fic: LSF
Title: LSF
Rating: PG13
A/N: so... this is the end. I'm quite proud of myself, actually. I saw it as a four-parter and I followed through. Yay for me!
A/N 2: Also, I wrote this really quickly and I'm really tired, so hopefully it's ok.
part one
part two
part three
“Eddie, could you go over there and like… collect your wife or something?” Ryan grunted, glancing over at the seating area for the thousandth time in the past twenty minutes.
“You want me to ‘collect’ Theresa? Theresa. Pregnant Theresa,” Eddie deadpanned, leaning against the Toyota he was working on.
“Let’s see how that works out,” ‘Turo added.
“Look, you want her to stop playing matchmaker, then you go stop her yourself,” Eddie said, picking up a rag to wipe his hands. “I’m out of this.”
Ryan resisted the urge to say something back and just took the advice instead.
His fears were unfounded, though, because when he got over there, they weren’t talking about him and he couldn’t decide why he felt slightly disappointed.
“So you don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?” Taylor was saying, leaning forward in her seat.
“Nah, but my mom swears up and down that it’s gonna be a girl this time,” Theresa said. “Something about having a ‘vision’ or something. I dunno, she always has ‘visions’ when she can’t think up any other defense for her actions.”
Taylor giggled and her smile didn’t fade when she noticed him standing behind Theresa.
“Hey,” Theresa said, turning around and giving him a smirk. “How’s Taylor’s car coming?”
“Taking a really freaking long time,” Ryan grumbled back, glaring over at his shoulder at ‘Turo.
“Oh no,” Taylor frowned. “Did something else go wrong?”
“I’ll see what’s up,” Theresa sighed, standing up. “It was nice chatting with you.”
“You too!” Taylor returned with enthusiasm and Theresa shot him a look as she passed. “You have such nice friends,” Taylor sighed when Theresa was gone.
“If you insist,” he muttered to himself, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“What?” Taylor asked, tilting her head at him and he wished she wouldn’t.
“I said ‘yeah, I do’,” he lied, even though he was sure that when her head was tilted like that, she could see right through him. “I’m gonna go see what’s up with your car.”
He heard her start to say that Theresa had already gone to check, but he ignored that and walked over to where Eddie, Theresa and ‘Turo were laughing.
“Atwood,” ‘Turo grinned.
“Why’s her car taking so long?” Ryan said, ignoring the greeting. “It’s a flat and low coolant.”
“Well, you know, we’re just making sure everything’s in working order,” ‘Turo lied with a smile. “She doesn’t seem to be in a hurry.”
“Ok, I’m telling her the car’s ready,” Ryan said, moving to turn around.
“Well, see, if you do that, we’ll have to explain to her why we were prolonging this,” Eddie said with a smile. “Do you really want us explaining that?”
Ryan tried to glare but decided that no, he didn’t want Eddie and ‘Turo telling the girl that they’d wanted her to hang around to hook her up with him.
“Fine,” he gritted out. “But you better not be charging her for this.”
“I would never,” ‘Turo grinned and went back to his work.
…
“Ignore them,” Trey said, sitting on the table in the back room where Ryan was pacing. “They’re just trying to make you forget about Kat…”
“Well, it’s working,” Ryan said, turning to his brother. “I’m not thinking about Kat, I’m freaking out that this girl’s gonna get the wrong impression and like… stalk me more than she already does.”
“She seems to like you,” Trey offered.
“I don’t need a girlfriend,” Ryan said, suddenly tired. “I spent three years with Kat, I really don’t feel like being strung along again. I don’t need more complications in my life and that girl? It’s been four hours and I can already tell she’s fucking complicated.”
“Kat never appreciated you,” Trey said, obviously ignoring the direction of the conversation. “After all you fuckin’ did for her? I wish you would’ve listened to me when I told you she was using you.”
Ryan didn’t say anything. He didn’t really want to have this conversation; he didn’t want to think about Kat or the three years he’d spent on her or that he thought he’d spend the rest of his life with her.
“Look, date this girl, have a one night stand with her, or don’t,” Trey sighed. “I really don’t care, I just hate seeing you like this. Eddie and ‘Turo are just being idiots; ignore them. But that girl? She’s into you, and you really shouldn’t let her hang around out there for no reason. If you don’t want anything to do with her, then send her home.”
Trey hopped off the table and punched him in the shoulder and left the room and for the first time in a while, Ryan felt some of the pressure lift off him.
He followed Trey out of the back room, determined to tell Taylor that her car was done, despite the embarrassing explanation Eddie and Arturo might give. He was done humoring them and he was done having her try to see through him all day.
