The five of them settled in the living room; Ryan and Marissa sharing one loveseat, Seth and Summer another, while Sandy took an arm chair facing the pairs. Although they tried, no one could get comfortable, they each sat stiffly on the edge of their seats. Ryan squeezed Marissa's hand. He knew what Marissa was about to have to do; talk about the attack. Ryan suddenly held his breath. Last night, he hadn't asked Marissa any details about the attack; he realized now it was because he didn't want to hear any; he couldn't. He turned his head to look at Marissa; by the look on her face, she was thinking the same thing as him. As painful as it was going to be for Ryan to hear how his brother brutalized Marissa, he knew that it couldn't compare to what Marissa must have gone through, what she's still going through.
Marissa squeezed Ryan's hand back. She was wondering if Ryan realized what they were going have to tell Sandy. She knew enough about lawyers, God knows her family has dealt with them enough, to expect that Sandy would want details, all of them. He was going to need an explanation as to why Ryan and Trey fought last night. "This is going to be tough," she thought. She could ask the other three to leave the room so she could talk privately with Sandy. No, these people were her best friends, her family, and she wanted them to be there; like Seth said, they were in this together. Maybe if she talked about the attack, the feelings of fear and shame would somehow dissipate.
Sandy ran his hands over his face,took a deep breath and prepared to get right down to business. "Okay guys, I know there's a story behind this, so start from the very beginning, and don't leave out any details, even if you think they're irrelevant." He looked at Ryan. "How did you end up at Trey's apartment?"
Ryan shifted forward a bit on the loveseat and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could get a word out, Marissa cleared her throat and interrupted him. "Actually Mr. Cohen, I think I should start," she said as she looked from Ryan to him, her voice barely a whisper.
Sandy shifted his gaze to her face. "Alright." He had been up all night thinking about what could have caused this tragedy. He had a number of theories, and he was afraid of what one Marissa would reveal was right.
"I guess it all started when you guys were in Miami for the break." Marissa eyes seemed to be fixed on a spot on the floor, and her voice was more than a little shaky. Sandy pursed his eyebrows in confusion, but sat back a little and let her continue.
"I hung out with Trey, just as friends of course, and I helped him land a job at The Bait Shop. That night, which was the 17th, I went over to his place to help him celebrate. It was just the two of us, I brought over food and a movie." She then lifted her head to look Sandy in the eyes. "I promise you Mr. Cohen, I never gave Trey any reason to think that we were any more than friends. I really thought he knew how much I cared about Ryan." She looked down again. "I mean, that's the reason why I wanted to be friends with Trey."
"Hey, we all know that Coop," Summer commented softly. "Anyone would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to not know how much you're into Chino." She flashed a small grin at Marissa. She hated to see her best friend in this kind of pain and wanted to do whatever it took to help Marissa get over this. Her comment was rewarded because both she and Ryan grinned back.
"Summer's right, Trey knew that Marissa and I were serious," Ryan said. "And she didn't give me any reason to think that she was into Trey either," Ryan thought to himself. A sharp surge of guilt ran through him as he remembered practically accusing her of hooking up with Trey. "God, how could I have been so stupid; she must have been horrified." Ryan glanced at Marissa and thought about how amazing she was. She forgave him so easily that morning at school, and again at prom. "I'll repay her one day," he vowed silently.
"Okay Marissa, I wanna hear more about this night. Were you two drinking?" Sandy asked.
Marissa quickly nodded her head and glanced up in shame. Everyone in the room knew her history with alcohol, and even though she's had that issue under control for awhile, she still hated admitting that, especially to Ryan. "Trey made drinks for us; they must have been really strong, because I only had a couple when I started to feel like I needed some fresh air." She noticed the look of concern on Sandy's face; her being drunk that night certainly wouldn't help their case. For the second time she looked Sandy square in the eyes. "I remember everything clearly…especially what happened next."
All four teenagers dropped their heads. Sandy straightened up, anxious to find out what Marissa was getting at. "What happened?" He asked quietly.
Marissa breathed in slowly. "Trey went to follow me outside, but stopped because he forgot something. I think when I was waiting for him, he must have done something, some drug, because when he stepped out, he was like a completely different person. He was acting crazy, like he was all of a sudden full of energy. He started howling, and picked me up and spun me around. Then he started talking about how no one's ever treated him like I did, and how great he thought I was, and how much he thought we fit together. That's when he really started to scare me. I tried to tell him that I could never feel that way towards him, I mean Ryan, but he just wouldn't listen."
