Disclaimer: I forgot to say this before, but I own nothing. Thanks for all the feedback. :-) Constructive criticism is more than welcome. This is my first fic, so I don't really know what I'm doing.
"Okay, so let me get this straight. Theresa left Newport the same night that I did and shortly after that Ryan and Marissa got back together. Then Theresa came back because Eddie, that psycho guy from the party, was hitting her and she told Ryan that she was pregnant…"
"She told me, and I told Ryan. Since he might have been the father." Marissa's words made Lindsay feel a bit uneasy. She already knew about Ryan, Theresa, and the baby they lost, but she didn't like to think about it. Ryan's experience intimidated her, because if they ever decided to take that step together, she would have no idea what she was doing. She didn't know if she was ready. She tried to put that out of her mind, as Anna continued asking about the events of the past year.
"So he left to go to Chino with Theresa to help take care of the baby?"
"Yeah." To Lindsay, the idea of Ryan as a father was really weird, but also sort of heart-warming.
"And why did Seth go to Portland?"
Summer's voice sounded like she was either about to cry or have a rage blackout. "He ran away like a little bitch on a boat because Ryan left and he didn't want to go back to life in Newport without him. He said it was hell for him here before Ryan came. It's like Ryan is the only thing here that he cared about."
Anna looked Summer in the eye a bit nervous. "He thought that you would leave him because he was an outcast before Ryan came, and he thought he'd go back to that after he left."
Summer opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't. She'd never thought that when Seth left, he thought that she was going to leave him. But she had told him she wouldn't. Had he not believed her? "Maybe," she said, her voice just above a whisper. "He tried to explain it in the note he left me, but I didn't understand it. I still don't. I just know that he sailed away until he ran out of snacks, then took a bus to Portland."
"Why Portland?"
Summer turned to Marissa, who opened her mouth to speak, but laughed instead. Summer was relieved that her friend could laugh about the situation now even if she still hated her mother with a passion. "Luke moved to Portland with his dad. He, um…had an affair with an older woman and it kind of caused some problems so he thought it would be best if he left."
Anna knew they were avoiding telling her this, but seeing their amused faces, she couldn't help but ask. "Who was it?"
Summer and Marissa exchanged a glance, and Marissa nodded at Summer. The words exploded out of Summer's mouth. "Julie Cooper!"
Anna's jaw nearly fell to the floor and she looked at Marissa. "Your mom?" She nodded. "So he left after the affair came out?"
"Sort of." Marissa said, with a slightly sad look in her eye, recalling Luke's car accident as well as all the events leading up to it. "Seth and Ryan saw them together and Ryan convinced Luke to end things with my mom, but Luke said something to Ryan about it, not knowing I was in the room. But other than that, it's just Summer that knows. And now you and Lindsay. Don't tell anyone, okay?"
Anna nodded, and Marissa's eyes moved to Lindsay. "I can keep a secret." Lindsay was having some trouble following everything but she knew that Luke was Marissa's boyfriend before Ryan and that things hadn't ended well between them. Though Marissa could laugh about her mother's affair, her friends knew it still bothered her.
"So when did the boys come back?"
"Ryan came back after Theresa lost the baby. Seth came back when Ryan did. It was right when school started." Marissa's tone was a lot more matter-of-fact than Summer's had been.
"I see. So any new love interests for you guys?" Marissa blushed, and Summer jumped at the chance to try to convince someone she was over Seth.
"I'm dating Zach. Do you remember him? Brown hair, gorgeous eyes, really smart, he's on the water polo team."
"Yeah, I think I had a few classes with him. So what about you, Marissa? Did you and Ryan get back together?"
"Actually, when Ryan left I started dating this guy, DJ-"
"The yard guy!" Summer jumped in. "He's hot."
"Yeah, the yard guy. Anyway, Ryan and I decided to just be friends, for real this time, and it's working out really well. My mom hates DJ even more than she hated Ryan." At her last statement, she smiled triumphantly.
Anna laughed good-naturedly. "So Lindsay, did you just move here this year? I don't remember seeing you last year."
"I went to Newport Union, but then I transferred to Harbor this year to load up on AP courses and get into college early. Ryan and I are in physics together, and I met Summer and Marissa through him. And I'm Mr. Nichol's daughter." Her last sentence was so rushed that it didn't register for Anna at first.
"Physics, huh? Any chemistry?"
Lindsay blushed and dodged the question. "I've never been good at chemistry."
Summer gave Lindsay a mischievous grin. "Then I guess Ryan's good enough at it for the both of you."
The girls all giggled, and Lindsay's face turned bright red as she tried to hold in her laughter. "Maybe. Don't know yet."
Anna wondered if Lindsay's parents had freaked out like Marissa's had when she started dating a boy from Chino, especially one that possibly impregnated an ex-girlfriend. She finally processed Lindsay's previous statement, then wondered if she'd misunderstood. "Wait a sec! Who did you say your dad is?" Anna asked.
"Caleb Nichol is my father," she replied as coldly as if he were Darth Vadar.
Anna looked at the other two girls, who simply nodded in confirmation. "So that makes you Mrs. Cohen's sister?"
"Half-sister. And Marissa's step-sister."
Anna turned back to Marissa. "Your mom married Mr. Nichol?"
Marissa nodded and rolled her eyes. "Yep. And then Caleb blackmailed me into living with them instead of my dad."
"What ever happened with your dad?" Anna asked, beginning to notice the extreme monotone Marissa had been talking in.
"He and Sandy were going to go into business together, but Caleb screwed them over on that, something with the liquor license. But Dad did get a couple million dollars from Caleb when he bought the property from them. Oh, and he was dating Hailey, Kirsten's sister, until she moved to Japan a few months ago."
Hailey. Lindsay hadn't heard about her before. "Mr. Nichol has another daughter?"
"Yeah, Hailey. She's doing some kind of work in fashion in Tokyo. She's really fun. I wish I'd wound up with her as my stepparent instead of Caleb. But she is my stepsister. This family is so weird."
Lindsay locked eyes with Marissa and nodded in understanding. "Yeah. It's pretty messed up."
"So you're Seth and Ryan's aunt?" Anna asked Lindsay.
"Seth's aunt," Lindsay corrected. "I don't really like to think of Ryan as the Cohens' son, or my nephew," she said, wincing. "I like to think that he and Seth are such close friends that it just feels like Ryan is part of the family, since I think I might sort of be his girlfriend."
Anna burst out laughing. "I'm sorry guys, but this is too much. I missed so much while I was gone! You guys are like all related now!"
"Not me," Summer chimed in happily. "Not yet anyway. And Lindsay, what do you mean 'you think' you're Ryan's girlfriend?"
"Well, I sort of broke things off with him on Chrismukkah, after it came out that I was the 'error in judgement' that was about to send my mom and Mr. Nichol to jail. I didn't think I could ever be around the Cohens, knowing that I'm the product of an affair that almost ended Kirsten's parents' marriage. I never expected Kirsten to accept me, let alone try to get to know me."
"Sandy and Kirsten are really great like that," Anna said reassuringly. "Besides, you didn't do anything wrong. Caleb did."
A silence hung in the air until Summer found a way to break it. "What about you Anna? What have you been up to?"
"Applying to college, hanging out with friends, dating some, you know, normal life."
Marissa laughed. "Normal? Actually we don't know what that is."