The games up

A short time later they pulled up on the Cohen's driveway.

Ryan gave her hand a light squeeze as it rested on his leg and they both got out of the car and walked to the door.

"Ready?" he asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

He rang the door bell and stood with his hand on the small of her back. He just wanted some contact with her even though it was slight. They could hear the commotion inside as someone made their way to the other side of the door.

Kirsten opened the door and smiled at them. "Marissa. Lovely to see you. It's been a long time."

"Yes. Thanks Kirsten. Too long. I've missed you." She said as she gave her a hug.

"Well we've missed you too. Hi honey" Kirsten said giving Ryan a hug. "Come on through." She said as she led the way.

Sandy greeted them at the door of the kitchen. "Marissa you get more beautiful every day."

"Still the charmer hey Sandy?" Marissa laughed.

"Well I try. But really … it's great to see you. We don't often have world famous models come to lunch."

"No models here. Just me. A struggling actor who has no idea what she is doing." Marissa said.

"Yeah I heard about that. So how's it going?" Sandy asked.

"Well they haven't sacked me yet, so I guess that's good." She smiled.

"Coop?" Summer called as she entered from the lounge where she had been playing play station with Seth.

"Hi Sum" Marissa smiled wondering how long it would take for Summer to start asking questions.

Summer stood and watched Marissa and Ryan as they exchanged pleasantries with Kirsten & Sandy. She walked over and took Marissa's hand and started to move towards the stairs. "I'm sorry everyone I just need to steal Marissa away for a minute. We won't be long."

"Ugh…. Summer maybe later?" Marissa tried to stay where she was, knowing that the interrogation was about to begin and trying to find some way to postpone it.

"No…now" Summer stated firmly.

"But Summ…we've only just arrived. I haven't seen Kirsten and Sandy like… forever." Marissa said groping at straws.

"Yeah well…They're not going anywhere. So…Seth's room … Now." she stated and pulled her towards the stairs.

Marissa looked at Ryan as she was being pulled away. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I did warn you." And she smiled as she made her way up the stairs resigned that there was no way out of it.

Ryan looked at Kirsten and Sandy and could see they were about to start with the questions when Seth called out from the lounge.

"Hey Ryan?"

"Yeah?" Ryan replied moving towards the lounge pleased that Seth had interrupted before the questions had begun.

"Care for a little living room rematch?" Seth called out.

Ryan stopped and turned back to the kitchen "Do you need a hand Kirsten?"

"No I'm fine…. and Sandy can help me if I need it. Go have fun." She smiled.

"Okay thanks." He said as he made his way into the lounge. "I'm coming Seth. Prepare to be beaten."

"Huh. By you and what army?" Seth replied.

Sandy looked at Kirsten and they exchanged knowing looks. "I have this very strong feeling of déjà vu." He said.

"I know what you mean." Kirsten replied.

---

Summer dragged Marissa in to Seth's old room, closed the door and pushed Marissa to sit on the bed.

"Sum what is it? What's this all about?" Marissa asked.

"Spill!" Summer stated.

"What?" Marissa replied innocently trying to maintain her cool.

"I said Spill…. Don't bother playing dumb with me."

"I don't know what you are talking about?" Marissa replied.

"Sure…. You do know I'm not letting you out of here until I hear the full story?"

Marissa looked around the room noticing that very little had changed. She looked back at Summer who was standing with her arms crossed just waiting. "Is this about Friday night?" Marissa asked.

"Well that's a start… But don't bother just telling me about Friday. I know there's a lot more going on here than that."

"What do you mean?"

"You and Chino."

"Me and Ryan what?" Marissa asked feigning innocence.

"That's what I want to know….You haven't been home since Friday have you?"

Marissa could feel herself blushing. She didn't know what to say. But she had told Ryan she wouldn't lie and she couldn't lie to Summer. Playing dumb was one thing but lying to her best friend….never. "How did you know?"

"Girl what do I do for a living?" Summer asked.

