HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT ME! I ACTUALLY UPDATED! :D
Usual rules apply for those that don't remember - this follows on with the actual story line of season one of The O.C only Alex is Ryan. All caught up? Good. Now go read, I'll write some more.
Cirucs
The Seder Meal
He didn't even flinch when I moved to hit him, he'd been expecting it. Ever since he'd found out that I knew, he'd been waiting for me to hit him. He didn't move, he didn't fight back, he simply took the hit before stepping aside and letting me chase after her.
I ran round the house, ready to run round the entirety of the neighbourhood to look for her. Not ready to find her stood at the bottom of my drive, shoes still in her hand. With my hands in my pockets I simply stood besides her, looking down at the neighbourhood she'd grown up in and yet no longer felt comfortable calling home.
Nothing was said, I made no moves to take her back inside, no moves to hold or comfort her, no words were said between us. We simply stood and stared out at the neighbourhood. Suddenly she was running again, not down the road, not away from me or Luke, simply running. She disappeared behind a wall and I found her, on her knees staring in to the ugly face of her own vomit. She wiped her face the back of her arm before allowing me to help her up.
I turned her back towards my house, and got her to walk just two steps up my drive before she stopped me.
"No." She said simply. "Not whilst he's still there."
"You want me to take you home?"
"Why so I can look into the face of my father? So I can tell him that my mother is sleeping with my ex boyfriend? So I can pretend that I have a normal life?" I let go of her, dropped my hands back in my pockets and simply waited for her to make the next move. "You have no answers, for once."
"I've been through many things, but this is new territory."
And then I was watching her run again. I didn't want to chase after her. Didn't want to confine her. Didn't want her to feel anymore claustrophobic then she already was. I turned back up the drive and headed into the pool house.
"Get out." I growled at Luke. "Come near Marissa again I and I will kill you." Seth and I watched him slink out of my room without protest, Seth closing the door behind him and making sure he was out of ear shot before he asked:
"Where's Marissa?"
"I don't know."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"What do you want to do?"
"Go on holiday?"
"Aunt Hailey is no doubt currently in the house raving to mum about the Caribbean. Maybe she could recommend you and Marissa a hotel." Seth shrugged, throwing in a half hearted smile.
"I don't know where she is, I don't know where's she going, I don't know how long she's going to be gone. I just know she's running." I sat down on my bed, defeated, barely had I sat down before I allowed myself to lay down. Seth laid besides me. "You know what?" I asked him, turning my head so I staring into his eyes. "Life would have been so much simpler if we'd hooked up at the beginning. Then I wouldn't have to deal with Marissa all the goddamn time." He stayed silent, just waiting for me to take it back. Waiting for me to tell him that I loved dealing with her, that I loved her. But I couldn't not right now. She was all too much. "Get out. Go to bed. Face your dad and your punishment. We'll deal with Marissa tomorrow."
"Want me to stay here tonight?"
"Yes." I said, quietly rearranging myself so that I was laying in bed properly. "Tell anyone though and I'll deny it."
He got up, dropped the drapes, turned off the lights and slipped into bed besides me. I heard him whisper goodnight before he too started to feign sleep. Both of us knew that tomorrow would be equally scary in the harsh light of day.
Where is she? The words were so close yet so far away. Where is she? They were running through my head on a loop. I could see them, I could feel them. I don't know. I told them but they wouldn't cease. Simply asked again and again and again and agai-
"Alex." A hand on my shoulder woke me up from a dream I didn't know I was having. And then suddenly Where Is She was back again. "I don't know Seth." I sighed, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.
"What do you mean you don't know?" I snapped my eyes back open and found Julie standing over me and Seth nervously babbling besides me. "Doesn't he have a mute button?" she snapped.
"I wish." I managed to yawn out before getting out of bed. "I'm going to look for her now, she ran didn't want to be with me, or anyone last night – there was no pointing in fighting her, she was in no fit state."
"So you two had yet another fight and you just let her run away? This is precisely why I didn't want her going to L.A last night, but Jimmy insisted. Called to say he'd dropped her off at yours and now where is she?" her arms were folded, she left me no room to explain, to fill her in, to wake up even. She just kept talking.
"Can you please just get out of my room, out of my house and I'll go find her. Bring her back."
"Damn righ-"
"She's gone because she found out about you screwing her ex-boyfriend, by the way," I was in no mood to put up with Julie, in no mood to feign politeness, in no mood to pretend, "so you can quit blaming me and stop considering telling the cops I've kidnapped her or whatever it is you think about when you're quiet for long enough to form thoughts."
