The Girl and The Bodyguard II Chapter Four
Title; The Girl and The Bodyguard
Fandom; The O.C.
Pairing; Ryan/Summer. Hints of Luke/Taylor.
Rating; M
Warnings; Alternative Universe
Summary; After the disappearance of Marissa Cooper has everyone in Newport worried about the safety of their own children, Neil Roberts decides to hire a bodyguard to watch over his daughter, Summer Roberts. Summer instantly dislikes Ryan Atwood but that will soon change as the two begin to discover the truth about one another.
Author's Note; A longer chapter, things resolved and I don't know when I'll next be able to update since real life commences again!
Chapter Four
Summer tossed and turned for what felt like the millionth time, she’d had barely any sleep in the last week. Things between her and Ryan were tense to say the least. After their huge blow out, the two went their separate ways, the only time Summer saw him was when she was outside of the house. Even then there was no conversation between the two of them, just awkward silence.
Summer was incredibly upset by all the things he said but couldn’t help but think about what he had said, the way she had been portraying herself apparently. She wasn’t a slut, was she? So she made out with random guys when she was drunk at parties but that didn’t make her a slut, did it? She was never going to sleep with that jerk off but when she noticed Ryan being distracted by that girl, she took her chance to get out and away from his ever watching eyes.
She understood why Ryan was around, really she did but that didn’t mean that she liked it. She knew better than anyone how considerably dangerous Newport could be at this moment in time if Marissa had been kidnapped by someone, the girl was her best friend! No one could understand how much she missed Marissa except for her family of course. Neither Seth nor Taylor was as close to Marissa as she was. They’d been best friends since pre-school, Marissa totally stole her style on the first day - she was not impressed.
Taylor was always fighting with Marissa over balloons or cotton candy stalls and Seth was always insisting that he was way more into punk than Marissa was, neither of them were as close as what she and Marissa were. He was quite boring to be around them when they got into these debates but right now, Summer would give anything to even sit through one of those dull chats. To debate with her and Taylor about whether the prom should be 90’s themed or disco, to tell her all about how Holly had nearly got with their English Lit teacher one night and then just laugh and giggle about how gross that is!
Was her best friend ever coming back?
One thing was for sure, Summer really needed to sort things between her and Ryan out. There was a burning passion inside of her that was so desperate for him to know all about Marissa and how aware she was of the danger but she didn’t want his pity. Poor little rich girl lost her best friend as well as her mom now. That was another thing, she sensed that Ryan had a pretty bad upbringing though she wasn’t sure what. She may have had all sorts of leniency and luxuries growing up but she would give all that up in a heartbeat if it meant her mom stuck around instead. Lord knows it would mean the Step-Monster would have never come barging her way in.
Summer headed to her closet, staring at her clothes as if that would help her figure out what to do today and how to sort out all her problems. Especially that big one with the bodyguard. No doubt he was in the gym again. She wasn’t sure the guy ever slept. She grabbed a blue maxi dress that was hanging up, she quite fancied going to the beach but with Taylor and Luke in France it only really left her with Seth who had been hanging out with some random he met in The Bait Shop the other week. She didn’t quite fancy hanging with Holly and that in this mood either.
Was it lame for a girl to head to the beach on her own? Though she supposed she would have Ryan there and maybe if she could convince him to wear something other than a suit, people might think she wasn’t such a loner. Summer could read a book or text someone and Ryan could do his broody staring thing that he seemed to enjoy so much, so they wouldn’t even be required to talk! It sounded like a plan to her.
Summer found him exactly where she thought she would, Atwood was running away on the treadmill, Summer hung back for a while, he hadn’t noticed her yet and she wasn’t sure how to approach him. This would be the first conversation they would have had since that night. What was wrong with her? She was never this shy with people, especially guys. Grow some balls, Roberts!
Before she could think about backing out and deciding that the pool in the backyard would be perfectly suffice, Summer stepped out. Ryan still hadn’t noticed her, he was too busy running at a ridiculous speed, or so Summer thought. She caught her breath as she took in his toned arms. The man was really rather cute when he was concentrating, his face was all scrunched up and his breathing heavy. He was wearing gym top so she wasn’t sure what his body looked like but Summer was sure that her imagination would be able to think of something equally as hot to the real thing. Though she wasn’t completely convinced she would be able to give it justice.
