It was almost midnight when Summer got home that night. She made her way to her bedroom, expecting to find a very distraught Marissa. Instead, she found a note, saying that Marissa was going out, she didn't know when she'd be back but to call her cell if need be.

Summer looked at the clock one more time. This was totally not like Marissa at all. Even if she had a fight with Ryan, which she clearly had, judging by Ryan's refusal to leave the poolhouse all night and Marissa's disappearance.

Uncertain of what to do, she did the one thing she could, picked up her cell and dialled Marissa's number. Since the phone went right into voicemail, she said,

"Coop, hey, it's me. Where are you? It's like really late and I'm worried about you. I know you and Ryan had a fight, so call me back and we'll talk k? Bye."

After another half hour, Summer was getting REALLY scared. It was late, she didn't know where Marissa was and she knew that when it came to problems, Marissa didn't handle them well to start with. Completely lost, she picked up the phone and called the Cohens.

"Hello?" A tired and groggy Seth answered after 7 rings.

"Hey, Cohen, I need to talk to Ryan. Is Marissa there?"

"Hey whoa. You call late at night, wake me up out of bed and then ask for my best friend and his girlfriend? That's sad."

"COHEN! I'm serious is she there? She's not here, she isn't answering her cell and I don't know where she might be. Do you think Ryan knows?"

"Hey, whoa, okay calm down, I'll ask him, I'm sure they're all over each other in there. In fact, I'm not sure I want to go back in there and have a repeat of last week, too bad the poolhouse is never rockin' cuz Seth came a-knockin'."

"Ew." Summer said but Seth's words made her feel better, they always did.

Seth crossed the yard in his robe and knocked on the door to the poolhouse. After a few minutes without a response, he tried the door and it was open. Summer asked what was going on, he replied

"I don't know, Ryan's not in his bed so I guess he's with her, see no need to worry."

"Seth what are you doing in here, in the middle of the night…wearing Kirsten's slippers?"

A scream echoed into the phone and Summer nearly dropped the phone.

"Marissa!" She asked, terrified.

"No, no… it…it… was just me." Seth managed to gasp, after dealing with the shock of Ryan's appearance. "Dude that was so not cool and the slippers were closest to the door."

Ryan smirked at Seth and then repeated his first question again.

"Oh, Summer is looking for Marissa…she hasn't seen her, so she wondered if…"

Seth was cut off as Ryan grabbed the phone.

"Summer? What's going on? Where do you think she might be? Is she okay?" He stammered.

"Whoa, Chino, I don't know, I was calling to ask you the same. Her cell isn't on."

"K, I'm going to go check out the lifeguard stand, you keep trying her cell, I'll take mine and if she shows up, just call me." Ryan said as he pulled on his leather jacket and headed out the door.

"Okay, I'll just stay here and…" But Ryan was gone and Summer had hung up.

The winds whipped the sand around the beach as Ryan pulled up to the deserted parking lot. Marissa's car was nowhere in sight but he still checked the tower. No one was there. He looked around for signs of Marissa, but he didn't see anything to indicate she had been there. With nothing else to do he slid down the wall and sat. And thought.

This was his fault, if only he had told her what she needed to hear. Not that he knew exactly what that was. But if he hadn't gotten mad, if they could have kept talking, she wouldn't be somewhere alone, sad and hurting. They could be together. Everything was so much better that way. Maybe he just had to tell her that. That he wanted to be there for her but he wasn't sure how. As he sat, watching the waves roll in and out, he decided the next time he saw her, that he would tell her exactly that. He closed his eyes wearily, happy to finally have a plan. But what could he do with it? All he could do was sit. And wait.

Bang! Summer jerked awake after spending a night asleep on the chair beside her bed. She supposed she hadn't made it through the night at all. She glanced at the source of the noise, to find Marissa sitting on the floor, in a heap.

"Whoa, so there's a chair there." She said to Summer smiling. "Hey, sorry I didn't call back, I didn't get it til now. I turned my phone off and just… let go."

"What are you talking about?" She glanced at the clock. "It's five in the morning, where could you possibly have been?"

"Oh, I got home and started to do homework but Johnny called and asked if I wanted to come over and watch a few movies. So I mean, after everything, I just went. I needed to calm down, spend some time away from my problems with Ry--"

"Oh my god. Ryan! I have to call him, oh no. This is bad. Very bad."

"What? What's going on? Why would you call MY boyfriend?"

"Crap! See last night, I didn't know where you were and I was worried." Marissa gave her an apologetic look. "So then I called Cohen to see if you were there and then he asked Ryan, and Ryan just flipped out, like totally went everywhere to find you, then I fell asleep and I.."

"Oh, well, don't worry. He probably found some way to justify sleeping" Marissa said, the pain she had tried blocking out was slowly coming out. Summer gave her a look that clearly showed he disbelief.

Summer phoned Ryan and on the first ring, he picked it up.

"Hey, have you heard anything? What's up?" He rushed the words but they sounded tired. In the background Summer heard the ocean calmly drawing breaths in and out.

"Yeah, she just got home, she's okay. Don't worry, she's fine. No… uh… she just went to Johnny's for some down time. She couldn't deal with…" Seeing the mortified look on Marissa's face made her change her tact.

"I mean she didn't want to do her homework and so… I don't know, watched movies I think. Look, she's just right here I can give her the phone if…"

Marissa shook her head emphatically no but Summer ignored her. "Uh, yeah, if you're sure you don't… look I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, I feel awful, I fell asleep, I didn't mean to leave you worrying all night…Oh, ok then, call Cohen and let him know? Kay, bye." And with that Summer hung up the phone.

"Sum? How could you tell him I was at Johnny's like that? Things were bad enough, now it will be even harder…"

"Look Coop, I don't know what's up exactly but I do know that whatever it is, you should be able to talk to Ryan about it. And doing what you did last night was really selfish, I mean sure I don't get to tell you what to do but think about how much worrying you caused not just me but… Ryan… Ryan was awake all night just waiting. He didn't know what to do. Come on Marissa, you both need to talk. He's down by the pier, meeting Set. Go talk to him."

"I guess, it's hard. It hurts Sum. I need him to be there."

"Why don't you tell him that?"