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Recap of Chapter Four: The graduation party was brought to a sudden halt when a drunken Dawn appeared in the Cohen's doorway. They decided to wait until morning to discuss with Dawn her reason for being at their house. Meanwhile, Ryan and Marissa did a little fooling around by the pool.
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Float On
Chapter Five: Discussions
The next morning Ryan woke up to a loud knock at his door. He quickly rolled out of bed and threw a button down shirt on over his wife beater. He then grabbed a pair of shorts and slipped them on over his boxers. Once dressed Ryan walked over to the door and opened it slowly only to reveal Dawn standing there, a huge smile plastered across her face.
"Well, I would have never thought my son would be living this kind of life." she commented, as she glanced at what she could see of the pool house.
"Yeah, it was a surprise to me that my mother would become an alcoholic and then leave me on my own." Ryan said, returning the rude comment.
Dawn frowned and then gestured to the pool house and said, "Well, aren't you going to show me around this place that you call home."
"Yeah I guess, but we need to get one thing clear and that is that this is my home." Ryan said seriously as he stepped aside, letting Dawn enter the pool house.
"Well..." she said, as she looked around, "This is nicer than any place we have ever lived."
"Yeah." Ryan replied as he sat down on his bed.
"Do the Cohen's just have endless amounts of money to use on anything?" she asked coldly.
"Well actually instead of using their money to buy drugs and alcohol, they use it on useful things like food and stuff." Ryan said, anger growing inside of him. "But you wouldn't understand."
"No Ryan...You know what I don't understand is why in hell you are being so cruel to your mother who was the one who raised you."
"Well first of all you are not my mother...you are this person who had me at such a young age that you didn't give a damn about my life...and you are the person who came home drunk every night with a new guy that you had picked up at some party...oh and we can't forget those days when you just sat back and watched as your random boyfriend hit me over and over again...so in my opinion you are everything but a mother!" Ryan spoke these words as if he had rehearsed this day for his whole life. The words seemed to flow right out of his mouth with no effort. This was because Ryan had waited to say these things for such a long time.
Dawn was filled with anger and rage as she sat back and replayed everything that her son had just said to her. It felt like she had just been slapped in the face about a hundred times by her own son.
After a minute of just sitting there Dawn quickly got up and stormed out the door of the pool house. She wanted so badly to yell at Ryan and get all of her anger out, but she couldn't. She couldn't say anything in her defense because these things were true. Everything that Ryan had said was true and until then she had never faced reality and realized that.
Dawn walked into the kitchen, with tears in her eyes and anger rushing through her.
Sandy and Kirsten were sitting at the kitchen table and saw how angry Dawn was, "What happened?" Kirsten asked, worriedly.
"You know what I will be out your lives in just a few minutes...and you want have to worry about me anymore." Dawn screamed.
"Just calm down...We need to talk." Sandy said as he got up and walked over to her.
"Yes, please Dawn. Tell us what you came here for." Kirsten said eagerly.
"...I'm leaving!..." Dawn said, as she walked out of the kitchen.
Sandy and Kirsten followed her to the living room, stopping her. "You can't just show up at our house, drunk and then get up the next morning and leave...Now tell us why you came here!" Sandy said, getting frustrated.
Dawn realized that she wasn't going to win this fight and so she decided to speak up, "There was a part of me that was jealous...A part of me was jealous of Ryan...Because he was taken in by you guys and was able to start a good life here...A life worth living." She took a deep breath and continued, "And then there was a part of me that was mad....at you guys...because you have the perfect life and are able to give Ryan everything possible... there is also a part of me mad at myself...because I watched me sons grow up in hell...Ryan and Trey went through hell growing up and were never able to act like kids...They were always taking care of their drunk mom...and that made me mad...which made me angry again...and I was eventually back to being jealous." Dawn finished.
She then turned around and headed towards the front door.
"Wait..." Ryan said quietly appearing in the doorway. He had been listening to the conversation the whole time and couldn't just let her walk away like this, "Do you need anything?" Ryan asked.
Dawn turned around, facing Ryan, she then walked up to him and gave him a hug...It was different than any hug that Kirsten or Sandy had given him...It was one of closure and one that meant goodbye.
Dawn then pulled away rather quickly and said, "Ryan I don't need anything... I just needed some sort of closure...I needed to give my son a proper goodbye and to straighten a few things out...But now I just need you to continue the life that you are living...here in New Port!"
Ryan smiled slightly and so did Kirsten and Sandy. However Dawn just turned around and headed for the front door once more. She was stopped once again by Ryan's simple goodbye which consisted of 'Thanks.'
She smiled and this time walked out the front door, having a feeling of accomplishment...She felt that she had made amends with her son and was ready to change her life for the better like Ryan had done.
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About an hour later, at 11 o'clock Seth woke up to find Ryan, Sandy, and Kirsten sitting at the kitchen table talking and laughing.
Seth sighed and walked over to the table, taking a seat beside Ryan. "So, did I miss anything?" he asked curiously.
They all looked at each other and smiled and then shook their heads as if to say no, "Just the usual."
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Ryan, Marissa, Seth and Summer were all sitting on Ryan's bed in the pool house, finishing their last college applications. They had all applied to the same colleges, their top choice being Berkeley. However, whatever college that all of them got into was the one they would go to...After all, college just wouldn't be the same if they weren't all together.
"So..." Ryan said, as he pushed his finished application aside as did every one else.
Marissa smiled and sat on Ryan's lap, leaning into his chest. Summer did the same with Seth and the four teens just sat there contently.
"Well, I think I'll do pretty good in college, considering the fact that I'm The Brains," Seth said, referring back to the discussion that they had in L.A.
"Yeah, and we can't forget the fact that I'm The Boobs. You know they can be very convincing." Summer replied.
Every one laughed and then Marissa spoke up, "And I guess I'm still The Bitch?"
"No..." Ryan said, "You are definitely not The Bitch," he said as he offered her a warm smile.
"Yeah, that would be you're mom." Seth commented.
They all nodded their heads in agreement. "Wait..." Ryan said, "You should go back to being The Beauty."
Marissa smiled, "Well, you are definitely The Brawn!" she said slyly.
Ryan smiled and kissed Marissa softly on the lips
Then, the four of them closed their eyes and attempted to go to sleep.
Ryan smiled and thought to himself, 'Ya life is good!' then, he drifted off to sleep as well, Marissa in his arms.
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