It was December 28th and Lindsay hadn't left her house since the Chrismukkah party, despite her mom's efforts to take her out and cheer her up. She sat in her room reading, and was making an obscene number of red dots at the bottom of each page. She finally gave up and decided to do some journaling. As she put the pen to the page, she hesitated, not knowing where to start.
Her father was not Mark Gardner, a man who had to leave his wife and daughter because his "patriotic duties" demanded it. Looking back, she knew the only reason she had ever believed it was because she wanted to.
In reality, her father was a man who had cheated on his wife with her mother, impregnated her, and then paid the due child support to keep them out of his "perfect" life. She was just an "error" in Caleb's judgement, a mistake, something he always regretted having done.
Then there was Ryan. His foster mother was her half sister, his ex-girlfriend was her stepsister and his best friend and for all practical purposes, his brother, was her nephew. Despite the incestuousness of it all, her feelings for Ryan hadn't changed, and since there was no blood relation, there was no reason they needed to. His family was the remaining issue. Kirsten and the rest of the Cohens seemed really nice, but it was all so weird. For all she knew, Ryan was freaked out by the whole thing and didn't have any interest in her anymore. She'd never understood why he did in the first place.
She was startled out of her thoughts by the telephone blaring beside her. She quickly picked it up to stop the offensive noise. "Hello?"
"Hey, Lindsay?"
The voice on the other end of the line was somewhat disappointing, and somewhat a relief. It wasn't Ryan, but it also wasn't Caleb. It was a female, and the voice was familiar but she couldn't place it. "Yeah?"
"This is Summer. I was just calling to see if you maybe wanted to hang out tomorrow night. Me and Coop…er…Marissa, are having a girls' night at my house and we thought it'd be really cool if you could come."
"I'd love to! But is Marissa really okay with me being there? I know she and Ryan have this history-"
"She wants to get to know her step-sister. And she's over Ryan." Summer wasn't entirely sure about the second part, but for the sake of everyone involved, she hoped she was right.
"Okay. Well that'd be really great. When?"
"My house tomorrow night at 7."
Lindsay was a bit overwhelmed by the idea, but she was looking forward to getting out of the house and away from all the thoughts about her father. "Can I bring anything?"
"Just whatever you need for a sleepover. I've got the snacks covered, but if you have any movies you wanna bring or anything like that, that'd be awesome."
"Okay, great." There was an awkward pause. Both girls knew they were forgetting something but the couldn't figure out what it was.
"Oh!" Summer exclaimed, causing Lindsay to jump. "My address. Do you have a pen and paper handy?"
Lindsay looked down at the thoughts she'd just written about Caleb, and angrily tore that page out of her journal. "Yeah, I've got some scratch paper handy."
Summer gave her the address, along with instructions that Lindsay didn't think she'd be able to follow. Go past the mall, towards school, and when you get to that one street that's name is, like, some kind of flower, turn left. You'll go past a bunch of houses, and when you pass this one that looks really creepy and is painted this really ugly color, take the next right and it's the second to last house on that block.
Shortly after 7 o'clock the next night, Lindsay had by some miracle, found Summer's house. Marissa's car was already in the driveway and as Lindsay walked up to the door, she couldn't help but notice how pathetic her car looked next to Marissa's. Oh well, she shrugged, repeating to herself that she would never get caught up in things like that. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.
A woman who appeared too young and too much of a mess to be Summer's mother opened the door. She wore a T-shirt that was a few sizes too small and sweat pants. She had a tall glass of wine clutched in her hand and a fake smile was plastered on her face. For a moment she just stared at Lindsay, looking extremely confused.
"Hi, I'm Lindsay. Summer's friend?"
The woman's confused faced snapped into recognition. "The girls are upstairs," she said, gesturing toward a huge spiral staircase.
