A few hours later, Kirsten and Sandy found themselves sitting alone at the kitchen table, rehashing the day's events and basking in the peace and quiet.
Sandy told her all about the conversation he had with Elena, about her punishment, about her tearful apology. After all was said and done, though, Sandy couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion that he was forgetting something – something important. After a long, pregnant pause, it finally struck him.
"She called me daddy."
Kirsten looked at Sandy with a bemused expression. "What?"
"Elena...she was upset, when I was punishing her, and it just...slipped. I don't think she even realized she said it." Sandy said, acting as though he was unaffected by her slip up, although Kirsten could see right through him.
Sandy carefully avoided his wife's gaze, unsure of how she'd react. He knew that she thought the world of both Elena and Ryan, but he also knew that she was a bit leery of letting them live there in the first place. He didn't want to make it seem like he was trying to guilt her into anything, but he felt like she deserved to know.
"Sandy, look at me." Kirsten said softly, placing her hand on top of her husbands. "I've been thinking..."
"Yeah?"
"I think we should make it official. This...arrangement with Ryan and Elena."
Sandy gaped at her. "You mean–"
"I think we should adopt them," Kirsten confirmed, her eyes welling with tears.
Sandy blinked, an unreadable expression on his face, before leaning across the table and pressing his lips to hers. "You're an amazing woman, Mrs. Cohen."
Kirsten smiled tearfully, resting her forehead against her husband's. "They're two amazing kids. Two amazing kids who have put up with far too much for far too long."
"You're damn right they have," he let out a shaky laugh. "We're really doing this?"
Kirsten giggled, blinking away the tears. "We're really doing this. We'll make it official tomorrow but we tell them over breakfast."
"I love you. You know that, right?"
Kirsten giggled, letting out a sarcastic "um, yeah," before kissing Sandy on the lips and whispering, "I love you, too."
Early the next morning, Kirsten found herself in Elena's room, gently shaking the little girl awake and urging her to join the rest of the family for breakfast. She usually didn't mind if Elena slept but she felt like a little kid on Christmas morning – she had to tell Elena the big news.
"Lena...Lena, sweetheart, wake up."
Elena propped herself up on her elbows, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Yeah?"
"There's something Sandy and I want to tell you and Ryan. Ryan's waiting downstairs."
All of the color drained from Elena's face – she feared this day ever since she stepped foot in the Cohen's house, but she was still holding onto a shred of hope that maybe, just maybe, they'd let her stay...that they'd be a family, her, Sandy, Kirsten, Ryan, and Seth. The family she never had. She should've known better.
"Lena, sweetheart, are you alright?" Kirsten placed her hand on Elena's forehead when she noticed her pale complexion, checking to make sure she didn't have a temperature.
Elena forced a smile and nodded her head, crawling out from underneath her sheets. "I'm okay, Kirsten, really." she lied before taking the older woman's hand and heading down the steps.
When they entered the kitchen, Seth and Ryan were busy chatting mindlessly over some video game, while Sandy had his head buried in a newspaper. When his eyes met Elena's, his entire face lit up. "Elena! There you are. Here, sit, sweetie."
Elena reluctantly sat down, petrified of the big news they were about to share, and Kirsten quickly slipped into the chair next to her. After a beat, Sandy cleared his throat and snapped his fingers in front of Seth and Ryan to get their attention.
"Okay, Ryan, Elena, Seth...there was something we wanted to tell you." Kirsten said, reaching across the table and linking her fingers with her husband's.
Ryan and Seth looked at Kirsten and Sandy expectantly while Elena refused to meet their gaze.
"Elena, Ryan...we want to adopt you." Sandy said softly, clearly overcome with emotion. "Does that..sound like something you'd like?"
"You mean you're not making us leave?" Elena managed to choke out after a long pause.
"What? No, sweetie. Why would you think that?" Kirsten asked, a sad smile forming on her face.
"I guess...I don't know, I just...I guess I thought after what happened last night."
Sandy shook his head and placed a reassuring hand on Elena's shoulder. "Of course not, sweetheart."
Kirsten nodded in agreement before looking at Ryan and then Elena. "What do you guys think?"
A tear slipped down Elena's cheek as she wrapped her arms around Kirsten's neck. "Are you kidding me? Of course we would! Isn't that right, Ryan?"
Ryan nodded his head furiously. "Are...are you guys sure, though?"
