NOT AGAIN
Prologue: "The night…"
Marissa Cooper… Marissa Atwood's head hung dully over her paper… The Twenty-Two year old woman… girl, mother two five year old girls looked around the room at the chaos.
The house was a mess and Ryan was running around the room with Piper on his back and Madison pulling on his legs.
"I'm going to get you!" Ryan yelled as he tossed the girls onto the couch.
"Can you guys quite down?" Marissa asked for what felt like the 50th time. Nobody responded. "I asked you to quiet down!" She yelled loudly, causing everyone to stop what they were doing.
Marissa's eyes began to water.
"Hey girls, go back to your room for a minute." Ryan said.
The girls headed in the opposite direction.
"Hey." Ryan said as he approached his girlfr-… wife… "We didn't mean to be so loud…" He said in a quiet tone.
"It's alright. It wasn't you." She said kissing him. "It's just that I have been so stressed out with school lately."
"Can I help?"
"Nah. I'm alright."
"I'll take the girls to the park for awhile and return with a tub of Chocolate Chip ice cream. How does that sound?" He asked
"Great." She said as he kissed her head, and went to prepare the girls to leave.
Marissa went into the bathroom of the couples small apartment. She took her medicine. She had been on more anti-depressants, mood modifiers, and whatever else were in the bottles for what seemed like forever. For a long time it felt better. It still did… sort of. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror… A white flushed face stared back at her…
"I won't let this happen again."
~ Ryan sat on the park bench with Seth.
Piper and Madison played with other children at the park. Although the two had grown up together, and were identical in every physical way, (except the birthmark next to Madison's eye), when it got down to the personalities, likes and dislikes, wants, humor, they were completely different.
Madison liked her hot dogs with everything, Piper plain. Madison insisted on painting her nails, Piper refused. Madison dances, and Piper plays soccer… although Ryan and Marissa know in her heart of hearts she wants to play football. Madison's perfect day would be waking up bright and early, eating eggs and bacon, and then getting her nails painted, and spending the rest of the day on the beach. Pipers ideal day was waking up at noon, eating S' mores Pop-Tarts for breakfast, later going to play basketball with Ryan, and sailing and playing video games with Seth. Piper has refused to eat meat ever since she say Charlottes web.
Ryan watched the children play.
"Hello! Earth to space cadet!" Seth Cohen said waving his hand in front of Ryans face.
"What?"
"What's the deal with you dude? Things shaky on the home front?" Seth asked sticking out his bottom lip.
"No… nothing is shaky on the home front…" Ryan said, not believing he just used the term "home front." Ryan Atwood with a home front? Something was not right about that.
"Oh yeah right. I've known you for five years. You suck at lying." Seth said
"It's just Marissa has been really stressed with school and all." Ryan said squinting in the sun. "Sometimes I just feel like I am adding to the problem." He confessed.
"You know that's not true man." Seth assured him
"I just don't know how to make things better."
"Summer and Dylan?"
"What about them?" Ryan asked now meeting his brothers eyes.
"Damage Control." Seth said pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
~ Marissa was in the middle of her afternoon nap when she heard her door bell.
"Who's there?" She yelled through the door.
"Who else?" She heard Dylan Marlow answer from the other side of the door.
Marissa swung the door open…
"Hey dork." Marissa asked. "What brings you here?"
"Seth called in for damage control."
"Oh really?" Marissa said raising her eyebrows.
Damage control… the guys way of using the girls to fix whatever needed fixing that they couldn't themselves… Ryan and Seth were often lazy… emotionally… Seth more so than Ryan. Or maybe it was that Seth is always right out confused… The girls choose to believe the latter.
"Well then if this is damage control aren't you missing something?" Marissa asked glancing the hall for Summer.
"She making her way up the stairs." Dylan said grinning when Summer finally appeared in the doorway to the stair well.
"You were supposed to be like helping me!" She whined leaning against the wall.
"You are fully capable of walking up the stairs by yourself." Dylan said entering Marissa's apartment.
"But I am pregnant!" Summer said when she finally got inside.
"THREE MONTHS!" Dylan said
"It's been a hard three months!" Summer complained plopping down on the couch.
Dylan went to the kitchen and started putting stuff away.
"It's not that bad!" Marissa said. "I didn't feel any differently when I was three months with Piper and Madison." She sat on the couch next to her.
"Well then again your situation was different." Dylan said joining her friends on the couch. Handing them bowls, and cups.
In each bowl was a handful of skittles, Guacamole Doritos, dried cranberries, and Hershey Kisses. In the cups there was Sprite, Orange Juice, and Pepsi, and a little bit of citrus punch. It was the substitute bad day drink since Summer got pregnant. All the old drink was, was a bunch of hard liquor. They had discovered this cure to any problem long ago in their pre-semi-adulthood days.
"Hey. Give me credit. I had two!" Marissa said. "You'll get over it!"
"Yeah, really, the least you can do is walk up the stairs on your own!" Dylan said
"Being on the stairs when you are pregnant is risky!" Summer said. "My mom fell down the stairs when she was pregnant with me!" She said
"Are you sure it was a mistake?" Dylan mumbled, causing her and Marissa to giggle.
"I am glad that you find my pain so amusing." Summer said standing up.
Marissa yanked her back down on the couch by her shirt.
"Chill out." Dyl said.
"I can't!" Summer whined even higher. "THIS COHEN KID IS BUILT LIKE A ROCK!"