A/N: Ok I know I said this one was going on the backburner, but I just keep coming back to it. I'm just not going to be able to finish Curve of the Earth until this story is complete, but at the rate I'm writing this one, that won't be too much longer. Seven more chapters to go
Chapter 11
"Hey Sum," Marissa greeted her as she entered into their apartment, and saw Summer sitting by herself on the sofa in almost a catatonic state.
"Hey Coop," Summer responded in an emotionless tone. "How was last night?"
Marissa joined Summer on the sofa, and bit her lip as she spoke; "Well I told Ryan I loved him." She waited for a reaction.
"Oh that's nice," Summer remarked her voice still in the same tone.
Marissa raised an eyebrow confused, this was not Summer. Summer would be jumping up and down hands waving, with some wild response. Something was up; Marissa knew this and decided to test her. "And then we had sex, wild sex, all over the hotel room."
"Good for you." She continued to stare at the television.
"Summer did you just hear a word I said?"
"Umm hmm," she continued to stare blankly for a moment, then dropped the bombshell on her best friend. "I kissed Cohen." Her tone unchanging.
"What?" Marissa almost fell off the sofa. "You kissed Seth?"
"Twice."
"TWICE?" A Cheshire cat grin cross Marissa's face. "What kind of kiss?"
"I don't know a kiss." Summer shrugged.
"Kisses, you said you kissed him twice."
"Yeah I know don't remind me."
"So what kind of kiss, was there tongue?"
"Ew no…" She paused and looked away from Marissa, "Ok maybe a little." She listened as Marissa cleared her throat. "Ok fine maybe a lot… I don't know what happened Coop. We were talking and he got mad and put the car in park on the side of the road and started saying all these sweet things and… and… I kissed him, but he didn't kiss me back, so I tried again and he kissed back and… Coop I swear to God it was the best kiss of my life."
Marissa grinned and cocked her head back, "I told you Seth Cohen wasn't such a bad guy."
"Ok but he's still a dork, just a really sweet, cute dork." Summer laughed to herself.
"You gonna call him?"
Summer shrugged, "I told know, I mean I don't know what last time night meant." She paused and studied Marissa's face for a moment. "So you and Chino didn't really have sex in the tacky hotel room did you?"
Marissa shrugged, "Guess you'll never know, you should have been paying attention."
"No you didn't you didn't have the sex walk when you came in the door."
"The sex walk?" Marissa gave a snorted laugh.
"Yeah I mean come on Coop, you had sex with Luke once before… well you know… and it's been nearly four years since that… You'd be walking funny."
Marissa threw her head back in laughter, "Yeah I guess you're right, but I did mean it when I told you that I told him I loved him."
"And he said it back?"
"Not exactly but it's there I could feel it between us last night."
"Ryan loves you, even if he didn't say it, he does. He does this thing, where he looks at you when you're not looking, and sometimes I'll see him doing it, and I can see it in his eyes."
"Summer, I think that's the first time you've ever called him Ryan."
"Yeah well don't get used to it." She joked back to her best friend.
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"Come on, come on be home… answer your phone," Seth urgently called into the receiver of his phone, as it rang on the other line.
"Hello," a groggy Ryan answered the line.
"Dude! You will not believe what happened."
"Seth?" Ryan rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at his bedside clock. It hadn't been that long since Marissa had dropped him off, but exhaustion had caught up with him and Ryan had gone straight to bed.
"Yeah, ok man you will not believe what happened on the way home last night."
"Seth it's ten thirty at night and some of us have jobs, this couldn't wait until the morning?"
"Summer kissed me. And I mean she kissed me, twice!"
"Good for you man, can I go back to sleep?"
"Sleep?" Seth was talking like a little kid on a sugar high. "How could you even think about sleep? Did I mention Summer kissed me… TWICE!"
"Yeah I heard you the first time and there's no need to yell my hearing's fine."
"Ok good… So what do I do now?"
Ryan laughed to himself, he couldn't explain why but he liked Seth, he was… Well Seth. "I don't know have you thought about calling her?"
"I can't call her, I mean what if it was just a fluke, a spur of the moment thing, I meant what if now that she's had time to think she thinks she's made a huge mistake and I'm still just some loser?"
"Well Seth you'll never know unless you call her."
"Call her huh? I don't know… But I'll let you get back to sleep… I'm gonna think about this whole calling her thing."
