"God, this place is disgusting." Marissa complained, climbing into the rickety old attic of the Atwood house.
"More the reason to get all this stuff out of here. We're going to have to eventually anyways…" Ryan replied, trying to make a pathway through the tall stacks of boxes.
"What is even in all of them?" Marissa asked uncertainly, reaching for a rusty old spatula, which ended up knocking over one of the largest boxes. It toppled to the floor, spilling out multitudes of photos.
"Pictures, I guess. Hey, this is senior year…" Marissa looked over at the photograph that Ryan was holding. They were all squeezed together, wearing bathing suits and their graduation hats. Summer and Seth's were distinctly different from Ryan and Marissa's hats.
"Summer I am so jealous." Marissa complained, absently applying sunscreen to her shoulders.
Summer looked up from the magazine she was reading briefly. "Why?"
"Your hats are so much prettier than ours." Marissa replied, eying Summer's deep blue square hat mournfully.
"Well, Harbor versus Newport Union money-wise isn't much of a competition." Ryan said, twirling his own hat in his hands.
"Why are you guys even talking about this? We are wearing them for like, ten seconds so the Sand Man can take a picture and then we stuff them in boxes, never to see them again until our children ship us to nursing homes." Seth added. "Plus, it's not so good for the Jew-fro."
Ryan raised his eyebrows, shook his head, and then turned back to Marissa. "I'll buy you a hat that you may actually wear again."
Marissa smiled perkily. "Really?"
"Anything for you."
"This place…"
"It looks just like my old place."
"Yeah." Ryan said in awe, boxes under his arms as he looked around the new house. He put them down carefully and looked outside.
"Well, the important thing is that it's close to Jimmy." Marissa said, sniffling. Ryan glanced over at her nervously, but Marissa already had rebounded.
"I'm fine, really. Let's look around."
"I'll bet this place doesn't have half the stuff that our old place did." Ryan said sorrowfully.
Marissa chuckled. "Oh really. Like what?"
"Oh you know, termites, bad plumbing, and an outstanding view of a drugstore." Ryan said breezily with a smile, wrapping his arm around Marissa.
"Not going to miss those things. I'll always miss that house… But my dad has cancer… we really have to be here."
"Anything for you."
Do you get it? The circle? Put it in your review if you do.
Sorry if it sucks though. It's late, and I realized how very long it's been.