Summer in the City
Chapter 16
AN: WOW! Two weeks! That definitely was a long time. I was sick the whole past week and was in bed. I couldn't write. So here is the next chapter of Summer in the City, Finally!
Summer looked up with an ashen face to Marissa. She jumped when she saw Summer staring at her. Seth stood behind Summer with his hand on her lower back; he, too, was wondering if she had heard.
Confused, Kirsten didn't know why everyone was so uptight and surprised. All she did was tell Marissa that her daughter wanted her; it wasn't that big of deal.
"Marissa!" Ryan's voice was heard as footsteps sounded on the stairs and the soft whimper of Catalina was audible.
"Up here." Marissa faintly replied. She walked towards Ryan's figure as he arrived and took her baby from him. "Hey, baby." She cooed. Seth and Summer stayed silent and Kirsten casually walked back down stairs, confused.
"Hey guys, why so quiet?" Ryan asked, looking at the couple in front of them.
Seth looked up quickly and chuckled. "huh? Me, quiet? Impossible." He announced with an airy feel to it.
Summer sighed deeply and softly gave a giggle. "Cohen," She paused as if she forgot her train of thought. "Never mind." Again, she remained silent. The quietness was unnerving but none of them made a sound.
Finally, sick of the silence, Seth turned towards Summer. "How about lunch?"
Thankful for the rescue, they all rambled their agreement.
"Sounds great." Ryan announced; he was perplexed about why Marissa all of a sudden was skittish and so quiet. Did something happen in the few minutes she had left him?
"Marissa, let's go see if we can help Kirsten with anything." He said and she nodded carrying their daughter with them down the stairs.
After they were gone, Seth felt Summer release a huge sigh and he chuckled, discontent.
"Well, I guess the secret's out of the bag." He announced softly so nobody else would hear.
She didn't respond but stepped back into Seth's room and collapsed on the bed throwing a pillow over her head.
He followed and heard a faint whimper from underneath the pillow. Seth sat next to her on the bed and slowly rubbed the base of her back to release the tension.
"I guess the Cohen sarcasm doesn't have the best timing." He admitted, apologizing.
She continued to sob under the pillow, not speaking or sticking her head out from underneath its hiding.
"We don't even know she knows. She probably didn't even hear us. What's the odds, right?" He added, trying to make her feel better. They didn't know that Marissa had heard anything so why be all upset.
More muffled sobs and sniffles and Seth leaned down towards the pillow.
"No matter what I've got your back. That's all that matters. You and me. Got that?" He whispered as he rubbed small circles onto her back. Slowly, after a minute's consult, her head re-appeared from under the purple pillow. With a steady stream of tears flowing, she still tried to smile at him.
"That's my girl. Now let's go have a good lunch." Summer sighed again and stood up following Seth.
Her hands moved to wipe the tears away from her eyes, "Cohen, I'm going to go splash water on my face and re-do my make-up."
"Okay." He gave a half-wave and walked down the stairs.
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Summer stood staring at her pallid face in the mirror; her hair had came disheveled from the surfing and she was still in her now-dry bathing suit.
Her eyes had little dark circles under them and she softly touched it with the tip of her finger. Why had her life turned out so crappy?
A faint knock was heard at the door and she jumped.
"Who is it?" She asked, putting down the small bottle of foundation.
"me." Marissa answered softly.
Summer quickly grabbed the bottle and dabbed some foundation around her eyes so it hadn't looked like she had been crying.
"Yeah?" Summer added. "What's up?"
Marissa stood at the other side of the door. Did Summer know she knew?
"Ummm, Kirsten told me to come up and tell you lunch is ready. Well, lunch has arrived." She laughed at that. "You almost done?"
Summer opened the bathroom door and smiled at her friend. "Yep. You hungry?" She had on a fake smile and walked down the stairs with Marissa.
"Starving." Marissa blurted.
"Well, good. Me too."
As they walked down, Summer looked over towards the kitchen where Seth was looking at her with a perplexed look on his face.
She smiled at him and he walked a few steps towards her.
"GOOD! YOU'RE ALL HERE!" Sandy announced quite loudly. "FINALLY, I'M ABOUT READY TO EAT A HORSE."
"Sandy, you're going to scare Catalina by being so loud." Kirsten shushed him.
