Chapter 10

Blood in the Dark

"Would you hurry it up Sum? It's freaky being down here at night," Marissa whined tugging at my arm.

"Honestly Coop, your such a big baby!" I said as I put the cranberry juice back into the refrigerator. It had to be about one or two in the morning and Marissa had come downstairs with me to get some juice. Seth and Ryan had been at the video games all night when finally they gave up about an hour ago and we all went up to Seth's bedroom. It was nice to sit up in Cohen's room with Ryan and Marissa and giggle like a little kid again. Sandy and Kirsten had agreed to let us all stay up in Seth's room as long as we were quiet. I wondered how they could sleep through the noise I was sure we were making.

"Summer!" Marissa persisted as I made sure I purposefully took a long, slow sip of my juice.

"God Coop! You've got me down here with you, it's not like you're totally alone," I said following her onto the staircase.

"I know," she said. "But you never know what lurks around at night."

"In the house?" I asked.

"The Cohen house," she corrected as if it made a difference.

"I think Seth is starting to rub off on you," I shook my head and smiled. We began walking up the stairs as something grabbed me around the waist. I heard Marissa scream before I could find my voice to do so. I grabbed onto the arms that had locked themselves around me and realized it was just Seth.

"RYAN!" Marissa yelped smacking him in the head. "What the hell are you trying to do to me?"

"COHEN!" I cried at the same time. "Are you out of your mind?" Seth and Ryan were too busy laughing to answer us.

"You two have serious issues!" I snapped. I looked over to poor Coop who had probably been traumatized.

"You guys! What did we promise?"

We all looked up and saw Sandy peering over the side of the banister.

"Take it out to the pool house," he said. "And try not to wake up your mother," he directed towards Seth.

"I'll get Captain Oats," he sighed and headed up the stairs as I followed Marissa and Ryan out to the pool house. Marissa and I sat on the ground, Ryan's bed behind our backs. Ryan sat in a chair a few feet across from us. Once Seth returned with Captain Oats and Princess Sparkle he sat cross legged on the floor.

"Now what?" Seth asked.

"Stories," Marissa suggested.

"About what?" I asked.

"Our life," she replied.

"Don't we do that anyway?" I asked.

"Do what?" Seth asked.

"Talk about our lives."

"Not nearly enough," Marissa pointed out, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"Nothing interesting goes on in my life," Seth whined.

"You mean I'm not interest enough?" I teased him.

"I said my life wasn't interesting, not that it didn't have enough drama in it," he said.

"Things must have perked up when Ryan got here," Marissa said.

"For a while," Seth agreed. "I guess my life is more interesting then it was before Ryan got here." I thought about that for a second. Before Ryan, Seth was just some kid. He seemed like he wanted to fit it. But it was also like he rejected the kind of rich people he lived among at the same time. Before Ryan, Marissa hadn't said 3 words to Seth in the whole time they had lived next door to each other. And now they would protect the other with their life.

"You changed a lot of things around here Chino," I admitted.

"I didn't change anything," Ryan said. "You guys are the ones who changed me."

"I remember the first night I met you," Marissa said as she went into that distant trance she had been in when we were talking about our wishful family options.

"Charmed you out of your socks," Ryan smiled sweetly at Coop.

"You were so damn cocky!" Marissa corrected.

"I loved the pick up line he used," I giggled pushing Marissa over. She had told me the story about a hundred times but it never seemed to get old.

"Who are you?" Seth mocked pretending to toss his hair over his shoulder.

"Who ever you want me to be!" Marissa and I stated at the same time and broke into laughter. I saw Ryan's cheeks flush into a red color. I yawned and rested my head on Coop's shoulder.

"Time for bed?" Seth asked stifling his own yawn. I nodded against Marissa. Ryan bent down and took Marissa into his arms, placing her up on his bed.

"And where are we supposed to sleep?" Seth asked cradling me into his arms.

"Couch?" Ryan suggested.

"Nope, no way. Scoot over Marissa," Seth used my body to save a spot for himself on Ryan's bed. I giggled hysterically as Marissa tried to scoot over which only ended up with Ryan on the floor. Seth was finally able to squeeze his body in between Marissa and me.

"Are you going to be elbowing me all night Cohen?" I asked pushing his arm over his chest.

"Scoot over Seth," Ryan grumbled climbing into his bed between Seth and Marissa.

"This will never work," Marissa let out a mix of a sigh and an escape of a suppressed giggle fit.

"Its fine," Seth assured her making sure he kicked Ryan in the leg as he tried to get comfortable. After all motion stopped I yawned and ran my fingers through Seth's hair. His head automatically nuzzled into my hand at the attention.

"Night Coop, Night Ryan, Night Cohen. Love you," I whispered.

"Night, love you too Sum," I heard Marissa say.

"Love you too," Seth murmured kissing my ear.

"Yeah, night," Ryan stated running his own fingers through Marissa's hair. I felt movement next to me and I knew Seth had kicked him again. "I love you too Summer." I snuggled into Seth's side and heard him begin to snore gently.

"This is going to be a long night," Ryan sighed pushing Seth's elbow out of his face.

"And we forgot to turn off the light," Marissa murmured.

It had been easy to fall asleep. I had my head up against Seth's chest and with every breath he took I could hear his heart thump gently against his rib cage. Every so often I would feel his arms tighten around me. He was desperate to protect me, even while he was asleep. I slept in ease for about an hour until I woke up, startled. The side where my broken rib was began to throb in pain and I felt like I was going to throw up. I hurried out of Ryan's bed. I barely made it over the toilet before I started to vomit up large clumps blood. After a minute or two I felt steady hands begin to tie up my matted black hair.

"Cohen!" I sobbed as he kneeled down next to me, patting my back gently as another wave of nausea hit and I threw up another good amount of the hated, sticky red substance.

"Oh my god," I could hear Coop at the door. Her voice sounded groggy and it was muffled like she had her hand over her mouth.

"Call 911 Marissa. Hurry!" Seth whispered; panic beginning to creep into his voice. "You'll be okay baby girl." I felt him press a kiss to my sweaty head. That was all I remembered before the world went black.