THE ENGAGEMENT
There was a shark. A big one. And a octopus, or a squid. I wasn't really sure which, to be honest I wasn't paying attention. I was subtly trying to feel Marissa up in the movie theatre without Seth noticing; a task made so much harder by the fact he was sat besides her. I didn't want to be there though, I was bored out of my mind, but Marissa had insisted. This was 'Seth's day' she'd said, we all had to be there, she'd insisted. And so we were. Marissa and I on one side of him, Summer and Anna on the other side. All of us staring up at a giant shark fight a giant octopus or squid tearing apart the Golden Gate bridge, because that was the film Seth had picked and it was 'Seth's day.'
"So," I sighed as I stretched and yawned once the lights came back on. "Now what?"
"Its Seth's choice." Marissa smiled at him, patting him on the knee. "What do you want to do?"
"I don't need baby sitting." He told her. "I'm not going to run off to Chino again and try and win Theresa back."
"No, the first five times really sealed the deal on her being with Eddie." I nodded, "Especially with them throwing an engagement party and all that."
"Not helping." Marissa growled in my ear as she hit me in the stomach.
"How about Jamba Juice?" Anna suggested.
"I could go for some juice." Summer nodded.
"I hear they make it right in front of you." Marissa smiled, taking Seth's hand and leading him out of the theatre. I went to follow them but Anna grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.
"Look," she hissed at me through gritted teeth, "I know you're pissed because he slept with Theresa, but he's your brother now-"
"Yeah," I hissed back at her, "he's my brother now he shouldn't be sleeping with my ex-girlfriends."
"You're with Marissa now aren't you? Aren't you?" she repeated when I refused to answer, I simply nodded. "You love her don't you?" I nodded once more. "You're over Theresa aren't you? Aren't you?" She asked again with more urgency waiting for my response.
"Yes. But-"
"No buts." She told me, finally letting go of my wrist. "Seth loves her. He's hurting. Take his damn side in this."
I slumped back down in one of the chairs. She simply left me there to figure out what to do. She was right, of course she was. She was always right. That was her best and worst quality. She was always right. Theresa and I were awful together, I cheated on her, she cheated on me, with Jodie watching on and loving every minute of it. I wasn't entirely sure why I was so mad at Seth sleeping with her. I mean I knew he was. Deep down. It was obvious. Everyone knew we just chose not to talk about it. Him falling in love with her, that was the real shock of it all. Yet I still couldn't be mad at him for that. I wasn't mad at him at all really. It was her.
She had an opportunity to escape. Escape from the hardships and trailer park life that we'd lived. She'd had a chance to give it all but she rejected it. For better or for worse she gave it up. For richer or for poorer she stayed home. In sickness and in health she rejected this lifestyle. She rejected me.
"Alright." I said, slapping my legs and pushing my self up, "that's quite enough of that now." And it was. I was done. I'd given Chino up, I was a Cohen now. This was my life now. Time to stop thinking about what was and focus on what would be. Time to go back to my girlfriend, my friends and my brother.
I found them in Jamba Juice, Summer was deciding between one green flavour of some health grass and another similar one only low fat, Anna tried to explain but stumbled when she realised that she didn't actually understand that grass could be considered to be high in fat. Marissa simply passed me a mango flavour she'd bought for me and Seth continued sucking on his own juice as we made our way out of the store and back into the mall.
"So what do you guys fancy doing now?" I smiled at them all. "Seth?"
"Look, guys," he pointed his juice at us each in turn, "just because the girl that I love is getting married to a tall, dark goat doesn't mean that I'm not okay." He paused to drink a bit more of his juice. "I'm okay. Really. Okay."
"Okay." We all smiled back at him. "But for my benefit," Marissa took his hand again, "can we all go round to yours and play video games?"
"Why wouldn't you be o-" he faulted though when he spotted something over her shoulder. We all followed his gaze until our eyes landed upon Luke and Julie sitting alone at a table in the middle of the food court. "Oh yeah." Seth mused. "There was tha-" he cut himself off though when Marissa began to run off again.
