A/N Thanks for the feedback - it really does help to keep me motivated.

--- Chapter 11

Ryan lay in bed that night thinking over the strange series of events that had unfolded. Never had he imagined that the day would turn out as it had.

He was thankful that when he'd arrived home Luke had been in the shower. It meant that Ryan had been able to avoid having to face him since he'd been concerned about how he was going to explain to Luke why he'd taken off and deserted him at the gym. Ryan had no idea what reason Molly would have given and he wasn't ready to share his newfound knowledge about Marissa with Luke. He doubted that he ever would be.

He quickly made his way in to his room and closed the door, leaving the lights off, hoping that Luke wouldn't even realise that he was home. He figured that he could get up and use the bathroom in a while – after Luke was asleep. Ryan had too much on his mind for there to be any chance of sleep finding him in the near future anyway.

He smiled in the dark. It was all so much to take in. Thinking about Marissa as a virgin just made her even more special to him. He'd always known that she was different but he couldn't tell if that was the reason why. Looking back it all started to make sense. He realised that some of her actions were understandable given her lack of experience. But then remembering the way that she responded to him when he went down on her and her actions in the shower when she'd come to him unbidden … he knew that once awakened … Marissa the sexual being may just be more than he could handle. He couldn't wait. His body started to respond to just the thought of what he had to look forward to and he rubbed his fist over his growing erection thinking 'down boy'.

He had no idea how he had managed to say no to her. She was beautiful. Hot. And horny. And yet he'd left her wanting more. She had wanted him and he'd said no. But only because he wanted to make sure that she really wanted HIM not just any guy. But already he didn't think that was the case. He thought that they had the start of something special. But how would he know for sure?

He knew that Luke would never believe what had happened tonight which was hardly surprising given that Ryan himself was having trouble believing it. Part of him wanted to get back up and go straight back to her place and fix the problem. But that was just it. As far as he was concerned it wasn't a problem.

Although he had to admit that he was also a little nervous about it.

It would be a first for her and he wanted it to be perfect.

But what she didn't know … was that it would be a first for him as well.

He'd never taken a girl's virginity before.

And even though it may seem strange, given his obvious experience with the female sex, it had been a deliberate choice. He had never wanted to. He had always avoided it.

And for good reason.

But that was up until he'd met Marissa. When it came to her, he knew that he didn't want anyone else to do it. So that meant that it had to be him. But he didn't want her to have any regrets.

Ryan's aversion to taking a girl's virginity had started many years ago back in Chino.

He and Theresa had always been friends. They'd grown up together. She was one of the few people in the world who actually knew the real Ryan. Knew what his family were like. And what he'd been through.

Ryan had always been good at hiding his feelings. He didn't talk much. He'd learnt at a young age that you actually got beaten up a lot less if you just kept everything to yourself and kept your mouth shut. So, not many of his friends from school had any idea about what the Atwood household was really like.

But Theresa lived next door. She knew it all. She could lie in her bed, which was on the side of the house near Ryan's and hear the fights. She knew when he was getting beaten up by AJ or one of Dawn's other 'male friends'. Often she'd been the one to offer him shelter when it all got too much. She'd open her bedroom window wide and he'd slip in to her room and she would comfort him without anything needing to be said just by providing him with a safe place to stay. Looking back he realised that her mother had probably always known about what they were doing but she'd avoided saying anything as well. She must have also known that it was best to keep one's own counsel.

But as they got older and puberty approached, it was only natural that as they became sexually inquisitive that it would be one another that they would turn to. Sort of the 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' scenario and so they'd fumbled around with one another's bits but had never gotten very far. They had both talked about maybe doing the deed one day – just so they'd know what it was all about. Everyone in Chino did it, so it just made sense for them to try it out on one another first. It wasn't like they were madly in love or anything … more that they were just doing something new with their best friend. And everyone likes to experience new things with friends. They weren't in any hurry but they'd both accepted that when the time was right, then they'd probably try it together.