Marissa moved over towards Ryan while Seth stepped by Summer.
"That's okay, Kirsten." Marissa began.
"Nonsense. Sandy shouldn't be yelling anyways."
"Honey… Don't spoil my fun." Sandy laughed, dishing out some of the Chinese that had arrived.
Kirsten pouted as she handed Summer a plate.
"Well, next time maybe I will make lunch myself." She threatened.
Seth and Sandy groaned. "I will never visit you again if you do that, mom." He warned.
Kirsten feigned being offended.
"I bet your cooking isn't that bad." Marissa defended Kirsten.
"You've never tried it, lucky duck." Seth remarked jealously.
"Maybe Friday night I will cook you guys all a family cooked meal." Kirsten announced.
"NO!" Seth whined and Summer laughed at him. She had tried her cooking once when it was just Kirsten and her one night and she had to admit it was a disaster. Summer had to take over ¼ of the way through.
"Okay." Marissa agreed with Kirsten. "Let's have a home cooked meal. Girls cook." She said triumphantly. Marissa wasn't a chief by any means since Ryan did all the cooking at home. Summer also wasn't the best cook but she got by. She was the best of the girls in the cooking department but that wasn't saying much because she usually got distracted and left the food to burn.
"Have I ever told you guys of the time Summer was left to cook meatloaf for my boss?" Seth broadcasted. Summer groaned. She had hated this story but Seth called it a conversation piece.
"No. What happened?" Ryan asked and all of the Cohen's waited for him to continue.
"Well, my boss was going to come over to our apartment for dinner. He wanted to talk to be about a new character on the comic book. Anyways, Summer decided to cook for him after my failed attempts for trying to get her to hire a caterer."
"I told you I wasn't going to have some chief cook for us!" Summer exclaimed indignantly.
"Can I finish my story?" he asked.
Summer eyed him but nodded.
" So ANYWAYS she decides to cook meatloaf for him. She goes out and buys like 4 cookbooks and she starts preparing it all. She's doing all right so I think she has it under control. I leave because I forgot to buy the drinks so I go to the store.
"He promised me he would remember to get the drinks on his way home from work." She interrupted again. He looked at her.
"Sorry." She added. "Continue."
"SO I leave for 30 minutes and when I come home the apartment is on fire." He concluded and everyone gasped.
"Sum, you set the apartment on fire?" Marissa asked, giggling.
"It's not my fault. Cohen, here made French fries the night before and he dropped the fries in the oven. I left to take Coco on a quick walk before Seth's boss came and I left the meatloaf cooking. It's not my fault the French fries caught on fire." She explained.
"And who forgot the check the stove? And who knew not to leave a stove unattended?"
Summer jabbed her elbow into his ribs and he groaned.
"So what happened?" Ryan asked.
"Well, the fire department came and extinguished the fire and we had to hire a guy to take the fumes out. We also had to buy a new stove and countertops and re-paint the walls." Seth announced, mocking Summer.
"Hey!"
"Hey, what?" Seth laughed.
"Cohen, shut it." They all laughed at the couple. Summer seemed more at ease but Marissa was studying her actions.
Her father raped Summer so many years ago before her dad had died? Why didn't she ever tell her or why didn't her father ever go to jail? Why didn't Summer tell the police or revolt against her father. Maybe Marissa would never know.
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After lunch, Marissa, Ryan and Catalina all said their goodbyes to the Cohen's and left back home.
"I had a good time." Ryan said, getting into the car.
"Yeah." Marissa said quietly in the next seat.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I overheard something before lunch."
"What?"
Ryan hadn't a clue what she was talking about. What had she overheard?
"Remember when I went up to get Summer and Seth?"
He nodded.
"I overheard Summer say she was raped by her dad."
"Oh god."
She gave him a look.
"Then Kirsten came up and Summer and Seth heard us. I don't know if they know I heard." She was looking down at her hands.
"How could she never tell us?" She asked.
"Seth would have told me." Ryan said. "He tells me everything. Even when he's not supposed to. He can't keep secrets."
"What do I do now? Confront her? Not tell her?" She asked.
TBC
Not much happening in this chapter but something very important will happen next chapter. So now Ryan knows and now whats going to happen next?
Please review and I'm sorry about the lack of updates last week. I probably will write the next chapter of TSOKC today.