After school Ryan met Seth outside at the car.
"So I got to drop you off at home, I have to get to work." Seth said.
"Really, are you going to tell Alex about Paige?" Ryan asked interested.
"No, why should I?" Seth asked.
"Does Alex know about this party Friday night?" Ryan asked.
"No." Seth said simply.
"What if she finds out?" Ryan asked.
"She won't, how will she?" Seth asked.
"I don't know, she won't I guess." Ryan smiled.
"So I saw you talking to Summer when you left lunch time." Seth said.
"Yeah she asked me to go to the party with her on Friday night." Ryan replied.
"Isn't Zachery going?" Seth asked.
"Yah, I think she's affraid that I'm going to cheat on Marissa or something." Ryan laughed.
"That's Summer for you." Seth laughed, "So you better be coming with me and the girls though."
"Yeah I guess, so Paige is..um...full of questions." Ryan stated.
Seth laughed, "I think her friend was maybe is interested in you."
"I've never even seen her around school before." Ryan stated.
"She's a little shy but I did let Paige know you and Marissa are together." Seth said.
"Thanks." Ryan replied, "I don't need any kind of drama while Marissa's gone."
Friday night came along and Ryan, Seth, Melanie and Paige were at the Cohen's house. Seth had asked Paige over after school and Paige asked if Melanie could join them, Seth agreed.
"So are we going out for supper?" Paige asked Seth, they were cuddled together on the couch. Melanie was sitting in the seat across from them, Ryan sat on the floor across from everyone else.
"Yeah I'm starving you want to go to the Crab Shack?" Seth asked.
"Sounds great." Paige replied.
"You hungry Melanie? How does the Crab Shack sound?" Seth asked.
"Great." She smiled.
"Hey man you going to join us?" Seth asked turning his attention to Ryan.
"Uh, actually I think I'm going to stay here. Marissa's supposed to call early tonight so I should wait. You guys go on." Ryan replied.
"You sure, do you want us to bring you back something?" Seth asked.
"Nah I'm fine, I'll grab something here if I get hungry." Ryan replied and walked out of the room and headed to his bedroom.
"So I guess its just the three of us." Seth smiled and stood up.
"Oh my brother is getting us a bottle for the party, do you want him to pick you and Ryan up something?" Paige asked.
"Yeah cool, I don't know about Ryan though. I'll go up and ask him." Seth said.
"Mel can." Paige offered grabbing Seth and pulling him into her.
Seth nodded, "Third door on the left." Seth mumbled before bringing his lips into Paiges.
Melanie headed upstairs and found Ryan's bedroom, she lightly tapped on the door.
"Its open." Ryan called out.
Melanie opened the door and walked in and smiled.
"Hey?" Ryan said surprised to see her in his room, wondering what she was doing.
"Seth and Paige wanted a moment alone and asked me to come up here and ask you something." Melanie started.
Ryan waited.
"Paige's brother is picking some drinks up for us tonight, do you want him to pick something up for you too?" Melanie asked.
"Well if you all are drinking maybe I should probably not, we'll need someone to drive us home right?" Ryan replied.
"Right, responsible. Good idea." Melanie said, "So do you want someone else to stay sobber with you, I know how annoying it is to be driving around a car full of drunks."
Ryan laughed, "No I'll be ok."
"Ok, so you are going with us for sure tonight then?" Melanie asked.
"Yeah looks that way." Ryan replied just as his phone started to ring, "Excuse me that's probably my girlfriend calling."
Melanie nodded and left the room shutting the door behind her.
"HellO?" Ryan answered.
"Hey!" Marissa said.
"Hi hows the conference going?" Ryan asked.
"Great we're done everything now, we're all going out tonight and I went looking for something cool to wear." Marissa started.
"Really." Ryan replied remembering she didn't have much stuff to wear out.
"Yeah and I can't find anything in my suitcase, I could have swore that I packed a few things to wear out." Marissa stated.
"Really? I wonder what happened." Ryan said trying to play dumb.
"Yeah I was kind of thinking maybe you would know what happened to my clothes." Marissa asked.
"Me? Nope, don't know what you're talking about." Ryan lied.
"Really!" Marissa replied.
"Ok maybe they're in your room, under your bed." Ryan laughed.
Marissa smiled, "Thought you would know something about the clothes disappearing."
"You mad?" Ryan asked.
"No, actually I kind of laughed about it for a few minutes with my roommate." Marissa replied, "But my roommate did offer to loan me something to wear so your plan didn't work mister."
"Well I tried." Ryan replied realizing how much he missed her.
"So you going to that party tonight?" Marissa asked.
"Yeah, I'm going with Seth and Paige and Paige's friend Melanie." Ryan replied.
"Melanie?" Marissa asked.
