A/N: Thanks so much for the nice reviews! I like this story a lot and I'm glad you guys do too. I hope this chapter pleases you as well .
Enjoy!
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Ryan sat on the edge of the bed and finished tying his shoe. It was 9:30 in the morning when he left the pool house and made his way to the Cohen kitchen.
"Morning Ryan" Sandy greeted him as he entered.
"Gooood morning!" Seth said with a mouthful of bagel.
"You want some coffee Ryan?" Sandy asked.
"Yea, sure" Ryan responded, taking a seat at the counter next to Seth. Sandy rummaged through the old take-out cartons, pizza boxes, and dirty dishes until he found a mug that looked relatively clean.
"So what do you guys have planned for today? Any parties, drugs? Because you know you can always count me in for that" Sandy said a she handed Ryan a cup of coffee.
"Dad, I can't take old man a rager with me; it would ruin my rep" Seth replied matter-of-factly.
"Maybe if you a rep," Ryan said while making a face at Seth, who made a similar one back, "we're going to meet Marissa and Summer at the beach".
Sandy raised his eyebrows at this statement. Ryan, Seth, Marissa, and Summer hanging out at the beach meant Ryan and Marissa would be hanging out. It didn't take a lawyer to figure that one out, but Sandy thought they had broken up.
"So everything with you and Marissa is good?" Sandy asked.
"Yea, actually, we talked a couple days ago".
"Well that's great. It's good to see you kids all hanging out together".
"Okay" Ryan simply replied. For some reason, he hated when people said things like that.
"Yea well," Seth piped in, "after two days of watching Ryan and I play Super Smash Brothers, Summer decided we need to spice up our lives. As if Super Smash Brothers isn't spicy".
"What is wrong with her?" Sandy replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"I don't know," Seth replied as he left his seat at the counter and opened up the fridge, "do we have any more milk?"
"So hey, I'm going to visit Kirstin today, you guys have anything you want me to tell her?"
"Tell her I said hi" Ryan replied. Sandy nodded his head, Ryan wasn't a man of many words.
"Tell her to come home soon," Seth said as he reached his hand into the back of the fridge looking for his milk. Finally finding some, he pulled it out and twisted off the cap, "this place seriously needs a feminine touch" he added before taking a sip of milk, then immediately spitting it back out.
"This milk's bad" he said while putting it back in the fridge.
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Sandy entered the courtyard of the Suriak Rehab Institute and spotted Kirsten sitting on a bench in front of a small pond about 30 feet from him. Her head was down; she seemed to be looking at a nearby bush. Sandy had walked about halfway to her when she lifted her head and noticed him coming. She got up off the bench and almost ran to him. She threw her around his neck and squeezed him tight. He hugged back.
"Hey" she said quietly, her face buried in his shoulder.
"Hey honey, how are you?" They let go their embrace and looked at each other.
"I'm good, I'm really good," she said, rubbing her hands up and down his forearms.
"That's good" Sandy replied. They started walking down the gravel path thought the garden.
"Yea, in fact, they say if I keep doing as good as I am now, I could come home in just a week or two," she said while linking arms with him.
"Hey! That's amazing!" Sandy smiled and kissed her cheek, "I'm so proud you honey". Kirstin looked down. She didn't deserve any compliments, and felt guilty receiving them.
"I'm so sorry, Sandy," she said, looking back up at him.
"We know, it's okay," he said while giving her a reassuring rub on the back with his hand. For a moment neither of them spoke.
"So how are you? How are the boys?" Kirstin asked, breaking the silence.
"I'm good. Ryan says hi, and Seth says come home soon" Sandy replied, grinning down at her, trying to cheer her up.
"That's sweet," she said, smiling and looking down. She felt so bad doing this to her boys, abandoning them like this.
"So how's Trey been by the way?" she asked, speaking of boys, "has the job at the Bait Shop been working out for him?"
Sandy hesitated for a moment, "Uh, yea, yea, Trey's fine" he replied.
"That's good".
