Wow, I don't think I've ever gotten a response like I did to chapter 7. 15 replies? You guys are great. And Obsessed? Much as I love Townwood Hills I am so anticipating Townwood Exit and Lane. Can't wait to see what you come up with for Evil! Marissa. Enjoy the show.
Seth came through the door of his house at about six on Saturday morning. He could hear his dad in the kitchen and he could smell bagels toasting so he went towards the smell.
"Hey," he said as he sat down at the counter.
"Hey, how did you get home?"
"Dr. Roberts put me in a taxi when he came to do some morning labs on Taylor and found me drooling on her bed," Seth rested his forehead against clasped hands.
"Did she wake up?"
"No, but Dr. Roberts says that's normal. Being drugged and nearly dying apparently takes a lot out of a person."
"That reminds me; a detective stopped your mother and me on our way out of the hospital last night. He's gonna want to talk to you and Ryan and Marissa. Taylor, too, once she's feeling better."
Seth pulled up to look at his dad, "About what happened?"
"Yeah. He wants to know everything you know about last night."
"Right," Seth nodded.
"You hungry?"
"Too tired to chew," Seth murmured. "Ryan awake yet?"
"Haven't seen him," Sandy shook his head. "But I haven't heard any screaming so I'm guessing he's not over at the Coopers'."
"Marissa doesn't live next door anymore, remember? Jimmy would be the one screaming and I doubt we'd be able to hear him from here."
"Never underestimate the vocal chords of a man who just found a boy in bed with his pride and joy," Sandy said.
"Lemme guess? Grandpa caught you and Mom once, right?"
"Twice," Sandy admitted. "Anyway, go get some sleep but be quiet. Your mom and Summer are still sleeping."
"What's Summer doing here?"
"Your mom and I didn't want to leave her alone last night so we gave her the spare room."
"Oh."
"And when you've gotten some sleep we'll go down and talk to the detectives."
"Are Ryan and I suspects?"
"No. They just want to know if you saw anything or anyone last night."
"Right. Okay. See you in a few hours," Seth said leaving the kitchen and heading for the stairs. Just as he got there, the front door opened and Ryan came in with Marissa.
"Hey man, wild night," Ryan asked due to Seth's bedraggled appearance.
Seth paused to stare at them with a blank expression before he turned his back on them. "Hardly. Dad'll explain. I need sleep," Seth said going upstairs.
Marissa looked at Ryan, "That was weird. What's with him?"
"I don't know." Ryan headed for the kitchen, "Sandy?"
"There you are. What happened to you two last night?"
"Sorry, Mr. Cohen. I was bored so I dragged Ryan for a walk on the beach and we sat down and the next thing we knew, it was morning."
"Well, you missed a lot of excitement."
"What happened?"
"Someone decided to play Russian roulette with Taylor."
"What?"
"Someone slipped her rohypnol."
"Is she okay," Marissa asked.
"She'll be fine. But she had a bad reaction to it," Sandy said carefully, knowing that Ryan and Marissa didn't know about Taylor's medical problems. "We took her to the hospital and they're required to report it when drugs show up on blood tests so the detectives are going to want to talk to the two of you since you were sitting with Seth and Taylor for a while last night."
"Right," Ryan nodded. "But she's okay?"
"Dr. Roberts says she'll be fine."
"Good," Ryan nodded before he turned to Marissa. "I'm gonna take a shower. Do you wanna wait and I'll take you home?"
"No. I'll just go next door and change and call my dad."
"Marissa, you should bring a parent when you talk to the detectives," Sandy said.
"Right. I'll ask Dad."
Sandy nodded.
"I'll see you later," Ryan said kissing her cheek before he headed down to the pool house.
"Bye."
OCOCOCOCOCOC
Seth stared at the ceiling of his room. Sleep wouldn't come, no matter how hard he tried.
He'd wanted to kill Marissa when he saw her this morning. Hatred had filled his being. Pure, undiluted, unadulterated hatred and it wasn't a feeling he was used to. He'd never hated anyone before. He might've jokingly said it to his parents or Taylor before but he'd never meant it. It was also the first time he'd ever wanted to seriously hit a woman and he wasn't talking about the swats he and Taylor gave each other. He'd wanted to knock Marissa on her ass.
Seth covered his face with his hands. The worst part was that some of this feeling was being transferred to Ryan no matter how much he didn't deserve it.
He couldn't help it. He'd asked Ryan not to give Marissa a reason to mess with Taylor and that's exactly what Ryan had done, however inadvertently.
It would be different if Ryan and Marissa weren't together and Ryan was going after Taylor. If that was the case, he'd wish them well. His best friend and his brother? Great. It may skeeve him out a little but they were each two of the best people Seth knew and all he wanted was for them to be happy.
But it wasn't different. Ryan was with Marissa and, even if he wasn't aware of it, he was into Taylor. This whole thing could only lead to more badness on all sides.
Knock-knock
"Yeah?"
