Hello! So I've written chapter 28…and I'm thinking maybe…three more chapters before the last chapter, so four more in all. Or if I have to have more then four, it'll be six, because odd numbers bother me. Hahah. Okay, enjoy!

Chapter 28: Falling slowly

Seth woke up the next morning to the sound of someone knocking on the door. It seemed that no one was going to answer the door since the knocking continued, so Seth got up out of the comfortable bed he had been resting in, and padded down the stairs rubbing his eyes. He grabbed the door knob and twisted it gently, opening the door.

Three girls were standing in the doorway. One was tall with long wavy blond hair that fell around her shoulders, she had bright clear blue eyes, and the biggest set of boobs Seth had ever seen. The second girl, Seth recognized as Nina, Lucas's sister, and one of Ryan's best friends. The third girl was shorter then the other three. She had curly red hair and the biggest green eyes Seth had ever seen. The freckles on her face seemed to stand out in the sun, and she had a big smile on her face. They were all gorgeous and slender, a very intimidating show.

"He's beautiful!" the red head said in a very heavy southern accent.

"Guys! Stop looking at him!" Nina shouted indignantly blushing.

"Well it's hard to do that when he's not wearing a shirt and he's as ripped as he is." The taller blond, obviously the leader of this pack, said with a smirk on her face as she never broke eye contact with him.

Seth looked down quickly and saw that he indeed did not have a shirt on. He opened the door wider to let the four girls in, realizing that they were Ryan's friends, and she was obviously expecting them. He sighed as the girls gave him the up-down as they passed by him and walked into the house.

"I'll get Ryan." He said making his way towards the stairs.

"Don't bother," the taller blond said sauntering towards the living room, "She's tired and she needs her sleep, we'll just wait for her to wake up. You must be Seth."

Seth nodded, "Yes. I'm assuming Ryan's told you all about me." Seth said expecting the worse.

"It doesn't matter what she's told us. I'm Milly Osgood. I'm assuming you already know Nina, and the southern one over there is Jolyene. We'll just hang out until she wakes up. Why don't you go put a shirt on and you can hang out with us?" Milly suggested.

Seth grunted something under his breath but he walked up the stairs quietly to pull a shirt on. He almost stayed up there and went back to bed, but something about hanging out with Ryan's original friends made him feel like he would some how be closer to her, and the way they acted, he was sure they would be willing to give him a couple of childhood stories involving Ryan.

Sighing he rushed back down the stairs and into the living room where the four girls were waiting for him. They were all sitting on the wrap around couch, the T.V. on, and the VCR remote in Milly's hand. They were watching something, and by the quality of the picture, it seemed to be a home movie. It was dark, so it must have been something in a school auditorium.

"You're just in time!" Jolyene said excitedly, "We're watching some of our old dance recitals."

Some of their dance recitals, which meant they had known each other almost all their lives, just like he had known all of his friends for most of his own life. The choice to send her back seemed even more justified now that he knew he had sent her back to her childhood friends.

"Dance recitals?" Seth asked sitting on the end of the couch, next to Milly.

"Oh yeah. I think we were eight in this one. We were dressed up as Indians and we were dancing to YMCA. I totally didn't understand it back then, but I do now." Jolyene smiled.

"You're Native American right Seth?" Milly asked looking at him out of the side of her eyes.

"I live on a reservation, and my mother and father are Indians, so yes, I suppose that makes me one too."

"Really?" Milly said like it was the most interesting thing she had heard in her life, "So do you guys go by old tradition?"

"Yes Milly, they keep with a lot of their old traditions." Everyone looked up to see Ryan leaning on the living room doorframe.

"So does that mean you guys can't get married?" Jolyene asked in an excited flurry.

"Jolyene!" Nina yelled angrily, "Don't ask stupid questions. Where did you get that anyways?"

"I've seen Pocahontas!" Jolyene yelled indignantly.

"It's not quite like that Jolyene." Ryan said as she walked down the four steps that led into the living room, "What are you guys watching anyways?" she asked looking over at the T.V.

Milly smiled when she saw Ryan's eyes narrow in anger, she knew they were probably embarrassing her, but if she didn't like Seth anymore like she claimed, she wouldn't care whether he saw it or not. But watching Ryan's face, it was clear to see that she did care whether or not he saw it, because her face was turning redder the more the video went on.

"Why are we watching this, when we have about a million movies to watch?" Ryan asked almost throwing herself down on the couch between Jolyene and Milly.

"Because we're so damn cute," Milly said lazily.

Ryan grumbled, "Well it won't matter, because you guys have to leave."

"What?" Jolyene asked, "Why?"

"I have jumping class today… I guess you could stay here if you wanted, but it would be boring."

"You're still going to your classes, even though Ann is missing?" Nina asked.

"Why not? There's nothing I can do for Ann until the police get a lead, and besides doing something will help me with the stress, you told me that yourself."

