laughingtale: (the oc)
laughingtale ([personal profile] laughingtale) wrote2005-05-01 08:54 pm

What Goes On In Your Mind (The OC)

Title: What Goes on in Your Mind
Author: [livejournal.com profile] wordsaremyfaith
Fandom: The OC
Pairing: gen
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 394
Summary: It wasn't a real vacation, but it should have been.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I'm making no money off of this.
A/N: For 15minuteficlets' Word #11.


It wasn’t a real vacation, but it should’ve been. Seth’s first trip to New York City should have been fun and touristy, a total cliché. Instead, it was depressing and grey (both literally – the sky – and figuratively – the moods). Nana Cohen wasn’t getting any better, and she still refused to move to California to be closer to them.

Seth paced the waiting room, unsure of what he was supposed to be doing. Ryan and Kirsten were sitting on the hard plastic chairs and Sandy was talking to the doctor. This was probably the hardest part; Seth comforted himself with that thought.

It wasn’t very comforting.

And how the hell did he forget to bring Captain Oats? He’d gotten to the hotel and unpacked, only to realize that his beloved horse was on his desk at home. “Fuck,” he’d sworn, and Ryan had just looked at him, eyes saying everything and nothing at once. Seth didn’t know quite how to read him anymore.

Everything had been falling apart this year, and the only way Seth knew how to fix it was to try to make it as close as possible to last year. Not that last year had been easy, either, but it had been the best year of his life.

But now… now they were at the fucking hospital, and Seth was pacing and staring at the sterile white walls, wringing his hands unconsciously. He barely knew Ryan anymore, Zach was probably at home stealing his girlfriend, and his Nana was sick and might not leave the hospital this time. Every time he thought about it, it all seemed to get worse.

So he wouldn’t think about it. That would work, right? Um. Instead, he’d think about… his distant parents? No… Marissa? No… Trey? No… the weather? He glanced out the window; it was pouring. Nope, not that either. It was pretty pathetic when a guy had to resort to thinking about the weather. Or even not thinking about it.

Sandy came rushing towards them suddenly, and Seth stopped pacing and froze in fear. What if Nana was dying at that very moment? What if they’d gotten there too late and she was already gone? What if… the thoughts swirled around in his head until he couldn’t make sense of any of them.

Then Sandy opened his mouth, and time stopped.