Tire Swing (Greek/AU/CC/Teen) DEAD AND BURIED

[penny_lane]

Title: Tire Swing
Summary: When Cappie has nowhere to go for the summer, Rusty spontaneously invites him to come back with him and Casey for the summer. All sorts of drama ensues. Maybe CC, or it could be Cappie/OC and Casey/OC
Disclaimer: I don’t own Greek. Period.
Author: penny_lane

Author's Note: This is my first Greek fanfic, so please be nice.

Chapter One – Fences

Don't look up
Just let them think
There's no place else
You'd rather be.
- paramore

School was out, it had been out for about five days now. The students that once swarmed the campus at Cyprus-Rhodes University were gone. Nearly everyone had gone home, everyone that was except for Cappie.

Cappie had been all ready to go home, at least he had been until six o’clock this morning when his parent’s had called him. They told him about how they had decided to buy a boat and go on some “life changing” trip in the Pacific Ocean. So now, as of six fifteen this morning, Cappie had no plans for the summer. He was stuck at the Kappa Tau house until the beginning of the fall semester. So that’s why he was now on the porch, drinking coffee out of his “I’m Not Irish, But I’ll Kiss You Anyway” cup.

Someone walked out of the house, causing Cappie to jump and turn around. He had been almost certain the he was alone in the house, but then he turned around saw Rusty there. Rusty had been a pledge until a few weeks ago, when he had finally been initiated into the Kappa Tau Fraternity. Cappie had tried not to play favorites, but Rusty had definitely been his.

“I thought I was the only one here...” Cappie trailed off, not even bothering to move from his spot where he was perched on the top of the stairs.

“Oh, sorry, I left some stuff in the living room. I didn’t want to go home and leave it here all summer.” Rusty quickly said, he was already a member, yet he still sometimes got really awkward. Cappie guessed it was just a trait that Rusty would always carry with him.

“Dude, it’s fine. You’re a member, it’s fine if you wanted to grab something. No need to explain yourself.” Cappie laughed, patting the concrete next to him, a gesture Rusty took to mean that he wanted him to sit next to him. “So why haven’t you gone home yet? I figured you and Casey would have been gone by now.” Cappie asked casually, he was actually hoping that Rusty would be staying for the summer, just like him.

“Oh we would have been gone a few days ago, but Casey had a class that ran late. She just got out today, so we’re heading back home tomorrow, not that I’m looking forward to another boring summer at home.” Rusty actually sounded disappointed that he was going home, which didn’t really shock Cappie too much. It hadn’t seemed like Rusty had much of a social life before he came to college.

“Well, it can’t be any worse than a boring summer here.” Cappie said, slapping Rusty on the back. He knew that he was going to miss having Rusty around for the next couple months. “I’ll miss you, kid.” He laughed then and slapped Rusty on the back once again.

Rusty was thrown forward a bit, but quickly regained his composure. He laughed, realizing how much he would miss Cappie. Cappie had been one of his closest friends this past semester. “So what are you going to do this summer? I’m surprised you’re still here, aren’t you going home?” Rusty asked, finally realizing that it was very strange that Cappie was still around.

“I, my friend, am exploring the joys of summer classes, without actually having to attend them.” Cappie had spent a little over an hour that morning coming up with the best reason as to why he was staying on campus. He didn’t think that the fact that his parent’s were somewhere on the ocean was too exciting.

“So, wait, you’re going to stay on campus this summer?” Rusty was a bit taken aback. If there was anyone would didn’t enjoy the academic atmosphere of college, it was Cappie. So Rusty didn’t really buy his whole story about summer classes. He figured that Cappie didn’t really want to talk about it though, so he didn’t venture any further into the subject.

“That’s the plan. Just me and the summer air. It’s going to be a change of pace from the usual.” Cappie was not very convincing, and Rusty couldn’t decide if Cappie was trying to convince him that he was happy about the plan, or if Cappie was trying to convince himself.

