The Real Cousin from Boston
Author's Note: Okay my parent's made me sit through a "family dinner" and that's when I thought of this idea. Since it lasted practically an hour I was going crazy so if this idea is quite weird you can understand why.
"Thanks" Seth said waving to the taxi driver. He was finally back in California after spending five weeks away. It had been a great few weeks and Seth felt somehow older, somewhat more mature and a little bit more foolish. Because let's face it, it was definitely not one of his smartest moves not contacting his parent's for five weeks. And well that would have been bad enough, if he hadn't contacted his girlfriend almost every day he was on the ocean and arranged for her to come and spend a week in Tahiti with him. He had also made sure that she contacted his parent's every once in a while to make sure that they knew that he was alright. Which was probably the only un-selfish thing he had done the entire time.
Which also accounted for the reason that he was so nervous about-facing his parents. He had every reason to be nervous that his over-protective parents would punish him. Because they weren't about to let this slide. Because except for the time they had tried to send him to a fancy sleep-away camp that all the Newspie's sent their kids for the summer and well that was exactly the problem, he had expected to get away from everyone and instead found himself in a place where he could get teased more often, this was the longest he had ever been at home. And at least while he had been at camp for the whole eight weeks he had written to his parent's practically every day at least once (come on he was only eight), talked to them on the phone once a week and of course they had come and visited three times on the different parent days.
Seth placed one hand on the doorknob and slowly opened the door. He was surprised to hear music, more specifically his kind of music, blasting. Something he had never been aloud to do. He was also slightly touched. If of course it meant that the reason this music was playing was because his mom and dad were trying to pretend like he was home. This made Seth feel slightly better, maybe his punishment would be less severe.
"Mom? Dad?" He called in "I'm home" But there was no response. No one running towards him and smothering him with alternate hugs and slaps. For one of the first times in his entire life, Seth Cohen was speechless. He stood there in the hallway for a second looking around at his house. He had forgotten how big it actually was and how much he missed it because that was evident as he looked around. Nothing, not one thing had changed. Which was sort of surprising considering about every two weeks Kirsten would get bored with something, even something small and change it. He would have expected that things had been changed a couple of times while he was gone. But there was nothing new.
Seth put down his bag filled with dirty clothes and walked into the kitchen. He was opening the fridge to get a glass of juice when he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. He figured maybe it was his mom or dad and they just hadn't heard him because of the music. He decided that he wasn't going to run to them, that he was just going to wait and sit at the counter and drink his juice like nothing had happened. Which is why he was shocked and practically knocked over his chair in surprise. A young girl about fifteen dressed in pajamas and carrying an empty cereal bowl had walked into the kitchen.
"Hey Seth," she said as if it was perfectly normal to find a girl you had never seen before in your life dressed in pajamas and eating cereal in your house. Also he figured that the source of the music belonged to her.
"Uh" and for the second time in his life Seth was speechless. He honest to god had no idea what to say.
"Do you remember me?" the girl said dumping her bowl in the sink and coming to sit down next to him. Seth shook his head regarding her with a mix of interest and apprehension. "I'm Jessie," Seth stared at her blankly, "Your cousin,"
"Oh," Seth said finally getting who she was. This was the real cousin from Boston. "What are you doing here?"
"Nice way to greet someone you haven't seen in over four years," Jessie said getting up and giving him a hug, which Seth returned cautiously. "Anyways I was in town with my mom, she was on a business trip, and she had to drive up to San Francisco for a couple of days and she suggested that I spend it here. So your parent's were really nice and let me, and I had a good time so I decided that I was going to spend a couple more weeks here"
"Oh," Seth said taking a sip of his juice
"Also I hope you don't mind this but I've been sleeping in your room," Jessie said and Seth spit out the juice all over the kitchen counter. Jessie made a face and threw the paper towels at him. He reluctantly started cleaning. "The reason is it's so much more comfortable then your guest room. Plus your parent's said that you weren't going to be here for most of the summer and that it was cool if I wanted to use it," Seth made a mental note to kill his parents later. That is if they didn't kill him first of course.
"So uh how long are you staying?" Seth asked wondering if she was going to give him back his room. The idea of a girl, that wasn't Summer, sleeping in his room was kind of creeping him out. I mean if his parent's had let Summer come spend the summer in his room then he would have been like all right and left it alone. But some girl that he barely knew except for the fact that she was Nana's favorite son's daughter that was just way to weird for words. Like beyond the Julie cooper and Luke thing weird.