"Hey man." Seth beamed at me handing me a cup of coffee as he woke me up. I sat it down on my nightstand and rolled over to go back to sleep, but Seth was already opening my blinds. "How's Marissa?"
"She's okay." I told him, throwing a pillow over my face. "You?"
"Well my ex-boyfriend isn't sleeping with my mum." I felt him sit down besides me. "Okay that came out gayer than it sounded in my head. What are you going to do?"
"I'm trying to go back to sleep." I told him from beneath my pillow.
"Yeah I mean I know you're doing that now…" he nodded, taking the pillow away and using it to prop himself up. He watched as I relented and sat up before he passed me my coffee again. "But when you get up and dressed you're going to go out and beat up Luke right?"
"No." I frowned at him, sipping from my cup. "He's bigger than me. I always lose."
"But you're going to try right?" He smiled at me hopefully.
"No." I passed him back my coffee and got up. I pulled on yesterday's jeans before taking my cup back from him. "Video games?"
"Sure." He nodded, getting up and following me out of my room. "But then we're going to beat up Luke right?"
"No." I grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl as I passed it. "Pro Ninja VIII?"
"Stop." I spun round so that I was facing him, my banana appeared to be pointed at him like a gun. "Why aren't we beating up Luke? Marissa is hurting. You should be running in and saving the day. You normally do that by punching people."
"I can punch you?" I offered, setting down my coffee and pealing my breakfast. Seth simply stood there and continued to stare at me. "Okay, so Luke is sleeping with Julie – yes. Marissa is hurt. But only because its her mum. She's mad at her. She is however trying to deal with it-" I held up my hand in front of his mouth as I sensed him about to interrupt. "-because Jimmy is sleeping with Hailey and it would be implausible for me to beat up Luke for sleeping with Julie if I don't beat up Hailey for sleeping with Jimmy." I dropped my hand after making sure that Seth was going to remain silent. "I can't beat up Hailey because she's Kirsten's sister and because Marissa is actually kinda happy that her dad has found someone even if it is her ex-girlfriend. But she doesn't really consider Hailey to be her ex-girlfriend because she was just a dump affair she had last summer whilst she was working out her feelings towards girls." Seth stared at me open mouthed. "Are we all caught up?" he nodded mutely. "Do you want to go back to us all pandering to your needs now?"
"Pro Ninja VIII?"
"Pro Ninja VIII." I smiled at him, letting him pass and following him to the TV. "I might actually get an angst free week." I smiled at him.
"You might," he smiled back at me, "if it weren't for Luke standing in our garden." Seth pointed over my shoulder.
"Better cancel any plans I had about inviting the girls over then." I sighed, placing my empty coffee cup on the table and walking out to Luke, knowing that Seth was in tow. "What you doing here?"
"I didn't come here to fight." He smiled weakly at me. Too weakly. He looked pathetic. A shell of the guy that he was once before. Merely a suggestion of who he used to be.
"I thought you'd ended it with Julie." Seth growled at him, clearly taking up the protective role that I was letting slip.
"It is, believe me. I just had to talk to her." I waved my hand for him to explain. "I'm leaving."
"Yeah, well," Seth smiled at him smugly, "thanks for stopping by."
"See you Monday." I nodded at him. "Where we'll ignore you in school and-" I looked to Seth for a suggestion.
"Alex might throw things at your head. She likes throwing things."
"Beer cans." I nodded back at him. "I do like throwing beer cans. Hey," I smiled at him, "I could call up a couple of skeazy ex-cons and get them to beat him up too."
"Now that sounds like a plan." He smiled back at me.
"Stop." Luke held up his hand, pleading for us to just… stop. "I'm leaving town." He said quietly. "Now that the divorce is final my dad just wants to get out so we got family in Portland…"
"You're going with him?" I frowned at him. "But the whole 'gay dad' thing. You actually okay with that now?"
