Summary: Thanksgiving at the Cooper house goes just as smooth as Thanksgiving at the Cohen House once did, in other words, not so smoothly.

Story Notes: It's Thanksgiving Day so I've obviously jumped a few weeks from the last act. Not much else to say. I don't want to give anything away.

Title comes from "Like Eating Glass" by Bloc Party

Disclaimer: I feel it's obligatory for me to say I don't own The O.C. or the characters.

Feedback Notes: Thanks for the feedback. And Lindsay, you are very much the impatient one. I'll have to appease you with the Chrismukkah chapter, maybe.

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"Marissa, sweetie. You're here," Julie said as she nervously paced in a fix position after entering the kitchen.

"Mom."

"It's a bit early isn't it?"

"It's almost two-thirty. You said to be here for two-thirty."

"Of course," Julie replied back as she shifted her top and padded down her pants.

As she put herself together she nervously turned back to see what could be coming behind her. She was trying to hide her panicked state.

It was clear Julie was a bit tense, a little nervous. Marissa could pick up on it and she coked her eye. Before she could begin to question the possibilities of her mother's weird behavior in her mind, a foreign, but equally familiar, voice halted her from doing so.

"Hey, ba…," a manly voice trailed off. "Marissa, hey, what's going on? I totally need to play catch up with you," the voice quickly redirected once he saw Marissa standing in the kitchen.

"Luke?"

Marissa eyes wandered back and forth between her mother and the surprise guest. Before Marissa could respond with words, over vocal gasps, Seth followed in the half open doors that connected the porch to the kitchen.

"Cohen, hey man, what's going on," Luke said as he came up to his one time roommate.

He was trying to act cool, tempered. Luke went for Seth's hand and tried a manly handshake. Seth awkwardly complied as he tentatively peered his eyes up and down Luke's full body.

"Luke," Seth hesitantly responded back.

Marissa attentively watched Luke's every move.

"So you're back from Portland for the holidays," Marissa asked.

"Sweetie, Luke's going to be spending Thanksgiving dinner with us."

"He is," Both Marissa and Seth said in unison.

"What about your mom," Marissa asked.

"Mom's cool, she's just away on business or something."

Marissa nodded in her usual way. She was a bit tense and bothered by not being able to fully assess the situation. Something seemed off, awry.

Just then Sandy was the next to pass through the doors. Sandy positioned himself safely away from Julie and near his son.

"Is that Luke," he asked in a surprised, and hushed, tone.

"Yup," Seth replied.

Ryan cautiously moved into the Cooper house as he caught Luke racing towards him.

"Man, Chino, what's going down?"

"Hey man, not too much," Ryan replied, timidly.

"I hear you got a kid now and all. Man, Chino's a daddy."

Ryan, alarmed, turned to Seth.

"Did he ever call me Chino before? It's kind of weirding me out."

Seth shrugged his shoulders as a worried grin overtook his face. His attention quickly shifted to Marissa. He could tell she was acting complacent just to appease everyone around her. Deep down she had to be a little freaked that her and Julie's exes just happen to appear in her sight and at her house.

Seth kept his distance from Marissa. He never came up to her for a comforting hand or just for her to have someone to stand by. This was a part of their shifting dynamic. They had promised to be close friends, but somehow it all just came down to this. It wasn't really what they had hoped for. And worst of all, Marissa couldn't understand why this was what they were reduced to.

"Ok, guys are totally not going to believe this. But I aced my GED tests. Man, I've graduated high school!"

"I totally would not believe that," Seth said.

"Me either," Sandy chimed in.

Ryan continued to look on cautiously, but said nothing.

Kirsten walked through the doors next. She was unintentionally naïve to everything that was going around the kitchen before she entered.

"Hey, guys what's going on?… Luke? What a surprise. Is your mother joining us too?"

"Mrs. Cohen, the thing is…."

Everyone kept their awkward silence and Kirsten started to see the tensions of the room were high.

"Ok there Luke, you kind of had me scared. I thought you were going say something about…," Seth added in to clear the silence.

Seth was being more sardonic than literal, well, so he thought at the time.

"Yeah, you thought I was going to say I've been back in town for weeks and hooking up with Julie Cooper."

"Now that I defiantly would not believe," Sandy said.

"Well, I don't know dad…," Seth started to speak.

Neither Ryan nor Seth said anything further. They had already caught the look on Julie's face and it silenced them both.

Marissa took note of Seth, Ryan and Sandy's changed looks. She heard clearly of Seth's words and threw him a quick, scornful, glance. She wasn't pleased that they could joke about the idea. Her head came back and her eyes secretively traveled towards Seth's direction. She watched out the corner of her eyes. She never spoke and she never brought attention to herself.

Julie had instantly froze when she processed Luke's words. It was clear she was guilty of something.

"Luke, please, it's not good to joke like that," Julie fearfully said.

"Right. Sorry babe," he uttered out of his mouth without thinking.

Marissa was instantly taken away from her wandering as she processed Luke's words. She slowly started to tremble. Her face became stricken with a nervous grin.

"Oh my god. You two are… Luke… what you said… it's all true. You two are back together. You've been sleeping with my mother for what, weeks," Marissa said as she started to tremble.

