Finding a New Ally

"Stay away from that woman," JoJo reminded Sean as he closed the door to her room and headed downstairs.

He felt much better after spending time laughing with his best friend at her family's antics. A peacefulness had flooded through his body, thanks to the brunette's presence. For once, sex and the women at the cabin weren't the thoughts dominating his mind. Sure, JoJo's reminder to stay away from Ms. Goose brought back some flashes of what she did at the cavern, but he wasn't scared of her jumping him the moment his feet hit the main floor.

Looking around, Sean noticed the empty main room and dining area. I wonder where everyone went. It's still early. Sounds like a game is on downstairs, but that's probably Austin or Jared, and I don--somebody's banging around in the kitchen. Hearing a cabinet door slam that way, he headed over and saw an agitated teenager slam another cabinet shut.

"Hey, Whitney, is everything alright?"

"Jesus! Don't scare me like that!" the blonde screeched after flinching at the sound of his voice.

"Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay?" Sean asked the obviously upset girl.

"Just peachy," Whitney snapped. Grabbing a bottle of water from the refrigerator, she walked past him and out of the room. "Sorry, I'm not in the mood to talk right now. Jared's down in the rec room if you need attention."

Whoa, I wonder who or what pissed her off? Sean thought as he watched the swaying of her hips as the buxom blonde marched down to the hallway that led to the master suite. Considering for a moment about joining Jared, he shook his head at the idea and headed back towards the front door to get his coat. I'm still not ready to deal with him and Ramsey. I'll just head back to the boathouse.

After grabbing his winter jacket, he headed back through the cabin's central part and into the sunroom, where he abruptly stopped. "Newt, I thought you were over in the bunkroom."

"I was until Austin showed up all pissed off and drinking," the scrawny teen answered, looking up from his tablet. "His muttering and pacing got to be too distracting, so I came back over here."

"Well, I'm heading over there now if you want to come with me," his close friend offered.

"That's okay. I'll stay here for a little longer," he answered, his eyes dropping back down to the screen.

"Alright, but you might want to head inside. It's getting chilly in here, and nobody is in the main room," Sean suggested, noticing the fire in the woodstove had died down.

"Oh, I guess it is. I didn't notice," Newt replied, surprised at how cold the room had become. "You sure no one is in there? I heard banging and a loud voice just a few minutes ago."

"That was probably Whitney. I think something pissed her off, but she's back in her room now," explained Sean. His geeky friend shrugged and stood up to head into the cabin.

Walking down the deck stairs to the ground, Sean could hear loud voices and laughter coming from the hot tub area. At least Mom sounds like she's finally having a good time. Good for her, he thought as he recognized his mother's laugh. Carefully he moved past so that no one inside saw him, not sure which of his mother's friends were inside with her.

Reaching the boathouse, he braced himself for what he might find inside. If Austin was drunk and pissed off, it could be quite uncomfortable inside. Throw in Owen and his glares throughout the day, and Sean prepared for the possibility of getting into a fight himself. Climbing up the stairs, he noticed how quiet it was. Sounds promising...except for that noise. Is that snoring?

Opening the door, the sound rang out even louder. It was snoring, and it came from a passed out Austin. Lacey's head swung over to look at him from the chair she sat on in front of the lake window. "Hey," she said softly with a sad look on her face.

"Hey, Lace. Is everything alright?" Sean found himself asking the same question to a second girl in the last ten minutes.

"Somewhat," the redhead shrugged, nodding over at her sleeping boyfriend. "At least, the angry drunk is finally out for the night. I really don't know what to do about him and Jared. They almost got into another fight earlier," she added with a sigh.

"Even with the threat of being sent home? Damn, I'm sorry, I can talk to Jared and see if he can back off," Sean offered, feeling sympathy for the upset girl.

"You don't have to do that. I'm going to have a serious talk with Austin tomorrow," Lacey replied. "But there is one favor I could use if you don't mind."

"Sure, what do you need?"

"A hand getting back to my room," she answered, pointing down at her ankle. "I twisted it again when I was chasing after Auss on the way here. I can't put much weight on it, and I don't want to crawl all the way back," the usually bubbly ginger added with an attempt at a laugh.

Sean moved over to help the petite redhead stand up and then handed over her coat, hat, gloves, and that treacherous scarf. Once all bundled up, Sean noticed again just how cute she looked in the outfit. Really is a shame that she's with Austin. She should be with a nice guy. She shouldn't have to put up with all his drama unless she's one of those girls that likes that type of a life.

Descending the stairs was a problematic endeavor. Lacey slipped and almost fell twice, leading Sean to be thankful that it was the tiniest person at the cabin who needed his help. Upon exiting the boathouse, they stopped to catch their breath.

