Sinking, Feeling
Chapter Two
Seth watched Ryan amble past him and out the door to the apartment, his eyes not leaving the floor.
All Seth wanted, all he needed, was for Ryan to say he was okay, that everything was going to be okay. Because that was what Ryan did. Ryan could make everything, or at least pretend everything, was going to be okay.
But Ryan wasn't even trying right now, which was what scared Seth the most.
Well, that, and the fact that he wasn't sure what Ryan would've done if Seth hadn't walked in to the room when he did.
Over the past year and a half Seth and Ryan had become fairly close. Though they had been drifting their seperate ways since the end of Summer, their bonds had remained intact. Seth thought of Ryan as a brother, and at most times he was sure that Ryan thought of him the same way.
Seth was even confident that he had slowly begun learning Ryan-speak. The controlled movements and words were only one language which Ryan confided in. The real feeling was in his eyes, in his face. The way his jaw clenched when he was angry, the way he scratched the bridge of his nose when he was beginning to get truly irritated.
This Ryan was... a robot. Just moving through life not living it, and Seth longed for a peak at what was inside the Atwood mind. Itched for it really. Though he wanted to tell himself Ryan hadn't been thinking of doing anything stupid, Seth just wasn't quite sure.
Would Ryan kill himself over a brother that he hated?
He'd like to say no, but he also knew that loyalty to Ryan was as alcohal was to Newport.
"Seth?" Summer whispered behind him. Despite the warm night Seth felt shivers run along his neck.
"Yea?" he turned.
"Why are you... You're just standing here..."
"Yeah.. no.. I just.. Ryan was... nevermind..." Seth shook his thoughts away.
Summer bit her lip in a way that Seth would've thought was sexy as hell had they not been standing close to a dead body. Especially since they both knew the deceased.
Nothing was more of a turnoff than death.
Summer grasped his hand firmly; the strong one for both of them at this point, and gently pulled him away from the door and out in to the night.
The parking lot was shrouded in darkness, minus the orange light coming from the streetlamps and the occaisional car. It was quiet, you couldn't really hear the ocean from here either, though you could smell it.
Marissa's car was where she'd left it, pulled up directly in front of Trey's complex, The Rover sat behind it. One could tell just from the rush parking job that they'd been in a hurry.
He figured he wouldn't tell Marissa they'd almost slammed into her car pulling in here. She had a few other things on her mind right now.
Seth glanced up to find where the other two had gotten to. Marissa was sitting on the neighbour's steps, legs drawn against her chest, her head resting on her knees. She wasn't sobbing anymore, at least, not that Seth could hear.
Ryan was another story, for a moment Seth couldn't even locate him. A panicked feeling had begun to in the pit of his stomach when Seth finally did spot him, just barely, hiding in the darkest shadows of the lot on the other side of the Rover. A plume of smoke floated up from the general direction and Seth could smell the scent of tobacco drifting over.
Just as now wasn't the time to mention his almost-accident to Marissa, he figured it wasn't the time to nag Ryan about smoking either.
They were all in enough trouble.
And even knowing that statement of fact, Seth couldn't figure out, exactly, who was going to be in trouble.
The sinking feeling he had when he saw Ryan holding the gun told him one thing. The extent Marissa was disturbed told him another.
But then, Marissa Cooper was known for dramatizations. Ryan however, was not.
If Ryan was upset then something was wrong. He trusted his brother's instincts; they'd been honed on the street. He still remembered the whole Oliver debacle.
The thoughts and facts swirled in to one, and soon it was Seth that had to sit down. He did, on the front step to Trey's place. He buried his head in his hands, unsure of what to say, what to do, what to think.
Who shot Trey? Why did they shoot Trey? Accident or was it on purpose? What was going to happen to the person who did shoot Trey? Ryan couldn't go back to juvie, to jail. No way in hell, Seth wouldn't let it happen, his mind refused to process the scenario.
Marissa Cooper in jail? If there was someone destined for in-jail suicide it was her. Her parents would disown her... well, maybe not Jimmy but Julie for sure.
And if it was Ryan? Would Seth's parents disown him? Stand up for him?
What would that mean to himself? Could he still be friends, still be a brother to someone who'd killed someone? The hair stood up on Seth's neck as he realised that if it had been Ryan, Ryan had killed his brother.
His family. His blood.
Technically Ryan had purposefully gone looking for a fight tonight. He would be seen as the instigator. Nothing they could explain to the judge; Trey's attempted rape of Marissa, the longstanding lies and thievery, the drugs..., none of it would excuse either of them from killing Trey. Vigilantes were generally prosecuted to the extent of the law, even if only to show the public it would not be tolerated.
