"Marissa, honey, you're going to miss your flight!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Marissa said as she stumbled down the steps trying to put her shoes on.
"You know kiddo, you should have taken more of your clothes to the apartment when we went to New York last month. You've got a lot of stuff to carry," he said with a smirk on his face.
"I know Dad...but I just didn't want to run out of clothes," she said as she reached the last stair, her suitcases tumbling down after her.
"So, are you ready to go?" Jimmy said with a bit of sadness in his voice.
"Yeah, I think so. Let me go tell Meredith bye."
"Okay. I'll go ahead and start taking these suitcases out to the car," he replied. He looked down at the suitcases, all four of them, and immediately had an overwhelmed look on his face. He tried to carry all four of them at once, grabbing the handles of the biggest two ready to roll them out and put the other two duffle bags around each of his shoulders. Marissa just looked on and started cracking up laughing when he took his first step forward and started swaying back and forth, the weight being too much for him to handle.
After almost falling to the floor, he dropped all of the bags and then picked up one duffle back and one of the rolling suitcases and began taking them out to the car.
"I guess I'll just make two trips…" he mumbled.
Marissa laughed again, and then started walking towards the kitchen.
"Well…I guess its about time for me to go," she said to the other brunette's back.
The older woman turned the pot of chicken alfredo that was on the stove down and turned around to Marissa. She walked over to her and took her into a warm embrace.
"Do you really have to go? You know, you could always stay her and work for your Da-ad," she smiled and sang the last part, trying to tempt Marissa.
"I think it's time for me to get out of you guys' hair. Be out on my own. Make a life for myself, you know," Marissa told her sadly.
"Yeah, I guess I do. But I still hate to see you leave. I'm gonna miss you so much. It's just not going to be the same around here without you. You've become like a daughter to me. Promise you won't forget about us?" she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"Aw, I could never forget about you two. You know that Mer. I promise I will come back every chance I get to visit you guys. I love you," Marissa told her stepmother, tears starting to pour onto her cheeks as well.
When Marissa arrived to Hawaii to help her dad manage yachts, or whatever you want to call it, and found out that Jimmy had a girlfriend, she was not at all pleased. She was hoping that she would be able to spend a lot of time with her dad and become as close as they once were. She didn't see how they could do that if he had a girlfriend hanging around all of the time. Marissa pictured her being something like her own mother was years ago, and already did not like this new woman. That is, until she actually met her.
When they arrived home from the airport and walked through the door to Jimmy's new beachfront, 5 bedroom home, Marissa was blown away. The house was amazing, and not quite as extravagant as the homes in Orange County, which is exactly what she loved about the house. It was decorated simply, but beautiful nonetheless. The wall at the back of the house was made of glass windows and French doors that looked out onto the ocean. It felt like a home. And Marissa could picture herself living there for the next few years. But she grew confused as she heard someone in the kitchen and smelt food, which made her stomach growl as soon as the smell entered her nostrils. It smelt heavenly. And she knew it wasn't just take-out. She walked into the kitchen and directly into a woman with dark brown hair who looked to be about 35-40. The woman was in a hurry to get somewhere and slammed right into her.
"Wait a second…this woman is living here with Dad! Well...isn't this just fucking great. I thought I had escaped all of that," Marissa thought bitterly.
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!!" The woman replied, "are you okay??"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she nodded and put on her best fake smile. "Here we go," she thought.
"It's so great to finally meet you! Your dad has told me so many good things about you!" she said as she grabbed Marissa and brought her into a hug.
Marissa just stood there, too surprised to move, until finally she returned the hug. "Yeah, it's good to meet you too…." she drew the word out, realizing that she didn't actually know the woman's name.
"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't even introduce myself!" she said sticking out her hand, "Meredith White."
"It really is nice to meet you," Marissa said while shaking her hand. "Hmm, she doesn't seem bad at all. God I hope this isn't an act or something. I guess only time will tell."
"This all looks really good! I mean…wow!" she said once she looked over to the dinner table, which held many plates of food. There was enough food there to feed the whole state of Hawaii. "Did you cook all of this??" she asked amazed.
