fic: LSF
Title: LSF
Rating: PG13
A/N: I keep getting distracted, and my new poison is Veronica Mars fics. I love having a whole new fandom to explore. But the OC is still my number one obsessive and I swear that I will finish a story some day. I don't think this one's going to go on much longer, so there's that! I predict only one more part. Hopefully.
A/N 2: oh, and I got my car back and it's working and I cleaned it and I'm really giddy. So note that I wrote this under the influence of giddiness and I hope there aren't major errors.
part one
part two
“My dad had a car like this once.”
Ryan nodded and continued to stare straight ahead as the girl talked.
“He bought it a couple months before he left my mom, I think it must have been some sort of seven-year itch. I mean, I was seven at the time and I think they got married because my mom was pregnant, so that would explain the seven-year itch, right? Kind of like a midlife crisis and I guess it should make me feel better that he at least tried to solve his problems with a car before giving up and leaving.”
They’d only been driving for three minutes and already he was plotting ways to kill Trey in his sleep.
The girl was a twitching bundle of nervous energy; she never shut up and when she wasn’t waving her hands in the air, she was picking at her nails.
He snapped out of his thoughts when the silence in the car caught his attention and he realized the girl was staring at him.
“Um, what?” he asked, shifting uncomfortably.
“I asked where you got the car,” she said, not angrily. More like she was used to people not hearing her questions.
“Trey got it for me,” he shrugged.
“Oh, that’s… nice,” she said, biting at her lip. “He’s your brother, right?”
“Yeah,” Ryan nodded.
“I figured. I mean, I thought the way you guys acted was weird at first, but it makes sense now. Plus, you look a lot alike.”
“Wait, what?” he asked, trying to follow her flow of words.
“You know, the hair,” she explained, waving at him, “the strong jawline, the blue eyes…”
“No,” he said, “I know what looking alike means. What did you mean you thought we acted weird?”
“Well,” she said, eyes widening in what looked like fear. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way or anything, it’s just that he’s always looking over at you and stuff. Plus, you took the scissors away from him and you kept telling him to go back to work. It’s classic older brother/younger brother behavior.”
“I’m younger,” he explained and noticed the surprise on her face.
“Oh,” she said and shut her mouth.
…
When they walked into Chucks, he went straight up to the counter.
“Atwood,” Chuck grinned. “Haven’t seen you around for a while.”
“I’m not usually around for lunch anymore,” he explained, remembering how much he actually liked Chuck.
And Chuck’s food.
“You getting for everyone?” Chuck asked his eyes going over to the girl. “Or are you eating in today?”
She noticed the eyes on her and opened her mouth before Ryan could. “Hi. I’m Taylor,” she said, almost nervously, “I’m here with Ryan.” She seemed to notice that the statement was almost painfully obvious and she flushed red before continuing. “We’re here for food. I mean, we’re picking up food for…”
Ryan had had enough and he curled his arm around the back of her head so his hand could cover her mouth.
“The usual for the guys,” he said to Chuck, keeping his eyes straight ahead, even though Chuck was grinning. “She’ll have a cheeseburger. You eat meat, right?” he asked, finally looking over at her. Her eyes were wide above his hand and she nodded dumbly. “Good. We’re gonna wait over here,” he told Chuck and removed his hand from her mouth to grab her arm and pull her over to one of the booths. “Sorry,” he mumbled when they sat, hoping she wasn’t about to make a huge deal because he’d manhandled her.
“No, it’s ok. I kind of can’t control my mouth sometimes and I’m sure I embarrassed you in front of your friend, so I guess I should be apologizing and actually shutting up, because you have that look again, like you want to find some dark corner to hide in.” Her mouth snapped shut and she flushed an even deeper red as she stared down at the table.
“It’s cool,” he shrugged, not quite sure why he felt guilty. “So you’re cool with the lunch order?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, hand reaching over to pick up a paper napkin, which she started to shred into perfectly even strips. “I like cheeseburgers, even though I’m not really allowed to eat them.”
“You’re not allowed to eat them?” he asked, thinking he should go change her order if she had some sort of heart condition or something.
“Atkins doesn’t really allow cheeseburgers,” she explained, still shredding her napkin. “And I have to stay on it until I lose another fifteen pounds.”
Ryan couldn’t quite figure out what to say to that that wouldn’t sound mean or pervy.
“Oh,” was all he said, eyes drifting down to her chest.
No, she really didn’t need to lose weight.
