Assumptions part 5
Title: Assumptions
Author: fredsmith518
Beta: none!
Rating:tame
Disclaimer: Nothing owned.
Summary: So, as you do, I was wandering through http://community.livejournal.com/oc_plotbunnies/profile looking for a post, which I found btw, and happened across this comment by dogsbody01 one thing lead to another and as I was doing serious cleaning on Saturday, this is what occurred to me… and then grew
Prompt Caleb says something really hurtful about Ryan, in front of both Kristen and him. Her response is to treat it as a joke, and Ryan wonders if he should start packing.
Back to Ryan’s pov…
Part 5
Ryan set off swiftly down the drive, the Newpsies barking laughter ringing in his red-tipped ears. He half thought he caught Kirsten’s voice raised over their cackling, but by that point he was too far away to be able to distinguish her words. He would have liked to know what she’d said, though. She hadn’t looked at all happy. He’d realized how acutely uncomfortable the hired help comment must have made her. For himself, he hadn’t been that bothered. When Caleb had made his comment a few weeks ago, he’d been stung, but at this point it seemed pretty much accurate. He gotten used to the idea that he was getting board and lodgings in return for work around the house. He could have done much worse. He knew that. He wasn’t resentful, that wasn’t his nature. How could he be when Mrs. Cohen had taken him in? He owed her. He should be grateful.
The ‘pretty’ tag had rankled a bit, but again not that much. It wasn’t as if it hadn’t been said before, by his mom’s friends when they were drunk ‘gonna be a heartbreaker, Dawnie’ ‘aw, he’s so cute, such pretty blue eyes’. Ryan had got into the habit of tuning such nonsense out.
No, the part that had hurt had been the implication that he was some sort of hand picked charity case, chosen for his looks like some puppy from the pound. Or, worse yet, a kid adopted into a high profile family for less than humanitarian reasons. Ryan knew that Mrs. Cohen hadn’t done that, left to herself she wouldn't have another kid in the house. He was there because of Sandy and Seth. But to have himself discussed as a, a hand picked poodle, left a very sour taste in his mouth. He thought again about his packed duffle bag. Was his wounded pride going to force him out onto the road? He still didn’t think so, because a very small part of brain, the logical centre of his thoughts knew damn well that he was a charity case and without the Cohens his immediate future loomed bleak. He needed to go to school to graduate. He wanted the opportunities they were offering - even if they came with added housework.
The one thought that really bugged Ryan, that his brain kept cycling back to, was why had Mrs. Cohen changed her mind and taken him in? He needed to know and couldn’t begin to feel settled until he found out. He needed to understand his place in the household, what was expected of him. He hated operating in an information vacuum. In his experience that only ever lead to trouble.
As Ryan drew out of the gated community, his attention was taken up by the rigours of riding through the Newport traffic and it wasn’t until he was pushing the bike up the pier and chaining it up outside the Crab Shack that he could give the problem a bit more attention. Negotiating the traffic had helped because it had given the logical part of his brain dominance and now he thought about his difficulties with understanding Mrs. Cohen again, it occurred to him immediately that asking Seth for his input could be a good plan. He did want to sort things out with Mrs. Cohen by himself and he knew that if he went running to Seth for help with his mother every time she confused him, he’d never learn to read her. But still, it couldn’t hurt to run his concerns by his friend. Ryan felt so out of his depth at times that he thought the Newpsies spoke a whole different language in the subtext. At least Seth had been navigating his way through it for most of his life.
Ryan’s shift was busy. A couple of times, he almost mis-stepped and nearly collided with other waiters. He caught the owner giving him a glare more than once. Ryan put all his concentration into his job, consequently by his break, he felt wrung out.
Choosing to leave the Shack for a breath of air, he wandered over to the railings and crossed his arms to lean out over the ocean. He’d have killed for a cigarette.
“Hey, man.” Seth.
“Hey.”