"Yeah, I never saw her around school until Seth introduced me to her and Paige earlier this week." Ryan replied, "Honestly they both are a little weird."
Marissa laughed, "Well Seth is a little weird too."
"Yeah, Summer gave me a lecture this week too about the party. She asked me to go with her and Zach and when I told her that I was going with Seth she warned me not to hurt you." Ryan informed.
"Really?" Marissa asked.
"Yeah she was worried about you, I called her my babysitter." Ryan replied.
"She's just trying to be a friend." Marissa replied, "So is Melanie pretty?"
"Uh I guess she's not bad looking but I'm not interested, believe me." Ryan replied.
"Good, so do you miss me?" Marissa asked, "Cause I've been missing you a lot today."
"Actually I am, I was just thinking about that." Ryan confessed, "I can't wait to see you on Sunday."
"You going to come over to my place? My dad is going to be with Hailey until Monday morning." Marissa asked.
"Yeah definitely." Ryan answered, "Are you having fun at Yale though, meeting new people?"
"Oh the people are so much fun, the school's beautiful and I've learned so much. I took so many pictures that I'll show you when I get home." Marissa said.
"Good then I can see what my competition was while you were away." Ryan joked.
"Don't worry, no competition here." Marissa informed, "Well I got to get going, it's pretty late here. I'll call you the minute I get home on Sunday ok?"
"Have fun tonight, love you." Ryan stated.
"Love you to Ryan." Marissa stated and hung the phone up.
Ryan got into the shower and got ready to go out. It was around 8 when Seth returned home. He still had to get a shower before leaving for the party.
Seth was ready at around 8:30, they had to wait until Paige called to let them know the girls were ready.
They arrived at the party around 10, there wasn't many people there. Summer and Zach arrived around the same time.
"Chino!" Summer called out.
Ryan looked back and smiled in relief that he could get away from Paige and Melanie for a little while.
"I'll be right back." Ryan said and walked over to Summer and Zach.
"Did Coop call you tonight, she called me but I wasn't home." Summer said.
"Yeah she did earlier, she's having fun they're going out tonight." Ryan replied.
"Did you tell her you were coming to the party with Melanie." Summer asked.
"Summer I'm not here with Melanie, I came with Seth and he took Paige and Melanie." Ryan replied.
"I hope so." Summer said.
"Honestly Summer." Ryan replied annoyed.
"Actually I had something else to ask you, a favour really." Summer said.
"You blame me for cheating on your best friend and then you ask for a favour?" Ryan asked not so surprised.
"Yeah." Summer said.
"What is it?" Ryan asked.
"Are you drinking tonight?" Summer asked.
"No, why?" Ryan replied.
"Zach and I are and we kind of need a ride home. Do you mind?" Summer asked.
"You know I came here with Seth and Paige right?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah but hopefully by the end of the night no one will even realize who we're driving home with, please CHino!!!" Summer begged.
"Fine." Ryan answered.
"Thanks!" Summer said cheerfully and ran to find Zach.
Ryan returned to Seth who had already started drinking. Ryan sighed and sat down next to him. Seth and the girls were talking and Ryan sat there trying to block out the conversation about comic books or something along those lines.
He started looking around the room at everyone he then noticed Summer next to Zach looking almost as bored as he was, she had glanced over in their direction a few times which got Ryan's brain running.
Ryan knew Seth missed Summer and wanted her back; he also could tell by the way Summer had been looking over at them all night that she still missed Seth. Ryan tried to come up with a way to get them back together, he wished Marissa was there to help him out.
Melanie and Paige got up to use the bathroom, leaving RYan and Seth alone.
"Ryan man, you're awfully quiet tonight." Seth stated.
"And you're extra loud tonight which makes up for it." Ryan joked.
Seth laughed, "So man you think I can get Paige to come with me tonight?" Seth asked.
"I don't know but I'm sure your parents will have a problem with that." Ryan replied.
"Yeah, not a good idea...." Seth agreed, "But do you think I could have though?"
"Sure......yeah man, no problem." Ryan replied as the girls returned.
Paige sat next to Seth and Melanie pushed herself next to Ryan, "Having fun Atwood?"
Ryan looked at her and nodded.
"You know we haven't really had much time to talk, get to know eachother." Melanie stated.
"No I guess not." Ryan replied.
"You should have come to dinner with us, Paige and Seth talked the entire time. I needed someone to talk to." Melanie said.
"Yeah I guess." Ryan replied.
"So do you like workout? You look like your boyd is strong." Melanie asked brushing her hand over his chest.
"No I don't." Ryan replied uncomfortable and adjusted himself away from her.
Seth and Paige got up to dance and Melanie noticed.