That being the case, Ryan the responsible one, had asked Trey if he could borrow a condom … just in case. A move that Ryan regretted to this day because he was sure that was what gave Trey the idea.

One night not long after, after a particularly harsh beating from AJ, Ryan had gone to Theresa's window only to find it locked solid. He'd tapped and tapped and then resorted to knocking loudly but still nothing. And yet he knew she was inside. He could hear her through the gap between the window and the sill. She was crying and he had no idea why. Eventually he'd waited until all the lights had gone out in his own house, knowing that AJ would be asleep and he'd crept back into his room still wondering about what had happened with Theresa. Why was she crying? And why wouldn't she let him in?

She'd avoided him for several days until he'd finally found out what had happened. And he'd found out from Trey of all people.

Not willing to believe what Trey had said, assuming that he was just taunting Ryan as usual, Ryan had immediately gone to see Theresa only to have her confirm every horrible word.

Apparently on that fateful evening a few days earlier, Trey had decided to pay a visit to Theresa. He knew that her mother was out because he'd wanted to go out with Arturo that night but Arturo had explained that he was busy, he had to drive Theresa's mother to visit her sister.

Theresa was a little in awe of Trey. He was a couple of years older and had quite a reputation with the girls around school. They all thought he was hot and they were always happy to accommodate him whenever he could fit them into his busy schedule. To this day Ryan didn't know how, but Trey had somehow convinced Theresa that she would be the luckiest girl in the world to lose her virginity to Trey. He'd explained that the worst thing that you could do, would be to do it with someone that had never done it before, someone like Ryan. That because Ryan wouldn't know what he was doing, he would only end up hurting her. Plus he suggested that once she knew what she was doing then she'd be able to help Ryan out. That it was just friends helping one another out by passing on their knowledge.

Somehow it had all made sense to her at the time and so Trey had taken her virginity on the single bed in her room while her mother was visiting with her sister. He hadn't taken his time. He hadn't been gentle. In fact he had been fast and brutal, leaving a raw and bleeding Theresa curled up on her bed in tears.

Trey had laughed as he'd left her room telling her that now that he'd fixed her up, Ryan was welcome to her.

That … as always … Ryan could have 'Trey's sloppy seconds'. He got his hand me down clothes so why should girls be any different.

Ryan had been incensed at Trey but Theresa had stopped him from going after him. She admitted that it wasn't rape. She had agreed to it, thinking that it was somehow going to make her worldly wise. But all it had done was make her regret the whole sorry thing. She wished that she had never done it. She wished that she'd waited. But it was all too late. She could never get back what he had taken away.

Eventually, quite sometime later, she and Ryan had done the deed, but by then she was just giving it away to anyone that seemed to want it. It wasn't the same but she'd told Ryan that because there were no emotional feelings involved in her first time that she couldn't see the need for there to be emotions involved at all. If it made her feel good then why shouldn't she do it? Because there wasn't much that could make you feel good in Chino?

It was a harsh reality to come to terms with.

Something that she had been hoping would be special was something that she never liked to think about. She was over it. And she'd moved on. It had become a physical act of pleasure but no more. However Ryan knew that the emotional wounds that Trey had inflicted that night were still there. And he didn't ever want to be responsible for leaving that sort of mark on a girl.

And so he had avoided virgins at all costs. He didn't like to think that there could be a chance that he would leave the same sort of emotional scars behind.

Better to find experienced girls that were in it for the fun and enjoyment just like he was.

That was until Marissa.

He wanted more than fun with Marissa.

Sure he wanted them to enjoy themselves but it was more than that.

He knew already, he wanted it all.

The pressure to make it perfect for her, he knew, was going to weigh heavily on him over the next 13 days. And the thought that if he didn't, she might forever regret her decision was a daunting prospect.

---

Marissa woke the next day and her first thought was of Ryan. She actually wondered if the thought of him had even left her mind all night. He was certainly the last thing that she had thought about before she went to sleep, he'd filled her dreams and now all she could think about was the prospect of seeing him again at lunchtime. She wished that he had chosen to stay, even if they hadn't done anything. The thought of waking up all curled up beside him made her feel all warm and squishy inside. It was a feeling that was entirely unfamiliar to her but she was sure that she'd love to get used to it.

