Meeting Again

Summary- This is going to be like the Pilot, with a few things changed of course.

Disclaimer- I own nothing...still, but maybe one day. (Hey, you never know)

A/N- YAY! Chapter 3 is up! I'm so glad to hear you guys want longer chapters, so that means I can actually write longer chapters. This is going to be like The Pilot, but 'my way', so a few things will be different since they already know each other. Since a few things will be different, and this chapter is going to be long...I think. Everything happened with Ryan and his Mom and Sandy...so it starts off at the driveway part.

On with the story...

Ryan looked around as he walked to the driveway for a quick smoke. He saw a girl sitting on the curb, she was particularly skinny, and her light brown, wavy hair blew in the wind. He seemed somewhat drawn to her, even though she was skinny. He usually wasn't interested in skinny girls since...Marissa. He smiled as he traced the choker outline around his neck, remembering that day. He didn't really think about that day, okay so if you count every time he looked in the mirror and caught glimpse of it or eveytime he took it off and put it back on, everyday.

He got a little closer to the curb, to see what she looked like, and flicked the lighter, hoping it would make her look up.

Marissa heard the sound of feet coming down the driveway and a flicker of a lighter, so she looked up. She saw a boy, staring at her, lighting his cigarette. She looked at his eyes, but then at his neck, she recognized the choker. She stood up...surprised.

"R...Ry...Ryan?" she finally forced out of her mouth as she brushed herself off.

"Marissa?" he asked, eyes widening. He dropped the cigarette to the ground.

She ran over to him and hugged him, she couldn't kiss him this time, and she had a boyfriend, a boyfriend she didn't like, but oh well. Neither had a hug like this since...the last time they hugged.

They finally pulled back, although neither really wanted to, but they stood close to each other, to maintain certain closeness to them. In fact they stood so close, they could hear the rapid beating of the other's heart.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked, smiling.

"Oh...um," Ryan was hesitant to say why he was really there, at least to Marissa.

Marissa saw he didn't really want to talk about it, so instead asked, "Are you living with the Cohen's?"A little too happily.

"Uh...long story," Ryan replied, giving her a half smile. Her heart nearly melted at the sight of his smile. She grinned back at him, and was about to say something when a big black truck pulled up in front of them. Her heart froze this time; she saw Luke...and Holly?

"Get in!" Luke shouted, once he saw her and Ryan talking. Marissa gave them the one sec signal, and turned to Ryan.

"Uh, sorry, I should get going, I wish I could stay, but..." she said with a disappointed voice

"Its okay," he recovered, "Maybe later."

"Definitely later," she said with a smile on her face.

"Marissa, the party's halfway over," Holly whined from the passenger seat.

"Bye," Marissa said as she gave him a small wave and purposely brushed his shoulder against hers. Yep, the 'tingle' was still there, and a shiver went down their spines as they touched.

She got in the backseat, seeing as Holly was in the passenger¡¦s, and they drove off. She dared not look back; she didn't want to hear what Luke would say.

"So?" Luke began, "Who was that?" The jealousy in his voice was evident, and this made Marissa smile, for some strange reason.

"Oh...um...Ryan? He's the Cohen's cousin...from Boston," she lied to them, although she wasn't sure herself, he could be. She made it a point to find out, and to have more than a two minute conversation with him. But she couldn't, tomorrow was the Fashion Show. Should she skip it? But just to talk with him? It was all too confusing, so she leaned her head against the cool window. From the corner of her eye, she looked back to see him going up the driveway. She sighed as loud as she could without causing a distraction in Luke and Holly's conversation which happened to be about how big of a queer Cohen is. Marissa knew what she wanted to do, and it didn't matter to her how much she would be giving up. An idea popped in her head.

&&&&

She followed Luke and Holly inside the party, and they went off in their own way. People were drinking, doing cocaine, body shots, and she even saw a few girls stumbling around, trying to keep their balance, with drinks in their hand. 'Is that what I look like?! she thought. She never noticed before, as soon as she got there, she went straight to the drinks table, but now that she actually looked around, she didn't like what...who she had become. 'Maybe I won't have any drinks tonight,' she said to herself.

Marissa looked around for Luke, she wanted to go home, couldn't stand the loud music, and people whooping and hollering. She never seemed to notice before, she was too caught up in getting drunk, and that drowned out all the noises, and was always too numb to realize anything around her, but now it was a sharp and painful noise, and right in the pit of her stomach. She had an empty feeling and couldn't stand it anymore. She wanted to scream and yell at everyone there, tell them to be ashamed, ashamed at what they...including her, had become; sixteen year old alcoholics and some much more than that, drug dealers etc.

She walked around, noticing the drunken grins, and drunken slurring. She really wanted to be alone...well not necessarily alone, she wanted to be with one person, Ryan. At the mention of his name, and in her own mind, she felt herself blush.

Finally! She found Luke, he was sitting on the couch with Holly, and they were awfully close. 'Oh well, it's because of me they're so nice to each other', she thought to herself.

Oh Marissa, if you knew, if only you knew.

"LUKE!" she screamed over the music and hollering. "LUKE!" she screamed again. He turned around and faced her, well sort of.