As soon as Lindsay reached the top of the stairs, she panicked. There were so many doors, and she was afraid of what might lurk behind some of them. Luckily Summer jumped out before had time to think about it. "Sorry about the step-monster," Summer said quietly, pulling Lindsay into her room where Marissa was examining her butt in the mirror. "We were changing and I didn't get down there in time to intercept."
"It's okay," Lindsay replied, placing her backpack on the floor.
"We both decided to go ahead and get in our pajamas, so if you want to change, you can use my bathroom."
"Okay, thanks." Lindsay stooped down to get her bag, and retreated to the bathroom to change.
Lindsay began to wonder if Marissa didn't want her there, because she had yet to look away from the mirror. She still hadn't said anything, but had now lifted up her tank top to examine her stomach. Summer took note of this as well, but didn't suspect the same motives that Lindsay did. "Coop, what are you doing?"
Marissa quickly turned from the mirror and flashed Summer a smile. "Nothing." Seeing that Summer clearly didn't believe her, she changed the subject. "So what's the plan for tonight?"
Lindsay emerged from the bathroom in a blue tank top and blue flannel pants with stars and moons on them. Summer and Marissa were in similar attire. Summer's pants were black and white with lips on them and said "hot stuff," all over. Marissa's had a red and pink heart design. Lindsay gave Summer an unsure smile and Marissa's gaze darted around the room refusing to meet Summer's or Lindsay's eyes. Summer knew it was up to her to break the awkwardness of the moment. "We could make some popcorn and watch a movie."
"Sure," Lindsay said with a smile, relieved that for an hour or two, she wouldn't have to worry about what to say.
Marissa tried her best to smile, but it was quite weak. "So what do you guys want to watch?"
"I brought a few movies," Lindsay said, pulling them out of her backpack and handing them to Marissa.
Marissa looked through them, stopping abruptly and quickly looked at Summer before turning to Lindsay. "How about this? Marissa triumphantly held out The Best of Friends: Season 2. "Coop!" Summer argued, but it was useless, so she got up to put it in the DVD player.
Lindsay watched the exchange with confusion, and Marissa whispered to her, "Ross and Rachel. Seth and Summer. I just hope it doesn't take her a decade to figure that out."
Lindsay nodded and smiled at Marissa, thankful for the friendly interaction. From what Seth had told her about his history with Summer, there were quite a few parallels.
Just as the show was beginning, Summer's cell phone rang. She looked down at the Caller ID and looked puzzled. She stepped into the next room to answer it. "Hello?"
"Summer?" The voice was soft, friendly, and it took a few seconds, but Summer recognized it.
"Anna!" Both Marissa and Lindsay ran into the room when they heard her shout. "You're in Newport?"
"Yeah, I came here to spend Christmas with my family and I thought I'd see what you guys were up to."
"Marissa, Lindsay and I are having a girls' night in. You should come over!" Summer was a bit surprised at how happy she was to hear from Anna.
"Who's Lindsay?"
Summer didn't know whether to say Ryan's girlfriend, Marissa's step-sister, or Caleb's illegitimate love child, but any of those responses would need much more explanation. "We'll explain when you get here. It's complicated. Do you remember where my house is?"
"Yeah, I'll be there soon."
"Okay, great." She hung up the phone. "Anna's in town!"
"Who's Anna?" Lindsay asked, feeling quite lost.
"She moved here from Pittsburgh at the beginning of our junior year," Marissa explained. "She and Summer fought over Seth, then she dated Seth for awhile, then he and Summer got together, and shortly after that, she moved back to Pittsburgh. And in the midst of all this, she and Summer became pretty good friends."
"Wow. Things here are never simple, are they?" Summer and Marissa shook their heads.
The episode started and the three girls all turned their attention to the television, though Summer's mind was really on Seth, and Lindsay's thoughts were all over the place. Marissa closely watched Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe, occasionally making a comment about their clothes or their hair. An hour later, Anna arrived. She hugged Marissa and Summer and introduced herself to Lindsay. Summer turned off the TV, and headed up to her room. When all four girls were inside, she shut the door behind them. "We've got lots of catching up to do."