Chapter 16

The short walk from the living room to the poolhouse took what felt like an hour for Seth. They walked in silence and Seth felt slightly sick from the anxiety of what Ryan would say to him. When they finally reached the poolhouse, Ryan was the first to speak.
"So Seth, I needed to talk to you away.."
"From witnesses!" Seth interupted.
"No." Ryan replied "From Marissa."
"Oh. Sorry"
"Anyway," he continued "I've been thinking so many different thoughts these past couple of days and none of them made sense. My best friend had stolen my girlfriend from right under my nose. It felt like someone had knocked the wind right out of me."
"I'm sorry." Seth said.
"Let me finish." Ryan said sternly. "It hurt. Worse than any fist fight I have ever had, and I've had a lot of fist fights. The two people I had learn to trust the most and they had blown it."
Ryan took long pause. " You know, at first it wouldn't process. But the longer I thought about it, the stranger it became. Why would they do this to me? Did you do it just to spite me? But earlier, when Marissa came to the door and you opened it, you had this look on your face. Like she was the only person there, in the room. And she was looking at you with the same look. And it hurt me to see this, but it finally sunk in. That you wasn't trying to hurt me, you were trying to make yourself happy. And I can't blame you."
Seth was stunned into silence, unlike any other time in his life.
Ryan walked closer to him and sat down beside him. He looked Seth straight in the eye. "I can't forget what you did, and worst of all, how you did it. But I can't hate you for it."
Seth smiled.
"It's gonna take a while till we can get back to what it was like before, but I willing to try."
Seth's state of shock grow but he broke his silence. "Thank you. And I wanna say again that I'm sorry. I never meant for it to be like this. You're my best friend, my brother even and I will never do anything like this again, I promise."
Ryan looked at Seth and offered his hand but Seth had other ideas. He gave him a hug. When the embrace was broken Seth spoke again.
"If I break my promise I give you permission to kill me."
Ryan chuckled. "I'm gonna hold you to that."
The boys just looked at each other. The awkwardness was still there but the mood had changed.
"So.." Seth said. "What are you doing now?"
"Uh, Summer and I were gonna watch a movie."
"Oh."
""You wanna watch it with us?" Ryan offered.
"Are you sure? Coz it's gonna be weird."
"I know. But I just want us to start getting back to how we were. And so us three used to watch films all the time."
"Ok then. I'll order in pizza. My treat." Seth offered.
"Yeah. That sounds great, man." Ryan replied.

Meanwhile, Summer and Marissa were sat in the living room.
"Ryan told me everything that happened." Summer informed Marissa.
"He did? Oh."
"It sucks what you did. He was really hurt by it."
Marissa looked confused. "When did you and he become friends?"
"Today. I bought him lunch coz he was alone and upset and so was I."
"Why were you?"
"Because my best friend wasn't talking to me about this really important thing that was happening in her life."
"I'm sorry, Sum. Hug?"
Summer accepted Marissa apology.
"It's alright Coop. Just next time, if you don't wanna tell me, be a little more nicer about it."
"Sure."
At that moment the boys entered the room. The girls stood up, not sure what to say. All four just stood there, waiting for someone else to speak.
"So what movie does everyone wanna watch?" Ryan said to break the silence.
All four smiled.
"Your choice, man." Seth said. "I'm gonna order the pizzas. What does everyone want?" After much deliberation, the four settled on "ET: The Extra Terrestrial."
"What pizza toppings do you want?" Seth asked, the phone already at his ear.
"Hawaiian please." Summer requested.
"Um.." Marissa had to think carefully. "Meat Feast, please."
"I'll have the same as Summer." Ryan said.
"Ok. 'Oh Hi. Yeah, I'd like to order an extra large Hawaiian pizza and an extra large Meat Feast please. Yeah, that right. Ok thank you. Bye. '"
Seth hung up the phone and went back to sit down the couch.
"They said that they'd be here in about 30 minutes."
"30 minutes!" Marissa exclaimed. "I can't wait that long. I'm already starved."
The other three just laughed.
"Should we start the movie now or wait till the pizzas get here?" Ryan asked.
"Let's wait." Summer suggested. "Then we'll have no interruptions."
"Good idea."
"OK, well, I'm gonna go and get some tissue, you know my allegies start up, you know, at the end of the movie." Seth said.
Marissa smiled. "I'll come with."
The two headed up the stairs. When they were out of sight, Summer spoke. "So, Ryan, what did you say to him?"
"I just said that I couldn't hate him but that I was willing to try and get things back to the way they were."
Summer smiled. "You are such a grown up."
Ryan smiled back. "You wanna drink?"
"Yeah, what you got?"
"Everything from juice to alcohol. You know, If there was ever a drink drought, we could supply the whole world."
Summer let out a little giggle. "Well, it's too early for alcohol so some juice would be nice."
"OK."
At that moment they heard Seth and Marissa coming down the stairs. They turned round to see a huge box of tissues under Seth's arm.
"Are your allegies that bad?" Summer asked.
"Yeah uh huh."
Ryan and Marissa laughed. "Yeah, ok."
"What?" Seth said "they always get bad when I watch ET, for some strange reason."
"I was just getting Summer and I a drink. You guys want one?"
"No thanks." Marissa politely declined.
"Same here."
"Alright. Be back in a minute."
When he was in the kitchen, Ryan took a minute to think about the turn of events. "My best friend and ex-girlfriend are dating. Me and Summer are friends, and all four of us are acting like normal. This is just weird." When he moved in with the Cohen's he never imagined his life would be this complicated.