"Well, since you came to town everybody is gay now." He tried to laugh at his own joke, but it wasn't funny, he couldn't even really continue the pretence of his weak smile. "Don't tell anybody, I don't want to make a big deal about this, but that's what I trying to tell Julie an that's what I want to tell Marissa, but I want to tell her myself…" he trailed off again, waiting for my response. I didn't really know what to say. I didn't know what I could say. I wasn't sure how Marissa was dealing with any of this really, to have her sit down and have a cosy chat about it with her ex-boyfriend was a step beyond my comprehension. "Just think about it." Luke sighed before walking off and out of our yard.
"Pro Ninja VIII?" Seth shrugged half heartily.
"Fancy coming to Marissa's with me?" I asked him.
"I don't need babysitting."
"I know." I agreed, still not taking my eyes of the spot where Luke had exited, "but come anyway."
I knocked at the door and found it answered by Summer, she waved us in and I joined Marissa on the sofa. "Coop and I were about to apply some Salt Glow." Summer smiled. "You two want to join?"
"Can I assume this is why Anna is not here?" Seth asked Marissa, she merely nodded. "And to think I could have been playing Pro Ninja VIII."
"What happened to Pro Ninja VII?" Marissa asked.
"New one came out whilst…" suddenly he was laughing to himself. "I was going to say whilst you," he pointed to me, "were in lock up but that was VII."
"I remember," I smiled at him, "jail makes you miss all the good things in life."
Seth sat down besides us, "This is weird, its like the summer-"
"Cept Summer is out now." I pointed to her sitting crossed legged opposite us all.
"Hey!" she pointed back. "This is weird though. Just the four of us. No Anna, no Lu-"
"Luke." Marissa finished for her. "Its okay, you can say his name. I just don't know what I'm going to do about him."
"Kick his arse?" Summer suggested, with just a hint of a smile.
"I can't Sum, not given that Dad is now with Hailey." Marissa sounded more than a little annoyed by that.
"What's Hailey being with your dad got to do with anything?" Summer frowned back at her. "I'm the one that slept with her…" she trailed off when she noticed us all staring open mouthed at her. "What?"
"Ew." Was all Marissa could manage before Seth and I burst out laughing.
"Thank you." He smiled at them both. "Thank you. You two have really put my life into prospective."
"What?" Summer complained as Seth and I continued laughing.
"Last summer I had an affair with her." Marissa told her quietly.
"Ew." Summer nodded. "Ew!"
Had it not been for the door knocking, I expect we would have been locked in that situation. Summer and Marissa equally grossed out and Seth and I trying to fight our tears of laughter. I pushed Seth off the sofa and shoved him in the direction of the door.
"Hey Grandpa." He smiled at Caleb, wiping a tear from his eye. "Mr Cooper is at the restaurant with Dad if you want him."
"I know." Caleb told him walking past him and into Jimmy's tiny apartment. "I've just come from there. Its Marissa I'm here to see." Suddenly we were all standing. Summer grabbed Seth and I and took us upstairs, despite Marissa's protests that we could all stay. The three of us waited on the stairs, pretending to be out of earshot but we knew that they knew we weren't. "What follows doesn't leave this room." He enunciated the last part to make sure that the four of us understood him properly. "Marissa your mother is... a wonderful woman."
"She is?" we heard her reply.
"You are very important to her," Caleb continued, "and I know you and I haven't spent a lot of time together but it was important to me to come and get your blessing…" there was a pregnant pause. "I'm gonna ask her to marry me."
"You want to marry my mum?" she asked not even trying to hide the disgust in her voice.
"I love her very much."
"You don't know her!"
I hurried downstairs, hearing Marissa's distress, "Uh, maybe you should give Marissa some time, this is kind of a big deal." I suggested to him as I put my arm around her.
"Impossible." He said curtly. "I intend to propose to her tonight; at the restaurant with our friends and family in attendance."
"Then why did you come to ask for blessing when you had no intention of listening to Marissa?" I asked quickly, insulted by his rudeness.
"I can't stop you." Marissa said sadly, ignoring my outburst.
