To whoever said this story is boring, just don't read it. I couldn't care less about your review. If you have something bad to say about my story then say it in a constructive way.
Thanks to everybody else who actually said something that would help my writing. Constructive criticism is the only thing I actually care about and it means a lot that you're taking the time to read my story. Thanks! And Ryan still isn't telling anyone about his mom. After a while it's going to come up. Soon actually.
I don't know what Theresa's last name is. I should but I don't. So in this story it's going to be Gonzales. Sounds Spanish to me so it will do.
"Theresa Gonzales. Come with me. You have a visitor." Theresa looked up surprised. Her mother would refuse to see her. She was extremely angry with Theresa for being arrested and Theresa doubted she'd ever earn her mothers forgiveness. It couldn't be her brother, Arturo. He was still in jail. If Ryan hadn't been in jail she might have expected him but he was in here. Thanks to her. She had to admit she felt a little guilty. But not guilty enough to take all the blame. Even if it was all her, the cops didn't know that.
She got up and put her hands behind her back waiting for the cold metal handcuffs to be strapped and locked around hr wrists. She hated the feeling. Whenever they were taken off, her wrists felt raw and they were always red. The cop led her outside by the elbow. She didn't know why they always led the prisoners by the elbow. Maybe it was easier to keep them from getting away.
When she got to the door of the visitors area and looked in she saw the very last person she thought she would ever see. There on a metal stool, looking completely out of place in his black Armani suit, was Sandy Cohen. The father figure of Ryan Atwood, who was in here because of her.
She nervously walked over to him once the cops had taken the cuffs off.
"Hello, Mr. Cohen. Um, what are you doing here?"
"I came to visit you. Try o talk some sense into you. I just want to warn you that if you don't tell the truth about Ryan's innocence, once we get him out of here, which we most defiantly will I might add, we're going to take you to court. I'll have absolutely no mercy for you. Not after you've let my son spend much too long in a place like this for something he didn't do. He was your friend. How could you do this to him?" Sandy leant forward trying to get the girl in front of him to focus on his face instead of her lap.
"I didn't mean to."
"You didn't mean to sell drugs while sleeping with strangers and then tell the cops Ryan was involved in all of it?" Sandy asked with disbelief in his voice and an eyebrow raised in skepticism.
"No. I mean… I don't know. What I meant is that I never meant for him to come and find me. If he had just stayed where he belongs then none of this would be happening." Theresa finally looked up from the spot on her lap she had been focusing on since she sat down.
"So what you're saying is that it's Ryan's fault for trying to help out a friend in need." She could tell he was getting pissed off at her.
"All I'm saying is that maybe next time he should just stay out of Chino. Chino never did anything good to him. He's always hated it here. Why would he come back now?" Theresa really wanted to know. She had meant to ask Ryan but then the cops came and she didn't have time to ask.
"He came back because he needed an escape from the Newport drama I guess. He just had a rough breakup and he wanted to see someone who would always love him I think. I'm not sure who though. Maybe he came to see you. And let me tell you, you did not help him escape any drama at all."
Theresa ignored the last part. She knew she deserved it. "Why couldn't he talk to Seth? Even you or Mrs. Cohen?"
"Seth doesn't listen very well. Ryan needed someone to listen to him for a change. And do you honestly think he would come to me or my wife for something like this?" Sandy was determined to make this girl tell the truth. He hadn't been lying when he said he would take her to court if she didn't fess up.
"Oh. So is the only reason you came down here to threaten me and tell me how much I've screwed up Ryan's life or is there something more?" Theresa said with an edge to her voice. She had tried being polite and patient but she only had a limited number of minutes to be out of her cell per day(authors note- like free time out in the yard, and that sort of thing.) and it included visitors so she didn't want to waste her time with someone she didn't even want to talk to.
"Partly. If you tell the truth about Ryan not having anything to do with this, I'll be your lawyer. I'm good. I can get you out of here on two year probation. Ryan had that after he stole the car with his brother and the time flew by. I bet he forgot about it. This is your best chance. Take it."
Theresa thought about it for a minute. "How do I know you're not just going to up and leave as soon as I tell the truth?"
"Do I seem like the kind of person that would do that? If I say you have my word I mean it."
Theresa thought about it a little more before nodding her head. "He's always been there for me. I wouldn't want to lose him as a friend."
"Theresa, you have a long way to go before he'll want to be your friend again. After what you did to him? You betrayed him and he trusted you. I think we both know how hard it is to gain Ryan's trust."
Theresa snickered. She defiantly knew how hard it was to gain his trust. The more she thought about it the more she liked the idea. Maybe this way both she and Ryan could get out of here. If that was the case, she had no problem confessing. But if it wasn't and she would have to stay in here for a longer time there was no way. No matter how good of a friend Ryan had been to her.