They tapped knuckles lightly, then Seth copied his posture alongside the railings. It wasn’t the first time Seth had sought him out during one of his breaks, so Ryan wasn't surprised to see him. On the previous occasions, Seth had needed urgent advice on his ongoing campaign for Summer to see him as something other than an annoyance. Seth seemed able to find all sorts of ways, real or imagined, to annoy the girl when Ryan wasn't around to reign in his more impulsive words and actions. Ryan’s lips turned up into his slow smile in anticipation of what Seth might share. He could do with the distraction. He put his own concerns onto the back burner and asked, “Everything okay?”
“Funnily, enough, Ryan, I came here to ask you that very same question.”
Ryan raised his brows quizzically, knowing Seth would take that as a cue to continue. And sure enough.
“Well here’s the thing. I’m gonna jump right in here, buddy. No build up. Brace yourself, Ryan. Since you came to live with us, life has been good. We’ve been hanging. Summer knows I exist. But lately, you seem to have been kinda busy. I missed you this morning, man.”
Ryan thought. He’d been supposed to meet Seth for lunch before starting his shift. He moved his weight from foot to foot uneasily. He couldn’t believe he’d let Seth down. However Seth was continuing, “I can see by your expression, I’ve gone at this all wrong. Ryan, I don’t mean this to be about me. That’s not it. I’m not looking for an apology, or an explanation. Okay, maybe an explanation, because you look. Oh, I can’t say this. Come on, man, help me out? Don’t make me say you look tired. Don’t make it sound like I noticed that!”
Seth shot him a quick look full of concern and then shifted his attention back out to the ocean. Ryan couldn’t help but be touched. Seth was looking out for him. The feeling was warm and familiar. Trey, despite all his bravado would have always called Ryan on it if he thought he looked below par. This was the perfect opportunity to get Seth’s opinion, so why was he hesitating? Natural caution, he figured.
“Ryan?” Seth nudged.
“Rosa left about a month ago?” Ryan felt encouraged to lay all his cards on the table.
“Yeah?” Seth sounded completely confused. “Oh, okay, you miss her because she reminded you of the Chino?” he hazarded.
“No, since she went, I’ve been trying to keep up with the chores for your mom.”
“Mom asked you to do Rosa’s work?” Confusion was replaced with incredulity.
“Well, no. I just got the impression she’d like it.”
“How?”
“Well, um, she always says thank you when I do stuff.”
“Not enough, my friend. Though, come to think of it, Mom has been dropping a lot more hints lately that I should do more about the house. I guess she was trying something similar with you and you were the only one who took her seriously.”
“Um,” Ryan squinted and thought about how much to reveal. “Your mom told your grandpa I was good to have around for chores.”
“Well you are, especially compared with me. That doesn’t mean she expects you to do all the stuff Rosa did. Look, I’m sure this is a complete misunderstanding. You want me to talk to her?”
“No! I mean, I need to talk to her, I get that. It’s just…” he trailed off.
“The Kirsten is scary.” Seth nodded sagely. “Think about my offer. I could be your moral support, your wingman. I’m all about the being there for you.” Seth grinned.
Ryan glanced down at his watch. His break was almost done. He couldn’t afford to be late back with all the minus points his clumsiness had resulted in already. He smiled at his friend. “Gotta go, catch you later.” Ryan moved off and then half turned back to add over his shoulder, “Seth? Thanks.”
Ryan got through the rest of his shift with no further incidents. Just talking to Seth made him feel a bit better. He could do this. Sort out what Kirsten’s expectations were about what chores he should be doing about the house.
The Shack busied up around the time his shift ended, consequently he was late riding home. When he arrived, the house was in darkness. Ryan heaved a sigh of relief. Some nights he had to wait for hours for the Cohens to retire to bed before he could start on his round of tasks. Tonight he could get straight to it and then collapse into bed - he loved that bed.
He let himself silently into the kitchen. As his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, he realized not a thing was out of place and also that Kirsten was sitting by the table nursing a mug. She put it down next to sheet of paper.
