Okay, so review please, and enjoy. This weekend was one of my roommate's birthdays and so we had a party for her at our friends' house (instead of our apartment, because I'm not an idiot. I don't want my apartment trashed…that's just using common sense people) And then we were all walking home, and I had this huge craving for McDonald's, and so I talked everyone into stopping with me so that I could get some chicken mcnuggets. I tell you this only to highlight a very important lesson that I learned that I would like to pass on: McDonald's and Natural Ice don't mix, so don't try it. Learn from my mistakes….Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine.

Seth was no expert on girls, but he figured that the day wasn'tgoing too badly. Summer was actually talking to him, and had actually remembered to call him the right name. And Ryan and Marissa were doing great so far, and more importantly, Marissa was distracted so Summer had no one to talk to except for Seth. And Seth did not mind in the least being second choice as long as he was a choice at all.

They had just put in the third movie,anothermovie that Seth insisted everyone must see at some point in their lives,when Marissa's phone rang. She reached into her purse to grab it and frowned when she saw Luke's name popping up.

"Who is it?" Summer asked. Marissa shrugged and gave Summer a smile.

"Just my mom." She hit the silence button. A few minutes later her phone rang again. Marissa silenced it again and hoped that it wouldn't ring a third time. She was having a good time with Ryan, a good time that would be ruined if her ass of an ex-boyfriend continued to call her phone. When it rang again, Marissa had to accept that Luke wasn't going to stop until she answered the phone. Not that she had anything to say to him.

"Maybe you should answer it," Ryan suggested softly. Marissa sighed and stood up and walked into the kitchen to talk to Luke.

"So, where are your parents?" Summer asked Seth trying to ignore the suddenly heated side of Marissa's conversation in the kitchen. It was clear that she was not talking to her mother, and Summer was trying to kill the noise of Marissa's yelling. Or at least divert some of the attention away from her.

"Um, they went on a drive," Seth answered shooting a look in Ryan's direction. "Some puke-worthy romantic excursion along the coast. They won't be home until later."

"You cheated on me!" Marissa's voice carried into the kitchen, and all three in the living room cringed. "With one of my best friends! With everything else that was happening, do you know how that made me feel?"

"Sounds like a fun conversation," Seth remarked and was met by two glares. Marissa hung up and came back into the living room.

"You okay Coop?" Summer asked softly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she said. "Hey, I'll be right back okay? I'm just going to run over to my mom's house and grab something."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Summer offered. Marissa shook her head.

"No, thanks, I'll be right back," with that Marissa disappeared out the front door.

"I'll be right back too," Ryan said after a moment, going the same way that Marissa had gone.

"They're dropping like flies," Seth said grinning at Summer like an idiot. "Think we smell or something?" She didn't look amused, but instead stared off into the direction that both Ryan and Marissa had disappeared.

"I hope she's okay. The last time she just ran off and didn't tell anyone what she was doing, we found her in an alley in Tijuana. After she had taken a healthy dose of alcohol and my stepmother's sleeping pills. I, God, I thought that she was dead..." Summer looked wide-eyed as Seth as if she suddenly remembered who she was talking to. "I didn't know if you knew about…of course you did. Everyone heard about that fateful trip to TJ."

"I did hear," Seth said. "But from my parents who heard it from her parents. I'm not exactly in the gossiping circles…and it's nice…that you're worried about her. You're a good friend." Summer blushed and looked down at her nails and studied them. She wanted to tell Seth that was the nicest thing any boy had ever said to her. No, the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her, with maybe the exception of her father. But she couldn't open her mouth and find the words, and so they sat there quietly for a little while waiting for Marissa and Ryan to reappear. Seth sat trying desperately to think of something to say to Summer. Something that wouldn't make him seem like a total and complete spaz, and was thrilled when it was Summer who picked up the conversation.

"What's the deal with your friend? Ryan? Why is he staying with your family?" Summer had been dying to find out the story behind the kid that was now staying with the Cohens, only the richest and most powerful family in Newport. Whoever the kid was, he had lucked out. Seth shrugged.

"His family is…temporarily out of service, so he's staying with us," Seth said shrugging.

"But do you…I mean, what does that mean? Is he like a cousin? But I know that he's not related to your mom, because she's like a Nichol, and everyone knows who the Nichols are….or I guess he could be a distant relative. Is he a distant cousin on your mom's side?" Summer looked at Seth expectantly, and Seth didn't know what to say. His parents had asked that he be careful what he told everyone about Ryan, but they had yet to think of a good cover story, or if they had thought of a cover story, they had yet to clue Seth in. And up until now it hadn't been a problem, because very few people talked to Seth, and so he had very few opportunities where he could have let Ryan's past slip out.

"No, he sort of…" Before he could answer, both Ryan and Marissa came back in.

