It's Brandwine's birthday, so everyone gets a present! Thanks to Muchtvs for the encouragement, Storymom for the help, and Cheekymice and Brandywine for unknowningly giving me the idea. (Wow, there's a list of topflight writers right there, isn't it? I'm honoured to call them friends)
Seth stumbled bleary-eyed into the kitchen. Mornings seemed to get harder as the school year went on. He'd be happy when graduation arrived and he'd have the summer to lounge and laze about. He was already planning his schedule for next year, choosing his courses based on their start times. He was determined not to have to get up before 10 am. College was going to be bliss.
He grabbed a mug out of the cupboard and reached for the coffeepot. Huh. No one had started the coffee yet. He rummaged through the cupboards, looking for the filters, and then searched the freezer for the coffee. Coffee was always ready when he got up – either his dad put it on before he went surfing or Ryan made it. Seth was never the first one into the kitchen.
Then Seth remembered that Ryan had a group project for his English class, and had mentioned something about an early morning meeting with his classmates. He grumbled to himself that Ryan could at least have put the coffee on before he left.
The coffee had just finished dripping and Seth was pouring himself a cup when his parents made their appearance for the morning.
"No surfing this morning, Pops?" Seth asked.
"Nope." He grinned lasciviously at his wife. "I got, um…distracted." A blush rose on Kirsten's face as she poured herself some orange juice.
"Ew. That's not information I needed." Seth turned his attention to his book so he could avoid seeing his parents look so … happy.
"Where's Ryan?" Kirsten asked.
"Early meeting for school," Seth answered.
Sandy gulped his coffee and set his mug in the sink. "I've got one too," he said. He started to rush out of the kitchen, but then stopped and turned back to his wife. He gave her a slow long kiss good-bye. "Mmm," he said. "See you later."
Seth could practically hear his dad's eyebrows waggling. "God, you two, get a room. Impressionable child here, remember?"
Sandy just laughed as he picked up his briefcase and rushed out the door. "Have a good day!"
Kirsten checked her watch. "Julie and I are meeting clients today. Do you need a ride to school, sweetie?"
"Nah, that's okay, Mom. Summer's coming by in a few minutes."
She kissed his cheek. "I love you. See you at supper."
And with that, Seth was alone in the kitchen again. He glanced over at the pool house and was surprised to see the blinds still down. The height of the blinds was always a good gauge of Ryan's mood, but Seth had thought Ryan had been doing okay recently. He had been a bit depressed over his most recent breakup with Marissa (blinds only half up), but he thought things had been on an upswing. He shrugged. Maybe he just didn't have time to put them up before he left. He finished his bagel and then went to gather his books before Summer arrived and had a rage blackout that he wasn't ready – again.
The first thing Ryan was aware of was that he was lying on the floor. The blinding headache followed immediately, causing him to roll onto his side and curl up into a ball. The floor was cool, so he figured he was in the kitchen, though he couldn't quite bring himself to open his eyes to make sure. He brought his hand up to his head, gingerly touching the spot where the pain was concentrated, and wasn't surprised when it came back sticky.
Fucking AJ. He hit him so hard this time that he couldn't even remember what caused it in the first place. He tried scouring his memory to remember what had set him off – taking his mom's cigarettes, not doing the dishes, existing – but he couldn't even remember the altercation, let alone the infraction.
Unbelievably, the pain in his head was building, bringing with it waves of nausea. He tried to breathe though it, willing his stomach to settle. AJ would be pissed enough with the blood on the floor – he didn't need to further enrage him by puking everywhere, and Ryan felt in no shape to be cleaning puke up off the floor.
He'd just lay here a little longer, hoping the pain would subside soon so he could make it to his bedroom before AJ came back.
Seth carried the two coffees over to where Summer was waiting for him in the student lounge. Summer took her coffee from him and snuggled up to him once he sat down.
"Cohen, it feels like forever since we've had time to ourselves."
Seth looked around the lounge, full of students. "Uh, Summer? We're not exactly alone."
"It's just you and me, right here, Cohen. No Ryan studying physics beside us; no Marissa moaning about how Ryan won't even talk to her. Just you and me."
"Hi guys!"
"And Taylor," Seth added for her. He gave Summer a squeeze and then turned his attention to the girl across from him. "Hi, Taylor. How are you today?"
"Seth, where was Ryan this morning? We were supposed to meet for that class project we have, and he didn't show up."
"He was gone before we left, wasn't he?" Summer asked him.
"Yeah," Seth said, though now he wasn't sure. He didn't actually check that the pool house was empty – he just assumed Ryan had left like he said he was going to. It wasn't like Ryan to miss a meeting, to let people down.