“Hey, Ryan.”
tbc
Author: fredsmith518
Beta: none!
Rating:tame
Disclaimer: Nothing owned.
Summary: So, as you do, I was wandering through http://community.livejournal.com/oc_plotbunnies/profile looking for a post, which I found btw, and happened across this comment by dogsbody01 one thing lead to another and as I was doing serious cleaning on Saturday, this is what occurred to me… and then grew
Prompt Caleb says something really hurtful about Ryan, in front of both Kristen and him. Her response is to treat it as a joke, and Ryan wonders if he should start packing.
Back to Ryan’s pov…
Part 5
Ryan set off swiftly down the drive, the Newpsies barking laughter ringing in his red-tipped ears. He half thought he caught Kirsten’s voice raised over their cackling, but by that point he was too far away to be able to distinguish her words. He would have liked to know what she’d said, though. She hadn’t looked at all happy. He’d realized how acutely uncomfortable the hired help comment must have made her. For himself, he hadn’t been that bothered. When Caleb had made his comment a few weeks ago, he’d been stung, but at this point it seemed pretty much accurate. He gotten used to the idea that he was getting board and lodgings in return for work around the house. He could have done much worse. He knew that. He wasn’t resentful, that wasn’t his nature. How could he be when Mrs. Cohen had taken him in? He owed her. He should be grateful.
The ‘pretty’ tag had rankled a bit, but again not that much. It wasn’t as if it hadn’t been said before, by his mom’s friends when they were drunk ‘gonna be a heartbreaker, Dawnie’ ‘aw, he’s so cute, such pretty blue eyes’. Ryan had got into the habit of tuning such nonsense out.
No, the part that had hurt had been the implication that he was some sort of hand picked charity case, chosen for his looks like some puppy from the pound. Or, worse yet, a kid adopted into a high profile family for less than humanitarian reasons. Ryan knew that Mrs. Cohen hadn’t done that, left to herself she wouldn't have another kid in the house. He was there because of Sandy and Seth. But to have himself discussed as a, a hand picked poodle, left a very sour taste in his mouth. He thought again about his packed duffle bag. Was his wounded pride going to force him out onto the road? He still didn’t think so, because a very small part of brain, the logical centre of his thoughts knew damn well that he was a charity case and without the Cohens his immediate future loomed bleak. He needed to go to school to graduate. He wanted the opportunities they were offering - even if they came with added housework.
The one thought that really bugged Ryan, that his brain kept cycling back to, was why had Mrs. Cohen changed her mind and taken him in? He needed to know and couldn’t begin to feel settled until he found out. He needed to understand his place in the household, what was expected of him. He hated operating in an information vacuum. In his experience that only ever lead to trouble.
As Ryan drew out of the gated community, his attention was taken up by the rigours of riding through the Newport traffic and it wasn’t until he was pushing the bike up the pier and chaining it up outside the Crab Shack that he could give the problem a bit more attention. Negotiating the traffic had helped because it had given the logical part of his brain dominance and now he thought about his difficulties with understanding Mrs. Cohen again, it occurred to him immediately that asking Seth for his input could be a good plan. He did want to sort things out with Mrs. Cohen by himself and he knew that if he went running to Seth for help with his mother every time she confused him, he’d never learn to read her. But still, it couldn’t hurt to run his concerns by his friend. Ryan felt so out of his depth at times that he thought the Newpsies spoke a whole different language in the subtext. At least Seth had been navigating his way through it for most of his life.
Ryan’s shift was busy. A couple of times, he almost mis-stepped and nearly collided with other waiters. He caught the owner giving him a glare more than once. Ryan put all his concentration into his job, consequently by his break, he felt wrung out.
Choosing to leave the Shack for a breath of air, he wandered over to the railings and crossed his arms to lean out over the ocean. He’d have killed for a cigarette.
“Hey, man.” Seth.
“Hey.”
