The New Girlfriend (OCSFC)
Written for: smc36 :) I hope you like it!
Seth didn’t think much of it when Ryan declined to play Playstation one Thursday evening. Ryan had mumbled something about a phone call and, while Ryan rarely spent much time on the phone…voluntarily, anyway…Seth shrugged his shoulders and figured maybe afterward. He teased Ryan about having a secret new lady-friend and Ryan reddened a little, ignored him. Ryan stayed in the poolhouse for the rest of the evening and Seth never got around to going in after him.
The next time Ryan blew him off happened to be exactly a week later, and this time Seth noticed Ryan checking his watch repeatedly during dinner. He only stopped after Sandy called him on it - gently chiding him… “Are we keeping you?”
Again, directly after dinner Ryan excused himself to go to the poolhouse. Alone.
Though Seth wouldn’t consider it spying, per say, all he could see through all the glass was Ryan lying back on his bed, phone pressed against his face. And that this began at 7:00 and ended at 7:20.
“I think he has a new girlfriend,” Seth told his dad later. He had to monitor his voice; he didn’t want to sound jealous.
“You don’t know? I thought you boys discussed everything.”
“I do much of the talking,” Seth admitted, realizing that he didn’t have a good handle on Ryan’s personal life at all right now.
The third Thursday Seth, prepared for another lonely night, decided to do a little sleuthing. He knew that Ryan typically left several of the poolhouse windows cracked - something about all that glass being ‘a little incarcerating’ - and it was beneath one of these windows that Seth posted himself. Sure enough, he could hear Ryan on the phone. It was already 7:15 because Seth had had trouble finding his black turtleneck, and sleuthing was fairly pointless without the proper attire.
Seth leaned his back against the poolhouse wall and cocked his ear toward the window. He heard Ryan laughing, saying, “Yeah, I remember that.” Seth immediately felt a pang of jealousy. There was openness in Ryan’s tone - a lightness that didn’t often surface. In only a few words Ryan proved that whoever was on the other end of the phone was someone Ryan cared for deeply.
“I want to come see you. But it would…it wouldn’t be easy to get away.”
Seth suddenly felt stupid sitting there, eavesdropping. He wished that he could respect Ryan’s privacy - wasn’t privacy something that Ryan should have? - but he too much felt like Ryan was his. His friend. His confidante. It was incidental that Ryan rarely happened to confide back.
“I’ll try to make it work.”
Another pang of guilt. Okay, enough. Seth began to crawl away from the poolhouse, panicking just a bit at the thought of Ryan catching him out here. Because that? Would not go over well.
“I love you, too,” Ryan said into the phone. Seth froze, his eyes wide. In a burst of movement he half-fast-crawled, half-rolled back into the main house.
“Love!?” he said aloud once in the kitchen. He popped to his feet awkwardly.
“Aww, Son,” Sandy said from the kitchen table. Seth looked over, surprised that he wasn’t alone. His dad was reading the newspaper, a cup of coffee in front of him. “I love you, too.”
“No offense, Dad, but it’s Ryan. Apparently his girlfriend is more serious than I suspected.”
“You’d better not be spying,” Sandy said, straightening the section of paper he was skimming. He narrowed his eyes at his son, letting his gaze rest meaningfully on Seth’s black turtleneck. “I don’t think Ryan would like that.”
“He knows everything about me!”
“That’s your choice. And now that you mention it, you should probably reel it back once in a while. You do tend to go on.”
“Hey,” Ryan said, coming into the kitchen. He got himself a cup of coffee and took a hesitant sip, testing the heat.
“Hi,” Seth raised a hand in greeting. “How are you, Ryan? Anything new? Any new…friendships…you want to talk about?” he prattled on nervously, “We haven’t really talked in a while. You know?” He waved his hands around in a swirly all-encompassing gesture. “Talked.”
“Apparently,” Ryan said, nodding at Seth’s clothes. “You have a stealth maneuver planned? You didn’t give me the game plan.”
“Ha,” Seth said too loudly. “I’m so predictable. Right? Maybe I’m wearing this because I was cold. Geez.” Seth whirled around to leave, stomped up to his room.
“’Kay,” Ryan said slowly. Once Seth was out of earshot Ryan pointed in the direction Seth had gone. “He all right?”
“He’s my son,” Sandy sighed. He went back to reading the paper.
“Huh,” Ryan nodded his head, shrugged his shoulders a little and went back to the poolhouse.
The next week Seth changed his approach again. He needed to know whether Ryan’s new girlfriend was someone Seth knew. He knew it was sinking even lower than last week’s eavesdropping but…but Ryan had used the word love. It was just so…not Ryan. Seth ignored his shame and, at 7:05 on Thursday evening, he picked up the phone in his dad’s office and cut in to Line 3, which he knew to be the poolhouse line.
“I think I have it worked out,” he heard Ryan saying. “I took off on Saturday so I should be able to come visit.”
“That would be great,” a man’s voice answered.