"Well," Taylor said, standing up, "you can tell him that since he didn't show up, we assigned him what he has to do." And with that, she flounced off.
The pain wasn't going away and he wasn't going to have control over his stomach for much longer. He pushed himself up on his hands and knees, trying to decide if he should stand up or not. As he pushed himself upright on his knees, the world started spinning and he dropped back down. Right. Crawling it was.
He slowly opened his eyes to get his bearings, and was surprised to find that he wasn't in his house in Chino. He was in the pool house. He was in Newport. Fuck, he must have really banged his head good to get that fucked up.
Before he had time to ponder how he ended up with a smashed in head in Newport, his stomach started to revolt again. Luckily, he was right by the bathroom. Despite his dizziness, he pushed himself to his feet and staggered into the bathroom, reaching the toilet just as the contents of his stomach came back up.
Though he didn't have much in his stomach, he continued to retch. As his stomach started to settle down, he closed his eyes and laid his head on the cool toilet seat. He had no clue what time of day it was, or what had happened. At the moment, all he cared about was that his stomach behaved.
Kirsten and Julie had just sat down with their first client of the day. She had the computer printout of the woman's answers to their questionnaire and a binder full of potential matches. After rejecting the first candidate, they were reviewing the second – much better – match when her cell phone went off. She glanced at the caller ID and noticed it was Harbor. She let it go to voicemail, figuring Sandy would take the call and let her know if it were important.
Sandy and Matt's meeting with the potential client hadn't gone well at all. At least this time Matt had done all the required research, but the client had been a hardass and wasn't giving an inch. Sandy rubbed his temples, trying to relieve the stress. When he had taken over the Newport Group, he hadn't realized how hard it would be to keep it afloat. His cell phone rang. Caller ID told him it was Harbor. He let it go to voicemail – Kirsten was the one who dealt with the school.
Now that his stomach seemed to have ended its rebellion, Ryan decided it was time to get up off the bathroom floor – though it was easier said than done. He got to his feet shakily and leaned against the vanity. He attempted to turn his head to see if he could see the damage, but the movement hurt his head and he couldn't turn his head far enough anyway. He gave up on that, and turned on the tap, rinsed out his mouth and then splashed some water on his face.
Now he decided he should figure out what time of day it was. Considering he didn't have his boots on yet, he guessed it was morning. He was hoping he hadn't spent too much time unconscious, but he really wasn't sure. He tottered into the main room, looking for some clue as to what had happened, but other than the small patch of blood on the floor, he had absolutely no idea. He knew he should wipe up the blood, but he couldn't fathom all the steps it would take to do it at the moment. Walk to the bathroom, get a cloth, wet the cloth, walk back out, bend over, scrub at the blood, stand back up, walk back to the bathroom, rinse the cloth… Just thinking about it tired him out.
He leaned against a bar stool, trying to determine where exactly he was headed.
Seth got to his second class – the class he shared with Ryan - and looked around for him, but he wasn't there. Now Seth was starting to get concerned. It wasn't like Ryan to blow off a meeting about schoolwork, and it definitely wasn't like Ryan to skip.
He pulled out his cell phone and called the pool house. He let it ring, but there was no answer. He wasn't sure what he should do. If Ryan was just skipping, for some unknown reason, Seth didn't want to responsible for tipping his parents to that fact. But on the other hand, what if Ryan was in an accident somewhere, which was the only reason Seth could think of for him not to be around. Then he should let his parents know that Ryan was missing so they could help find him. Life was so much easier as an only child.
He was still debating whether or not to call his dad when the bell rang and Mr. Thompson ordered all cell phones away and started taking the roll.
Ryan padded into the kitchen in his sock feet – the thought of sitting down to put on his boots had tired him out almost as much as the thought of cleaning up the blood. He was feeling steadier on his feet, though every so often, a bout of dizziness would overwhelm him and he'd have to stop to hold onto something.
He was surprised to find no one there. He was almost positive now that it was still morning, but it looked like it was later than he thought. He had been hoping to find at least Kirsten home, but apparently she was off with Julie working on their dating service. He knew she kept some Tylenol around the kitchen somewhere, always magically procuring them whenever one or the other of them complained of a headache, but he'd never really paid close attention. He could usually ride a headache out, but even this one was too much for him.
He looked longingly at the sofa, wanting nothing more than to lie down and rest, but something in the back of his mind told him he didn't want to risk falling asleep. Don't let him fall asleep, Ma, he could hear Trey saying. Besides, he didn't want to get blood on the cushions.
He continued on through the house, looking for something that might tell him what time it was.