Nina sighed, "I did, didn't I?" she pushed herself up off of Ryan's couch, "Well then, Jolyene, Milly, Seth, and I will just go watch you then."

"No." Ryan said firmly, narrowing her eyes.

"Well like you said, we have nothing to do here, and it's not like you can keep us out, we take classes there too."

It was around this time that Seth was wondering why Ryan was taking classes to learn how to jump. And where exactly, would you take a class to learn how to jump in the first place? It didn't matter, he was going.

"Jesus!" Ryan huffed stomping up the stairs to get ready for her class, realizing that they were coming whether she wanted them to or not.

...

"Don't touch anything." Ryan said as she strapped her riding helmet under her chin.

"I wasn't planning on it." Seth said lamely, wondering how much longer she could go on hating him.

Ryan strapped her riding boots on and she was ready for her show jumping class. Of course, she was jumping horses, which Seth had realized when they pulled into the stable parking lot. Ryan huffed angrily and walked into one of the stables, leading out a tanish colored horse with a cream colored mane. It was a beautiful animal.

"That's Ryan's Haflinger horse, Artemis. She's beautiful isn't she?" Jolyene asked as they sat on the benches right outside of the ring.

Hurdles were set up all over in the ring, some fairly short, but others looked like there could be no way that even a horse could jump them. Seth sat on the edge of his seat, watching her mount Artemis with concentration. Ryan situated herself on the horse, and once she was sure she was ready, she nudged her sides, and the horse took off.

Ryan crouched down so that her face was level with the horse's ears. The first jump wasn't very high, maybe only two feet high. The horse jumped over with an elegance that Seth had only previously seen in the Cullens. The next jump however was a little more intimidating, probably around five feet tall, it looked rather large for anything to be jumping over it. Artemis and Ryan however, seemed to have no trouble.

Milly smiled looking over at Seth, "They're good aren't they? Ryan's won a ton of awards for her show jumping, she was supposed to go to the French open, but she went M.I.A that summer."

Seth knew what summer she was talking about. The summer he had met her, almost a whole year ago. A year had past since they had met each other almost. A whole year, and yet, when he should be happy sitting here watching her, he just felt a pang of sadness.

"Milly," Jolyene said nudging her in the side, "The horse is spooking."

The horse did indeed seem to be running a little faster then it had been before, but how they knew it was spooked, Seth didn't know, "Ryan can handle Artemis," Milly said dismissing it.

"Ryan's not paying much attention." Nina said, even her voice sounded a little worried.

Seth looked at Ryan's face. It looked like she was starring straight ahead like she should be, but her eyes seemed to be zoning. What would happen when the next jump came and Ryan wasn't paying attention? She'd be fine right?

Seth got his answer when the next jump came. Possibly the highest jump in the whole set up, when Artemis jumped into the air, Ryan's head snapped up, coming back to reality. She looked alarmingly at the jump, and then at the ground, which was what she ended up hitting.

"Ryan!" The instructor, a very nice elderly looking woman was already beside a flustered Ryan when the four of them got out into the ring.

"I'm fine." Ryan said swiping away everyone's helping hands.

"Why don't you go get dressed, we'll call it a day." The instructor sighed.

Ryan stood up and balled her fist as she stomped away towards the locker room, leaving Artemis to her instructor. Seth followed, keeping up with Ryan easily as she basically started to run.

"Are you okay?" he asked looking her over with what he could see with his eyes.

"I'm fine." Ryan said as she tore off her helmet, her hair going every which way.

"Maybe we should take you to the hospital just in case." Seth said, having to backtrack because Ryan had stopped suddenly.

"Listen to the words I'm saying. I. Am. Fine," Ryan narrowed her eyes in anger, "I will always be fine. I don't need you to baby me."

"I wasn't babying you! I was just concerned!" Seth said indignantly.

"Well don't be, I did fine without you in the beginning, and I'll do fine without you now." She huffed as she stormed into the girl's locker room.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" Milly asked leaning up against the gate that separated the ring and the sitting area.

"No, it would only make it worse." Seth sighed.

"What did you say to make her so mad at you in the first place?" Milly asked walking over to stand beside him.

"I don't actually know what I said."

Milly laughed, "Well, you better find out what it was soon Romeo, otherwise she's going to tear you to shreds."

Seth grunted, "Yeah, well it isn't looking like such a bad option at this point."

Milly laughed, and walked away to stand with Nina and Jolyene at the entrance of the girl's locker room, to wait for Ryan to come out. When she did, she was waving her arms around in a show of anger, saying something that Seth couldn't hear.

The four girls started walking out of the stables, and Seth took that as his queue to follow them out. As the five of them piled into the jeep, there was an ample amount of tension and awkwardness to drown someone. Seth sighed, this was going to be one hell of a visit.