Bad Behavior – Chapter 6 Turning the Tides
"Why do you make me go to these things? You know I hate 'em," Ryan pouted sitting down on the foyer stairs watching Kirsten put her earrings on using the mirror in the front hall.
"Ryan, please. We've already been through this. A, This is one of the most prestigious events in Newport. Everyone and their families will be attending. B, You're grounded and I'm not letting you out of my sight. And C, you look so cute in a suit!"
"I would look just as cute in a t-shirt," he argued back, trying to wiggle free as Kirsten adjusted his tie and brushed his bangs out of his eyes.
"Dude, you still complaining? Come on I'm sure we can find something to do to keep us busy."
"Boys, you'll be sitting at the table with your family."
"Aw, Ryan's going to have a family moment. That's nice."
Glaring at Seth, Ryan stood up casually, took dead aim and leaned into a punch that landed square in the bicep. The blow caught Seth off guard and he fell against the wall.
"Ow! Damn Ryan!"
"Boys, that's enough. Behave."
"Don't be reprimanding me Mom, this is all on Ryan."
"You want another one?"
"Ryan…Seth, I said that's enough."
"Ah the sounds of a family preparing for an evening from hell," Sandy mocked, coming down the stairs.
"Sandy please do not egg them on."
"Honey, you can't blame them. This is one of those girl things. What if the boys and I just stayed home?"
All three men looked at Kirsten with hopeful eyes.
"No Sandy! This is a family event and I am going with my family! The boys are still under wraps for that little drinking escapade of theirs. If they are miserable today then consider it time served. You're going. They're going. We're all going. Unless you want to be in trouble too…"
Sandy and the boys exchange a look. "Sorry guys. I tried."
This was only the third gathering like this that Ryan had been to, but he knew the protocol forwards and backwards by now. The parties were all the same. Sitting at the table after dinner, bored out of his mind, he looked questionably at Seth who was busying himself building 'things' out of sugar cubes and matchbooks. His thoughts were distracted when a woman with a particularly shrill voice approached the table.
"Kirsten, so good to see you! Beautiful party! Oh, is this the juvenile? I've heard about him," she stated with disapproval.
Ryan shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Evelyn, hello! This is Ryan," Kirsten introduced.
Ryan flashed a quick, crooked and embarrassed smile, "Hey."
"So just how much trouble is he? I hear he keeps you on your toes," Evelyn stated just as dryly as her first dig.
Ryan and the Cohens sat speechless until Kirsten refuted her comment. "Evelyn, he's a great kid. Any sixteen year old can keep a parent on their toes. Newport needs to give him a chance."
Leaning over to Kirsten, "I'll be right back," Ryan whispered.
Grabbing his arm before he could rise from the table, "Ryan, you don't have to leave. She doesn't know you. Don't let this upset you, just ignore her."
"Actually I need to use the bathroom."
Kirsten's look said she was questioning the truth behind that statement.
"You don't believe me. You think I'm upset and I'm going storming off."
"Yes."
"I'm not." Ryan could tell Kirsten still wasn't buying it. Sighing, "If this is about me leaving your sight, there's a bush right behind her I could just…"
Gasping, "RYAN! Don't you dare!" Kirsten warned.
A taunting smile crept across his face, "Ah, you're no fun," he mocked standing up. Leaning into Kirsten one more time, "Don't think I don't already know you'd love to give these people a shock yourself. You're not like them. If you were, I'd still be in juvie."
"Alright, alright. I believe you. Go to the bathroom and come straight back here…and…don't ever tell anyone that I'm interested in shocking the uptight and snooty. I'm a respected member of this society, dysfunctional as it is, and I have a reputation to protect…it'll be our little secret."
Capping an escaped laugh, Ryan straightened up, "Got it. Your secret is safe with me."
After Ryan had walked away from the table and Seth had excused himself to get a new Mountain Dew, Sandy moved himself across the empty seats next to Kirsten.
"I couldn't believe Evelyn talked like that right in front of Ryan. No wonder he hates coming to these things. What were you two laughing about?"
Embarrassed to admit the truth, "Oh ah, it's um, sort of..."
"What?" Sandy asked again with a confused smirk.
Stumbling on her words, "I…he…it's just…you had to be there."
"Apparently," Sandy replied, still chuckling.
"You know Sandy, ever since Ryan came along I've learned to look at things with a different perspective. Sometimes I just wish I had his guts. He's a little rough around the edges but when he believes in something, he's unstoppable. It's amazing how aging along with society skews our passion and our convictions. I miss that brave feeling that only someone his age feels."
