Accidents In Two Paragraphs

Accidents In Two Paragraphs
Pairing: Various (Seth/Ryan, Seth/Summer, Seth/Zach, Ryan/Summer, Marissa/Summer, Ryan/Julie, I think that about covers it)
Rating: R
Summary: Series of drabbles. AU. Season 2-ish.

DISCLAIMER
None of these characters are mine. They belong to Fox, who is butchering them this year.

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Seth realizes that he's had too much to drink at the same time that he's realized he's just kissed Ryan. On the lips. "Dude!" Luke yells in the background, and he's just kissed Ryan on the lips in front of Luke, and he's definitely had too much to drink. "Sorry," Seth mumbles, and when he opens his eyes he's still three inches from Ryan's face and he doesn't even want to begin to interpret what that facial expression means. Ryan and Luke have both dropped their Playstation controllers, but Seth is still clutching his and it's pressing into Ryan's leg. "Sorry," he says again, backing away, and he can literally feel how red his face is. He wonders what the odds are that the carpet will just swallow him whole, but he's afraid his chances aren't good. "Dude," Luke says again, almost laughing. "I knew Cohen was gay!"

"Luke," Ryan says, and shoots him a warning glance that silences him immediately. He turns to Seth and Seth waits for him to say something, anything, about Seth attacking him with his lips, and he opens his mouth but doesn't say anything at all. "I think I'd better take off," Luke says after the silence has become uncomfortable. "I'll catch you guys later." He's out the pool house door before either of them can reply, and Seth's two steps behind him. "Wait," Ryan says, and he catches Seth by the elbow and turns him around. Babble mode turns on because Seth can't stop it, and he's sorry and it won't happen again and Ryan certainly doesn't have to say anything and Seth will never, ever be drinking again. Ever. But Ryan's lips just twitch in a way that might almost be a smile and he leans toward self just a little and says, "How 'bout we try that again? Without the audience." And Seth trips over his own feet in his haste to kiss him again, and he decides that he's most definitely gay.

*

So Summer's with Zach, and that's okay. It is. Ryan is eating his cereal and drinking his coffee, and Seth is trying to look like he's not watching and it's really, really okay. Because Seth has been thinking lately about life, and how it's too short. And he spent most of his life wanting Summer and not telling her, and maybe now it's okay to want something new, except instead of not telling him maybe he should. Tell him. Ryan, that is. He's not sure how Ryan will react, but there's this new thing in his stomach telling him that it might be worth the chance, that being with Ryan might be like a buddy movie with kissing, like smooth sailing on calm seas.. He wonders if he loves Ryan, he really does, and it isn't the first time he's wondered it, and he opens his mouth to speak.

"Ready for school?" Marissa asks, coming into the kitchen, and Seth deflates as Ryan lights up.. Marissa is the interruption in the run-on sentence that is his life, and he wants her punctuated and out of the picture. He wonders if with just a few well-placed words to Ryan she could be. Something about Ryan makes him feel like he might have that kind of power, or maybe it's just that the crazy tilting changeability of Marissa makes her seem easy to tip over, and he thinks he is resolved to try. But then Zach is glowering in the hallway, and Summer is crying and Seth is holding her again because he can't help it. He is powerless to resist Summer, and that's okay, too. She is a whirlwind, a swirling undertow of eyes and lips that drags him down into the endless drama of their relationship. He can't resist it and he can't trade it, can he, for something he might not get anyway? Because he thinks he loves Summer, he really does, and sometimes some chances are better off lost.

*

"You're not really here, are you?" Zach asks, and Seth wants to snark that of course he's here, that Zach's hand is down Seth's pants and where the hell else would he be? He is stopped from answering when their lips clash, a clumsy battle of teeth and tongues that leaves Seth only room for gasping. But Zach continues, manages to pant and swallow and say, "You're thinking about Summer." The words don't immediately process as Seth arches into the long, slow pull on his cock, and the word 'summer' has no meaning, is a stranger, is a season. Seth's hands fumble at Zach's neck, at his shoulders, at the buttons on his jeans. He's uncertain what to cling to. "It's okay," Zach assures him. "I am too." And it takes Seth a moment to realize that he means he's thinking of Summer, not that he's uncertain, and Seth wonders how exactly one thinks of Summer while one is jerking another guy off.

