First fic post
Seeing all the OC fic writers who have been updating old stories recently has guilted me into finally posting some of my stuff. I'll be posting some other bits and pieces over the next few days.
If you've friended my journal but have no interest in The OC, feel free to ignore this.
Author: beege
Fandom: The OC
Title: The Arrival
Rating: PG13
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: None of the characters or situations used in this fic are in any way my intellectual property.
The Arrival
When Sarah Cohen walked into the kitchen that morning she felt herself come to a complete stop. For a moment she couldn't move, couldn't speak, she couldn't even breathe. She was sure her heart had frozen in her chest.
There was a boy in the kitchen.
And he was perfect.
He had dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes, a solidly muscular body that was obviously the result of hard work instead of too many hours playing water polo and a shy gaze that was aimed at her face instead of her legs or chest. Sarah was so gleefully astonished that she didn’t even care where the boy had come from. As far as she was concerned the gods may as well have conjured him from thin air and put him in her home solely for her personal delight.
"Oh my," she murmured to herself, "I think Chrismukkah has come early this year."
“Um, hi,” the perfect boy said, offering up a hesitant greeting.
And still perfect when he talks, Sarah thought joyfully. Perfect boy had a perfect voice to go with his perfect features and perfect six pack; low and husky and doing things to her. Sarah was pretty sure this was some kind of dream - and if so she had to get her unconscious a gift basket - but on the off chance that perfect boy was actually real (unlikely but not impossible) she had better make a good first impression. She had morning breath and bed hair and she was wearing a T-shirt with a chibi Astro-Boy on the front and her rattiest pair of flannel pajama pants, so okay, the odds were already against her, but she didn’t have to let that stop her from trying. Taylor would have approved of that attitude, she thought. Actually, on reflection, Sarah hoped this was a dream because if so it would presumably lead to perfect boy ignoring her disheveled state and taking her in his perfect arms, giving her perfect kisses with a perfect tongue and then making passionate love to her on the kitchen floor.
Hmmm. Clearly her unconscious was a lot dirtier than she’d previously suspected. Better make that gift basket a big one. But still, this might not be a dream, so she’d better get started on introducing herself like a not-completely-insane person just in case there wasn’t going to be passionate kitchen floor sex in the next few minutes. Sarah realized that she’d been standing there not saying anything for too long already, so of course she immediately overcompensated.
“Hi, hello, hey there, how are you doing, I’m Sarah, welcome to our humble home, only it’s not really all that humble but I’m sure you know what I mean, right?” Sarah babbled, immediately horrified by the way words were pouring relentlessly out of her like water from a burst pipe. Not that this particular character trait of hers had ever bothered her before, but then it had never led to quite this much embarrassment in front of a member of the opposite sex before today.
Okay, so actually it had, but they were all Harbor jerks, so no loss. This was different. She was humiliating herself in front of the perfect boy. She had to stop!
“Not really,” perfect boy replied, speaking slowly, the way people sometimes did when they were trying to figure out if she was dangerous-crazy or just eccentric-crazy. “I’m Ryan,” he added.
So perfect boy’s name was Ryan. Good name. Masculine. Nice and short, but with two syllables so you could drag it out if you needed to. Ryan was now listed a synonym for perfect in the official Sarah Cohen dictionary.
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Ryan eyed the cute, babbling girl standing in front of him with bemusement. She was pretty good looking, he thought, with a narrow pixie face, big dark eyes and a thick mane of curly black hair. She was kind of skinny, but in a good way, moving with a hesitant, loose-limbed grace as she shifted from one foot to the other in front of him.
Definitely cute.
And definitely off limits, Ryan reminded himself sternly. Hitting on his lawyer’s daughter after the guy let him into his house would be stupid. It was the kind of thing Trey would do.
Still, Newport was apparently full of . . . interesting girls. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stick around.
Just for a day or two, before he had to go back to his life.
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Sarah wasn’t completely sure, but it seemed as though perfect boy - Ryan - was looking her up and down. And he didn’t seem completely repulsed or horrified. In fact, it was almost as though he liked what he saw.