Bouncing his head in agreement, "Ah honey but with age comes wisdom. And it's that wisdom that helps us separate the nonsense from the things that are worth fighting for.
"Ryan's worth fighting for…"
"Definitely."
Exiting the men's room, Ryan found himself face to face with two of the local pretty boys. Outnumbered in the main hallway with lots of witnesses, the situation was starting to take a rapid down hill plunge.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" the tall one instigated.
"Look's like Chino riff-raff to me," the other one chimed in, stepping up to Ryan, giving him a once over.
Putting his best game face into place, Ryan noticed a hush in the lobby. Without scanning the lobby he could feel the weight of many eyes upon him. Making his best attempt at avoiding a confrontation, saying nothing, he turned away from the boys. The doors to the courtyard were merely a few feet away.
"I'm talking to you punk!" the tall one fueled, grabbing Ryan by the elbow and spinning him around. "Just what I thought. You're all show and no go."
Yanking his arm away from the boy, Ryan attempted a second time to walk away. If he could just get through the doors…but the tall one's sidekick blocked his path.
"Where you going? Huh?"
Not sure how much longer he could hold back, Ryan took a step back and glared at the sidekick. This wasn't going to have a happy ending. And with all these witnesses, and with Ryan's current status as an outcast, it was sinking in that this would probably be his last night in Newport.
"Where's Ryan?" Seth asked, noticing the empty seat at the table.
"Washroom. He should be back any second," Kirsten explained.
"Kirsten? Oh Kirsten…" the shrill voice of Evelyn cut through the atmosphere again. When she finally reached the Cohen's table again, "I'd get inside if I were you. Your boy is fighting in the lobby!"
"Oh my God!" Kirsten yelled, wrestling to push her chair back through the grass.
With the entire Cohen family racing across the courtyard, the crowd parted as they entered the doors just in time to see Ryan take a blow to the face.
"Oh my God! Sandy do something!" Kirsten begged.
Even pushing and shoving couldn't get him to the very front where the boys were. It seemed Newport's elite were rather enjoying watching the kid from Chino get his just punishment.
"Ryan!" Sandy yelled. "Ryan stop! Stop!"
With Seth and Kirsten hot on his heels, Sandy finally made his way to breaking through to the front row of bystanders.
"Is that the best you've got Mama's Boy?" the tall one fueled again.
Taking offense to that comment, "Ryan don't take that crap from him!" Seth shouted.
Before Sandy could detangle himself from the crowd, Ryan found strength in Seth's comment, cocked his arm back and leveled the tall boy to the ground, knocking him out cold. Weak from fighting the two boys, Ryan stumbled backwards and landed on the floor.
"BLAINE!" the boy's mother gasped. Crouching down next to the fallen boy, she slapped his face trying to awaken him. "What have you done?" the woman yelled at Ryan, who was trying to catch his breath.
Sandy had finally reached Ryan and stopped the tall boy's sidekick from retaliating. Taking her position down next to Ryan, Kirsten surveyed his wounds. Ryan looked at her with shameful eyes. This isn't how he wanted the night to go. Not to be left out, Seth parked himself on the floor as well to get a better look at Ryan.
"That…was AWESOME!" Seth boasted with a big ole smile on his face.
Ryan and Kirsten shared a telling look. Kirsten could see now that Seth did in fact consider Ryan to be some sort of super hero.
"Seth, I just got my ass kicked by some guy named Blaine!"
"Yeah but you won! Look, he's just now waking up and his eyes are crossed!"
Blaine's Mother glared across the lobby at the Cohen's plus one. "Well? What do you have to say for yourselves? See what happens when you let someone like him into our community? Why don't you keep that animal on a leash?"
"Oh I've heard about enough…" Sandy said, clearly irritated.
"Sandy, Sandy…don't…" Kirsten pleaded, but he was already on his feet.
Bending back down to Kirsten momentarily, "You told me not ten minutes ago, that you wished you had Ryan's guts. So watch this…"
Ryan sat confused looking back and forth between Kirsten and Sandy. The lobby had fallen silent but Sandy was about to get everyone's attention.
"You know what Margaret, you're in no position to talk. For that matter, none of you are. Why is it that I had to come running from across the courtyard to stop this situation? Look at this, right in front of me, an entire row of parents and yet none of you stepped in before it went this far. This is supposed to be a community that prides itself on helping others. If this is the best my community can offer my family, if this is the best my community can do to protect someone in my family from getting hurt…I'm ashamed. No. Actually all of you should be ashamed. Not to mention, how many of these charity events have we done for less fortunate kids, kids that deserved a second chance?" Sandy paused and pointed at Ryan. "He has every right to be here. I can only hope this community can get it's act together and show one of my sons, the same generosity and warmth you're willing to offer a stranger. And if we can't…then this should be the last charity event we have because the community obviously doesn't have the warm, open hearts we're portraying by having these events."