“My mom started me on it after I got back from France. She tried to set me up with Luke Ward, but he’s been weird ever since Marissa Cooper died, so he wasn’t really interested and mom thinks it’s because I’m too fat. She wants to set me up with Seth Cohen, but she says he’s too skinny for someone like me, and if I want to get him, I’d have to lose a lot of weight.”
Ryan had no idea who the hell these people were, but he almost smiled, because when she said ‘Cohen’, it had reminded him of the funny lawyer he’d had when he got arrested when he was fifteen.
He’d even given Ryan his card, just in case, but his mom had found it and tore it up because she didn’t like the guy.
“Not that Seth would ever date me,” the girl was still talking and he snapped back to the conversation. “We’re totally just friends.”
“Well,” Ryan said when she didn’t say anything else. “In my experience, guys can rarely be ‘just friends’ with girls. It doesn’t really work like that.”
“Please,” she laughed, shaking her head. “Seth is totally hung up on Summer Roberts, he doesn’t have eyes for anyone else. She’s dating this guy, Winchester, but we’ve been working on her since Junior year and she at least considers us friends, so he’s that much closer.”
“Right,” Ryan said, wondering if Taylor realized that he didn’t, in fact, know what the hell she was talking about.
“I’m rambling again,” she said, face turning red again. “Sorry, I tend to do that around ho-” she cut herself off and shook her head. “Around everyone, actually.”
“It’s cool,” he said, noticing the way she avoided looking at him.
“No, it’s not. So, tell me about you.”
“Me?” he asked. “There’s not much to tell.”
“Come on, there has to be something interesting about you,” she insisted, eyes landing on him again. “What year of college are you in?”
“My second,” he said, glancing over to the front counter, where Chuck was standing, doing crosswords.
“You said you were in community college, are you planning on going somewhere else?”
“No,” he said, stiffening up and she tilted her head to the side.
“You’re like, the hardest person to get to talk,” she said. “It’s like pulling teeth.”
“I don’t talk much,” he said, glad for the topic switch.
“So why aren’t you continuing your education?”
Or not.
“I’m just not,” he said. “We don’t have the money, first of all.”
“We?” she said, still tilting her head at him. “You mean you and Trey.”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you including Trey in this?” she asked, eyes sharp and on him. “I mean, is he paying for your college now?”
“No,” Ryan shrugged. “I save up for this, but I don’t have enough to go to a four year, and I can’t ask Trey for help.”
“Why not?” she asked, dead serious.
“Cause it’s not fair,” he said to the table and he shifted, uncomfortable with her stare on him.
Somehow she seemed to pick up on it, because she let out a sigh and changed the subject. “So do you work at the shop?”
“Sometimes,” he said, relieved. “I work the register sometimes. I used to work construction, but Trey doesn’t want me working that while I’m in school. He wants me to focus.”
“Sounds like Trey is highly invested in your future,” she said, tilting her head again and he wished she’d stop.
“He doesn’t want me wasting my money,” Ryan said, meeting her eyes to try and tell her to shut the hell up about this.
“Atwood,” Chuck called. “Food’s ready,” he pointed to the bags one of his cooks set on the counter.
“Thanks,” Ryan got up and Taylor followed him to the counter, frowning when he took both the bags and didn’t let her help. They walked back to the car in silence and he wondered if he’d hurt her feelings or something.
Which was stupid, because she was the one butting into his life, not the other way around and he shouldn’t feel guilty about this, damnit.
“Sorry,” he said once they were both in the car. He honestly couldn’t believe he was apologizing but he couldn’t seem to stop it. “Trey’s helped me out all my life and I can’t ask him for all this money. He works for it and I’m not just gonna take it and leave.”
“He’s helped you out all your life?” she asked, and he wasn’t sure why she was questioning it. Maybe she wanted examples or something, but he couldn’t really think of any in particular.
“He’s my big brother,” he clarified to the steering wheel, wondering why he hadn’t started the car yet.
“Then he loves you, right?” she asked, staring at him again, like she could see right through him.
“I guess,” he shrugged. “Yes.”
“Then why wouldn’t he want to keep helping you?”
“He… Trey needs his money,” he said, pushing the keys into the ignition and starting it up.
“Trey needs his money, or he needs you?” she asked and he didn’t really have an answer, so he just backed out of his spot and drove.
…
“So,” Trey drawled with a half grin, “you guys were gone for a while…”
Ryan rolled his eyes and forced himself not to look over at the seating area, where the girl was eating her cheeseburger by herself.
“Let him alone,” Eddie hit Trey on the arm, but he still smiled.
“Come on, it’s like, my brotherly duty to try and hook my LB up with hot girls,” Trey said, nudging Ryan on the shoulder.