This was the most awesome day in the history of awesome, Sarah decided. Maybe she should try actually flirting with him. Not that she had any experience, at all, but it couldn’t be that hard, could it? All she had to do was compliment him, get him talking about himself, maybe ask if he wanted to make out a little . . .
And then her dad walked in.
“Good morning Sarah. I see you’ve met Ryan,” her dad said cheerfully as he came into the room. Sarah twitched guiltily, but her dad seemed oblivious to the obvious mutual (did she ever hope it was mutual) checking-out that was going on.
Thank you Jesus and Moses, Sarah thought, trying to think it as loudly as possible in hopes that the trans-religious duo would continue their efforts on her behalf.
“Um, hi dad, yeah, just making the acquaintance of the mysterious stranger I found in our kitchen.”
Her dad chuckled, a little self-consciously Sarah thought.
“About that, Sarah. Ryan’s a client of mine, he’s going to be staying with us for a few days.”
Wow, this praying stuff really works, Sara thought. Wait, Dad brought him home? Well I guess that makes it official:
Best. Dad. Ever.
Best Dad Ever was speaking again, and judging by the expression on his face it was kind of important, so she should probably tune back in.
“- don’t you show Ryan around, sweetheart,” her dad was saying, pulling out his wallet and handing her a few twenties.
Sarah took the money automatically, not quite sure what was going on but willing to go along with any plan that involved her dad giving her cash.
“You should probably head out soon,” he told her as she tucked the money into her waistband on reflex, “there are some things I need to discuss with your mother.”
Ohhhhhhh, right, she and Ryan were being run out of the house so her Mom and Dad could have the parental sex - wait, NOT thinking about that, definitely not, but if it gave her an excuse to take a field trip with Ryan, more power to them. She’d better accept quickly before her dad got a clue and rescinded the offer.
“Uh, yeah, okay, sounds good dad, I just need to, you know, go upstairs and shower and change and do the girl stuff you don’t want to know about.”
Could I possibly sound any more guilty and nervous? Sarah wondered as her dad nodded assent and then walked past her to get a bagel.
Deciding that discretion was the better part of not getting caught ogling one of her father’s clients (and what had he done, anyway? Was he a James Dean for the twenty-first century, a rebel without a cause in a causeless time? He couldn’t be a real criminal or her dad would never have brought him home) Sarah tore up the stairs and went into her room, wondering what she was going to wear.
She regarded the contents of her closet with disgust. Let’s face it, she told herself, I do not own one single outfit that is actually sexy. Also, I have way too much anime-print underwear. I should probably do something about that. Her fashion sense, or lack thereof, had never really been an issue before, since there had never really been anyone she wanted to impress. She’d made a deal with her parents to let her mom pick out all Sarah’s outfits for fancy events so long as she was allowed to stick with jeans and t-shirts the rest of the time. Sometimes Sarah thought the real reason her mom let her get away with dressing like a tomboy with an anime fetish (which, hey, she was) was because she was secretly relieved that her daughter wasn’t strutting around in high heels and miniskirts like every other teenage girl in Newport. But now her fashion laziness was biting her in the ass with great big you’ll-look-like-a-loser-geek-in-front-of-the-hot-boy-downstairs teeth. With a sigh, Sarah settled for a clean t-shirt that had a cute little Megatokyo print over one breast and an old pair of shorts that were just a little too tight for her now. Taylor was always saying she had great legs; maybe it was time to find out if her crazy friend was right.
She laid the t-shirt and shorts at the end of her bed and went to take a shower.
<> <> <>
Ryan watched with mild interest as Sarah strapped on her rollerblades. She had her legs stretched out in front of her and her shorts were hiking up as wriggled around on the front step while tugging the blades on.
He hadn’t been able to tell before, because of the loose, rumpled PJ’s she’d been wearing, but Sarah Cohen had very nice legs. Very nice legs. Legs he really had to stop looking at, right now, before he landed himself in even more trouble than he had already.
“So, you ready to go?” Sarah asked, arching her back as she placed her hands behind her on the ground before pushing off and springing upright in one supple move, the rollerblades rocking back and forth slightly from the movement.