She had been slowly making her way towards Ryan and was so intensely looking at the man, she hadn’t even realised that she was incapable of walking in a straight line until she crashed into some gym equipment.
“Ow!” The pain was shocking as she nearly knocked the whole bloody thing over. One thing was for sure, she certainly had Ryan’s attention now. Ryan came rushing over. He was so lost in his training he hadn’t even noticed her come in, that makes a change, Ryan thought. He always noticed when Summer was around.
“Are you okay?” He asked, still breathing heavily from his training. He had hold of Summer’s arm as that was the body part she was clutching the most. He gently rubbed his hand over her arm as if to soothe the pain, though he wasn’t sure he was being much help given that he was so sweaty. Summer shuddered at his touch. She hastily pulled her arm away.
She doesn’t want to be touched by me…are you kidding? After all the things you said to her? How are you even surprised? You were an ass.
“Erm, I was wondering if you would like to come to the beach with me?” Ryan gave her quizzical look. That was kind of the whole deal with the bodyguard thing, he went wherever she went. Summer noticed the slight pause and his confused look. She rolled her eyes. “Well obviously you have to come with me, what I mean is would you liked to come and just lay out in the sun with me. At the beach. And just relax?”
Ryan nodded slowly. So she was inviting him even though he had to go along anyway? This made no sense but since he didn’t have much choice in the matter, he nodded and said sure anyway.
“You okay to let me grab a shower first? I’ll be quick.”
“Oh sure, no doubt you stink anyway.” She let out a slight giggle though immediately regretted it, the guy hated her enough as it was, now she was insulting his smell. Truth was, Summer couldn’t smell him though she was pretty sure if she was close enough to him to smell she wouldn’t be able to control herself. To her surprise, Ryan let out a chuckle and sniffed himself.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll be right back.” Summer turned as she watched him leave the room, how was it that the guy was still so nice to her and charming? After the brat that she had been since he got here. After the trouble and stress she had put him through at the party. The things she said, the things he said and yet he was still here, still being weirdly nice to her. He was so sweet. She was starting to realise that maybe Ryan Atwood was one of a kind.
--
Twenty minutes later, Ryan appeared in the kitchen. Summer was just grabbing a quick bite to eat as she waited for him.
“Wow. You’re done already. You really were fast.” Ryan laughed, grabbing a drink from the fridge.
“Yeah that’s because I don’t spend hours putting ridiculous amounts of cream all over myself and stressing out about whether to blow dry my hair or not!” Ryan looked at her with a pointed look on his face, grinning. He really wished he hadn’t talked about her putting cream on herself after a shower, now he had all sorts of images he couldn’t get rid of.
Summer giggled and murmured something along the lines of ‘shut it, Atwood’. Was he teasing her? Ryan Atwood relaxed, laidback and teasing her, Summer Roberts. It felt weird but Summer liked it. Liked this side of him, he really was adorable when he laughed. She noticed he was clad in one of his many, many suits. Seriously, she hated to have to see what was in his closet. As if there would be anything else. She didn’t want to be a bitch about this, especially not after they seemed to be getting along so well.
“Ryan.”
“Hmm?” He looked up after taking a sip.
“You’re wearing a suit. “ Summer blandly said. Hoping he would get the message without her having to resort to trademark bitchy comments. Ryan nodded, not quite getting the point. Of course he was wearing a suit. He always wore a suit. Summer raised her right eyebrow and did a little twirl in her maxi dress. “We’re going to the beach.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Oh.” Ryan looked slightly sheepish. She wanted him to change. Into something other than a suit. Hmmm. He didn’t like the idea of looking so unprofessional but he supposed he was supposed to be making this as normal as he could for Summer, the suits didn’t exactly scream casual. “I’ll change.”
--
It hadn’t taken long for Ryan to appear again, he was wearing jeans - not the best beach attire but she didn’t want to push him any further than she already had. He hadn’t put up a fight about the suit like he normally would and she didn’t want to take advantage of him being accommodating. He was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt that showed of his toned arms and Summer was getting an excellent view again, just like in the gym earlier.
The drive over was silent, neither of them seemed to know what to say and neither of them wanted to ruin the atmosphere when they had gotten on so well back in the house. They found a good spot on the beach, far away from the water so that it didn’t get close to them and far enough away from everyone so no one would be listening in. Summer laid her towel down on the sand and grabbed some cans of Pepsi, throwing one to Ryan. He murmured appreciatively.