Ryan could feel the girl’s eyes on him and he knew she was watching how he interacted with Trey and he couldn’t quite figure out why she was so invested in his future.
“I think Trey’s right,” Arturo added. “You’ve been really depressing since Kat dumped you.”
“He dumped her,” Trey cut in defensively.
…
“Eddie.”
Ryan looked up from the counter when Theresa came into the garage, heading straight for her husband.
“Hey, babe,” Eddie called, wiping grease from his hands with a rag as Theresa kissed his cheek. “What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing,” she sighed. “Except that I tried calling your cell about a million times and you didn’t pick up, so I had to go out of my way and come out here and now our baby will probably die from car fumes or something,” she said, putting her hands to her stomach.
“My cell’s in my locker,” Eddie explained, ignoring her other comments. “What did you need?”
“To tell you I was gonna cook dinner tonight, so you don’t have to stop somewhere,” she said, leaning against the car he was working on.
“And you couldn’t leave a voicemail?”
“Fine, and I wanted to see you,” she smiled and Ryan watched the exchange and wondered if that could’ve been him.
He and Theresa had been a thing, once, until she got pregnant with Eddie’s kid. But it had been almost five years since then and she was pregnant again and he really didn’t have any feelings for her left, but sometimes he wondered what would’ve happened if it had been his kid.
“Who’s that?” Theresa asked, looking over to where Taylor was reading Maxim again.
“The owner of that car,” ‘Turo said, coming up and putting his hand on her stomach. “Hey, nephew.”
“Or niece,” Theresa argued.
“We’re trying to hook Ryan up with her,” Trey said with a grin. “But he’s not cooperating.”
“Because he just broke up with Katrina,” Theresa said, looking horrified. “You guys are horrible.”
“I’m fine,” Ryan said, walking over to the car so he wouldn’t have to yell across the garage, because now he had Taylor’s attention on him again.
“Really?” Theresa asked, in that tone of voice that said she knew better.
“Honest,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m fine.”
“Good,” Theresa sighed. “I never liked her. That should always clue you into who should or shouldn’t date.”
“Alright, mom,” he muttered, making the guys laugh and Theresa hit his arm.
“Just for that, I’m going to go screen the new girl,” she said, making her way over to the seating area before Ryan could stop her.
Rating: PG13
A/N: I keep getting distracted, and my new poison is Veronica Mars fics. I love having a whole new fandom to explore. But the OC is still my number one obsessive and I swear that I will finish a story some day. I don't think this one's going to go on much longer, so there's that! I predict only one more part. Hopefully.
A/N 2: oh, and I got my car back and it's working and I cleaned it and I'm really giddy. So note that I wrote this under the influence of giddiness and I hope there aren't major errors.
part one
part two
“My dad had a car like this once.”
Ryan nodded and continued to stare straight ahead as the girl talked.
“He bought it a couple months before he left my mom, I think it must have been some sort of seven-year itch. I mean, I was seven at the time and I think they got married because my mom was pregnant, so that would explain the seven-year itch, right? Kind of like a midlife crisis and I guess it should make me feel better that he at least tried to solve his problems with a car before giving up and leaving.”
They’d only been driving for three minutes and already he was plotting ways to kill Trey in his sleep.
The girl was a twitching bundle of nervous energy; she never shut up and when she wasn’t waving her hands in the air, she was picking at her nails.
He snapped out of his thoughts when the silence in the car caught his attention and he realized the girl was staring at him.
“Um, what?” he asked, shifting uncomfortably.
“I asked where you got the car,” she said, not angrily. More like she was used to people not hearing her questions.
“Trey got it for me,” he shrugged.
“Oh, that’s… nice,” she said, biting at her lip. “He’s your brother, right?”
“Yeah,” Ryan nodded.
“I figured. I mean, I thought the way you guys acted was weird at first, but it makes sense now. Plus, you look a lot alike.”
“Wait, what?” he asked, trying to follow her flow of words.
“You know, the hair,” she explained, waving at him, “the strong jawline, the blue eyes…”
“No,” he said, “I know what looking alike means. What did you mean you thought we acted weird?”
“Well,” she said, eyes widening in what looked like fear. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way or anything, it’s just that he’s always looking over at you and stuff. Plus, you took the scissors away from him and you kept telling him to go back to work. It’s classic older brother/younger brother behavior.”
“I’m younger,” he explained and noticed the surprise on her face.
“Oh,” she said and shut her mouth.
…
When they walked into Chucks, he went straight up to the counter.
