Gingko23 : J'hésite à te répondre en français ou en anglais haha :p en tout cas, merci beaucoup beaucoup pour ton commentaire adorable, ça me fait vraiment plaisir !
Moi aussi j'ai arrêté de regarder après sa mort, ça m'énervait trop de me dire que Ryan allait finir avec quelqu'un d'autre que Marissa :p Mais j'avais vite fait regardé le déroulement du début de 4ème saison et l'idée de la lettre de Marissa que Julie retrouve bien plus tard m'avait plutôt plu donc j'ai voulu m'en resservir :)
CaptainOats13 : Aww thanks so much! I really enjoyed writing that part actually. I could finally broke all the unsaid between Marissa and Ryan :D
So I'm back! So sorry to keep you guys waiting, I realize it has been sooooo long since I last posted, but I have had a loooot of work these past few months and it's a very important year for me and also, since this story was something I wrote a while ago, I really needed to rework it and change stuff around.
Anyway, here it goes! :)
It was September of a new school year. Ryan had made his entry at Brown in January, as well as Seth and Summer.
When Ryan had tried to enter Berkley, they had refused him because they thought it was way too late for him to join their school this year. But Ryan didn't really mind, he was actually happier to go to Brown, since he could now be with his two best friends.
Of course, it hadn't been easy. Ryan had to make an interview, and was helped by Sandy and Seth, so the University of Brown would accept him.
So this was just the three of them.
Their lives had gone by without Marissa, because well, they had no choice to anyway. What was the sentence Sandy had told Ryan already? Oh that's right: "The world doesn't stop for anyone, so you just have to hold on and keep living while you can". Pretty depressing if you asked him, but in the end he had to admit, Seth's father was right. So they had, little by little, learned to cope with it. Summer's father and Julie weren't giving lots of news from the hospital anymore. There wasn't much to say. Despite the hard work of the French specialists, Marissa hadn't shown any sign of improvement. So why call just to say nothing had change? Summer had then taken the decision to stop taking news. Each time they talked, another hope of hers was crushed. And keeping her hopes up was too tiring and hard. She was trying with all she had not to think about her best friend too much. Instead, she was focusing on her studies and on her caring boyfriend, Seth. He was pretty amazing with her. Which had surprised her, in a way. Helping someone to cope with a close friend's absence wasn't really his strong suit. Of course, Marissa was Seth's friend, but no one could pretend having ben closer to Marissa than Summer had. Not even her mother. Especially not her mother. Seth had been her ancher. He would always comfort her whenever she had a "Marissa crisis", and he was the sweetest. She was wondering if maybe, because they had gone through so much without giving up, dating him had become natural, and, believe it or not, simple.
Of course, they still fought. A lot. But it was only teeny tiny couple fights. And they would be so bored with each other if they had stop bickering. It was their thing.
Near the end of last year, Summer had had the best idea ever: Since the three of them hated their dorm rooms and their dorm, she had thought about them living together. They didn't want to depend on their parents' money, so they had to take part-time jobs and a really small apartment. But it was okay. They were so proud to be living without any parents and buying their own place that they didn't really cared.
Today was moving day, which was great. She was sitting at a table inside their old dorm, waiting for Ryan, Seth and Taylor. They had seen her a lot more since Marissa was gone. She was a good friend and Summer was glad to have found her. This was the moment when she needed a friend the most.
Ryan was dating her since, but the girl wasn't attending the same school. She would just come visit on holidays and when she had a little free time.
Ryan and she weren't really close as a couple. Taylor thought that maybe they had started dating too soon after the Cooper' departure, or maybe they just weren't that good together. They both knew there wasn't anything much left between them, but none of them wanted to take the decision of breaking up. Taylor knew he was only sticking with her to try to forget about Marissa, but she was okay with it. She had always been easy-going. Or at least she had decided to try to be. And she wasn't expecting much from him anymore. They were both together just so they wouldn't be alone.
Weren't they?
Ryan, Taylor and Seth were late. Seth was getting a little hyper, probably sensing that his sweet-yet-not-so-easygoing-girlfriend would not be very happy about that.
- Chill out bud', it's only Summer, you know, said Ryan casually.
He was walking a few steps behind Seth, with Taylor clung to his arm.
