"Is he okay?" Summer asked Teresa by the barbecue. The Cohens were standing with Ryan beside the poolhouse. Summer had taken up Kirsten's phoned invitation to the house earlier in the week.
"I guess so."
"You don't know?"
"He's been weird lately. He doesn't sleep, there're these weird hang-ups every night around midnight and his job is breaking his back," Teresa sighed.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine," She replied.
Summer put her hands on her hips. "Come on, fess up."
Teresa lowered her voice. "I hate coming here. Kirsten looks at me like I'm about to eat Ryan alive and Sandy just stares at Ryan like he's going to drop dead in front of him. I just don't understand why they can't just support us."
Summer opened her mouth to speak but closed it.
"What?"
"Teresa, they lost their son. And Ryan. They offered you money, they offered you a place to stay, they offered you everything to keep him here, to keep him safe and you took him back to Chino. To Chino, Teresa! Where he has to work and stay in this tiny room with you and your mother, where he has to take care of you and has no friends under forty and you wonder why they're bitter?"
"You…you feel that way, too?"
"No, well…not exactly. I think it's a shitty situation and no matter what happens, it's going to suck. They lost Ryan and you got him. That's it."
"What are you guys talking about? Looks intense," Ryan said, moving to stand beside Teresa.
Summer watched them carefully. Ryan put his hand on Teresa's back and it was clear that the girl responded to him, leaning into his touch.
Ryan was different. His eyes were clouded. He was going just through the motions. The Cohens didn't see it. Teresa didn't see it. But Summer saw it.
He was lost without Seth, too. And despite the motions, Teresa wasn't filling the void as his best friend.
"What?" Ryan asked when he caught her staring at him.
"Nothing."