It had been three days since Kirsten had left the Suriak Rehabilitation Center. She felt a sense of freedom, now that she was out. That she could do what she wanted, when she wanted. No longer did she have to follow a schedule, or the rules of others. Of course, she intended to stay sober, otherwise, she would not have completed the treatment program. During this span of three days, she had moved in with a woman she had met at the treatment center. Her name was Charlotte. She did not live extremely close to where Kirsten resided in Orange County. Kirsten had in fact decided to stay at her house, for a while to gain some perspective on her life while living in the real world, and not at the treatment center. She would still go to work, and do her normal daily activities; however, she would not go home to Sandy, Seth, and Ryan at night.
Kirsten was happy, for what seemed to be the first time in a long time. Maybe it was the fact that she was independent. That she did not have a husband and children hanging off her every second. Maybe it was the fact that she felt free - free from conforming to Newport society. Any way, though, Kirsten felt like a new person.
At home, things were different. Sandy always felt as if the house were going to fall apart. Kirsten had always handled nearly everything - except the cooking. Now, it was Sandy's turn to step up to the plate. He had to handle everything now, which made everything seem harder on him and the kids. Sandy tried to be home by six every night, so he could make dinner, and spend sometime with Seth and Ryan. Although they were both teenagers, he knew that it was still important to spend time together as a family.
Although Ryan loved living with the Cohens', he was beginning feel as if his new life was starting to fall apart. He had left Chino to leave the drinking and the broken families behind, and now it appeared that it was happening again in Newport. Every day, he would pray that his new life would go back to normal - that Kirsten would come back all right, and that the trouble with the district attorney would go away. It seemed that everything that he had gained in the past two years was slipping away, and he did not want that to happen.
A lot of the time, Ryan would think about Marissa. He would contemplate if it would be weird to go out with Marissa, after all that had happened between them. Could they date each other? Ryan still had feelings for her. He loved her very much, and had loved her since he met her; however, it was awkward to be with her because whenever he was around her, even for a small period of time, he would remember that she killed his brother. Ryan knew the situation, and had forgiven Marissa awhile ago, but he could never forget what had happened that fateful night. She was the only girl Ryan had ever loved. While Theresa was his best friend, that was all she really ever was, in retrospect. Ryan never loved her, at least not the way he loved Marissa.
For Seth, things had not changed drastically since his mother had gone to the treatment center. He was still dating Summer, and neither of them had a direct connection to Trey's death. However, Seth was still dealing with the death of his grandfather, and his mother's absence, in his own ways. Sometimes, he would have dreams about his grandfather, and he would still be alive; however, in each dream, he aged and became closer to the age of death. Sort of chronological dreams, in a sense. Every now and again, he would dream about his mother too. They were dreams about her when Seth was young, when they were living in Berkeley. This would make him think about his mother, about what had gone wrong. About what he might have done to make her start drinking.
For Summer, life had changed hardly at all, other than she had a difficult time communicating with Marissa. Although she was Marissa's best friend, since the whole thing with Trey, it had become increasingly difficult to talk to her about almost anything. Most of the time, she looked as if she were off in a distant place, far away from reality. Summer was not the only person to experience this, so did her parents, especially her father. Most of the time, now a days, Summer would hang out with Seth - making out or making love.