The only one I want to talk too.
That day at school Ryan was alone in the quad thinking about Marissa. He was worried about her and how she was handling all of this. Summer snapped him out of his thoughts. She slammed her books down on the table and sat across from him. "Marissa totally blew me off this morning for breakfast I waited for her but she never showed. So Atwood start explaining. What's going on?" She said.
"Summer Marissa went back to Cape side last night for her grandfather. He had a heart attack and he died" He said. "Oh my god. Poor Coop. Is she okay?" She said concerned. "I don't know I talked to her for barely a few minutes since she left. You know she only keeps telling me that she's worried about her uncle and how he's taking it" He said.
"So what can we do?" She said feeling helpless. "I don't know be there when she gets back I guess. I mean that's all we can do for now" Ryan said. His cell rang. He checked the number. He looked at Summer. "It's Marissa's Uncle." He said. He picked up. "Hello?" Ryan said.
"Ryan I wanted to talk to you about something?" Pacey said. "Okay what's up?" He said. "I know it's asking a lot but I was just wondering if you could be here for the funeral tomorrow. I mean I'm gonna be pretty busy and I can't be there for her as much as I'd like to be. So I just thought you'd the best person for the job" Pacey said. "Yeah umm sure however I can help I just have to ask Sandy first" He said.
"Not a problem I knew you would say that so I went ahead and confirmed it with Sandy now your tickets are waiting at the gate. It's a 4 am flight. I hope that's okay?" He said. "Yeah sure but tickets?" Ryan said confused. "Oh sorry I just figured you could bring Seth and Summer which by the way I also cleared it with her dad this morning. So if you can tell her that would be great" He said.
"Yeah sure that's not a problem. She's actually with me right now" Ryan said nodding. Summer looked at him waiting for answers. "Alright thanks Ryan for everything" He said. "Mr. Witter I'm really sorry" Ryan said. "Thanks. Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow and don't worry somebody will be there to pick you guys up. But just one more thing don't tell Marissa" He said. "Okay" Ryan said.
"Alright take care Ryan" He said hanging up. Ryan shut his cell and stayed quiet. "Hello earth to Ryan what did he say?" She said. "He said he wants us to be there for the funeral tomorrow" He said. "Okay well that's how we can help" Summer said.
"Yeah um he cleared it with your dad and with Sandy and the flights for four am so that's pretty much it" He said. "Okay then we have to tell Seth" She said. "Yeah he's in the library" He said. "Well I'll go tell him and I'll call you guys later to see when we should leave" She said. "Okay" He said. She left heading towards the library. He looked down at his cell and thought this was one surprise Marissa would never guess. He smiled feeling a little better he could be there for her and then he went off to finish the rest of the day at school.
Pacey got home hours later. It turns out it funerals are much harder to plan then he thought. He closed the car door and stumbled up the porch steps. He noticed the mail in the mail box so he grabbed it and headed in. He opened and then shut the door behind him. "I thought that was my little brother" Doug said coming to greet Pacey. He smiled. "What's going on Doug?" He said. He hugged him. "It's good to see you little brother" Doug said.
Pacey smiled there relationship had gotten better over the years. "Yeah it's good to see you to bro" He said. Just then Joey came down the stairs. "Hey" Pacey said. "Good your back. I think your mom needs one of you" She said looking in their direction.
"Okay I'll go" Pacey said. Doug stopped him. "No please you've been doing plenty let me try" He said going up the stairs. Pacey pushed his hand through his hair anxiously. "I'm sorry it took so long" Pacey said. "That's not a problem besides there's not much to do in Cape side anyways" She said. "Right" He said. She nodded.
"So where's Marissa?" He said. "Um well Julie called she'll be in by tonight she's upstairs maybe you can talk to her" Joey said. "Alright yeah she's not bringing Jimmy is she?" He said. "I think she told Gretchen he couldn't make it" She said. "Great one less thing that's gonna cause drama. I'm gonna" He said. "Yeah sure" She said.
He ran up the stairs. He walked down the hallway to the guest room where he saw her just sitting on the bed deep in thought. Pacey leaned against the door. "Hey kiddo" He said. "Hi. Did you get everything?" She said. "Well for now yes. So Joey told me that your mom called" He said sitting next to her. "Yeah I know its mean but I've been praying that she would flake out on Gram and Pop so I didn't have to deal with her "She said.
