Disclaimer: I do not own the OC characters.
Seth ran around the kitchen trying to finish the dinner that Shayla had tried to fix the night before.
"Do you need any help?" Kirsten asked as she walked into the kitchen. Seth had been trying to get the house perfect the whole day. Kirsten didn't make him go to school, so the house felt perfect, except for the construction.
"Okay, I love ya mom, but no. I can get this done without your help. Besides, it's cooking. You might hurt yourself." Seth continued to work without looking at his mother. He looked tired, and he felt worse. He had been up all night and been running around all day.
"Seth, you need a break. Let Sandy do it or something. Don't kill yourself over this." Kirsten said the words before thinking about it. When they were out, she then knew what she said.
Seth closed his eyes trying to hold his tears back. He didn't know why he felt so close to the girl already, but he knew there was something between them. "I need to get this finished before she gets here."
Kirsten felt guilty. She had an idea why Shayla would have done what she did, and she didn't know whether or not she should tell. Seth. No, she couldn't. It was up to Shayla to tell anyone she wanted to. She had to keep the girl's secret. ."I understand."
Kirsten left Seth alone in the kitchen and Seth tried to finish. An hour later, it was ready. Seth finally felt comfortable enough to sit still. As soon as his ass hit the chair he felt the exhaustion flood him. He lightly rubbed his temples and relaxed. Just when his eyes started to close, the front door opened. He quickly stood and ran to the front door. Ryan was pushing Shayla into the house on a wheelchair.
"Hey you guys! Dinner is on the table. Don't worry, Mom didn't make it, Shayla did. I just finished it for you. I hope you don't mind." Seth said quickly. "Here, I'll take that for you. You've got to be exhausted."
Seth took Shayla from Ryan and he pushed her into the kitchen. Ryan watched from behind with a puzzled way. "You look worse than I do, if that's possible. Did you sleep at all last night?"
"Not much, but then of course I had things on my mind. So, how was the ride here?" Seth said. He parked Shayla at the table and she sat there watching him questioningly.
"Um…Ryan can I talk to Seth alone please?" Shayla said looking back at her brother. Ryan nodded and headed into the pool house. "Seth, I need to talk to you about something."
"No, it's fine. You don't have to tell me about it." Seth started to set the table and cut the pie.
"No, I want to tell you. It's important to me that you know that what I did had nothing to do with you." Shayla stood from the wheel chair and Seth was able to see the gauze around her wrists.
"I'm listening."
The five people at the kitchen table silently ate what was in front of them. Seth was unable to look up from his food. He kept trying to understand what had been told to him. Raped? He couldn't imagine something like that happening to him. It made him so angry to just think about it.
"I got some news from the office today. I know it's kind of bad timing, but I have to tell you." Sandy said after finishing his meal. "Oliver is coming back."
"Are you kidding me?" Seth looked up from his meal. "I thought they sent him away to the loony bin or something!"
"I thought so too, but he's coming back. Apparently he's been in the east. I think New York, but he's coming here." Sandy picked his plate up and started to rinse it in the sink.
"This is crazy. Doesn't Marissa have like a restraining order against him or something?" Ryan piped up. "It would be illegal for him to come back."
"You haven't been here all summer. She's letting him come. I think she feels bad about the whole thing and wants to help him. Or she's just nuts." Sandy said pouring another glass of wine.
"Whom are we talking about?" Shayla asked. She looked more confused than Kerry when he was told Bush won.
"It's a really long story." Ryan said as he remembered the months of shear torture that was because of Oliver.
"Marissa met Oliver in therapy. He was there for drugs and stuff. They became friends and turns out he was psycho. He was obsessed with Marissa and he tried to shoot himself in front of him." Seth interrupted.
"That sucks." Shayla put her dishes in the sink as well. "So, what you're saying is that a psycho is going to be back? And Marissa is the one who is letting him come back?"
"Basically. Now Shayla, we really need to talk." Sandy said returning to the table. "I know, you probably don't feel like talking about it, but we need to get some kind of characteristics from the person who raped you."
Shayla was quiet. She didn't want to talk about it. "Why can't we just let him go? He probably won't do it again, I don't want to cause trouble."
