A Whole New World - Part 2
This story is based on a prompt another author left on her page as something she wanted to see but wouldn’t write herself. No one else picked it up so I figured I’d give it a try to see what I could do. I’m kinda new at this and admit that the actual writing part is so much more challenging that I though it would be. Have all these thoughts floating around but getting them organized into a coherent story is a lot harder than I expected. So here’s what I’ve come up with so far as Part II. If I can figure out how to fill in some of the blanks this should be 4 or maybe 5 parts total although god knows when I’ll get to it ….
Part 1 - Here
Ryan can’t believe his luck. He gets out of Juvie thanks to Kirsten and then ends up being able to stay with the Cohens once his mother abandons him again after that horrible Casino Night. The thing is now that he’s here for a while he’s going to have to figure out how to handle Marissa. She’s made it pretty clear she wants to be his boyfriend but he’s not interested. This isn’t Chino and he doesn’t have to bed every girl who makes a pass at him, at least he hopes not.
Cotillion ends up being another weird but interesting Newport party. Originally he gets paired up with Anna, a new girl from Philadelphia. They seem to hit it off as possible friends and no sexual innuendo at all which is something new for him. Its obvious that Anna is interested in Seth and since his obsession over Summer is going nowhere maybe he can help his friend out and hook up the two of them. Of course the party ends up in the usual way with him in a fight, but at least Sandy and Kirsten gave him a pass this time because he was defending Marissa’s dad.
The rest of the summer goes great with a few exceptions. Ryan was trying to avoid complications but they had a way of happening no matter what he did. He’s still dodging Marissa as much as possible. Because they are neighbors and are going to be classmates once school starts he can’t completely avoid her but he does his best to keep the relationship at the friendship level. Marissa’s always trying to get him alone and more intimate but between Luke and the fact that her mother hates him he’s been able to prevent anything from happening. But ever since Marissa caught Luke cheating on her in TJ they are no longer together so it’s getting a lot tougher.
The Cohens let him get a job at the Crab Shack for the summer which resulted in him meeting Donnie. He’s still not sure why he agreed to go out with Donnie that first night but he quickly realized that the Long Beach party scene was no different than the Chino party scene and he really wasn’t interested so he ditched Donnie using Marissa as an excuse. It doesn’t look like Marissa is going to give up and he’s used to playing the dating game and figures its safer to be with Marissa than Donnie. Talk about the lesser of two evils. But Seth, being Seth decided to invite Donnie to a beach party resulting in Luke being shot. The only good thing about the incident is that Marissa seems to have started to forgive Luke and stays with him at the hospital.
As the summer wears on Kirsten tries to spend more time at home now that she has two boys to look after. Caleb doesn’t make is easy but she manages to arrange to work at home most afternoons so she can keep an eye on things and make sure that Ryan is fitting in. One thing she’s been surprised at is how Ryan handles Marissa. It’s obvious to her that Marissa is interested in Ryan and she had assumed that she would have to be putting her foot down when it comes to Ryan’s sexual activities. She has no doubts that his old life provided any number of opportunities for quick and easy sex and she had assumed that she would be working overtime to prevent them being together since Marissa was so obviously pushing for it. Kirsten has been doing her best to pay attention to the signs and was ready to step in to stop things and have a talk with Ryan at the appropriate time. However Ryan’s been a perfect gentleman when it comes to Marissa. In fact based on everything she’s seen the subtle signs show that he’s not interested in her in that way at all so she’s able to put that worry behind her, for now at least.
School starts and things get real interesting for Ryan. Since Anna’s interested in Seth he’s got a female friend that’s not trying to hit on him and that’s a whole new experience for him. Seth and Anna are in a couple of his classes which is really cool and while he can tell that he’s the subject of gossip, for the most part things don’t seem awful. There are a number of jerks who try and put him down for not being one of them but for the most part he doesn’t seem to stick out that much. He’s always been good at trying to stay on the edges looking like he fits in to the crowd without actually being part of the crowd so this is nothing new.
One of his biggest complications is Seth who won’t stop trying to get Ryan and Marissa together. Every time he thinks he’s been able to put Marissa out of relationship thinking Seth pushes them back together. He thinks that Marissa and Ryan should be together. The fact that Summer is Marissa’s best friend has a lot to do with it. He’s hoping the closer that Marissa gets to Ryan the more that Summer will be around. That along with the obvious expectation that since Ryan is from Chino he’s experienced and should be all over Marissa since she’s a hot chick and she wants him. Ryan’s just wishing that Seth would get over Summer and get with Anna so that he could stay away from Marissa.
“So, have you two done the dirty deed yet” Seth asks Ryan as they are heading up the stairs at school.
Ryan just gives him one of his glares that says “lay off me man”
“Well, you know I just assume since Marissa is obviously so in to you and you know it’s not like your new at this…. You have haven’t you….I mean your from Chino so you have to be experienced.”
