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A/N: Well I hope everyone liked my Perspective Chapter-Chapter 10. Did you guys watch the Chrismukkah episode? It was cute eh? Full of drama, but still cute… especially Ryan… when he was at Lindsay's and was all, 'I'm here for you'… that was soo sweet!!! Sorry, getting carried away. But we gots to wait until January for new episodes. But I guess it's worth it cuz after that its 12 whole non stop weeks of the show!!! Yay!!! The previews seemed so dramatic… like even more messed than last year and so far this year combined… anyway sorry for my little rambling on… I just LOVE the show… but I guess you already knew that didn't you? Ok, now on to Chapter 11. Enjoy!

It was the afternoon on the day before New Years Eve. Ryan and Seth had done nothing all morning. Sandy had come home for lunch and found them on the living room floor staring at the TV. "Boys what are you doing?"

"Dad, what does it look like we're dong?"

"Sitting. Sitting and doing nothing."

"Well Ryan decided to be a lump and after a while, it was hard not to follow the example. Blame him. He's the one that's become non edgy."

"Ryan… how could you do this to my edgy son?"

"Sandy, he could have left. I wasn't stopping him. But hate to break it to you Seth, you were never edgy."

"Thanks Ryan."

"Well boys get up, get up and do something. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and knowing women they always have something planned."

"Yea that's true." Just then the phone rang. It was Marissa.

"Ryan hey. I was thinking of the four of us to spend New Year's Eve together tomorrow." Ryan gave Sandy a look of 'you were right. Its her.'

"Sure Marissa. What do you and Summer want to do?"

"We were thinking of spending the day together and then just hanging out till New Years. Sound like a plan?"

"Yea sure. I'll run it by Seth and call you back."

"K, talk to ya later then. Love you Ryan."

"Yea…" Ryan started reluctantly. "Love you too…" He hung up. "They want us to spend the day with them tomorrow and then just hang till New Years. Just as Seth was about to respond, the phone rang again. Ryan was guessing it was Marissa again, thinking to add something to the plans. "Marissa?"

"Uh no. it's Lindsay." Ryan brightened up.

"Oh hey."

"Hi. I was just wondering, do you have any plans for New Year's Eve tomorrow?"

"Well I'm in the middle of making plans." Lindsay thought he meant that he would hang out with her that day.

"Well great. Meet me at my house around 1 ok? See ya then." She hung up.

"Seth we have a problem."

"What now?"

"Lindsay thinks I'm going to her house tomorrow."

"Dude, are you serious?"

"Yea. I said I was in the middle of making plans and she thought I was meaning with her."

"Ryan, ya gotta set her straight. God, she won't give up will she?"

"Guess not."

"And the sad part is, it should be me that they're fighting over." 'Ryan looked at him as to say, are you serious?' "Just kidding. I've already got enough things to worry about. I don't need the Ryan Fan Club fighting over me too."

"Ha-ha."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I can't tell Marissa though. She'll freak. She already hates Lindsay."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Well for one, she always calls her Lori and gives her dirty looks. Need more proof?"

"Point taken. God, girls are so feisty and catty."

"I know. What gets into them? They're so crazy."

"Well as I said before, it's the beginning of a new era Ryan, and girls are bound to get more feisty and more catty. We should buy tickets. Cuz if I've learned anything from Summer, its that when girl's get in one another's territory, it gets very very entertaining. We should tape this… I got first dibbs on the copy."

"Seth, calm down."

"Sorry."

"Its ok, just help me figure something out."

"Well call Marissa and tell her we'll meet her tomorrow and ditch Lindsay."

"Seth…"

"Ok, call first; tell her you can't make it, and then ditch. But just ditching would be better."

"And meaner."

"I know."

"Why don't you like her?"

"I just don't ok? I mean she's so…"

"Seth, are you getting catty now too?"

"No…"

"Good. I was scared there for a sec." He called Marissa back.

"Hey! I was starting to think you forgot about me… is everything ok?"

"Yea, it is. Sorry it took me so long…" Ryan didn't want to lie. "but, Lindsay called."

"She did? Why?"

"Well she wanted me to hang out with her tomorrow?"

"And you told her no right?" Marissa was afraid of his answer.

"I said that I was making plans. She though I was saying that I would make plans with her. Then she just hung up." Marissa couldn't believe what she was hearing. What if he really did bail on her?

"So your going to hang with her tomorrow…?"

"Of course not. It's New Year's. The only person I want to spend the New Year with is you."

"You sure? You don't sound so convincing."

"Of course I'm sure. I'll meet you tomorrow at eleven for lunch ok? Summer and Seth will meet us later so we can have time to ourselves k?" Marissa was starting to feel better.

"Ok."

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yea."

"K, see ya then." He hung up.

"Dude, I thought we agreed we wouldn't tell them? Remember? Catfights?"

"Yea I know, but this way, she's happy that I haven't lied and glad that I said I wouldn't hang with Lindsay." He was slightly disappointed that he couldn't… not that he could tell anyone that.

"So what now?"

"I guess I'll just have to call Lindsay and set it straight."

"Good for you Ryan. Don't run away from your problems."

"Who said I would?"

"Well, you're a Cohen, and well, we Cohens don't usually like confrontation… but good for you for finally breaking the bond."

