Six Years Later

The last couple of years had been unbelievably chaotic for Marissa. Her parents divorced, she caught her first boyfriend cheating, she took an overdose in Tijuana, she befriended a psychotic cocaine addict, her boyfriend left to have a baby with an ex-girlfriend, she had a lesbian affair, was almost raped and now, she had shot someone. Things were not how they used to be.

She had had one godsend though, through all the bad times; the unexpected friendship that had developed into what was now 'The Fantastic Four'. Summer Roberts- the only friend still there for her from her original clique, Ryan Atwood- the boy from Chino that had been the catalyst for all the changes, and Seth Cohen- the geek with no friends, a guy who never even entered her radar before Ryan came to town. Marissa had come to know these four as her family, the only people in the whole world she could rely on. But things were changing again.

Marissa had shot Trey, the delinquent brother of Ryan, who appearance in town caused her nothing but grief. When Marissa walked in finding him killing one of her best friends, she panicked. She didn't have enough brute strength to pull him off of Ryan and she couldn't call for help. When she noticed the gun, Marissa realised it was the only thing that would stop Trey, so she used it. Little did she know that it would almost kill Trey, but it would slowly kill her relationship with Ryan.

Marissa had spent that whole summer trying to reconcile what she thought was the love of her life but to no effect. Ryan loved Marissa, but the events that had unfolded were too immense to forget. All that remained for those two was a friendship.

Marissa was lying on her bed, headphones in her ears and Share Bear in her arms, when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." she called out.

To her surprised, it was Seth, on his own.

"Hey" she said, happy to see a friendly face.

"Hey Marissa. I thought you might be lonely so I brought you some company."

From behind his back he pulled out another familiar face.

"Captain Oats!"

"Yep" Seth said, noticing the huge smile spread across her face. "We were both up to no good back at my house and thought we would come and see how you were doing."

Marissa was taken back by Seth's sincerity.

"I'm fine."

"Really?"

"Well, as fine as I can be."

There was a few seconds of silence as the two shared each other's company.

"So you wanna sit down?" Marissa asked.

Seth smiled and made his way towards her bed. "So I was thinking we could do something today. Anything you want."

Summer had gone east to see her mom and the Cohen's had paid for Ryan to take some time away.

"Well, we could go to Six Flags." She offered.

"My stomach's too Jewish for most of the rides. How about we go bowling?"

Marissa was shocked by the offer of bowling as she had always thought of it as a date thing to do but she was willing to do anything to get out of her house.

"Sure, why not?"

Seth smiled at her. "Great. Oh, I feel I must warn you though, it's the only 'sport' that I can actually play. So I'll probably kick your ass."

Marissa let out a small laugh. "Fighting talk, huh. Well then I must warn you that I'm not as weak as I look."

"Oh, really." Seth leaned towards Marissa and gave her a small nudge.

"Yeah." Marissa got up and walked towards the door, followed by Seth. "Do you wanna drive or shall I? Then you can see how it's really done."

Seth pushed her in the back. "Oh my god Marissa, I never knew you were so competitive."

"Well, by tonight, you'll wish you never found out."