“So,” she said when he walked up to the front desk, where she was leaning near the register. “UCLA?”
“What?” he asked, momentarily startled out of his mission.
“You want to go to UCLA,” she said, like it should be obvious. “I mean, I know you’re all ‘I don’t wanna go to a four-year’ and all, but you totally do.”
He was about to ask what the hell she was talking about when he saw his college folder sitting on the counter in front of her.
Somehow, he honestly wasn’t surprised that she’d read through it.
“So?” he asked because he really couldn’t think up something better to say.
“So you wanna go,” she repeated. “But you’re not going to because you don’t want to leave your brother.”
“We don’t have the money,” he argued, reaching forward to take the folder from her.
“Except it’s not about that,” she said, tilting her head at him again with a frown. “The papers in there list all these scholarships and some of them are circled and they’d pretty much pay your way through.”
He didn’t know what to say to that and he felt himself deflate a little.
To be honest, he’d been staving off the disappointment by telling himself that money was the issue. He couldn’t go to a four year because of money and that was ok, because that wasn’t giving up. It wasn’t him being a coward, it wasn’t him giving up. It was an honest reason and he could fall asleep at night if he lied to himself well enough.
“Why do you care?” he asked, tiredly, suddenly wanting this to just all be over.
She hesitated for a brief moment, biting her lip as she seemed to really think about her answer.
“Do you know why I talked to you, that day in Starbucks?” she asked finally.
“Because you’re crazy?” he said without thinking it through and almost kicked himself until she started giggling.
“Well, there’s that. But also… ok, so we’ve moved past the part where I’m crazy and the part where I’ve noticed you go in there a lot. And you always seemed kind of sad, but that day you just seemed like… really broody and I just felt compelled to talk to you.”
“I’d just broken up with my girlfriend,” he explained and in the back of his head, he wondered why he was bothering.
“You’re nice, Ryan Atwood,” she said, voice a little softer than her normal cheerful tone. “You haven’t made fun of me even though I’ve given you plenty of reason to and you look at my face when you talk to me and you bought me lunch and you haven’t groped me.”
“And that’s why you’re championing my getting into UCLA?” he asked, rubbing his hand over his face.
“You just seem kind of sad and you’re a really nice person and I think you deserve to be happy,” she said and he watched her face turn bright red again. “Plus, I like meddling in people’s personal lives. It’s like a hobby.”
“You don’t know that I’m nice,” he said, still wondering why he was bothering. He wouldn’t ever see her again after today and he really shouldn’t care what she thought or her reasons. “I’ve been arrested before.”
“When?” she asked, not even flinching a bit.
“Five years ago,” he admitted, steeling himself for whatever reaction.
“When you were, what? Fifteen?” She sighed deeply and tilted her head some more. “Shocking; a teenager did something stupid and got caught.”
He’d never had someone explain it like that and when she said it, she didn’t make it sound like the shadow looming over him that he’d always seen it as. She made it sound so… mundane. Normal.
She made it sound like people couldn’t look at him and see felon stamped across his forehead.
“Just talk to your brother,” she said, snapping him out of his daze. “Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
She tried to smile and walked away, back over to the seating area.
…
“’Turo,” he said, walking over to where they were all standing around and talking. “Tell Taylor her car’s ready.”
Eddie was about to say something, but ‘Turo seemed to notice that he was serious and nodded.
“Trey, can we talk?”
Trey nodded, trying not to look concerned as he made some stupid joke to ‘Turo and Eddie before following him into the back room again.
“What’s up LB?” he asked, taking his normal seat on top of the table.
Ryan took a deep breath and shut the door behind him.
…
Trey read through the papers in the folder in silence as Ryan leaned against the wall and willed himself not to shake.
He’d presented his idea and handed Trey the folder and there’d been silence for the past twenty minutes as Trey read everything through.
Well,” Trey started off slowly as he closed the folder, “I guess with scholarships, and the money I’m makin’ here, and stuff you’ve saved up from workin’, and what mom sends us every once and a while…” he shrugged looking at the floor and not at Ryan.
“Trey, you don’t have to use your money…” Ryan protested despite the hope that welled up in him. Trey cut him off with a vague wave of his hand.
“Nah. This way, when you’re some big-shot architect, you’ll owe me.” Ryan laughed, ducking his head, because he didn’t know what else to say. He owed Trey everything - money didn’t matter.
When - if - he ever got enough money, he’d buy Trey a nice place to live, and maybe a Camaro.
“Are you sure?” he asked, hating himself for giving Trey the chance to back out.
He couldn’t figure out why he kept trying to ruin this. It was like he had some sort of self-destruct programming in his head that wouldn’t ever let something be easy. He always had to do things the hard way; he stuck with the same girl for three years even though he was never happy.