"Do my mom and dad let you blast the music like this?" he suddenly asked and Jessie laughed.
"You're kidding right," she said and Seth laughed too. "I hope you don't mind that I took this music off your I-pod. I don't have one of my own and you've got a lot of good music on yours. So I hooked it up to the speakers and let it blast. As soon as your parent's left for work that is," she said grinning at Seth. Seth raised at eyebrow, this was getting creepier by the minute and he wondered if this was a dream. He reached over and pinched himself, it hurt. There was no way this was a dream.
"Ouch," he mumbled looking at the mark he had made. "Uh I'm going to go put my stuff in my room," he said standing up and then sat back down again. He had no idea what was going on with the room situation.
"Okay," Jessie said "I'll get my stuff out of your room later, right now I'm going to watch TV"
"Cool," Seth said and headed upstairs to drop off his stuff and have a heart to heart with captain oats. Meanwhile back in the family room Jessie was flipping through the TV channels as fast as she could. After all the time she had spend here she was still shocked that they could have so many channels. After all her parent's wouldn't even get her cable TV. The phone rang and she lazily stretched over to get it.
"Hello"
"Hey," Ryan's voice came over the line quiet and un-sure. It wasn't the first time he had called since he had left. But it had been a while, three weeks to be exact. "Who is this?" he finally asked after a moment of silence.
"I'm the cousin from Boston," Jessie said absentmindedly still flipping through the channels. An hour away in a tiny house in Chino Ryan choked on the peanut he was eating. He hung up the phone and coughed until the peanut finally went down his throat. He hadn't even expected this. I mean the fact that they had replaced him with another "cousin" from Boston was pretty harsh. Also his replacement had happened a whole hell of a lot quicker than he would have liked. He wondered if the Cohen's had forgotten about him. He wondered if he would become someone that they thought of less and less until finally he almost disappeared from their thoughts forever. Like Dawn had for him while he had been in Newport. Ryan decided that he had to do something. At least make sure that one of the Cohen's didn't forget him. Seth had been in contact with Ryan a couple of times. And had also told him to call him. Which Ryan really didn't do much of but whatever. He dialed Seth's number and heard it ring twice.
"Hey," Seth's voice said
"Hey man,"
"What's up?"
"Nothing," Ryan said
"Guess what I'm home,"
"Cool,"
"Yeah. But get this there was a girl sleeping in my room!"
"Huh?"
"I know. My cousin has been sleeping in here for a couple of weeks,"
"Oh," Ryan said wondering if maybe Seth was lying to him too. He wasn't quite sure what to believe. "Would it be cool if I came and visited for a little while later?"
"Cool? It would be awesome! Dude you're my brother you're always welcome here at la casa Cohen,"
"Okay,"
"Yeah, then I'll see you later,"
"Great," Ryan said and hung up. He was going to find out who this girl was once and for all. Ryan jumped into the shower his one pleasurable thing about his day. That is if Teresa and her mom actually left him any hot water. There never seemed to be enough of that. Not like at the Cohen's house where they could all shower for two hours and there would still be enough water. He dressed quickly and headed towards into the tiny kitchen of the place he now was calling his house. He never called it his home, because he had once heard someone say home is where the heart is, and his heart was in Newport, so he guessed that was his home and Chino was his house.
"Hey," Teresa said greeting him with a smile as she looked up from where she was reading the paper. It was Saturday, which meant that neither of them had to work, it was their one day of freedom.
"Hey,"
"What do you want to do today?"
"Uh," Ryan asked stalling for time wondering how to tell her that he wanted to spend the day with the Cohen's. Or at least Seth because he figured that Sandy and Kirsten were as usual at work, which is a good thing for him. Because if they say anything more about him coming home and he's actually not sure he could refuse.
"Want to go to a park and just walk around?" Teresa asked getting up and linking her arms through Ryan's. She was trying to make him happy here, but it exhausted her to no end since he didn't try at all. Not at all.
"Uh,"
"Okay, want to just hang out and watch movies, like we use to?"
"No thanks," Ryan said smiling sadly at Teresa. He didn't mean to hurt her feelings he just didn't know how to tell her that he already had plans. "Uh I was going to go to see Seth," Teresa wrinkled her nose in confusion at Ryan.
"I thought he was on his little boat,"
"He just got back, today,"
"Oh,"
"Yeah," Ryan said feeling uncomfortable.