"Get. Her. Back." She said through gritted teeth before leaving my room, the door shaking in its frame as she went.
"So what's the plan Batman?" Seth asked, joining me standing.
"God knows." I sighed making my way towards the house. "How do you even go about looking for someone that doesn't want to be found?"
"How about starting at our overflowing breakfast table?" Seth shrugged pointing towards the piles of food and an exhausted Marissa sitting, as if she was hiding, behind them.
"Hey." She smiled meekly. "Seth was in your bed so I slept-"
"In the spare with me." Hailey smiled. "Bagel? Eggs? Waffles? Three different kinds of pancakes-" She cut herself off as she cottoned on to what I was thinking about, "Nothing happened, she needed a bed. I was a good little stripper. So pancake?"
Seth was sat next to Marissa buttering a bagel like all his dreams had come true. Marissa looked as though she was still struggling to keep anything down. I sunk down into a chair the other side of her speechless.
"Come on, someone other than Seth has to want to eat? This is my 'Thank you for rescuing me' meal with some 'Please don't tell Kirsten' coffee and various flavoured juices."
"I'll take some coffee." I frowned at her. Not a clue as to what was going on.
Marissa, having showered and changed into some of my clothes, led me silently to the beach where we sat for a painfully long time before either one of us spoke. Several times one of us would try but inevitably we'd trail off and land back into the silence that held us captive.
"Want to go surfing?" I smiled at her.
"Only if we get to go to the mall afterwards." She smiled back.
"We'll have to call Summer in that case, I can't cope with you alone in a mall."
"Oh no." She wagged a finger, jokingly in front of my face, "That will mean Anna will come and we'll loose you both in Barns & Nobel."
"Nothing wrong with Barns & Nobel, they've even got a Starbucks."
"So you want to spend the day with books and coffee?"
"Well if you insist." I laughed. But it was an empty laugh and that too eventually trailed off leaving us in silence and staring at the beach.
"I don't know how to deal with this." Marissa sighed, leaning into me moving my arm so it was around her, interlocking a hand with mine. "I tried running away, but I didn't know where to go. I came here and stayed until I got cold. I tried being mad, I tried being hurt and betrayed. I tried so hard to care. But I can't. Its just another thing my mother's done." I opened my mouth, but found I had nothing to say so closed it again. "I think Dad's sleeping with Hailey." She said so quietly it was barely audible. "She said something to me last night when we were in bed together-"
I bit my lip. I bit my tongue. I tried so hard to hold it but I couldn't. I laughed, loudly and heartily. One of those belly laughs, a laugh you'd expect to hear from Santa rather than a sixteen year old girl. I laughed properly and fully. I laughed until tears ran from my eyes. I laughed until Marissa joined in too.
"I promise you," I turned to her, "if we break up," I swallowed yet more laughter, "I will not sleep with anyone even marginally related to you. Not even Caitlin." I crossed my heart with my free hand and made all the mimes thereon.
"Come on." Marissa pulled me to my feet. "I'm not going surfing. Tried it. Hated it. You are, however, going to take me to the mall. We'll text the others to meet us there." She smiled at me, pulling me into such a tight embrace she could have been mistaken for Lenny from Of Mice & Men. "Thank you," she whispered in my ear, "I needed that."
Summer and Anna, who always hated being the only ones to go to school were more than happy to join Marissa and I. Especially as they were both painfully hungover from the party. The four of us spent as long in the mall as either Anna and I could stand. We dragged Marissa and Summer away from the shops and insisted we go home. Summer and Anna drove off in one direction as I drove Marissa back to mine. She dumped the couple of shopping bags in my room before we meandered into the main house.
"Hello." An old woman smiled at me. "Which one of you is Alex?"
"That would be me." I frowned back at her. "Why are you cooking?"
"Its Passover." She continued to smile at me. "You didn't think I'd let Kirsten cook did you?"
"I heard that." Kirsten sighed, walking into the kitchen. "I see you've met Alex. Alex do you know where Seth is? He hasn't come back from school yet. He'll want to see The Nana."
"Oh." My frown changed into a smile as I figured out what was going on. "Hi," I smiled at The Nana properly and held out my hand. "I'm Alex."
"I know dear." She laughed back at me. "Sandy has told me all about you. Typical of him to do one better and invite a child to live in house. Now, my grandson?"
"Is he not in his room?" Marissa shrugged. "We text him earlier, but he never replied."
"So did I." Kirsten frowned. "He better not be late for the Seder meal."
"Erm…" I raised my hand tentatively, "what?"
"Passover." The Nana repeated. "The festival the Jews use to celebrate their liberation from Egypt."
