Chapter 22: Enough is Enough

"You're in jail again."

Seth frowned, and looked down at his thimble game-piece.

"Your turn," he finally said. But, I didn't make any move to roll the dice. I'd been sitting in his room for fifteen minutes, wondering why I was there. It wasn't like he was giving me any of the information I wanted.

"I think I should go home."

Seth looked up at me, not looking shocked, or bothered, or happy... or anything about that announcement. He seemed neutral. I think part of me wished he'd say good riddance or something like that, just because it would seem normal.

"Okay. Need a ride?"

"I have the bike," I said, standing up. Seth stood up, too.

"You could put in my truck," he pointed out, and I went back to looking at him funny.

"You're doing it again," I accused.

"Being nice to you? So?"

"It's weird."

"Maybe I'm just doing it to freak you out," Seth remarked, and for a moment I considered this before I stopped to realize that there was a teasing smile on his face, and then I wasn't sure what to think.

"I'm leaving," I decided. Seth just nodded and followed me out. By the time we reached the front door, I'd decided to just head to the bike without looking back. "See you later," or even "Bye" somehow didn't seem appropriate at this point. I definitely didn't plan to come back here, or see Seth again. Hell, I was still trying to figure out what I was doing there in the first place. The only thing that seemed to make sense was that maybe I was looking for some sort of closure with Aaron. But I was quickly realizing that Seth wasn't going to be the one to give that to me. Yes, the best course of action seemed to be leaving him with no parting words, and I could keep pretending that I hadn't embarrassed myself by showing up there in the first place.

I opened the door, ready to make a dash for the bike, and stopped. Out front, where the minivan had been no more than twenty minutes ago, was a truck, the same model as Seth's, only black. The truck's bed was loaded with boxes, among other things that looked like old toys, and an intact baby crib, which a tall man with dark, curly hair was attempting to get out of the bed. He looked up and waved just as Seth appeared in the doorway behind me.

"Hey, guys, can you give me a hand with this real quick?"

"Sure, Dad," Seth called, and then glanced at me as he passed by. "Do you mind?"

Did I mind? I was supposed to be leaving. I still found myself moving towards the truck, though. Seth's dad was watching me with brown eyes and a smile. It looked like the kind you'd see on a customer service agent who actually liked people. Something about him reminded me of Angela's father right away. It wasn't his appearance, exactly. He was just... approachable.

Mr. Fisher gave Seth a pat on the back as my nemesis climbed into the bed of the truck, and then automatically stuck out his hand for me to shake.

"Mars Fisher," he introduced himself. "And you are?"

"Um, Rory," I replied, wondering if I'd actually heard his name right.

"Here we go," Seth said, sliding the crib forward. I followed Mr. Fisher's lead and grabbed a leg, and together we moved the crib out of the truck and onto the driveway. I wondered if I could go now as Seth hopped out of the truck and I looked between him and his father. They were both studying the crib as if there was actually something interesting about it.

"We'll have to take it apart," Seth announced.

"You think so?" Mr. Fisher replied, seeming disappointed.

"The stairs are too narrow," Seth insisted. "It's the only way we'll get it up there."

"Well, as long as it's in the baby's room before your mother gets home," Mr. Fisher replied. "She's been asking me to get this stuff out of storage for weeks." Seth rolled his eyes at that, but didn't comment. "Will you grab my tools out of the garage, Seth? I need to call your mom real quick, but if you boys want to get started, that would be great."

You boys?

Crap.

"No problem," Seth insisted. "Oh, and Mom says you're supposed to call Grandma."

"This time it was Mr. Fisher who rolled his eyes, a lot like Seth just had. As he moved into the house, I just stood there, wondering if I was supposed to stick around and help with this now. I was supposed to be leaving.

"My mom's pregnant," Seth explained, still examining the crib. "My parents weren't expecting it, and she's only two months along, but she's been freaking out since the beginning. She wants everything to be perfect before she has the baby. My dad says she did the same thing when she had the rest of us."

Seth looked up at me, his smile abruptly fading when he met my eyes. Just like my being there, it was pointless for him to be giving me this information--not that I didn't find it interesting. I don't think I even minded him telling me about it. I guess it was the why question that was bothering me.

"You know, you don't have to stay," Seth suddenly said, probably realizing that his dad had in one way or another, volunteered me to help. "I mean, you said you had to go, right?"

"Yeah," I said quickly, and headed towards the bike.

I momentarily paused. I almost told Seth not to count on it. It's what I'd normally do. Only, I let it go this time, and kept moving. I had my hands on the handlebars when I glanced back, but allowed my eyes to linger when I saw Seth disappearing into the garage and I found my eyes coming to rest on the infant's bed.