"Okay, so when are you leaving?" Teresa asked finally filling the moment of uncomfortable silence.
"I don't know I was thinking in a couple of hours. Maybe three or four,"
"Okay, that leaves time to at least have breakfast,"
"Uh sure," Ryan said
"Let's go to the diner I work at, they'll give me really cheap food I think,"
"Okay let me get the keys," Ryan said rushing back into the tiny room that had once belonged to Teresa's brother. He picked up the keys to Teresa's old car, the one he had been driving mostly. Then Ryan followed Teresa outside and into the car. The drive to the diner was short and quiet. As they ordered they didn't talk and as they ate they didn't talk. Ryan wondered if this was the way his life was going to be from now on. That he would have to spend the rest of his life with someone that he had nothing to say too. He had once had so much to say too, Teresa had been the one person that he could say anything to. But lately there was just nothing to say.
Three and a half hours later Ryan was sitting in Teresa's car driving down the highway on his way to enter the world he had once belonged too. He was just passing exit 17, for riverside. He knew that was where Julie Cooper had grown up, and he wondered how she had gotten so use to Newport life. I mean seventeen years is a lot longer then one, especially if there was no time to go back and no one from your past to come back and haunt you. Especially since she was already pregnant so that no old boyfriend could come back and get her pregnant or whatever and then she would have to leave. In one way Ryan envied Julie Cooper, I mean she got to keep the perfect lifestyle, Ryan wasn't sure he would ever get it back. On what salary he and Teresa made he would be lucky if he could afford one of the bricks they used to make the Cohen home. And if he was really, really lucky maybe they could afford a house half as big as his pool house. Ryan mentally smacked himself he had let the word his slip again. Because apparently the pool house was going to be given to another pretend cousin. He wondered why the Cohen's didn't just tell the truth, after all everyone had found out that he wasn't a cousin eventually.
Meanwhile back at casa Cohen Seth had lowered the music in case his parent's came home, unpacked which basically meant him throwing all his clothes in the hamper and all the non-clothes on the floor. Then he had headed downstairs to have some marathon action with his old friend, the play station. Jessie had gone, a hand written half scribbled note lay on the counter said GONE TO THE BEACH-J. So Seth had the house to himself again. It was also just him and the play station. It reminded him of how his life had been before Ryan had come. He was in the middle of switching games when the doorbell rang. Assuming it was finally Ryan, he jumped up and opened the door. He was shocked to see Marissa, without Summer.
"Hi," He said in confusion
"Hey," Marissa said and started to say something but just then Jessie walked in the front door after her. "Who's this?"
"I'm Jessie," she introduced herself "the cousin from Boston," Marissa looked over at Seth and raised an eyebrow.
"Well you might want to stay away from the fashion show after party. People there don't really like Cohen cousin's, especially not the ones from Boston. But I tend to like them, my name's Marissa,"
"Hi," Jessie said nodding and giving Seth a puzzled look" I'm going to get my stuff," She said and ran up the stairs.
"Is that actually a real cousin?"
"Mmmhhm,"
"Well like I said you might want to keep her away from the fashion show party tonight,"
"Oh that's tonight," Seth said not really caring
"Yeah and I'm stuck charring it, and we really need models. Like seriously have had three people cancel. Summer told me you were back and I was wondering if maybe you would come and help us out?"
"Uh-No!" Seth said
"Please, I'll be your best friend," Marissa pleaded. Seth just stared at her but felt himself giving in after all Marissa was his friend-sort of, and besides she was Summer's best friend. He just nodded then suddenly a thought popped into his head.
"How many have you replaced?"
"Two now. The girl was easy, but the boys are hard. Thank god I'll at least have one replacement,"
"I may have one," Seth said casually trying not to get Marissa too excited. After all Ryan was only coming to spend some time, maybe if they were lucky he would spend the night.
"Really," Marissa squealed, "who?"
"I-I-I have to talk to them first," Seth said lamely. "I'll call you later. But I'll definitely come,"
"Great. Thanks Cohen," she said giving him a hug and then with a wave she left. Seth wondered what he had gotten himself into. He couldn't believe that the kid that no one would talk to was the one Marissa Cooper had come to first about being in her fashion show. He was actually kind of excited; he loved being the center of attention. But then again you probably knew that. The next thing he had to do was convince Ryan that he should spend the night and do the fashion show. He figured that they would both be equally as hard.