“I don’t get it though. You love the usual. You are the usual.” Rusty said, not caring anymore that he hadn’t wanted to get into the subject too much.

“I don’t know what to tell you Spitter. It’s not like there’s much else to do. To tell you the truth, my parent’s aren’t going to be home this summer. So it didn’t seem like much of a reason to go home if there’s not really anything to go home to.” Cappie didn’t understand why he was telling Rusty all of this. Maybe it was because he really seemed to care. That, and he had seen right through his whole ‘summer school’ excuse.

“So you’re just going to hang around campus all summer by yourself?” Rusty was starting to see why Cappie hadn’t originally seemed like he was in a good mood. Not that Cappie was ever in a bad mood, he had just seemed a bit stand-offish.

“That was going to be the plan. And it’s not like I’m going to be alone. In a few weeks all of the summer school kids are going to join me. And oh the fun that will ensue after that. Let me tell you...” Cappie didn’t sound very convincing to Rusty at all. Rusty laughed and slapped Cappie on the back, trying to show him that he felt his pain. Rusty’s summer wasn’t going to be much better. And that’s when it hit him.

“Why don’t you just come back home with me this summer? You’re not going to be doing anything, and it would definitely ensure that both of us would have a better summer. I’m sure my parent’s wouldn’t mind, and there’s so much more to do in the summer there than there is here. We live right by this huge lake, and we’d get the house to ourselves in a few weeks anyway, when my parent’s go to Europe.” Rusty said, laying out the entire plan for Cappie. He was very proud of himself for thinking this up, because he was sure that this was exactly what Cappie needed.

“I think you’re leaving out one very important factor in your summer, Spitter.” Cappie said, laughing slightly at Rusty’s obvious enthusiasm. Rusty seemed a bit confused by this, and seemed to be thinking about what Cappie was talking about. “Your sister.” Cappie said filling in the blanks.

“Oh, I’m sure she wont mind too much. You guys are on good terms. And it’s not like you have to spend very much time with her. Sure, she’ll be there, but she has her own group of friends that she hangs out with in the summer. Most of the time she’s never really home.” Rusty said, realizing that there may be some sort of tension between his sister and Cappie. He still didn’t see much of a problem with the plan though.

“You make a good point, we are on good terms. You know, I think I may just take you up on your offer.” Cappie knew that this was probably not a good idea, but he didn’t care. This was going to be a lot better than spending the summer at the Kappa Tau house by himself. “What time are you guys leaving?” He asked, finally picking himself up off of the porch where he had been sitting for two hours.

“We’re leaving around five.” Rusty said, standing up as well, but instead of walking back into the house he made his way down the stairs. Meet us at the train station, I’ll make sure that you have a ticket. And with that, Rusty was gone and Cappie walked back into the house. He had some packing to do after all.

Five O’clock – Train Station

Rusty was pacing back and forth on the platform where their train was supposed to show up. He was all alone though. Neither Cappie or Casey were there yet. He hadn’t even seen Casey all day, and he still had to tell her about the fact that Cappie was going to be coming to spend the summer with them. He just hoped that she would take the news well.

That was when he finally saw her. She was neatly packed of course. Just a few carry on items, which meant that most of her other stuff had been sent to the house already. Rusty quickly waved her over. He knew that this wasn’t a conversation that he wanted to have at the station, but he knew that it was better that she knew ahead of time what was going on.

Casey quickly made her way over to Rusty. He kept pacing back and forth, and she couldn’t help but notice that he looked like he was nervous about something. When she finally made it over to him she piled her bags on the bench next to them and turned to face him. “Rusty, are you okay?” He looked like he was going to be sick.

Rusty opened his mouth to speak but before he could form the words that he wanted to say, he was interrupted by a familiar voice. “Well, if it isn’t the Cartwright clan. Fancy meeting you guys here.”

Cappie was being sarcastic, but he couldn’t help but notice that Casey seemed generally surprised to see him. He shot a quick glance at Rusty, and noticed that the boy was a nice shade of white. “Oh...” Cappie said, realizing that Casey had no idea why he was there.

