I'm sorry for taking so long to update. I've been revising for exams pretty much the whole of Easter break. I have the next few chapters pretty much done so I'll be able to update regularly. Please review.

Chapter 21: Sound of Silence

Jimmy jumped up as Marissa walked in.

"Hey kiddo. How you feeling?" Marissa rubbed her head groggily.

"Hmm. What time is it?" Jimmy glanced at his watch.

"3pm."

Marissa groaned and flopped down on a chair at the table. Jimmy just stood and watched her as she rested her head in her hands. He didn't know what to say. Should he just ask her what happened? If he was going to figure everything out he was going to have to say something. He walked over and sat across from her. He clenched his hands together.

"I saw you yesterday."

Marissa lifted her head up and looked at him.

"In the bathroom, before school."

She remained silent, eventually turning her head away as she felt tears forming in her eyes. He reached out and touched her arm. She tensed as she felt his fingers resting on her arm.

"Marissa, please, tell me what happened," he said quietly.

"It's nothing," she replied bluntly, moving her arm.

"I'd hardly call it nothing. You almost died last night."

Marissa suddenly stood up, scraping her chair backwards.

"Yeah, well maybe I should have!"

Jimmy sat there in shock. Why would she ever think that? He stood up and started walking over to her.

"Hey, don't say that!"

"Why not? It would make everything easier!"

He wrapped his arms around her, as she began to quietly cry.

"Sh, sh. Tell me what happened so I can help. That'll make it easier."

"I can't," she whispered, burrowing her head in his shoulder.

"Why not?"

"It's too hard."

"Get it all off your chest and you'll feel much better," He said rubbing her back soothingly.

"I tried that before, and it didn't help."

Jimmy stopped her hugging her and looked at her.

"What do you mean?" He gently lifted his hand and wiped a tear off his face.

"I can't do this. I just need to be alone right now," she said quickly turning away from him.

"Hey, hey. Come here," he said holding on to her arm.

"Get off me," she said harshly as she struggled out of his grip and ran to the bathroom, locking herself in.

Jimmy stood there in confusion. He went and sat back down at the table. He clenched his fist and hit it on the table. He rested his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands. He couldn't under stand why she couldn't talk to him. Jimmy looked up when the doorbell rang. He walked over to the door.

"Hey Jimmy."

"Sandy, come on in," he said opening the door wider.

"I was just dropping Marissa's car off," he said handing Jimmy the keys.

"Thanks."

"How's she doing?"

"Uh, not so good. Actually she just locked herself in the bathroom after telling me she wished she had died."

"She what?" Sandy said in shock. "Why would she say that?"

"Apparently it would make everything easier."

Sandy looked at Jimmy sympathetically.

"I just don't understand. Why can't she tell me what happened?"

"I don't know. Maybe she thinks you'll be disappointed in her."

"I don't think this is about me."

"If you need anything you know where I am."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Well I've got to get back to work. Give her some time," Sandy reassured him patting his shoulder.

Jimmy watched as Sandy left. Jimmy didn't know how much time to give her. If he gave her too much time it might be too late to do anything.

Seth and Ryan dumped their school bags at the door.

"Well if you want my advice – which you probably don't – you should go and see her. From what you told me about last night it seemed pretty intense…"

"Seth, she almost died! That's more than intense," Ryan cut in.

"Sure, but she didn't though. So in my not so expert experience what she'll really need right now is some big muscular arms to comfort her. And I think we both know who has muscular arms," Seth smirked playfully punching Ryan's arm.

"Well certainly not you."

"I am going to choose to ignore that comment. But seriously though," Seth said stopping joking, "Go and see her."

"But what am I supposed to say to her. I don't even know what happened yesterday."

"Exactly. You're not going to find out if you don't go and see her."

Ryan looked at Seth still not sure.

"Bagel?" Seth said producing a bagel from behind his back

Ryan smiled at him and went to grab the bagel out of Seth's hand but he moved it away.

"Ah, ah. You don't get the bagel until you tell me you'll go and see her."

"Seth there's a whole basket of bagels sitting behind you that I could take."

"Yes but none of them are as good as this one, and we both know that I am an expert on the bagel."

"Okay, I'll go and see her," Ryan said as Seth gave him the bagel.

"Hey, if I didn't know better I'd say you're scared."

Ryan stopped in his tracks and turned back to Seth.

"Seth, I found my girlfriend on a cliff edge with a bottle of vodka and probably more than that inside her, I think I have a right to be scared."

Seth just stood there in silence, stuck for words, as Ryan went to the pool house.

"Hey, Seth."

Seth's whole body jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Woah! Good lord! Summer! When did you become so stealth?"

"Seth I was hardly stealth, though in comparison to your skills in that area I could see why you would think that."