“Atwood,” Chuck grinned. “Haven’t seen you around for a while.”
“I’m not usually around for lunch anymore,” he explained, remembering how much he actually liked Chuck.
And Chuck’s food.
“You getting for everyone?” Chuck asked his eyes going over to the girl. “Or are you eating in today?”
She noticed the eyes on her and opened her mouth before Ryan could. “Hi. I’m Taylor,” she said, almost nervously, “I’m here with Ryan.” She seemed to notice that the statement was almost painfully obvious and she flushed red before continuing. “We’re here for food. I mean, we’re picking up food for…”
Ryan had had enough and he curled his arm around the back of her head so his hand could cover her mouth.
“The usual for the guys,” he said to Chuck, keeping his eyes straight ahead, even though Chuck was grinning. “She’ll have a cheeseburger. You eat meat, right?” he asked, finally looking over at her. Her eyes were wide above his hand and she nodded dumbly. “Good. We’re gonna wait over here,” he told Chuck and removed his hand from her mouth to grab her arm and pull her over to one of the booths. “Sorry,” he mumbled when they sat, hoping she wasn’t about to make a huge deal because he’d manhandled her.
“No, it’s ok. I kind of can’t control my mouth sometimes and I’m sure I embarrassed you in front of your friend, so I guess I should be apologizing and actually shutting up, because you have that look again, like you want to find some dark corner to hide in.” Her mouth snapped shut and she flushed an even deeper red as she stared down at the table.
“It’s cool,” he shrugged, not quite sure why he felt guilty. “So you’re cool with the lunch order?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, hand reaching over to pick up a paper napkin, which she started to shred into perfectly even strips. “I like cheeseburgers, even though I’m not really allowed to eat them.”
“You’re not allowed to eat them?” he asked, thinking he should go change her order if she had some sort of heart condition or something.
“Atkins doesn’t really allow cheeseburgers,” she explained, still shredding her napkin. “And I have to stay on it until I lose another fifteen pounds.”
Ryan couldn’t quite figure out what to say to that that wouldn’t sound mean or pervy.
“Oh,” was all he said, eyes drifting down to her chest.
No, she really didn’t need to lose weight.
“My mom started me on it after I got back from France. She tried to set me up with Luke Ward, but he’s been weird ever since Marissa Cooper died, so he wasn’t really interested and mom thinks it’s because I’m too fat. She wants to set me up with Seth Cohen, but she says he’s too skinny for someone like me, and if I want to get him, I’d have to lose a lot of weight.”
Ryan had no idea who the hell these people were, but he almost smiled, because when she said ‘Cohen’, it had reminded him of the funny lawyer he’d had when he got arrested when he was fifteen.
He’d even given Ryan his card, just in case, but his mom had found it and tore it up because she didn’t like the guy.
“Not that Seth would ever date me,” the girl was still talking and he snapped back to the conversation. “We’re totally just friends.”
“Well,” Ryan said when she didn’t say anything else. “In my experience, guys can rarely be ‘just friends’ with girls. It doesn’t really work like that.”
“Please,” she laughed, shaking her head. “Seth is totally hung up on Summer Roberts, he doesn’t have eyes for anyone else. She’s dating this guy, Winchester, but we’ve been working on her since Junior year and she at least considers us friends, so he’s that much closer.”
“Right,” Ryan said, wondering if Taylor realized that he didn’t, in fact, know what the hell she was talking about.
“I’m rambling again,” she said, face turning red again. “Sorry, I tend to do that around ho-” she cut herself off and shook her head. “Around everyone, actually.”
“It’s cool,” he said, noticing the way she avoided looking at him.
“No, it’s not. So, tell me about you.”
“Me?” he asked. “There’s not much to tell.”
“Come on, there has to be something interesting about you,” she insisted, eyes landing on him again. “What year of college are you in?”
“My second,” he said, glancing over to the front counter, where Chuck was standing, doing crosswords.
“You said you were in community college, are you planning on going somewhere else?”
“No,” he said, stiffening up and she tilted her head to the side.
“You’re like, the hardest person to get to talk,” she said. “It’s like pulling teeth.”
“I don’t talk much,” he said, glad for the topic switch.
“So why aren’t you continuing your education?”
Or not.
“I’m just not,” he said. “We don’t have the money, first of all.”
“We?” she said, still tilting her head at him. “You mean you and Trey.”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you including Trey in this?” she asked, eyes sharp and on him. “I mean, is he paying for your college now?”
“No,” Ryan shrugged. “I save up for this, but I don’t have enough to go to a four year, and I can’t ask Trey for help.”