"Thanks, those stairs were worse than I imagined," Lacey noted while gingerly putting a little weight on her sprained ankle. "I think I can use this foot a little bit, but not on any stairs. Let's just take another minute before we start back up, okay."

"Sure, whatever you need," Sean politely told her. After deciding it was now or never, he blurted out the question that he'd been dying to ask for hours. "Lacey, what happened this afternoon between the four of you?"

"Oh...you really want to know? I guess it was all my fault. When Ramsey walked in on Austin and me doing, well, you know, I thought it would be a good idea to show her some pointers. The girl gets so tense when sex is talked about, you know, well, I guess you wouldn't know," Lacey reluctantly retold her tale. "I swear I didn't know Jared had walked in behind Rammy. If I had known that, I would have never told Auss that we had an audience. When he looked over and saw Jared, he just snapped and rushed him. Rammy blames herself for what happened, but I'm the one that should have known better."

Taking a couple of moments to ingest the information she provided, Sean pressed on for more details. "Um, why would Ramsey blame herself? Did she do something with Jared?"

"Ah, didn't Jared tell you? No, uh, you see, Rammy got a little hot and bothered by watching us and sort of started to touch herself. Then when Jared came in, I guess he sort of helped her," Lacey uncomfortably continued. "This is kind of weird to be telling you. Isn't this the type of stuff guys tell each other?"

"I couldn't ask Jared; I was too worried about what he would say," Sean said, accidentally revealing too much.

"Why would you be worried? You know you seemed tense with Jar--oh my gawd! You like Rammy!" Lacey practically screamed out into the night air.

"What? No!" he tried to deny but gave up after seeing the cheerful grin and nodding head of the little redhead.

"Yes, you do! This makes so much sense. You always get quiet and tense around her. How did I not put two and two together?" asked Lacey, more to herself than to Sean. "Wait a sec; this has been going on for a long time, hasn't it? I would guess since sometime sophomore year."

Shocked at how quickly Lacey put together the pieces of his secret crush, Sean just nodded back at her in defeat. Now four people know. Soon everyone at the cabin will know and then at school. I'll be a laughingstock.

"What didn't you tell me?" his family friend demanded to know but didn't wait for an answer. "You two would be perfect together. Shit, why didn't I see this sooner? Oh, fuck! This is all my fault."

"Your fault? Why would you think that?" asked Sean, finally able to speak again, as his secret world began to unravel.

"Because I should have made more of an effort to include you in stuff since we started high school. I've already been feeling guilty about that, and I deserve to feel even worse now." An angry Lacey stomped down with her injured foot, causing her to howl in pain.

Rushing to grab the redhead before she fell over from the pain, Sean admonished the girl for her line of thinking. "Lace, this is no way your fault. So don't literally beat yourself up over it. You got that?"

Shaking her head no at him, Lacey managed to speak once the pain subsided finally. "Don't you see? If I had invited and included you more, you could have told Rammy how you felt a long time ago. The two of you could have had years together!"

Uncertain how he turned into the less distraught person in this conversation, Sean cared more about calming down his family friend than protecting his secrets any longer. "Lace, you've invited me tons of times to parties. I'm the one that turns you down, partly because I was worried that if I were around Ramsey, I would screw up, and everyone would learn that I liked her."

"Why? Why would you be worried about her learning that? You're a great guy, Sean. Any girl would be thrilled to be with you," the puzzled cheerleader asked.

"C'mon, you know that's not true. Well, it is," Sean insisted after seeing her shake her head. "I'm not popular. I'm not a star athlete. I'm not the hot guy that girls drool over. I'm that guy that got cut from basketball tryouts twice. I'm the guy that Sienna Thirlby rejected when I asked her to prom last year for the second straight year. The guy she poured her drink on in the cafeteria."

"First, Sienna rejects every guy. That's why she's the frigging ice queen of the school. Come on, Sean, you know that," she countered with a sigh. "Second, you might not be the popular star like Austin, but you're way more liked than he is. I'm serious. People might cheer for him, but a lot of them really don't like him. People like you. No one says anything bad about you."

"I don't know about that," he replied.

"Well, I do. I might not be as smart as Ramsey or Whitney, but I know people. I pay attention to them, so I can honestly tell you that nobody thinks you're a joke or makes fun of you," Lacey declared with tears in her eyes. Sean assumed they were still from her ankle's pain, but her tears ran over her sadness about how little he thought others saw him. "This is my fault—no doubt about it. If I had pushed you harder to be a part of my life, then you would have been near Rammy. Maybe then you would have asked her out."