He heard the door open and someone come in. He looked to the right and sat up, "Summer? What's up?"
"I heard you come home and I know you're tired but I was wondering how Taylor was," Summer said quietly as she stood in front of him wearing a T-shirt that said 'Carolina Panthers' on it.
"Nice shirt."
"Your dad gave me it to sleep in. It's not Taylor's, is it?"
"No, it was a gift from her to me one year. She always brings back souvenirs when comes home from a trip." He moved over and let Summer sit down next to him.
Summer looked around the room and smiled a little, "She spends a lot of time here, huh?"
"Yeah. A couple of years ago, my dad offered the guest room to her. She said no, telling him we needed it for actual guests but the truth is that neither of us could imagine her sleeping in this house and not sleeping on that futon."
"I think if you added up all the time she's spent in our house over the last three years it probably comes to about a month total."
"It's not you, you have to know that."
"It's a little me."
"No, if anything, it's her mother. Veronica is a queen bitch."
"There's that and then there's my best friend," Summer said.
"Yeah, there is that," Seth said quietly.
"Seth, I honestly don't know what Coop's problem is with Taylor. I mean one day she's just Taylor and then the next day torturing the hell out of her is Marissa's new pet project."
Seth studied his hands wondering he should tell Summer that Marissa had found out that Julie had slept with Taylor's dad when they were younger and since he was gone and she couldn't make his life miserable she'd settle for screwing Taylor over in every way possible. Thankfully he was saved by the proverbial bell.
I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular to boot…
"What the," Summer stared at him.
"Brooke's a cheerleader," Seth said before he grabbed his cell phone from the bedside table. "Uh, do you mind?"
"I'll go get some breakfast," Summer said before she left, closing the door behind her.
Seth took a deep breath and then answered the phone, "Brooke?"
"You call me ten times in three hours and you can't leave one voicemail?"
"This wasn't the kind of message I wanted to leave."
"Seth, what's wrong," Brooke's voice took on a tinge of panic.
Seth sighed. He so did not want to have this conversation but he knew it was inevitable. But first to make sure she wasn't by herself. "Is someone with you?"
"Uh, yeah. Peyton's right here. We're in her room."
"Good," Seth said as he brought up Punk and Disorderly on his computer screen to confirm Brooke's story. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw both girls in Peyton's room. "Okay. I think you might want to sit down."
"Seth, stop being melodramatic."
"Someone decided to have some fun last night."
"What kind of fun?"
"The kind of fun that involved putting rohypnol in Taylor's drink."
"WHAT?!"
"Eardrums, Brooke," Seth said after switched ears.
"How? Why? Who?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"Excuse me?"
"I have known you since we were seven, Seth Cohen. I know when you know something and you when I know something and right now? You know something that I wanna know so start talking."
"Was that English?"
"Stop stalling," Brooke said sternly.
"Okay. Last night after Taylor went outside to finish her call with Peyton, Ryan and I went to get refills and we left Marissa alone at the table."
"I will kill her."
"Brooke."
"No. It's bad enough that that bitch takes out the fact that Julie had an affair with Taylor's dad on Taylor, someone who was all of six when it happened and who had more damage done to her own family by what happened, but what excuse does she have for just being plain stupid? She could've killed her, Seth."
"I'm aware of that Brooke so please stop yelling at me."
"I'm sorry," Brooke said quietly. "I know you love her, too. I just…."
"I know. When I get to the hospital, I'll have her call you, okay? But it might be a while because I have to talk to the detectives about last night."
"Please tell me you're going to nail the Princess of Newport's ass to the wall."
"Brooke, I would love to, if I could prove it. I can't. All I have is the fact that we left Marissa alone with Taylor's drink."
"You have the fact that Marissa has done everything in her power to make Taylor miserable from the time you all were ten. You have the fact that Ryan, Marissa's boyfriend, has been making eyes at Taylor. You also have the fact that just three days after she OD'd Taylor saw her smoking a joint in Summer's bathroom."
"What?"
"Yeah. Taylor told me the day she got back and called me. So it looks like Ryan's little crush on Taylor, you know, the thing you won't shut up about whenever we get online at the same time, isn't the only reason Marissa would want Taylor gone. If Taylor says anything about Marissa's little smoke at six in the morning, I'm pretty sure Julie will make good on that whole sending Marissa away thing."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Seth said.
Knock-Knock
"Brooke, hang on." Seth took the phone away from his ear, "Yeah?"
Ryan came in, "Hey, Sandy says we need to head to the police station."
"Okay," Seth nodded. "Hey Brooke? I gotta go. Talk to you later, okay? And I'm gonna see you in a couple of weeks, right?"
"Yeah. I love you, Seth."
"Love you, too," Seth said before he hung up. "Let's go."
"Hey, hang on. You okay?"
"No. My best friend nearly died on me last night because some idiot decided to make a boring party more interesting. So, no Ryan, I am not alright."
"Sandy said she'll be fine."