The doorbell rang about an hour later and even before Seth could get up to answer it Jessie was running down the stairs shouting that she had it. He could hear Ryan's voice and he jumped up. He was excited to see his best friend after five weeks.
"Hey, Ryan!" he cried bounding into the hallway where Ryan and Jessie were talking.
"Seth," Ryan said in greeting and Seth pulled him into a manly hug.
"You met Jessie?" Seth asked and Ryan nodded at him raising an eyebrow.
"Yep,"
"Ok, she's the real cousin from Boston," Seth said making sure Ryan understood. Ryan nodded and gave Jessie a half smile. She smiled back and headed back towards the stairs. "Where are you going" Seth called after her
"Nowhere," She called back in typical teenage girl fashion.
"Dude," Seth said rolling his eyes at Ryan. The two of them headed towards the family room a silent decision that they would spend their time like they use too. Playing video games of course. They're settled in the normal way, Seth sprawled out on the couch and Ryan his back leaning on the couch his legs spread out in front of him. When Seth casually brings up tonight's fashion show.
"So," Seth said casually as he paused the game and turned to look at Ryan.
"So," Ryan said
"Anyway I ran into Marissa today,"
"Oh," Ryan said look taken aback
"Right and tonight's the charity fashion show. Remember that from last year?" Seth asked and Ryan nodded. "Anyways as per usual Marissa's running it and a couple of people canceled on her so she roped me into doing it,"
"Dude that sucks,"
" I know. I was wondering if you wanted to come and watch me make a fool of myself tonight,"
"You're actually going to do it?"
"Uh-Huh, why?"
"Dude I can't believe it, Newport's biggest loser is going to be in the Newport fashion show,"
"Hey!" Seth cried with pretend dismay
"Jessie!" suddenly Sandy's voice called and Seth jumped up guiltily quickly turning off the play station afraid of what his dad would say if he saw him playing. He and Ryan started at each other for one second before they finally headed out to go talk to Sandy. They weren't really sure what his reaction would be when he saw them. Jessie had reached Sandy first and was animatedly talking to him. Seth put a finger to his lip and snuck up behind Sandy. He mentally counted to three and then in a low voice in his dad's ear and putting his hands on his father's shoulders he said boo! Sandy jumped about three feet in the air in complete and utter shock. He spun around so fast that you could feel the breeze and started at Seth and Ryan.
"Hey Dad,"
"Seth!" Sandy cried wrapping his son in a hug. Then as an after thought before pulling away he slapped him upside the head. Jessie cracked up as Seth rubbed his head. Ryan could barley hide the smile that was creeping up on his face. Those was until Sandy turned towards him, and well let's just say that there was no smile to hide anymore. Sandy leaned over and wrapped Ryan in a hug and pulled the same act that he had just done with Seth. Although it didn't hurt as much as he had thought from watching Seth, it barley hurt at all in fact. Ryan made a small face at Sandy and raised and eyebrow.
"Dad, let go of Ryan,"
"Oh right sorry," Sandy said releasing him. He started at the two of them and then sighed loudly. "I'm going to go call your mom," he said finally and walked into the kitchen. Seth and Ryan exchanged a look, wondering why that had been so easy. Why it hadn't been a long lecture, why he hadn't even asked if Ryan was here to stay.
"Man that was too easy," Ryan said and Seth nodded staring suspiciously in the direction of where his dad had headed. Jessie was still laughing as she followed Sandy into the kitchen. Not missing an opportunity to smack Seth exactly where his dad had moment's ago. Seth glared at her and then he and Ryan headed back into the family room to finish that game they had been playing.
Fifteen minutes later the door of the house slammed shut and they could hear Kirsten's heals clicking across the floor. They stopped in the kitchen and they could hear the quiet murmur of both Sandy and Kirsten's voices. Then she stomped in and stood at the doorway of the family room. She looked her two boys, game controllers in their hands, staring earnestly at her. She wondered how they could look so young and have gone through so much. She wondered if things in her family were ever going to okay.
"Seth! Ryan!" she cried running over and giving them both huge hugs. "Ryan, is everything alright with Teresa?" she asked suddenly holding his out at arms length. He nodded slightly before answering.
"She's fine, I just came to visit after I heard that Seth was home,"
"Right, how did you hear that?" Kirsten asked suspiciously.