“Cappie, what are you doing here?” Casey asked, and yet when she asked it didn’t sound like she was being condescending, it just sounded like she was genuinely confused as to why he was there.

“I invited him to come back home with us for the summer.” Rusty said simply, hoping that by going about it the simple way would be the best way. He knew that since he hadn’t had a chance to talk to Casey about the whole thing that she didn’t know the whole story behind the reason that he had asked Cappie to come along. “I already talked to mom and dad and they’re both totally fine with it. They even got him a ticket.” Rusty continued, hoping that Casey would just accept it at that.

“Why aren’t you going back to your house for the summer?” Casey asked Cappie, and he was surprised once again that she was concerned.

“It’s a long story. I’m sure you’ll hear most of it later.” Cappie didn’t really want to get into the whole story about his parents once again. Once was enough for him for the day.

The conversation was quickly cut short by the long whistle of a train as it entered the station. It was the train that they were supposed to get on. Cappie quickly picked up his duffle bag, the one that he had quickly thrown most of his belongings into earlier that day. He could feel Casey’s eyes on him, and he looked up and quickly met her eyes. She held his gaze for a few moments, but they were interrupted when the train stopped and people started getting on the train. Rusty quickly handed him his ticket, which said where he was to sit, and then climbed onto the train. Cappie did the same.

Once on the train, Cappie realized that it wasn’t too hard to figure out where to sit. He quickly found his seat, 3A. He shoved his bag under his seat and settled in, pulling out his iPod and turning it on. He was looking through his library when someone sat next to him. He looked up and it was Casey. “Well, Casey Cartwright, it looks like I’m going to have some good company after all.” Cappie flashed her a quick smile.

“Rusty must have accidently given you his ticket instead. Poor guy.” Casey laughed, pointing at Rusty who was sitting a few rows up. He was sandwiched between two obviously obese people. Cappie laughed as well and shot him a quick glance that showed his sympathies.

“Well, it looks like it’s you and me. What should we do to pass the time? I have a few ideas...” Cappie said slyly with a smirk on his face.

[penny_lane]

Title: Tire Swing
Summary: When Cappie has nowhere to go for the summer, Rusty spontaneously invites him to come back with him for the summer. All sorts of drama ensues. Maybe CC, or it could be Cappie/OC and Casey/OC
Disclaimer: I don’t own Greek. Period.
Author: penny_lane

Chapter Two – Holiday From Real

But if you left it up to me
Everyday would be
A holiday from real
We'd waste our weeks
Beneath the sun
We'd lie and tell our friends
It's so much fun out here
Jack’s Mannequin

“Well, it looks like it’s you and me for a good three hours. What should we do to pass the time? I have a few ideas...” Casey couldn’t believe those words had actually come out of Cappie’s mouth. But they had and he was giving her the same smirk he always wore on his face when he was having some sort of dirty thought. Casey reached over then and smacked Cappie on the arm, not enough to hurt but just enough to let him know she wasn’t biting.

“Ouch, Casey.” Cappie replied, rubbing his arm. His arm didn’t hurt, he was just doing it for show. “I wasn’t meaning anything like that. Wow, someone has a dirty mind. Of course I do tend to bring that out in people...mostly girls of course.” Cappie laughed, making sure that Casey knew that he was just joking.

“Very funny, Cappie.” Casey said, wondering if maybe she had hit him a little too hard, but she quickly discarded that thought. “So, since we have such a long trip ahead of us, why don’t you tell me why you’re not going home this summer.” Casey didn’t even bother to make it sound like a question. She was really hoping that Cappie would elaborate as to why he was really there.

“It’s not really much of a story. My parent’s just made alternate plans, and I didn’t fit into them. So I had originally decided to just stay on campus for the summer, but then your brother wouldn’t let up until I told him that I would come stay with him for the summer.” Cappie wasn’t sure if he should also say that he was glad that they would get to spend the summer together. He had missed just hanging out with Casey without all the school and Greek system drama.