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"No! No way, Cohen! You're not dragging me to another one of your Japanese ninja flicks!"
"Aw, come on Summer. You liked it last time".
"I did not!" Summer exclaimed while punching his arm. It was 5:30 and the sun was still high in the sky. Ryan, Seth, Marissa, and Summer were walking down the beach trying to decide on a movie to see.
"Hey, maybe if we can't decide on a movie, we should just figure out something else to do" Marissa interjected, trying to make peace.
"Or we could just go by ourselves" Ryan replied provocatively, putting his arm around Marissa's waist.
"Or we could just go back to your place by ourselves" Marissa said, giving him a suggestive smile. A huge grin spread across Ryan's face as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her lips.
"Okay, you guys don't even pretend for a second to be functional couple! I've seen you in action!" Summer exclaimed. Marissa just smiled smugly back at her.
"Alright, Summer, if you refuse decide on a movie, then maybe we should just play video games again; I can hear SSB just calling my name," Seth chimed in.
"Yea," Summer replied, with a sarcastic grin on her face, "then we can read comic books and listen to Death Cab!"
"Yea!" Seth exclaimed excitedly.
"No!" Summer retorted while pushing Seth with her hip. Seth pushed her back, then put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. She leaned her head back on his shoulder. Seth and Summer had a funny way of arguing for one minute, then acting all lovey-dovey the next. Ryan thought it was a little annoying; Marissa just found it amusing.
"Hey, I know something we can do tonight!" Marissa piped up. However, she was cut off by Ryan's cell phone ringing. He pulled it out his pocket and looked at the screen; it was Sandy. Ryan's smile faded a bit. Sandy calling was almost never good.
"Hello?" he said, putting the phone to his ear, "Hey. Yea...really? Yea…yea okay. Alright, thanks. Bye"
He snapped the phone shut and looked at the others. Seth had a feeling this was bad, and the look on Ryan's face wasn't exactly reassuring. Marissa's stomach sank, and Summer felt her heart skip a beat. They all stopped walking and stared at Ryan.
"Trey's awake," he finally said.
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It was 7:45 at night, and the sun was just starting to set. Ryan was sitting in his car in the hospital parking lot. He usually liked how the sun stayed up longer in the summer, but now he wished it would just go down so this day could be over. He had arrived at the hospital at around 7:00, and since then he had been sitting in the driver's seat looking out the front window, debating whether he should go in or not. Deep down he knew he had to; he was simply trying to postpone the event as long as possible. He remembered last time he tried to visit Trey; it had only enraged him further. He thought, even if he did go in, what would he say to Trey? He didn't want to go in there and tell him everything was all right, because it wasn't, but he also didn't want to just barge into his room and confront him again.
Ryan placed his hand around the top of the steering wheel and gripped it tight. This whole situation was so messed up. For a second he thought, I could be doing it with Marissa right now. He immediately chased that thought out of his head. It was a bit disturbing that he was thinking about sex when his brother had just woken up from a coma. He was well aware that he was just trying to distract himself, and frankly, Ryan didn't like the idea of his mind playing tricks on him.
Alright Ryan, be a man, go face your own brother.
He went back to two years ago, when Trey had called him a "little bitch". He was beginning to think he was right. Ryan closed his eyes tight and pressed his forehead against the top of the steering wheel.
Do it, he told himself, you have to do it.
He lifted up his head and angrily whipped open the door. Seth's voice suddenly popped into his mind, "You can't avoid them forever Ryan".
"Yea, yea, I'm going," he said out loud.
It was 7:55 when Ryan finally got into the hospital. He had walked through the hospital parking lot at a very quick speed, and waited very impatiently for one second as the automatic doors opened. He really just wanted to get this over with. Ryan managed to avoid the nurses and go straight to Trey's room. Walking though the hallway, he kept his head down looking at his feet and his hands in his pockets, searching for anything he might say to Trey when he sees him. However, when he made it to Trey's room, he noticed something very wrong.
It was empty.
There was a nurse in the room making the bed; Ryan stopped her on her way out.