He didn't want Ryan to be made an example for society.
Then there was something else.
"Where did the gun come from?" Seth asked aloud, more to himself that anyone else.
"What?" Summer picked up quickly.
Seth looked up, "The gun, where did it come from? I... Ryan would never have anything like that... and Marissa..."
"Maybe it was Trey's" Summer arched an eyebrow, "Didn't you say that Ryan went to talk to Trey about something... after the shooting at The Bait Shop? He was pissed... maybe... Trey had something to do with that?"
Seth thought about it for awhile, Summer he knew, was definitely not as dumb as she could appear.
It seemed to make sense... but then it was Trey who'd been shot, not Ryan or Marissa. So Trey had to have lost the gun.
Seth rubbed his temples, all this was beginning to do was give him more questions than answers, and a headache.
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Summer felt cold. not that it was particularly cold outside, it was a summer night in California. But the chills wouldn't go away, they were inside of her, a part of her. She longed for a comforting arm around her shoulders, but Seth was out of it. Trying to figure out whether his best friend was a killer.
She glanced over at Ryan, remembering when he'd first come to Newport from Chino. She thought about the fights he'd been in with Luke, with Nordstrom... The ones he'd instigated and the ones he'd been baited in to. She thought about how he always treated Seth; like a brother. How he acted towards the Cohens; though he owed them his life. And how he acted towards Marissa; always there to save her.
Even at times Summer had given up on Coop Ryan had been there. When she hadn't noticed something was wrong; Ryan had. When Summer couldn't protect her best friends from something, Ryan tried his damndest.
At the beginning of the four friends' relationships with eachother Summer hadn't even been particularly respectful towards Chino. Ryan had. He acted more maturely than some thirty year olds. Could he really kill someone?
She wanted to say no, she really did. But the fact was that she had only known Ryan for close to two years. She had known Coop since grade school. They'd been best friends from the time they'd met; aside from drifting occaisionally.
The point was they'd always come back together.
They knew eachother like the back of their hands, could read eachother like a book.
And she knew, she just knew, that Marissa couldn't kill someone. She didn't think the girl had it in her.
If Marissa had killed Trey, it meant Summer hadn't known her at all.
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Marissa couldn't cry anymore. The hot tears that had burned her cheeks a short time ago were now dried on her cheeks. She was sure she looked like a mess, but she didn't care.
She assumed it wouldn't even matter where she was going.
Jail.
Ironically the strange and serious thought had been the thing to bring her out of her near-hysteric state.
She, Marissa Cooper, had killed someone. She had killed Trey Atwood, her boyfriend's brother. His remaining family.
Her eyes scanned the dimly lit parking lot in search of Ryan. He stood with his back pressed to the Cohen's Range Rover, staring off in to the night. If her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, he was also smoking.
He hadn't had a ciggarette in a long time.
Not that she could technically vouch for the time they'd been apart, but she hadn't smelled it on him. Hadn't tasted it on his lips either.
As soon as Marissa had kissed a smoker; Ryan, she had stopped smoking herself, even at parties.
Shr briefly wondered where the hell the police were, what was taking them so long, when she realised not that much time had passed at all. Not according to her cell phone anyways.
For the last couple minutes she'd stared at it. Willing herself to call her parents, let them know what was happening, that she probably wouldn't be home tonight.
But she had yet to make that call.
"What the hell is going on here?" an angry voice interrupted the quiet night.
The four teens straightened and looked up to the newcomer.
The landlord.
"I been gettin' calls from these tenants sayin' that there was some fight over here... an a loud bang... so please, explain why it is they woke me up for" he eyed Marissa, recognising her.
"You go first" he nodded at her.
Marissa's voice wouldn't work.
Everything she wanted to say couldn't escape her throat.
"This something to do with that punk kid that moved in? You guys promised no trouble but all I see is girl's going in... rent bein' paid late... now this, I oughta kick him out on the street-"
"That's unnecessary" a quiet but firm voice spoke up.
Ryan, still half hidden in shadows.
The man jumped and turned, caught off guard. He glared at Ryan and stormed towards Trey'd unit.
Seth stood up and blocked the steps, "You really shouldn't-"
"Get outtah my way kid" the man bellowed.
Seth didn't move, Summer looked on with worry.
Ryan approached the man from behind slowly, protectivly.
"I said, get the hell out of my way" the man yelled again, but this time he made a mistake.
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Ryan could deal with yelling. He could deal with ignorance.
Hell, Ryan could deal with a lot of different things, but what he couldn't stand was watching someone he loved get hurt.
He hadn't been able to deal with his mom getting beaten by her drunken boyfriends. That was why he'd always stepped in; refocusing the anger towards himself.
