Someone Like You

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Seth sat cross leg on the cream white carpet with a Playstation controller in his hand and his eyes focused on the television screen in front of him displaying the graphic violent result of when an expert ninja and his trusty mythical sword is attacked by an army of orcs wielding rusty axes. He was wearing a pair of dark brown trousers, a brown and orange polo top with the collar firmly down, and a pair of spotless expensive white sneakers. The young man smiled gleefully at the destruction he had wreaked. His eyes sparked as he surveyed the computer generated body parts strewn across the windswept landscape. Then to his immense satisfaction the words 'Level' and 'Completed' flashed up on the screen to a triumphant trumpet serenade. It was at this point that Seth felt the presence of another person in the room; a stationary figure standing by the door that led out into the garden. He slowly turned his head from the television screen to the door. Standing in the doorway stood a mysterious muscular young man. His features were mostly hidden by the shadow cast upon him as a result of the sun being almost directly behind his left shoulder. Seth could see an unkempt crumple of sandy-coloured hair, a white slightly worn wife-beater shirt, a pair of ordinary-looking jeans, and a black leather wristband. A tense silence existed between the two as each checking the other one out.

"Err…" Seth said with notable nervousness. "Hi."

"Hi." The mysterious figure said without a trace of emotion.

"I'm Seth."

"Ryan."

"Are you…? Err…" Seth hesitated.

Ryan took a step into the house. "The kid who stole a car? Got thrown out by his mother? And spent the night in your pool house?" The questions became steadily more defiant.

Seth lifted his controller. "I was just going to ask if you are any good at Ninja Quest."

Marissa picked at the eggs on her plate. She was seating in one of the bright red booths in the Lobster Shack. She was sitting alone. The table was full of empty and not-so-empty plates. To her left there was a large pile of ketchup sitting helplessly on the table top. Behind there was a display of plants secured to a wooden checkerboard-type separator. Marissa half thought about checking the plants to find out if they were real or plastic, though she didn't know why she did this since she could never tell what a real plant was supposed to feel like; behind the possibly real plants stood her best friend Summer. She was uh-huhing into her ridiculously small cell phone with an incredibly bored look of her face. Marissa knew that Summer's stepmother was on the other line telling her some story about how she needed to get away from all the stress of sitting around all day during nothing. That meant another weekend alone for Summer. Marissa felt her friend.

Behind Summer were Red Lobster's bathrooms with the names 'Buoys' and 'Gals' written on the two swinging doors. The Buoy door swung open and out stepped Marissa's boyfriend, Luke, a tall powerful water-polo playing young man. He walked past Summer who lowered her voice as she saw him approach. As he came round the plants he pulled a fat leather wallet from his back pocket and deposited several green bills on the table. "So, Hon, I got to go. The boys are waiting for me. We're going to take my dad's new jet skis out. See what they can do. You going hang with Summer?"

Marissa opened her mouth but before any sound could come out Luke had already picked up his jacket from beside her put it on his broad shoulders and moved down to kiss her. She closed her mouth, gave him a little peck, and nodded. Luke walked off giving the pretty young blonde waitress a grin as pushed open the door and walked out into the sunshine.

Marissa sat looking at the other customers in the restaurant. In the booth directly in front of her there was an old man with a small greying beard and thick glasses perched on the edge of his nose. Opposite the old man was a youngish bleach blonde woman with two clearly visible and probably surgically enhanced assets. The old man held a pen in his hand and would make occasional marks on his newspaper while his blonde companion was admiring herself in the reflection on the back of the spoon she was holding.

Summer came round from behind the possibly fake plants. She had a large fake smile on her face. Marissa uncomfortably smiled back. She didn't know if she should ask Summer what's wrong or whether she should ignore it completely. Luckily for her Summer made the decision. "You wanna go shopping?" Summer tried desperately to sound emotionless but a hint of pain crept into her voice.

Marissa nodded.

"You just stabbed me." Ryan said while desperately pressing buttons on his controllers.

Seth did not move his vision from the screen in front of him. "Yeah, it's a dog eat dog world."

Ryan turned to look at Seth. "We're on the same team."

Seth turned to look at Ryan. "There are teams?" He said surprised.

Ryan look dumbfounded for a moment then nodded.

"Oh." Seth said quietly. "I usually play this alone. Actually I've always played this alone."

Ryan turned back to the screen and started to press the buttons on his controller again. Seth followed suit.

Sandy walked in to the room his hair wet from surfing. He smiled when he saw Ryan and Seth playing a computer game together. "Hey, boys." Seth and Ryan looked up from their game. "Why aren't you outside on a glorious day like this?"

"Dad, we live in Orange County. They're all glorious days." Seth quipped.

Sandy chose to ignore his son's last comment. "Seth, why don't take Ryan to the shops. I'm sure he could do with a few extra clothes."

"I'm fine, Mr Cohen." Ryan said.

Seth turned to Ryan. "The old man's right. This is Newport. People wear three different shirts before breakfast."

"Old man?" Sandy asked.

"Anyway, it's not like you'll be paying for it, right?" Seth asked in the direction of his father.

"Right." Sandy confirmed getting out his wallet. "Here." He said handing his credit card to Seth. "Have fun." He thought for a moment. "Not too much fun. Remember I have itemised billing."

Marissa pulled up her car outside the latest one-word name chic boutique to open in Newport. Summer hopped out of the passenger side and her eyes lit up at the display of skirts in the window. "Coop, you have your dad's credit card, right?"

Marissa smiled while getting out of the car. "It's for emergency, Summer."

Summer cocked her head to one side. "This is an emergency." She said pointed at the big red sale sign in the window.

Marissa laughed and was about to join her friend in entering the shop but something stopped her. She turned her head and looked up the street. Coming out of a shop about fifty yards away was Seth followed by Ryan carrying six large bags. "Come on, Coop!" Summer shouted from inside the shop.

Just as Marissa was about to turn and go into the shop Ryan looked down the street towards Marissa. Their eyes met for a moment. A subtle smile drifted onto Marissa's face. Then Seth dragged Ryan across the street just as Summer grabbed Marissa's arm and pulled her into the shop.