Chapter 32: Promises

Kirsten knocked on the pool house door and opened it.

"Hey Ry…" she frowned at the made up bed. She closed the door and made her way back to the main house. She went up the stairs and knocked on the spare room door. When she got no answer she carefully opened it and peered in. She saw Marissa in bed with Ryan beside her on top of the covers still fully clothed from the night before. She smiled when she noticed their hands linked together.

"Mother have I caught you spying?"

Kirsten jumped and turned to Seth.

"Seth! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Ha ha! That'll show Summer! I knew I was stealth!" Seth shouted in excitement.

"Seth! Sshh!!" Kirsten scolded, hitting him playfully. "Keep it down!"

Seth looked over Kirsten's shoulder into the room.

"They look so perfect," Kirsten whispered.

"You wouldn't say that if you saw them arguing last night before everything happened! It was not a pretty sight!"

"Well it looks like they figured it out."

"I don't think that would have been a pretty sight either, if you know what I mean," Seth said. Kirsten just rolled her eyes and closed the door.

Marissa opened her eyes, taking a few seconds to adjust to her surroundings. She felt her hand clasped in Ryan's and rolled over to face him. She smiled as he slept peacefully, his chest gently falling and rising. She moved her face forward and gently kissed the tip of his nose. His eyelids fluttered open and he smiled when he saw Marissa.

"Oh sorry did I wake you up?" she asked sarcastically.

"I hope so because I would be worried if someone else had come in and kissed my nose."

She brought her hand up which was clasped with Ryan's. She looked at their hands and absently played with his fingers between hers.

"Marissa?" Ryan watched as she switched off to the rest of the world. All of a sudden she looked so innocent and lost.

"Hmm?" she came out of her trance.

"You ok?"

"What, yeah I'm fine," she said unconvincingly. "It's just…after all that we've been through together and we're still here, makes me think that there's nothing that we can't cope with."

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You looked really scared. I thought you were going to tell me we shouldn't be together or something."

"No…but then I thought what if something like last night happens again and we find out we can't cope. I mean last night almost split us up."

"But it didn't and that's what matters. And it won't happen again. Last night was….well last night, and I just want to pretend it didn't happen." Ryan stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"Yeah me too," she said quietly. Ryan looked into her shining eyes as she gazed back into his. He moved his head forwards and caught her lips in a gently kiss. He leaned his forehead on hers and spoke softly.

"I won't let anything happen to you, and that's a promise."

"You know some people say that promises are just there to be broken," Marissa replied quietly.

"Are you one of those people?" he asked her. Marissa shook her head.

"Nope."

"Good."

"That just means that I promise to love you….no matter what."

"Are you sure about that, I'll hold you to it."

"Positive. 'Cause you know, I'm one of those people who believes that promises are there not to be broken but to hold things together."

Ryan looked at her seriously before letting out a quiet laugh.

"What?!" Marissa asked him.

"Nothing, nothing," Ryan said smiling.

"Ryan! Tell me what's so funny!" Marissa said hitting him playfully.

"I just never realised that you were into such deep speeches

"It was hardly deep, I was just telling you that I love you!"

"I know, I know, I'm just teasing you," he said sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"Hey, where're you going?" Marissa asked, sounding worried.

"I figured I should at least try and make it look like I slept in the pool house, plus I'm wearing the same clothes from yesterday. I need to change. How about I meet you downstairs in 10 minutes."

"Okay."

Ryan started to get off the bed before leaning in back and giving Marissa another kiss. She giggled before pushing him away.

"Go! Before Sandy and Kirsten realise you slept in here."

Ryan jumped off the bed and sneaked out the door. Marissa smiled, but then bit her bottom lip feeling guilty about how much she was hiding from him. She really did love him and she knew that she shouldn't have any secrets from him. But she was scared that he would be disappointed if she told him about her drinking and she was too scared to tell him about the night before because she just wanted to forget. They had been through enough already to last a lifetime. Him being disappointed in her was one thing she didn't think she could cope with.

Ryan gently closed the spare room door and glanced along the corridor. Seeing it empty he made his way to the stairs. He went down them carefully, looking over the banister to check that the coast was clear. He reached the bottom and was about to tip-toe out the house to the pool house when a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Morning," Kirsten said cheerfully. Ryan turned around very guiltily to see Kirsten with Seth standing beside her, a grin on his face.