"Hey, Coop, you good now?" Summer asked as her friend took a seat next to her.

"Yeah, great," Marissa replied. Seth glanced at Ryan who was standing away from Marissa, his arms crossed across his chest, and he wondered what had happened with them. "Hey, why don't we do something?"

"Like what?" Summer asked. As much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't having a bad time just sitting around in the Cohen's house with Seth Cohen and his new friend/housemate/whatever the hell Ryan was.

"I don't know, I just can't sit here anymore," Marissa whined. "Let's just go somewhere. Take a drive?" The other three exchanged looks and finally Ryan shrugged, and Seth nodded, and Summer smiled at her friend.

"Okay, Coop, we'll take a drive," Summer grabbed Marissa's elbow and guided her out to the driveway.

"We can take the Rover," Seth suggested. "My parents took the BMW, and had left the keys in my capable hands." Ryan snorted, and Seth corrected himself. "So not as much left in my hands, as just left the keys where the keys are usually left. And sure, I had told them that Ryan and I wouldn't use the car, but they had never said that we couldn't use the car…"

"We can take my car," Marissa interjected smiling. "I can drive." Summer knew that her friend was acting strange, but just chalked it up to Marissa's crappy phone call with Luke, and so she shrugged and walked towards the silver Jeep. Ryan looked a little wary, Marissa had been acting a little off sincehe had chased after her before and found her coming out of her house.

"You okay?" He had asked, and she had nodded, and then began to cry, and the whole story about Luke and Holly and TJ had spilled out, and despite that he knew the story from the Cohens, he nodded and listened and held onto her until she had calmed down. Still, she was acting strange, and he wasn't too sure letting her drive was the best idea. But she was already in the front seat, grinning at him, and so he too shrugged and got into the car. Something was telling him that it was a bad idea to get into the car with Marissa, but he was ignoring that little voice. Living in Newport had already changed him in the short time he had been there, he would have never ignored that voice in Chino.

"I guess I'm going too," Seth said throwing his hands up in the air and getting into the car, despite him, like Ryan and Summer, knowing that it was a bad idea.

"Where are we going?" Summer piped up from the backseat.

"I just thought that we would take a drive along the coast?" Marissa said turning out of their gated community.

They had only gotten so far when it was clear that Marissa shouldn't be driving. Her driving was erratic, and she kept swerving off the side of the road, and a few times into the other lane, where thankfully there had been no other cars.

"Maybe you should pull over and let someone else drive," Ryan suggested.

"Yes, please Jesus and Moses, pull over," Seth muttered.

"Jesus and Moses?" Summer questioned.

"I like to cover my bases," Seth shrugged.

"No, I'm fine," Marissa insisted. "I'm fine."

"You are not fine," Ryan said. "Please pull over."

"Have you been drinking Coop?" Summer asked softly from the backseat.

"No!" Marissa wheeled around in the driver's seat to glare at her best friend. Ryan reached over and grabbed the wheel and kept them on the road.

"Please pull over," he pleaded with Marissa. She shook her head and put her hands back on the wheel.

"I'm fine."

"Marissa," Seth said from the backseat. "Hey, why don't we let Ryan drive? He kept telling me how he's always wanted to drive a Jeep, why don't we let him do that?" Seth was grasping at straws, not sure what to say to Marissa to make her pull the car over. Simple pleas were not doing the trick.

"I'm fine," Marissa said angrily. She looked over at Ryan, and the car drifted into the other lane, and the last thing all four saw were the headlights of the other car and the sound of horns being blasted.

"You think the boys are having a nice afternoon with the house to themselves?" Kirsten asked as she and Sandy drove home. They were almost home at this point, after a day of doing nothing but driving. The rehab center was nice, and Kirsten and Sandy had been given a quick tour before they returned to their car and drove away from Dawn, and they hoped, all the problems that she caused.

"Sure, every kid loves having the house to themselves at least for a little while," Sandy said smiling at his wife. Kirsten leaned her head back against the seat and sighed.

"You think Ryan's okay?" Sandy nodded and took her hand.

"I think it was the right move, telling him," he assured her. She nodded, and turned her head to look out the window, still holding onto Sandy's hand.

"I just…I really want Dawn to be serious about it this time. I really want her to actually try to get sober," Kirsten said turning back to Sandy. "I don't want to see him disappointed again. He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve any of it." Sandy gave her hand a squeeze, he took his eyes off the road for a second to look at his wife. Just a second, and when he turned back, there was a car in his lane and he slammed on the horn and the brakes, and the last thing he heard before the crash was Kirsten's scream.

Okay, I'll try to get the next chapter up soon, I have it written, or at least partially written…mainly because I'm procrastinating…but I'll only post it if you review. So review! I mean it.