"Excuse me, do you know where Trey Atwood is?" He asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.
"Um, let me check" she responded, putting her head down and flipping through the papers on her clipboard.
"Uh- he used to be in this room".
"Oh yea," she looked up at Ryan, "he checked out about and hour ago".
"Oh," Ryan was taken back by this, "okay, thank you". The nurse gave him a sweet smile and walked away.
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Trey sat on the worn-out couch in his apartment, staring at the duffel bag next to the door. He picked up his cell phone and began to dial a number. He only got to dialing four numbers before he shook his head and put the phone back down. He leaned back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling. He was disappointed when Ryan didn't come to the hospital to see him. But then again, he was also relieved. What would he say to Ryan? A simple 'I'm sorry' just didn't cut it.
He understood why he wouldn't want to come. He did try to kill him last time they saw each other. This memory brought Marissa back to his mind. Sandy had stopped by about a half hour after he had woken up, and informed Trey about everything that had happened while he was out. Apparently, the police had let Marissa off with self-defense, and nobody had pressed charges.
He turned his head to his left and the stared down the hallway to his bedroom. He thought about how screwed up his life was. He went to jail, used his little brother's new life to pull himself back together, tried to make a move on his girlfriend, then almost killed him.
It's that Atwood family luck, he thought to himself.
No, he couldn't blame this on bad luck; it was his own damn fault.
Suddenly, there was a single loud knock on the door, waking Trey up from his daydreams. Before he could get up to answer, the door flung open, and Ryan stepped in. Trey stared at him blankly for a second. Ryan looked down and swallowed, seeming a bit out of breath. He was obviously nervous.
"Hey man" Trey finally said, looking down. He could not stand to look Ryan in the eye. Ryan appeared to have the same problem. He was looking at the wall behind Trey's head.
"Hey" Ryan replied. There was a long silence, as both brothers stared in opposite directions.
"Sandy stopped by earlier", Trey said, clearly he would probably have to do all the talking here, "He told me Marissa didn't get in any real trouble, that's good".
"Yea, it is". Ryan was now forcing words off his tongue. He had such mixed feelings towards Trey; he was having trouble even talking to him. Half of Ryan wanted to finish what he had started the last time they saw each other, the other half of him wanted to apologize to Trey for overreacting. But for the most park, Ryan just wanted to leave. He regretted coming; he regretted letting this whole situation get out of hand and leading to this. He turned his head to the right and looked down; it was then he noticed the duffel bag sitting on the ground next to the door.
"You goin' somewhere?" Ryan asked, nodding his head towards the bag. Trey looked down for a second and roughly scratched the back of his head before looking back at Ryan answering.
"Yea, actually I was gonna get of here" Trey replied. Ryan scrunched his eyebrows together, looked down at the duffle bag, the back at Trey.
"Wh-what do mean?" He asked, puzzled.
"You know, Vegas, L.A, somewhere" he replied, standing up from the couch and walking around Ryan to get to his bag. Ryan noticed the area of rug he walked over; there would be a coffee table there, if they didn't break it.
"Hold on, what?" he asked, turning towards Trey.
"I'm leaving Ryan" Trey responded, looking down again at his bag.
"No, Trey you don't have-" Trey cut him off before he could finish his sentence.
"I do, Ryan. Look, you had a good thing going for you here, then I showed up and ruined it, and I'm sorry" Ryan looked down at his feet and shook his head, "You we're right...I don't belong here". Trey turned around and went to open the door.
"Trey, wait-" Trey cut him off once again, but his time not with words. He grabbed Ryan's shoulder, gave it a squeezed and patted it twice.
"See ya later Ry," he said. And with that, Trey left.
A/N: I know there was not much Seth/Summer in this chapter; I promise to put more of them in the next one (they are my favorite, of course). I'm warning you now though; the next chapter will take me a while. These chapters I already had written like a year ago, so I just had to edit them. The next ones I have to write now, and frankly I have close to zero time on my hands, but I'll try my best for you guys!
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