A single tear slowly slid down her cheek. Everyone was silent. Summer was staring at Marissa's face, her own eyes ready to spill. Seth still had his head down and now his eyes were closed; he started to think that he now understood how upset Ryan had gotten, if that had been Summer…Ryan's jaw was clenched as he listened to Marissa re-live that night. He closed his eyes in an attempt to prevent envisioning what must have happened next. He felt Marissa tremble, and knew that anger was not what she needed right now. "It's okay," he whispered into Marissa's ear, and gently kissed her temple. He wrapped his arm tightly around her waist, as if for protection.
"He thought that I was trying to tell him that he wasn't good enough for me, and started to get angry. I told him that that's not what I meant, but he was out of control by then. He was trying to kiss me, and I just couldn't pull away from him." Marissa was struggling to not start sobbing as tears flowed freely and dropped on her lap. "He pushed me down on the sand, him on top of me, and started to tear at my clothes, saying that no one would have to know."
Sandy slowly closed his eyes. This is what he was afraid of. "Did he-?"
"No," Marissa quickly responded. "At first I couldn't push him off, but I finally grabbed a piece of driftwood from the ground and hit him in the head. I didn't manage to knock him out, but I got away and just ran home." As soon as she had stopped speaking she turned to Ryan and buried her face in his shoulder. He immediately wrapped his other arm around her and embraced her tightly.
Sandy let out a breath that he seemed to be holding since Marissa started speaking. It was all falling into place, he understood Ryan's motive now. "So Ryan found out last night, and that's why he went to see Trey?" Everyone nodded.
Marissa turned her head back towards Sandy. I just couldn't bear to tell Ryan what happened, and to be honest, I really thought that Trey would, so I didn't say anything to anyone."
"Trey tried to convince me that Marissa had come on to him that night and that they had hooked up," Ryan added, his voice low. "I knew something happened, something wasn't right with either of them, especially Marissa. So I asked him about it, and he looked me in the eye and swore that Marissa betrayed me." Ryan looked down in shame. "I almost believed him, but in the end thought that he was just trying to mess things up between us because he wanted a shot with her."
Sandy was nodding his head as he listened. "So how did you find out?"
"That's where we come in," Seth admitted quietly.
Summer joined in. "Yeah, like Ryan, I knew something was wrong with Marissa and that it concerned Trey. I sensed this awkwardness between them, and then there was this suspicious bruise on Marissa's chest."
"I finally had to tell someone," Marissa explained. "It was eating me up inside, so I told Summer yesterday."
"And then Summer told me, and I immediately told Ryan," Seth said, looking guiltily at Ryan and Marissa, then at his father. "I'm so sorry for the way I handled it; I know I should have come to you first. I just got so freaked out, I just thought that if it had been Summer that been attacked, I would want to know."
Sandy nodded at his son. He understood that Seth had no way to know the best way to handle this type of situation, how could he? And how could he blame Ryan for wanting to confront Trey the way he did? Sandy couldn't even fathom the thought of what he would do to someone who hurt Kirsten like Trey had hurt Marissa.
The four finished the story for Sandy; Ryan explaining how Trey admitted what he'd done, how Trey pointed a gun at him, the fight that followed. Marissa explained walking in finding Trey about to kill Ryan, how she couldn't pull him off, how she picked up the gun and aimed. And Seth and Summer explained what they had walked in on after hearing a gunshot from the parking lot.
Sandy stood up after he had taken in everything that was said. "Well, we can expect that detectives will be here eventually to hear the same story, but maybe we should try to relax until then. Nothing can really be done until…" He stopped. He realized that neither of them knew about Trey's condition. "Until Trey wakes up, if he does."
"So he's alive?" Marissa quickly straightened up. The other three also perked up, looking at Sandy's face anxiously.
"He is. But he's in a coma for now, so we'll all have to play the waiting game. Just pray that he pulls through."
Ryan slowly nodded his head. He would, for Marissa's sake.
Sandy was about to turn and walk back towards the kitchen, but paused when he saw the terrified expressions on the teen's faces. He smiled tiredly, but encouragingly. "We got a good shot."