Ryan was impressed by her balance. Actually, that wasn’t the only thing he was impressed by, but if he didn’t derail this particular train of thought before it went any further down the line he should probably just shoot himself now.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he replied, managing to keep his eyes on Sarah’s face rather than her stomach where the t-shirt had ridden up to reveal a nice, smooth strip of mildly tanned skin.
Oh yeah, he should definitely just off himself now, because he couldn’t help noticing that the rest of her was nearly as nice as her legs.
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Sarah bladed easily down the boardwalk, hair flying out behind her, enjoying as always the sense of speed and freedom rollerblading gave her. Today it had the added bonus of allowing her to wiggle her butt right under Ryan’s nose as he followed along behind her on his bike.
She was pretty sure he was looking.
They were close to the diner now and Sarah straightened up, leaning back on the brakes to slow down as they cruised right up to the front door.
“Aaaaaaaaaand we’re here!” Sarah declared, throwing up her arms dramatically as she came to a complete stop. “The Diner, best pancakes in a fifty mile radius, I guarantee!” Sarah declared
“Sounds good,” Ryan said, his quiet, rumbling voice making her shiver. How could he say so little and affect her so much?
Ryan stuck his bike in the bike rack and slipped in front of Sarah to open the door for her, looking a little surprised as she clomped inside in her rollerblades.
“The management don’t really care what you do to their floors,” she told him, “so long as you’re a paying customer.”
Inside Sarah was giggling like she’d just had a dose of Joker gas. He was cute, built, smart, funny, hot and a gentleman. He opened doors for people! How retro cool was that?
She made her way to her favourite booth, Ryan right behind her. She didn’t see him trying not to wince at the marks she was leaving on the floor as she clomped along. Sarah flopped down into the corner booth and spread her arms across the seat back, letting her legs stick out into the aisle like she always did when she rollerbladed here. Ryan raised an eyebrow at her casual posture (god, he even had sexy eyebrows, how could that be possible?) but sat down across from her after a moment’s hesitation.
Sarah noticed Summer and a couple of her single brain cell cronies sitting in a booth on the other side of the diner, but she didn’t think they’d noticed her. She didn’t dress like the popular girls did, even though Taylor was always telling her she could pull off ‘a slightly more daring look than the one you currently favor, Sarah Cohen’ so Newport girls tended to look straight through her. Newport boys too, which was something of a mixed blessing in Sarah’s opinion. Caleb Nichol’s justly famed protective streak where his ‘princesses’ were concerned - and what might happen to anyone he thought was mistreating his precious granddaughter - also helped to isolate Sarah from her peers. Most of the time she preferred it that way. The waitress came up to their booth and Sarah ordered for both of them without thinking; Pancakes, maple syrup, whipped cream and vanilla milkshakes with scoops of icecream. It wasn’t until after the waitress had left that Sarah realized what she’d done.
“Oh, sorry!” she gasped, “I totally didn’t ask what you wanted or even let you read the menu after telling you how good everything was I just went ahead and ordered my usual for both of us when I don’t even know if you like vanilla milkshakes or not, and you know the usual is great, it really is, so that shouldn’t be a problem but it was still massively rude of me to completely ignore you like that and I hope you don’t think I’m a pushy pain in the butt or anything.”
Sarah had been looking down at the table risked a glance upward at her companion. Ryan was just sitting there, but he didn’t look annoyed or angry.
“Do you have a third lung?”
“What?” Sarah blurted out, caught completely by surprise.
Ryan was smiling at her now. Well she thought he was, it was kind of a small smile, hard to see. Wait, smiling?
“I just wondered, because of how long you can go without breathing,” he explained.
Sarah giggled. She couldn’t help it, even though she hated her high-pitched what-a-silly-little-girl-I-am-giggle.
But Ryan was still smiling, and Sarah didn’t think she was imagining that his smile was a tiny bit bigger than it had been a moment ago.
This was rapidly turning into the best day of her life.