"I don't know if I can trust you. I don't know you very well. I don't know if I should believe you when you say you can get me out of here."
Sandy started getting up. "Fine, I'm going to talk to the guard and ask if you can see Ryan. I doubt he wants to see you right now but if it helps his case I'm sure he will. I'm going to be right outside this door. I'll go see what I can do."
As Theresa waited for Sandy to return with Ryan she thought about her choices. She could confess and have Ryan as her friend again. She would also have a clear conscience again. Something she hadn't had since she and Ryan had been brought in. But then again Sandy was basically Ryan's father. He would probably do or say anything to get Ryan out of here. She hoped seeing Ryan would help her make up her mind.
After what seemed like only a very short amount of time Ryan walked in with a frown on his face. Sandy must be good, Theresa thought to herself, to get them to agree to let the two of them meet together after they were both brought in for dealing drugs together.
As he sat down on the stool opposite her she received the glare of a lifetime. She looked down saddened by the amount of rage in his eyes. And it was all aimed at her. Of course she had seen him mad before. She had seen him absolutely livid. But it was never before aimed at her. I guess I deserve this, she thought.
"What the hell do you want? Sandy said you wanted to talk to me. You going to accuse me of killing someone now to?" He said with such bitterness in his voice it took Theresa back.
"Ryan, I'm so sorry," Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes. "But I think I'm going to confess. Get you outta here."
"You think you're gonna confess." Ryan mimicked, once again rolling his eyes before leaning forward and making fierce eye contact like he had done when he had first met Sandy. "You didn't think about this when we were brought in? So it took you almost three weeks to decide, hey, he's innocent. Let's let him go. I hope you know that as soon as that cop car pulled up I was convinced that I was going to be fine. I thought maybe I'd call Sandy, get him to come out here and help you. But no. You watched me as I got pushed into that cop car. You watched me. Once I'm out of here your dead to me. You're gonna be completely out of my life."
Tears had formed in Theresa's eyes as soon as he said she was dead to him. She couldn't stand the silence as he finished his rant. She couldn't bear the thought of losing him as a friend. They had been there for each other since they were toddlers. They had seen the highs and lows of each others lives. She couldn't lose him as a friend.
"Ryan. I'm going to confess. I'm going to say that it was all me. Please. Just don't block me out of your life. After all those years together we can't let one little thing like this tear us apart. I'm so sorry," tears were now streaming down her pretty face forming red lines on her cheeks.
Ryan looked at her in disgust. "One little thing? Are you kidding me? This is going to be on my record for life. This isn't going to be considered some little misunderstanding. If I even so little as get pulled over for speeding, when they run my license through the system this is going to come up. They're going to see that I've done time for dealing drugs and I'm going to get a much bigger fine. Maybe even get asked to come in for questioning. Did you even think about how if this had happened only 3 weeks earlier, I would have been in here for a minimum of 3 years? With my probation, did you ever stop to think about that?"
Theresa gulped. She hadn't remembered. She knew how much trouble he'd be in if he had still had his probation. She now knew how much she'd fucked up. She could only thank God that it had happened when it had.
"I'm sorry. I forgot. But it doesn't even matter now. Once I fess up you'll be free to go. And Sandy said he could get me out on probation." His face was still hard. She didn't know what would break him. Make him forgive her. If not completely, at least enough to allow him to look at her without pure hatred in his eyes.
"Do you remember when we were little kids, maybe 5 or 6, and the people living across the street were throwing a baseball around? And one of them threw it too hard and it hit me in the face. I was crying so hard but then you came over. I didn't even know you yet but you still came over and tried to help me. I remember you ran and got my mom and told her I was hurt," she saw his face soften. "Or how about when I was just learning how to ride a bike. I fell off and landed in a rosebush and my skirt was stuck in the thorns. Once again you came to my rescue," her voice was choking up just thinking about what she would do if she lost her best friend. "You brought me a band aid and helped me clean the cut."
She started to smile. "And then you sang to me to stop me from crying. You had the best voice. I don't know why you stopped."
She could see he was trying to hide back a smile. "Because it was stupid. I was too old for that shit after a while."
"What I'm trying to say is we've been through so much together. I don't know what I would do if I lost you over something like this." She reached over to grab his hand and was happy to see him not try to pull it away.
"I'm sorry about what I said before. You'll never be dead to me. Never. And now that you're confessing and Sandy will get you out we can forget about this."
Her smile faltered a little as she remembered she had promised she was going to confess. She was nervous about that.
"You are going to confess right?" Ryan asked, noticing that her smile had faded when he brought up the subject.