I'm not sure what it was that caught my interest about the crib. I mean... it was a crib. But, I could picture Seth's mom, that tall, blonde-haired woman over it, and suddenly I was wondering what kind of crib I had, what my mom had stood over. I couldn't remember it. I wondered if I had a picture somewhere.

As I stared, something else caught my eye, trapped in the wooden bars of the guardrail, and I left the bike to get closer, only to reach into the little bed and lift out a toy--an action figure dressed in a ninja suit.

"Hey, that was Seth's."

I jumped and spun around to see Mr. Fisher coming towards me, and I automatically held out the toy for him to take.

"Seth was so angry when we made him give this to Gail," he explained. "It was the only way we could get her to go to sleep. Do you have any brothers or sisters, Ricky?"

"Um... it's Rory, and no, I don't."

"Right, Rory," Mr. Fisher said sheepishly, and then gave me a measuring look. "I haven't met you before, have I?"

"No, I don't think so," I said honestly.

"Oh. So, where do you live, Rory?"

"That way..." I answered, pointing. "Down the street..."

"A neighbor; good! Well, it's really nice to meet you. Seth doesn't have any friends that are so close by. I hope I'm not interrupting you guys' plans with all this stuff," he said, waving to the truck. "Gotta keep the wife happy, you know?" He nudged my arm and chuckled while I smiled nervously and watched him move to the truck to lift out a box before extending it out in my direction. "Do you mind?" he asked.

"Uh, no," I said, hesitantly reaching out to take the box from him, and to my surprise, I really didn't mind, not that much.

"Great; if we could just get these into the living room, that would be great."

As he took a box for himself, I turned towards the house and paused when I saw Seth standing there giving me a funny look, obviously confused when it came to why I was still there. I simply shrugged and walked back into his house, his dad right behind me.

It made me uncomfortable that I was so... comfortable. I think it actually would have been easier if Seth would have done or said something to indicate that he didn't want me there, but he seemed fine with it. I wasn't used to this behavior from him. But even if I didn't want to admit it, it was easy to relax in the environment I found myself in. I liked it.

I didn't do much talking, but I did help with the boxes, and followed instructions when Mr. Fisher gave them to me. I mostly just watched, and listened. I paid attention to how Seth and his dad interacted with each other--bickering over the 'best way' to take apart the crib, discussing what was in the boxes and where they should go, and laughing when Mr. Fisher lifted a box, only for the contents--a breast pump, I'm told--to come falling through the bottom. I caught myself smiling a few times, and a few times, I think I even forgot that I was supposed to despise Seth. He just seemed so normal with his dad. It was a little eye-opening for me, and in more ways than one--especially when I found some of the answers I'd been looking for, even if it took me a while to realize it.

Originally, I'd knocked on Seth's door in the midst of a mental breakdown, wanting him to know that he'd been lying. I guess I'd figured it would be easy to understand Aaron if Seth wasn't telling me the truth, but as I calmed down, I saw that it wouldn't matter. I didn't understand Aaron. But, as I spent some time with the Fishers, strangely enough, I think I was starting to understand a few things.

Aaron had always managed to give me the impression that Seth needed him in some way. I think I'd automatically figured that something wasn't right at home for him, given Aaron's little comments here and there; but now, that was making little sense to me. It was more likely that Aaron was so adamant about remaining friends with Seth because he felt like there was something he needed there. I wondered if it was the environment. I'd met Seth's mom for two whole seconds before I decided that I liked her; and while there were personal reasons behind it for me, I doubted Aaron disliked her. As for Seth's dad--well, he was a little odd, but completely likeable. The whole situation was just simple to be around. I could understand what the appeal to Aaron was, given his own family environment. I just wished that I could figure out what I found so appealing about it. Given the history I had with Seth, I should have wanted to get out of there, but I wasn't really in any hurry to excuse myself.

By the time we were upstairs, and putting the crib back together in an empty room, I was beginning to wonder why Seth hadn't excused me, either. He hadn't even mentioned that I'd been focused on leaving not so long ago. I wondered if this was just him being nice to me again. That wasn't something I was used to, so it seemed natural to question it. And, I decided to question Seth, too, as he tightened the last few screws on the crib and Mr. Fisher excused himself to go downstairs, mentioning that he wanted to look through some of the boxes before Mrs. Fisher got home.

I stared at Seth, kneeling on the ground as he finished up his work. It took him several moments to look up and notice I was watching him and he tilted back his head to look at me from beneath the brim of his hat.

"Why aren't you asking why I haven't left yet?" I demanded, but my voice was hushed, almost like I didn't want anyone else to hear the question.

"Because if I ask, you'll probably leave whether or not you really want to," Seth replied, matching my whispered tone in a mocking way. But, there wasn't really anything malicious in his voice.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Never mind," he said, shaking his head. "Hey, my dad's probably going to finish everything else up--do you wanna go do something? Like, not here?"

