Title: Prom Queen
Summary: A new guy comes to the OC from Australia and he's bound to rock the relationships. So who's going to end up his Prom date? Not for SethSummer lovers. Anna comes in a bit later. SummerNew Guy and a bit of SethAnna and the smallest portion of RyanMarissa.
Pairing: SummerTom, SethAnna, RyanMarissa
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the OC characters. I only own Tom and Tina.
Chapter 9: Hospital
Tom woke up slowly and groggily. As he woke up he felt the pain that flowed through his body like a current. No matter how many drugs they pumped into him the current would not be stopped. The pain was too great and the current too strong to be stopped with some milligrams of painkillers.
He slowly remembered what had happened. Sarah, the gun, the three shots, the scream and the coldness that had swept his body. Summer's face, Summer's tears, Summer's distant voice that had echoed in his mind before he'd completely lost consciousness and gave into the darkness so completely.
When his vision cleared he looked around him and saw what was obviously the inside of a hospital room. White paint covered three and a half of the walls and the only things that weren't white were the windows and the doors.. They'd simply covered the doors with lacquer and nailed them in place.
Tom saw the faults where no one else could. In the walls, the doors, the ceiling, the entire workmanship was poor and he longed to walk over to them and try to smooth out the faults. But a short burst of intense pain reminded him that this, among other things, was impossible.
The door opened slightly and Tom saw someone peek through the opening. The person blinked, as if not expecting Tom to be looking straight back at them. The door opened further and Summer stepped into the room.
Summer was holding a Starbuck's polystyrene coffee cup and sipped what seemed to be the last of it and threw it into a small bin that was next to the door she just came through and walked over to the chair that was right next to Tom's bed.
Tom smiled and made a move to sit up in bed but was stopped by the pain and Summer's gentle touch on his shoulder. It actually didn't hurt and Tom was surprised by this, she knew where to put her hand so that it didn't affect any of his bumps or bruises. Or bullet wounds.
"Don't. You'll pop a stitch if you try to get up." Summer said quietly. Tom accepted this without argument and collapsed back into the bed and the heap of pillows at his head.
"Thanks." He said weakly. Summer said nothing but just sat down and looked at him. She looked at him as if she hadn't seen him in a year. Or as if he'd gone to war for a few years and had finally returned to her. She leaned in and gently brushed his lips with her own but before he could react she withdrew in the same way she'd leaned in. Finally she spoke,
"I thought I'd lost you." She said quietly and choked up in the end. Tom reached out to her hand and squeezed in gently.
"Hey it's okay, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." Summer smiled,
"I know you probably didn't hear me. Well, you were passed out. But I thought I'd lost you. I have to tell you something. I… I lo-" Suddenly a woman that had the same face shape and eyes as Tom burst in. She looked at the two of them and said,
"I'm really, really sorry. I'll just go back outside." Tom's mom backed out and closed the door. She gave Tom and big smile and a thumbs up and he gave flashed back a sarcastic copy of her smile.
"Sorry about that. My mum has this impeccably bad timing. I'm shocked at how good she is at interrupting the most important things." Tom rolled his eyes and then asked Summer,
"What did you have to tell me?" Summer turned back to Tom and couldn't speak. For once she was completely speechless and she felt as if she couldn't say it now. She couldn't tell him. What if what she dreaded happened? What if he hated her or dumped her or ignored her afterwards? What if he said 'Thanks' like Ryan had said to Marissa? How could she take these chances now? Now that she thought about all of them and what these would do to her. They would destroy her.
"Nothing." She said simply. She hated that word. Nothing. Usually when someone said 'nothing' it meant 'something really big that I can't tell you and I'm just covering by saying it's nothing'. And for this reason she saw Tom's eyes narrow slightly and his forehead furrow with worry.
Tom knew something was off. He knew from his mum that when a girl said 'nothing' it meant 'something really big that I can't tell you and I'm just covering by saying it's nothing'. But he also knew that if he questioned her she wouldn't answer. At least not right away. It could only come out if Summer wanted it to. And until she did it would be like extracting teeth from a lion.
Unless she wanted him to.
