Thanks again to Rainygal for the thumbs-up!

Chapter 4

It had been a rough first week and Gillian had been glad for Summer's help, sticking with her for most of the time. Although Gillian appreciated Summer's devotion, she was pretty sure that it was just the best excuse for the petite girl to avoid spending time with Zach. It was obvious that there was no chemistry between the two of them, it looked more like an arrangement, or even worse, like they were just good friends, bridging time between finding their ideal partner, but they definitely did not look or act like lovers.

Seth had been surprisingly distant this week, Gillian guessed that he was developing a plan, which seemed to take some time.

When Summer had been with Zach, Marissa had silently agreed to spend time with Gillian, mainly discussing her relationship with D.J. Gillian could sense that Marissa was hiding something, but she wasn't the one to dig deeper, as she knew for herself how it felt to hide your innermost secrets and feelings, especially around the girls nowadays.

On Saturday Gillian could finally convince the girls to give her some space, explaining that she wanted some time for herself. Strolling down the beach, dressed in a knee-long, blue skirt and a black hoody she watched the different people surfing and sunbathing, thinking about how different this world was to the one she had been born in.

Deep inside of her she realised, that the strange feelings floating through her heart, the attraction she felt to Marissa whenever she was around, was not real, but rather the escape of her mind to stay stable, to pretend that nothing had happened, preventing her from breaking down. She had always admired beautiful woman, wondered what it would be like to get to know them closer. But since prom, all she felt for boys was fear, disgust and panic, so therefore her feelings seemed have to settled for the girls, in which company she felt completely safe.

Gillian knew, that Marissa was in a relationship with a boy, but by living with strangers, surrounded by strangers and her mother out of reach, all she was craving for was love, someone who could hug her and tell her, that everything would be fine – one day.

Sitting down on a distant rock she enjoyed the view over the ocean when she heard someone crying close to her. Searching for the source of the sobs, she detected a lonely figure on the nearest lifeguard tower. After taking a second look she realised that it was Marissa, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees and crying softly.

It took her a few moments to decide, whether she should go over there, but finally she got up and walked to the lifeguard tower, slowly approaching the girl.

"Marissa?"

The light brown haired girl sniffled and turned her head, watching Gillian with a caught expression on her face.

"Hey, Gillian"

"You ok?"

Marissa nodded but could not hold back the tears that were again streaming down her face. Gillian climbed up the stairs and settled herself next to the tiny figure on the floor, placing her arm around the girl.

Gillian didn't say anything, but let Marissa cry out her heart for twenty minutes, before the sobs started to cease and she wiped the tears from her face.

"Thanks" Marissa then muttered.

Gillian just smiled, replying:

"It's ok"

"You don't wanna know what I was crying about?"

"It's none of my business, is it?"

Thinking for an instant, Marissa nodded and gave her a quick glance.

"You're a great friend…." she told her honestly, astonished about the calmness of the girl she only knew for a week.

Gillian gave her another one of her smiles, inspecting Marissa's face, trying to find out if there were more tears to come. When she realised, that Marissa indeed had calmed down, she asked:

"Wanna grab a coffee?"

"Sure! I'll buy" the light brown girl replied, got up and extended her hand to Gillian to help her to her feet as well.

Walking down the beach to the Crab Shack, neither of them said anything, engrossed in their own thoughts.

Sitting at the table opposite each other Marissa finally revealed:

"D.J.'s history…"

"I'm sorry"

"But that's not what I was crying about…"

Gillian stayed quiet and waited for Marissa to continued, unsure as to what the girl opposite her was about to say.

"I'm in love with this boy for a long, long time now. But he left, as we thought for good, and I met D.J."

"For the sake of easier story telling, let's call 'him' Ryan, shall we?" Gillian interrupted calmly

Marissa nodded smiling, not even surprised that the brown haired girl had figured out the obvious.