Turning his back to the stunned crowd, he noticed Ryan looking at him wide-eyed. Before he had a chance to ask Ryan what was wrong, his attention was drawn back to the crowd.
"Sandy," the voice called from the back. The crowd parted allowing a woman carrying an ice pack through. It was Peggy, the event coordinator. "I saw the whole thing. I want you, and everyone else here, to know…your boy didn't do anything wrong. I saw the whole thing. Blaine and Carter started on him the minute he came out of the men's room. He didn't say a word and he even tried to walk away, twice. Blaine threw the first punch and after that, well…having four sons myself, I don't know of any sixteen year old boy that wouldn't try to defend himself."
Walking up to Ryan, she handed him the ice pack and gave him a weak smile.
Mumbling a 'thank you' Ryan immediately put the ice pack on his cheekbone, hoping to stop the persistent ache.
"I don't believe this! Whose side are you on Peggy?" Blaine's Mother protested.
"Oh come off it Margaret! Everyone in this room knows that slab of meat you call a son is an instigator!"
Margaret gasps at the insult.
"Sandy thinks no one stopped the fight because they wanted to see his boy get hurt…I'm betting there are several in this room that wanted to see your boy take a beating for once!"
Whispers of acknowledgement skittered through the crowd.
"Now," Peggy continued. "The bars are still open, I think many of us could use a drink right now, and the dessert tables are prepared out on the courtyard, not to mention, we still have a charity to support tonight so, please, let's get back to the reason for the evening."
Mumbling and whispering again ran rampant through the crowd as it dispersed. Ryan closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the chair. He didn't want to hear what they were saying. Instead he wanted to bask in the fact that two people, two adults in fact, stood up for him in the same evening. That had to be a first in his book. His enjoyment was cut short by the interruption of Seth's voice.
"Ryan I'm telling you, that was amazing!"
"And I'm telling you, I just got my ass kicked by a guy named after a coffee mug company and his sidekick who's named after an ex-president. That's not cool."
"Yeah but Ryan…"
"Seth…this may be cool to you, but if I wanted to live like this, I could have stayed in Chino."
Seth was finally getting Ryan's drift. While it might be exciting to watch him work over the same guys Seth could only hope to squash, he also realized he wasn't feeling what Ryan was feeling right now. Pain.
Kirsten could see Ryan had taken their conversation to heart. The interaction between the boys couldn't be more obvious, Seth putting Ryan on a pedestal and Ryan stepping down from that honor. He didn't want Seth following in his footsteps. She admired the way Ryan could get Seth to understand without preaching to him. The groundwork was there. She had no doubt the two could become close friends if given the chance. They understood each other. And whether Ryan recognized it or not, they had a bond.
"You okay kid?" Sandy asked, squatting down by the rest of his family.
"Yeah. I'll be alright."
"You know what you need Ryan?" Kirsten asked, changing the subject.
"What?"
"Dessert! Dessert always makes everything better!" she smiled.
Ryan gave a weak nod, "I want chocolate cake," he answered, wincing against the sting of the ice pack.
"Chocolate cake it is…dessert and then home guys. I think we've had enough fun for one night."
Sandy was up bright and early the next morning, he hoped catching some waves would clear his head. The night had been consumed by tossing and turning and concerns for Ryan. With the start of school only a month away, he hoped that Newport would settle down and give this kid a chance.
Stepping onto the sand, he watched the waves. They calmed him. They cleared his head. He loved these early mornings. The beach was basically bare with only the diehard surfers out at this hour. Allowing his vision to trail across the beach, his eyes focused in on a form sitting, leaning against the base of the lifeguard tower. Walking toward the figure, he laid his surfboard down.
"Now you're the last person I expected to see awake at this hour," Sandy joked.
Startled, Ryan turned around to face him.
Taking a seat on the sand, "You know you're breaking your house arrest by coming here."
"Yeah I know. I needed to clear my head."
"Funny, that's the same reason I came here. What's on your mind?"
"Yesterday was pretty…mind boggling," Ryan explained.
"Well you know, some times things just happen. Some times things can't be prevented no matter how hard we try."
"Yeah but…you told everyone I was part of your family. You told them I was your son," Ryan blushed with a straight face.