"Never been more sure of anything in my life," Kirsten said softly, placing a kiss on Elena's forehead.
Seth clapped Ryan on the shoulder, a large smile on his face. "Dude! This is so cool! We'll be, like, brothers!"
"Dude, we already are like brothers," Ryan deadpanned.
"Oh...well, yeah but...with this, it will be official." Seth said, causing Elena and Kirsten to giggle.
"We're going to get the paper work for it later today," Sandy said. "We have to fill some stuff out, then we'll go in front of a judge, have your birth certificates switched over and you'll officially be Cohen's."
"Will the judge approve it?" Ryan asked seriously, worry lines creasing his face.
"Don't you worry about that, Ryan." Kirsten assured him, giving his hand a squeeze.
The week came and went rather quickly and before anyone knew it, it was Saturday night. The paperwork for the impending adoption was all filled out and sent in, all that was left was a court date.
Sandy insisted Ryan and Seth go out and have some fun while Kirsten took Elena on a girls night, just the two of them. Unlike most teenagers their age, they weren't eagerly chomping at the bit to go out and party, but Summer and Taylor told them about a party a couple of neighborhoods away and both of them were far too whipped to say no.
By the time nine o'clock rolled around, the four were walking through the front door of a beach side mansion. There were dozens upon dozens of kids, seniors, freshmen, and juniors alike, piled into the living room, dining room and kitchen. The music was blaring and before Seth was able to utter so much as a word, Summer pecked him on the lips and grabbed Taylor's hand.
"We're gonna go dance, okay?" She shouted through the music.
Taylor threw Ryan an apologetic glance and Ryan just smirked, knowing how persistent and stubborn Summer could be.
Seth frowned. "But, Summer–"
She ignored his protests and blew him a kiss. "We'll meet up in a few, okay?"
He sighed and just like that, she was disappearing into the crowd. "Okay, then," he said flatly when Summer was out of earshot before he turned to Ryan and clapped him on the shoulder, muttering, "Lets go grab a drink or something."
They began making their way through the house. There were kegs at every corner, teenagers making out on every couch, bikini clad women dancing on every table. The entire place wreaked of hormones and stale beer – it was, in short, awful – but Seth sauntered through the house with his head held high, determined to have, at the very least, some semblance of a good time, with Ryan poised at his side.
He walked over to one of the, what he assumed was beer, stations and grabbed two red plastic cups, before handing one over to Ryan. He pulled the tap forward with his cup resting beneath the spickett and it began to fill with a white, foamy liquid. He stared at it for a few seconds before slowly bringing it to his lips and taking a dainty sip. His nose scrunched up at the taste.
"Tip it," he heard a voice say behind him. He whipped his head around to see a medium build boy with light brown hair and dark brown eyes standing there, arms crossed.
"Okay...wait, huh?" Seth frowned.
"Tip the cup. That's how you avoid the foam. Here, hand it over." He held his hand out and Seth exchanged an apprehensive glance with Ryan before reluctantly handing the cup over.
The boy slowly tipped the cup and lifted the tap forward. After a few seconds, the cup was filled to the brim with foamless beer.
"Thanks, dude." Seth said, admittedly surprised by a Newport kids random act of kindness – Seth figured he and Ryan had targets on their backs, mostly because they stuck out like sore thumbs in a house filled to the brim with Abercrombie looking assholes – but grateful all the same.
"No problem," the boy replied before extending his hand out for Seth to shake it. "I'm Dave, by the way. You're Seth Cohen, right?"
"Yeah, how did you...?"
"Uh, you see that asshole over there?" he pointed into the crowd, before adding, "That's my cousin."
Seth craned his neck and scanned the crowd, following the boys line of sight. He kept looking and looking until finally he saw a tall, buff blonde standing in the middle of the crowded living room, chatting up some desperate freshmen. Wait a second, "Luke?"
"Uh huh. He kinda had the hots for your girlfriend, was pretty bent out of shape about you two dating," he laughed, almost as if he took pleasure in seeing his cousin upset.
"You guys don't seem –"
"Anything alike? I can't really explain it, either," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Just one of those things, I guess. I mean, I wouldn't normally even come to these types of things, but I kinda live here. My parents, they actually encouraged me to throw the party, thought it'd help me make friends."
"Really?" Ryan asked incredulously.
"Yeah. Parents of the year," he said flatly before gesturing towards himself. "They think I don't fit in."