She instantly put on another smile and said cheerfully, "Of course Ry. As long as I don't lose you, you know I'd do anything for you." And she would confess. But that didn't mean she wasn't scared to death of what was going to happen when she did.
Sandy walked into the room and when he saw the two of them holding hands he smiled. Hopefully this meant they had come to an agreement and Theresa would be confessing.
"Okay you two. Its time to head back to your cells," he could have slapped himself for saying that. They didn't need reminding that they were still in prison. "Uh, sorry. What I meant was its time to get going. Theresa, I told the guard you needed to talk to him. Ryan. I'll see you soon." He winked and then waked out into the hall.
Theresa started sweating. She needed more time to prepare. This had just sprung up on her. She had no clue what she was going to say. Why would Sandy have booked her time with the guard already? What if she said no to confessing? She looked over at Ryan who was looking back at her with a warm look in his eyes. Sandy had booked the time for her because he knew that she would confess, she realized. He knew what kind of a person she was and he knew that she wouldn't let her best friend stay in jail over something he didn't do.
The two of them got up and before leaving through their separate doors hugged each other goodbye.
"I'll see you around, Ry. I sorry for all this."
"Don't worry about it Theresa. Call me when you get out okay?"
She nodded and then walked out to the hall. The guard cuffed her and then took her to the questioning room.
"Mr. Cohen said you had something important you'd like to tell us. What might that be?" one of the guards asked Theresa leaning against the wall.
"Um, it's about why I'm here. And Ryan Atwood." She was so nervous that she had sweat forming on her forehead.
"Okay. And….."
She took a deep breath before she dove in. "He wasn't involved in it."
The guards stood up straighter and one of them walked closer towards her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means he saw me and he came over to see if I was okay. We hadn't seen each other since last summer, and then when the cops came I sort of froze up and didn't say anything. And now I'm telling you. It was all me. He didn't even know about it until he was brought in."
"Uh-huh. And we're going to believe that because…."
"Because it's the truth. Ask Sandy Cohen. Ask Ryan. All our stories will match up because it's what really happened." Theresa was now desperate. She had told Ryan that she would confess and now when she was they didn't believe her?
"How are we supposed to know you're not just taking the bullet so he can go out and keep your business going steady while you're in here? Even if you are telling the truth there's no proof. There were no witnesses. All of the stores were empty so no clerks would have seen you. It was late at night. You two were the only ones out there. Ryan's going to be staying here until we have some proof that he wasn't involved in any of it."
Theresa sighed. This wasn't supposed to be how it went. They were supposed to believe her, let Ryan go, and then she'd get out with probation. That's what Sandy had said.
"Chris, take her back to her cell."
"No! You have to believe me! I swear to God he didn't have anything to do with this!" Theresa struggled against the guard desperate to convince them.
"Listen, there's nothing we can do. Maybe if you had said this a little bit earlier, like when you were first brought in, then we'd have an easier time believing you. But after three weeks? You've had more than enough time to confess."
"I was scared what would happen to me. But please, you have to trust me on this."
"No can do. I'll talk to Sandy Cohen and set a court date with the judge. You to still don't know how long you're going to in here for."
Theresa let herself be led away with silent tears coming down her face. When the guard uncuffed her and shut the door she walked over to her bed and sat down. What was she going to say to Ryan? It was her fault. If only she had said something earlier then he'd be out already. She broke down into tears as she thought about what he would think of her now. Making those cops believe her had been her only chance at getting Ryan out. Sure, Sandy was a good lawyer but he wasn't good enough to get a suspected guilty convict out of jail. Especially one with Ryan's history. She put her face in her hands and cried until her eyes began to droop closed and she fell into a world of darkness.
"Sandy! Did Theresa confess? When's Ryan coming home?" Kirsten was in Sandy's face the minute the door opened and he walked in. When she took a minute to look at him she noticed his somber expression for the first time. "What's wrong? Is Ryan okay?" she asked concern etched into her face.
"He's fine. For now. Theresa said she would confess," Kirsten's face broke into a huge grin. "But when she did the guards didn't believe her. They told me they need proof that Ryan didn't have anything to do with it before they'll let him go."
"They didn't believe her? Why the hell not?" Kirsten was yelling now. She was mad at Theresa and the guards and scared for Ryan all in one. She was having a roller coaster of emotions race through her.
"I'm sure they'll find something to show he's innocent. I just don't know when."
"Dad? Did you see Ryan?" Seth asked as he came down the stairs still in his pajamas. It was late at night and Sandy figured Seth had been waiting up all night for him to come home.
"Yes, I saw him."
"And…." Seth urged his eyes growing wide in anticipation.
"When Theresa confessed the guards didn't believe her. They want proof before they let Ryan go." Sandy sighed.
