The O.C.
At What Price Love?
Author: Alba's Room
A/N: A few people suggested that I make this a multi-chaptered story so I decided to do just that. I think this a little weird but hopefully not so weird that people won't like it. I don't think I've ever written or read anything like it. I don't know what's with me lately. I'm very twisted and dark. Oh well. Here we go. I hope you like. Thanks so much for the reviews! Alba. xxox
Summary: Kirsten's not perfect. Far from it. In fact, she's quite normal. Selfish, even. If you tell her she can't have something, she has to have it regardless of the cost. It's the way she's always been.
Setting: (Important) This chapter occurs in the past so Sandy doesn't know that Kirsten is sleeping with other men. He's still the Sandy on the show but later I'll go deeper into his character and show that he, like her, is very flawed. As was established last chapter, he has slept with other woman but he still loves his wife.
Disclaimer: I don't own The O.C. or its characters. That honour goes to Josh Schwartz.
Chapter One: Snake
Kirsten wrapped her towel around her red and raw body. She always turned the hot water on too high in the shower. That was her coping mechanism. She figured if she turned the water on high enough and scrubbed hard enough, that maybe she could remove the top layer of skin. And with the removal of that skin, maybe all the sin, the adultery she had committed would be purged out and would sink down the sink.
She was like a snake. Everyone knew that snakes were pure evil and yet they let themselves be seduced by them, time and time again. But that wasn't why Kirsten thought of herself as a snake. It wasn't the way she twisted her body or hissed seductively to get what she wanted. Nor was it the way she curled her tongue to make the men go wild. It was the way that she, and they, shed their skin.
Every now and then, even the devil feels remorse and every now and then, even snakes wish need to change the way they look, the way feel, take back things they've done. Even snakes personalities change or their feelings grow ensuing in them needing to shed their skin or in a humans' case, change their tune. But instead of changing her hair colour, buying something new or even repenting, Kirsten does what any normal snake does. Loses her top layer of skin in one go. She sits in the shower with the water scalding hot and scrubs at her skin with a loofah and exfoliant. She scrubs away Jimmy, she scrubs away Carter, she even scrubs away Sandy, and he's the one she comes home to every night.
When she first started sleeping with other men, she used to perform the process every six to eight snakes, just like young snakes but as she got used to the lies and deceit, as she began to enjoy the thrill of the elicit, the task was only performed ever one to two years depending on how guilty she began to feel.
"Honey?" Sandy calls into the bedroom. She sighs and quickly sculls down the half-full glass of vodka that rests on the edge of the bathtub. She sits on the floor with her head pressed against the cold, hard edge of the tub. The white bathmat is scrunched up around her feet and her towel is clumsily wrapped around her like a dress.
"In here," she shouts back. Her eyes are closed and her fingers are crossed that he will not come in and invade her darkened privacy. The lights are off and in an act of rebellion against the house rules, she neglected to turn the fan on leaving her in a dark, misty wonderland which perfectly matched her mood. Tumultous. Dark. Uncertain.
"You okay?" he asks, standing outside the door. She silently sighs in relief, knowing he isn't going to enter. He patiently waits for her to answer. He makes her sick sometimes, the way he dotes on her. when she's not feeling half as guilty and when she's all his, she doesn't mind nearly so much, but sometimes, like right now, she just wishes he'd leave her alone.
"I just had a rough day at work," she answers, rolling her eyes. A rough day in the office, yes, but work? When is work hard? She and Carter had nearly been caught when she forgot to lock her office door. The little disturbance had come just as she was shoved against her office door, her skirt pushed all the way up on her hips, her lips mutely screaming into Carter's neck. The handle had turned slightly but Kirsten had somehow, in her dramatic climax, managed to lock it just in time.
The interruption, the dread of being caught, had been enough to plunge her into dark, desperate guilt and she had felt the need to rush home and wash away the remnants of the sin she had committed. That was why she was here now, locked away from her husband and her family, blood from the places she had over-scrubbed seeping into the once white towel. She was determined not to fall again, not to fuck another man but her husband. She had never been in the business of revenge until he reiterated the vow that said she was too be faithful until death did them part. It was only when he reminded her that she reminded him he had broke the sacred vow that she did the same.
Right now, as she listened to her husband breathe outside the room, she felt truly guilty for what she had done. But tomorrow, when the light shone into their bedroom and into the bed of lies that they shared, maybe she would not feel the same. She had always thought that the night gives you courage and makes you do crazy things. She had always thought that the night gave you irrational thoughts and that nothing made sense.
She figured there was a reason that snakes were more alert in the night and that was what made her different from all the other snakes. She did her dirty deeds during the day when the sun was high in the sky and burning bright. But not tomorrow and not tonight. Tonight, she was a new snake and she had new skin. Tonight, she dressed in her pyjamas, donned a dressing gown and joined her husband on the couch for Chinese and a video.
Even snakes have to be good sometimes.