"Seth told me," Ryan said simply wondering what the big deal was. But he could tell something was up by the way that Seth was looking uneasy and Kirsten was exchanging a look with Sandy who was standing in the doorway. "Uh is something wrong?"
"Ryan be honest with me," Kirsten said turning a steely gaze on him, " How many times in the last few weeks did you talk to Seth?"
"I don't know five, six maybe more," Ryan said with a shrug and Seth wrinkled his nose and shot Ryan a death look.
"Seth!" Kirsten cried turning towards her son her hands clenched in fists. Seth shrank back curling into a ball. Ryan's face paled wondering what he had done to make Kirsten and Sandy so upset.
"Uh!" Ryan cried causing Kirsten to stop and look at Ryan.
"What?" she asked in a calmer tone
"Will you at least tell me what's wrong?"
"Didn't Seth tell you?" Sandy asked walking into the room "Seth hasn't contacted us in five whole weeks,"
"What were you thinking man?" Ryan asked in amazement. He couldn't understand Seth. Even though he to had left the Cohen's it wasn't because he had wanted to but more of the fact that he had had to.
"I don't know?" Seth said with a shrug. It was true it had seemed like a logical thing to do at the time. But now he wasn't so sure. He wondered how his leaving a place he had wanted to get out of for his whole life had such an impact on his life.
"Seth," Sandy cried slapping him upside the head for the second time.
"Why is everyone hitting me there?" Seth asked in frustration rubbing his head in pain.
"It's the easiest part to hit," Sandy said with a shrug.
"I think we need to have a family meeting," Kirsten said looking at Sandy who nodded. Just as they were heading into the kitchen to talk Jessie walked in.
"Hey Uncle Sandy, Aunt Kirsten, Seth, Ryan," she said nonchalantly pulling up a chair and sitting down with them. Sandy and Kirsten exchanged a look.
"Jess," Kirsten finally said putting her hands on the younger girls. "We need to have a family meeting, just the four of us. You think that you can hang out upstairs for a little while?" Jessie's face falls then perks up, she's a Cohen after all she knows how to eavesdrop.
"And no eavesdropping," Sandy says knowing his niece all too well. After all he and his brother's had practically invented methods for eavesdropping. Jessie shot him a look and started to get up but stopped and sat back down. "Jessie?"
"I wanna stay," she whined stretching back and grabbing the can of coke that sat in front of Sandy and taking a big sip. Everyone started at her and then burst out laughing. Ryan thought it was funny how much this girl, not only in looks, but in personality too how much she was like Seth. Seth had called Anna the female version of himself, Ryan figured that if anyone was the female version of himself it was Jessie. Ryan hated to think of what happened when all the Cohen cousin's got together. He figured it would be a weird experience.
"Jess," Sandy said in a warning tone and giving him a look she got up from the table. When Sandy and Kirsten had turned around she shot them the finger, but she did it at the perfect time so that while the adults missed it, Ryan and Seth didn't. They exchanged a look but not wanting to get her in trouble they bit their lips to keep from laughing. They heard her stomping up the steps before they started the conversation.
"First off, Seth, you're grounded," Kirsten said simply turning towards him
"Awww! Mom! How long?" he whined just like Jessie had a minute ago.
"Until you go to college if you're not quiet," Sandy said with a wry grin. Seth shut up and made the zipping motion with his fingers across his lips.
"Okay, now Ryan, how long are you staying here? For good?" Kirsten asked with a bit of hope in her voice. Ryan shook his head not meeting her eyes, he didn't want her to see how unconvinced he was not to stay here. But he knew that Theresa need him, after all he was the only one that could really protect her from Eddie's daily dose of contacting her. "What does that mean?"
"I'm just hear for a short visit," Ryan answered truthfully.
"Okay, would you at least like to come to the fashion show with us tonight and spend the night?" Kirsten asked kindly putting her hand on his.
"Yeah!" Seth cried realizing this was his perfect opportunity, "Marissa needs another male model and you could do it!"
"What?" Sandy and Kirsten both turned to look at him
"Marissa stopped by a little while ago and asked me to be in the fashion show, and I said yes. Maybe Ryan could do it with me?"
"You're in the fashion show?" Sandy asked and he and Kirsten cracked up. The two of them laughed so hard that tears ran down their face. Seth was staring at them like they were crazy.
