"The Neighbors"
Note: I don't own the O.C, only my characters (the neighbors).
Seth meets his new neighbor and so does Theresa. Ryan realizes things are changing.
Seth went outside to get some fresh air and try to call Summer again from his cell phone. He got the answering machine and hung up the phone, deciding he had already left enough messages for Summer. He noticed a girl sitting on the stairs of the old Cooper house. She was dressed up, wearing a jacket and holding a purse, like she was waiting for a ride somewhere. She noticed him too and said hello.
"Hi," Seth walked over to her. "I'm Seth Cohen. I live there," he said pointing to his house.
The girl smiled. She had dirty blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and very light skin. "I'm Lauren," she said. "Lauren Leeks. And I live….here," she pointed at her house, the house Marissa Cooper grew up in.
"Are you going to Harbor?" Seth asked.
"Yeah," she nodded, "I start Monday."
"That's cool," Seth nodded, not knowing what else to say. "So, uh, you going somewhere?"
"No," she said giggling. "I don't know anyone here, so I'm just sitting here wishing I had somewhere to go."
"Yeah, I used to do that ALL the time," he admitted.
"So what do you do now?"
"Um, well, I like to sail, or hang out on the pier, or, you know, just…hang out with my friends. Not much really since my girlfriend left. She moved to Baltimore, so…"
"That sucks," Lauren said. "I left my boyfriend in Seattle."
They talked for a while, then Seth invited Lauren to come over, and they watched TV and got to know each other a little bit better.
Ryan walked into Marissa's room, where she sat on the end of her bed crying.
"I told her," Ryan said right away.
"What? What did you tell her?" She looked at Ryan's face and knew. "What!? How could you?" She screamed. "That wasn't your place to tell her!"
"She needed to know," Ryan said. "You needed for her to know, so you can get on with your life and stop dwelling on all the problems you and her have."
"My problems with my mother are none of your business!" Marissa stormed out of the room, leaving Ryan standing there in a daze. He was tired of all the drama between Marissa and Julie, and nothing he did seemed to help.
"So, what about your brother?" Seth asked Lauren. They had gone from watching TV to playing video games, which Lauren was not good at, but she humored Seth anyway.
"Evan? Uh, I don't know, he….well, he'll be going to Harbor with us."
"Hmm, that's very vague, Lauren" Seth joked.
"He's morally opposed to private school, so he went to public school in Seattle, but Mom said he had to go to Harbor here because..." she didn't say why. "He really didn't want to move," she offered instead.
"Hm," Seth said, "Is he-" he started to ask something, but his cell phone rang and his heart jumped as he fumbled in his pocket for his phone. He was in such a hurry, he didn't even look at the caller ID before answering.
"Hello?" he asked anxiously.
"I need a ride home," Ryan answered.
"Oh," Seth said with disappointment. "Where are you?"
Lauren rode with Seth to go pick up Ryan, and she crawled into the backseat when they got there. Her eyes widened when she saw Ryan.
"Hi," Ryan said. "New neighbor?"
"Yeah," she bit her bottom lip as she watched him get into the car.
Seth noticed her attraction to him and tried to interrupt her staring.
"This is Lauren, her brother is Evan. Haven't met him yet."
"Hi," Ryan said and smiled at the new girl politely.
When they got back, Lauren went home and Seth went to his room to try Summer again. Ryan went to go check on Theresa and say goodnight, but when he walked into the poolhouse without knocking, she wasn't alone. She and a light-haired guy about their age were sitting on her bed playing with Theresa's baby, Samantha.
They both looked up when he barged in.
"Oh, hi," said. "I, uh, I'm sorry." He started to back out of the room, but Theresa spoke.
"It's okay," she laughed, "Come on in." Ryan walked in and sat on the chair at the end of the bed. "This is Evan," Theresa informed Ryan. "Evan, Ryan," she introduced them.
"Hey man," they said to each other at the same time. Evan went back to playing with Samantha, and Theresa stood up to talk to Ryan.
"Is everything okay?" she asked him.
"Yeah, uh, yeah, fine. I just wanted to say goodnight."
"Okay. Goodnight," Theresa said.
She went back to playing with Samantha with Evan, and Ryan left feeling like the new neighbors were going to be a lot more than just neighbors.
Jimmy walked out of his apartment at 7:00 on Saturday morning. He was on his way to the airport to pick up Hailey from her trip to Hawaii when he saw Marissa's car in the parking lot. He walked over to the car, worried and confused, and saw Marissa asleep on the backseat. She was curled up in a ball and had no blanket over her. Jimmy tapped on the window and woke Marissa.
"Dad," she said opening the door, still hazy from sleep.
"Marissa, what - what are you doing here?" he reached in to hug her and make sure she was alright.
"I'm fine, I just – I needed a place to sleep and – I don't know, I just – I ended up here. I'm sorry if that's not okay," she started to apologize.
"Marissa, you should have come up, and of course – of course you can come here anytime – anytime you want."
"It was late when I got here," Marissa said getting out of the car. "After 2am."
"I don't care what time it is, I am always here for you. What's going on?" he asked, then watched Marissa as she started to cry again. "Is it your mother?" Marissa nodded, wiping tears from her face. "Okay, uh, I have to, well, we have to go pick up Hailey from the airport, so – so you should uh, come with me and we can talk about it."
Marissa hesitated at first, but then realized she really needed an understanding adult to talk to, so she agreed.