"Thank you, and…yeah…I did," she said, a bit of embarrassment showing in her voice and a sheepish smile on her face. "I wasn't sure what you liked…so I just made a bit of everything." She felt like an idiot for making so much food.
"Oh, I'm sure that all of this will be perfectly fine. I'll eat pretty much anything!" Marissa giggled, still wide-eyed at all of the food in front of her. She mentally prepared a list in her head of what she was going to eat first.
"Oh thank god! Now I finally have someone to try out some recipes on. I love to cook new things but I can't because Jimmy won't eat hardly anything. He is just too picky!" she joked while poking Jimmy in the ribs. He laughed and put his hands in the air as if to say he was innocent.
"Hey! I eat a lot of stuff. I just don't like onions!"
"Yeah, or mushrooms, mustard, tomatoes, black and green olives, cucumbers, spinach, pretty much any kind of bean except for the French style green beans in the can, salmon…I mean, who doesn't like salmon?!" she exclaimed being dramatic. She was really just messing around with Jimmy.
"Dad, you don't like salmon? I love salmon!" Marissa joined in.
"I know! Me too!" Meredith said.
"Okay this is so unfair!" Jimmy stated. "You two are just ganging up on me." he pouted.
"Aw, but I think it's fun. Don't you Marissa?"
"Definitely. But hey," Marissa continued laughing, "anytime you need a guinea pig for your food…I'm here."
"Great. Well…shall we dig in?" Meredith said.
"We shall." Marissa agreed. "Ok, so she is nothing like my mom. She's so nice and sweet. I'm really starting to like her. Thank god." Marissa thought, relieved.
After that first night, Meredith and Marissa were constantly hanging out. Meredith showed her around the state while Jimmy was working and told her a little bit about herself.
She originally came from Northern California, but moved to Hawaii because she was ready for a change, much like Jimmy. She met him a few months after moving there, and soon they moved in together. Marissa could tell that they really loved each other, which is why it was no surprise to her when her dad told her that he was planning on proposing to Meredith. (This was about 6 months after Marissa moved there) Marissa was really happy for the two. But what did surprise her was when Meredith asked her to be her Maid of Honor. She, of course, said yes though.
After living there for a year, she loved it and wasn't ready to leave yet. She then decided that she would attend The University of Hawaii. Jimmy and Meredith were more than happy for her to stay, and even though she missed everyone in Newport, she felt like that was what she wanted to do, instead of what everyone else wanted.
Sometimes when she was feeling homesick, she would go to her room and get all of her pictures out and look through them for hours. She still kept in touch with everyone from back home, even Ryan. She realized that they were better as friends, and that was all. But one night when she was looking through her pictures, she came across a large book, pretty much a scrapbook, that had concert tickets, little notes saying that the person was going to the store and would be back in 5, band stickers and the sleeves from cd cases (the little book that usually has the lyrics in it), and many pictures from about 2 years ago. But the pictures weren't just any old pictures, and neither was the scrapbook. Everyone of the pictures had a certain blonde haired, tattooed beauty in them. Alex.
Marissa missed the blonde, she didn't even try to deny it. Even though the two didn't have a very long relationship, Alex meant more to Marissa than anyone. Even Ryan. Alex understood her, didn't try to change her, and was always there for her. She dropped her "bad ass" attitude when she was around Marissa and was nothing but loving towards her. She wanted things to work out so badly, and Marissa did too, but was just too scared.
Marissa went back to Alex's apartment two days after that tragic night at the bonfire. But Alex wasn't there. Marissa wanted to apologize so badly, tell her that she was just scared but that she wanted to be with her and that she wasn't scared anymore. But Alex left. So Marissa just assumed that Alex really didn't want to be with her. After all, she was still in school, and Alex was living a life of freedom, no parents, no rules, she just did whatever she wanted to do. So, Marissa guessed, Alex was really better off without her. But that still didn't keep her from laying in bed crying and moping for the next week. Summer was the only one that knew about all of it. But eventually, Marissa decided that it really was over, Alex wasn't going to come back. So she fell back into her old life…the way things were before Alex came. And that meant Ryan.
Marissa realized that she didn't have feelings for Ryan anywhere near as strong as she used to. But she just wanted someone to be there with her, to cure her from her loneliness. And that's what Ryan was there for. So she got back together with him.