"Morning," he replied guiltily. He scratched his head, "Umm you're probably wondering why I came from upstairs."

"Yes actually we were," Seth said looking forward to seeing what Ryan came up with.

"It's just that, you see…umm,well…I ran out of shampoo so I thought I'd check the bathroom upstairs but uuh there…there wasn't any…," he trailed off at the end feeling his cheeks burning up knowing that it was the most stupid excuse in the world.

"And you did all this in the clothes you wore yesterday?" Seth asked with a smirk.

"Uhh, umm…well, you see the thing is…"

"Ryan we know you slept with Marissa."

"You…umm…what…no…umm…"

"Give it up buddy," Seth said, still smirking. "I caught mom spying into the room earlier. Turns out Kirsten Cohen is actually very stealth…it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for," he whispered at the end. Ryan glared at him before looking at Kirsten.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry, it's ok," Kirsten said gently.

"It is?" Ryan asked surprised.

"After last night Marissa needed you and you were there for her. I think we can allow that."

Ryan nodded in thanks.

"Well I'm just going to head out to the pool house," he said awkwardly.

"Ahah…didn't get much sleep huh?" Seth said with a wink. "Huh?"

"Hmm, funny," Ryan said sarcastically. "Thanks for understanding," he said to Kirsten before walking away. "At least I don't sleep with a plastic horse!" he shouted back.

The smug look disappeared from Seth's face. He turned to look at Kirsten who was looking at him expectantly.

"Ryan slept with Marissa…" Seth tried to remind her, leading the conversation off him.

"I don't want to know."

"Ryan?" Marissa stuck her head into the pool house.

"Hey," Ryan said pulling a wife beater over his head.

"I thought I'd come and get you," she said making her way over to him.

"Yeah sorry I bumped into Kirsten and Seth and had a conversation with many awkward pauses and a story including shampoo…"

"Okay," Marissa said smiling and looking at him strangely.

"Never mind," Ryan said.

"So Kirsten found out then?" Marissa asked wrapping her arms around Ryan's waist. Ryan rested his arms around her.

"Yeah but she was cool about it."

"Well then maybe we could make it a regular occurrence. You know I like waking up beside you," Marissa said leaning to him and kissing him.

"Mmm, yeah," Ryan said through the kiss. "I don't know if she would be so cool about that. It was really just because of what happened last night."

"What happened last night?" Marissa asked innocently wanting to make up for lost time. She kissed him again but Ryan broke it off.

"Wait Marissa."

"What? I'm sorry I thought…"

"No it's not that. It's just last night was pretty horrific I just think we should talk about it."

"I know we should I just don't want to."

"I know. But we're in this together right?"

"Right?"

"Then why don't you tell me what really happened."

"I don't know what you mean. You were there for most of it."

"Not for all of it though. And I know something happened when you were being held hostage. I noticed you hesitate."

"Hesitate? When?"

"When the ambulance guy asked if any of them had you know…done anything to you," Ryan explained awkwardly. "I might be reading too much into it but I needed to ask you."

"You're quite observant these days," Marissa said with a forced laugh but Ryan saw right through this, noticing her shaking hands. Marissa took to fiddling with her bracelet.

"Well?" Ryan asked.

"Well what?" Marissa asked acting ignorant.

"Marissa please just tell me. Did he….rape you?" Ryan struggled to say, even the thought of it making him feel sick. He watched as Marissa suddenly remained deadly still. Her shoulders hunched as she started so sob quietly.

"Yes," she whispered out through her tears.

"What?!" Ryan said shocked, grabbing on to her hand. Marissa quickly looked up.

"No, no. I didn't mean to say that," she stammered. Ryan frowned at her not understanding what was going on. "Marissa took a deep breath. "He…he tried to…rape me," she said quietly. "It was horrible. He had his hands all over me, under my dress. He was kissing me and touching me and…and," a tear fell down her cheek as she felt Ryan wrap an arm around her shoulder. "I was so scared Ryan," she whispered to him. "I can still feel his hands all over me."

"Shh, shh," Ryan said gently. "You're safe now." He hugged her letting her bury her face into him.

But was she really? It seemed to be that bad things kept happening to her. He couldn't understand why it kept happening. All he wanted to do was keep her safe. It just seemed to be impossible. But he had promised her he wouldn't let anything happen to her and he wasn't going to break it.