“I know, I know, I talk a lot, and I swear I’m not usually this bad, I mean I have been known to let other people get a word in edgewise now and then, it’s just . . .”
I really want to say this right, Sarah thought. I know I’ve just met you Ryan, but I really think you’re going to be important to me.
And I really hope that’s not just my hormones talking.
“It’s just so nice to talk to someone real.”
Ryan raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her heartfelt declaration (Sarah had mentally dubbed it ‘the raised eyebrow of extreme hotness’) and she took that as permission to continue.
“I mean, you’re so much cooler than all the dumb jocks that infest Harbor, you know? Those losers prance around like they’re so special and hit on anything female that’s breathing, no, actually, I take that back, I think some of them would hit on a member of the opposite sex whether she was breathing or not.”
“Harbor?” Ryan asked, managing to get a word in edgewise when she stopped to take a breath. Oh, she’d been hogging the conversation again, hadn’t she? Doing the whole third lung thing. Oh well, Ryan didn’t seem to mind, actually, it looked kinda like he was smiling, just a little. Hey, she’d made a hot, nice guy smile! Again! And she didn’t think Ryan smiled much normally, it didn’t seem like he was used to doing it, so it was pretty cool that she could make him smile. Wait, hadn’t he just said something? Judging by the quizzical look on his face he was waiting for an answer . . . oh right, Harbor.
“Harbor’s the local high school, where all the rich snobby families send their spoilt brats to have their social prejudices reinforced.”
“Ah. So where do you go to school?”
Sarah grinned at him kind of wished she could control her facial expressions better, because she knew she had a big goofy stupid-looking grin that Summer Roberts said made her look like a bucktoothed idiot (not that she gave a damn what Summer-my-daddy’s-a-plastic-surgeon-nyah-nyah-Roberts’ thought, but still), but there was no helping it. He was hot and nice and funny. And he was really real, not just some imaginary super-boyfriend she’d invented for her graphic novel. She kept on wanting to reach out and poke him just to check that she really hadn’t imagined him, or hallucinated him after being bitten by some rare and exotic insect whose venom had weird side effects, but she was pretty sure that the poking would annoy him. And anyway, what if he actually went poof?
That would suck.
“Oh, well, I go to Harbor too, but I’m kind of an outcast there. It’s not like my shoes get peed in or anything, they just don’t want anything to do with me. Guys around here don’t really know how to deal with a girl who likes comic books and manga and emo music. Girls around here don’t either.”
Except for Taylor, Sarah thought, but no need to mention her best friend - her cute, curvy and not-exactly-inhibited friend - to Ryan. The girl could be awfully persistent when she saw something she wanted and Sarah was pretty sure she’d want Ryan within two seconds of meeting him.
It would probably be a lot less than two seconds.
Looking the way he did, Ryan must be used to girls throwing themselves at him, so she didn’t want to think about how he’d respond to Taylor.
Okay, that was not a happy thought. I’m going to back away from that thought very slowly and never go near it again.
While Sarah had been dwelling on how to run interference between the only friend she had in Newport and Mr ‘I’m-so-hot-my-clothes-may-spontaneously-combust-at-any-second’ (and wouldn’t that be a treat?) they’d just about finished breakfast.
Ryan had cleaned his plate, so she guessed that he’d liked what she ordered for him - go team Sarah! - and speaking of, if he ate that way all the time how come he looked like Greek sculpture come to life?
“Seriously, does your metabolism just automatically convert everything you eat into muscle?”
Oh god I said that out loud, didn’t I? Why did I have to be born without that little bit of my brain that everyone else seems to have that keeps my thoughts from coming straight out of my mouth without editing?
Sarah was trying to decide if she should fake amnesia or just commit hara-kari on the spot when Ryan hit her with another of his stealth smiles.
“Do you always say the first thing that comes into your head?”
Relief made her babble.
“I’m sorry, it’s just kind of the way I am. Taylor says it’s because ‘I’m overcompensating for a lack of functional social contact with my peers during the formative years of my development as an individual combined with the highly permissive child-rearing style endorsed by my parents’ but I think that if you’ve got something to say you should just go ahead and say it, right? There’s nothing sadder than a thought that never gets set free so it can run around in the world making little idea babies.”
