Chapter Four
"We're here," Marissa looked into the backseat at Ryan as she pulled the car into the Cohen's driveway.
"Thank God!" Summer sighed from the passenger seat.
Ryan scanned what he could of the Cohen house, through the dark. "Wow, what's this their summer home?" He tried not to sound bitter with the joke. "I guess we'd better get him up." He motioned over to a passed out Seth.
"Yeah," Marissa gritted her teeth in response.
"Come on Coop, let's move it along here, I am so ready to be home." Summer waved her hand at Marissa in a hurry up motion.
Marissa rolled her eyes and got out of the car moving towards the back passenger door to wake Seth. Ryan already out of the car reached for the door handle the same time as Marissa, his hand meeting hers at the handle. For a moment he let his hand linger on top on hers. As she looked up and smiled at him, he quickly retracted his hand almost embarrassed at the physical contact.
"Sorry," he mumbled taking at step away from her.
"It's ok," she smiled at him with a soft pressed smile. Ryan studied her face for a moment trying to decipher exactly what kind of smile she was giving him.
"Hey! We're here!" Seth suddenly woken, called out. He drunkenly fumbled out of the car almost falling down, but caught himself with the aide of Ryan's shoulder. "This my friend, is my pad, my crib, my home of homes." He told Ryan his voice near a shout.
"Yeah I kinda figured that. You might want to lower your voice though, you're kind of yelling."
"Oh!" Seth dropped his voice too barely above a whisper. "Ok man, just to let you know I'm still really drunk."
"Figured that."
"You're not one with the words are you?" Seth watched as both Ryan and Marissa shot him a look. "I think that's my cue to leave… Look you just go up here and through the gate and the pool house is on your left… or right… or…"
"I'll find it, as long as there's no guard dogs or anything to attack me."
"Nope," Seth shook his head, "No dogs, just Cohens." Seth nodded his head a few more times, then drunkenly started to make his way inside. "I'll see you inside."
"I don't think I've ever seen Seth Cohen drunk." Marissa laughed.
"He's pretty gone, I should probably go make sure he's ok… His parents are going to wig out or anything are they?"
"I doubt it, Sandy and Kirsten are pretty cool." Marissa inched a little bit closer to him.
"Good…" As soon as Ryan said that, a small crash was heard from the Cohen's back yard. "That didn't sound good… I really should go find him." He moved in a bit closer to Marissa. "I guess I'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah, I mean you have to get back to Chino somehow right?"
"Y-You don't have to take me, I mean I have people I can call."
"No, it's no problem really, I want to." She gave him the smile again, and bit down slightly on her lip.
"Well then I'll see you in the morning." He moved in a bit more preparing to kiss her.
"COOP! Cohen's home can we leave please?" Summer yelled from the front seat of the car.
Marissa rolled her eyes and sighed, their moment broken, again. "I guess I should go."
"Yeah." Ryan nodded a few times.
"Through the back gate and to your right, you can miss the pool house." She turned and got into her car.
"Thanks." Ryan nodded and watched as her car drove away.
"Dude what took you so long?" Seth mumbled from the couch in the pool house, and watched as Ryan shrugged. "Once again not much from the words… well you can have the bed it's over there, I'm perfectly good on this here couch, it's my friend." He patted the side of the cushion.
"You don't drink much do you?"
Seth drunkenly shook his head, "First time being really drunk, it's kind of fun."
"We'll see how much you like it in the morning." Ryan responded taking off his shoes, socks and shirt before crawling into the bed.
"Yeah well it's your fault, you're the one who showed me how to use that keg."
"My fault, I didn't force the beer down your throat I was outside with Marissa while you were getting sloppy drunk."
"Yeah probably wasn't the best way to impress Summer was it?"
"No I don't think so."
"Hey at least she knows I exist now."
"Yea." Ryan half laughed as he answered Seth.
"So how long were you and Marissa outside?"
"I don't know a couple of hours maybe."
"You like her?" Seth rolled over to face Ryan, all of a sudden serious.
"Yea she's a cool chick." Ryan casually replied.
"No man I mean do you like her," he tried to emphasize the 'her' but it only came out as a drunken slur.
"Yea Seth, I like her. She's… I don't know, there's just something about her."
Seth sat up on the couch a deep look of concern crossed his face, it was as if he'd suddenly sobered up. "Don't hurt her."
"I don't plan too man," Ryan raised an eyebrow at Seth's concern.
"I mean it. She's already been hurt enough by the guys she's dated. She's been hurt too much, too deeply, and she doesn't deserve to get hurt again ever." The men exchanged looks of affirmation. Seth's looks saying that he would find a way to hurt Ryan if he hurt Marissa. Ryan's saying that he would never do anything to hurt her. As the looks faded so did Seth's sudden sobriety, he fell back onto the couch. "Man the way I'm talking you'd think I was in love with Marissa and not Summer… Aw but it is Summer who's my love, the girl I've pined over since I was ten."
