternoon when school's out. Tim and Anna said they'd be back to see me. Did you know Tim likes comics? I don't think Anna knew that about him because she smiled a lot after comics came up in conversation. Of course, Tim's a DC Golden Age fan but no one's perfect. I think he can be brought up to speed on the advances made in the graphic novel form since the 1950's.
"Even Luke called today. He promised to come by for a visit. This whole thing of Luke acting like a real human being instead of a life-size Ken doll is just weird. But get this, he said he thought he could fit me into his busy social calendar. It's not a great joke; actually it's pretty pathetic even for someone as gentile as Luke, but since he was the butt of his own joke, it means he really isn't the same jerkoff jock he was at the start of last summer. So, I'm totally covered for company in the afternoon, dude. You can split without worrying about Seth Cohen being alone."
Seth stopped to breathe.
"And, since I'm getting out of here on Thursday, Mom and Dad are trying to cut me loose from the 24 hour parental monitoring thing. They love me but I can tell that being away from their offices so much is killing them. If you came up in the morning Dad might not feel like he had to stay all morning. He could go into the office earlier. So you see, Ryan, you'd really be doing Dad a favor if you came in with him. It's totally a win, win situation."
Ryan felt like he'd been tossed into a cement mixer with a dumptruck load of Seth's words and set on mix. It was hard for him to make sense of it all. He knew, however, that in that avalanche of words Seth had not mentioned one name.
"And Summer?"
"Yeah, she'll probably show up too this afternoon." Seth's offhanded casualness caused a smile to flicker across Ryan's face.
"I don't think I can make it, Seth."
"Because of Summer?"
Ryan ignored Seth's question as he gazed out the windows of the poolhouse. Tonight was a full moon and with the sky clear of clouds now the patio and the storm's aftermath could be plainly seen.
"Seth, the patio is a mess. It looks like we had a hurricane tonight and it needs to be cleaned up. I thought I'd do that."
"Mom will hire someone to do it. You don't live with us so you can clean up around the place," Seth answered promptly.
This time it was Ryan who hesitated. "Seth, why did you call?"
"I don't way you to be mad at me." It was the lonely kid - the one who'd never had a friend before Ryan came Newport - who was talking.
"I'm not mad at you, Seth." Ryan answered patiently as though he was explaining to a small child. "We just need some apart time."
"I'll get Summer to apologize to you."
"Seth."
"Right. An apology is probably not in the cards. Would you settle for her never talking to you again?" he asked hopefully.
"Seth, all I want is for her to stay out of my face. We're going to be around each other as long as you two are a couple. That's cool. If she can leave me alone, I'll stay the hell away from her."
"That's all? I can make that happen. Seth is your man. He knows how to keep his woman in line," Seth bragged, but then added hurriedly, "You won't tell Summer I said that? She would like totally hurt me if she knew I called her 'my woman.' So, you'll come up tomorrow with Dad?"
Ryan ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, I'll ride in with Sandy." Ryan knew when he'd been rolled. "Seth, there's one thing though."
"Yeah?" Seth answered uneasily.
"If this thing with you and Summer continues, don't ask me to be your best man."
"Ryan, my friend, you have my word - no bestmanhood in your future," Seth agreed happily. "But you'll still plan my bachelor party, right? Ry, with your connections, if you did it, I know it would be awesome. Dude, and you'll be in the wedding. Not best man 'cause I just said you didn't have to do that but maybe a groomsman or an usher. An usher, Ryan, you could handle being an usher, right? Then, after the ceremony you'll be part of the desperate pack of bachelors herded onto the ballroom floor to vie for my lady's garter which I will have adroitly, but not too quickly, removed from my beloved's thigh with only the help of my teeth and tongue."
Ryan groaned at Seth's word picture of his night in hell. "Seth, I think you need to go to bed. Now!"
"Yeah, I think I should do that. See you in the morning. Oh, and Ryan, bring up some good game cartridges. The ones Dad picked out suck."
"Okay, goodnight, Seth." Ryan disconnected. He pulled himself out of his chair and walked to his bed stand where he unplugged the telephone cord from his phone's base.
Picking up his glass, he carried it to the kitchen and poured his drink down the drain. The contents of the Seagram's bottle followed. It hurt to see all that good whiskey going to waste. He next wrapped a newspaper around the empty bottle and placed it in the trash under the sink. The trash definitely goes out tomorrow. The rest of the kitchen cleanup he left for the morning.
Ryan walked wearily down the steps. He flipped off his bed lamp as he passed and fell onto the bed. Staring at him out of the gloom were the glowing red numerals of his clock. The final few seconds of Monday slipped away. As Monday became Tuesday in the poolhouse, he realized that his headache had not followed him into the new day. Ryan rolled onto his back and yawned. Before drifting off to sleep, Ryan wondered if it was too soon to start making notes for his best man's toast.
A/N Apologies to everyone for the inordinate length of time needed to get this finished. In my defense, I didn't expect to lose the use of one arm for two months.
Thanks to my two Beta's: Lisa who saw me through most of it (I don't think I did too much damage to Ryan's character) and Erin who saw me to the finish line. I am, of course, responsible for everything wrong with this chapter and those that have preceded it.
This was definitely a learning experience. The thing learned - never start posting until you have at least a draft of the thing done. A lesson I intend to take to heart in the future..