Oh god, did I just say that? I did. I really did just say that.
“Who’s Taylor?”
Sarah was torn between her relief that Ryan was apparently going to ignore what she’d said about ‘little idea babies’ and panic at the subject that had distracted him.
Damn, damn, damn! Sarah thought to herself. Why did I have to mention her? Why did that have to be the one piece of my most recent rambling monologue he focused on? I think I’d be less horrified if he was asking me about ‘little idea babies’ right now. Hell, I’d be less horrified if he just wanted to know when they were sending me back to the asylum. Why do I do these things to myself?
“Taylor’s a friend, well my only friend really, she goes to Harbor too, she’s kind of a geek, like me, we sort of hang out together since she’s the only other person in Newport who isn’t-”
“The only other person in Newport who isn’t, like, normal,” interrupted a bitter high pitched voice that Sarah had learned years ago to hate.
She put her head in hands for a second, palms against her forehead, before summoning the courage to look up. She should have known that a shiny prize like Ryan would attract the Newport magpies.
“Hello, Holly.”
“Sarah,” Holly smirked, her voice as sweet as razor blades dipped in honey. “And who might this be?” she purred, leaning into the booth so that her breasts were right in Ryan’s face.
If she gets any closer she’s going to take an eye out with her nipples, Sarah thought, wishing she had the courage to actually say that. Summer Roberts was standing behind her, eyeing Ryan with predatory interest. Summer ruled the Newport social scene with an iron fist - no velvet glove required - and one of her favourite tactics was to let her army of bubblegum brain minions take all the risks. It was always someone else that got caught with the booze or the weed or the cute guy in his twenties. Sarah could see that she was going to see how the new guy in town reacted to Holly before deciding whether she would swoop in like a prada-clad bird of prey or scorn him like a leper.
Ryan leaned carefully back, eyeing Holly cautiously, his gaze flicking toward Sarah for a second as an indecipherable expression crossed his face before he turned back towards the girl Sarah had private dubbed 'Miss Pneumatic Bosom 2003'.
“You know what I like about rich girls?” he said, directing the comment towards Sarah even though he was looking straight at Holly.
“No, what?” she asked.
Not only are there butterflies in my stomach, but they've clearly been taking steroids, Sarah thought. Ryan didn't sound like he was about to pay Holly a compliment but she hardly dared to get her hopes up. Sure, they'd been having a good time together, as far as she could tell. In the end, though, guys like Ryan just didn't go for girls like Sarah.
She wasn't that lucky.
Then Ryan grinned at her.
“Nothing.”
Holly's indignant gasp and Summer's half-indignant, half-amused snort were just background noise as Ryan slid out of his seat and held his hand out to Sarah. He pulled her up and led her around Holly and Summer, pausing for a moment to look Holly up and down like she was something he’d just scraped off his shoe.
“Besides, I’m here with someone,” he said curtly.
Then he slipped behind Sarah, putting his hand in the small of her back and pushing just hard enough to set her rolling. The feel of his strong, warm palm against her skin where her T-shirt had ridden up and the rush of pleasure that came with it nearly made Sarah lose her balance, but she managed to grab the edge of a table and steady herself. Ryan was right behind her as she pulled up at the door and he stepped forward to hold it open for her, offering up a lazy wink as she bladed past him, Holly and Summer left standing open mouthed and silent (for once) in their wake.
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Sarah didn’t know what was going to happen to Ryan, if he was going to be around or get sent away or even how much trouble he was really in, but as they left the diner she couldn’t fight the feeling that everything was going to work out. The extraordinarily cute boy she’d met just a couple of hours ago was getting onto his bike behind her and a thought struck her as she began to roll lazily down the boardwalk.
Today is a day to play.
“Catch me if you can!” Sarah called out over her shoulder, before leaning forward and pushing off as hard as she could, pouring on the speed.
As she tore along the boardwalk, the pedals of Ryan’s bike whirring as he chased her, Sarah was sure of one thing.
This is meant to be.