"YES?" he loudly slurred. Marissa shook her head, they had been at the party for like, five minutes and he was already drunk. "I wanna go home!" she yelled at him, quite harshly. He had a strange of look on his face, one with somewhat pleasure, and waved her off dismissively and returned to the slurring conversation he was having with Holly. Great, I have to walk home.

The walk home wasn't so bad, she actually enjoyed the smell of the ocean, instead of having her face permanently glued to a plastic cup with some, what she called 'numbing liquid,' or to the rest of the world, alcohol, which always smelled horrible. Speaking of smells, she suddenly remembered the special smelling object that was hidden at the bottom of her closet. Marissa smiled as she sprinted the rest of the two blocks to her house.

&&&&

She flipped off the top, and the smell just burst out of it, like it had been wanting to for years. It hadn't been opened since that day, and she wished she had opened it some days, just to make her feel better, but she was always was too afraid that if she opened she would find out that it shriveled up and died, or the smell had gone away. But no, everything was the same as when she had put it there, three years ago. True, the flower looked a little paler, but its deep crimson color was still there, and the creamy milk color on some of the petals was still the creamy white it had been. She took it out and took a big sniff, and suddenly felt just like she had that day so many years ago when she was thirteen, and kissed the sandy haired boy, with the most beautiful eyes. Marissa smiled and looked out the window to the Cohen's house. She saw a light in the house, 'Seth's room', she thought, and that was all the lights that were on, at least in the house. But then she looked over to the poolhouse, and saw 'him', Ryan.

He was setting out the blankets on the bed; he looked like he was deep in thought. Marissa had another thought. She put the flower back in the box and put it back in the closet, this time not on the bottom, just behind a few dresses, so she had easy access to it. She knew she wouldn't get in trouble by her parents, they would assume she was still at the party so; she went over to the window and opened it. She climbed down her trellis and headed toward the pool house.

&&&&

'Marissa?" Ryan asked again in his mind. 'Marissa?' he repeated in his head again. He repeated it again for the millionth time since the driveway. 'What's she doing here?' he asked himself, and then answered, 'Oh yeah, she lives right next door'. His thoughts were interrupted when there was a light tapping at the door, 'Probably Mr. or Mrs. Cohen,' he thought, and turned around. And he saw her.

Her wavy, sun streaked hair, those dark blue, penetrating eyes, and those juicy lips that he just wanted to kiss so much. He didn't move, which was so unlike him. Marissa took this as her cue to come in, so she opened the unlocked door and walked over to him. "Hey," she said, giving him a confused smile once, she noticed his stiffness. He didn't say anything, just stood there, looking a mixture of constipation and surprised. Marissa walked over to him and gave him a 'friendly' hug, any excuse to touch him, right?

He relaxed at her touch and hugged her back. Once they were done with their 'friendly hugging', she walked over to the bed and sat at the edge. "Hey...sorry if I...I'm just surprised you're here," he said as he snapped back to reality.

"I said I'd see you later," Marissa replied. "So, what are you doing here?" she asked.

He blushed a little, embarrassed to say the real reason he was here, but saw the urgent look on Marissa's face and started. "Well, you see..." and trailed off as he sat down next to her.

The whole time he was speaking, they stared into each other's eyes, not taking them off each other, as if though they were having a romantic staring contest. "...and so here I am," he finally finished. She nodded understandably and he gave her a small smile. Her heart melted again.

"How long are you here for?"

"Not long," he answered, "Just 'till Monday probably."

"Oh." The disappointment was evident in her voice.

"What?" Ryan asked, a smile creeping upon her lips, he was somewhat amused. Marissa felt the pink on her cheeks turn red. She stood up and walked over to somewhere where he couldn't see her turn an even darker red. She finally gained composure, and turned to face him.

"So? What are you doing tomorrow?" she said, trying to change the subject.

He shrugged. "Good, I have no plans either," she lied. "So we can do whatever...together," she said happily.

"Okay...I guess," he said like he didn't care, but inside was beaming.

"Oh and whatever you do, DON'T go to the Fashion Show tomorrow, do whatever you can do get out of it," she said, almost threatening him. He found her quite cute when she got demanding.

"Ok," he simply said, trying not to laugh at her 'threat'.

"Well, I better go," Marissa said looking at a clock on the wall.

"Um...ok, so tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." Marissa confirmed. He walked her over to the door, "Bye."

"Bye."

He wanted to touch her, somehow, but that could be taken as a friendly gesture.

Oh Ryan, if only you knew what was through her mind, friendly gestures were not one of them.

She saw his hesitance so she gripped his arm, 'God! Feel those biceps!' she thought to herself. She gave it a reassuring squeeze, and confirmed tomorrow night, "I'll come by at 7, 'Kay?"

He nodded, and she left, gracefully walking back to her house, and they both had a peaceful sleep that night, having 'fantasies' about the other one, and these ones would not be considered 'friendly'.

A/N-Okay! So what did you think? I really wanted this chapter to be long and I guess it was, but I really had to get some 'emotions' in this chapter and the meet and greet, so it might've been kind of 'boring' or not, tell me what you think. The next one is juicy and has a bit of a cliffhanger to it, so I'm updating really soon, before I get writer's block (which I never seem to have-LOL) Review! Thanks.