"I know she's going to be fine. I also know that it could've easily gone the other way." Seth sighed. "You know what; I don't wanna talk about this right now. Let's just get this over with so I can go back to the hospital." Seth started down the hall.
Ryan followed, "You want some company?"
Seth stopped and turned suddenly, nearly causing Ryan to crash into him, "That's not a good idea. Dr. Roberts says she can't have a lot of visitors. You should wait until she's home."
"Okay," Ryan nodded.
"Good," Seth said and both boys continued downstairs.
OCOCOCOCOC
"And then what happened?"
"Taylor got up and went outside to finish her phone call."
"From who?"
"A friend of hers from back East. Peyton something. Seth would know the last name."
"Right," the detective jotted something down and then looked back at Ryan. "Keep going."
"Right. I was looking at some pictures and Seth asked me to come with him to the bar and get some refills, so we got up and did that."
"And Miss Cooper?"
"Marissa stayed at the table."
"When you and Seth went to get refills, Miss Townsend was still outside?"
"Yes."
"And when you got those refills, did you get one for Miss Townsend?"
"No, her glass was still full," Ryan said with a poker look on his face but his mind was starting to click.
"And after you came back from the table?"
"We sat down and a few minutes later, Marissa wanted to go for a walk so she and I left."
"So you left the party at that point?"
"Yes. We fell asleep on the beach and didn't know anything had happened until we walked into the Cohen's house the next morning."
"And when you two left, you left Seth alone at the table?"
"Yes."
"Okay. How do Miss Cooper and Miss Townsend get along?"
"They don't, really. I've never really seen them fight but I have heard rants and stories about their relationship. But I don't know how or why their animosity started."
"Right. And Seth and Miss Townsend?"
"They've been friends since they were seven. Kirsten told me that the last time was they fought was when they were nine and Taylor kicked his shin, which ended the fight."
"Okay. I think that's it. If you think of anything else call us and if we have any more questions, we'll call you."
"Okay," Ryan nodded as he got up and left the room.
OCOCOCOCOC
Seth walked into Taylor's room and smiled. Summer was sitting beside the bed and Taylor was lying on her side facing her. The two were talking quietly.
"Hey," Seth said as he came further into the room.
"Hey," Taylor smiled.
"Glad to see your eyes open," Seth said leaning in between the ladies and kissing Taylor's forehead.
"Glad to have them open," Taylor smiled. "Everything okay?"
Seth nodded, straightening up and taking a seat at the end of the bed, "Yeah. No problem. How are you feeling?"
"A little tired."
"Right. So, I called Brooke."
"And?"
"You might want to call her," Seth said. "Otherwise, I think she might get on a plane and come out here."
"Good idea. Is my phone hooked up?"
"Yeah, my dad took care of it," Summer handed Taylor the phone and then took the cradle back after she'd finished dialing.
"Hello?"
"Hey B."
"Taylor? Thank God. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, B. I promise."
"Good. I was ready to fly out to Newport, without the benefit of a plane, mind you, when Seth called this morning."
Taylor smiled, "I figured. But you'll see me in a couple of weeks, right?"
"Right. What did Dr. Weissman say?"
"I'm okay."
"Really?"
"Really, really," Taylor smiled. "Okay? I love you and I'll call you again soon, I promise."
"I love you, too." Taylor heard mumbling in the background. "Oh, Peyton loves you, too."
"Same to her. Bye Brookie."
"Bye T."
Taylor handed the phone to Summer and then rolled onto her back to look at Seth, "Hey Buddy."
"Hey Buddy."
"I'm gonna go call Anna," Summer said as she got up from her chair. "Because I'm betting you didn't and Taylor can have visitors now."
"Thanks Summer."
"No problem. I'll be back."
Summer shut the door behind her when she exited and Taylor slowly pushed herself into a sitting position and scooted over. "C'mere," she patted the space next to her and Seth shifted so that he sat next to her. They were both leaning against her pillows when she leaned her head on his shoulder and felt his head rest against hers. She looped an arm with his and pressed her hand to his, palm to palm with fingers laced together.
"I was so scared you were gonna leave me," Seth said quietly. "I don't know if I've ever told you this, but you are my best friend and I love you."
"Yeah? Well you're my best friend and I love you, too. And about the me leaving you thing? Cohen, you couldn't get rid of me if you tried."
OCOCOCOCOC
His brain wouldn't shut up. It wasn't his whole brain it was just this tiny little voice in his head that kept saying, "You know she did this, don't you?"
No. No, he didn't know she did this. There was a possibility that she did this. A small one because no matter how much Marissa seemed to hate Taylor there was no way she'd slip her a drug.
Then who did, his mind mocked.
Stop it! I am not going to argue with the voices in my head, Ryan groaned internally.
Too late.
Ryan couldn't – wouldn't believe that Marissa could be capable of such a vindictive act. It had to have been someone else. You hear that brain? We're done. Marissa didn't do this. She's not that evil.
Are you sure?
No…