A/N: This happens a while after the Mallpisode. The Blaze of Glory never happened, and Trey never came, either. Marissa is skipping school. Malex is still together, but shakily. This is basically a little background on what is going on in the next few chapters.

Disclaimer: Don't own it, blah blah blah. Don't sue me.

x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0

The apartment stunk of beer and cigarette smoke and unwashed clothes. It was empty, dreadfully empty like a black hole, sucking everything into it. Marissa grimaced, holding a black trash bag tight in her chipping, manicured nails. She winced as she gingerly picked up the trash lying around, thoroughly disgusted. Alex was at work, leaving her spoiled girlfriend to tend to the house.

"Ew," she thought, quoting Summer. Summer. She hadn't seen her best friend in a while. She had been too busy cleaning and working. Marissa had forgotten what it was like to live the rich and spoiled life.

There was a knock at the door. It broke the silence as if it had picked it up and smashed it against the floor. Marissa leapt up, surprised. It was probably the NASCAR tattooed landlord. She peeked out the window and breathed a sigh of relief, unlocking the rusty cheap locks and letting the door creak open.

"Ryan. Hey. What are you doing here? Don't you have school?" Marissa tried to kick the worst of the trash under the sofa, and ran a finger through her dirty hair. The water had been shut off temporarily so she hadn't had a shower in a while. She was suddenly beyond humiliation about her current situation. She couldn't believe Ryan was seeing this. It was dreadful.

"Well, that's why I'm here. Its my lunch break, and the teachers have been asking about you, giving me all your homework that you've missed from the last week or so. So, I came to deliver them." Ryan couldn't help but let his eyes sweep the grungy apartment as he offered Marissa the stack of papers. There was a pink bra dangling off a chair. Four crushed beer cans that he could see littered around the table. An overflowing ashtray. Dirty clothes piled up, chip bags, a lonely shoe with a broken heel. Marissa was not meant to live like this. He knew it, she knew it, even Alex knew it, admitted it to herself right before she drifted to sleep, that this wasn't right for Marissa, that she should tell her to leave. But those thoughts are rarely remembered and even less heeded.

"Um. Thanks." Marissa hurriedly took the papers and cleared some space on the coffee table. "This… Its just…" There were no words to describe her current living situation. No excuses. Marissa couldn't even bare to invite him in.

"So, I mean, after lunch I only have Western Civ… I can easily skip it, I'm ahead anyways. Want to get out of here?" Ryan said tentatively. Immediately Marissa nodded her head, eager to leave the dump.

"Definitely. Let me just grab a purse. Um, why don't you wait outside?" She suggested as she departed. Ryan was more than happy to comply. He stepped down the few stone steps, and leaned against the car, running a hand through his hair. Marissa came out a few seconds later with a pink Coach purse, having pulled on a pink sweater and jeans, ballet flats, and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. The grease was less noticeable. What she had been wearing previously- tiny short shorts and a white tank top, were not appropriate for going out with Ryan. The love of her life Ryan. Her savior. But that was over now. She was with, sigh, Alex. Living with, sigh, Alex. But she liked Alex, a lot. Her and Ryan were definitely over.

"Where do you want to go?" Marissa asked when she sat in the car. Ryan turned to her and said, "Wherever you want to go."

Marissa laughed self-consciously. "Pier?" Ryan nodded in agreement, pulling out of the driveway in the Cohen's Range Rover.

Soon they were at the pier, the wind blowing back their hair as they chewed on Balboa Bars. They were having a nice conversation, and as they settled down onto a bench, Ryan really went into the deep end of the conversation pool.

"So, are you happy with Alex?" He asked, not looking at her but at the ocean throwing itself mercilessly against the aged and wooden columns of the pier. Marissa looked at him, insulted that he would even ask that. It wasn't his place! How dare he! But she stuffed down those emotions, because she knew Ryan just wanted her to be happy.

"Yes!" She said definitely. "Well… I'm happy with ALEX… not with… Well, you saw." She said guiltily, that she could provide a cleaner home for herself. She obviously couldn't take care of herself.

"Do you ever think about… us? Is what you have with Alex like what we had?" Ryan asked, diving deeper. He took Marissa's silence as a no. Really, she was thinking that what her and Ryan had was a dysfunctional relationship, and hers and Alex's was more functional, on a level.

She turned to say that, and realized Ryan's face was very close to hers. He touched her lips to hers, and they were suddenly kissing, a kiss full of longing from Ryan's end, and confusion from Marissa's. It tasted like chocolate ice cream. Then suddenly Marissa realized what she was doing and pulled away violently. It was a nice kiss- Ryan's kisses always were- but Marissa had nearly killed herself mentally to get over him. And she really liked Alex. She wasn't going to throw that away for another shot at her and Ryan's messed up relationship.

"What are you doing?" She demanded. Ryan looked bewildered. Obviously he thought this Pier Kiss would work magic like it did last time, post-Oliver. He opened his mouth to speak but said nothing. Marissa was sick of Ryan right now. She tossed the rest of her Balboa Bar in the trash and walked away, quickly. She realized that she had nowhere to go. Ryan had taken her here. The house was far away. And she couldn't turn up at school like this, dirty and unkempt. Eventually she wandered to The Bait Shop, to greet Alex with a long, passionate kiss, to make up for what she had done.

Ryan sat on the bench for a long time after Marissa had left. When he finally rose, he looked at his watch. He had missed Western Civ. completely, as well as soccer practice. It was nearly five o'clock. But he didn't care. Not only was Ryan's heart broken, the pieces had melted away. Ryan would always love Marissa. But to Marissa, Ryan was just another way to piss off her mom. Ryan rose, and drove back to the Cohen's house, going straight to the pool house. He opened the door to find someone already there.

"Hey…"