A/N: I'm so happy to be back with my 8th chapter! Lol. I missed my reviewers. I finally made time and wrote chapter 8. I'm a little nervous on what you guys are going to think of this chapter! I don't have time to list all my reviewers' names today! So, I'm just going to say thanks so much for all of the wonderful reviews I got on chapter 7! You know who you are! Anyways, here's chapter 8! I hope you like it…


Chapter 8

Speechless

Zach emerged from the bathroom only to be welcomed by the roaring music the band had been performing. He pushed passed a bunch of people in search of Summer. He couldn't find her anywhere. He bumped into a couple by mistake, "Sorry," he began until he realized who the young couple had been. Summer and Seth stood in front of him. He was speechless; he didn't know what to say.

Summer felt a slight shove by someone, she pulled back from Seth and looked around and noticed Zach staring at them. She bit her lip looking from Seth to Zach. "Zach…Do you mind if I take a rain check on hanging out?" She said smiling toward Seth. "I kind of have other plans."

Zach shook his head. "I can't believe this…I mean I just." He sighed. "Summer, I was really looking forward to spending time with you. Now that you and Cohen are back…I barely ever see you." He said honestly.

Seth wanted to interrupt Zach but he decided to just keep quiet, he didn't need Summer getting even more pissed at him. It killed him to say this, but…He did. "Y'know what, Summer hang out with Zach. I'll be fine. I'll go visit Ryan at the hospital." He was hoping maybe Summer would reject the offer to spend time with Zach and spend time with him instead.

Summer looked toward Seth and smiled a little. "Really? Thanks Cohen." She said giving him a quick kiss. "That's sweet of you. We'll defiantly do something tomorrow, I promise. Just me and you…and maybe Coop." She said with a small smile. "I'll call you later."

Seth nodded slowly. "Yeah, that'll be fun. I'll apologize to Marissa so were cool and stuff." He actually wanted to apologize, he knew that would be what Ryan wanted, and so that was what he was going to do. "So…You have fun…With Zach." He said, trying to calm himself from being jealous, he didn't need Summer mad at him, again. "See ya." He said with a slight wave. He received another kiss from Summer and was then on his way.

Summer watched as Seth made his way out to the exit of The Bait Shop. It shocked her how understanding he was being, usually Seth would put the jealous act on which pissed her off. But, it only pissed her off because, I mean, it showed that he didn't trust her around other guys. She sighed and quickly erased Seth from her mind. She was here to have fun with Zach not worry about Cohen. "So, what do you wanna do?" She asked curiously.

Zach shrugged. "I don't know, what do you wanna do?" He figured he'd leave everything up to Summer. If he was going to try and win her back he had to be charming and let the girl make all of the decisions on what they were going to do.

XXXX

Marissa sat down on a dirty discolored couch, it looked like it used to be red…It almost looked pink now. She wondered what her parents thought of Angela…Making a mess of their home, or if Angela even lived with her family. She sighed; she had lost Jess some where in the crowed. Well, now that she had lost Jess…Now was her chance to make an escape, right?

Jess searched through the crowds of people for Marissa, but couldn't find her. She bit her lip, she to think of some way to ruin Marissa's life…But, what? She suddenly heard someone calling her name out, it sounded to her like a male someone, she turned searching the crowed and finally set her eyes on who it had been.

Mike stood not to far from Jess; he made his way through the crowds finally reaching Jess. "Hey, I was just wondering if you and Angela brought Marissa here. I was following her and I saw her get in a car, and I recognized it as Angela's. So, is she here? Or do I have a horrible memory with cars?" He asked laughing slightly.

Jess smirked. "Yeah…We brought her here." She had the perfect plan. Her and Mike were friends, so, that's it! She could find Marissa get her and Mike talking and Mike could hurt her in some way. So, there for it would piss Summer off and she would easily get back at her. Now that she had that taken care of, all she needed was to fix things with Trey. "Mike, I kind of need a favor, and you, would be the perfect person for the job." She said still smirking.

XXXX

Summer shrugged. "I don't know." She answered simply. "Y'know what, I really need to make a quick phone call." She explained. "But, I kind of left my phone in you're car…So, how about we get out of here and go get a bite to eat or something while I call Marissa?" She suggested.

Zach nodded. "Alright, that sounds good." He answered, easily agreeing to her suggestion. "C'mon." he said leading her out of the Bait Shop and to his car. He un-locked the doors, quickly stepping into the front seat.

Summer followed Zach out of the Bait Shop and back toward his car rather quickly. She was pretty eager to call Marissa, she was worried that she might of called while Summer was wrapped up in her own little life. She stepped into the car when Zach had un-locked the doors, she shut the door behind her as she retrieved her cell phone from her purse. She discovered that she had one miss call, Marissa. How could I forget about Coop! She asked herself angrily in her mind. She dialed Marissa's number quickly, waiting for an answer.

Marissa heard her cell ringing from her purse and quickly searched it out and answered it. "Hello?" She said into the receiver. She blocked off the loud, booming music from her other ear by covering it with her hand.

"Coop, oh my god, I'm so sorry! I missed your call. I kind of met up with Zach then me and Cohen got in this fight. Ugh, I'm so sorry, sweetie. So, how is…" She paused briefly when she heard loud music in the background. "Wait, where are you?" She asked confusingly.