Bouncing out of bed she met Molly at the door way just on her way out for a run.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" Molly asked. Marissa was usually the hardest person in the world to get out of bed.

"I just have to get ready." She explained.

"At 6 o'clock in the morning?" Molly asked.

"It takes time for a girl to look her best." Marisa explained.

"And why would you be wanting to look you best?" Molly teased. "I normally drag you out of bed as I'm walking out the door at 8:45 and you throw on jeans a top and pick up an apple and you're all good. What's different about today?" she laughed unable to keep a straight face any longer.

Marissa smiled back. She knew that Molly was just teasing. "I have a lunch date." She replied pertly as she almost skipped around the kitchen. She was so happy she thought that she might burst.

"With anyone that I know?" Molly asked playing along.

"Only the sexist, most gorgeous man on the face of the earth." Marissa replied.

"Besotted much?" Molly asked.

"Only a lot." Marissa replied light heartedly. "And why shouldn't I be?"

"I must admit that he is pretty cute." Molly reluctantly admitted.

"Pretty cute? You have no idea." Marissa shook her head and then added. "I thought that too until I saw him naked and let's just say that 'cute' doesn't cut it."

"What you have a better adjective?" Molly queried enjoying this new Marissa. She was a far cry from the insecure mess that she'd been after Spencer.

"Caring. Considerate. Amazing." Marissa replied and then a sparkle came into her eyes. "Delicious ... Cut ... Hot …. Hung …" she sighed loudly. "And have I told you about the things that he can do with his tongue?"

Molly laughed. "Okay. Okay. I get the message. Now you're just trying to make me jealous."

"It's okay. It's understandable that you would be because you just don't find Ryan's growing on trees." Marissa replied as she pulled the juice from the fridge.

"I guess not. You find them in gyms. I told you that it was a great place to hang out. You can thank me later by the way for letting you take my place so that you could meet him. And as for the thanks that I deserve for giving him your address last night …"

Marissa went serious all of a sudden. "Now that, I do have to thank you for. But I have to admit that I'm still surprised that you did that. When I'd last spoken to you, you were still warning me off him. What happened to change your mind?"

"I'm not really sure. He just came and said that he wanted to get in touch with you and I suggested that he leave you alone and if you could have seen his face … He asked was that what you really wanted and I swear that I thought that he was going to cry if I'd said yes." Molly teased.

"You may be exaggerating a little but I don't care. It makes for a good story." Marissa laughed. "But forget about going out for a run this morning. I need your help here."

"Doing what? You already made me help clean up the bathroom last night. What else did the two of you manage to destroy?"

"It's nothing like that. I need you to help me decide what to wear." Marissa stated and Molly started to laugh. Marissa added indignantly. "This is no laughing matter. My whole future could depend on this."

"Honey from the look I saw in that guy's eyes last night … you could wear a potato sack and he would still want you."

---

Ryan was starting to get nervous. He looked at the clock again. 11:50. Only 10 more minutes. His fluid dynamics lecturer was giving them some homework but Ryan knew that he would have to get it from one of his classmates later. His brain couldn't concentrate on anything but the fact that he'd be seeing Marissa in 10 more minutes. As soon as the lecturer picked up his things, Ryan was out the door only to run straight in to Luke.

"Whoa. Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Luke asked. He'd been hanging around the doorway of the lecture theatre waiting for Ryan. He had a few questions for his friend.

"Just lunch." Ryan replied innocently.

"Good. I'll go with you." He stated and Ryan baulked. He didn't need Luke coming along to spoil things but he didn't know what to say to give him the brush off. They fell into stride together heading out of the building and towards the library.

"I guess you must be hungry since you obviously skipped breakfast." Luke said trying to work out what was going on with Ryan. "You were gone before I even got up."