"What?"

Seth sighed.

"I mean--if you want to. You sort of stopped yelling at me an hour ago... and you are still here. I want to get out of the house for a while. Do you wanna come with?"

I just stared, wondering what would provoke him to even ask a question like that. I wondered why he'd want to. It's not like I'd given him much of a reason.

"If you think I'm just going to ditch you, I'll give you my keys," Seth added irritably when I didn't say anything.

"Are you serious?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it's not like I need my keys until we drive back..."

"No, I mean, you want to go somewhere with me? Why?"

In response, Seth shrugged, as if the question didn't make a whole lot of sense to him.

"Why not?"

I opened my mouth to tell him why not, but stopped when I realized that explaining to him that he happened to be the spawn of Satan would no longer work. I'd met his parents.

"Look," Seth finally said, sounding irritated when I continued to stare at him like he had two heads. "You can do whatever you want, obviously. But, I need to get out of here before my mom gets home and my parents trap me to go through baby stuff, okay? So... I'm going. Do you want..."

"I'm going home," I cut him off. "I mean... I should just go home."

Driving wasn't really that hard. At least, sitting in front of a race-car video game wasn't hard. I wasn't even hitting that many things. I figured I wouldn't have been hitting anything at all if I wasn't worrying about the blue car ahead of me, which I was currently trying to get ahead of. I glanced down at the bottom of the split screen. Seth was obnoxiously better at this game than I was, but that could have been because he admitted to hanging out at that place a lot.

We were at an arcade. I wasn't sure exactly where it was located, but it had only taken us ten minutes to get there and the place was in between a barber shop and a thrift store, packed with kids--mostly younger, I noticed. And, I hadn't gone home. I really had no excuse for it at this point, either.

"So this is what you do?" I found myself asking. "Seems kind of boring compared to all your drunk friends, don't you think?"

"What are you talking about?" Seth asked, after a moment of considering the question. "I like it here."

"You like hanging out with a bunch of little kids when you could be at parties with your friends?" I asked skeptically.

"You were at Rick's party, too," he pointed out, still looking confused.

"Not that party; the other one, where people were puking in the plants."

"Oh... you were at that one, too," he pointed out, smirking in my direction. "But, I wasn't at that party, not really."

"So, what? You showed up just to rescue me?" I sarcastically retorted.

"It was a rescue now, huh? Does that make me your hero?" Seth remarked, another smile taking over his face. For the second time since I'd met him, the dimple on his left cheek was visible. It faded, though, and he rolled his eyes, when I narrowed mine on him. "I was just giving a friend a ride. Kevin--he calls me to do that sometimes. I was just helping him carry a few things up. I didn't know you or Aaron would be there."

"Oh; so why didn't you drive him home?" I asked.

"Do you still think I want him back?" Seth asked, with no small amount of annoyance in his voice as he beat me at the game we were playing once again and restocked the machine with quarters. "I don't. The only reason I even stayed friends with him after I broke up with him was because I felt sorry for him."

"You broke up with him?"

"That's generally what I do when someone cheats on me," Seth said smartly. "But, it's not like I every really hated him for it, so I was cool with a few phone calls, and we could hang out okay; but then he got pissy about Angela, and all that shit with you happened. I just got fucking tired of it. That's why I let him deal with his own shit at the party. I don't want anything to do with him anymore."

"What about Rick's party," I responded desperately, once again feeling desperate to put holes in Seth's explanations. "You were..."

"Are you kidding me?" he cut me off. "I walked him to his car and made sure he left. Shit, you act like I invited him or something. Can we stop talking about Aaron now, please?"

I frowned, and turned back to the game, trying to piece together everything I'd learned from Seth, matching things here and there to certain events revolving around Aaron. It seemed sort of like a one-side-against-the-other situation, but unfortunately, Seth was coming out ahead in the credibility department. It just made sense for things to have happened the way he said. He'd been at the park that first night, he'd heard about me, he got into an argument with Aaron... he'd heard about me. Heard about me.

"Would Aaron think it's a load of crap?" I suddenly asked, as if I hadn't heard the last thing he'd said at all.

"Huh?"

"You said, that the night I met Aaron at the park, people were talking about me, and being Luke's cousin. Aaron would have thought it was a bunch of bullshit, too, right? Just like everyone else? He knew Luke..." I felt sick as I thought over the possibilities. Not only was I faced with thinking that Aaron had only ever approached me because of Seth, but now I had to wonder if Aaron had always known my situation. Maybe he'd only let me in on the secret that everyone I was living with was gay because he was getting tired of playing the game. This, was definitely devastating news. I'd always credited Aaron for telling me the truth when no one else would, but now...

