Hi everyone this is the first chapter of this story I'm hoping you'll like it, let me know what you think when you've finished.

Noor

Everything in the small apartment was dark; the thick curtains were still closed and kept the morning light from shining through. The small apartment was nothing compared to the even smaller apartment back at home, here you could actually walk and sit while not be on each other's toes the entire time. The pathetic excuse for a Christmas tree was the only thing that was illuminating the living room, and the breaths of the owners of the apartment were the only sound that could be heard.

The door closed with a loud thud and a freezing young woman came into the warm yet small apartment which she now called home. She took of her gloves and scarf and pushed her jog shoes off, throwing them in a corner. She wiped the cold sweat that was trickling down her fore head away with the back of her hand, walking to the living room that joined the kitchen; she turned on the tab and hung her head under the running water while taking huge gulps of water. When she had eased her thirst she turned the tab off again and wiped her mouth.

If anyone would have told the woman she looked stunning she would have laughed in their faces and told them not to tease her, but she did look beautiful. Even with the sweaty hair in a messy bun, an oversized sweater and baggy jogging breeches and the boy-briefs she looked amazingly stunning. That's why she was Marissa Cooper, because she could look absolutely breathtaking in the most standard outfit.

Marissa made her way to the closed curtains and pulled them apart, immediately making the street lights shine through seeing as it was in the middle of winter and the sun wasn't due to come up until a couple of hours. Marissa took a quick look around the room and sighed when she saw what a mess it was he really needed to get kicked in the butt. Marissa let out yet another frustrated sigh while she took the empty beer cans from the small coffee table and made her way to the garbage bin. She stopped suddenly realizing that this was not her task to do, it was his.

Marissa threw the last ones in the bin and walked towards his closed bedroom door, she opened it without even thinking twice and closed the door as loudly as possible, he didn't even flinch just remained asleep. Marissa stood at the food of his bed and saw his back rise and fall, while he was still snuggled up into his pillow. Marissa knew what she had to do to wake him up he had done it to her multiple times and now she could have her revenge.

Marissa smiled slyly while she walked to his bedroom window, it was harder to open then she thought but when she did she laughed happily thinking of her plan. She took a hand full of white ice cold snow while closing the window again. Marissa looked at her sleeping best friend who she's known since she was born and again smiled devilish.

'Morning Ryan.' She said in the sweetest voice she could muster, and he let out a loud groan, not knowing what was about to happen to him. Marissa took away his thick blanket, and placed the snow on his bare back.

'HOLY COMOLY!!!' Ryan said as he sprung to life, Marissa sat on the floor cracked up with laughter that tears were now actually pouring down her face. Ryan was still shaking from the ice cold material that had been placed on his very warm body.

'You little bitch…' Ryan said while taking the remaining snow in his hands and walking towards Marissa who couldn't move due to the fits of laughter, he placed the snow on top of her head while rubbing it in her hair. Marissa let out a faint shriek but kept laughing.

The laughter had died and Ryan and Marissa were now both lying in his bed, Ryan was actually trying to sleep under his safe warm blanket while Marissa sat on top of the blanket with her back leaning against the wall. 'You said holy comoly.' Marissa said while laughing slightly. 'Is that even a real word…comoly?' Marissa asked. Ryan shook his head no and tried to catch up on his sleep.

With all the laughter Marissa hadn't heard the shower had been running and she had not noticed it had been turned off nor had Ryan. A girl came into the room fully clothed and when she did she shrieked and both Ryan and Marissa looked at her expectantly.

'Oh my god you're married.' said the girl still clearly shocked.

Marissa had to hold in her laughter when she saw how uncomfortable the girl was. Ryan looked at Marissa and begged her with his eyes. Marissa shook her head slightly and Ryan pouted sweetly, this made Marissa smile.

'Who are you?' Marissa pretended to be angry but found this very amusing.

'Uhm no one…I should go…bye Ryan.' the girl said as she gathered her stuff and practically ran out of Ryan's bedroom.

'Bye…uhm…bye!' Ryan called after her, while he clearly couldn't remember her name.

'Poor girl…' Marissa said.

'Thank you I owe you…three times now.' Ryan said.

'No eight times if you count every individual beer can which I just threw away for you…Ry I'm not your made, this week was your week next week is mine, it's just like old times, and you're just like old times not keeping yourself to the task at hand…and I have to clean up behind your ass.' Marissa said suddenly remembering why she had come in here in the first place.

'Sorry things just got a little late and I forgot...I'll make it up to you…I swear.' Ryan said while getting out of bed and throwing on a wife beater and put on a hoodie and his grey sweatpants.

'You better…and everything better be cleaned when I get out of the shower!' Marissa said as she walked out of his room.

'And everything better be cleaned...' Ryan mocked.

'What?' Marissa said as she poked her head through Ryan's bedroom, startling Ryan while she did so. He turned around and smiled sweetly at her.

'I just said that that's why you're my best friend.' Ryan said and Marissa didn't buy it for a moment. She raised her eyebrow at him and just smiled when he shrugged. She turned around and walked towards their joining shower closing the door with a light thud.

Ryan and Marissa had known each other ever since they could remember, living in the same house since they were seventeen. They both came from unsteady families; well they actually were each other's family. Both growing up in Chino and that was not the most ideal place for a family.