“Shit!” Seth hissed, unable to stop himself. He dropped the phone, hot potato-style, picked it up and slammed it home on the base.
So much for his covert operation.
“Oh my god oh my god oh my god,” Seth muttered. He backed away from the phone as if the phone itself was the problem - was the betrayal. Jerking himself into action he scrambled away, taking the stairs two at a time. He closed himself in his bedroom and paced like a caged animal.
“Ryan?” he asked himself. “Ryan!? With a dude?” Seth shook his head, stunned. Positively stunned.
“Ryan with a dude. Ryan with a…? No,” Seth kept shaking his head. “No, there’s got to be some other…. Ryan? Our Ryan?”
“Seth?”
“Yeah, Dad?” Seth called back.
“Can I come in?”
“Um. Yeah,” Seth blushed as his father came into the room. He felt like he was the guilty one, like he was the one with a big…BIG secret. Oh god how was he going to explain this to his dad?
“What’s going on? I heard you tearing through the house. Is everything all right?”
“Dad, you love Ryan, right? I mean, you love him like he’s your own son.”
“Of course I do,” Sandy said, almost sternly. “Why? Is Ryan all right? Is there something wrong?”
“Well, I mean, I wouldn’t call it ‘wrong’ but I’m from a more liberal generation than you are. The thing is, as long as a person is healthy and happy that’s all that matters, right?”
“What are you getting at, son?” The tone of Sandy’s voice made Seth look him in the eyes, something he was uncomfortable doing during this particular conversation. Seth was trying to ease into it but his dad was clearly impatient.
“Ryan’s gay.”
“Oh, come on,” Sandy shook his head.
“I know! I know, that’s what I thought, too. But the new girlfriend? Is a boyfriend. But we love Ryan anyway. Right, Dad? We love Ryan for who he is, not for who he…makes out with. Or, um, well, you know. Ew. The point is: he’s still Ryan.”
“Seth!” Ryan’s voice, from the stairs, was clearly pissed.
“Oh god, Dad, hide me,” Seth jumped to his feet and shielded himself with his father just as Ryan came in.
“What the Hell were you doing listening in on my phone call?” Ryan asked, trying to dodge around Sandy to get at Seth.
“Ryan, it’s okay,” Seth insisted, keeping Sandy between him and the thickly muscled arms reaching at him. “It’s better that I know. I have no problem with homosexuality. In fact, lots of my friends are gay. Well maybe not many of my close friends but I have this one…well, I guess you’d more label him as an acquaintance...his dad’s gay. And I’m fine with it!”
“Seth!” Ryan shouted. He finally got a hold of Seth, gripping a fistful of t-shirt.
Sandy stepped aside, effectively, in Seth’s opinion, throwing his son to the wolves.
“Seth,” Ryan tried again, this time through clenched teeth. “What. Are. You. Talking. About?”
Seth sagged a little. He had no idea how to handle this.
“I’m sorry I listened to your conversation,” Seth’s voice was subdued now, self-consciously quiet. “I wanted to know if your secret new girlfriend was someone I know. I heard you talking to a dude and last week I heard you say that you loved…you know…him. I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy. I’m sorry.”
He dared to glance at Ryan’s face, hoping that his attempt at honesty had left a positive impression, and was distressed to see amusement in Ryan’s clear blues. Immediately Seth felt a little defensive. And confused.
“So you assumed I was talking to a girlfriend these past Thursdays.”
“Yeah.”
“And you never thought to ask?”
“I thought you’d tell me about it, but you never did.” Seth knew he sounded whiny and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to focus strength into his voice. Ryan let go of his shirt, which helped.
“He’s not my lover, Seth.”
“Well, I don’t know what you call it. Or what stage of a relationship you’re in. I mean…if you guys are, like, going steady or something then that’s different from being boyfriend…boyfriend. Right? I mean, do people even ‘go steady’ anymore?”
“He’s not my lover, Seth,” Ryan repeated. “He’s my brother.”
Sandy snorted a laugh and backed a few steps away from the boys. “I can see everything’s under control here,” he said. “I’ll leave you to it. And Ryan? I switched that appointment on Saturday. I’ll be able to drive you to the prison to see Trey.”
“Thanks, Sandy,” Ryan said as Sandy left the room, chuckling.
“I’ve been talking to Trey once a week,” Ryan explained. “He’s been trying really hard to do things right. He asked if we could talk once a week and I said Sure, because he’s been getting praise for his good behavior and I want to encourage that. But you thought-” Ryan broke off, ducking his head. “You thought-” Ryan’s shoulders shook with laughter.
“Your brother,” Seth repeated, slowly nodding his head. “That makes sense.” He waited for Ryan to stop laughing. And waited.
And waited.
“It’s not that funny,” Seth said finally, chucking Ryan on the shoulder. Ryan wiped tears from his eyes. “Come on,” Seth said, tugging on Ryan’s shirt. “Let’s go make everything right with the world. Let’s go play Playstation.”
Prompt: “He’s not my lover, he’s my brother.”