"Seth if you decide to call her you might want to wait until the morning, some people do sleep." Ryan laughed and hung up the phone, the problem now was that Seth had woken him and he was no longer tired. He stared up at his ceiling and thought about what had happened in the hotel room the night before. Seth's words came back to him, what if the things Marissa had said had only been spur of the moment things. Everything between them was happening so fast. Ryan sighed and looked to his phone, he thought about calling her, he knew that even if she'd been sleeping she'd wake up and talk to him. However, he didn't really have anything to say. He picked up the phone and dialed the number anyway.
"Hello," she picked up on the second ring.
Her voice sounded sleepy, and Ryan not knowing what to do or say hung up the phone. He'd never panicked before, and he knew that's what he had just done, panicked. Less than a minute later, his phone rang, he picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"
"Did you just call me and hang up?" Marissa asked trying to mask the sleep in her voice.
"Yeah, I did… sorry."
"No it's ok… is something wrong?"
"No… I just… I just wanted to hear your voice."
Marissa smiled into the phone, "That's sweet, but it works a lot better if you say something."
"Yeah I know… I'm sorry."
"Do you want to come over? I mean if you're not too tired?"
"I'd like that, but I'd better not. I've got this meeting with Joey in the morning, we do this thing where we review the fight and stuff."
Marissa twisted her face slightly upset, they hadn't talked about what had happened the night before and she kinda wanted to, "Ok… well will I see you tomorrow?"
"Marissa even if I wanted too I couldn't go a day without seeing you anymore."
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Ryan rushed into the gym, he knew he was late and he knew Joey wouldn't be happy. It had gotten to be habit, him being late for training sessions. He still made up the time and trained his full amount, but his tardiness was starting to tired Joey.
"Outside kid now!" Were the first words Joey spoke to him.
Ryan obliged without an argument, it was times like this he felt like Joey was less his trainer and more like his dad. He was the closest thing to one Ryan ever had. "Look Joey, I know I'm late but I was…"
"With Marissa?"
Ryan looked to the ground, "Yeah."
"I gotta give you credit kid, you don't try to make up any excuses. It's always the same thing."
"Look Joey, she's back in school now and with me working and training, it's hard to get time together, so if I'm late…"
"Quit your job." Joey's face was stone cold serious.
"What, I can't afford to quit my job, Marissa or no Marissa."
"You touched your money from the Reno fight?"
"No it's still in the bank 8500 after, paying the cut man and your cut."
"Good, you're gonna need it. It's been two months since your fight in Reno, and in nine weeks you've got another fight. One you're not in shape for, so we need to bump up your training."
"Wait," Ryan said confused, Joey had never told him to quit his job for a fight. He'd told Ryan to take time off to train or to let injuries heal, but never simply quit. "Why am I not in shape for this fight?"
"Because I scored you a fight against Peter Wilcox, the number three ranked middleweight."
"I thought Wilcox's next fight was on the under card for the Jones bout?"
"So is yours."
Ryan face lit up, "You're telling me I'm fighting Peter Wilcox on the under card for a nationally televised pay per view fight?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you kid. This is your big break, your rep as a strong up and comer, his rep as the next middleweight champ, the promoters saw you in Reno, said it would be a perfect match. Ryan this is it, the start of something big, 150,000 dollar fight."
Ryan's eyes lit up, this was his chance, not only could he prove himself in the ring, but he could prove himself to everyone who said he'd never be worth anything, people like Julie Cooper. "I'll quit tomorrow."
Joey cleared his throat and looked at the ground, "One more thing."
"Anything Joey," Ryan quickly answered.
"I think you should cool things off with Marissa, at least until this fight is over."
Ryan took a step back and looked at Joey with complete shock. He licked his lips and locked eyes with his trainer, "I can't do that. Not for any amount of money, I'm sorry."
"Look kid, I like Marissa, she's a great girl, and yeah she's good for you. But… you've worked so hard for this."
"And I'll continue to work for it, plenty of guys box and have girlfriends, wives even. I can handle both."
Joey sighed, he was trying to find a way to get his point through to Ryan, "Kid, do you really see this thing going anywhere? I mean when you first told me about her I figured this was just a fling. You hadn't had a girl in a while, I figured she'd be good for a few lays then it would be over… But you're taking it all a little far don't you think? I mean I saw her friends and family at the fight, how do you know you're not just slumming, to this girl?"
His jaw clenched , he hadn't meant it to. But someone, even Joey, talking about Marissa that way made his blood boil. "It's not like that, I'll quit my job, I'll train harder, but I won't give her up. I'm sorry." Ryan turned and went back inside the gym slamming the door behind him, leaving Joey standing alone with his thoughts.