"You are," Sandy confirmed. "Not by blood of course, but, anything I would do for Seth I would certainly do for you as well."
Ryan stared at him a moment before returning his gaze to the ocean.
"Ryan, we want you to be a part of our family…and we want everyone to know you're part of our family."
"I just wish I could get through one day, just one, where everything goes right."
"Ryan nobody's life is like that. Nobody's life is perfect. If you're lucky, the good outweighs the bad but it's rare when the stars align and it's problem free. And if it is, guess what? Then you stand by, waiting for the axe to fall to ruin its perfection. There's almost more anxiety when it's perfect."
"I know I just…just once you know? So people can see I'm not what they think."
Sandy pondered that comment a moment, "Since when do you worry about what other people think? You mean you really can't kick ass?"
Laughing, "The hell I can't! I think I've proven that fact!"
"Look, Ryan, you should know that Kirsten and I are proud of the way you handled things yesterday."
"Sandy, I knocked the kid out cold."
"Well, yes, that's true. But, we're aware that you tried to prevent that from happening. Several other people came up to me after Peggy made her little speech in the foyer and they acknowledged what had happened, that you were truly provoked and you didn't swing first. In this town, that's huge. These people rarely point the finger at one of their own."
Offering a crooked smile, Ryan nodded and looked away. "I hope you realize that's not the last time they're gonna come after me." Tipping his head to the side, he watched Sandy and waited for his reaction. He hoped Sandy was getting his hint that it probably wouldn't be the last time he'd be in a fight.
"Let's just get one thing straight. I would always prefer you walk away from a fight. Fighting only fuels the problem at hand, it only makes it bigger. It certainly doesn't make it go away. However, if someone attacks you, I expect you to defend yourself. Don't just stand there and let someone hurt you. Now some days there might be a fine line between the two, and I guarantee you there's going to be some guys in this town that you'd love to take a swing at."
"And?"
"And you're going to have to make some judgment calls…and I'm going to have to trust you'll use your best judgment. You know with school just around the corner…"
"School???"
"Don't look so surprised…yes school. What did you think you were going to do, hang out in the pool house all day and wait for Seth to come home?"
Ryan shrugged and suddenly was very interested in twisting his watch around his wrist just right.
"Why didn't you go to school in Chino? Your truancies…why didn't you go? You're a smart kid."
Shrugging again Ryan hoped to ignore the question.
"The truth Ryan," Sandy pressed. Ryan seemed to tell Kirsten the truth when she worded things like that, maybe it would work now.
Sighing deeply, "There were lots of reasons."
"Such as?"
Turning to Sandy, Ryan attempted a glare but saw that Sandy wasn't going to back down. Sighing again, he offered a bit of explanation.
"Sometimes, if the night before had been bad, I was just too tired to go. Sometimes I wasn't in the mood to explain how I got another black eye when then previous one had just healed. Sometimes I did it to avoid teachers who I knew would come down on me, looking for missing assignments. And sometimes I did it just because I knew it would piss my Mom off."
Nodding at Ryan's explanation, "Well hopefully you won't want to piss us off, too much. And no one here is going to hit you. If we really want you miserable we'll force you to eat some of Kirsten's cooking."
"School huh?"
"Yep."
"So you're really serious about me staying then, I mean, school isn't for a few weeks yet."
"Serious as a heart attack. How does it make you feel?"
"What?"
"Having people want you. Having a family that's interested and invested in your life, your future."
"It's weird," Ryan admitted nervously.
"You're farther ahead of the game that you think kid. You promised Kirsten you'd try. As long as you stick to that you'll do just fine. Just remember we're here for you, no matter what. And I mean no matter what. No one said it would be easy, but the Cohens plus one…it's an unbeatable combination!"
Ryan smiled at the waves trying not to let Sandy see his enjoyment in that last comment. Sandy, in the meantime, stood up and grabbed hold of his surfboard.
"Alright Ryan, the waves are calling me and you better get your tail back home before Kirsten wakes up and finds you gone. You'll be on house arrest until Christmas if that happens. I'll see you at home."
"Home…" Ryan mumbled to himself under his breath, unaware that Sandy had heard him.
"Yes Ryan…at home. My home. Your home. Our home. Where our family is."
Giving Ryan one last smile to seal that comment, Sandy turned and waded into the water before paddling out.
Standing up, Ryan heeded his warning and started for home. Home. He liked the sound of that. His family back in Chino, that wasn't home. That was just a house. For this first time he was beginning to understand what a home really was.