"When Ryan came back unexpectedly I was over the moon… but I didn't have the courage the tell him about D.J, so I lied. I know it was stupid, I lied to the worst person possible, 'cos dishonesty is what he hates most. When he found out, he was mad and he said he needed distance… Be friends… Things with D.J. hadn't been going great for a while already and now that he's gone, I can't think of a way to apologize and make up with Ryan, but that's all I want…"

Gillian reached out and grabbed her hand, comfortingly holding it. Marissa raised her eyebrow in surprise, but did not pull back.

"I'm not that experienced with relationships, but now that you're free, maybe you should work on restoring Ryan's faith in you…"

"And how?"

"Be his friend. Just hang out together, show him, that you still care about him" Gillian explained, looking deep into Marissa's eyes.

Goose-bumps were forming on Marissa's arms at the look of Gillian and she quickly pulled her hand away, jumping up, muttering:

"Thanks… I… gotta go now…. later!"

"See you" Gillian replied, an embarrassed expression on her face.

Grinning happily, Seth directed the Range Rover to the IMAX cinema, giving Ryan who was sitting next to him in the passenger seat a glance.

"You look as if you were about to whistle" Ryan smirked.

"I would, my friend, I would. But with being Jewish and all it just never seems to work!"

Ryan shook his head and rolled his eyes, but could not hide a smile.

They had finally agreed to watch a movie at the IMAX theatre, a project they had been talking about for over a year now.

Parking the car in the car park and turning off the engine, Seth climbed out of the SUV with a self-content smile on his face, waiting for his best friend to follow him.

"What?" Ryan asked Seth, who was expectantly looking at him.

"Aren't you at least a little bit proud over the fact that I haven't mentioned Summer's name for half an hour?"

"You're timing yourself now?"

Embarrassed that Ryan had instantly seen through him Seth stammered:

"Well… uhhmmm… yeah…."

Ryan made a face as if he had just won the election for president when he exclaimed playfully:

"Speechless Seth? That most be the best moment of my life!"

Ducking just in time to avoid being hit by Seth's hand they both broke out in laughter while making their way towards the entrance of the cinema.

"Ryan?" a voice was carried over to them.

Turning their heads simultaneously they watched Marissa walking towards the cinema as well, a startled expression on her face.

"Fuck" Seth muttered under his breath, not believing his bad luck once again.

"Hey Marissa" Ryan mumbled, glancing around to see, if D.J. was with her.

"Guys, you won't believe this. I think I was just hit on by a girl!" Marissa breathlessly explained.

For a second a shocked expression flashed over the boys' faces, which was instantly vanished when a dreamy look appeared in their eyes and a small smile crept over their mouths.

"Guys!" Marissa called disgusted, vigorously slapping Ryan's arm.

Pulling himself out of the vision of two hot girls kissing, Ryan looked innocently at his ex-girlfriend:

"That's a compliment Marissa, don't freak out!" he started, adding "but you better don't tell D.J." bitterly.

"I won't as we're not together anymore" Marissa explained in a low voice.

"Woah, wait! You broke up with D.J. for a girl?" Seth chuckled.

"No Seth! I broke up with D.J. and then got hit on by a girl" Marissa impatiently told the eagerly listening brothers.

"Anyway, I'm holding you up, have fun with the movie" she continued as she realised, that they had been heading to the cinema, before she turned to leave.

Ryan quickly glanced at Seth, asking him wordlessly for approval to go after her and not to waste this opportunity. Seth put a sour face on, but shrugged his shoulders and gestured him to stop her.

"Marissa, wait!" Ryan happily called after his ex-girlfriend.

Catching up to her he asked:

"Wanna grab a coffee?"

Marissa threw Seth a glance, realising that she had just destroyed his evening plans, before pulling out her cell phone.

"I think this calls for a meeting of the whole Newport crisis squad" she explained to Ryan while calling Summer's number.

Seth's face lit up immediately and he eagerly listened to Marissa, who discussed with his ex-girlfriend as to where they could meet up to discuss the recent happening. When Marissa hung up she gave the boys a thumbs up sign, telling them:

"Let's go, Summer will meet us at Starbucks on Balboa Island!"

A/N: I like the last chapter most, tell me what you think!