"Um design costumes?" Marissa replied with a puzzled look.

"Well yeah…. stupid question.…but what did I do at college?"

"Um...Fashion design." Marissa replied.

"Yeah. You think I don't notice what people wear. Especially supermodel friends of mine that have the most amazing wardrobes and yet here they are with the same clothes on that they had on two days ago. Like, on Friday. At work."

"Oh... I see." Marissa could feel herself going bright red. They hadn't allowed for the fact that Summer would know straight away.

"Yeah… so you want to tell me just what's going on?" Summer was starting to get miffed that Marissa was not opening up.

"I don't really know." Marissa replied honestly looking at Summer.

Summer could tell from the look in her eyes that Marissa was telling the truth so she backed down feeling sorry for her friend. "Well let's start with what do you know?"

"I... just…" Marissa shrugged.

"Okay... Let's start at the beginning. What happened Friday?"

"We went for a drink." Marissa liked that question it was an easy one.

"And then what?" Summer tried to get her to continue.

"Well it got really noisy, so we left and decided to go and have something to eat. But when Ryan went to take me back to the hotel so I could get changed, the place was surrounded by paparazzi. So we went to go to his place but it was the same. He thinks perhaps somebody at the bar tipped them off."

"You think. A Supermodel and Boy Wonder together… now why would they want a photo of that? Do you know how long the press here, have been waiting for him to find a girlfriend?...Okay so you don't. But let me tell you a very long time. So what happened then?" Summer asked.

"Well we decided to come down here to Newport and just get take away at his house so that we could be alone."

Summer raised her eyebrows.

"We just wanted to talk …you know… catch up…..without an audience." Marissa explained.

"Uh Huh I'll let that pass…And then…"

"Do we really need to go into all this right now? They're probably waiting for us for lunch." Marissa tried to end the conversation before she had to reveal any more.

"Don't worry. They'll let us know when they need us. Just keep going." Summer added.

"Well it got really late so I ended up staying the night and Ryan was going to take me back to the hotel yesterday." Marissa explained.

"Uh huh" Summer replied.

"Um … But we were having such a nice time catching up I decided to stay another night?" She looked at Summer, more as a question than a statement, to see if that answer would be enough and whether she would just leave it at that.

"So are you two together?" Summer asked.

"Um I guess so…."

"Okay girl just out with it. No more avoiding it. Exactly how 'together' are you? Like first date together? Second Date?" Summer asked.

" No…Umm...I think we skipped ahead a few" Marissa smiled turning red, as she thought back to what went on between them.

Summer noticed Marissa blush. "I can't believe that boy would pressure you, after all of this time he should have known to take it slow" Summer stated.

"Um. It wasn't actually Ryan's fault. He tried to slow it down." Marissa blushed all over again.

"Whoa! Aren't you the sly one? And here I was ready to go and give Chino a piece of my mind…. but if you were ready then I'm sure he was… He is male after all." Summer grinned as she enjoyed Marissa's discomfit.

"Yeah he didn't put up much of a fight and I'd just like to say in my defence…. what did you expect me to do when I was in staying with him all alone with nothing else to do ….I had to amuse myself somehow." Marissa remarked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Right…so you were just amusing yourself…it didn't matter that it was Chino… anyone would have done?"

"No….It mattered…." Marissa responded looking down at her lap suddenly overcome with the feelings she had for him.

"And?" Summer asked. She wouldn't be satisfied until she knew it all.

"And what?" Marissa asked innocently looking back at her friend.

"Well what are we talking about here? I mean first base? Second?" Summer asked.

"Definitely home run." Marissa replied looking at Summer with a small smile.

"A home run! Well good for you…and …" she looked at Marissa waiting for her to continue "How was it? I mean after all this time?" she added, when it became obvious that Marissa was not going to give up this info without some encouragement.

"Which time?" Marissa teased her friend; starting to enjoy this little game and the fact that now it was Summer feeling uncomfortable rather than Marissa.