“Yeah, I’m not all that surprised that Rusty invited you. He usually spends most of the summer locked up in his room working on some school project or something. I was starting to wonder what he was going to do this summer.” Casey then looked back over to Rusty who actually seemed to having a conversation with a man who looked like he could have been Santa Clause, without the red suit.

“I’ll try and make sure that he gets out and does something fun this summer. I wouldn’t want him being all weird in his room. Maybe I’ll get him laid or something.” Cappie said, and Casey wasn’t really sure if he was being serious about the last part. She decided not to ask about it though, it was probably just a guy thing.

“It’ll probably be good for him to get out.” Casey said, unsure as to what they should talk about now. She sent Cappie a sideways glance and was surprised to find that he was looking at her. He was really looking at her, like he was trying to figure her out. The same way he used to look at her when they had been together all those years ago. The way he had looked at her the night when they had worked on that paper together, right before she had been lavaliered.

Cappie kept his gaze on Casey for a few more moments, then he bent down and started digging through his bag which was still by his feet. Casey looked down at the back of his head, curious as to what he was looking for. She didn’t want to think about the look that they had just exchanged, it was too much to deal with when they were in such close quarters. Cappie dug around in his bag for another minute and then sat up. He had a secretive smile on his face.

“Guess what I have.” Cappie quickly shoved the small package behind him and out of Casey’s line of sight.

“What do you have?” Casey asked, trying to see around Cappie so she could tell what it was that he had in his hands. Yet, every time that she tried to see he would move to where it was impossible for her to tell what he had in his hands.

“You’re supposed to guess.” Cappie laughed, still not letting Casey see what it was in his hands.

“I’m not good at the guessing game. So if you have a shoe or something in your hand then this game isn’t going to end well for you, cause I’ll probably end up pummeling you with it.” Casey said, still fidgeting in her seat trying to get to where she could see what it was that Cappie had.

“No, it’s not a shoe.” Cappie said, laughing at the way that Casey was acting. It kind of reminded him of when they had been together during freshman year. She was being carefree and she seemed like she was having a good time. Cappie decided that it was a good idea to just show her what he had before she got too worked up. He slowly pulled the package out from behind him and held it out to Casey.

Casey quickly took the package away from Cappie, her curiosity getting the best of her. She opened the box and was quickly taken aback. It was a piece of cherry pie, one of her favorites. She looked up towards Cappie and laughed when she saw that he also had two plastic forks in his other hand. She set the box on the armrest and took one of the forks from Cappie.

“What is it with you and pie?” Casey asked, even though she already knew the answer to the question. The pie was a thing that they had always shared. When they had dated it had been a big part of their relationship. Every week it was a different kind of pie, and every week it had been for a different reason. Casey laughed though, not wanting to ruin the moment with talking about the past. She looked up at Cappie and was glad to see that he was smiling as well.

“Pie is just a very important kind of food to me. And I don’t get to eat it as much as I’d like, so I thought I’d bring a piece along with me. It’s a long train ride to Chicago, you know.” Cappie laughed as he took a bite of the pie as well. He smiled when he realized that Casey had some pie on her face, and before he could think about what he was doing he reached up and wiped it away.

Casey couldn’t say anything, she just looked at Cappie. He seemed a bit confused as to why he had just done what he did, and Casey wasn’t going to say anything for the time being. She didn’t want to go through the trouble of talking about these things. Yet as every moment passed between her and Cappie she was becoming more and more drawn to him. She had missed Cappie, and being so close to him and getting to talk to him like they used to was starting to remind her why she had missed him.

“You had some pie on your face.” Cappie explained, starting to pick up on Casey’s emotions. He didn’t want to get into anything on the train. It wasn’t much of a place for these kinds of conversations, it wasn’t intimate enough for them. Cappie wasn’t even sure what was going through his mind, Casey had always had that effect on him.