- Only Summer? Seth cried, his face now only inches away from Ryan. Do you have any idea of who you're talking about? One time, I was like ten… Ok maybe thirty minutes late to a date with her, I had to go pick her up to her place and she left me outside and kept me waiting for 2 whole hours before even showing uto properly slap the door at me.
Taylor suddenly looked alarmed. She started to walk faster, dragging Ryan with her. He rolled his eyes.
- Not exaggerating, are you?
- We-he-hell, Seth responded while laughing nervously, you'll see soon enough, my dear friend. You'll see soon enough.
- What took you so long, guys?, asked Summer, her voice piercing with anger.
Uh-oh. This was bad.
- Sorry honey, Seth said cautiously with a nervous smile on his lips, (he threw a I-told-you-so look at Ryan), we had to wait at the agency. There were so many people! But look what we finally have…
Seth took a small metallic object out of his pocket and handed it to Summer. Her anger fell instantly and was replaced by excitement.
- Oh my god, the key! Gimme!, she gapsed, throwing her arms in direction of the small object.
Seth, Taylor and Ryan sat next to Summer. She threw her arm in the air, with the key still on her hand.
- This is the sign of our independence!, she said, solemnly. Can you believe it? We're actually gonna have our own place! Isn't it awesome?
Seth felt proud of himself. He had managed to calm the wild beast. It was his sweet little wild beast after all, he was used to her mood swings.
Ryan drank distractedly a sip of his beer from the bottle. As he looked up, he just had time to catch the sight of a very familiar silhouette before it disappeared from the door frame. He thought he had seen a quite tall and really thin woman with long wavy brown hair.
Without really thinking, and a bit disconnected from reality, Ryan brusquely stood up, hitting the table on the way, and left the room, running after a shadow. His friends stopped talking instantly and gazed at each other and then up at him in surprise. What was going on in his head?
Once in the corridor, he saw a shadow disappearing from the corner of the hall. Nobody but him was there anymore.
He couldn't help wondering "What if?"
He went back to his friends with a blank look on his face. He sat without a word and seemed totally lost in the limbos of his thoughts.
- Dude, what the fuck happened? You look like you saw a ghost!
Ryan didn't answer. He thought he saw one too.
- There we are. There we are! Is it exciting?
The three of them echoed a "yeah" briefly enthusiastic. They were standing at the doorstep of the little flat. Ryan and Seth exchanged a worried look. The apartment was in fact a lot smaller without all its old furnitures. And a lot dirtier too. What was that on the wall? Fungus?
- Can you guys smell this?
- What? That pleasant old eggs and garlic smell?
- Noo! It smells like freedom you idiot!
She flipped on her feet to face her boyfriend with anger. How could they be so unenthusiastic about this? That flat was perfect! Of course, it needed some definite cleaning. And a lot of hard work. But after all, they knew from the beginning what they were getting into. The most important thing was, it was theirs! They owned this place. They had done it, all by themselves. Wasn't this feeling worth some effort to get this done?
- You totally ruined my movie moment!
- Ok, where is this going?
- I have no freaking idea! Why don't you sort it out for yourself for a change? I'm sick of doing everything here!
- Guys, guys! Stop. I think I just broke something.
- What?!
Tension filled the air as they were struggling with cleaning, unpacking all their stuff and cleaning some more.
They had at least managed to sort out which room belonged to whom. Ryan was currently trying to think where they could possibly find enough room to put their brand new fridge. The kitchen was definitely smaller then he thought it was. This was really tougher than they thought. Maybe they hadn't talked enough about this. Was this really a good idea after all? They seemed to have no idea what they had gotten themselves into. The flat was small and dirty and the entire building seemed so old.
Just as he was thinking that maybe it was not too late to go beg for his old dorm room, he heard noises. Was someone crying?
He sighted and walked to the living room. What stupid drama had they gotten themselves into this time?
But when he opened the door, he was gritted by smiling faces. Seth, Summer and Taylor were calling him over.
They had managed to make their small living room welcoming, nice and cosy with only a small couch, funny cushions, and small TV. Somehow, it looked like a home.
- So? What do miss Roberts thinks of my hard work?, Seth asked Summer.
- It's perfect!
She jumped in his arms. Moving in their own place wasn't such a bad idea after all.
