this chapter is dedicated to ObsessedRomantic, who asked for a Chrismakkuh chapter and while this isn't soley about the holiday, it does come into play. Also, Obsessed if you're taking requests, is there any chance you all can continue with Townwood Exit or Lane after you've finished you latest installment of Townwood Hills? :)
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"Okay, I have one favor to ask," Taylor said as she and Brooke walked up to the Cohen house.
"Ask me and I shall grant it," Brooke said.
"Good. Don't hit on Ryan," Taylor said. "He just broke up with Crazy Cooper and I really don't need a reason for her to come after me again."
"Do I get to see her? Because I would hate to have come all the way out here and not get a chance at knocking her on her ass," Brooke smiled.
"It's Chrismukkah, B. Try and get along with everyone. But yes, the Coopers may be making an appearance considering Julie is currently dating Caleb Nichol."
"Ew," Brooke said as Taylor opened the door and both brought in their bags of gifts. "That's weird."
"I know but shush," Taylor said. "Remember who he is and whose house we're in."
"Hello girls," Sandy said as he came to the door and took one of the bags from Taylor. He gave Brooke a one armed hug, "Welcome Brooke. Happy Chrismukkah."
"Thanks Sandy. Same to you," Brooke smiled. She loved the Cohens for all they'd done for Taylor over the years and for always being there for her.
"Come in, come in. The boys are in the living room, go on in."
Taylor and Brooke set the presents down and headed into the living room.
"Hi guys."
"Females," Seth greeted from the couch. "Did you leave anything in the malls?"
"Funny, Seth," Brooke sat down on one side of Seth. "Hi, you must be Ryan. I'm Brooke."
"Nice to meet you. Hey Taylor," Ryan greeted as he sat on the floor.
"Hi Ryan," Taylor took a seat on the other side of Seth. "Ready for your first Chrismukkah?"
"Yeah. It should be fun," Ryan smiled, watching as the girls slipped off their shoes and shifted so their legs lay over Seth's lap. "So, are you two staying?"
"We'll be here for a while. My mother got home this morning so Brooke and I have to make at least a token appearance at dinner tomorrow night but we'll be back for dessert here. Oh speaking of, I brought gingerbread cookies in shapes."
"What kind of shapes?"
"Taylor, why do these cookies look like shamrocks and hearts," Sandy asked from the kitchen.
Taylor started to giggle.
"We couldn't find the little man cookie cutter," Brooke answered. "It was either that or American flags."
Seth snorted.
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"So, Ryan seems nice," Brooke remarked to Seth when they were alone.
"He is," Seth shrugged.
"Yep, very nice. Cute, too," Brooke said.
"If you're into that kind of guy."
"So to recap, he's cute, he's nice, and he's really into Taylor."
Seth dropped the cookie he was about to put into his mouth and stared at Brooke, "Can we please keep that to ourselves right now? I don't need Ryan getting any encouragement and I thought you said you didn't believe me."
"I know guys and more importantly I know how guys look at girls they've got a crush on. Taylor never saw it but the summer when we were thirteen, Nathan used to look at her like she hung the damn moon."
"Well, she still doesn't see it," Seth said. "Or if she does, she's in denial about it because he was Marissa's first and she has no interest in showing up on her radar of revenge again."
"The Princess of Newport better be careful she doesn't get on my radar of revenge," Brooke said with a dark look. "I'm willing to let her slide a little due to the holiday and because Taylor asked me to but she better tread very lightly."
"Why do so many of the women in my life have scary bad tempers?"
"You're just lucky, I guess. Anyway, back to Ryan and Taylor. He wants to ask her out, doesn't he?"
"Yeah," Seth nodded.
"I knew that's why he keeps trying to get her alone. What do you think she'll say?"
"I don't know. We've talked about how obvious it is that he likes her but we haven't really talked about how she feels about him."
"She thinks he's cute but like you said he was Marissa's first so she probably didn't let herself think of him any other way than as a kind of friend or your new brother."
"Maybe it's time that changed," Seth said hesitantly. As much as he wanted to keep Taylor safe from the wrath of Marissa, he also wanted to see her happy and he had a funny feeling that Ryan could make her happy as nutty as that sounded.
"Glad you agree," Brooke smiled at him in that way she and Taylor had when they were about to get their way.
Seth had seen that smile a hundred times both in person and in pictures of the girls' grandmother. It was one of the ways he knew the girls were related because there were times, based solely on personality, when he'd swear there was no blood connection between them.
"So, what should we do about it," Brooke asked, bringing Seth back to Earth.
"You're usually the girl with the plan, Brooke. You tell me."