Ryan had been living with his mom, Dawn Atwood and his brother Trey Atwood ever since he could remember, he knew from what his mom told him that ever since his father knew Dawn was yet again pregnant he had left, saying he wasn't ready to be a father, that was what she told Ryan. Ever since he was born things had been backfiring on their family when Ryan was old enough to memorize things the memories mostly consisted of bad things, bad things he had to go through while growing up.

Dawn Atwood was not what you could call the perfect mother, not at all; she had a bad taste in men and had only one dear friend. Julie Cooper, was her best friend, Julie had moved to Chino from Riverside, which wasn't that far from Chino, when she found out she was pregnant and her mom found out too kicking her out when she did so. Dawn and Julie immediately became friends, Dawn helped Julie with her pregnancy and Julie gave her advice on men, but no matter how many times she had warned her Dawn never listened.

Both Dawn and Julie worked at the same diner trying to support their families with the little money they made. Dawn was Marissa's god mother, and Julie was Ryan and Trey's god mother, they had made a pact that if something would happen to either of them they would take each other's children and take care of them as if they were their own.

And that is exactly what Julie did when Dawn died when Ryan was sixteen and Trey eighteen, Dawn had not listened to Julie after she told her numerous times to not date those men, and it eventually dealt her bad hand and she died, her drinking caused her to die. Although Julie could not take care of Trey, because he was stubborn and already eighteen and ran away the moment he found out his mother died, she did take care of Ryan.

Not only did Julie warn Dawn for the men she was dating due to their bad influence but they also abused her and her kids, although Dawn would never admit it, Ryan had told her numerous times, when he was younger and Dawn's latest boyfriend used to take his frustration out on him he would always stay with her and Marissa while his mother and her boyfriend were passed out. She had felt like a mother to him even then and when she got the call from the police she hadn't been too shocked, yes she was upset of course she was, but the determination was even greater, the determination to give Ryan and Trey a better life, unfortunately for Trey it had been too late but it hadn't been for Ryan and so she told herself she was going to give him the same life as Marissa.

She kept herself on her word, yes they had to struggle through their years financially and she even had to get Ryan out of jail once, after he had been in a huge fight with Marissa's first real boyfriend because he didn't like his attitude towards Marissa, but fortunately after Julie's long motherly speech, they managed through everything together, she, Marissa and Ryan. Ryan and Marissa had been working hard next to school because they both wanted to go to college and so Marissa worked at the same diner her mom worked at and Ryan worked in construction. Both Ryan and Marissa had made enough money to pay for their college and Julie helped them with the money she had put away for both of them.

They had applied to colleges like USC, NYU and had been accepted in both, eventually after a lot of talking they decided to go to NYU together starting fresh and leaving Chino and their history behind them, but also having to leave Julie behind which was harder then they thought it would be, but Julie told them they had worked too hard for this and she would be okay.

Going to New York opened a whole new world for both Ryan and Marissa, they both settled into their new dorms and met their roommates, Ryan's roommate was a geeky boy, who liked to talk a lot especially about his girlfriend, but was also very fun and outgoing his name was Seth Cohen and him and Ryan had been friends ever since. The girlfriend Seth loved to talk about was Summer Roberts, who also happened to be Marissa's roommate and also they immediately connected and became very good friends.

College had gone rather smoothly for Marissa and Ryan; Ryan had graduated with his degree in architecture and Marissa her degree in psychology. Both Ryan and Marissa were now working in very small firms and trying to make some money for themselves. Even in college they had to work hard, envying Summer and Seth slightly as they got everything handed to them by their rich parents who lived in sunny California, but not the bad part, no they lived in Newport Beach, the richest part. And even though they came from completely different worlds they all became friends and as Seth liked to say 'The Fantastic Four.'

When college first started Ryan and Marissa both dated several people, but in the end school was way more important and stressful enough, so they decided not to date, focusing completely and entirely on their future, it had worked out for them, because after four years they had both graduated. Seth and Summer bought an apartment in New York as did Ryan and Marissa, and for the first time in years even Seth and Summer had to buy a small apartment and make their own money, which really didn't bother them and neither did it bother Ryan and Marissa they had lived in worse.

All these years Ryan and Marissa had remained best friends and it was working perfectly for them, Julie occasionally visited them and they had visited her whenever they could. And so Ryan and Marissa living together idea became reality.

'Done' Ryan said to himself as he looked around the room, which was now cleaned. He smiled proudly to himself and walked over to the cupboard in the small kitchen, opening it and finding nothing there only some Captain Crunch that was far off date.

'Wow good man…good man.' Marissa said as she walked into the living room with her jeans on and Ryan's sweater while she was still drying her wet hair.

'I know.' Ryan said smugly. 'Hey Riss…we need to go to the market we're out of groceries.' Ryan said while walking towards the shower and coming out of it only five minutes later with a towel wrapped around his body. His amazingly muscled body dripping wet.

'Gee you're fast…yeah I know I just need to blow my hair, and then we'll go.' Marissa said while walking towards her bedroom and taking a quick glance at Ryan's body, she could see his butt through the towel and she had to admit it he definitely had a cute butt. Shaking the thought out of her head she walked through her bedroom and closed the door. She blew her hair and looked at herself in the mirror she really didn't need to put make up on. She took her ridiculously long but very fashionable scarf in one hand and locked it around her neck two times letting one part hang in front of her while the other part hang along her back.

Ryan came out of the room at the same time she did, wearing dark jeans that hung loosely around his waist, a wife beater and a black sweater on it, with his leather jacket in one hand as he held his other hand out for Marissa to take it in a friendly matter, as he asked her if she was ready. She nodded and took his hand in hers.