A/N I wanted to get this up today, but the next chapter is up to you guys. The faster you provide feedback, the faster I post! Read and Review, and Enjoy!

Dedicated to RMforever. Happy (American) birthday!

After having so much fun at the Bait Shop, Marissa quickly became really comfortable with Andrew. Sometimes she felt even more comfortable with him than Ryan, which bothered her, but she couldn't do anything about that anymore. Ryan didn't feel the same way about her that she felt about him, and this was her moving on.

Ryan did seem to notice something was up, but he never came outright and said anything. Instead, he tried to hang out with Marissa a little bit more, but Marissa always found excuses not to. She said she had to go shopping with her mom, her dad wanted her to spend time with him, she had something to study for, she had too much homework. She didn't feel like she could spend time around him and not fall under his influence. She figured the only way to get over him once and for all was time.

On Wednesday the following week, Marissa met Andrew at their lockers. "Hey," she said with a smile.

Andrew smiled back at her. "Hey. How are you?"

"Good," she said, and meant it. Andrew had been a really good friend to her lately, and she really appreciated it.

Andrew's eyes brightened. "Good."

Marissa looked at him and saw he was wearing shorts and flip-flops. "How are you possibly wearing that in February?"

"It's almost March, and I'm from Maine," Andrew argued. "

He opened his locker, then glanced over at her. "What are you doing this weekend? Any cool plans?"

Marissa gave him a look and laughed. "No. Absolutely nothing."

Andrew looked into his locker, suddenly seeming nervous. "Maybe we could do something? Go see a movie?"

Marissa glanced his way, trying to measure his intentions. "Like a date?"

He rubbed his arm nervously, which Marissa found kind of cute. "No. I mean, yes. It can be. If you want it to."

Marissa bit her lip, feeling incredibly torn. On one hand, Andrew was great. She really liked him. He would be a great boyfriend. On the other hand.. well, she was in love with Ryan. She looked at him and softly said, "Andrew, you know I love Ryan."

He nodded. "And you know I love Jessica." He closed his locker, leaning against the lockers as he turned to look at her. "But I think that we could be good for each other. Maybe not the end all relationship, but I like you and I think you like me too." At Marissa's slight blush, his smile broadened. "And maybe I'm setting myself up to get hurt. I'm pretty sure I will. But I also know that I'll kick myself in the future if I don't ask you out before it's too late."

Marissa continued to bite her lip, thinking over his words. What did she have to lose? Ryan had already broken her heart. "Well, that depends."

"On what?" he asked very seriously.

Marissa grinned playfully. "Do I get to pick the movie?"

Andrew visibly relaxed and immediately nodded. "Of course."

Marissa smiled and reached out to touch his arm. "Okay, Friday night. It's a date."

XXXXX

Ryan and Seth shared the same history class at the end of the day. As they walked out, Seth slapped Ryan's back. "I have to say, Ryan, I'm really impressed with you right now."

Ryan looked at Seth, confused. "Um, why?"

"You seem so calm," Seth said with a shrug.

Ryan continued to just stare at Seth, not getting it. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Seth furrowed his own eyebrows now. "Um, Andrew and Marissa?" At Ryan's immediate anger, Seth awkwardly stopped. "Oh. You didn't know."

Ryan's eyes narrowed. "Know what, Seth?"

"Marissa didn't tell you? I can't believe she didn't tell you. I mean, she told Summer, who told me thinking of how you would handle it…"

Ryan grabbed Seth's arm, staring at him coldly. "What is going on?"

Seth gulped a little as he saw the pure anger build up in Ryan. "It really isn't that big of deal. I mean, it was bound to happen. He obviously likes her, and she seems to like him too. But this morning Andrew asked Marissa out."

Ryan let go of Seth, blinking slowly. "I have to find Marissa," he said, walking away before Seth could say another word. He walked around looking for Marissa, wondering why she hadn't told him. He didn't like Andrew, that was true, but what he really didn't like right now was Marissa's lack of communication. They were best friends. That was supposed to mean something. Even if he hated what she was doing, she was supposed to tell him as soon as she accepted the date. That's how it had always been. That's the way it was supposed to be. He still told her everything, or at least most of it.