"What? It's not that funny,"
"Yes it is," Kirsten said "You know when I was your age I did the fashion show too,"
"Yes Mom, we know that you were the princess of Newport society"
"I wasn't!" Kirsten insisted but her argument was weak. How could you not be the princess when your dad was the king? It was like genetics or something, Seth couldn't really blame her. But then again theoretically he should be the next prince, but maybe he was like Prince Harry ignored unless he did something bad. Also Seth didn't really plan on becoming head of the Newport group when his mom died. He figured that if anyone from the Cohen family would it would be Ryan. After all he was at least semi-interested in it.
"Come on stay Ryan!" Seth demanded turning towards his brother. Ryan shrugged
"What about Teresa?" he asked finally
"Invite her to come tonight," Seth said simply
"Okay," Ryan said after a pause, "but I won't do the fashion show!"
"Yep you will," Kirsten said and Seth nodded. "All the boys in this family will,"
"I'm not..." Ryan started to argue, but Sandy shook his head
"It's best not to argue with her," he said getting up and following his wife out the door. Ryan and Seth exchanged a look before Ryan reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone speed dialing Teresa, the second easiest number to reach after the Cohen's that is.
"Hey it's me," he said when she picked up. He looked over at Seth and gave him a look.
"Okay I take a hint,"
"Thanks," he mouthed and then turned back to the phone
"Who's me?" Teresa teased
"Just me," he said teasing back
"Okay me, what's up?"
"I'm going to stay here tonight and do this charity fundraiser thing," Ryan said
"Oh think you can bring home some of the charity?" Teresa joked but Ryan didn't have to say anything. They both knew that they were on the brink of becoming charity cases.
"Funny," Ryan said
"Okay, so you're not coming home,"
"Right, anyways the Cohen's wanted-I wanted" he corrected himself "to know if you wanted to come and spend tonight here too. It will give us some time away from Chino,"
"I don't know let me talk to my mom," Teresa said hesitantly and Ryan could hear their muffled voices. Finally Teresa was back on the phone, "Okay Ryan," she said with a reluctant sigh
"Good," Ryan said and there was a silence the neither one knew how to fill.
"Okay, bye," Teresa said and hung up without waiting for a reply. Ryan headed out the door of the kitchen and into the backyard. He started at the view of the ocean first before he closed the door softly to the pool house. He opened the door to the closet and looked at all the neat suits and tux's that Kirsten had bought him ages ago, all lined up with all his other Newport clothes. The ones he hadn't brought back to Chino with him. He wanted to think that maybe there was so way that he could come back. He grabbed a suit and hung it on the back of the bathroom door, and jumped in the shower for the second time today.
He let the hot water run over him for about twenty minutes before getting out and was about to pull on the suit when he heard a knock on the door. He jumped pulled the towel around his waist and walked out tentatively.
"Hey," Ryan said seeing Seth who was sitting on the bed reading a graphic novel.
"Hey," Seth said looking up and then quickly turning around at the sight of Ryan in nothing but a towel "Oh! Dude," he made a face
"Sorry, I just wanted to see who it was," Ryan headed over to the closet and grabbed a wifebeater and a pair of jeans and when he was sure Seth had his back turned pulled them on.
"Ahh!" Seth said finally turning around "That's the Ryan we know and love,"
"Seth," Ryan said in a warning tone
"What?" Seth asked innocently
"Nothing," Ryan said rolling his eyes. He came over and sat down on the chair across from Seth. "So,"
"So," Seth said
"Tell me about Tahiti," Ryan said finally and Seth launched into a long description of his trip. He had Ryan laughing when Sandy walked in a couple of hours later to tell them they needed ready to go.
"Okay," Seth said jumping up and following his dad out of the pool house. Ryan started around at his pool house and wondered if he would ever live here again. At the moment he was starting to really doubt it. He glanced at the clock which read 5:55. They should be at the place by 6:15. He wondered where Teresa was, but he didn't dwell on it long. He pulled on his suit, expertly tying his tie (tying once a week for a year helped) and then shut the door quietly. It was only as he climbed into Sandy's BMW with Jessie sandwiched between him and Seth that he finally realized that Teresa wasn't there. He pulled out his phone and dialed her listening to it ring once, twice and finally clicking on to voice mail. Ryan shrugged, he wasn't going to let Teresa not showing up ruin his first evening being re-united with his family. Besides he had bigger things to face, like seeing Marissa.
Author's note: Okay that was kind of long I think it's just a start and I kind of have an idea where I'm going. But oh well stick with me and wait for the next update! Please review everyone it really makes my day!