Marissa nodded understandingly. "Its okay, Sum I get it, don't be sorry." She answered as if it were not big deal. "Well," she started. "Actually, I'm not at the hospital…It's a long story. I'm at this party on 122 Orchard Street and I kind of need to be picked up." Marissa explained, hopefully.

Summer nodded. "Of course I'm gonna come pick you up! But when I do your telling me what happened with the whole you seeing Ryan at the hospital thing." She said. She blocked the speaker to her phone with her hand quickly and turned to Zach. "Is it okay, if we go pick up Coop? On 122 Orchard Street?" She asked biting her lip.

Zach shook his head wordlessly. "No, it's perfectly alright." He said smiling toward her.

Summer smiled back. "Thanks." She said thankfully. It was so cool to her how Zach was so understanding about picking Marissa up and all. I mean, this was supposed to be time to spend just the two of them as friends. But he was cool about having a little Summer/Zach/Marissa hang outage. "Okay Coop, we're pretty close to that street, so we'll see you in about 5 minutes. Just…Sit outside so we can find you. See you soon." She said as she hung up the phone.

"Thanks Sum." Marissa replied and hung up her phone as well. She then positioned her phone back into her purse and made her way toward the door.

XXXX

Marissa was about to open the door to leave until she was stopped by Jess and….Mike! Now she really needed to get out of here.

Jess smiled. "Cooper, finally found you. So, you remember Mike from that party a while back, right?" She asked.

Marissa nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do. But, look, Jess…I really need to go. It was nice of you to have me and all. But, my friend will be here soon to pick me up, so, I'll see ya." She quickly turn, opening the door and walking out, shutting it behind her, before anyone else could say a word.

Jess bit her lip, trying to calm her anger. Her plan had backfired, but, tomorrow was always another day. She turned, facing Mike. "So, the plan backfired tonight, so, tomorrow you can stop by her house…Apologize for what happened before sense you didn't get a chance to tonight."

Mike sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Look, Jess...I don't know. She would barely let me get a word in at the hospital. So, how do expect me to talk to her tomorrow?" He asked.

Jess sighed. "Make her listen." She stated simply. She smiled and leaned in, kissing him passionately, but sloppily.

XXXX

Marissa sat down on the steps of the beaten up apartment, she could still hear the music as clear as day, even from the outside. She sighed as she waited for Summer to show up. She closed her eyes; she was so upset with the way this day went…She was supposed to go see Ryan today, and if that asshole, Mike didn't show up...She could of. It seemed to her the longer it took for to actually get a chance to see Ryan, the harder it was to actually face him. The last time she saw him was when the paramedics brought him into the hospital on a gurdy(sp?), his face was…A mess, bloody, scraped, banged up. It pained her to see him like that, and ever sense she saw him that way, the longer and harder it was to see him again. It was all her fault, how could she get drunk and do that to him? How could she let him down like that? Her insides were screaming at her, screaming how dumb she was for doing something like this….

She was finally interrupted from her thoughts when headlights to a car hit her eyes, she soon saw Summer appear, getting out of the car that had just pulled in and running toward her.

Summer opened the door when Zach's car had pulled into the driveway. She ran toward Marissa, "Coop!" She yelled as she hugged her best friend. "Are you okay?" She asked her friend worriedly, as she heard things being broken inside the house. "What were you doing at a party like this!" She asked, still in a worried manor.

Marissa sighed. "Can we just go? I just wanna get out of here. We could…Talk later?" She asked hopefully.

Summer nodded understandingly. "Okay, but we are going to talk about it. So, do you wanna come back o my house? So you don't have to face your mom and all of her questions?" She asked as she and Marissa walked back toward Zach's car.

Marissa nodded as she walked by Summer's sighed. "That would be great." She answered honestly as she got into the back seat of Zach's car.

Zach smiled at Marissa through the rearview mirror. "Hey Marissa," He said nicely.

"Hey." Marissa answered softly.

Summer got into the car shutting the door behind her. "Okay, let's get out of here. Zach…You don't mind dropping me and Coop back off at my place do you? I'm really sorry to cut you off, again. But, I kind of need to spend sometime with her right now…Maybe we can hang out another time?"

Zach nodded. "It's fine, really. We'll re-schedule, definitely." He answered, he was a little upset that he and Summer couldn't hang out tonight. But, he did understand that Marissa needed her best friend right now. So, it was okay that they rescheduled.

XXXX

Seth pulled into the hospital parking lot, once again that day. He easily found a parking place sense the parking lot was almost deserted, considering the fact that it was about 10:00 at night. He exited his car, shutting and locking the door behind him. He started toward the entrance to the hospital and inside. He knew exactly where Ryan's room was so he quickly started passed the front desk and toward the elevators. He hit the button to go up and waited as the elevator reached his floor, which didn't take very long. He went up to the floor Ryan would be on and started down the hall.

When he had finally reached Ryan's room he opened the door easily, he was shocked though, he was expecting to be alone when he came to visit Ryan, but he wasn't someone else was there when he had walked inside. He couldn't believe who he saw, his mouth dropped slightly, for once he was speechless.


A/N: So, how was it? Hopefully good! So, do you think you can figure out who it is that's visiting Ryan besides Seth? You'll find out next chapter! OK, well, now that you've read chapter 8...Go review! Tell me your thoughts.