Disclaimer: All the characters etc belong to Josh Schwartz
Please R&R
Water
Blood is thicker than water.
Its what Ryan Atwood used to believe. He believed it when he was six years old , his first memory of his fathers nails digging into arm, drawing a thick crimson, as he told him to shut the fuck up. He believed it when he was eights years old - when his father told him to be a good boy, to look after his mother, before he walked of into the liquor store in Fresno, gun in hand. He believed when it he was older still, in Chino, carrying Dawn to bed after another bender. But most of all he believed it when Trey smashed the window of the Camero. When Trey told him to get in. With Trey it meant more - they were the same - they'd known the same past, the same present and Ryan was fairley certain they'd know the same future, back then at least . On that night . He didn't want to steal the car- but blood is thicker then water, so the say, so he was bound.
And now he was standing over Trey, the older boys body streaming thick sticky red rivers onto the carpet. Blood. The blood they shared - seeping everywhere. He looked to Seth and Summer, and to Marissa, standing with the gun. The strangest thought hit him - the distant words of his old biology teacher - when he was younger - a fact that stuck in his mind. Most of the human body is water. It made him want to laugh. Its all we're made of ,almost - but to people its blood that matters.
Things had changed since he'd come to Newport - the first thing he noted was the sea. He and Seth shared water - when they were floating in the infinity pool on loungers, or last summer when Seth ran - amassing watery miles - sailing away - because he too is bound - by water- to Ryan. With Marissa too - its water that runs between them. From the date in the pool- when she dragged him in with her - as they chased each other through water - and when it rained - the night that Lindsey left - standing with him on the pier as they were immersed, washed away, somehow cleansed and connected.
Ryan walked to the bathroom - his mind swirling in the shock of the moment and did all that he could think to do - He wet a soft towel - and came to Trey, pressing it against his older brothers chest, trying to stem the bleeding. To hold it back, and wash it away - like holy water undoing sins. He felt the salty painful sting of wetness around his eyes and fought with the tears. He couldn't let himself cry- let the water take him over. 'Call 911' his soft considered voice instructed Seth, who followed the instructed mutely, but without hesitation .
Ryan swallowed hard. He heard the door behind him open and slam, Marissa bolting, as Summer ran after her - but he couldn't look. He couldn't turn. Seth put his arm on Ryan's back - looking uncertain and like a little boy - and Ryan wanted it to help, like he wanted to stop the tears. All he could do was press the towel harder, as Trey's chest stopped rising and falling- because no matter how much he tried to push- to bind himself to Newport and the people in it - t blood will always be thicker than water.