He couldn’t ever do anything that might make him happy without at least trying to sabotage it.
“You better not back out,” Trey said, looking a little pissed off. “I already said you’re going, you’re gonna go. Plus, it’ll give me a reason to visit a college campus where I can pick up some slutty sorority girls.”
Ryan couldn’t help it; he laughed.
“You think I’m kidding?” Trey asked with a grin, jumping off the table. “I hear they’re easy.”
“Yeah,” Ryan agreed following Trey out of the back room.
“Plus, it’ll be nice seeing you happy for once,” Trey said, the smiling fading from his face. Ryan didn’t know what to say, but Trey saved him from having to think up something. “And if you tell anyone I ever said that, I’ll kill you.”
…
He was kind of surprised to see the Mercedes parked in front of the garage and he walked over to it without even thinking.
She was leaning against the car, arms folded as she watched him approach.
“So?” she asked and he wasn’t surprised she knew that he’d talked to Trey.
“He said I have to go,” he told her, running his hand through his hair and down to rub his neck. “Told me if I didn’t put in for scholarships on Monday, he’d kick my ass.”
“See?” she said, “I’m always right.” She smiled at him, brightly, and for the first time that day, he felt himself turn red.
“Yeah,” he said, ducking his head to avoid her eyes that were still trying to stare right into him.
“My car’s done,” she said, dangling the keys in front of her. “Although I think it’d too late to get to the party.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” he apologized, even though it wasn’t his fault.
“It’s ok, I didn’t want to go anyway,” she shrugged. He nodded and she smiled at him again. “It was nice meeting you, Ryan Atwood. Good luck with college.”
She walked around the car and opened the driver’s door.
“Wait,” he said, surprising both of them. “Um…”
She smiled again, almost giddily and he flushed a brighter red.
“I’ll see you around,” she said in a delighted whisper. “Everyone needs a caffeine fix.”
He nodded and she got into her car and he watched her drive away and tried to calculate the distance between the UCLA campus and that Starbucks.
“Hey,” Trey called to him and he turned back toward the garage. “I just told ‘Turo and Eddie and Theresa about your college thing. Theresa wants to go out to celebrate, you in?”
“Yeah,” he said, walking back inside. “That’ll be cool.”
Rating: PG13
A/N: so... this is the end. I'm quite proud of myself, actually. I saw it as a four-parter and I followed through. Yay for me!
A/N 2: Also, I wrote this really quickly and I'm really tired, so hopefully it's ok.
part one
part two
part three
“Eddie, could you go over there and like… collect your wife or something?” Ryan grunted, glancing over at the seating area for the thousandth time in the past twenty minutes.
“You want me to ‘collect’ Theresa? Theresa. Pregnant Theresa,” Eddie deadpanned, leaning against the Toyota he was working on.
“Let’s see how that works out,” ‘Turo added.
“Look, you want her to stop playing matchmaker, then you go stop her yourself,” Eddie said, picking up a rag to wipe his hands. “I’m out of this.”
Ryan resisted the urge to say something back and just took the advice instead.
His fears were unfounded, though, because when he got over there, they weren’t talking about him and he couldn’t decide why he felt slightly disappointed.
“So you don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?” Taylor was saying, leaning forward in her seat.
“Nah, but my mom swears up and down that it’s gonna be a girl this time,” Theresa said. “Something about having a ‘vision’ or something. I dunno, she always has ‘visions’ when she can’t think up any other defense for her actions.”
Taylor giggled and her smile didn’t fade when she noticed him standing behind Theresa.
“Hey,” Theresa said, turning around and giving him a smirk. “How’s Taylor’s car coming?”
“Taking a really freaking long time,” Ryan grumbled back, glaring over at his shoulder at ‘Turo.
“Oh no,” Taylor frowned. “Did something else go wrong?”
“I’ll see what’s up,” Theresa sighed, standing up. “It was nice chatting with you.”
“You too!” Taylor returned with enthusiasm and Theresa shot him a look as she passed. “You have such nice friends,” Taylor sighed when Theresa was gone.
“If you insist,” he muttered to himself, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“What?” Taylor asked, tilting her head at him and he wished she wouldn’t.
“I said ‘yeah, I do’,” he lied, even though he was sure that when her head was tilted like that, she could see right through him. “I’m gonna go see what’s up with your car.”
He heard her start to say that Theresa had already gone to check, but he ignored that and walked over to where Eddie, Theresa and ‘Turo were laughing.
“Atwood,” ‘Turo grinned.
