A/N: Includes a little spoiler for an upcoming episode. Fair warning.
"I don't want you dating him, Marissa. It's final."
"I don't recall asking your opinion, mother," Marissa replied bitterly.
"What's wrong with Luke? You've been together since you were ten years old, sweetie."
"Don't 'sweetie' me. Luke's over. He screwed up."
"Any screw-ups in a relationship that long can be resolved."
"Oh, but you're excepted in that rule, right?"
"Don't use that tone with me," her mother said, tight-mouthed.
"Dad messes up, and you divorce him. Seventeen years is more than six."
"That's different."
"No, it's not."
"Look at what your father did to me."
"To you?" Marissa asked, a sardonic laugh escaping from her throat. "Dad was trying to make you happy. Doing everything he could. You're not the only one who's hurting here. Dad is, too."
"Your father shouldn't have gotten into something that he couldn't get out of."
"No, you know what? I know what this is all about."
"Excuse me?" Marissa was getting to Julie.
"You're jealous of Mrs. Cohen. Dad used to date her, and you feel threatened. And the Cohens are like, the richest people in Newport. You can't stand that, either. With all of our money gone, you're not even close."
"Marissa—"
"No, let me finish. That's why you're dating Caleb Nichol, isn't it? God, how low. Not only is he richer than Mrs. Cohen, he's her father. That's disgusting, mother. Despicable."
"I demand to be treated with respect. I'm your mother, you're not mine, young lady."
"Yeah, demand away, woman. That's all you ever do. I don't know how Dad could have loved you. He gave you his heart and soul, bought you everything, did anything for you. You didn't even have a job. Yet you treated him like trash." Marissa shook her head in shame.
That's when Julie slapped her. Across the face. Hard. "Don't you ever talk to me like that again. Ever. Jimmy didn't give me his heart. He gave it to Kirsten long ago." She said Mrs. Cohen's name with utter disgust, like it was the filthiest word to ever pass her lips. Marissa laughed in her face.
"You don't even have to say another word. I can hear the envy in your voice." Marissa didn't even feel the burning sensation on her cheek. Standing up to her mother gave her such an adrenaline rush, such a high, that she didn't even notice it.
"Get out of my house," Julie said through gritted teeth.
"Your house? You mean Caleb's house. Hey, what do you call him, anyway? Caleb? Cal? Sugar daddy?"
Julie grabbed Marissa roughly by the shoulders and led her to the door. "Get out. I don't ever want to see you here again. Not unless you can learn to treat me with some respect."
Marissa gladly stepped out of the large mansion, only for Julie to slam the door mere seconds later. She shook her head in hatred as she kicked an expensive toy horse out of her path. Something that Caleb had bought for "sweet, darling" Caitlin.
Marissa couldn't believe how naïve Caitlin was. For crying out loud, the girl loses a fucking horse, and nothing else matters. Not her sister, and definitely not her father. She lived with Caleb and Julie, and she undeniably deserved Julie. They were two of a kind.
As Marissa stepped onto the pavement of the road, the stinging finally began to well up in her cheek. She tenderly let her fingers touch the skin before her eyes started to tear up. Damn her mother. Damn her.
And she still thinks that Ryan will screw up Marissa's life. No, Julie had already taken care of that. Marissa really didn't have a life anymore. During this past summer, she'd lost too much of it. Luke, her "friends", Caitlin, Julie. She only had Summer, Seth, her father. And Ryan.
After that confrontation with her mother, Marissa finally realized that she didn't need anything more in life. So there were only four people who loved her. Maybe that's all she needed. Quality is more important than quantity anyway, right?
She'd just have to get used to it. She understood her new situation, but nobody just automatically gets used to it, conforms to it when very first faced with it. No. Marissa was still a person. And this was her new life.
Mom or no mom.
-end-