Seth's class finally ended, though he didn't think he'd heard more than ten percent of what was said. He'd spent the whole class debating what to do, but in the end, he decided to call his dad, after one more try to Ryan's cell. If Ryan were in his place, he'd probably know just what to do, just where to look, to find a missing Seth, but Seth just wasn't Ryan. He needed reinforcements.
He had gathered up his books and was just pulling out his cell phone when Mr. Thompson called out his name. Seth stopped what he was doing and walked to the front of the class.
"Mr. Cohen, do you know why Mr. Atwood isn't in class today?"
Now Seth had another dilemma, but he knew for sure that Ryan would cover him, no matter what the circumstances. "Yeah, Ryan wasn't feeling well this morning, so he's still home," Seth lied. "He was puking everywhere, it was really disgusting. He wanted to come in anyway, but I convinced him that his presence wouldn't be appreciated in that state. I mean, would you want him here, puking all over the place?"
Mr. Thompson held up his hand. "That's fine, Seth. I don't need you to paint me a picture. Did your parents send a note in?"
"A note? No. No, they had left for work before Ryan's symptoms appeared. Did I mention the puke that was everywhere?"
"Yes, Seth, you did. Just tell your parents to send a note in for him tomorrow. Okay?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Thompson. I'll do just that. Thanks for your concern. My family really appreciates it."
"Good day, Seth."
"Right, yes. I'm leaving now. Don't want to be late for my next class." Seth turned around and got out of there as fast as he could.
Kirsten let herself in the front door, a little annoyed that she had to leave work. Seth had called Sandy, explaining Ryan's seeming disappearance, who had then called Kirsten after listening to his phone call from Harbor, inquiring about Ryan's unexplained absence. Kirsten had then called Dr. Kim to determine that, yes, Ryan was indeed absent from school. Sandy had had another 'important' meeting, and since theoretically, Julie could handle their clients on her own, Kirsten was the one dispatched to look for him.
Just because 'dating service' didn't sound as prestigious as 'real estate developer' didn't mean that Sandy's job was more important than hers. It wasn't a matter of her job being more important than Ryan's welfare and whereabouts, because it wasn't – both her boys were the most important things in the world to her; no, it was a matter of Sandy thinking his job were more important than hers, that she could easily slip out while he couldn't.
As she made her way through the kitchen and out to the pool house, she noted that the blinds were still down. If this ended up being just a case of Ryan oversleeping…
She knocked on the door and then poked her head in. The bed was made, so that meant Ryan was up. She called out his name, but didn't get a response. She turned to go, but then noticed that the bathroom light was on. It wasn't like him to leave lights on like that.
She got a panicked feeling in her stomach, as her mind switched from annoyance to worry. What if he had slipped in the shower this morning? She hurried up the stairs and was making her way towards the bathroom when her foot slipped on something on the floor. She looked down and saw a smear of blood.
"Ryan!" she called out more urgently. She looked in the bathroom but it was empty. Empty except for a bloody handprint on the wall, a smear of blood on the side of the toilet, and smudge of blood on the vanity. All thoughts of annoyance had long since left her mind. Fear and concern had taken over. She had an injured son somewhere, and she didn't know where.
Shakily, she pulled out her phone and called Sandy.
Kirsten had been on a continuous loop, hoping she just kept missing something. She'd start in the pool house, work her way through the kitchen, the den, the bar, the living room, out to the back yard to look down the path to the beach, back in through her and Sandy's bedroom, down the hall to the guest bathroom, into Sandy's office, and end up back at the kitchen. On each pass, she looked in more and more places – closets, under beds, behind doors. She knew she was getting ridiculous, but she knew he had to be somewhere.
She was about to start it again for the fourth time when Sandy rushed in the door. "Have you found him yet?"
She shook her head. "He can't be far, Sandy. His boots are still in the pool house; his bike is still in the garage."
He pulled her into a hug. The feeling of his arms around her helped to slow her thoughts down. She hadn't realized how frenetic she'd become until Sandy showed up to help calm her. Now that Sandy was here, she was sure that together, they'd figure it out. "We'll find him, Kirsten."
"Where? I've been in and out of every room. It's weird. Where could he have gone?"
"Did you check upstairs?"
"Why would he have gone upstairs?" She knew it was a stupid question as soon as she asked it. It just hadn't occurred to her. Seth was upstairs; Ryan was downstairs. She just had them compartmentalized and her brain had been working on automatic.
"I don't know, Kirsten. Why is there blood in the pool house and no sign of him?"
"You're right," she said. "Let's go check upstairs."
They both hurried up the stairs. Sandy went right; Kirsten went left. She opened Seth's door, and there he was, curled up on Seth's bed, his head at the foot, his back to her. The hair on the back of his head was matted with blood.
"Sandy!" Kirsten yelled over her shoulder before rushing into the room.
TBC