“Why not?” she asked, dead serious.
“Cause it’s not fair,” he said to the table and he shifted, uncomfortable with her stare on him.
Somehow she seemed to pick up on it, because she let out a sigh and changed the subject. “So do you work at the shop?”
“Sometimes,” he said, relieved. “I work the register sometimes. I used to work construction, but Trey doesn’t want me working that while I’m in school. He wants me to focus.”
“Sounds like Trey is highly invested in your future,” she said, tilting her head again and he wished she’d stop.
“He doesn’t want me wasting my money,” Ryan said, meeting her eyes to try and tell her to shut the hell up about this.
“Atwood,” Chuck called. “Food’s ready,” he pointed to the bags one of his cooks set on the counter.
“Thanks,” Ryan got up and Taylor followed him to the counter, frowning when he took both the bags and didn’t let her help. They walked back to the car in silence and he wondered if he’d hurt her feelings or something.
Which was stupid, because she was the one butting into his life, not the other way around and he shouldn’t feel guilty about this, damnit.
“Sorry,” he said once they were both in the car. He honestly couldn’t believe he was apologizing but he couldn’t seem to stop it. “Trey’s helped me out all my life and I can’t ask him for all this money. He works for it and I’m not just gonna take it and leave.”
“He’s helped you out all your life?” she asked, and he wasn’t sure why she was questioning it. Maybe she wanted examples or something, but he couldn’t really think of any in particular.
“He’s my big brother,” he clarified to the steering wheel, wondering why he hadn’t started the car yet.
“Then he loves you, right?” she asked, staring at him again, like she could see right through him.
“I guess,” he shrugged. “Yes.”
“Then why wouldn’t he want to keep helping you?”
“He… Trey needs his money,” he said, pushing the keys into the ignition and starting it up.
“Trey needs his money, or he needs you?” she asked and he didn’t really have an answer, so he just backed out of his spot and drove.
…
“So,” Trey drawled with a half grin, “you guys were gone for a while…”
Ryan rolled his eyes and forced himself not to look over at the seating area, where the girl was eating her cheeseburger by herself.
“Let him alone,” Eddie hit Trey on the arm, but he still smiled.
“Come on, it’s like, my brotherly duty to try and hook my LB up with hot girls,” Trey said, nudging Ryan on the shoulder.
Ryan could feel the girl’s eyes on him and he knew she was watching how he interacted with Trey and he couldn’t quite figure out why she was so invested in his future.
“I think Trey’s right,” Arturo added. “You’ve been really depressing since Kat dumped you.”
“He dumped her,” Trey cut in defensively.
…
“Eddie.”
Ryan looked up from the counter when Theresa came into the garage, heading straight for her husband.
“Hey, babe,” Eddie called, wiping grease from his hands with a rag as Theresa kissed his cheek. “What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing,” she sighed. “Except that I tried calling your cell about a million times and you didn’t pick up, so I had to go out of my way and come out here and now our baby will probably die from car fumes or something,” she said, putting her hands to her stomach.
“My cell’s in my locker,” Eddie explained, ignoring her other comments. “What did you need?”
“To tell you I was gonna cook dinner tonight, so you don’t have to stop somewhere,” she said, leaning against the car he was working on.
“And you couldn’t leave a voicemail?”
“Fine, and I wanted to see you,” she smiled and Ryan watched the exchange and wondered if that could’ve been him.
He and Theresa had been a thing, once, until she got pregnant with Eddie’s kid. But it had been almost five years since then and she was pregnant again and he really didn’t have any feelings for her left, but sometimes he wondered what would’ve happened if it had been his kid.
“Who’s that?” Theresa asked, looking over to where Taylor was reading Maxim again.
“The owner of that car,” ‘Turo said, coming up and putting his hand on her stomach. “Hey, nephew.”
“Or niece,” Theresa argued.
“We’re trying to hook Ryan up with her,” Trey said with a grin. “But he’s not cooperating.”
“Because he just broke up with Katrina,” Theresa said, looking horrified. “You guys are horrible.”
“I’m fine,” Ryan said, walking over to the car so he wouldn’t have to yell across the garage, because now he had Taylor’s attention on him again.
“Really?” Theresa asked, in that tone of voice that said she knew better.
“Honest,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m fine.”
“Good,” Theresa sighed. “I never liked her. That should always clue you into who should or shouldn’t date.”
“Alright, mom,” he muttered, making the guys laugh and Theresa hit his arm.
“Just for that, I’m going to go screen the new girl,” she said, making her way over to the seating area before Ryan could stop her.