The reunion was to be held at the Newport Bay Yacht Club, a nice, upscale restaurant, where people could mix and mingle as well. Over the years, this place had been host to several of Newport's more distinguished events, such as Cotillion, weddings, "Man Of The Year" parties, and much more. This is where the Class of 2006 thought it might be nice to have their first class reunion.
Ryan and Alison pulled up in his Range Rover SUV. Since he was an architect, he could afford cars like this. Before getting out of the car to give the keys to the guy who would park it, he stopped to stare at the building, remembering the countless times he had been there before.
"Ryan, Honey, what are you staring at?" Alison asked.
Ryan turned, looked at her, and said, "What?"
"You're just staring into the oblivion, again. Are you okay?" she wondered.
"Yeah, I'm fine, come on," Ryan said. He got out of the car, and Alison followed. Ryan tossed the keys to the guy who parked to cars, and went inside the building. When the couple got into the building they both stood there at the doorway taking in the place. Alison was taken back by it's beauty, and how she could not possibly believe that her Ryan was always going to places like this, for even just going to lunch. Ryan, on the other hand was remembering. Every memory he had of this place. The first party he went to in Newport was held there, Julie Cooper's "almost" wedding was held there, and many more events.
While they were looking around, one of the organizers of the event came up to Ryan and asked, "Excuse me, but are you Ryan Atwood? The one who dated the infamous Marissa Cooper?"
Ryan blushed and replied, "Yeah, that's me."
"Wow. I can't believe you guys aren't together now. I guess I just would have pictured it, although, I can understand why things worked out the way they did. I mean, she did shoot your brother," the woman blabbered.
Ryan forced a smile. He knew that Newpsies could divulge the most personal information at the most inappropriate times. Alison turned her head to him in shocked amazement.
"Who is that girl, and what did she do?" Alison wondered.
Ryan tried to keep a friendly face, and replied, "Can I tell you later?"
Alison forced a smile and said, "Fine, but tell me everything."
"Will do," Ryan replied. The couple walked further into the building where waiters were holding platters of appetizers, just waiting to be eaten. There Ryan found Seth, who was sitting at the table with his former sweetheart, Summer Roberts. They still looked the same as they did ten years ago. Seth was still as lanky as he was then, and Summer was just as gorgeous. Although he and Summer were not together anymore, they still maintained a strong friendship.
When Summer left for college a year ahead of Seth, things became quite strained. When she came home on Christmas break, she decided it was time to break it off with him because the distance was too much. Once Seth came to Brown University the next year, he was determined to get her back, for awhile. Eventually, after Summer kept refusing to date him again, they slowly became friends, which was something they had never truly achieved before. They had been just friends for eight years by the time the class reunion came around.
"Hey, guys," Ryan said. He motioned towards Summer. "Long time no see."
"Right back at you, Atwood. So who is the lady you brought tonight?" Summer asked.
"Uh this," Ryan said, pointing to Alison, "Is Alison Hamilton. We've been together for about a year now. Alison, this is Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. You know about me and the Cohen family?"
Alison nodded.
Summer and Seth nodded at Alison in approval.
Seth said, "Wow, Man, I think that's the longest you've consistently had a girlfriend for. So on another topic, have you seen Marissa yet?"
"No, is she here already?" Ryan asked.
"No, I was just wondering if you'd seen her," Seth said.
Ryan looked at Seth perplexed. He often wondered why he said the stupid comments that he did. Of course, then again, Seth had admitted in the past to talking just to hear his own voice.
"So you and this Marissa girl have quite the history, huh?" Alison stated.
Just as Ryan was about to answer, Seth jumped in and said, "You could say the were a couple, even when they weren't being a couple, and sure they had their share of shaky times: Trey, and the death of dear ol' Johnny Harper. But for some reason people still seem to view them as being together, even though they haven't been for ten years."
Ryan glared at him and said, "Seth, shut up."
Ryan looked back over to the entrance of the Yacht Club. He saw more fellow alumni entering. Many of them he did not recognize, while many others he did. Then he saw Marissa. She looked as if she had aged a little in the past ten years - it looked as if she had grown up.