He was so excited. He had just gotten his acceptance letter to UCLA. He felt so relieved and so excited and so proud of himself for the first time in his life. It was as if those Friday nights spent doing homework instead of hanging out with Marissa had been worth it. He wanted desperately to call Sandy and Kirsten, but they were both swarmed with meetings that afternoon. Instead he headed upstairs to tell Seth the good news.

As Ryan approached Seth's door, he heard familiar giggling that was definately not coming from Summer, and that was when his world stopped. He could feel his heart beat increase as he dropped his acceptance letter on the floor and slowly turned the handle to Seth's door. He had to see for himself to prove that he had not just heard Marissa giggling. It wasn't her normal giggling either. It was the sound she made when she was getting fucked, and suddenly he knew and it felt like he, himself, was the one being fucked. He took a deep breath as he pushed the door open and braced himself for what was to come. He gasped. Despite the fact that he knew it was to come, seeing Seth pounding into his girlfriend was the most hurtful thing Ryan had experienced. It was worse than getting beat up by A.J. or watching his mom get trashed after promising Ryan she'd never do it again. This hurt so much worse because he never expected anything from A.J. or his mom; however, he always though Seth would be faithful. Ryan had trusted him so much, and now he felt like he was being slapped in the face. Marissa's giggles became whimpers and then seized to exist all together, because Seth had stopped. He had spotted Ryan.

"It's not like it looks, Man," Seth blurted out. He wanted more than anything to say something to get the look of absolute betrayal to leave Ryan's face. "Please, you have got to believe me." And then Marissa turned around and saw Ryan and began to cry.

"I love you, Ryan," she said in between sobs as she flew off of Seth's bed, completely naked, and ran over to Ryan trying to throw herself into his arms. He didn't respond. He just stood there seeing through her, beyond her.

"I am so sorry," Seth said again hoping to get some kind of response from Ryan.

Finally Ryan reacted glaring at Seth as he pushed Marissa away from him. "I asked you to fucking watch her while we were on a break. That doesn't give you the right to stick your dick up my girlfriend's ass." Ryan said with pure venom in his voice. "I trusted you, and you fucking betrayed me." With that he turned and left the room, not noticing his acceptance letter laying on the floor.

Kirsten and Sandy had just walked through the door in a good mood. They had met for dinner after their stressful day at work. They were surprised to be greeted by a silent house.

"That's strange. They aren't playing video games," Kirsten mentioned as she walked into the kitchen to lay her purse down.

"They probably went out," Sandy said shrugging. It was fine with him to have the house to themselves. That meant he and Kirsten could have some much needed alone time. As he leaned into kiss Kirsten, he noticed a shadow in the backyard lit up by the glow of a cigarette. "There's one of them sporting a bad nicotine habit," Sandy mentioned. "Sorry, Kirsten. I gotta go check up on the boy." He kissed her on the cheek and headed to the backyard.

"Hey, Kid," Sandy greeted Ryan whose knees were drawn close to his body, and he was shaking back and forth. "What's wrong, Kid?" Sandy asked concerned as he sat down next to Ryan.

For a minute Ryan didn't answer. Instead he took a drag of his cigarette, drew in a shaky breath, and then proceeded to talk. "He was fucking her, Sandy. I walked in on them going at it like I didn't exist."

Sandy was nerved by the kid's vague response. Trying to get Ryan to reveal more information without upsetting the child, he tentatively asked him who he was talking about.

Ryan took another drag, finishing this cigarette. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pack to get another one. He lit it with his zippo before replying. "You know this zippo was given to me by Trey. He stole it from this tobacco store. Gave it to me for Christmas." He took a couple of drags before answering Sandy's question. "Seth and Marissa."

As Sandy heard Ryan say this, he had never felt more ashamed of his own child in his life. After everything Ryan had been through and his issues with trust, to have his own son and Ryan's best friend do this to the now distraught boy broke Sandy's heart. He did not know how long he sat there in silence with the boy. It was an amount of time one couldn't determine. The minutes seemed to go by so slowly as he longed to reach out and comfort the boy, but he knew in reality they probably sat there a much shorter time than it felt like.

Finally Ryan stood up to head to the pool house. During his sit with Sandy, he had smoked almost half the pack and knew his lungs would pay for it later, but he didn't care. He'd welcome the feeling no matter how painful because he needed to experience something physical. All this pain he currently felt was emotional and not tangible. He needed something concrete even if it was painful.

Sandy sadly watched the boy retire and wanted to ask him to come into the house but knew the boy didn't want to be under the same roof as his own son. In stead he made a pot of coffee and watched Ryan get ready for bed until the lights went off, and he could see ryan no more. With a broken heart, he made his way to his bedroom where he spotted a sheet of paper lying on the floor near Seth's bedroom. He picked it up and tears came to his eyes. It was Ryan's acceptance letter to UCLA, and he knew that afternoon Ryan was probably headed to Seth's room to share the happy news when his world stopped and the letter dropped.

FIN