“Thanks.” Casey blushed. She wasn’t sure why she was blushing, after all it was just Cappie. She and Cappie were just friends. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder why she had gotten butterflies in her stomach when Cappie had touched her face.

“It’s no problem...”Cappie trailed off on the subject. He had noticed when Casey had blushed, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she was thinking the same thing that he was thinking. He could tell, though, that she wasn’t in the mood to talk about any of this. So instead of digging further into the subject he decided to just finish eating the pie. Everything else could be resolved later on, after all they had all summer to talk about everything.

Casey didn’t say anything as she continued to eat what was left of the pie. Within minutes bother her and Cappie had wiped out the entire pie. Casey just wasn’t sure what to do now that there wasn’t something else to keep both of them busy. So she quickly moved the box out of the way and set it on the floor by her own feet.

“So I guess you’ll be staying in the guest room when we get to the house. It’s actually a really good room, you can see the lake and you have a balcony. Did Rusty tell you that our parent’s would be leaving for Europe soon?” Casey said, changing the subject and jumping into a persona that she knew well, the informative part of her took control of the situation.

“Oh, yeah, Rusty told me about your parent’s. You guys planning on having a party? It sounds like it could be a great idea. I should know, I came up with it. And I always have a way of planning some of the best parties. I’m sure Rusty will be up for it, mostly because it doesn’t sound like he’ll have anything else to do. Besides, the little guy is good at party planning too, I guess I rubbed off on him.” Cappie was very enthusiastically explaining his plans for the summer and Casey couldn’t help but laugh. Cappie really did know how to throw an awesome party, she just wasn’t sure if her parent’s house was the best place to throw one.

“Always got to be the party animal, even when you might not know anyone in the place that you’re going.” Casey laughed, remembering how Cappie had always managed to throw some of the best parties back in the day. She had also loved to go to his parties, mostly because they were a lot different than the other parties that the fraternities threw, there was always some new kind of factor involved.

“That’s the fun part. I get to make some cool new friends and then show them what it’s really like to have a good time. Of course it’s completely up to you, considering that once your parent’s are gone you’re going to be the one in charge. You are the oldest of the Cartwright children.” Cappie made the last part seem like a joke.

“I don’t know. I think my parent’s might just put Rusty in charge instead. He’s the more reliable one as they would put it. I don’t know, they seem to have him pegged as their favorite.” Casey was a bit reluctant to tell Cappie about her parent’s obvious favoritism with her younger brother, but she was always quick to open up to him.

“That sucks. I’m sorry your parents are like that. But look on the bright side, you wont have to deal with them too much this summer. They’re going to be gone sooner or later, and then it’ll be me, you and Rusty, and we’ll kick some serious party ass.” Cappie knew that the best way to deal with parent issues was to remind the person of the positive parts of the arrangements. He had done the same thing earlier that morning after finding out that he wouldn’t be going back home to see his parent’s for the summer.

“We’ll see about the party stuff. Right now I think we have to worry about getting through the whole week with the parents there.” Casey yawned then, realizing that because she had spent the whole morning packing, she was really worn out. And dealing with Cappie always seemed to take a lot of energy out of her as well, so she was really tired.

“Tired?” Cappie asked, referring to her yawn, he also realized that he was also tired. His parent’s had woken him up six hours before the usual time he woke up.

“Yeah.” Casey said as she sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. “I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

Cappie didn’t say anything else, he knew that Casey didn’t like it when people made a lot of noise when she was sleeping. He quietly reached over and pulled out his iPod again. He put on some Plain White T’s and just sat there for a couple of songs, occasionally mouthing some of the lyrics, something he usually only did when he was alone, but he was bored. He was startled though when Casey suddenly laid her head on his shoulder. He looked over and saw that she was dead asleep, and smiled to himself. He pulled out his earphones and turned off his iPod and then laid his head gently on hers and closed his eyes. He breathed in, her hair smelt like strawberries.

Cappie then fell asleep.