Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
the morning light fell through the cohen kitchen like it was trying to make the place look normal again. ryan was at the table, hunched over a textbook, one hand in his hair and the other dragging a pencil down a column of equations. he didn't notice seth until the photo album hit the counter.
"hey, man. what's goin' on?" seth asked, like he hadn't already decided to interrupt.
"studying," ryan said without looking up.
seth sighed. "will you punch someone, please? for old times' sake?"
ryan glanced up, deadpan.
"no? okay. fine. algorithms are the new uppercut. i got it." seth pulled out the chair beside him and flipped open the album. "wow. okay, yeah, now i see it."
ryan looked up. "see what?"
"i've been looking through old photos of my mom, looking for resemblances to lindsay. look at that." seth turned the album so ryan could see kirsten at about twenty, sporting a similar smile to lindsay's.
"you're really trying to make this more awkward for me, huh?"
"what! it's not like you dating lindsay's full on incest, you're not even really related."
ryan stared.
"well you're not! you wouldn't get arrested, you wouldn't have chromosomally challenged children."
ryan leaned back, rubbing a hand over his jaw. "kirsten's like my mom. lindsay is—" he looked at the photo again, grimacing—"clearly her sister."
seth made a face. "it is kinda weird." then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "although, technically, you already dated my sister, so maybe weird's just your thing."
ryan shot him a look. "that was different."
"sure," seth said quickly. "soul-mate exemption. totally different category. but i'm just saying, if my dad had a secret sister somewhere out there, maybe don't meet her."
ryan exhaled through his nose, unimpressed.
"what? i'm just protecting the gene pool."
"ugh." ryan groaned. "the fact that your mom doesn't know that i'm dating her sister—it's a lot weird."
"i think they did a storyline like this on the valley once."