"You're kidding me." Ryan was angry. His sister had changed so much since he last knew her. "This man changed your whole demeanor and you're gong to let him get away? I don't see how you could do this."
"I don't want to do it, okay? I just can't. It's painful, I just want to put everything behind me." Shayla turned and ran upstairs, leaving the family downstairs.
"I'll go see her." Ryan said. He started to stand when Seth grabbed his arm.
"Why don't I give it a shot? She doesn't have anything against me, yet. She might like something unknown. It wouldn't hurt, would it?" Seth stood and shrugged.
"We could try it." Ryan said. "Just don't be a jerk. She hates anyone who acts big headed and things like that."
Seth left the kitchen and walked in the direction of the crying he heard. It finally led him to his own room. When he opened the door he found Shayla sitting on his bed crying. "Hey."
Shayla looked up at him and forced a weak smile. "Hi, I'm sorry. I just want to put everything behind me and Ryan just wants to drag everything out. I just want to get over this and try to become myself again. I'm ready for this to not be a part of my life."
Seth sat next to her and she rested her head trustingly on his shoulder. "I know, but he really just wants you to be happy. You can't blame the guy. If I had a sister as great as you, I'd want to make sure she was safe too. And if someone hurt her, then I would kill him. As a matter of fact, I want to kill him and I just met you yesterday."
"I'm not great. I'm probably the worst sister known on this planet." She smiled and cuddled a little more with Seth.
"You are like the epitome of moral rectitude, whatever that means." Seth wrapped his arm around Shayla's shoulder.
"Actually, I didn't tell you that when I left home, Ryan begged me to stay. I told him that I had to leave and he told me that it would kill him if I left. I wish I had listened to him now."
"How about this, when Ryan left to be with Marissa I left my whole family to go to Tahiti, but ended up in Portland. My mom begged me to come back, but I didn't until Ryan came back." Seth absent-mindedly laid his head on Shayla's.
"He cried. I made my brother, who has done nothing but protect me and hold me when I cry, cry." Shayla blinked back tears as she remembered her brother the last time she saw him.
"My mother carried me for nine months, breast fed me, and never made fun of me, with the intent of emotionally scarring me for life. How could I do that? I just hate that now in my life I hate to be proven wrong or told what to do. I'm ready to get old and not care." Seth smelled Shayla's hair as he sat speaking. "Hey, you're not all personal space thingy."
Shayla looked at how she had been sitting with, Seth, way more comfortable than she had ever been with any guy before, ever. She pulled away, a little unwillingly, and pulled up her legs and held her knees. "Why are you so sweet?"
"Well, I'm not. You see it's all an act. I plan to take over the world one woman at a time." Seth smiled. "Apparently you have to be more of a Jude Law type and less of a Topher Grace type."
"Oh! I love both of them." Shayla said smiling. "If I could meet a guy with Jude Law's look and accent and Topher Grace's personality I'd marry him on the spot."
"Man, I was so close to that requirement. I have Topher's personality and looks, oh well." Seth said jokingly nudging Shayla.
"I guess so."
Seth was quet as he watched hs knuckles. He knew he needed to get the information from her, but he couldn't bring himself to asking her. He didn't want to ruin their conversation. But he knew he needed to. "Shayla, could you tell me something about the guy who raped you?"
Shayla's shoulders tensed up. Her eyes grew slowly dark and tears formed there. "I told you I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"Listen, it's just me. I'm curious. I want to be able to picture the guy, so I can kill if I ever meet him." Seth scooted closer to Shayla, and was hurt when she stood and walked to the other end of his room.
"I don't want to talk about it. I told you this and I don't want to talk about it again!" Shayla ran for the door but Seth stood and caught her.
"Listen, I know you've been through a lot, but you have to stop being a baby." It was harsh, but Seth knew he had to say it. "Just because your scared doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything about it."
Shayla stopped fighting him and looked directly into his eyes. "He told me, that if I ever told anyone about him he would kill me."
"I'll protect you!"
"May I please go now?" Shayla stopped looking in his eyes and stared directly at the floor. "I have to use the restroom."
Seth nodded and she quickly left the room. He stood by the door for a while as he listened to Shayla crying in her room. He wanted to go to her and make things better, but he knew that she just wanted to be alone. So he sat back on his bed and slowly fell asleep to the sound of her tears.