"We better find Seth then." I smiled at the two women, taking Marissa's hand and leading her back towards my room. "Have you noticed that Seth has been absent a lot recently?" I asked her once my door was closed behind me.
"Well he was here this morning." She shrugged sitting down. "Call him." She suggested, flicking through the book on my nightstand as I found my call went straight to his answering machine. "Nothing?" I shook my head. "Let me try with mine, maybe he's avoiding you guys."
"Wow that's nice." I told her with a roll of my eyes as I sat down besides her and taking back my book, whilst she too found herself directed straight to voicemail. "Anna hasn't seen much of him lately, and he didn't come to L.A with us. In fact," I sat bolt upright and couldn't believe that I'd let this fact slip from my mind, "he was at a party last night. Or a bar. Or something. There was loud music and people all around him."
"And he was hiding out here because he'd stolen Caleb's car…" she frowned back at me.
I was going to walk back into the house but I found Sandy and his mother sitting in the garden, Sandy trying to stop The Nana from smoking, she was winning though.
"Hey girls." She beamed at us. "You can distract my son from irritating me."
"I'm not irritating you Ma," Sandy sighed, "I'm trying to get you to see a doctor."
"A doctor?" I frowned between them.
"I'm dying Alex." She told me cavalierly a broad smile still plastered across her face. "I have cancer."
"We'll leave you." Marissa told them, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the kitchen.
"Well The Nana is scary again," Kirsten rolled her eyes at us before turning her attention back towards the window, "all is right in the world." She sighed giving one last fleeting look at the window before paying full attention to Marissa and I. "What can I do for you?"
"You know Seth stole Caleb's car last night?"
"I'm not blaming you if that's what you're asking." Kirsten smiled at me, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"God no," I shook my head in disbelieve, "that thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Why? Is someone blaming me? Caleb! Its Caleb isn't it?"
"Alex…" Marissa said slowly and soothingly, "aren't you forgetting something?"
"Oh yeah." I said sheepishly. "How did you know?" I asked Kirsten.
"Didn't Seth or Theresa tell you?" Kirsten frowned at me. "I assumed you'd have been the first to know." She shrugged. "The police found the car in Chino."
"What was Seth doing in Chino?" Marissa turned towards me for an answer to which I could offer none that left me feeling anything other than nausea in my stomach.
"He said he just wanted to check out where you grew up so he could get you the right kind of Easter Egg." Kirsten smiled at the memories of his lies. "So God knows." And that's when the penny dropped. "That's where he is now, isn't it?" Marissa and I simply nodded. "Come on then, Hailey will do a better job of making sure that dinner isn't ruined than I will." She sighed as she nodded towards the garden, "best leave those two at it anyway."
Kirsten sat in the front whilst Marissa and I exchanged whispers in the back, drowned out by whatever Talk Radio Kirsten had playing. I wished I'd had a piece of paper and a pen in front of me so I could work thinks out properly. Alas I had to just make do with my fingers.
"Okay so far we have me and you," Marissa agreed holding out a finger on each hand. "You've slept with me, Theresa and that girlfriend of Caleb's." I opened my mouth but Marissa moved her hand to cover it. "I think its best we leave it at those three." She smiled at me taking her hand back. "And I've slept with Hailey," mouthing Hailey's name just in case we were in earshot of Kirsten, "and gone out with Luke." I nodded along. "My dad is currently with Hailey." Again mouthing her name. "Mum has just finished sleeping with Luke, but is still currently with Caleb – who's ex-girlfriend you slept with."
"Must you two talk about that," Kirsten asked, looking at us through the rear view mirror as she turned up the radio to give us more privacy, "that's just too weird to comprehend." She sighed going back to the road.
Marissa and I rolled her eyes, but she carried on regardless of Kirsten's protests. "So Theresa, your ex girlfriend, is now sleeping with Eddie and Jacob. Jacob is Seth who has gone out with Anna and slept with Summer who has, in turn, slept with the pair of them." She looked down at her hands. "I've run out of fingers."
"So you've slept with my aunt." I frowned trying to work out family ties.
"And you've slept with my mum's boyfriend's ex-girlfriend-"
"This radio won't go any louder girls." Kirsten sighed, switching it off completely, giving up on pretending she couldn't hear us. "So," she glanced at Marissa through the rear view mirror again before returning her eyes to the road, "you have slept with my sister. Can't say I'm surprised," she muttered, more to herself than to us, "Who is now going out with your father – my ex-boyfriend."
"I forgot about that." Marissa nodded.