An hour had passed by the time Summer felt she had tanned her stomach enough to lie on her front to equally tan her back. She looked up at Ryan who was flipping through some magazine about cars. She hadn’t had him down as car person but then she didn’t really know him all that well anyway. No, she just judged him all the time and made his job a lot more difficult. She didn’t suppose watching over an eighteen year old girl was such a delight to him either and yet he had never made her feel that way. Well except for that night of course. Summer realised that if there was ever a time to apologise, now was the time to do it.
She sat up, grabbed another can and tapped him on the arm with it, offering it to him. Ryan sat up, joining her and gratefully took it. The sound of the two opening the can was all that could be heard until Summer finally got the courage to speak up.
“I’m sorry.” She blurted, not looking at him but finding the sand all of a sudden very interesting. Ryan gulped and stared at her. He wasn’t expecting her to apologise. Heck, he wasn’t expecting an apology out of her at all, if anyone needed to apologise, it was him. She turned to look at him, slightly squinting because of the sun. “For everything. For being such a bitch to you when you got here.”
“Summer-“ He tried to cut her off. Sure, she hadn’t been all that pleasant but bitch was too strong to describe her despite everything he had said to her the other night.
“No. I was horrible and rude to you every chance I got and you never were like that to me. You continued to being nice to me despite the way that I was to you. I’m sorry for what I did at the party.” There was something that came over Ryan, all he wanted to do was pull the young woman into his arm and hold her, soothe her. Summer had this guilty look on her face that he just wanted to wipe clean off.
“Summer, please don’t. I’m so sorry for all those things I said. You didn’t deserve it and they weren’t true and I am just so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am.” There was a moment of silence as the two looked at one another, a small smile on their lips. Neither sure what to say next. The pair of them had just said what they had wanted to all week long. Summer hadn’t felt this content in a really long time. Since before Marissa went missing. She smiled playfully and touched his arm.
“I’ll accept you’re apology if you accept mine?” She grinned though slightly faltering, a part of her still wondering if he was going to accept it despite apologising himself. Ryan grinned.
“Of course.”
Unlike so many times before, especially the last week, the silence that fell between them was a nice, peaceful one. Summer glanced at Ryan. His face was chiselled, a slight bump in his nose that only seemed to make him even more gorgeous in her eyes. So, she had always been well aware of how hot he was but she had never taken the time to really appreciate how handsome the man was. Ryan noticed that she was staring as he looked up to meet her stare, Summer blushed. She’s so cute. It wasn’t the first time he had thought something like that, that was the PG version of what he usually thought about Summer.
“You know…” Summer began, breaking their silence, it was time that Ryan knew her, maybe have a chance at understanding her. Whatever it was, she wanted someone to talk to and something told her that Ryan would be a good listener. Ryan watched her carefully; whatever it was that she wanted to say seemed to be difficult for her. “Marissa. The girl who went missing.” Summer clarified and Ryan nodded, aware of the name. Summer cocked her head to the side, her eyes still on him. “She was my best friend.”
He felt the wind knocked out on him. He hadn’t expected that. Hadn’t known that. Ryan felt more guilt fill him; he’d accused her of not being able to understand what the missing girl’s family was going through when all along it was her own best friend that had gone missing.
“Summer, I had no idea-“
“I know. I know that. I just…I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to tell you.” Summer’s eyes began to fill up, though she hadn’t said much about Marissa at all, this was the most she had said about her disappearance to anyone who wasn’t Taylor or Seth. “One minute she was here, the next she was gone. I don’t know where she is. Its so weird, you know? I have her number in my phone but I can’t call it because I know there won’t be an answer…” Summer wiped a tear away that had dared to fall. She didn’t want to cry. At least not so publicly, crying was saved for the privacy of her bedroom only.
Ryan slipped one arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, her head resting on his shoulder and she cried quietly, desperate to hide it. He wasn’t sure if this was acceptable for her or anyone else but he didn’t care, he just wanted to something - anything - that would make her feel better.
“Hey…” Ryan lifted her head of his shoulder, one hand gently cupping her cheek, the other wiping away her tears. “She will come back and you will see her again. I know it.” He smiled genuinely; he didn’t want to see her cry. Never.
Summer smiled and sat up, wiping her face and taking a couple of deep breaths. He didn’t know what was going to happen and yet she still instantly felt better despite it all.
Who knew, Ryan Atwood really was one of a kind.