Females were hard to decipher. Either she wanted him to ask her further and would give the information up at the first sign of questioning or would bite his head off at the first sign of questioning. One or the other. He started to do Eenie Meenie Minie Mo in his head. It ended up being not questioning.
He noticed that Summer was looking at him, her head slightly cocked to the side and her eyebrows showing the first signs of being knotted together. He smiled at her and couldn't help but feeling that he looked the same as Garfield after he'd wrecked Jon's office. This just seemed to confuse Summer further and he gave her what he hoped was a reassuring grin. That seemed to work on Summer and she relaxed.
Summer looked into his electric blue eyes and found herself sighing. She remembered the first time she looked into those eyes. His first day. When he was laughing at some lame joke that girl Tina was saying. Tina. There was something that was off about that girl. Lately she'd been shooting daggers at her in the hallways for no reason. One time she'd actually bumped into her and made her fall to the ground 'accidentally'.
Her mind returned to Tom who was lying on the bed in front of her. He was looking at her with this look in his eyes. For once the intenseness had basically disappeared and had been replaced with something that Summer suspected, and hoped, was love.
There was a knock on the door and Tom's mum came in hesitantly. Summer got up and gave Tom an extra squeeze before letting go and leaving. Tom's mum gave her a thankful smile as Summer passed her and Summer smiled back. They might have only one thing in common but that one thing was a huge portion of each of their lives. And that was Tom.
Summer had seen the worry and concern in Tom's mum's eyes and could only imagine what was happening or what would happen. His mum looked as if she was taking in everything for the first and last time. Which didn't make any sense either way. Unless...
No he couldn't be. His mum was getting hired by Marissa's and Seth's dad. At the Lighthouse. Where she'd been the night before. Marissa had managed to convince her to go even though she hadn't wanted to leave Tom's side. And then there had been that surprise proposal. That was going to be very screwed and was sick in an obvious way.
But Summer didn't say anything. Tom had taught her something, people who are going through hell didn't need it pointed it out to them. The truth needed to be told but there are times when it's better not to tell it to the person. This was one of them. So she just kept her mouth shut, comforted Marissa and tried to offer her some advice.
Summer was sitting on a chair outside Tom's room and studied her nails. She really needed a manicure. Lately she hadn't had any time at all to do anything for herself. With everything going on, especially now, she felt almost guilty to go and do something for herself. Even now when she was sitting outside her boyfriend's room she felt guilty about just studying her nails. She should be in there, taking care of him.
As if on cue the door opened and Tom's mum came out. Summer tried to see what she looked like but her face was hidden well. Summer walked back into the room through the door that Tom's mum had left open in her rush to leave.
Something really important had happened, Summer knew it. She had seen it in Tom's mum's eyes and could tell by the aura that she was letting off. Summer saw Tom lying there so forlorn and she then knew that this was definitely not a good really important something.
"Are you okay?" Summer asked, she was so sincere that she thought that her heart would burst from the sincerity. Tom looked up to see her and attempted to smile but it failed to reach his blue eyes. The electricity in them had disappeared and this worried Summer. For the first time she saw true sadness portrayed in those, no longer electric, blue eyes. He dropped his eyes and said,
"My mum just came in here to tell me that the Lighthouse was refused a liquor licence and she can't find another good paying job around here for a person with a psychology degree."
"Why can't you-?" Summer began to ask but Tom cut her off and said in a choked voice,
"We don't have any money left. We're staying in a townhouse of my grandfather's from my father's side. And they have tenants who are on hold to move in. We've already intruded on 2 weeks of their lease agreement. And my dad's off in New York doing I don't know what." He glanced up at her and said,
"My parents are divorced." Summer took Tom's hand in hers and made him look her in the eyes,
"So are mine." Tom smiled for a second before it died back down.
"We don't have anywhere near enough money to buy, or even rent, a house."
"So what are you saying?" Summer asked but she had a feeling she knew what he was saying. She just needed him to say it himself.
"I have to move back to Australia."
(Poor Tommy boy… But remember he still has prom coming up… He has to go there, whether or not he leaves afterwards is something yet to be decided. Review to tell me what to do!)