Chapter 1
Ryan Atwood was lying in his bed in the Cohen's pool house. He was thinking about all of the events the previous couple of days. "Man and I thought Chino was screwed-up!" Ryan thought to himself. He thought about how the one person he loved the most and thought he could trust had betrayed him. Marissa picked Oliver above him without as much as a bat of her eyelid. He thought about how the Cohen's were supposed to be his parents and that he supposedly could go to them with anything. "Yeah, that turned out fantastic!" Ryan spoke out loud and cursed himself for thinking that he finally had a place where he could belong – a place that he could call home. He though about how not even Seth, the person he thought of as a brother, believed him when he said Oliver was crazy. Finally he thought about how ironic it was that the only two people who believed in him where the two he never thought would be his allies – Luke and Summer.
There was a knock on the door and although he didn't feel like talking to anyone, he knew that if it was one of the three Cohen's he would have to talk to them eventually and he thought he would rather get it out of the way now so he said who ever it was must come in. As it turns out it was Seth. Just by the way he walked Ryan could sense he was perplexed by the way he had acted. "Hey man, listen, I'm sorry. I should've believed you when you said Oliver was dangerous. It's just, well, he seemed so normal. Tell me everything is okay between us." Seth was clearly sorry but he hurt Ryan and Ryan wasn't prepared to just forgive Seth and when Ryan spoke his voice was cold "Normal? Normal Seth? And what was I? Abnormal?" Seth tried to stop Ryan but Ryan was steaming ahead "You were supposed to be on my side, you weren't supposed to pick the other guy's side! Tell me Seth, who helped you get Summer? Who helped you get over Summer? Who helped you when the water polo team wanted to beat you up? Who listened to your various rants and raves and who, Seth, was your supposed best friend? Me Seth, me. Good old Ryan Atwood. How do you repay me? By distrusting me! So, no Seth, everything is not okay between us and truthfully, I can't see everything being okay with us anytime soon."
Seth was dumbstruck. He knew Ryan took things seriously but this was way off par. He also knew that he clearly should give Ryan some room before even trying to breach the subject again. As far as friends go, Ryan was his best and he wasn't prepared to lose him.
Just as Seth left the pool house Ryan's cell phone started to ring. Without even thinking or looking at the caller display he grabbed it and flipped it open and gruffly said "Yes?" The voice on the other end of the line was clearly intoxicated. "Ryan, Baby, is that you?" Only one person called Ryan Baby and that was Marissa Cooper. Marissa must be on another drinking binge after the Oliver-incident, thought Ryan. Nowadays she didn't need a very good reason to drink. "Marissa?" Ryan inquired although he knew it was her. "Ryan? Can you come and get me? I'm at Holly's. Please Baby, I need you." Before Ryan could respond the line went dead. "Shit! She knows just which buttons to push!"