Ryan nodded. He had woken early and hadn't been able to go back to sleep. He was too excited about the prospect of seeing Marissa. And so he'd decided to get up, get dressed and quietly leave … thus avoiding any awkward conversations with Luke. Just as he wanted to do right now.

"Yeah. I had some things to do." Ryan explained lamely.

"What sort of things? You never take off without your mandatory bowl of cereal." Luke stated.

"Just some stuff that I needed to take care of." Ryan replied cryptically. He knew that he sounded lame. Luke was never going to buy it.

Luke was bemused. That was Ryan avoiding giving an answer if ever he'd seen it but he didn't think he had much chance getting a better one right now so he thought that he'd try a different tack. "So what happened to you last night?" he asked.

"I … ah … I had to go and help a friend with something." Ryan replied knowing full well that the answer was never going to be enough for Luke.

"That's about as much as Molly told me. You know that I'd be angry with you ditching me except that it meant that I got to spend some time with the lovely Molly. You know I think that I might be in with a chance there." Luke suggested.

Ryan laughed. "Don't get too carried away." He said and then hesitated. Luke stopped beside him. They were now about 50 yards from the entrance to the library and looking over Luke's shoulder, Ryan could see Marissa standing with her back to him. She was gorgeous, even from this distance and she was waiting for him. But unfortunately she wasn't alone. She was talking to Molly. He couldn't help but be disappointed because he'd hoped that they would spend the time alone. He really didn't want to share her with anyone. Unfortunately he was so entranced in her nearness that he'd basically tuned Luke out all together and Luke had noticed. He turned around to follow Ryan's line of sight, wondering what had captured his interest and instantly spotted Molly and Marissa talking.

Luke frowned as he started to put 2 and 2 together. "Was Marissa the 'friend' that you were helping?" Luke asked.

Ryan blushed as he came to realise as soon as Marissa's name was mentioned that Luke had sprung him off in fantasy land.

"Um yeah. She needed help with something and Molly asked me to go and give her a hand." Ryan said but couldn't help but think that it wasn't exactly his hand that had been required to fix 'the problem'; more, another part of his anatomy.

Luke smiled. He hadn't lived with Ryan for 3 years and not learnt to read at least a few of his looks. "Uh huh. And I'm sure that you were happy to help. No wonder that you've been off the planet. I swear if I could plant myself between those legs then I'd …."

Ryan instantly turned on him. "Luke. If you don't want me to hurt you, and I mean seriously hurt you, then you will never speak about Marissa like that again."

"Whoa." Luke pulled back instantly. "Touched a nerve there have I? Sorry. I didn't realise." Luke said backing off immediately. He also knew when Ryan was about to revert to Kid Chino mode. He hadn't seen it for a long time but something about this girl had just sparked it off.

"Just …" Ryan said a little frustrated. He knew that he'd over reacted. But this was Marissa that Luke was talking about. "Just leave it alone. Okay?"

"Sure." Luke said wanting to calm his friend down. He looked back at Molly and Marissa standing talking. "So … did you fix the problem?" Luke asked.

"I'm working on it." Ryan replied. "In fact I'm supposed to be meeting her for lunch."

"Well it looks like she's brought a friend along so why don't I accompany you. Maybe I can chalk up some brownie points with Molly?"

Ryan contemplated it. By choice he wouldn't have Luke or Molly along. But then he had to admit that he was a little concerned about just what Molly was doing with Marissa in the first place. Was Marissa nervous about spending alone time with him? Were they going to be doing one step forward two steps back? He thought they'd gotten past that last night. Or was that not the issue at all. Maybe Molly was going to go off on him? After all … she had sent Ryan to fix a 'problem' last night and he hadn't actually got the job done. Was she going to be angry with him?

He hesitated and then decided that having Luke along was probably a good idea. Hopefully he would distract Molly. And he was pretty sure that Molly wouldn't say anything about Marissa's 'problem' in front of Luke thus guaranteeing that Ryan would be safe from her wrath, at least for today.

He finally nodded his head. "Okay. But only so you can run interference for me." Ryan said. "You keep Molly amused and we'll be all good."