"I'll see you both tonight." He said as he stood and made his way to the door. "Thanks for your time, dear, and again this is just between us, I want it to be a surprise." He told her before shutting it after him.
"If my mum marries him she's gonna be the most powerful woman in Newport." Marissa said quickly before the door had even clicked back into place.
"What if you told Caleb the truth bout your mum?" I suggested as the other two came and joined us downstairs. Summer stood on Marissa's other side and wrapped an arm around her.
"If my granddad marries your mum," the three of us snapped our heads up and shot Seth a warning glance, "it will mean that my two aunts with have slept together."
I expected Marissa to contradict him, to explain that she and Hailey had never been together like that, but she and Summer had already made motions to change the subject to anything other than families and relationships.
We left Summer and Marissa to themselves, especially given that Summer decided the best thing to do to cheer Marissa up involved face and hair masks. I took that as our cue to leave given that neither Seth, nor I, knew that you could even get hair masks. When we arrived home we found both Luke and his truck waiting in our drive for us. He leapt out as soon as he saw us pull up.
"Hey," he nodded at the pair of us before we'd even closed the car doors behind us.
"Hey." I returned, with Seth mumbling something about going inside.
"Did you talk to her?" Luke asked me once the front door had shut behind Seth.
"I tried." I lied.
"And?"
"I don't think it's gonna happen, man." I went to pat him on the arm and walk past him and into the house behind Seth but he stepped in my path.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," I shrugged at a loss of what to say, "she's dealing with a lot of stuff right now, you know... family stuff."
"Well so she won't even see me for like thirty seconds?"
"Well Jimmy and Sandy are opening their restaurant tonight," I shrugged again. "Busy, busy, busy."
"I'm leaving town forever." He pleaded with me.
"Look," I was getting pissed off now, "she doesn't know that because you don't want anyone but yourself telling her and she doesn't know how to talk to you right now. There is nothing I can do. Private message her on facebook. Send her a tweet. Go old school and write her a letter." I pushed past him, tired of the conversation. "Just move on." I walked into the house unsure if he was still in the drive when I slammed the door shut behind me. I found the Cohen's all in the kitchen. "You look really nice." I smiled at Kirsten.
"Thanks." She smiled back at me. "Fancy telling Sandy that he looks good too?" she patted him on the shoulder, "he doesn't really look like he's in the mood to celebrate."
"He better be," Seth sighed, "after I helped paint that damned restaurant." Kirsten and Sandy glared at him. "Which I did as a punishment for stealing Granddad's car… Did I mention how sorry I was about all that?"
"Well there might not be a restaurant after tonight." Sandy said, still glaring at Seth, "You know that mix up with the liquor license, it's not such a mix up."
"What do you mean?" I frowned at him.
"Turns out the new commissioners a former client of Jimmy's with a quarter of million dollar score to settle." Sandy paused to take a drink of what appeared to be whiskey, "So without that license there's no point in opening the restaurant I've been on the phone all day trying to call in favours I got nothing the guy is serious the only way he'll reconsider is if Jimmy steps down, leaves the business."
"You're not considering-"
"No," Sandy interrupted his wife, "'course not."
"Well there is one last option, your not gonna like it, my dad," Kirsten stopped to allow Sandy room to complain before continuing, "he can be very persuasive."
"Oh honey," Sandy smiled at her, waving his glass, "I might have to throw a few more of these back before you start bringing up Caleb."
I looked towards Seth and found him staring back at me, we both knew what was coming tonight and if Sandy was already drinking before we'd even headed to the restaurant I dreaded to think what he'd be like later.
"Lets get dressed." Seth mumbled as we passed each other, leaving Kirsten and Sandy drinking in the kitchen.
The five of us sat at one of the table while people milled all around us. Summer had clearly filled Anna in on what happened at Marissa's this afternoon because she was as subdued as the rest of us. None of us really knew what to do in this situation, Summer tried to empathise by bringing up a similar story line on The Valley but Anna had told her that she wasn't really helping and so we went back to silence.