"Neil called before. He's stuck working tomorrow so he wants me and Taylor home tonight for dinner. Why don't you and Ryan come with us? This way they can at least spend some time together even if it's not alone time. Sandy and Kirsten don't have anything family oriented planned for tonight, right?"
"Right. You sure it'll be okay?"
"I think it'll be fine. I'll call Neil and make sure." Brooke took her cell out and was about to dial when a stream of foreign sounding explicative's came from the other room.
"Merde! Hijo maldito de dios-de-a-perra! Dieses wirklich bumsende Schmerzen," Taylor's voice came as she, Kirsten, and Ryan came into the kitchen. Taylor was holding her right wrist with her left hand and Seth and Brooke could both see the burn on her palm.
"What happened," Brooke asked.
"She grabbed the wrong end of the lights," Kirsten said as they ran Taylor's hand under cold water. "She'll be okay, they were just hot."
"Very hot," Taylor mumbled as she let the cold water run over her skin. Ryan soaked some paper towels and wrapped them around Taylor's hand, to prevent scaring. "Thanks," she smiled a little at Ryan.
"Sure. You okay," he asked.
"I'll live," she joked.
"So not funny, T," Brooke frowned. "You sure you don't need a hospital?"
"It's just a little burn. But thank you for worrying, Brookie."
"No problem."
"That was some colorful language you were using, Taylor. I got the French part," Seth said.
Taylor started to blush when she caught Kirsten's look as the older woman left the kitchen and remembered that the blonde spoke French as well.
"The Spanish part was good too," Ryan smiled.
"I liked the German. It reminded me of all the times Grandma would yell at Mom and Aunt Veronica," Brooke smiled.
"They deserved it."
Brooke nodded, "True." Then she looked at Taylor and both girls started to giggle.
"Your grandmother yelled at them a lot," Ryan asked.
"Yes, mainly about their lack of maternal instincts," Taylor said.
"They can't be that bad," Ryan said.
"You've never met Victoria Davis."
"Or Veronica Townsend."
"You've never met Dawn Atwood."
Taylor gave him a long measuring look before she spoke, "Fair enough."
"Well, I think we can all be glad we don't have Julie Cooper as a mother," Seth said, trying to joke them all back into a lighter mood.
"Hey, the woman may not be perfect, but she loves her daughters no matter what they are or are not, which is a hell of a lot more than Brooke and I can say about our mothers," Taylor said as she headed out of the kitchen towards the front door.
Brooke winced as the front door slammed and sighed. "I'll go."
"No, it was my idiot attempt at a joke. I'll go," Seth said, getting up and grabbing the hoodie Taylor had been wearing before from the back of the couch because it may be California but it was still December and Taylor had left wearing only a tank top and jeans.
"Can I ask," Ryan said quietly.
"Taylor likes Julie but she doesn't want to because for all intents and purposes Julie broke up Taylor's family."
"Excuse me?"
"When we were about six Taylor's father had an affair with Julie. Aunt Veronica found out right away and threw Taylor's father out of the house, divorcing him. Taylor hasn't seen him since. Marissa found out when we were ten. It was right when Jimmy found out and it was the first time the Coopers ever seriously considered getting a divorce. According to what Seth overheard from the end of the driveway, Marissa went crazy and blamed Veronica for not being able to keep her husband happy. Veronica's untouchable because she's an adult and Taylor's father is gone so Marissa decided to-"
"Torture Taylor," Ryan finished the thought. "Bitch."
"Yes, she is. Thing of it is, Taylor doesn't blame Julie for things even though she should. Taylor blames her mother and father for moving them out here and putting them in range of Julie Cooper and her boredom."
"Moving them out here?"
"Yeah. Up until we were five, Taylor lived in Tree Hill near me. Then Taylor's father sold a script and they moved out here." Brooke paused for a moment and then asked what she wanted, "So, you really like Taylor, don't you?"
"Excuse me?"
"I see the way you look at Taylor. The only other guy to look at her like that in my presence was Nathan Scott."
"The guy Taylor keeps telling Peyton she can do better than? The one you slept with?"
"Yeah, that's him. Anyway, if you want her, tell her, but if you hurt her, I hurt you and trust me I can do a better job of it than anyone you ever met in Chino."
"I get that you guys are family but why are you so protective of her?"
"Taylor and I don't have too many people in our lives who are in our lives; you know permanently, forever. They will always be there for us; we will always be there for them. I have Peyton, she has the Cohens, and we have each other. I can't really protect considering we live on opposite sides of the country, but I can do my best to plot with Seth to make sure she'll be okay. And for some reason, after watching you watch her today, I know she'd be okay if she was with you because I think you understand what it's like to want people to stick around and I think that no matter how scared she got, you'd fight like hell to keep her around." Brooke tilted her head and gave Ryan a smile, "So, like I said, if you want her, tell her, but if you hurt her, I hurt you."
