The next morning Ryan woke up in the pool house. He felt emotionally better that day than he had the past few days. He got up out of bed, put his slippers on, and walked into the kitchen where Seth and Sandy were eating breakfast.Seth was sitting at thekitchen table whileSandy had made pancakes for the three of them.
"Hey, Ryan, want some breakfast?" Sandy asked. He held the pan up and motioned towards Ryan.
"Yeah, sure. Thanks," Ryan replied. He sat down at the kitchen table across from where Seth was sitting.
Seth chewed his food, looked up at Ryan and asked, "So how was seeing Theresa again?"
"It was... weird - kind of, I guess," Ryan answered. Sandy walked over and gave Ryan his pancakes, and then walked back over to the stove.
"What do you mean, my man?" Seth asked.
"We haven't really spoken much since last summer - and the time I ran into her a couple of weeks ago in Chino - ," Ryan said as he was cut off by Seth.
"Whoa! You ran into Theresa? In Chino? Ryan, what were you doing in Chino?" Seth asked, bombarding Ryan with questions. Sandy looked over at them from the stove and lifted his eyebrows, but declined to say anything. Although he had nothing against Theresa, every time she came into his life, she brought a lot of trouble that Ryan did not need.
"I was looking for Trey because he ran off, and I needed to talk to him about something... about Marissa. Jess - floater girl - said that he ran off to Chino, so I went to see him," Ryan explained.
"And how did you run into Theresa, dude?" Seth probed.
"After I ran into Trey, I was outside on the sidewalk, and I saw her there," Ryan told Seth. "Actually, she saw me. She had gone grocery shopping or something, and we ran into each other."
"And that was it?" Seth wondered aloud.
"Yeah, pretty much. I walked her to her house, and we talked about Marissa and Trey, and stuff. She... uh, she made me realize that Trey was not the one to trust. Then I drove home. That's all," Ryan said.
"So are you guys like friends again?" Seth asked.
"No, man. Not really - not with all that's happened between us. We just ran into each other a couple of times - that's all," Ryan replied.
Ryan and Seth became silent after his last comment. Things were different now that Kirsten was in rehabilitation. The house had become more disorderly, and there was less take-out, due to Kirsten's absence. Sandy had not had the chance to talk to Kirsten since she left for Suriak, but he wondered how she was, and what she was doing.