"Want to go back to making me feel better about Theresa?" Seth asked after a while, "We had something to talk about then?" He looked round the table of blank faces. "What about Luke leaving town?"
"Luke's leaving town?" Marissa frowned at him and then at me.
"Yeah," I sighed, slapping Seth round the back of the head, "I meant to tell you about that-"
"You've spoken to him?" Marissa's voice was raising.
"I fancy some olives. You fancy some olives?" Anna asked Summer as she raised from her chair.
"Got to love those olives." Summer nodded, following suit and pulling Seth along with her. "We're going to get some olives." She told Marissa and I, leaving me in trouble.
"You spoke to Luke?" Marissa asked again.
"He came over." I shrugged. "Twice."
"What did you say?"
"Not much – like you said – Hailey…" I waved my hand in the direction of the bar where Hailey was serving Jimmy drinks and a little too much attention. "Hypocritical…" I tried again. I didn't know what to say, I very nearly said 'Olives' before I was saved by Julie walking over towards us. She and Marissa exchanged pleasantries before Julie gave up trying to engage with her daughter. "Luke's leaving." I sighed out eventually. "No matter what happened when I first got here, between your mom and him, he became your friend again-"
"You see this is the thing," Marissa hissed in my ear as she rose, "I expect this kind of crap from Hailey but Luke became my friend again. I thought he'd changed." She finished her glass of wine, not taking her eyes off her mother as she downed it. "Besides, mom knew Luke was my ex, Dad doesn't know about Hailey."
I followed Marissa to a waiter with another tray of drinks, we each took one and joined the other three at the buffet.
"I can't get enough of these things." I sighed glancing round the room.
"One day there'll be a party that we enjoy." Summer mused.
"Christmas wasn't too bad." Marissa countered.
"I got grounded." Seth pointed out.
"I got sent to therapy."
"We got caught." Anna pointed between herself and Summer.
"Well it wasn't too bad for me at least." Marissa sighed popping an olive in her mouth as the group of us drifted back into silence.
"Excuse me everyone," Caleb was tapping a spoon against his champagne class, "I have something I'd like to say." The five of us downed our glasses as Summer waved over another waiter so we could get more. "I hope you're all enjoying yourselves tonight as much as I am, although my enjoyment of life over the last few months," I took Marissa's free hand tightly within my own, "goes beyond the restaurant to a very special lady, Julie Copper."
Caleb pauses to allow for the crowd to applaud him, none of us joined in. I looked over towards Kirsten and Sandy and saw them standing still too, neither Jimmy nor Hailey were clapping the other side of the room. I did however, receive a jab in my side as Seth elbowed me in the ribs and then pointed towards Luke in the doorway. I passed him my glass and went to deal with him.
"Julie did a fantastic job on the décor, didn't she?" Caleb paused once more to wait for applause.
"I don't think you should be here." I told Luke.
"-And it is here on this opening night that I'd like to show her how special she really is-"
"I need to talk to Marissa," Luke was slurring, oblivious to his surroundings, he saw neither the Newport elite around him nor the old man on his knee, "I've got to tell her that is wasn't just sex. I love her mom."
"Julie Copper," I glanced over to Caleb and Luke followed my gaze, "will you marry me." Luke was out of the door before Julie could accept but there was no doubt he heard the eruption of noise from the congregated crowd of the restaurant.
I chased Luke down the parking lot to his badly parked truck, his engine was still running, he was slamming the door as I caught up to him.
"Luke, get out of the car," I pleaded with him. "You're drunk."
"Did you know that was going to happen?" Was all he said to me before he sped off away from the joy inside the restaurant. I felt the others walk down besides me, watching Luke drive into the night with me.
"Now what?" Seth asked for us all.
"We get drunk?" I suggested.
"And then?" Marissa whispered, taking my hand back.
"No and then." I squeezed her hand, knowing all of us were still staring into the space where Luke's car had been. "We just keep drinking."
"Good plan." Was all Summer said as we turned back to the happiness of the party, none of us in the mood to celebrate.
R&R, thank you, Circus.