“Why’s her car taking so long?” Ryan said, ignoring the greeting. “It’s a flat and low coolant.”
“Well, you know, we’re just making sure everything’s in working order,” ‘Turo lied with a smile. “She doesn’t seem to be in a hurry.”
“Ok, I’m telling her the car’s ready,” Ryan said, moving to turn around.
“Well, see, if you do that, we’ll have to explain to her why we were prolonging this,” Eddie said with a smile. “Do you really want us explaining that?”
Ryan tried to glare but decided that no, he didn’t want Eddie and ‘Turo telling the girl that they’d wanted her to hang around to hook her up with him.
“Fine,” he gritted out. “But you better not be charging her for this.”
“I would never,” ‘Turo grinned and went back to his work.
…
“Ignore them,” Trey said, sitting on the table in the back room where Ryan was pacing. “They’re just trying to make you forget about Kat…”
“Well, it’s working,” Ryan said, turning to his brother. “I’m not thinking about Kat, I’m freaking out that this girl’s gonna get the wrong impression and like… stalk me more than she already does.”
“She seems to like you,” Trey offered.
“I don’t need a girlfriend,” Ryan said, suddenly tired. “I spent three years with Kat, I really don’t feel like being strung along again. I don’t need more complications in my life and that girl? It’s been four hours and I can already tell she’s fucking complicated.”
“Kat never appreciated you,” Trey said, obviously ignoring the direction of the conversation. “After all you fuckin’ did for her? I wish you would’ve listened to me when I told you she was using you.”
Ryan didn’t say anything. He didn’t really want to have this conversation; he didn’t want to think about Kat or the three years he’d spent on her or that he thought he’d spend the rest of his life with her.
“Look, date this girl, have a one night stand with her, or don’t,” Trey sighed. “I really don’t care, I just hate seeing you like this. Eddie and ‘Turo are just being idiots; ignore them. But that girl? She’s into you, and you really shouldn’t let her hang around out there for no reason. If you don’t want anything to do with her, then send her home.”
Trey hopped off the table and punched him in the shoulder and left the room and for the first time in a while, Ryan felt some of the pressure lift off him.
He followed Trey out of the back room, determined to tell Taylor that her car was done, despite the embarrassing explanation Eddie and Arturo might give. He was done humoring them and he was done having her try to see through him all day.
“So,” she said when he walked up to the front desk, where she was leaning near the register. “UCLA?”
“What?” he asked, momentarily startled out of his mission.
“You want to go to UCLA,” she said, like it should be obvious. “I mean, I know you’re all ‘I don’t wanna go to a four-year’ and all, but you totally do.”
He was about to ask what the hell she was talking about when he saw his college folder sitting on the counter in front of her.
Somehow, he honestly wasn’t surprised that she’d read through it.
“So?” he asked because he really couldn’t think up something better to say.
“So you wanna go,” she repeated. “But you’re not going to because you don’t want to leave your brother.”
“We don’t have the money,” he argued, reaching forward to take the folder from her.
“Except it’s not about that,” she said, tilting her head at him again with a frown. “The papers in there list all these scholarships and some of them are circled and they’d pretty much pay your way through.”
He didn’t know what to say to that and he felt himself deflate a little.
To be honest, he’d been staving off the disappointment by telling himself that money was the issue. He couldn’t go to a four year because of money and that was ok, because that wasn’t giving up. It wasn’t him being a coward, it wasn’t him giving up. It was an honest reason and he could fall asleep at night if he lied to himself well enough.
“Why do you care?” he asked, tiredly, suddenly wanting this to just all be over.
She hesitated for a brief moment, biting her lip as she seemed to really think about her answer.
“Do you know why I talked to you, that day in Starbucks?” she asked finally.
“Because you’re crazy?” he said without thinking it through and almost kicked himself until she started giggling.
“Well, there’s that. But also… ok, so we’ve moved past the part where I’m crazy and the part where I’ve noticed you go in there a lot. And you always seemed kind of sad, but that day you just seemed like… really broody and I just felt compelled to talk to you.”
“I’d just broken up with my girlfriend,” he explained and in the back of his head, he wondered why he was bothering.
“You’re nice, Ryan Atwood,” she said, voice a little softer than her normal cheerful tone. “You haven’t made fun of me even though I’ve given you plenty of reason to and you look at my face when you talk to me and you bought me lunch and you haven’t groped me.”
“And that’s why you’re championing my getting into UCLA?” he asked, rubbing his hand over his face.
“You just seem kind of sad and you’re a really nice person and I think you deserve to be happy,” she said and he watched her face turn bright red again. “Plus, I like meddling in people’s personal lives. It’s like a hobby.”