It wasn't until the kid pointed it out that Seth noticed just how out of place he, too, looked. He was wearing a flannel shirt, a pair of torn up jeans and a frayed, beat old pair of chucks – definitely a far cry from the usual Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton attire sported by kids from families like his.
Seth smiled politely, unsure of what else to say, before turning to Ryan. "Uh, sorry, I didn't introduce you guys. This is my brother, Ryan..."
The kid looked surprised. "Brother? You guys don't look anything like."
"Just one of those things, I guess." Seth said, causing the kid – Dave – to chuckle.
"You want somethin' to drink, too?" Dave asked, glancing over at Ryan.
"Uh, I don't know if I should," he said uneasily, looking over at Seth, who subsequently gave him an encouraging nod. "Alright, I guess I'll have one."
"You go to Harbor, too?" Dave asked, filling Ryan's cup up.
"Will be, this year."
"Me too," Dave said before handing the red plastic cup over to Ryan. He grinned before raising his own up in the air. "To...uh, to... high school, I guess."
"To high school!" Seth and Ryan concurred, clinking their cups together before throwing what was left of them back into their throat.
"Wow, that was...disgusting." Seth grimaced, wiping at his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.
"Another one?" Dave asked with a knowing, crooked grin.
"Sure. One more couldn't hurt."
A few minutes after Seth polished off his second beer, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket with a text. Inside it read: We r outside right now. Taylor had girl emrgncy & I cldnt find u in there. Can u catch a ride w/sum1 or do u want 2 me to drop u guys off now? xo Sum. He frowned and considered it for a second before writing back: dont worry abt it, we'll find a ride :) and made sure nobody was looking before he tacked on a quick "xo" and shoved his phone back into his pocket.
The rest of the night went by rather quickly and the two soon to be brothers, surprisingly, found themselves having a good time, nursing beers and talking about all sorts of things, ranging from school to comic books to music to movies. It wasn't even until Seth was on roughly his ninth beer that he really started to feel the effects of the alcohol. His speech became slurred, every lame attempt at a joke sounded like the funniest thing he had ever heard, and he was pretty sure that if he didn't get up and go pee in that very moment, he was going to wind up pissing his pants.
He quietly excused himself and slipped into the bathroom, throwing some water on his face. He knew he was pretty much all but spent, far too drunk and tired to stay there any longer, and he returned to the table with the intention of telling Ryan just that, but he was quickly convinced to drink just one shot.
One shot, however, quickly turned into three, and Seth was certain he wouldn't even be able to sit up straight, let alone get home in on piece. Although a majority of the kids had already filtered out and all that was left were a couple of stoners (Dave's friends, Seth later found out), eager to impress freshmen, and a smattering of popular rich kids, Luke just so happened to be one of them. Dave offered Seth and Ryan a bed to crash in, but they both refused, knowing full well being in such close proximity to Luke for an extended period of time probably wouldn't end well and that Kirsten and Sandy probably wouldn't feel comfortab – wait, Kirsten and Sandy.
"What time is it?" Seth asked, panicked, before fishing in his pocket for his own phone. He pulled it out and flipped it open with trembling hands, his eyes wide with fear. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit."
"What's wrong?" Ryan slurred, peeking over Seth's shoulder. The screen read: 13 missed calls, with the time "1:42AM" written in bold, black letters.
The two quickly called a cab and said their goodbyes to Dave, Seth drunkenly insisting they'd keep in touch, that he'd look for him when they got back to school, and they climbed in. Not even five minutes later, the cab pulled into the Cohen's driveway, and Ryan and Seth all but froze at the sight in front of them – an entirely lit up house.
After a long pause, the cab driver looked back at them with his palm extended out and a scowl on his face. "C'mon, kid, I don't have all day," the guy said gruffly, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.
Seth made a face and slapped thirty bucks into the guys hand before stumbling out of the cab, Ryan following suit. "It'll be fine," Ryan assured Seth as they made their way up the stone walkway, his arm looped firmly around Seth's neck in an attempt to stand upright. "Just...act normal, right? Say we got...lost or something like that. I don't know."
Seth bristled, nodding his head furiously, suddenly unabashedly confident that they could get away with this – so much so that it bordered on delusional. "You're right, we'll be fine."
"Yep–" Ryan began to say, but was quickly cut off by the front door flinging open.
Sandy stood in the doorway, an unreadable expression on his face. "In the house. Now."
Yeah, they were screwed.