"My father is going out with your mother," Kirsten continued, "which, if Alex is counting Hailey as her aunt for the purposes of this, whatever you're doing," I watched as she shook her head as she took the turning for Chino, "makes you her aunt too. Kind of. That incestuous for everyone?" She sighed pulling over. "Alex I have no idea where I'm going, do you want to take the wheel?" We stepped out of the car as I moved to behind the wheel and she moved to the passenger seat. "Right, so are we going to go to your ex-girlfriend's house, who is currently my son's girlfriend or are we going to go to her fiancé's house?"
"Theresa's." Marissa and I said in unison as we concluded the ride in silence. As I pulled into the street I could already see Seth lying on the Gonzalez's front yard.
"Dear God," Kirsten sighed eyeing both her fallen son and the Range Rover parked haphazardly on the curb, "what trouble has he got himself into now?" I pulled up behind the Cohen's other family car, "How did he even know where to find her?" She asked me as we simply watched him continue to lay on the ground oblivious to us.
"Sat nav." I shrugged hopping out and heading towards him. "Jacob I presume." I sighed extending my hand out to his and pulled him up. The edge of my little finger caught on his watch face and it all fell into place. "You went back to the motel to find your watch, which is how you caught-"
"My mum and Luke." Marissa finished for me.
"Home. Now." Kirsten told him, if she'd unfolded her arms we would have been able to see her hands shaking from rage. "Now Seth!"
"No." He said simply, tugging himself free from my grip, his hand briefly went to his chin where he'd clearly been hit, explaining his stint on the ground. I grabbed his wrist again as he walked past me, again he snatched himself free from me. "I'm staying."
"So you can do what?" I asked him.
"She's getting married." Marissa tried to coach him away from her garden gate.
"Don't you think I know that?" He laughed almost bitterly back at her. "This is their engagement party." He waved his arms gesturing to the music playing from the yard behind, the laughter and happiness flooding from it. The joy that was so suddenly obvious from the garden beyond us.
"She's getting married." I repeated Marissa's words to him. Almost silently. "Its time to let her go." I told him.
"I love her." He told me, his voice as quiet as mine.
"I know. Its hard not to." I smiled at him, taking his hand once more, as I walked him back to Marissa and Kirsten. "But there are even more beautiful women in Orange County."
"Give Alex the keys to the Range Rover." Kirsten commanded, barely able to look at him. "Get in my car and sit there and await my anger." Seth passed me the keys and climbed into Kirsten's car. He ignored the passenger seat and opted for the back, presumably that way hoping to avoid his mother's wrath.
"Are you okay to drive?" I asked her.
"I'm a grown woman." Kirsten reminded me. "See you at home, where we shall sit, drink and be merry for The Nana's sake and once she goes back to the Bronx Seth is going to have a hell of a lot of painting to do." She shook her head. "Are you going to come back for Passover?" She asked Marissa, her tone suddenly a lot calmer now, as if she'd lost her anger in deciding upon his punishment.
"I'm not Jewish." Marissa replied simply.
"The Jews are going to be in the minority at this Seder meal." She told her. "Come." She said simply before climbing into her car to begin yelling at her son and heir.
"I've not seen Kirsten that angry since the first time I got Seth drunk." I told Marissa as I watched the Cohen's drive away. "That seems so long ago now. We're different people now, any mistakes he makes now are definitely his own."
"Like car theft, sleeping with an engaged woman-"
"I don't think we need a third." I smiled at her, kissing her for the first time in what felt like forever. "Lets go home."
"Don't you want to pop in and see Theresa?" Marissa frowned at me.
"No, she needn't know we were here. Let her have this day." I said as I unlocked Sandy's car. "So, ever been to a Passover before?"
"Nope." She shook her head, as she hopped into the car besides me. "You?"
"Read about them." I shrugged.
"What haven't you read about?" I shrugged again and I pulled away from the curb, my old neighbourhood, my old girlfriend and my old life as I drove towards my current one. "Alex…" Marissa said slowly as we pulled on to the freeway.
"Yeah?"
"Please don't ever, ever sleep with my kid sister."
"I think we're all incestuous enough." I smiled at her, moving my hand so that it was on her knee as we drove home. I allowed for a pause before I brought up the thing that had been nagging away at me all day. "These two days have been odd."
"To say the least." Marissa nodded.
"Who has a birthday party on a Tuesday?"
"Famous people?" Marissa shrugged.
"Okay, but why have your engagement party on a Wednesday?"
"That's what's been bugging you? The days on which we live our insane lives?" She laughed at me as she flicked on the radio signifying the end of the conversation and bizarre couple of days we'd just lived.
As always please R&R, thank you, Circus.
