Safe With You || Seth Cohen

||18||

I sighed and walked into Ryan's poolhouse. After the Oliver incident, he'd been suspended from the school. Kirsten and Sandy also grounded him and he was stuck in the house.

"You okay?" I asked him, seeing how bored he looked.

"I'll be fine."

There was a beat of silence.

"Did you hear that Oliver dropped the charges against me?"

"What? Why would he do that?" I asked, surprised at the turn in events. I mean, Oliver wanted Ryan gone so why didn't he just send him back to juvie? Or maybe he was so cocky and believed that Ryan wouldn't be a threat anymore.

"I don't know. Ally, I'm worried about Marissa. I don't want her alone with him."

"Ryan, don't worry. Seth and I will watch Oliver as close as we can, okay? Marissa's my friend too, so I won't let her get hurt."

"Hey, Ally, you ready?" Seth asked as he walked in. I nodded. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah. Be careful." Ryan told us before we left. I waved goodbye to him before following Seth to the car.

As we arrived at school, I winced as I remembered I'd have to face Oliver again. I hadn't told Seth what Oliver said about me. I didn't Seth to have anything else to worry about, and I didn't want Kirsten and Sandy to have to put up with another kid being suspended.

Seth and I walked down the hallway and met Marissa and Summer.

"Hey." Summer greeted and I smiled at her. "Hey. Hey Marissa." I said and Marissa nodded at me.

"How's Ben?" I asked Summer. Ben was her boyfriend and Anna's brother. He'd been out of school the last week due to the flu.

"He's doing better. He should be back in school next week."

"Oh thats good." I said, then there was an awkward silence.

"Well, this is.."

"Weird?" Marissa asked and I nodded.

"Hey, just because you and Ryan broke up doesn't mean we can't all hang out.." Seth told her.

"Yeah." Marissa said, then looked over at me. "Is he okay?"

I was about to answer when Oliver walked up to us with a very swollen lip and black eye. I nearly smiled at the damage Ryan had done, but realized Marissa wouldn't take kindly to that. I did however, grab Seth's hand as Oliver walked closer.

"What's up? So what're we doing this weekend? Ski trip to Mammoth, there's gonna be six to eight inches of fresh powder tomorrow." Oliver asked. I ignored the way his eyes brushed over to me momentarily.

"Oliver your lip and your eye-" Marissa stated in concern.

"Oh, I was hoping it had already made the transaction from scary to sexy." Oliver joked and Marissa laughed slightly.

"Walk me to western Civ?" Oliver asked her and she nodded, waving at us before following him.

"Wow, Oliver seems almost-" Summer trailed off.

"Happy. Of course he is. He has Marissa all to himself now." I stated and Summer nodded.

"You want to walk to English together, Ally?" Summer asked and I nodded. "Yeah. Bye." I told Seth, smiling at him before walking beside Summer.

"Hey, we should make a pact." Summer suggested and I glanced to her.

"What kind of pact?"

"You know, to keep Marissa safe from Oliver. He really creeps me out." Summer said and I nodded.