Safe With You || Seth Cohen

||6||

I helped Ryan and Seth get the groceries out of the car, alongside Kirsten and Sandy. Kirsten went and bought a lot of groceries because her father was coming to visit.

"Are we worried your dad won't love us enough if we don't feed him enough?" Sandy asked.

"Alright, starting now, no more digs at my dad." Kirsten told him.

"Oh, honey, that wasn't a dig. Was it?" Sandy asked, glancing at Seth, Ryan and I.

"No, but when you called him a heartless bastard, that was a dig." Seth said, to which Kirsten gave Sandy a look and walked into the house.

"You sold me out." Sandy told him before following after her.

"See, they're like puppets and I'm puppet master." Seth told Ryan and I.

"World domination to follow." I joked and he nudged me.

"So your grandpa, he owns like half of Newport, right?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, and like you two he comes from humble beginnings. I'm sure you'll both hit it off." Seth said.

"We burned down one of his houses, Seth." I told him.

"He has a million of them and it probably wasn't even on his radar. Hey, look don't worry about it. He lets my mom run the company and he's got a new girlfriend, so he's very mellow." Seth told us.

"Seth!"

Ryan and I looked up as an older man walked out in nice clothes. Seth's grandpa, I was assuming. Caleb Nichols.

"Hey!" Seth said, hugging his grandpa quickly.

"How're you doing?" Seth asked him as he stepped back.

"You're still not a football player." Caleb said, looking at Seth's build.

"Ah yes, no, but thank you." Seth said awkwardly, then glanced at Ryan and I.

"Grandpa, meet my friend Ryan and my gi- my other friend, Ally." Seth said, catching himself. We'd still not told anyone in the last two weeks. I knew we probably should, but everything was calm now and I didn't want to mess anything up.

Caleb didn't notice Seth's slipup and he looked at Ryan and I. "You the kids that burned down my house?" He asked coldly.

"Uh, sorry about that. Nice to meet you." I said, holding out my hand.

Ryan did the same, but Caleb didn't reciprocate. Seth nudged Caleb and he shook my hand, then Ryan's.

I felt awkward as I let my hand drop.

"So, you've got to see my photos from my trip to Spain. And you gotta promise me to go to Barcelona while your still young." Caleb told Seth.

"Alright." Seth said.

"You wanna take those out and put them by the grill?" Caleb asked turning to Ryan and I.

I glanced at Seth to see he looked embarrassed.

"Hey." Seth called after Ryan and I as we walked off but I mouthed 'Its fine,' to him.

Ryan and I placed the bags by the grill and Ryan stopped in his tracks on our walk back.

I looked to see a young woman who looked about twenty six getting out of the pool.

"Hi." The woman said, looking at Ryan and I and wringing her hair out.

"Uh, hi." I told her.

"Hey." Ryan said.

"I'm Gabrielle, I'm with Caleb." She said. I tried to keep my expression neutral as I wondered how a man as old as Caleb got Gabrielle. It had to be his money.