"You did, and I almost did," Sean revealed, piquing her curiosity. "You remember that party you threw sophomore year? Right, I need to be more specific. The party you threw at the beginning of the school year, the one you did insist I show up at. Well, I had psyched myself up to go over and talk to Ramsey. I was almost in front of her when someone bumped into me, and I spilled my beer all over myself and Kaitlin. She made a big stink over how I spilled it all over her dress. I was so embarrassed that I left the party right after."

"I remember that. I yelled at Kaitlin that it was clearly an accident. I think Will is the one that knocked you over. But why did that stop you from trying again?"

"Right afterward was when you started to date Austin, and Ramsey went with on some dates with Max Moxey," he explained.

"Oh, Sean! Ramsey and Max never dated. My dad didn't really trust Austin--well, he still doesn't--so he insisted I go out on double-dates until my parents could get to know him better. Whitney had no interest, so Rammy agreed to go with one of his close friends. I thought everyone knew they were just going as friends," she explained, feeling even more terrible that her dating life had screwed up his potential happiness.

"Well, I only figured that out later. I thought for the rest of the year that she only liked jocks. I didn't realize it's the opposite until junior year when I overheard her say she wanted to focus on the newspaper and had no interest in dating. When she started dating Micah later that year, I felt like I had been punched in the gut," admitted Sean.

"I wish you would have confided in me about how you felt. I would've made sure you two had a chance," Lacey wistfully replied before brightening up at a new idea. "But we aren't going to look back with regrets any longer. We're going to move forward and get you Rammy."

"What, how? She's with Jared now," he pointed out, surprised at the sudden change in the mood.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. You got me now as your inside woman," the redhead grinned cheerfully at him. "Don't get me wrong, I like Jared and was all for them getting together. But now that I know an amazing guy like you has been in love with her for years, he's getting kicked to the curb. You might both be family friends, but if I were **** to choose a favorite, you would win ten times out of ten."

"You can't just start pushing me on her. Won't she get suspicious if you start saying Sean this and Sean that? I might not be her best friend like you, but even I know she hates being pushed into anything by others," he worriedly pointed out.

"Oh, Seanie, do you think so little of my matchmaking ability. I promise I won't utter the name Sean even once to her. I'm a much subtler schemer than you can ever imagine," the petite redhead professed with a confident smirk that gave Sean a chill down his spine.

"Uh, I guess if you want to help, that's cool. At this point, I don't have much else to lose," he returned, wondering if his life could get worse if her plan backfired.

"This is going to be so much fun!" squealed Lacey, clapping her hands in joy. "And I think ice skating tomorrow will be the perfect time to begin implementing Operation: Fallon Love."

"Uh, Fallon Love?"

"Sure! Fallon is your mom's maiden name and it sounds like fall in love. Why you have a better name you want to use? No? Then we use my plan's name," the redhead replied, her mind swirling with ideas. "Alright, time to help me get back. I have to work on some plans tonight."

Sean offered an arm to hold as they began to walk back. "Plans? We need more than one?" he asked.

"Well, of course! We're going need them for any complications or unforeseen events," Lacey answered. "Geez, Sean, you really should've come to me sooner, if you didn't know that."

As they moved closer to the cabin, Lacey groaned out loud about any potential problems her ankle might cause for the next day. "Dammit, I hope this doesn't screw up my chance to ice skate tomorrow. I've loved skating on that pond since I was little and haven't been able to in the last couple of years. Too bad Whitney's dad doesn't have a crutch or cane I can use."

They had almost reached the edge of the trees and had a slight view of the side of the cabin when Sean had an idea. "How about a branch? There looks to be some fallen ones over there. Stay here, and I'll go check and see if any would work as a cane."

Hurrying over, he entered the clump of trees and searched the brush. He discarded a few branches as either too flimsy or too bulky. It was a little challenging to see in the darkness, but he really wanted to help Lacey since she seemed excited to help him. His search was interrupted by an "eek" from the girl. Turning around, Sean no longer saw her as the spot now stood empty.

"Lacey?" Sean called out as he began to leave the brush, worried she had fallen or hurt herself in another way. Reaching the path, he saw the redhead just a little ways ahead on the walkway, standing next to the last tree before the clearing around the cabin.

"Lace, you okay?" Sean asked again, coming up behind her. The ginger-haired girl appeared to be staring ahead, lost in thought. Looking over her shoulder, Sean saw what had her so focused. You gotta be kidding me! How many times today is this going to happen to me? He asked himself as he too stared into the lower sunroom and the sex scene taking place around the hot tub.