Not that he's had any experience jerking another guy off, because he can't get this damn button fly open, and he wonders if his inexperience is showing. When Zach had asked if it was Seth's first time to ever do this with a guy, Seth had said of course it wasn't. He isn't sure if Zach believed him, and Zach had answered that it wasn't his either in a way that made Seth not believe him at all. But whatever he's doing with his wrist feels really good and now Seth thinks maybe he was wrong, maybe Zach's done this tons of times, maybe he has a closet habit of making out with other guys and thinking of Summer. And Zach's right that Seth's not exactly here, not exactly thinking of water-polo shoulders and even less thinking of anything like cherry-lipglossed Summer. He's thinking about blue eyes and white wifebeaters and the light that filters into the pool house during Seth/Ryan time, and as he comes he thinks that maybe he should make this a habit.

*

Summer's pulling back almost instantly, and Marissa's apologizing in this rapid, panicked way that makes Summer fear that another crying jag is not far off. "I am so sorry, Summer," Marissa stammers, and Summer's on top of it because she's the one of them that can still deal with things. "It's okay, Coop," she says, and puts her arms around Marissa because she's starting to cry. "Coop, it's okay," she repeats. "I love you, you know I do. I'm just not…" into chicks, she starts to say, but Marissa cuts her off. "I know. I know and I'm sorry and…" Marissa dissolves into sobs.

Summer licks at the traces of Marissa's lipgloss left on her own mouth and she thinks that maybe she's glad Marissa cut her off, that maybe her answer wasn't entirely true anyway. She holds her friend while she cries and strokes her soft hair and tiny shoulders and thinks that maybe it's not that she's not into chicks, maybe this just isn't the way she wanted it to happen. She wishes she could trade the whole night, margaritas and drunken (again) Marissa for sunshine and a shopping day and maybe a pedicure afterwards, and Marissa could have leaned forward and smiled and tasted sober, and Summer would have kissed her until she was dizzy and not even thought about pulling away.

*

At some point it's gotten late, and Ryan and Summer are stretched out on the floor in front of the couch with Seth passed out between them. Ryan leans just slightly closer, discovers that Seth is definitely asleep. He reaches up onto the sofa for the throw blanket, and instead of the blanket his hand meets Summer's. Ryan glances at her and his hand pauses for a moment too long, and Summer glances at Seth's sleeping face and bites her lip.

She is over Seth's body and in Ryan's lap before Ryan realizes what hit him. She tastes like rum and her hair smells like lavender, and her lips are full and wet and nothing like Marissa's. And his hands clench on her waist even though this can never happen, even though she's both the boobs and the bitch and she feels so right pressed against his chest that he's not sure he'll be able to let go. He's never seen anything like Summer in his entire life and it hurts how much he wants her, but he's never loved anything like he loves Seth. He opens his eyes against her kiss, takes in the Cohen's living room with his shoes in the corner, his drink leaving rings on the coffee table, his brother sleeping beside him. Summer's pressing against his erection, and her sharp knees are digging into his hips, and Ryan kisses her back for one second, two before pushing her away as gently as possible, and he gives her an apologetic look because he is not into drama. He stands up and drapes the blanket over Seth and picks up his drink and heads for the pool house without looking at Summer again. And when he's safely inside he shuts the door behind him and wipes the taste of her off his mouth with the back of his hand, because if he lets her linger he might not be able to forget.

*

Julie Cooper-Nichol sighs, turns, takes another sip of her iced tea. Marissa stomps by with her arms full of shopping bags heaped with her possessions, and she doesn't even answer when Julie offers her help. The kitchen of the house she once shared with Caleb is empty, as is the dining room beyond it. There are only the bare essentials left to move, only the smallest traces of her old life left to pack away. She has not allowed herself to cry. She is afraid if she starts she will never be able to stop.

She pauses for a moment at the window and lets her thoughts wander, and then she turns back toward the door and lets her eyes wander. Ryan is leaning over to grab a box, and the muscles in his arms are flexing a sweet interplay of lines against his skin, and for a moment she lets herself wonder why she never let herself appreciate his arms before. Then Ryan lifts and turns, and she is suddenly caught appraising. He stares at her for a second, wide-eyed, and Julie attempts to scowl but doesn't quite make it. She prepares herself for disgust, for admonition, for "Well, you do like Marissa's boyfriends, don't you?" She is not prepared for the smirk, the almost friendly lift of the lips that she gets in response. She allows a raised eyebrow and a smirk of her own, and then she allows herself to check out his butt as he carries the box to the car.


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