"Umm … you were only with him for 1 day and ……I mean...you'd barely spoken to him on Friday. I mean you thought he was avoiding you…."

Marissa smiled thinking back to the time she had spent with Ryan.

"So exactly how many times were there?" Summer asked.

"I didn't really keep count" Marissa replied.

"Ball park figure?" Summer pushed for more info… stunned at what she was finding out. I mean she had wanted Ryan and Marissa to get together. But for it all to happen so quickly stunned even her.

"Let's just say I would have needed more than my fingers and toes to keep count" she added.

"Excuse me…I think I'd better sit down... ….. You two really move fast…. Did you ever even get out of bed?" she asked as she sat down beside Marissa.

"Yes…..but then it didn't only happen in bed" Marissa exclaimed teasing her friend.

"Whoa girl ..I'm amazed you can even walk…..I'm just … stunned. I didn't really expect this…. I mean… I've always hoped you two would wake up to yourselves and finally get together. … but wow….it sounds like there was some sort of atomic reaction when it finally happened" Summer laughed as she looked at Marissa glowing in front of her…"I mean…Wow… I don't know how you did it?"

"Try waiting seven years and see how you go" Marissa replied.

"Yeah… I see how that could make a difference" Summer replied laughing.

"But Summ…Can you please not say anything… I mean, we know it all happened really fast... and even we're having trouble working out just what is going on. So can you just keep it to yourself at the moment? At least until we have some idea of just where it's going. We don't want Kirsten and Sandy thinking we have rushed into anything."

Summer looked at her and raised her eyebrows.

"I know. Maybe we have. But there didn't seem to be anyway to stop it." Marissa suggested.

"Okay. But I can tell you now. You're both glowing. You almost need sunglasses around you, so unless Kirsten and Sandy's eyesight is really going off, they are going to know anyhow."

"So what can we do?" Marissa asked.

"I don't know. But you know I'm here for you. Just promise me you won't hurt him. I love you both but I don't think I could ever forgive you if you do that to him again."

"What do you mean me do it to him? He was the one that broke my heart." Marissa stated.

Summer frowned, confused. "Yeah whatever…. C'mon let's go and have lunch… They'll be wondering what has happened to us."

---

As Ryan walked into the lounge Seth looked up and said "Whoa man ….what's happened to you?"

Ryan panicked. What was Seth talking about? Did he have a giant hickey on his neck? How could he cover it if he did? He didn't even know which side it was on. He should have worn a collared shirt. The t-shirt was useless. He could try to pretend that it was something else. Maybe he could bluff his way out of it? "What do you mean?" he asked as innocently as he could.

"The smile man. You sort of look…. dare I say it, ' G L O W I N G'. You'd be really good for Halloween. You wouldn't need to dress up."

Ryan glared at Seth or at least as much as he could given that he now realised he actually was smiling.

"Ha. You can't even give me 'the look'. It doesn't work with a smile plastered on your face." Seth commented.

"Yeah but a dead arm does." Ryan replied as he punched Seth.

"Ow… Don't take it out on me just because you've lost "THE Look" …and I'm betting that it is a woman that has been the cause. Who would've ever suspected that Ryan Atwood would be tamed by a wooooman."

"Do you want another dead arm?" Ryan asked.

"Ha…. seriously man…. you look like the cat that ate the cream."

Ryan smiled feeling himself going red... He couldn't disagree thinking back to some of his activities in the last couple of days.

Seth started to laugh, now more interested in making Ryan uncomfortable than what was happening on the game in front of him. "So I gather Friday went well?"

"Yeah. You could say that."

"And if Marissa looks anything like you then I'd hazard a guess that Saturday did too."

"Seth….. You know I can punch other parts of you beside your arms." Ryan started to wish he had stayed in the kitchen with Sandy and Kirsten. Surely that couldn't have been any more difficult than this was.

"Okay…. but you're going to have to come clean soon – you don't think Summer is going to let Marissa out of my room until she knows exactly what's going on?"

Ryan realised he was right. "That's the problem...We don't really know."