The weight of her body collapsed against the chair accompanying the small kitchen table.

"Well, we've been, you know sometimes we have weekends and go on little dates and… Marissa we should talk or something."

"You two are dating. I mean, you're a couple!"

"Julie always went for the lowest common denominator for sex. But she had seemed to make slightly wiser relationship choices," Sandy said to his wife.

Marissa was breaking at the metaphorical seams that had held her together. Her breathing was becoming strong, yet lapsed, her body frail.

Seth took notice of her changed facial expressions and physical behaviors. She was no longer complacent. She was confused, lonely, and she felt as though her world was crushing under all the weight, the pressure. Seth couldn't bear to watch as she shattered little by little.

Luke turned his head and saw Julie's evil smirk and stare. It was clear to him he had said too much. Luke was caught. And he knew to keep Julie sane he could say nothing more. But his eyes did wander the room and he saw out of the corner of his eye Seth watching Marissa intently. He was surprised but wasn't really alarmed.

Luke never responded back to Marissa. She knew this was confirmation that they had been together. This had been what sealed Marissa's shock and pain. Once again she was none-the-wiser. As Luke grew more silent, Marissa was continuing to break inside. She couldn't garner the strength to face her mother.

"Sweetie, listen. Let me explain," Julie pleaded.

Marissa kept her silence and she felt her whole being failing in to pieces second by second. Her face turned to everyone behind her and she saw their looks of sadness and pity. It was just what she was hoping she wouldn't see. For a split second she noticed Seth and hoped his eyes would meet with hers. But they never did. He couldn't be obvious in anyway. He couldn't make it clear to her that he cared.

He kept himself half peered to the ground only lifting his eyes just enough to catch a glimpse of Marissa. He had to make sure she was stable, if not ok. When Marissa took notice of Seth's sulked head it was the final nail in her coffin. She turned back and quickly went for the stairs.

Just then Seth shifted his head catching out of the corner of his eyes Marissa racing to the stairs.

"Wait! Marissa," instinctively Seth cried out as his head slowly lifted from the ground.

Marissa was already half up the stairs when Seth finally snapped into motion and back to his rightful position as Marissa's friend. He never took a moment to watch the facial expressions of those around him as he moved away from the crowd and raced up stairs to catch up with Marissa. He was focused on her.

But he took a brief pause when he heard Luke's voice chatting it up with Ryan. The sound of Luke left him frozen.

"Dude, buddy, check out the chest stubble. Julie's totally convinced me I look hotter when I let my hair grow out. I guess she likes a burly man."

Seth stopped short and started to make gagging noises. His body was contorting and he felt his skin crawl. As he forced the visual out of his head he continued up the stairs.

"Ryan, now would be the time to back away slowly," Sandy added.

"Come on guys let's go into the living room and give everyone some space. I have a feeling it may be a while before we get to the turkey. Perhaps we should just call for the take-out now, get a heads up," Kirsten said.

No one responded as they were shifted away from their attention to Kirsten when another female voice was heard.

"Hey guys sorry I'm a little late. Totally hope you haven't stuffed up all the turkey yet. Oh my god, Luke!"

Summer burst through the kitchen.

"Hey, what's going on? Guys, am I missing something here?"

"Hey, Mrs. Cooper. Thanks for having me over."

Julie was still in a state of shock and unsure of how to proceed. She said nothing back to Summer, turning to her side and keeping her fingers firm on the glass of wine that was on the kitchen counter.

"Luke, hey, where's your mom? How's your dad? Totally cool I hope?"

"Yeah totally cool."

"And you?"

He said nothing.

Summer looked back and forth between all the faces and finally realized something epic had come into play.

"Ok, where's Coop, Cohen?"

"They're a little disposed at the moment honey," Kirsten said.

Summer's face went back to Julie's and Luke's and suddenly all the pieces fell into place.

"Oh my god, poor Coop! Luke, how could you? You bastard."

Summer first became physically hostile, pushing her hands and arms into Luke's upper body.

"Summer, Summer, chill"

"Oh I'll chill Luke. I'll chill when your head is on the Turkey platter and stuffed with rat poisoning!"

Seth, Ryan, Sandy and Kirsten each bugged their eyes in shock. Julie remained affixed to her bottle. Her head was bowing in disgust and shame. Or perhaps she was just guilty frustrated she had been caught.

Then Summer took to using props taking her purse and repeatedly hitting Luke over the head with it. Before she could cause actual brain damage, Sandy came up from behind and gently pulled her away and grabbed the purse from her hands. Summer then calmed, and positioned away from Luke, barely giving him a look. Finally she walked towards the stairs that led up to the second floor.

"Hey, Summer. Seth's already with her. He raced up to make sure she was ok. And he hasn't come down since. Why don't we just give everyone some space."

"But Mr. Cohen, Coop needs me."

"I think she needs to clear her head and be with her family to sort all of this out."

Summer turned to Ryan.

"But Cohen?"

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and remained silent. Summer sighed and claimed defeat. She now knew there was nothing she could do. She would leave Marissa's well being in Seth's hands whether she wanted to or not.

TO BE CONTINUED…