Ryan listened as Seth babbled about Summer until he finally passed out. And as Ryan stared up at the ceiling and started to fall asleep he found his mind drifting onto the fact that the boy from Chino was falling asleep at a house in Newport Beach, and as his eyes drifted close his last vision was of the face of a girl from Newport Beach, a girl he once thought he'd never see again, who he would be seeing again in mere hours.
"Morning mother," Seth stumbled into his parent's kitchen and greeted Kirsten Cohen.
"You look like hell son," Sandy still wet from surfing didn't look all that great himself, but felt the need to point out his son's rough night.
"Yeah well, don't talk too loud cause it hurts," Seth rubbed his temples.
"Have a bit too much last night?" Kirsten laughed to herself at the sight of her hung over son, only to jump in shock as someone entered into kitchen from the back yard. "Hi," she responded in surprise to the sandy blonde young man who was now standing in her kitchen.
"Oh yeah, mom, dad, this is Ryan…" Seth reached up and covered his mouth as he tried to whisper to Ryan, "What's your last name?"
"Atwood." Ryan answered not trying to act like Seth's parents couldn't hear them.
"This is Ryan Atwood, he stayed the night. He's Marissa's…." Seth looked to Ryan as if he was looking for a word to describe his relationship to Marissa.
"Friend." Ryan answered.
"Oh well any friend of Marissa's is a friend of the Cohen's." Sandy perked up, "I'm Sandy Cohen and this is my wife Kirsten."
"Yeah it was Ryan's party we went to last night." Seth told his parents.
"Well if it was your party how did you end up staying here?" Kirsten asked.
"It's kind of a long story." Ryan answered then looked to Seth as if to tell him that he needed to explain it to his parents.
"Yeah, I was drunk and there was this fight and…"
"Fight?" Sandy and Kirsten both exclaimed.
"Yeah but Ryan being a boxer well he saved me and…"
Ryan cleared his throat to signal to Seth to stop talking, "Look man, I just called Marissa and she's on her way so I'm going to go outside and wait for her."
"You don't want some breakfast man?"
"No, I really should get back to Chino."
"Chino?" Sandy raised an eyebrow, "Why would you need to get back to Chino."
"That's where I live. And I really should get back there, so I'm going to go wait for Marissa, but it was nice meeting you two Mr and Mrs. Cohen… And Seth…"
"I'll catch you later man… we'll hang."
"Ok," Ryan nodded and waved quikcly making his way towards the door.
Seth turned back to his parents, "He's not much for the words."
Ryan felt a huge sigh of relief as he saw Marissa pulling into the driveway as he was walking out the door. "Thanks for coming to get me," he said to her as he climbed into the front seat of her car.
"No problem like I told you I wanted to." She smiled at him again. "So did you get to meet the Cohen's?"
"Yeah."
She could tell by the tone of his voice, that the meeting had not went so well, "That bad? I mean Sandy and Kirsten…"
"No they seem like really nice people, it's just Seth…"
"Let me guess, he wouldn't shut up and told them far too much and now they have the complete wrong impression of you."
"That's exactly what happened." Ryan let a bit of surprise drift into his voice.
"Yeah well that's exactly how Seth is. But don't worry, I mean they're like my second parents and they're really big on giving second chances. They'll learn to love you."
"You say that like I'm going to be spending a lot of time with them."
"Sorry I guess I just assumed that…"
"No don't be sorry." They exchanged a quick look, only to spend the rest of the trip back to Chino in a near complete silence. Until they reached Ryan's house.
"So this is your place?" Marissa asked as she pulled the car to a stop in front of Joey's modest house.
"Actually it's Joey's I just stay here. Kinda in between places, but it helps out living with my trainer. I mean it sucks sometimes because I can't like sneak a bowl of ice cream but… I'm rambling."
"Looks like Seth is already rubbing off on you."
"God I hope not," Ryan laughed. Marissa joined in his laughter only to have it end with the two of them smiling at each other. "I should let you get back to Newport, I mean I'm sure you have stuff to do and me well…"
"I'm sure you have more important stuff to do as well…"
Ryan shook his head, "I can think of anything that's more important than spending this time with you." He smiled at her softly.
The air around them seemed to lift and Marissa could feel the world starting to disappear. It was a feeling she hadn't felt in so long, that she had forgotten how nice it was. She felt safe with Ryan, something she never thought she'd feel again. What Marissa Cooper knew at that very moment was that she was about to dive in head first without checking to see how deep the water was. She was going to take a blind leap of faith with this man, but she wasn't about to let him know it. Even though he could already tell that he was going to do the same thing.
"When do I get to see you again?" Ryan asked, trying not to seem too eager.
Marissa gave him a slight grin, giving him the impression that she wasn't going to let him have much power when it came to her. "Well, you found me, so I guess this time when I'm ready I'll find you."
"What's that suppose to mean? You gonna play head games with me?"
"No I don't play games."
"So when do I get to see you again?" Ryan asked a bot more forceful this time, as he started to get out of Marissa car.
"I said I don't play games. I didn't say I wasn't full of surprises." She gave him another slight grin and drove, leaving Ryan there shaking his head once again wondering exactly what he was getting himself into.