"Why would they want proof? If Theresa says he didn't do it isn't that good enough?" Seth was confused now, his eyebrows knitting together as he looked back and forth between his parents.
"Apparently, since it took so long for Theresa to come to her senses it wasn't so easy for them to believe her." Seth looked at his father in horror.
"How long's he going to be in there for then?"
"Seth, I don't know. I'm trying my hardest to get him out. But he's in there for a pretty serious offense even if he's innocent."
"Seth, sweetie. Don't worry about a thing. Ryan's going to come home soon. Before your back in school, Ryan will be back. I promise." Kirsten spoke up trying to convince herself as much as her son.
"Seth why don't you go upstairs. Your mother and I need to talk about some things."
For once Seth agreed with his dad and started walking upstairs without an argument.
Once he got upstairs he picked up his phone and started dialing Summer's number.
"What the fuck do you want?" she snapped after a few rings.
"Summer. It's me."
"Cohen! Why the hell are you calling me at 2:30 a.m! I've had a long day and I need my rest!"
"Sorry. It's just… its Ryan…"
Summer must have noticed the sadness in his voice because she immediately put on a sweeter tone. "Seth, what's wrong? What about Ryan?"
Seth sighed. "He's in jail."
Summer gasped. "What'd he do?"
"Well, he didn't do anything really. But he's been accused of dealing 6 ounces of cocaine with Theresa. Oh right. When they found Theresa she was selling herself off for sex with complete strangers. The cops probably thought Ryan was her pimp or something crazy."
Summer chuckled. "I don't really see Chino as the pimp type." She then put on a serious tone. "But if he didn't do it why's he in jail?"
"Theresa only decided to confess today. Three weeks after they were arrested. They probably find it hard to believe her now."
"Wait. Ryan's been in jail for three weeks and you didn't think of telling me? Cohen. I'm your girlfriend. I'm here to listen to you when you have problems."
"Well you didn't exactly notice he was gone. I didn't think he'd want people to know and I also thought he'd be out soon. So I just sort of kept it to myself."
"So how longs he gonna be in lock up for?"
"Dad told me he's set a court date for him on the 11th."
"That's only a week away though. Is that enough time to prepare for something like this?" Summer asked.
"Dad's been working on this since he found out Ryan was arrested. I guess he thought he should get a head start. Just in case I guess."
"Yeah…." Summer was silent for a while. "Seth, I'm here for you okay?"
"Thanks Summer."
"Don't worry Seth. I'm sure he'll be out in no time."
Seth just sighed. "Summer. Don't tell Marissa."
"Why not?" Summer asked with confusion in her voice.
"I just don't want everyone to know about this. I know Ryan wouldn't want to come back with all of Newport knowing he spent his vacation in a jail cell."
"Your secrets are with me Cohen. Or Chino's secret I guess."
"Thanks. And when he comes back don't act weird around him. Like, don't ask him how he's doing and all that. He's going to get more then enough of that from my parents."
"Okay, Seth. Don't worry."
"I got to go Summer. I'll call you tomorrow. I love you"
"Love you to." With that said Seth hung up the phone and waked back downstairs to see if he could catch the tail end of his parents' conversation. As he got to the middle of the stairs that was right behind a pillar, where he usually went when he was eavesdropping, he heard his mothers choked up voice.
"So, he can be in there for up to 4 years if we don't get him out on his court date?" Seth could tell his mother was sobbing. Her voice was unusually high and you could hear her sobs from where Seth was sitting.
"I'm afraid so. I'm not going to be home for a while. I need to come up with some proof that he's innocent. I have no idea what I'm going to do though. That street was deserted when they were arrested."
"Oh Sandy. Why Ryan?" Seth could see his mother bury her head into his dads shoulder as her body started to heave up and down.
"I don't know honey. I don't know." Sandy wrapped his arms around his wife's shaking body and held her close.
Seth couldn't take this anymore. He ran upstairs and jumped face down on his bed. He couldn't keep the tears from leaking out and pouring down his face. Ryan could spend 5 years in a horrible jail cell for something he didn't even do. That was the most unfair thing Seth had ever heard. He only prayed that his dad would be able to find something to get Ryan out.
Next chapter will sandy be able to prove Ryan innocent? Or will be confined to a jail cell for the next 5 years? Read to find out. And once again Trey will be in this story. Jus not yet. But soon. Don't worry.
Don't forget to review! It makes me write faster. And sorry it took me so long to update this chapter. I wasn't in the mood to writ this weekend. I know this chapter doesn't have a lot but I want the plot to move forward and the only way to get that done was to have a chapter sort of dedicated to setting the story straight. Thanks for reading!
Review!