He found her at her locker, and thankfully that idiot Andrew wasn't there. She saw him but didn't smile. She never smiled when he was around these days. In fact, he hardly ever saw her smiling except for when she was around Andrew. "Hey," she merely said.

"That's all you have to say to me?" he asked, trying to keep his anger in check.

Marissa closed her locker, raising her eyes to his. "Am I supposed to have something else to say?"

She started walking, and he was right at her side before she could even blink. "How about you tell me about your date with Andrew?"

Marissa momentarily froze, glancing in Ryan's direction. "You know about that?"

"Seth told me," he said, his voice both broken and angry. "Why didn't you tell me, Marissa? We're supposed to be best friends."

Marissa resumed walking. "We are."

"You sure as hell aren't acting like it anymore," Ryan argued.

"What do you want from me, Ryan?" Marissa asked tiredly.

Ryan moved so he was in front of her, blocking her from moving anymore. "I want my best friend back."

Marissa refused to meet his eyes. "People change, Ryan. Things change."

"The rest of the world changes. We were never supposed to change," Ryan argued quietly, staring at her intently. "We were the one good thing in the world, remember? Even as the rest of the world changed and morphed and messed up, we were supposed to stay together."

Marissa still refused to meet his gaze, feeling her body flush at the heat of his look. "I can't, Ryan."

"Why can't you?" Ryan asked quietly. "Why am I losing you? What can I do to make you stay? Just tell me. I'll do it."

Marissa finally lifted her eyes to his, tears threatening to spill forward. "It's not something you can just do. It's more complicated than that."

"Tell me," Ryan pleaded quietly, looking at her with the saddest blue eyes. "We never talk. We never hang out. You don't even look at me anymore. Is it Andrew?"

Marissa quickly shook her head. "No. He is a great friend."

"And I'm not?"

Marissa sighed and gave him a look. "You know that's not what it is."

"How am I supposed to know anything if you don't tell me?" Ryan asked frantically. "I don't like to do this. I don't like to put myself out there, but here I am practically on my hands and knees begging you to tell me what I'm doing wrong."

Marissa ran a hand through her hair, chewing on her bottom lip. "You're not doing anything wrong. It's me, Ryan. It's me. I just need to sort some stuff out."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Feeling stuff," Marissa said, her cheeks burning. "I just need to take some time.."

"No," Ryan said, shaking his head.

"No?" Marissa asked incredulously.

"If you take more time, you're just going to pull away more and I'm not going to let that happen," Ryan said quietly, his decision final.

Marissa took a step back, shaking her head. "You don't get to decide what I can and can't do."

Ryan stepped toward her. "Yes, I do. Marissa, I'm your best friend…"

"Exactly, Ryan," Marissa said seriously. "You're my best friend. And we need to start acting like it. Before one of us gets seriously hurt. We can't keep going on like this. We can't pretend like things between us are okay. We're too close. We act differently than other friends."

"Who cares?" Ryan protested.

"I care," Marissa argued, her voice becoming more urgent. "Ryan, I've spent my whole life thinking it's okay to feel like this, but I'm realizing that I'm just setting myself up to get hurt. I can't continue having these feelings…"

Ryan was so confused. What was Marissa talking about? "What feelings?"

Without thinking, Marissa blurted out, "Liking you. Wanting to be with you." She shut her mouth, eyes widening. "I didn't mean…"

Ryan felt like his entire world was off kilter. "You… you like me?"

Marissa blushed such a deep shade of red that she was sure she looked like a tomato. "I… I didn't mean… I don't…"

Ryan blinked, the world feeling like it was spinning. "I… I need to find Casey. She was going to drive me home. I have to work. And I have to do my homework…"

Marissa once again felt her heart breaking. "That's probably for the best." She turned around, wiping at the rapidly falling tears. "Bye, Ryan." And she ran away before he could even think to follow her.

XXXXX

That night after work, Ryan was lounging on Casey's bed in his boxers. He had come over right after his shift ended, needing a distraction from his thoughts. He couldn't get Marissa's face out of his mind or her voice telling him she had feelings for him. He'd hoped sex would help things, but he still couldn't stop picturing the pain in her eyes.

Casey was worried about him, he knew, but he couldn't stop thinking about Marissa. She had feelings for him? She wanted to be with him? Why had she never told him before? He would've… what would he have done? Nothing. Because they were friends.

