10:15 PM - Marissa is in the Cohen guest room getting ready for bed when her phone rings for the third time.

"Hello?" Marissa said shivering. She had finally gave in and picked it up. There was no use in ignoring it the whole time she was staying here.

"Whatever you do, don't hang up. I mean it." Volchok replied forcefully.

Marissa remained silent, still shaking.

"I want you to come and meet me someplace. There is something I have to tell you."

"No. I won't. Tell me now or don't tell me at all." Marissa said bravely.

"I need to see you. If you don't come to meet me, I will come to you. And we all know you don't want that to happen do we?…" Volchok said.

"You don't even know where I'm at."

"We'll see about that wont we??….I know where you are staying, and you don't want me to come there. So meet me at the pier, tomorrow morning."

He hangs up and Marissa sets the phone down. A tear runs down her face and she crawls into bed, still shivering and pulls the comforter up over her head.

10:30 PM –

"AW! Look at that buddy! I totally beat you at that round." Seth said teasingly.

"Yeah, I let you win," replied Ryan.

"Whatever dude." Seth said, walking out the pool house door. "We need to clock in some serious 'Seth/Ryan Time' tomorrow."

"Sounds good man." Ryan said.

Marissa looks over at the clock, restless. 12:00. She is still shaking in her short black shorts and a red tank top, scared that Volchok will try to do something to her.

How could he have figured out where I am staying? What will he say to me tomorrow? What will happen if I don't go? Marissa thinks.

Marissa finally gets up and walks out into the hall and down the stairs.

(Forever Young- by: Youth Group plays low and soft in the background)

She bounces quietly down the stairs on her tiptoes. She walks slow and quietly through the dark kitchen and towards the pool house. Marissa turns the knob very quietly and walks over to the bed where Ryan is silently laying. She slips off her flip-flops and hesitantly lies down on her side next to Ryan. Ryan turns and looks at the back of her head and then rolls over on his side and wraps his arms around her. She moves her back closer to where she is resting against his chest. They laid in that same position for a while before Marissa rolls over to where she is facing him.

"Sorry,….I just didn't want to be alone," She confessed.

Ryan knows that something happened and that she is scared, without her having to tell him. They have been through too much together for him not to realize when she is in any kind of trouble or pain. Even though they aren't "together" they will always be closer to each other than any other "normal" couple in Newport.

"No. ……Its okay," Ryan pauses, "Everything is going to be okay."

"I was just scared. And I couldn't sleep."

"You can lay here as long as you need to," Ryan said.

Marissa rolls back over on her side and lay rested in his arms, holding his strong hand against her own chest. Being here in his arms, made her feel safe and protected. No one could make her feel more secure and loved than Ryan could. It had been that way since the trip to Tijuana. She knew from then on that he was the one that she could trust with anything. She really loved him. That safe feeling she had, put her right to sleep.

Ryan stared at her honey blonde hair. It smelled so good, he thought to himself. All he wanted to do was make her feel protected. Marissa had put him through so much drama and pain but it was all worth it. It was all worth it for moments like these. Moments that he wished he could pause and stay here forever. Ryan wished he didn't have to go off to college in September. He didn't want to be separated from Seth, the Cohen's, and particularly Marissa. Even though Seth could be annoying, and self absorbed, Ryan couldn't survive with out him. And the Cohen's? Well, he didn't know it yet, but he needed them. He loved her more than he could ever imagine and he knew that she felt the same about him. They were just both too scared to say it.

8:00 Next Morning –

"Shh." Ryan wakes up to an annoying crunching sound. He looks over; Marissa is still sound asleep next to him.

"Shut up Cohen," Summer whispers, "You're hogging the cereal."

Ryan looks over and sees Seth and Summer sitting cross-legged in the floor eating dry cereal from a box.

"Don't 'Shh' me!" Seth whispers back.

"Do you think we should wake them?" Summer asks, not even paying attention to Ryan staring at them.

Seth looks over at them.

"Well good morning buddy!" Seth says.

"Why are you in here?" asks Ryan.

"Well, since you asked, I came over to find Marissa. So I went into her room and she wasn't there! OH MY GOD. So then I thought 'Well, I wonder if she got kidnapped???' So me and Cohen over here thought we'd go looking for her, when we walked in here and saw… YOU TWO!" Summer said.

"Yeah, by the way, why are you two….together? In here?" Seth wonders.

Marissa wakes up and looks over at Summer and Seth.

"Morning," Seth says to Marissa.

"Well, I think im going to go and get some breakfast," Marissa says as she gets up and slips her flip-flops back on.

"Right behind ya, Coop," Summer says as she follows Marissa out the door.

Seth looks at Ryan sarcastically as Ryan gets up.

"What was that man?" Seth questions.

"Nothing, Seth."

"What do you mean nothing??? She was in the freaking pool house. ALL NIGHT."

"Seth, nothing happened," Ryan said, "I swear."

"Whatever, dude," Seth pauses, "You two is hard to figure out sometimes."

"Yeah, let's go get some breakfast."