"Comeon Atwood lets dance." Melanie smiled pulling on his hand.
"Um I don't dance." Ryan informed.
"COme on, we're at a party, your supposed to be having fun." She protested pulling him a little more.
Ryan pulled his hand back, "Not tonight."
"Ok lets talk. So you're like from Chino right, do you go back often?" She asked.
"Not really." Ryan answered.
"I went to a party there once, it was crazy. I loved it, the guys are totally sexy." She smiled at him.
Ryan sighed and thought how 'fun' the night was going to be.
"So Paige is like head over heels for Seth, well that is what she says." Melanie said.
"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.
"Well its sort of funny that she's dating Summers ex, she doesn't even like comic books." Melanie informed.
"So you think she's using Seth?" Ryan asked.
"I think, but she does think he's cute. I think she just wants to get Summer back." Melanie said, "But I know you won't say anything right?"
Ryan gave her a small half smile until he felt her foot brush up against his leg, not once but a few times. He immediately moved it away.
"Uh, I thought you knew I have a girlfriend." Ryan asked.
"Yeah one thats not here right now." She smiled.
"She might not be here but taht doesn't mean I'm going to do something to hurt her." Ryan replied.
She smiled and moved her mouth close to his ear, "What if I can promise she will never know."
Ryan pushed her away, "I'll know."
"You don't have to worry, it'll be fun. It'll be sexy trying to hide it." Melanie whispered.
"I don't think it would be." Ryan replied.
"Why not?" She asked.
"Cause I'm not interested in you." Ryan said and got up and left her alone.
Melanie ended up leaving the party and around 2:30 Seth was ready to leave. Ryan went to get Summer who was sitting next to Zach.
"You ready to leave?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, Zach comeon." Summer said.
"10 more minutes Roberts, hold on." Zach said barely looking at her.
"Our ride is like leaving, now." Summer pleaded.
"Well I'm not ready yet." Zach replied.
"Fine I'm leaving!" Summer said and got up.
Ryan smiled, "now he just had to get rid of Paige," he thought to himself but was interrupted when Summer started to fall.
"Summer!" he said and caught her.
Zach looked over, "She's had a little bit too much to drink." Zach laughed.
"Yeah, really?" Ryan snapped.
"Excuse me?" Zach stood up.
"Your girlfriend is drunk and wants to leave and you don't care and just laugh at it?" Ryan replied angry.
"Are you saying I don't care, who the hell are you?" Zach responded.
"I'm being a friend, more than what you're being right now. You don't deserve her man." Ryan said.
Zach raised his fist and knocked Ryan in the face. Ryan's temper started to rise and he wacked Zach back and knocked him on the floor.
"Come on Summer." Ryan said helping Summer up. She was too drunk to realize what had just happened and left with Ryan.
Ryan helped her to the car where Paige and Seth were waiting for Ryan to open the doors.
"Summer?" seth said when he realized who Ryan was with, "Is she ok?"
"She's had a bit to much to drink and her boyfriend is an idiot." Ryan replied.
Seth looked up at Ryan, "Did you get into a fight?"
"Zach punched me so I punched him back." Ryan said passing drunk Summer over to Seth.
Seth sat in the back with Summer, Paige was quiet the whole ride home. Ryan dropped her off first.
"Maybe we should take her back to our house." Seth suggested.
"Yeah she shouldn't really be by herself right now." Ryan agreed, "So she's either going to hate me tomorrow or be really happy with me."
"Yeah." Seth laughed, "So how did you and Zach start fighting?"
"I said he didn't care about her and told him he didn't deserve her." Ryan replied.
"Wow!" Seth said surprised, "so what happened to Melanie?"
"I told her I wasn't interested." Ryan replied, "She's really strange."
Seth nodded and looked down at Summer who was laying across his lap. He brushed the hair from her face and she began to stir.
"I think I'm going to be sick." She moaned.
Ryan immediately pulled off to the side of the road. Seth helped her out of the car and stood with her as she got sick.
10 minutes later they pulled into the driveway.
"I'm going to stay in the poolhouse with her, then if she gets sick again she won't wake the parents up." Seth informed.
Ryan nodded and went into the house and grabbed ice for his haw and went to bed. His phone went off a couple hours later, he reached over and answered it.
"Hello?" He moaned.
"Hey!" marissa said cheerfully.
"Marissa? It's like 5:30 in the morning." He moaned.
"Right, sorry its like 10 here." Marissa replied, "I just called cause I'm coming home early, my flight gets in 12. Pick me up?"
"Yeah of course, why are you coming home early?" Ryan asked.
"I'm home sick, I miss everyone." Marissa confessed.
"Well I'll see you in 6 hours. Love you." He said.
"Can't wait, love you too." She said and hung up the phone.