"What are you doing here?"

"Am I not allowed to come and see my boyfriend?"

"Well yeah, but I saw you like an hour ago at school."

"Well maybe I missed you in that hour."

Seth looked at her as if to say 'come on, what are you really here for?'.

"Ok, fine. So that wasn't actually why I came. I talked to Coop."

"You did? Well what did she say?"

"Hardly anything. I told her that I had spoken to Ryan, and that I was there to talk. She thanked me then mumbled something about having to go and hung up. I didn't even say goodbye. How can we make her see we're on her side?"

"Well Ryan's going to go over to see her so maybe we could go with him."

"I'm really worried about her Seth. She didn't seem herself."

"Well you can hardly blame her. I wouldn't want to be her right now either."

"Seth that's not funny."

"It wasn't meant to be," Seth said seriously.

"Hey guys."

They turned around as Kirsten walked in.

"Wow, mom. You're home early," Seth said in shock.

"Yeah, well I finished all I had to do for today so I thought I'd come home to spend sometime with my sons," She said planting a kiss on Seth's cheek.

"Well Ryan's going over to Marissa's," Seth said wiping his cheek.

"I'm home!" Sandy shouted waking through the front door.

"Okay what's going on here?" Seth said confused.

"I got fed up at work so I came home," Sandy replied putting down his briefcase.

"Hmm, I like your honesty."

"Summer, how're you doing?"

"Hey, Mr C. I'm alright."

Sandy walked over to Kirsten and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"So Ryan's going to see Marissa?" Kirsten asked Seth.

"Yeah, we are all going to go to see her."

"I can't believe what happened last night," Kirsten said shaking her head.

"I don't know if going to see her is a good idea," Sandy said.

"Why not?" Seth asked.

"I went over earlier to drop off her car and when I got there Jimmy was pretty upset. Marissa had just locked herself in the bathroom after telling him she wished she had died."

They all stared at Sandy in shock.

"Why would she say that?" Kirsten said in disbelief.

"I really don't know. But I just think that maybe she needs some space."

"By the sounds of it what she needs is people to be there for her. I mean don't you want to know what happened to her yesterday?" Seth said.

"Of course I do," Sandy said starting to get angry. "I want to know what happened more than anything! I saw the look in her eyes last night. The look of complete fear!"

"Hey, Sandy. It's okay," Kirsten said putting her arm around him.

"What's going on?" Ryan asked walking in.

"I was just telling mom and dad that we're going to see Marissa."

Sandy was about to say something when Kirsten grabbed his arm and frowned at him.

"Well you ready then?"

Seth looked at Sandy to see what he was going to say. When he said nothing Seth turned back to Ryan.

"Ready if you are."

"Okay, see you guys later and Seth," Kirsten ushered him over to her as Ryan and Summer went out to the car, "Be careful."

Seth nodded and followed Summer and Ryan outside.

"Oh, hey guys," Jimmy said to the three teens at the door.

"Hey, can we see Marissa?" Ryan asked him.

"Uh, yeah, come on in. She's in her room. She's pretty upset though. She won't talk to me."

"Don't worry Mr Cooper, just give her some time," Summer said reassuringly.

"Thanks Summer."

She smiled at him as they all went over to Marissa's room.

Marissa was sitting on her bed holding her bear. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there just staring at the bare wall. She looked at the door when she heard a gentle knock. She got up and warily opened the door. She was surprised to see Seth, Summer and Ryan standing at her door, though she didn't know why she should be surprised. They were her friends and would want to know if she was alright.

"Oh, hey," She said weakly.

"Can we come in?" Summer asked her friend gently.

"Ye, sure," Marissa answered quietly. Summer looked at Marissa's pale and tear stained face, and tried to smile at her. Marissa opened the door wider and went and sat on the edge of the bed. They all hovered in front of her, awkwardly.

"So what's up?" Marissa asked trying to sound natural but failing miserably.

"We just came to see how you are," Summer said calmly.

"Oh I'm great," Marissa said smiling fakely. She swallowed deeply as she felt tears start to resurface. She was dreading them asking her what happened. She couldn't understand why she was finding it so hard to tell anyone what happened. It was just like her brain and body just wanted to cover it up, pretend it didn't happen. Seth and Ryan looked at each other awkwardly as the room fell silent.

"So do you want to tell us what happened to you yesterday?" Marissa looked at Ryan, who just stared straight back at her. Seth and Summer looked from Marissa to Ryan. They were all bracing themselves for what she was going to say. Suddenly she burst in to tears holding her head in her hands. Summer rushed over to her and sat beside her on the bed, wrapping her arms around her.

"Hey, it's alright," Summer said soothingly. She looked over at Seth and Ryan, not knowing what to do. None of them knew what to do to get her to talk to them.

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