Stray

Chapter 3

It was strange for her to be back in Newport. After living the last ten years in Sacramento, Marissa felt so out of place amidst the rich and spoiled. She looked around the restaurant nervously for her mother and sister, hoping that she looked like she belonged there.

"May I help you?" the waitress at the seating podium asked. She looked at Marissa warily, her tone soaked in snob.

"Uh, yeah. I'm here under the name of Cooper-Nichol, first name Julie." Marissa looked down at her pedicured toenails nervously. The hostess looked down at her list then waved imperiously at Marissa.

"Right this way."

Marissa followed obediently, mentally preparing herself to face her mother and sister. Both had kept their lives of riches and high-class living. Julie managed to design and market handbags and accessories to keep the family financially afloat. Caitlin had become one of the elite stewardesses that graced every corporate, first-class flight.

And what have I become? she asked herself quietly.

"Marissa! Darling!" Julie Cooper-Nichol stood and hugged her eldest daughter as the restaurant hostess stood off to the side, a snide and uninterested expression decorating her face. Julie faced to thank her but blinked.

"I suggest," she began in the false tones of sweet, sure tones of danger, "that you not work in the service industry unless you're ready and willing to comply with the fact that you're serving others."

"Mom!" Marissa gasped. She looked at the small table for her sister but saw only signs of a third dining companion.

"She deserved it, honey. You don't look like that when serving patrons of a high-class restaurant. That's how many a restaurant has earned a bad name in this town." The two women seated themselves, Julie at her former place and Marissa on her right, in the unoccupied seat.

"Where's Caitlin, Mom?" Marissa questioned, unsure of what to say to her mother after keeping minimal contact with her after 10 years.

"Bathroom. My, you should see you little sister now! She couldn't change after her flight, so when I saw her here (early, too, mind you), I was absolutely stunned!"

"Mom, you really shouldn't make a big deal out of things," a feminine voice said from behind the empty chair across from Marissa. Marissa looked up to see her younger sister standing there, stunning in a classy looking uniform. She stood up and hugged her sister.

"Geeze, Caitlin! You've grown up good!"

"Same goes for you, big sis," Caitlin replied. She stepped back to take a good look at Marissa and smiled. Marissa held back a flinch. "So where's Nick?"

The two ladies sat down and Julie commented.

"Yes, honey. Where is Nick? Why, that last time I saw him was at Christmas with you, when the two of you breezed through Newport on your way to Cancun."

"Mom, don't make me feel guilty," Marissa replied. "Nick had a lot of things to do back home. He said it would be nice if I took a little vacation."

"Hmmm, it would've been nice to see him, that's all. Oh, look, here's our waiter."

Marissa sighed with relief. I dodged that bullet, she thought warily. Now I just have to survive the next week and a half.

They continued on with lunch until Caitlin decided to bomb Marissa with news.

"Hey, you'll never guess who I saw on the flight here," she said as the three of them finished their conversation on the latest fashion trends in Hollywood and New York. Caitlin's mouth was full of tiramisu and she wasn't even done swallowing as she remembered her hot topic. Marissa looked up with mild interest.

"Who? Another one of Mom's clients?" she asked dully. She had heard the thousands of stories from her sister over the phone, Internet, and text messaging about whom she had seen, served, and talked to.

"Your old boyfriend, Ryan."

Two forks clattered to their plates, one in shock, and the other in despair.

"Ryan! Ryyyyaaaan!" Seth looked around the pool house as he stepped inside. He swelled with nostalgia as he surveyed the Ryan-esque chaos: unmade bed, duffel bag on the floor, and multitudes of clothes slightly askew. There were many times that Seth had walked into that area and seen the exact same mess, but then it had brought different emotions. He was always afraid that Ryan was going to leave, was not going to be there the next morning to back him up in his stupid schemes.

"Hey, man," Ryan replied as he emerged from the bathroom, towel-drying his head as he skipped down the steps. "What's up? Sick of the wife and kids already?"

Seth and Ryan laughed, walked out of the pool house and into the kitchen of the main house.

"Hey, if I admitted that, I'd have Summer on my back, and not in a good sense."

"Aw, man, that's nasty. That's one mental picture I could've avoided."

As Ryan headed for the fridge, he was quickly cut off by all three of his nieces and nephew.

"Hi, Uncle Ryan!"

"Hey, Uncle Ry!"

"Boop, blugh, feh."

Hey laughed and greeted the twins as they ducked in and out of the fridge, grabbing bottles of orange juice on the way. He picked up Nevaeh and held her in one arm as he pulled out the last bottle of OJ and a baby bottle of apple juice.

"You want this, babe?" he held up the apple juice in front of his niece and conversed with her in a slight singsong tone. "Or milk? Hmm?"

"Quit it, man," Seth teased from across the counter as his daughter pulled the apple juice out of Ryan's grasp. "You might make her like you more than me."

"I'm a natural with kids, bro. They just like me." He turned to Nevaeh. "Don't you, Vey?"

Nevaeh giggled and Ryan and Seth laughed. Ryan set her on her feet on the floor and headed for Seth. The two of them watched her waddle her way over to the older two and plop herself on the floor while Zack and Ciara played a video game competitively.

"So, this is something, huh." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah. Who would've thought that we'd be here, right now, in this… Situation." There was a brief pause. "That used to be us, playing games like that."

"I remember. Like the first morning after your dad brought me here. Cereal and video games."

"A classic. And not just my dad, man. Our dad." Another pause. "So why didn't you bring Kelly? Even if she couldn't come to the reunion, she could've stayed here and done other things around town."

Ryan downed half his juice before answering. "I don't know. I just felt like this was something I needed to do on my own."

"What, face Marissa Cooper?" Seth turned to his brother and looked him straight in the eye. "Ryan, you'd have had to of done it sooner or later. It's not like you could've avoided her for the rest of your natural lives."

"The man's got a point, you know," Sandy replied, strolling into the kitchen and sticking his head into the refrigerator. "Hey, is that the last orange juice?"

Ryan grinned, held up the bottle in cheers and downed the other half. "Yup. Beat you to it, old man."

"I may be an old man, " Sandy retorted heartily, "but I'm the old man who still goes surfing every morning."

"Nasty old habit of his, isn't Mom?" Seth said as Kirsten and Summer walked into the kitchen.

"Very," was her sarcastic reply. She spied Sandy pouring himself a mug of coffee. "What, no orange juice?"

"Nope," all three men replied in flat unison. Summer shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Do you guys, like, practice that behind our backs or something? Because it's starting to get really annoying after fifteen years."

Everyone laughed and the kids began to argue over a discrepancy in the game. Nevaeh toddled over to the kitchen counter where Kirsten picked her up and sat her down on the counter top.

"Guys, quit it," Seth called. "It's just a game."

"Hypocrite," Sandy muttered aloud. "You and Ryan used to argue like that all the time when it came to video games."

"Yeah, when they weren't coming up with harebrained schemes to get all four of us in trouble," Summer replied.

"Speaking of four," Kirsten commented with slight interest as she heated up water for tea, "Where is Marissa? I'd have thought you four would be all here just like old times."

The uncomfortable silence answered her question.