Safe With You || Seth Cohen

||16||

~~~~

I was lying next to Seth in his bed as he played with my hand.

"What do you think Palm Springs will be like?" I asked him.

"Well, there'll be golf.." he trailed off.

"And it will just be Marissa, Luke, Ryan and the two of us."

"And Oliver." Seth added and I cringed slightly. "What don't you like about him?" Seth asked me, noticing my facial expression.

"I don't know, he just seems like he wants to be with Marissa. Plus we've never met his girlfriend. Something tells me she won't be there this weekend either."

"Maybe she'll be there. I think you should give Oliver a chance." Seth told me and I sighed. "I'll do it, only because you asked me so nicely." I said, leaning over to kiss him.

When we broke apart, Seth grinned. "You know what I'm looking forward to most? A whole weekend without having to worry about my parents or worse- Ryan walking in on us."

I smiled slightly.

"Yeah, that will be nice."

~~~~

The next day, we were loading our luggage into the car. Luke showed up with cartons of beer in the back of his truck.

"Did you rob a liquor store, Luke?" Seth asked him.

"Cohen, you can't play golf without a little buzz on." Luke told him.

Seth placed his humidifier into the trunk and Luke walked over.

"A blender. Nice thinking, Cohen."

"No, actually it's a humidifier. Ally and I both get bad nosebleeds." Seth corrected him.

Ryan and Marissa walked out and Seth and I walked over to them. "All packed?" I asked Ryan, who nodded.

"Where's Oliver?" Seth asked, but his question was answered as Oliver approached us, looking upset.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Marissa asked him almost instantly.

"It's Natalie. It's over. I don't know, I'm sorry, maybe we shouldn't go." Oliver said.

I shared a significant glance with Seth. I told him Natalie wouldn't be able to make it.

"Yeah, yeah, maybe we shouldn't." Ryan said quickly, causing Marissa to look over at him.

"What happened?" Marissa asked Oliver, who sighed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, you need to and you know, maybe we need to get outta town and maybe we can talk about it on the way down." Marissa suggested then glanced at Ryan. "Well, is that okay, if I ride with Oliver?"

Ryan stayed silent, which Marissa looked offended at, but quickly said, "Or maybe we could all go together."

"No, no, you guys go. I'll see you down there." Ryan said with a fake smile.

"Hey, Chino, why don't you ride with me?" Luke called to Ryan, who nodded.

I turned to Seth. "You ready?" I asked him, although I could already tell this weekend was going to be tough.

"Thanks for understanding." Marissa said, kissing Ryan on the cheek before following Oliver to his car. Ryan watched them go and I met his eyes. We both seemed to be thinking the same thing about Oliver.

~~~~

The drive to Palm Springs was mostly silent, with Seth and I talking occasionally. Neither of us mentioned the absence of Natalie, because I knew Seth wasn't as suspicious of Oliver as I was and I didn't want to start any arguments.