"It's not mean its how you feel?" He said. "I guess but I don't think I can handle staying under the same roof with her" Marissa said hoping that he would understand. "Okay well look I have to stay here for Gram and obviously your mom is gonna stay here so I'll ask Dawson if it's cool if you could crash at his house. I'm sure it won't be a problem" He said. She nodded. "Thanks." She said putting her head down.
"Marissa you know you can talk to me" Pacey said looking at her. "I'm fine" She said brushing him off. "But if you weren't that would be okay too" He said reminding her. She looked at him. "It would be okay for you too you know?" She said.
He laughed at her sneakiness. "How'd you get to be so smart?" He said throwing his arm around her in a hug. "I don't know I guess it comes naturally" She said. "You talk to Ryan?" He said. "Barely last night" She said. He nodded.
"Why don't you come downstairs? You know Joey's there and Gretchen should be back from the store any minute now" He said. She nodded. "Okay" She said. They heard crying as they walked out of the room. Marissa looked at Pacey. "You should see if Uncle Doug needs help" She said. He smiled sadly and walked towards the crying. She went downstairs.
She went into the kitchen and saw that Gretchen had returned and it looked as if she and Joey were cooking. "Hey can I help?" Marissa said. Gretchen stopped what she was doing and hugged her. "Oh my god Marissa look at you. If it's possible I think you get prettier every time I see you" She said with a smile. Marissa smiled shyly.
"Thanks" Marissa said. Marissa looked sad. "You okay kiddo?" Gretchen said. Joey broke the silence. "You know Marissa there's still the salad you can help with" Joey said trying to break the tension. She nodded thanking Joey silently. Joey could tell she was going to be alright but how many are you alright's can a person take? If she was going to open up to anyone it would be Pacey or Ryan. That was just the kind of person she was. Marissa started working on the salad.
Back in orange county. Ryan had finished packing after dinner and Seth walked in. "Hey man I just wanted to see if you were all set?" Seth said. Ryan was sitting on the bed. He nodded. "Did you talk to Marissa?" He said. "No but you know she's probably busy" Ryan said. "Or maybe she's waiting for your call." Seth said. He thought about it. "I'm gonna catch some sleep Summer said she'd be here at three" He said leaving. Ryan collected himself and grabbed his cell pondering if he should call her.
He decided why not it was late where she was so chances where she was alone thinking by herself. He knew from experience that being alone wasn't something you wanted to do at a time like this. It was seven here so it was like ten or eleven there so he took a shot and dialed.
Marissa was sitting on the porch waiting for Joey to get back to pick her up. She was spending the night at Dawson's. Her phone rang. She took it from her pocket and smiled when she saw who was calling her. She flipped it open. "Hey" She said a smile forming on her face.
"Hey so I just wanted to call you know check in" He said. Marissa laughed a little knowing he was calling to see if she was okay but didn't want to say it. They just clicked like that so Marissa knew what he was thinking. "I'm not fine Ryan" She said sadly looking towards the floor.
He wished he could be there right now after what she had just admitted to him. "I know you aren't but you should talk to somebody about it you know" He said. "The only one I want to talk about it with is you because lets face it Pacey is just not an option right now. He's too messed up dealing with everything and I can't do that to him" She said crying a little.
"Well I know it's not much but I'm here whenever you need me okay" Ryan said. "It's more then you know actually and I love you for it" She said. His head snapped when she said that and he smiled. Nobody had ever really said they loved him besides the Cohen's it was kind of weird for him. This would be the first time Marissa had said it. She didn't make a big deal out of it because to him it seemed like she didn't even realize that she had said it.
"I wish I could be there for you" He said. "I know but this counts you don't even how much it counts" She said. "Right. So is your mom there?" he said. "She's coming which is why I'm not staying here tonight I'm staying at the Leery's" Marissa said. "Marissa" He said. "Yeah" She said. "We'll get through this together" He said.
She smiled sadly and then a car pulled up. She thought it was Joey. It turns out it was actually Julie. "I know we will. Listen Ryan I have to go. I think Joey's here but I'll call you tomorrow okay" She said. "Sure Call me whenever you want I'm serious" He said. "I know you are and thanks for calling. Goodnight" "Night" he said. She smiled hanging up. Ryan was always there for her. She looked up expecting to see Joey it turns out it was actually Julie. She just sat there. "Marissa" Julie said. "Mom" She said looking at her surprised.