"I said, it seemed like bullshit because you couldn't be Luke's cousin and Eddie's kid. I mean, it's always been common knowledge that Jase and Eddie are a couple, and Luke's Jase's cousin. Plus, Luke never talks about other family--at least, that's what I've heard from Aaron and around school. Luke's kind of popular." I didn't doubt that, but I was still frowning, and Seth had stopped playing the game to watch me. "Hey--did you tell Aaron who your dad was? I mean, right away?"

"He didn't find out until later about that, but..."

"So maybe he figured there was a reason Luke was calling you his cousin," Seth suggested. And, he had a point, I guess; and, he'd also managed to surprise me again, which explained the way that I was looking at him disbelievingly. He'd been pretty good at making Aaron sound like a lying asshole lately, so I hadn't been expecting him to say anything in Aaron's defense. And, even if it gave me hope that Aaron wasn't a complete bastard, I still had to wonder.

"I need some air," I said quietly, and abruptly stood up, suddenly more than ready to get away from the arcade. Seth didn't say anything, he just followed me until we reached the parking lot, at which point I stopped about four feet behind his truck. He also stopped with me, not bothering to ask what I was doing. Instead, he threw me with an entirely unexpected question.

"So, does your dad still think I did that to your neck?" he asked.

My hand went self-consciously to my hickey when I caught him looking at it, and I stared back at him, not sure whether I should respond to the question, or the fact that he'd ask it while I clearly had way too many other things on my mind.

"It's Eddie; and no, he doesn't."

"Okay... 'cause, he seemed freaked out the other night, so..."

"He doesn't think it anymore," I insisted. "So, you can relax."

"Right... so, are you hungry?"

I blinked at the abrupt subject change, feeling a little annoyed by it. Seth didn't look bothered at all.

"Yeah," I replied, deciding that Seth was developing a short attention span. "Is there somewhere to get, like, a pretzel around here?"

"A pretzel?" Seth repeated, a smile curling his lip.

"Yeah."

"No; but I know where to get one."

Seth looked up at me as I took a seat across from him with my food at a small table in front of the pretzel stand at the mall, dipping a piece of his own pretzel into a mustard sauce.

"Is that your third one?" he remarked, eyeing my pretzel. I'd already downed two in the time it took him to eat half of one.

"Yeah," I responded, unbothered by the accusing tone in his voice.

"You're like... a pretzel whore."

"I'm hungry," I informed him.

"We could have gone to get real food."

"I wanted junk food," I shrugged. It was a rarity for me, and I wasn't going to apologize for it.

"So is your dad's name really Mars?" I asked, changing the subject. I'd given up on interrogating Seth for information about Aaron. Ever since we'd left the arcade he'd changed the subject each time I brought up the topic, and by now, I was tired of getting annoyed with him for it.

"Yep. Mars Fisher. I have an Aunt Venus, too."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," Seth replied seriously. "My grandparents are... interesting. My dad always said that he wanted to name his own kids after planets or something like that, too."

"So what happened?"

"My mom, thank God," Seth half-laughed. "It's bad enough my dad got to pick our middle names."

"What's yours?" I asked curiously.

Seth automatically shook his head, but then seemed to think on it for a moment, and after yet another moment of hesitation, he shrugged.

"Saturn. My sister got Mercury, and my brother ended up with Neptune--it's a weird family thing."

"Yeah," I agreed. It was definitely a little weird, but not uninteresting. "So your name's Seth Saturn? Catchy."

"You can shut up now," Seth responded, rolling his eyes as he pushed what was left of his pretzel into his mouth and I took a bite of mine.

"Do you like Luke?" I suddenly asked. Honestly, I had no malicious intent behind the question. I think I just wanted to know, after talking to Luke.

"Why? You want to make sure I don't get between you and your next boyfriend ahead of time?" Seth responded, and when I lifted my brow at that he rolled his eyes at me again. "I never really talked to him before yesterday."

"Yeah, but do you like him?"

"I guess he's okay," Seth replied, regarding me almost suspiciously. "It's not like I'd want to date him, though. And, I've never really been that fond of the guys he hangs out with, but Angela says they're alright."

"Is that why you told her to ask them for help the other day?"

"I told her that we could get everything done with more people. I didn't know who she was going to ask. I probably wouldn't have offered to help if I'd known--actually, I would have, because it was Angela. But, she could have warned me before she did it."

"Oh."

"What?" Seth half-laughed. "You don't think I'd actually want to hang out with a bunch of guys all day who hate me, do you? And don't tell me they don't. Everyone knows Dave likes Angela. Every time she even looks at another guy that whole group gets bent out of shape, and it's stupid, too. If Dave doesn't have the guts to ask her out then he shouldn't get pissed when someone else does."