Again, no words just a glare in return which Seth reads as “Yeah I’ve done it before, what do you think”
“Ok…so you’re really experienced right. You can give me some pointers right. I definitely need pointers when it comes to picking up girls. So how many times have you done it?”
Ryan doesn’t know how to respond to that question. Yeah, he’s had sex with girls but only the ones who come on to him. He’s never really tried all that hard to get a girl into bed with him. He flirts with them because he’s covering himself but he’s never talked a girl into it who wasn’t after him to begin with. But then there are the guys. He’d only managed to fool around with 2 guys. The first guy came on to him and that was a pretty crazy situation, not to mention eye opening. But he was the one to see the connection with Brian and he actually was the aggressor in that situation. Thinking about it, the flirting thing wasn’t that different than with the girls, he just took it a lot further until he ended up doing the deed. While this is going though his mind he’s trying to decide how he should respond. If he was to answer Seth’s real question as to giving him pointers on picking up girls he’d be pretty disappointed…”
“Oh wow, that many, you’re my hero” Seth interrupts interpreting Ryan’s look as “too many to count” so Ryan drops the conversation at that hoping Seth will move on to another topic which he does because Seth just can’t not fill the quiet with words. Ryan appreciates this about Seth, not for the first time.
Seth runs into Marissa at lunch and takes the opportunity to invite himself and Ryan to hang out with her and Summer at the Kick-Off carnival that evening. He knows Marissa is into Ryan and figures he’s doing his new brother a favor by fixing them up on a pseudo date. Of course there’s the fact that where Marissa goes, Summer generally goes, so this will give him another chance with Summer.
When he gets home he tells Ryan about the carnival and the fact that they will be hanging out with Marissa and Summer. Not wanting the carnival to look like a double date Ryan invites Anna so it becomes more of a group thing than a double date. Anna just got back from her summer trip to Tahiti and he hasn’t had a chance to spend that much time with her since Cotillion so he figures this is a good opportunity to spend some time with her and maybe he can help get Anna and Seth together.
He and Seth are with Anna throwing rings at bottles when Marissa and Summer appear.
“Oh hi, you remember Anna, from Cotillion, she’s new, figured she could hang with us” Ryan tells the group.
Things are a little awkward at first with the various tensions in the group. Anna likes Seth, Seth likes Summer, Summer seems to be warming up to Seth, Marissa likes Ryan and Ryan wants none of them. Ryan’s looking around and sees this cute guy heading their way. Actually he reminds him of Seth in a lot of ways only much more athletic and definitely sexier. He notices Anna in the group as he’s walking by and stops to say Hi to her.
“Hi Tyler hows it going?” asks Anna. I assume you know most everyone here since you’ve all been going to school for years. This is Ryan he’s new this year too.” Turning to the group “Tyler and I met at one of my parents dinners. Our dad’s have some business thing going on”
Tyler says Hi and they recognize each other from some classes they share. He’s going to meet some friends from the Soccer team which leads to him talking to Ryan about trying out for the team. After a little more small talk Tyler takes off with Anna noticing Ryan watching him leave and something clicks in her mind.
“So …. I see now why I never had a chance with you” she says with a smile speaking softly so the others don’t hear her.
Not having a clue how to respond he gives her a glare. Ryan’s ready to kick himself. He’s never been caught out before. Is he getting too soft here? Is he giving off “gay” vibes? What the hell is he going to do? Ryan’s head is spinning as Anna continues to look between him and glancing towards Tyler’s back as he’s been walking away with that knowing smirk.
Finally he figures “Shit, she knows anyway so there’s nothing I can do about it” so then to Anna “Ok .. Yeah .. Is this going to be a problem?” he asks.
“Of course not silly boy. I’ve always wanted to be a fag hag” she whispers to him and gives him a conspiritual wink as he lets go of the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding on to.
“Maybe this isn’t so bad” he thinks to himself as he punches her lightly in the arm and whispers back to her “Sorry your out of luck, no fags here…. But yeah he’s kinda hot, isn’t he?” he admits to her.
After the uncomfortable start the five of them end up enjoying themselves going on the various rides and playing the carnival games. Ryan does pretty well with the games and ends up with a number of plushy toys which he’s been giving to the girls. Each of the girls are carrying a fairly large toy when Luke and a couple of his buddies cross their path. Ryan sees him coming and steels himself for another confrontation as the two groups stop to say hi. He sees Luke looking at the girls and he can tell that Luke is jealous. He can tell that Luke is looking at the big teddy that Marissa is holding on to and he just knows that Luke is thinking that Ryan won it for her in order to impress her.
“Crap, he thinks. I’m just digging the hole deeper” although he sees Luke mentally back down after a second. He figures out that Luke realizes that Marissa is still pretty pissed at him and if he makes a big deal out of it he’s just going to push her further away so he gives Ryan a dirty look and says good bye as the two groups separate.
All in all not a bad start to the school year Ryan thinks as he makes it home. No fights and Anna figured out my big secret and the world has not imploded. This is something new for him and he’s learning to like it.
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