Ryan and Marissa couldn't be together. It would ruin things, wouldn't it? It would ruin everything. What if they broke up? Ryan couldn't be with people that long. Casey was his only relationship that lasted longer than a month. He couldn't lose Marissa. It was as simple as that. He may be attracted to her and she may have feelings for him, but they could never act on it because Marissa was just too damn important to him.

Casey sat up and rubbed his back soothingly, but it didn't calm him down one bit. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Ryan barely heard her, Marissa's voice replaying over and over in his head. At the end of the day, he just wanted to make her feel better. His best friend was hurting and he couldn't do a damn thing to change it. "Nothing."

Casey sighed and scooted closer to him. "Come on, Ryan. I know when something is bothering you."

"I just got into a fight with Marissa," he said, which was true. He and Marissa seemed to argue a lot lately, which also bothered him.

"About what?" Casey asked, trying to be the caring girlfriend even though it felt like everything was about Marissa.

"She didn't tell me about her date with Andrew," Ryan said, remembering that day. "We always tell each other things. It's what we do. I always knew she would tell me something, even if I wasn't always open with her. It's just how we work."

Ryan had never talked this much with Casey before, so she didn't want him to stop. "And this made you mad?"

Ryan nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it's Marissa. We talk. We laugh. We hang out. It's what we do, and now I feel like I'm losing her." He pulled away from Casey and swung his legs over the side of the bed, placing is head in his hands. "I hate it. We never have been like this. But now she wants to get over her feelings for me and it's like we can't be friends anymore…"

Casey furrowed her eyebrows. "Wait, Marissa told you she has feelings for you?"

Ryan nodded, sighing softly. "Yeah."

This was the breaking point for Casey. She had watched Ryan and Marissa watch cute and cuddly with each other this entire time without protesting. She had watched Ryan look at Marissa as if she were the answer to everything. She had watched Marissa pine over Ryan and slowly attempt to move on. But she would not watch Marissa try to steal her boyfriend. "That bitch," she said quietly, not even realizing she'd said it out loud.

Ryan immediately tensed, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. "What did you just say?" he asked lowly.

Casey sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Ryan…"

Ryan stood, turning around to face her, quickly getting dressed. "You don't call Marissa anything, do you understand me?" he said, his voice calm but his eyes a storm of anger.

Casey wouldn't take this. She had taken the sideline for long enough. "Ryan, she's manipulating you. She's trying to break us up."

Ryan narrowed his eyes at her. "Marissa has been nothing but kind to you this entire time. You will not talk badly about her."

Casey stood now, feeling her own anger swell. "And you will not tell me what to do!" She rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Listen to you! Listen to how you defend her! And she's not even around lately!"

Something in Ryan snapped. "She has been having a hard time. You think it's easy for her? I started the distance. I started it, and now she has it in her head that she needs to continue it. I'm not going to stop defending her just because she's trying to protect herself." And suddenly Ryan realized that's exactly what Marissa was trying to do. He knew because that's what he tried to do when he was afraid.

But Marissa didn't need to be afraid. She didn't ever need to be afraid of Ryan.

"Trying to protect herself?" Casey scoffed. "That gives her the right to treat you like shit? To tell someone else's boyfriend that she has feelings for him?"

Ryan looked at Casey. "I don't know what your problem is."

"My problem?" Casey asked incredulously, rolling her eyes. "My problem is Marissa. She has always been my problem. She is always there. It's never just us. I feel like I'm having a relationship with both of you!"

"That's exactly what you need to do!" Ryan yelled back. "Marissa is my best friend!"

"Since when does being a best friend mean she gets to have feelings for you?"

Ryan glared. "Feelings happen. We don't plan them. They just appear. And Marissa never meant to develop feelings for me."

"So now you're defending the fact that she's in love with you?" Casey asked, laughing at the absurdity of it all. "Seriously?"

Ryan shook his head unbelievingly. "I will defend Marissa no matter what."

Casey sighed and shook her head. "Ryan, I didn't sign up for a relationship with the both of you. I thought I was dating you. You're not even available. All you ever think about is Marissa…"

"Because she is my best friend," Ryan reiterated, not understanding why Casey just couldn't understand that.

"Then why do you act like you're in love with her?!" Casey shouted, taking both of them by surprise.

Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm not… I'm not in love with Marissa…"

Casey laughed in disbelief. "Yes, Ryan, you are. It's why you're so protective. It's why you don't want her dating Andrew. It's why you're so preoccupied with the fact she has feelings."

Ryan shook his head, unwilling to even think about that. "I'm not in love with her. I'm not."

Casey walked over to Ryan, placing her hands on his chest. "Ryan, think about it."

Ryan did think about it. But all he could see was how incredibly stupid it would be for him to be with Marissa. She meant too much for him to ever pursue a relationship with her. Nothing else – no feelings, no love mattered but keeping her in his life. "Whether I have feelings for Marisa or not, I can't date you anymore, Casey," Ryan said quietly.

Casey's eyes filled with tears as she realized she had just messed this up. "I love you, Ryan," she said quietly.

Ryan pulled away from her, his eyes hard as he stared at her. He felt no sympathy or pity for her. No one talked about Marissa the way she just did. If they did, they were gone. "Goodbye, Casey," he merely said, leaving.

XXXXX

Marissa couldn't stop playing her conversation with Ryan over and over again in her head. He didn't love her. He never would love her. He didn't want to have a relationship with her. He just wanted Casey. For what felt like the millionth time that afternoon, tears fell.

She heard a thud outside her window, and before she knew it Ryan was inside her room. He hadn't come through her window in weeks, and she just realized how much she had missed him. He closed her window and turned to look at her, his face sullen. "I don't feel like talking about it," Marissa murmured, wiping her eyes yet again.

Ryan nodded, kicking his shoes off and taking off his button up shirt. "I'm going to shower," he merely murmured, grabbing some clothes from his drawer before walking into her bathroom.

Marissa tried to focus on her homework, but she couldn't. Not with Ryan in the bathroom showering. Not with everything that had been said that day. She felt like she was inner turmoil and she didn't know how to overcome it. After a while, the water shut off and Marissa sighed, trying to focus on her homework.

She read two pages by the time Ryan walked out of the bathroom. He threw his clothes in her hamper, then walked to her bed. She noticed something off about him, something off even from this morning. Sighing, she closed her book, glancing his way. He was laying back against her pillow, staring at the ceiling. Finally, she quietly asked, "Is something wrong? I mean, other than the obvious."

Without even turning to look at her, he murmured, "I broke up with Casey."

Seeing how that upset him, her heart broke for him. "I hope it didn't have anything to do with…"

She trailed off, and he shook his head. "It was a long time coming," he said quietly.

She reached out, squeezing his arm gently. "Is there anything I can do?"

He finally glanced her way, his eyes sad and vulnerable. "Can we just forget everything and be like we used to?" he asked quietly. "For only a night?"

"How?" Marissa asked softly.

Ryan opened his arms, staring at her silently. Marissa fit herself against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Ryan's arms came around her, holding her against him. For the longest time they just stayed there in each other's arms, their body heat keeping each other warm. For the first time in weeks, they both felt home.

XXXXX

I didn't plan on Marissa actually blurting that out, but it kind of just happened lol.

Individual replies:

Riss: I like how Ryan is all "I can't because what if it doesn't work out" instead of even considering not dating her just cause he doesn't feel that way, meaning he obviously does see her that way.

TVDaddict22: If she chooses Damon, I'm pretty much done with the show just cause it literally makes no sense whatsoever. But yeah, I think that it is way too soon for it to be a good decision either way. She has so many other things on her mind.

Jen: haha, we're getting closer and closer ;)

Isabella: It really does have to suck to be Casey, or even Andrew. You're just caught in the middle of this epic love story and no matter what you do you're pretty much guaranteed to get hurt.

Sailaway: I hope you continue liking the story :)

xoElle23: I'm totally like you. I usually hate anyone that takes away from my R/M love lol.

Nadine: I think that Andrew/Marissa is inevitable but for all the wrong reasons on Marissa's part.

Devon: Andrew's happy ending changes every week in my head lol. But he does have a happy ending.

Guest: Your wish is my command :)

Skillz37: As Andrew and Marissa get closer, Ryan will definitely become more and more aware of his true feelings ;)

Fatedtopretend: Well, I really did like your story! Loved it, actually. If I favorite a story, it means a lot. I think I've favorite less than ten, and I've read hundreds :)