Hey all! Happy belated Easter and way-early Passover! This year, for Lent, I gave up, um, updating this story. :cough: Anyways, apologies and many thanks for the spectacular reviews. Before I continue, I would like to give credit where credit is due—the last chapter title belongs to the Minus 5. Just for the record. And as for the rest of you...

PrincessOats435: Thanks for the lovely, slightly inebriated review. I was very impressed by your coherence. ;) And thanks for the understanding about school. This is definitely my hardest semester yet. And some lunatic in the math department got it in her head that I am a math genius (I am most definitely NOT) and is trying to get me to take some nerd program over the summer. So this semester might continue on for longer than expected. But I'm going to try to be more consistent with this story. Thanks for your patience. ;)

Rachel: I promise you, I'll be all over your story ASAP. Not...physically, of course, because...ew. I'm on spring break now so that leaves my nights after curfew open, which means that your reviews may very well be coming tonight at around midnight. I'm very excited to finally read. ;)

Everyone else—thanks a billion! You all kick ass. And now, without further ado, two new chapters! (Side note: "Bad Day" belongs to R.E.M, sort of, and "Going Going Gone" belongs to Old 97s.)

Chapter 22: Bad Day

She wasn't expecting the silent treatment when she got home, and when Ryan offered her a dismal wave she was caught off-guard, suddenly reminded of the sulky, brooding stranger he had been over a year ago.

"Hey, kid," Sandy said.

"Hey," Ryan acknowledged, standing up. "How was your trip?"

"It was awesome," Sandy said lightheartedly, putting a casual arm around Kirsten's shoulders and grinning.

"Well...good. Cool. I'm gonna go study." He left the room, leaving Kirsten feeling insulted and hurt in the kitchen. "I believe that's what they call the moody teenager," Sandy whispered, kissing the top of her head. "Don't take it personally, honey."

"How can I not?" She watched him slam the door of the pool house and frowned. "I'm going to go talk to him."

"Kirsten..." Sandy touched her arm.

"Ryan and I don't fight," she said firmly, and followed him outside. She knocked on the door.

"Busy," he called out, but she opened the door anyways, offering a sheepish smile.

"Concerned." He sighed.

"Don't be."

"What's going on?"

"Homework," he said, blushing because she had clearly seen him hide his Gameboy Advance underneath his pillow when she entered the room.

"How did it go with Marissa?" He rolled his eyes.

"Let's just say that not every story has a happy ending like yours and Sandy's. Maybe you aren't the best one to dispense advice."

"What happened?" She sat on the edge of his bed, worried.

"Marissa has adopted Julie's philosophy that I am the antichrist," Ryan replied, softening slightly, guilty because of Kirsten's compassion and the way that she was just letting him be a jackass and not calling him on it.

"Oh, no, sweetie. I'm so sorry."

"Yeah. Thanks. It's not your fault."

"Is that why you're acting like I'm the antichrist?" she asked, biting back a smile. Ryan blushed more.

"I'm sorry. I just needed..."

"Someone to blame?" He nodded and she touched his shoulder. "Oh, I've definitely been there."

"Thanks," he said quietly.

"So...you want to tell me what happened?" He sighed, shrugging.

"I went over there, brought her some flowers. She said that she was making a bunch of changes in her life and she couldn't see me. Ever."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Really no room for misinterpretation...so I got to skip a step in the unconventional breakup grieving progression and go right to being a jerk." She smiled distractedly but went back to his first statement.

"I wouldn't give up so quickly. When I first met Sandy's mother and she...reached a decision about me, he was a little doubtful at first. He came around."

"Sandy broke up with you because of his mom?"

"No, he didn't break up with me. He just had a few second thoughts." Ryan raised an eyebrow and she smiled. "It's a long story."

"I've got time," he said, leaning back on his elbows and grinning. She laughed.

"You really want to hear?"

"Yeah. What happened?" She shrugged.

"What happened..." she mused."Well, Sandy had proposed weeks before we visited Sophie. And I just assumed that he had told his mother."

"He didn't?" Ryan asked incredulously. Kirsten rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"She had absolutely no idea. And she saw my engagement ring before Sandy could tell her himself."

"Ouch," he muttered, and she smirked.

"My sentiments exactly. I almost killed Sandy." Her expression softened. "But he was scared. Just really, genuinely terrified of this woman who'd never really been a mother to him. He had basically raised himself and she was never around, but he was worried about how she would react because..."

"What your parents think of you will always matter, even if you don't want it to," Ryan completed softly. Kirsten, surprised, nodded.

"Even if they're never around, even if they aren't good people. It matters."

"It sucks," he said plainly.

"That it does," she sighed. She paused a moment, then recognized his silence as his discomfort with the subject and continued on with her story. "Right. Sophie Cohen. So we got there, and right off the bat she hated me because I was blonde and had the keys to a Porsche on my key ring."

"You drove a Porsche when you were in college?" Ryan asked, amazed. She blushed, looking away.

"Sort of. I mean, it was just for...it was...graduation...my dad...I don't know." She stammered, then finally summed everything up: "I didn't ask for it." This seemed to make sense to her, and while Ryan still didn't understand, he nodded as though he did. "So Sandy introduced me as his girlfriend, which I thought was a little odd, but I brushed it off. And suddenly Sophie noticed the ring and asked what it was, and I assumed that she was asking about the kind of diamond. So I was just rambling on about the cut and the size and I must have looked like such an idiot, because Sophie had absolutely no idea that we were engaged. So that was not exactly what you'd call...starting out on the right foot. And everything just went downhill from there because she found out that I was an art student from Newport fathered by one of the most successful independent real estate moguls in the West." Kirsten, feeling weakened by having shared this admission with Ryan, shrugged. "That night Sandy spent the night at home with his mother instead of at the hotel with me. There was a very awkward twenty-four hours when I thought that he was going to call it off."

"Wow," Ryan muttered.

"And there you have a glimmer of hope at the end of the long and tumultuous Cooper-Nichol tunnel, no?"

"My faith has been slightly restored." She smiled, standing up and patting his leg.

"You're a fantastic kid and any girl would be beyond lucky to have you, okay? You're going to find a relationship that clicks. You deserve it." He suddenly felt choked up, still taken aback by these displays of affection that the Cohens were so fond of. He tried to thank her, but, to his embarrassment, the words wouldn't come out.