They tapped knuckles lightly, then Seth copied his posture alongside the railings. It wasn’t the first time Seth had sought him out during one of his breaks, so Ryan wasn't surprised to see him. On the previous occasions, Seth had needed urgent advice on his ongoing campaign for Summer to see him as something other than an annoyance. Seth seemed able to find all sorts of ways, real or imagined, to annoy the girl when Ryan wasn't around to reign in his more impulsive words and actions. Ryan’s lips turned up into his slow smile in anticipation of what Seth might share. He could do with the distraction. He put his own concerns onto the back burner and asked, “Everything okay?”
“Funnily, enough, Ryan, I came here to ask you that very same question.”
Ryan raised his brows quizzically, knowing Seth would take that as a cue to continue. And sure enough.
“Well here’s the thing. I’m gonna jump right in here, buddy. No build up. Brace yourself, Ryan. Since you came to live with us, life has been good. We’ve been hanging. Summer knows I exist. But lately, you seem to have been kinda busy. I missed you this morning, man.”
Ryan thought. He’d been supposed to meet Seth for lunch before starting his shift. He moved his weight from foot to foot uneasily. He couldn’t believe he’d let Seth down. However Seth was continuing, “I can see by your expression, I’ve gone at this all wrong. Ryan, I don’t mean this to be about me. That’s not it. I’m not looking for an apology, or an explanation. Okay, maybe an explanation, because you look. Oh, I can’t say this. Come on, man, help me out? Don’t make me say you look tired. Don’t make it sound like I noticed that!”
Seth shot him a quick look full of concern and then shifted his attention back out to the ocean. Ryan couldn’t help but be touched. Seth was looking out for him. The feeling was warm and familiar. Trey, despite all his bravado would have always called Ryan on it if he thought he looked below par. This was the perfect opportunity to get Seth’s opinion, so why was he hesitating? Natural caution, he figured.
“Ryan?” Seth nudged.
“Rosa left about a month ago?” Ryan felt encouraged to lay all his cards on the table.
“Yeah?” Seth sounded completely confused. “Oh, okay, you miss her because she reminded you of the Chino?” he hazarded.
“No, since she went, I’ve been trying to keep up with the chores for your mom.”
“Mom asked you to do Rosa’s work?” Confusion was replaced with incredulity.
“Well, no. I just got the impression she’d like it.”
“How?”
“Well, um, she always says thank you when I do stuff.”
“Not enough, my friend. Though, come to think of it, Mom has been dropping a lot more hints lately that I should do more about the house. I guess she was trying something similar with you and you were the only one who took her seriously.”
“Um,” Ryan squinted and thought about how much to reveal. “Your mom told your grandpa I was good to have around for chores.”
“Well you are, especially compared with me. That doesn’t mean she expects you to do all the stuff Rosa did. Look, I’m sure this is a complete misunderstanding. You want me to talk to her?”
“No! I mean, I need to talk to her, I get that. It’s just…” he trailed off.
“The Kirsten is scary.” Seth nodded sagely. “Think about my offer. I could be your moral support, your wingman. I’m all about the being there for you.” Seth grinned.
Ryan glanced down at his watch. His break was almost done. He couldn’t afford to be late back with all the minus points his clumsiness had resulted in already. He smiled at his friend. “Gotta go, catch you later.” Ryan moved off and then half turned back to add over his shoulder, “Seth? Thanks.”
Ryan got through the rest of his shift with no further incidents. Just talking to Seth made him feel a bit better. He could do this. Sort out what Kirsten’s expectations were about what chores he should be doing about the house.
The Shack busied up around the time his shift ended, consequently he was late riding home. When he arrived, the house was in darkness. Ryan heaved a sigh of relief. Some nights he had to wait for hours for the Cohens to retire to bed before he could start on his round of tasks. Tonight he could get straight to it and then collapse into bed - he loved that bed.
He let himself silently into the kitchen. As his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, he realized not a thing was out of place and also that Kirsten was sitting by the table nursing a mug. She put it down next to sheet of paper.
“Hey, Ryan.”
tbc