The Boy From Chino (The OC; Ryan/Kirsten)
TITLE: The Boy From Chino
PROLOGUE: The Figments
FANDOM: The OC
PAIRING: Ryan/Kirsten
SPOILERS: Season 1 (AU)
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: In a way, he was glad that he hadn’t moved to Newport.
*****
In a way, he was glad that he hadn’t moved to Newport. His brief stint there had been like living on another planet. There was so much excess and extravagance. The girls were superficial, the guys were idiotic jocks, and the wives were borderline Stepford. Even his brief incarceration seemed humdrum after his time in Orange County.
Luckily, the Cohens hadn’t pressed charges. Well... Mrs. Cohen, specifically. Kirsten, the Queen of the Manor. After a few days, they released him and to his surprise, his mother had shown up, shedding tears of remorse and calling him her baby. Ryan had been too stunned at the time to ask why she had all but abandoned him just weeks before and suddenly she was ready to play the rescuer.
She had turned over a new leaf. Or so she had said, but Ryan didn’t believe it at the time. She had ditched the abusive boyfriend and, apparently, the alcohol that went along with him.
The first few weeks he lived with her again had been awkward, a little fraught with tension as Ryan kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and Dawn became exasperated by her son’s low expectations. But after awhile, things had smoothed over. They had re-learned how to deal with one another, and were actually able to develop a very amicable relationship.
Dawn worked hard seven days a week, building up her life again. There was the occasional bad influence in the form of a new boyfriend, but those relationships often ended as quickly as they had begun, for which Ryan was thankful. Trey was released from prison a year later and the three of them were a family again.
Once Trey was out, he began to help Dawn form plans to buy the bar she was currently managing. Ryan, only sixteen at the time, had helped with stock and cleanup, but other than that it had been Trey and Dawn’s undertaking. He had been skeptical of his mother owning a bar as a recovering alcoholic, but she never faltered. Never even had a brief backslide into her old habits.
And now at the age of 21, Ryan was the favored bartender. His smile drew in the pretty college girls, his laid-back nature posed no threat to the young men trying to get the attention of the college girls, and his listening skills made him the perfect ear to bend for the older, weathered patrons.
He had made a life for himself in Chino. And only once in awhile did his brief stint in Newport cross his mind, seeming like a far-off dream. The people he met once upon a time, were now just figments of his imagination.
So he was hardly prepared for one of those figments from that dream-world to come crashing back into his life in full, technicolor reality.
“Hey Ry.” His mother beckoned his attention as he was drying some of the glassware.
“Hmm?” He glanced up, slinging the towel over his shoulder, finding Dawn’s eyes focused on something or someone at the other end of the bar.
She gestured with her chin. “I think that lady at the end there has had enough. Can you do the honors this time?”
He rolled his eyes, but smiled patiently. “Of course.”
Dawn hated cutting off a patron’s supply. And, she never enjoyed dealing with surly drunks. So, it often fell to Ryan.
He headed toward the end of the bar, trying to spot the woman his mother had indicated over the sea of faces -- their usual Friday night crowd.
Then he saw her, and time seemed to slow for a moment. That far-off dream was inserting itself into his waking life -- particularly, the one piece of the dream he never could quite forget:
Kirsten Cohen.
TBC
{x-posted to rystenlove}
PROLOGUE: The Figments
FANDOM: The OC
PAIRING: Ryan/Kirsten
SPOILERS: Season 1 (AU)
RATING: PG
SUMMARY: In a way, he was glad that he hadn’t moved to Newport.
*****
In a way, he was glad that he hadn’t moved to Newport. His brief stint there had been like living on another planet. There was so much excess and extravagance. The girls were superficial, the guys were idiotic jocks, and the wives were borderline Stepford. Even his brief incarceration seemed humdrum after his time in Orange County.
Luckily, the Cohens hadn’t pressed charges. Well... Mrs. Cohen, specifically. Kirsten, the Queen of the Manor. After a few days, they released him and to his surprise, his mother had shown up, shedding tears of remorse and calling him her baby. Ryan had been too stunned at the time to ask why she had all but abandoned him just weeks before and suddenly she was ready to play the rescuer.
She had turned over a new leaf. Or so she had said, but Ryan didn’t believe it at the time. She had ditched the abusive boyfriend and, apparently, the alcohol that went along with him.
The first few weeks he lived with her again had been awkward, a little fraught with tension as Ryan kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and Dawn became exasperated by her son’s low expectations. But after awhile, things had smoothed over. They had re-learned how to deal with one another, and were actually able to develop a very amicable relationship.
Dawn worked hard seven days a week, building up her life again. There was the occasional bad influence in the form of a new boyfriend, but those relationships often ended as quickly as they had begun, for which Ryan was thankful. Trey was released from prison a year later and the three of them were a family again.
Once Trey was out, he began to help Dawn form plans to buy the bar she was currently managing. Ryan, only sixteen at the time, had helped with stock and cleanup, but other than that it had been Trey and Dawn’s undertaking. He had been skeptical of his mother owning a bar as a recovering alcoholic, but she never faltered. Never even had a brief backslide into her old habits.
And now at the age of 21, Ryan was the favored bartender. His smile drew in the pretty college girls, his laid-back nature posed no threat to the young men trying to get the attention of the college girls, and his listening skills made him the perfect ear to bend for the older, weathered patrons.
He had made a life for himself in Chino. And only once in awhile did his brief stint in Newport cross his mind, seeming like a far-off dream. The people he met once upon a time, were now just figments of his imagination.
So he was hardly prepared for one of those figments from that dream-world to come crashing back into his life in full, technicolor reality.
“Hey Ry.” His mother beckoned his attention as he was drying some of the glassware.
“Hmm?” He glanced up, slinging the towel over his shoulder, finding Dawn’s eyes focused on something or someone at the other end of the bar.
She gestured with her chin. “I think that lady at the end there has had enough. Can you do the honors this time?”
He rolled his eyes, but smiled patiently. “Of course.”
Dawn hated cutting off a patron’s supply. And, she never enjoyed dealing with surly drunks. So, it often fell to Ryan.
He headed toward the end of the bar, trying to spot the woman his mother had indicated over the sea of faces -- their usual Friday night crowd.
Then he saw her, and time seemed to slow for a moment. That far-off dream was inserting itself into his waking life -- particularly, the one piece of the dream he never could quite forget:
Kirsten Cohen.
TBC
{x-posted to rystenlove}