Chapter Sixteen

Seth turned to Marissa, afters several hour long minutes drifted by, "It'll be okay, Marissa." Marissa lifted her head, with hope peppering her eyes. She shrugged, as she attempted to resist the tears that constantly flowed down her face.

Marissa buried her head, in her hands, and gasped for air, "Oh my God." She moaned, tired of crying. She continued, as her nose was full from crying so much. "This won't be okay. I had my second chance, and I f ucked it up." Marissa simply stated, not looking for sympathy, care, blame… She just wanted someone to listen- to listen quietly. "As much as I would like for this to be okay, it's just not going to be.

"We're not meant to be. If we were, we still would have been together. But we're not, you see. He ran away, because I am ruining his life. So, this is just so f ucked- and I don't know what to do." Seth nodded, not tearing his eyes away from Marissa's depressed eyes, "As much as I would love to let that bastard go, I just can't. My heart makes these hasty decisions- and my soul cries in the end. God, do you know how happy I am, that I didn't screw him? I knew it'd be over, sooner or later- unfortunately it was sooner then I expected. But still. Oh, Seth. I'm drowning you, with my problems when you have enough of your own." Marissa absolved her face of all the tears that powdered it. She sniffed, and looked into Seth's eyes hoping he would say something.

"This sucks," Seth managed to whimper, "Because we're in this f ucked freggen up situation, we're going to have to stick together, Marissa. We can't handle this alone." Seth said, looking at the wall of the room.

Suddenly, an irritating ring tone shot through the air. Marissa embarrassingly grabbed her cell phone, carelessly answering it, without even looking at the Caller ID.

"Hello?" Marissa asked, as she wiped her tears- she knew quite well that the person on the other line couldn't see her, but just the gesture made herself more confident.

"Marissa, we need to talk." Summer begged urgently.

"What about?" Marissa asked gently, as if forgetting the situation.

"About everything," Summer paused, "Did you tell Seth?" Summer sounded as if she had been flooding her own room, with tears.

Marissa sighed, unsure of what to reply. "I had to." Marissa said, simply. Marissa could hear Summer on the other line, murmuring possible swears, hysterical cries… whatever.

"No! You didn't have to!" Summer burst out into tears on the telephone. Although she hadn't yelled, her voice was higher and more frantic.

"Were you going to lie?" Marissa asked submissively, as if it were something that she had to ask.

"Well," Summer said, gulping and wiping more tears that fell viciously down her cheek, "Yes."

"Well then I had to," Marissa answered angrily. "I have my own problems to deal with, Summer. I don't need your afflictions burdening me. Bye." Marissa said quickly, before clicking her phone off.

Meanwhile Summer, listening the depressing beeps of the disconnected line, started to bawl with all the anger, frustration and depression that had filled up inside of her. She lied on her bed restlessly, wishing her bed would take her problems away. After a while of desperate crying, Summer finally pulled herself together. She grabbed a tissue, to blow her nose, and she stood up to look in the mirror. She saw herself. Mascara, eyeliner dripping mercilessly down her cheek; Her hair ruffled from her twists and turns on the bed, as she was crying; her face swollen from the tears that drifted on it seconds earlier.

"God, what have I done?" Summer said, as she gripped her hair tightly with her hands.

"Was that Summer?" Seth asked Marissa, curiously.

"Yup," Marissa said, "She's upset."

"Mad upset, or sad upset? Is she pissed at you because you told?" Seth asked, hoping Marissa hadn't just jeopardized her friendship with Summer.

"Well, extremely depressed, crying upset. And she is slightly mad at me. But I wasn't just not going to tell you… how would that even work?" Marissa testified.

Seth sat in silence, then responded irrelevantly. "Maybe we should go find Ryan?" Marissa nodded, sat up, and stood up, leading Seth out the door. "I'll call him, on his cell." Seth offered, already pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

"Hello?" Seth recognized Ryan on the other line.

"Hey, buddy. Where are you?" Seth asked in a friendly tone. He too heard the irritating and incessant beeping of the disconnected line. Marissa looked at him sympathetically.

"Got any answers?" Marissa asked, knowing he probably hadn't by the confused expression on his face.

"Yeah, a 'hello'. Then he hung up," Seth took a deep breath, feeling put down by his best friend. "But hey, at least we know he's alive." Seth said in an optimistic voice.

"Yeah… right." Marissa looked uneasy, as she hurried along. "We have to find Ryan." Marissa insisted, "But first we gotta tell the Cohen's. I don't want them to be searching for you, too, and then getting mad at me for being held 'responsible'."

"You're right." Seth shot a quick smile, before entering the house. He saw Kirsten first, therefore he bombarded her with the comments. He tried not to make her worry, so he slurred everything he was supposed to say, "Ryanranaway.We'regoingtofindhim.Loveyoubye." Seth said quickly, before grabbing Marissa's arm, and dashing away.

"What?" Kirsten whispered, completely confused.

Once the two were out the door, Marissa questioned him. "I though we agreed to tell her."

"I did tell her. It's not my fault she didn't hear me." Seth shrugged, and jumped in his car. Seconds later, he saw lights flashing from behind. "Looks like we've got a visitor."

Marissa smiled- she hoped dearly it would be Ryan, coming back after a while of thinking, in the midst of the night. Summer stopped the engine, and bounced out of her car. Her face was puffy, and rosy. When she reached Marissa's side of the window, she knocked so that Marissa would reel it down. "Coop. You said you had problems of your own. Talk to me. What happened? You look just as bad as me." Summer asked kindly- something she hadn't been in a while.

Marissa looked at Seth, seeing the hurt expression on his face as he looked at Summer's lips- the ones that she had kissed him with earlier. He couldn't believe that she had kissed Zack! "Ryan ran away." Marissa then said.

"What? Just like that? He ran away!" Too many questions were blurring Summer's mind. "You guys are going to find him right?" Marissa nodded, "Open the door. I'm coming with you."

The door shot open, with Seth's gentle touch to the button. Summer hopped inside, while Seth started to pull out of the driveway, avoiding Summer's car.

"We had a fight. He said he couldn't stand this place, or he'd go crazy. He then, just left." Marissa tried to remove the invisible lump that was throbbing in her throat, as she recalled the evening.

"Oh man, Coop. I'm sorry. I'm probably not helping, at all." Summer apologized. She looked from Marissa, and Seth. Summer pouted, as she saw Seth's emotionless face. "Seth…"

"Yes Summer?" Seth asked, plastering a fake smile on his face.

Summer hesitated, but this hesitation was only guilt. "I'm so sorry." Summer whispered gently. Her voice sent chills down Seth's back. 'To forgive, or not to forgive- that is the question!' Seth thought in his mind, as he concentrated on the road.

"I just can't believe you would kiss, ZACK, out of all people. That's gotta be like incest or something!" Seth said angrily, "What does he have, that I don't? Are you like going through a variety of comic book geeks- breaking their fragile hearts one by one by one?"

"Seth! You know that what happened to you earlier this afternoon was real." Summer defended, "I just had to see if what I felt with Zack was real. It wasn't! I don't love Zack!"

"You don't love me, either." Seth quickly interrupted before Summer could say anything else. Silence drifted in the room, until Summer's delicate voice quietly fluttered in Seth's ears.

"Yes, Seth. I do."