Then, after the whole ordeal with Trey, everything went downhill. It was like they didn't even talk anymore, didn't even know each other. So they broke it off. Then Marissa was back to square one.
She was lonely again. Johnny, her new friend at Newport Union, helped, but she just didn't feel that way for him, so as much as she could tell he wanted to hook up, she never did. Then she got back into Harbor. Which was good, because she missed everybody. Well...Summer and Seth. And then that Volchek guy wanted to hook up with her. I mean, he was hot, very hot, but Marissa wouldn't have anything to do with him.
So up comes college time. Marissa had no idea what to do. She really felt like she needed a break from everything, and then a letter from her dad came in the mail. He wanted her to come to Hawaii and stay with him. She gladly accepted.
Four years and a Fashion Design degree later, here she is. After graduating college, she got an offer to work for Steven Mercado, one of the best up and coming designers. But his store was located in New York, so she would have to move there. After much thought, she finally decided that she should do it. I mean, it was a once in a lifetime shot. Plus, Summer lived in New York. She worked at a fashion magazine called Entice. She loved her job.
Jimmy and Julie split the cost of an apartment in New York for Marissa to live in. It was beautiful. It took up a whole floor of the building. It was completely furnished, and in the perfect part of town, and Marissa couldn't have been happier. Her and Jimmy visited it and brought the majority of her belongings, well, except for most of her clothes. Marissa said that she would just take them when she really left.
Today was the day that she was leaving. She was excited, nervous, anxious, sad to be leaving her dad and stepmother, but happy to be going to New York and really starting her life.
She woke up early and finished packing the stuff that remained in her room, including the scrapbook of her and Alex that she had been looking at more and more lately. She looked around the room one last time, and grabbed all of her suitcases.
"Marissa, honey, you're going to miss your flight!"
(Present)
"Aw, I could never forget about you two. You know that Mer. I promise I will come back every chance I get to visit you guys. I love you," Marissa told her stepmother, tears starting to pour onto her cheeks as well.
"I love you too. Oh gosh." Meredith said as the tears kept pouring down. " I hate crying!" she said with a laugh. It made Marissa laugh too. "you'll call when you get there?" Mer asked.
"Of course. I've got to go. I'll talk to you soon." Marissa said before more tears could fall. She really did love Meredith. She made up for Julie being such a bitch all of those years. Julie was totally different now, and her and Marissa got along really well. Actually, Marissa just went and visited her in Newport about 2 months ago, but her relationship with Mer was different. They were friends too.
"Okay. Bye Rissa," she said with one last hug.
"Bye Mer," Marissa said and grabbed her purse and walked out to the car.
"Ready kiddo?" Jimmy said as she got in the car.
"Yeah."
After a tearful goodbye at the airport, and many hugs and promises to call and visit, Marissa was boarding the plane to New York.
"New York, here I come," she mumbled to herself after getting seated in her first-class seat.
Whew. That was a long first chapter. Haha. Ok, so, I will explain everything a bit better now. Pretty much everything that happened in the past is the same in this story except:
Marissa went to Alex's after their breakup, as explained earlier, and it took her longer to get on with her life than it did in the show. She still misses her...but only Summer knows.
R/M broke up pretty much right after season 3 started. It was mutual, and there wasn't really any hard feelings. They knew it was the right thing to do.
Johnny liked Marissa, but she just wanted to stay friends so they did. Then after she went back to Harbor he went on a surfing your thing. (He won't be in this fic, but he didn't die…cause that just started a bunch of crap)
Volchek never happened. He hit on Marissa, but she hated him. End of story. Lol
So she went to live with Jimmy and five years later...her she is.
Sorry about the confusion and the longevity, I just had a lot of esplainin to do. Haha
Next up is Alex, and I doubt it'll be this long. Sorry it's going so slow, but things won't really pick up until chapter 3.
The POV is like…all knowing. I forget what that's called. Ha…I need to pay more attention.
So...thank you for reading, and please review. This is my first fic, so if it sucks tell me. Haha and constructive criticism is appreciated.
By the way…this is a Malex fic.