“You don’t know that I’m nice,” he said, still wondering why he was bothering. He wouldn’t ever see her again after today and he really shouldn’t care what she thought or her reasons. “I’ve been arrested before.”
“When?” she asked, not even flinching a bit.
“Five years ago,” he admitted, steeling himself for whatever reaction.
“When you were, what? Fifteen?” She sighed deeply and tilted her head some more. “Shocking; a teenager did something stupid and got caught.”
He’d never had someone explain it like that and when she said it, she didn’t make it sound like the shadow looming over him that he’d always seen it as. She made it sound so… mundane. Normal.
She made it sound like people couldn’t look at him and see felon stamped across his forehead.
“Just talk to your brother,” she said, snapping him out of his daze. “Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
She tried to smile and walked away, back over to the seating area.
…
“’Turo,” he said, walking over to where they were all standing around and talking. “Tell Taylor her car’s ready.”
Eddie was about to say something, but ‘Turo seemed to notice that he was serious and nodded.
“Trey, can we talk?”
Trey nodded, trying not to look concerned as he made some stupid joke to ‘Turo and Eddie before following him into the back room again.
“What’s up LB?” he asked, taking his normal seat on top of the table.
Ryan took a deep breath and shut the door behind him.
…
Trey read through the papers in the folder in silence as Ryan leaned against the wall and willed himself not to shake.
He’d presented his idea and handed Trey the folder and there’d been silence for the past twenty minutes as Trey read everything through.
Well,” Trey started off slowly as he closed the folder, “I guess with scholarships, and the money I’m makin’ here, and stuff you’ve saved up from workin’, and what mom sends us every once and a while…” he shrugged looking at the floor and not at Ryan.
“Trey, you don’t have to use your money…” Ryan protested despite the hope that welled up in him. Trey cut him off with a vague wave of his hand.
“Nah. This way, when you’re some big-shot architect, you’ll owe me.” Ryan laughed, ducking his head, because he didn’t know what else to say. He owed Trey everything - money didn’t matter.
When - if - he ever got enough money, he’d buy Trey a nice place to live, and maybe a Camaro.
“Are you sure?” he asked, hating himself for giving Trey the chance to back out.
He couldn’t figure out why he kept trying to ruin this. It was like he had some sort of self-destruct programming in his head that wouldn’t ever let something be easy. He always had to do things the hard way; he stuck with the same girl for three years even though he was never happy.
He couldn’t ever do anything that might make him happy without at least trying to sabotage it.
“You better not back out,” Trey said, looking a little pissed off. “I already said you’re going, you’re gonna go. Plus, it’ll give me a reason to visit a college campus where I can pick up some slutty sorority girls.”
Ryan couldn’t help it; he laughed.
“You think I’m kidding?” Trey asked with a grin, jumping off the table. “I hear they’re easy.”
“Yeah,” Ryan agreed following Trey out of the back room.
“Plus, it’ll be nice seeing you happy for once,” Trey said, the smiling fading from his face. Ryan didn’t know what to say, but Trey saved him from having to think up something. “And if you tell anyone I ever said that, I’ll kill you.”
…
He was kind of surprised to see the Mercedes parked in front of the garage and he walked over to it without even thinking.
She was leaning against the car, arms folded as she watched him approach.
“So?” she asked and he wasn’t surprised she knew that he’d talked to Trey.
“He said I have to go,” he told her, running his hand through his hair and down to rub his neck. “Told me if I didn’t put in for scholarships on Monday, he’d kick my ass.”
“See?” she said, “I’m always right.” She smiled at him, brightly, and for the first time that day, he felt himself turn red.
“Yeah,” he said, ducking his head to avoid her eyes that were still trying to stare right into him.
“My car’s done,” she said, dangling the keys in front of her. “Although I think it’d too late to get to the party.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” he apologized, even though it wasn’t his fault.
“It’s ok, I didn’t want to go anyway,” she shrugged. He nodded and she smiled at him again. “It was nice meeting you, Ryan Atwood. Good luck with college.”
She walked around the car and opened the driver’s door.
“Wait,” he said, surprising both of them. “Um…”
She smiled again, almost giddily and he flushed a brighter red.
“I’ll see you around,” she said in a delighted whisper. “Everyone needs a caffeine fix.”
He nodded and she got into her car and he watched her drive away and tried to calculate the distance between the UCLA campus and that Starbucks.
“Hey,” Trey called to him and he turned back toward the garage. “I just told ‘Turo and Eddie and Theresa about your college thing. Theresa wants to go out to celebrate, you in?”
“Yeah,” he said, walking back inside. “That’ll be cool.”