"Right…" Ryan was starting to think that all this Chrismukkah cheer was starting to go to his head, more that it usually did. Ryan dialed Lindsay's number. It was busy. He hung up.

"What?"

"Its busy."

"I guess you'll just have to do it in person then."

"I do?"

"Ryan…"

"Do I really have to?"

"Ha! I knew it! You are a Cohen."

"Seth…"

"No, no, no. we Cohens hate confrontation, but we hate it even more in person; always afraid to see the person's reaction in person. Ryan… you're becoming more like us each day." Ryan rolled his eyes. "Ok, I'll stop."

"Thank you. But even if I am a Cohen, I know that eventually, all confrontations come and I might as well just face this one."

"Yep, you're breaking the bond again. I don't know if you are or if you aren't a Cohen. We usually wait until the last minute to actually confront something—" Seth was about to go on but Ryan cut him off.

"Seth, calm down. If you have to, call Summer and get her over here, but I really need to go."

"Fine, fine. But if you think that you're gonna get out of this talk, think again. My me time isn't over."

"Great… just great," Ryan replied as he went out the door. On the way to Lindsay's Ryan was starting to feel bad. He didn't want to cancel on Lindsay but the true fact was that he hadn't really agreed on anything, she had only thought he did. Even so, he still felt bad. But pretty soon he was going to have to really choose between Marissa and Lindsay. His heart was just confused. He pulled up, walked to her porch, took a deep breath, and finally knocked.

"Ryan! Hey. What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I came to clear something up with you…" Lindsay smiled.

"Yea?"

"Well see, today, I mean earlier, when you called and asked if I wanted to hang… and I said that I was in the middle of making plans… well… I didn't mean with you." Lindsay's smile vanished. Ryan saw that he had hurt her. But really… what could he have done? Either way someone was going to get hurt.

"Oh… I see. I mean, of course you didn't mean with me… its New Years, and so of course you're going to spend it with your girlfriend. What was I thinking? I'm sorry. I put you on the spot didn't I? Oh, I just feel stupid. Well, I'm gonna go inside now… and yea. Thanks for clearing everything up. Have fun with your girlfriend tomorrow." With that, she shut the door in Ryan's face before he could answer, or at least that's the way it seemed. But really, she had turned away and shut it quickly so he couldn't see the tears in her eyes. Once inside she went into her room and cried. And then after crying awhile, she felt stupid for letting a guy make her cry. But then she realized she wasn't crying because he had canceled, he had every right to, but that she couldn't spend time with him and that she was stupid enough to think that one night of awesome conversation would have wanted to make him break up with his girlfriend. She wouldn't of broken up with her boyfriend if it were reversed, well if she had a boyfriend. She knew that he had been with Marissa for a while now; on and off of course but still a while. She couldn't believe that she had been so dumb as to crash a party just to fight for him, but Marissa hadn't really been all that nice to her either. The situation was really screwed up. Now all she could do is give up, either give up or wait and she had promised herself a long time ago that she wasn't ever going to wait for another guy again, no matter how great he was.

Meanwhile, after getting the door slammed in his face, Ryan went home. And after going home, he felt even worse. He had imagined her reaction, and he knew it wasn't going to be good, but actually witnessing the disappointment in her face made him feel a hundred times worse than before. He went to the pool house and fell on his bed. It was about 5 and he was really tired. All this drama had happened so quickly. He just wished that things could go back to normal, but then thought, 'What is normal around here?' From the moment he had arrived in Newport his life had been turned upside down; both in a good and bad way. Living in Chino he pretty much always knew what to expect and he had routine in his life. He would get up and hope not to get in trouble that day. He knew that eventually his mother would get drunk again and leave him and then he would have to find a place to be so the cops wouldn't take him in services. He was always afraid of everything unfamiliar. Then he arrived at the Cohens. From then on he had always felt like an outsider. Sure, Kirsten and Sandy had learned to love him, but not the rest of Newport. It had taken Julie Cooper almost a year to actually get used to him, and he knew that she still didn't approve of him being there, and especially having anything to do with Marissa, but she learned to ignore it when she realized that Marissa wouldn't really listen to her anymore. Not that he cared what Julie thought. He was used to being alone. Marissa was pretty much the only person other than the Cohen's to really give him a chance right off the bat. He respected her a lot for that. Then gradually everyone else had grown used to having him there. He saw that by leaving it just created more drama than usual for everyone and he wasn't about to let that happen again. So here he was, lying on his bed, wishing that everything with Lindsay and Marissa would go away. He was sick of having people fight over him, but really, he was sick of having to make choices. But that was the only way to end it. He had to choose between Marissa and Lindsay. Just then Seth walked in the door, interrupting his thoughts.

"Dude, you're back. How'd it go?"

"She didn't take it too well but it's taken care of."

"Great. So tomorrow, we're meeting Summer and Marissa?"

"Yea I guess so, but we're having breakfast separate, Marissa's idea."

"Ok, cool. That'll give me time to see what's up with Alex these days."

"What?"

"Ya know, just see how she is."

"Seth… you like her don't you?"

"Maybe a little."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know. I mean I don't want to lose Summer but…"

"Yea, seems like your in the same boat as me…"

Well that's chapter 11. Did everyone like it? I hope so. So please review and be kind. Suggestions are always welcome. Till next time.