"Done." Luke said as he started to march towards the girls. This looked liked being a far more interesting lunch hour than usual.

As they neared the two chatting girls, Ryan's nerves started to chime in. He couldn't believe that he'd been able to think of little else all day but the prospect of seeing Marissa again and yet here he was only meters away from her and he had no idea what he should say or do. Plus he was going to have an audience and he could have definitely done without that. Was he allowed to touch her? Or should he just play it cool and pretend like nothing had happened? Luke knew nothing. But Ryan had no idea what Marissa may have confided in Molly. He was running out of time to decide when he noticed Molly glance up and spot them walking towards them and she indicated to Marissa that they were about to have company.

Ryan started to sweat. What should he do? How should he greet her?

But he needn't have worried. As soon as Molly indicated their imminent arrival Marissa turned and almost leapt into his arms, her lips finding his and kissing him thoroughly. He couldn't help but laugh at her reaction as the concern inside him instantly dissipated and she pulled back and hit him jokingly.

"You're not supposed to laugh when I kiss you." She said.

"Sorry." He said in between kisses. "I just wasn't … expecting it."

"Hey. I could do with a greeting like that." Luke stated looking hopefully at Marissa and then when it was obvious that she was otherwise occupied, at Molly.

Molly just laughed. "Dream on." She said to him.

"Well how come he gets that sort of reception?" Luke asked still amazed at the fact that Marissa and Ryan were making out in front of him. There was obviously a lot more to this than Ryan had been letting on.

"You'll have to ask them." Molly suggested.

Ryan came up for air, sneaking his arm around Marissa and pulling her in tight letting her know just how happy he was to see her. "So where to for lunch?"

Molly had only been keeping Marissa company until Ryan arrived but since Luke was there she figured that she may as well join in. She and Marissa looked at one another and then grinned, both saying at the same time "Starbucks?"

Ryan looked at Luke questioningly. "That okay with you?"

Luke shrugged. "Sure."

Ryan indicated for the girls to lead the way as they could only walk two a breast along the path.

Luke fell in beside Ryan and then leant in and asked. "Exactly what's going on with you and Marissa?"

Ryan shrugged not wanting to say too much. Plus he wasn't really sure what to say. "I told you. I … um … I'm helping her with something."

"Sheesh. Exactly what sort of help? Just because you worked a few summer's in construction doesn't mean that you're the only one that can fix things." Luke said wondering why Molly had asked Ryan instead of himself to help out.

Molly overheard and turned back to Luke. "I think that Ryan's the only one that can fix this." She chuckled.

Luke frowned. "What sort of problem is it?" Luke asked.

"Um." Ryan hesitated and both Marissa and Molly turned to look at him, waiting to see what he would say. "I guess you could say that it's a plumbing problem." Ryan replied after much consideration.

"Plumbing?" Luke queried. "You need to be careful fooling around with that stuff. If you don't have the right tools you can end up flooding the place."

"Well they definitely did that last night." Molly added almost unable to contain her laughter at Ryan and Marissa's discomfit. "There was water everywhere."

Luke couldn't work out what was going on. It was like they all had some knowledge that he was somehow missing out on. "Is it fixed now?" Luke asked.

"It will be soon." Ryan replied making eye contact with Marissa and they exchanged smiles meaningfully.

"Did you not have the right tools?" Luke asked.

By this stage Molly was almost doubled over with laughter and Ryan didn't know what to say. Marissa turned to Luke. "I can assure you that Ryan had all the equipment required." She stated definitively.

Luke still didn't quite understand what was going on. "So did you not know how to use it?" Luke asked again trying to work out what he was missing.

By now Ryan was laughing too. "I promise that I know how to use it."

Luke was still puzzled. "Do you want me to help? You know I'm pretty good with my hands."

"I'm sure that Ryan can cope with this all on his own." Marissa replied trying to keep a straight face. "But if you're really that good with your hands then maybe you should see what you can do for Molly?" she suggested.