"Got it."
"Oh and Ryan? That Nathan thing? That was a very bad dream."
"Right," Ryan nodded.
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"Well, that was fun," Summer said as Veronica left in a huff followed by Neil.
"Sorry you guys had to see that," Taylor apologized to Seth and Ryan.
"Me too," Seth nodded.
"Okay, sorry about that-" Brooke came back in and stopped short. "Where'd Veronica and Neil go?"
"Snide comment, reproach about behavior in front of children," Taylor said indicating herself and the other teens at the table, "and a quick departure by Mother followed by Neil. How's Peyton?"
"Fine, but her dad's shore leave got cut short so she wants to head home early."
"She doesn't have to. She can stay here," Summer said.
"I told her as much but she doesn't want to intrude on family traditions and neither do I. So we're gonna head back tomorrow afternoon."
"Brooke," Taylor protested as she leaned back in her chair.
"I don't want her to be alone for the holidays and she's pretty set on going back to Tree Hill."
Taylor nodded and got up. She hugged Brooke, "I was really looking forward to the beach on New Year's Eve."
"You can still do that," Brooke said. "As a matter of fact, you go to the beach at nine while I promise to be doing it at midnight on the beach in back of the Scott beach house and then you can do it at midnight and I promise to be on the beach at three a.m. for solidarity."
Taylor smiled, "Deal. C'mon let's go do presents before we send the boys home and help you pack."
"Alright presents," Seth exclaimed happily, as he got up and all but ran into the living room.
"I swear sometimes I'd think he was still twelve," Taylor rolled her eyes as they followed Seth.
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"Hey," Ryan greeted when he found Taylor alone sitting on the steps of the Roberts' home later that evening.
"Hey," Taylor smiled a little. "Everything okay?"
"I don't know," Ryan sat down next to her. "I saw you slip out. Are you okay?"
"I guess I'm just a little bummed that Brooke's cutting her trip short. I love it when she comes out here almost as much as I love going to Tree Hill to see her."
"She's nice."
"Yeah, she is," Taylor agreed.
"Can I ask what you guys were talking about before with the beach?"
Taylor smiled wistfully, "It's this stupid tradition my grandmother started when we were kids. At twelve on New Year's you stand on the beach and make a wish for the year."
"Sounds nice. Do you wish for anything in particular?"
"No. It can be anything you want, everything you want. You just make a wish and put it in your heart once you have it, and then you believe that it can come true with all of your heart. After she died Brooke and I kept doing it even though most of the time we're on opposite ends of the country."
"And this year you were going to be doing it together and you're sad that it won't happen that way."
"Yeah."
"I can do it with you. I know I'm not Brooke, but if you want I'll stand on the beach with you at nine and midnight and make a wish for the coming year."
"Ryan, that's really sweet, but I'm sure Seth is planning on conning you into a party or something."
"I'll tell him I have other plans. In fact, let's make it a New Year's date for you and me. We'll go to the beach at nine and stay for fifteen minutes, giving Brooke plenty of time to make her wish while she's in Tree Hill, we go have dinner, and then at midnight we go back to the beach so you can make your wish."
"You want me as your New Year's date?"
"Yeah," Ryan nodded.
"Okay," Taylor said. "But I have one condition."
"I won't try to kiss you at midnight."
"No, that's not it. I know this probably isn't your thing, but you have to make a wish too."
"Okay."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," Ryan nodded.
"Good."
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Taylor breathed in the salty air as she and Ryan stood on the beach near the Cohen home. Midnight was fast approaching and she and Ryan were there to make their wishes for the coming year.
"So, do we tell each other the wishes when we have them?"
"No, we keep them to ourselves. Haven't you ever made a wish, Ryan?"
"Not lately," he said quietly.
"Right. Sorry. Okay, we have a little less than two minutes," Taylor said checking her watch, "so get your wish ready."
"Right," Ryan thought for a moment or two and when he had it he closed his eyes.
They could just hear a group of people down the beach a ways counting down.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
Taylor smiled and then she and Ryan looked up at all the stars that shone down that them and made their wishes just as midnight struck and another year was ushered in. Little did they know that they were wishing for the same thing.
I wish for love.
Taylor looked over at Ryan, "Thank you."
"No problem," Ryan looked over at her. "Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year," Taylor smiled and gave him a small kiss on the lips.
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Translations:
Merde - Shit
Hijo maldito de dios-de-a-perra! - God damn son of a bitch.
Dieses wirklich bumsende Schmerzen- This really fucking hurts.