He couldn't stand to see Marissa hurt, which was why he was always there for her, always.
And he'd be damned if he would watch someone hurt his friend. His brother.
So when the man began to yell at Seth, Ryan had moved closer out of habit. Some people shrunk away from anger, he occaisionally thrived on it.
And when the man pushed Seth to the side and sent his toppling over the railing, Ryan was there in an instant.
Faster than it took for Seth to cry out, for Summer to start a rage of her own, Ryan had already followed him up the three short steps leading to the unit door.
" Jesus -" The man caught sight of Trey just as Ryan pulled his shoulder and turned him around.
A shove sent the man in to the open door, and riled his anger.
He raised his fist to take a swing at Ryan, but Ryan was smaller. Faster.
He'd already placed a well aimed punch to the man's face, feeling the crunch of a nose under his knuckles.
Then he paused, staring at his own fist.
It gave the man just enough time to lurch at him blindly, angrily.
Both went toppling down the steps, Ryan getting the worst of it simply because it was his back sliding down the cement.
The rolled over eachother, ignoring their respective pain.
Ryan punched from frusteration.
The man punched in anger.
The police finally pulled them both apart, struggling to restrain the two men.
The officer holding Ryan shoved him to the ground and placed a knee on his back. Quickly, espertly, he slapped cuffs on Ryan's wrist as a precaution. Ryan knew that once the cop had seen his record there was a large chance the cuffs would remain latched to his wrists.
He managed to turn his head towards the man he'd been fighting with. He, too, was in the same position as Ryan.
With his cheek pressed against the rough ashphalt Ryan closed his eyes, taking in his injuries and filing them away somewhere in his mind. He shifted the expression on his face to one of stone, he would reveal nothing. It was the best way to protect yourself. Show no pain, no emotion and you would show no weakness.
"Arrest these damned kids, they've killed my tenant! I want out of these goddamn handcuffs! You'll hear from my lawyer! I'll sue the department!"
From somewhere beside him he could hear a cop swear under his breath.
"Lewis, come see this"
There was a shuffle of feet, then more sweating.
Ryan knew they'd found Trey.
The inevitable had finally happened.
Marissa stood in his line of vision as well, her eyes shifting from Ryan on the ground to the door of the apartment. Her demanor seemed fragile, like that of an injured child, or a frightened animal. She looked ready to run.
She couldn't go to jail, she wouldn't last.
"All of you stay where you are, I don't want anyone going anywhere" an officer commanded.
A different one was radioing for an ambulance.
Ryan looked up from the ground at Seth, who was squeezing the bridge of his nose; tending to a nosebleed.
Leave it to Seth to fall backwards over a railing and land on his face.
Summer was nervous, shifty.
The man cuffed beside Ryan was still shouting angrily about rights and lawyers.
A squeal of tires cut off the man's rant.
"Seth! Ryan!"
Ryan couldn't see Sandy, but he could hear him.
He closed his eyes.
"Seth, what's going on? Are you okay? Ryan?" Panic was seeping in to his voice.
"Sir, I need to ask you to keep back-"
"I'm their father! And their lawyer! Any questions go through me! Now what happened here? Marissa? Summer?"
But no one could answer that truthfully except Ryan and Marissa.
Ryan glanced at her once more. The words seemed stuck in her throat. Fear was present in her eyes. She clearly knew the ramifications of her actions.
Somewhere in the distance Ryan could hear an ambulance. And another police car.
"It was... an accident" Ryan spoke from the ground, breaking the tense silence.
"Ryan.." Sandy countered, forgetting to advise him as a client instead of a father.
"Sit, we have found the body of a young man in this apartment. He has a gunshot wound to his chest and-"
"Who is he?"
"We can't say until we can begin an investigation-"
"Trey. Trey Atwood" Ryan spoke, a defeated tone entering his voice.
"Ryan..."
"No... wait, Mr. Cohen -" Marissa began
"I did it" Ryan interrupted. "I killed him because he tried to rape Marissa while we were in Miami. Mr. Cohen, I'm sorry... Seth..." Ryan blinked back a tear.
He expected for that to be it. To be arrested with no argument.
He'd given them a confession, what more could they want?
"No. He didn't do it! He wouldn't, Ryan wouldn't..! Trey was strangling him, they were fighting and -"
"And I grabbed the gun he dropped and shot him" Ryan continued.
"No, I shot him. Seth called me and.. .I got here... Trey was, he was going to kill Ryan, he was strangling him" Marissa was sobbing again.
Ryan ignored her, " It was me. My fingerprints will be on the gun." he stated firmly, knowing that they would, in fact be on the gun.
He'd made sure of it.
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TO BE CONTINUED... Please R&R guys.